The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1906-07-12
StroIIs About Rio de JaneirO
THE QUEEREST OF PORTUGUESE
TOWNS.
Especial Correspondence OF The Journal

THE QUEEREST OF PORTUGUESE
TOWNS.
Especial Correspondence of The Journall
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL, June ),
! 1906. 1t is not easy to describe this
| odd, old town, because there is nothing
| elsewhere to which one can compare it.
| Its HiSpano- Portuguese origin is every
where apparent, suggesting mixture
of Barcelona, Seville, Cadiz-seasoned
with dash of gaudinesS borrowed
! from its numerous wealthy citizens of
| African descent and tropical warmth
! of coloring entirely its own. And then
the mountains close by, with their pre-
| cipitous sides and eccentric vagaries
Of form-none of them being straight,
but all leaning in one direction or the
other. as if a mighty wind had blown
| them askeW. which gives a sort of
crazy appearance to the country, en-
HANGED by the billowing clouds that
roll about the peaks and through the
vast valleys and gorgeS between, ex
| hibiting the fantastic effect of cloud
and moisture peculiar to tropical land
scapes and never met in colder eli
mates. The streets, in their narrow
| twisted courses, repeat the plan of the
/ city which the Moors brought into the
! Iberian peninsula, with Saracenlc in
spiration in the way of tile roofs, pro
L,,1,
/ arched doorways and elaborate stucco
all clothed in very Joseph's coat of
many colors.
1t even eXcels Cadiz in the kaleldo-
SCOPE hues of its roofs and walls, for
| the pale pinks, yellows and blue of the
| Andalusian seaport intensity i'll Brazil
to glaring red, green, purple and
orange. Amid the brown or snowy
! months that make up SO large proper
ton of the Northern year, nothing
! could be more absurd than this system
of architecture and decoration; but
under tropical skies they seem to be
the natural product of the sun and
soil. as appropriate to their surround
| ingS as the palm trees that tower above
and the blossoming vines that riot over
/ them.
| No regular census has ever been
| taken III Rio, but it is believed that
about $50, 600 people are crowded with
! in the narrow, crescent-Shaped space
| between the mountains and the sea.
| Hemmed III by a granite wall on one
/ side and deep water on the other, the
city can never grow any wider, and so
! it has stretched out at both ends, stray
Cling ten or twelve miles around the
prodigious harbor, which, by the way,
is exactly the shape of pear, the mar
row entrance representing the stem of
the fruit Most OF the streets are eX-
tremely narl oW, generally not more than
| 20 feet wide, paved with Belgian blocks,
with an open central drain toward
which they slope, and with three-foot-
wide sidewalks on a level with the
street. Canton, and Others of the great
Chinese cities, have streets as wide as
those of Rio de Janeiro.
The houses, many of them quite hid
den by the towering palms that mag
nihcently line some of these cow-path
streets, are no two alike and range in
height from one to four stories. One
of their curious features is the absence
of the veranda, which, in the minds Of
globe trotters, has become intimately
associated with IDEAS Of hot weather.
In lieu of the veranda the better houses
show in ther upper stories broad deep
nitches-each a sort of Open-alr parlor
tinted as delicately as ladies boudolr
often deliberately frescoed. furnished
with rattan Sofas chairs and tables, EN-
bellished with statuary and t1oored with
| Talavera tiles. Some of these cool
posts of observation have narrow Win
dows of colored glass set in their sides,
surrounded by a wealth of gliding,
carving and color The effect is partic-
ularly UNIQUE, especially when the
outer walls Of the house are faced with
blue and yellow tiles, as is frequently
the case The best houses lie along
the waters edge, notably on that part
of the bay known as Botafogo, and on
the slopes of the surrounding noun
tains. FANNIE B. WARD.