Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-08-04

pavilion where the conference is meeting
in time for the opening sessions. They will
Feel at home when they enter the building.
1t is the same which was constructed for
the Brazilian exhibit In the worlds fair at
st. Louis. 1t was built by American labor
at a cost of $4,000, and a the close of the
fair was taken apart and shipped, in sec
TONS to Rio de Janeiro. to be put up for a
permanent exhibit of Brazilian industries
and also for such conventions as this. About
the hall are eases showing the various man.
ufactures and products of the different Bra
lillian states and the members of the con-
ference will not get away without learning
something about the country.
The official banquets, balls and other
functions wifi probably be given in the Bra
lillian state department, and after the con-
ference is over the delegates will be taken
on a series of excursions TO the most Access
STOLE parts of the republic.
Walks About Rio de Janeiro.
doubt whether they will find any place
more interesting than Rio itself 1t is one
of the queerest cities of all South Amer
lea, and the delegate who can keep from
being scared to death by yellow fever stories
win find plenty to see during his leisure.
He will be delighted with the new residence
section with its villas and Spanish-built
homes. He viii find parks which have no
superior on the continent, and a botanical
garden inferior to none outside that at
Buitenzorg. Java. There are bamboos In
INiO WIiSH aTe lily rect DlRH. whose 1Gath-
cry arms interlock and make avenues
through which one can walk for a mile or
so shielded from the heat of the sun. There
are flowers growing wild which we raise In
our hot houses. and royal palms hundred
and fifty feet high. Brazil is one of the
chief homes of the royal palm and this tree
is to be found In every part of the city. 1t
rises without branch in a symmetrical
shaft of silver gray for one hundred feet or
more and ends in a canopy of beautiful
green fern-like leaves. Many of the res
licences have such palms along the walks to
their front doors. and in the botanical gar
den itself are four rows of these palms,
making a grove about mile long. which
travellers consider one of the wonders of the
world.
Old Rio and It's Coffee Markets.
The older parts of Rio are much as they
were In the days of the empire. There was
city here long before we had any of size
In the United States. AS early as 1855 some
French Professionals built up a town on one
of the islands of the bay, and about a hun
dred years later Rio had 10000 souls 1t
was made the capital of Brazil in 1852, and
there are houses here now which are sew
eral hundred years old. The streets near
the harbor are narrow and some are so
low that they are flooded at every rain. In
some the houses are so close together that
they shut out the sun. and where the street
cars pass through them it is advisable to
jump into a doorway now and then to
avoid losing leg. At any rate, the street
cars go so close that they almost graze~the-
narrow sidewalk, and the drivers are no
respecters of persons 1t is in this part of
Rio that the slums are to be found Here
whole families live in one room and ne
groes and whites seem to herd together.
This is also the warehouse section Tho
smell of coffee fills the air. and in some OF
the wider streets long lines of carts are
moving back and forth loading and unload
ing coffee bags. There are also factories
nearby where coffee is sorted polished and
sometimes colored for the different markets
of the world There are coffee grains on the
roadway with negro women and boys
down on their knees brushing them into
dust pans to save them, and there are
scores OF half-naked blacks and whites
trotting from the wagons and carts to the
warehouses with great bags on their heads
Each bag weighs 1872 pounds but a porter
will stand straight up and walk off with
one as briskly as though 1t were feathers
This Is the great coffee port of the world
and our delegates Will be able to get the
finest of Javas and Mochas. as well as
Rios for all come from Brazil They will
get them cheap. too, and as the coffee bean
improves with age l venture Secretary
Root and every American delegate will
bring back bag or so of this 10-cent-per-
pound coffees which is sold from 80 cents
and upward pound in our grocery stores.
In the Rua do ouvidor.
Some of the best business streets of Rio
are almost as narrow as those about the
coffee market. The Rua do Ouvidor, which
is the chief shopping street and great Cos
slipping place, is so narrow that at GER
tain hours of the day carriages are not
permitted to go through 1t. It is not as
wide as the Moski at Cairo, and is almos.
as strange 1t is walled with one two and
three story houses, painted In all colors of
the rainbow. Yellow, pink, blue, and green
walls join one another. and the houses are
so close together that a canopy is some
times stretched over the street and so close
that the flags which float from the windows
on one side almost touch those from the
other Every window has its flag pole and
the poles join almost like bean poles or
stacked arms Just now each pole has its
flag, and these flags will keep the sun on
the delegates az they walk through At
night the Ouvidor is illuminated by arches |
of iron pipes. which run across from one
side OF the street to the other. The lights |
are of many colors, and just now they will
be blazing.
The People Of Rio.
This street is filed with people during |
the business hours of the day. The crowd |
Is most cosmopolitan. 1t consists Of Ital-
ians Portuguese, spaniards. Germans.
French. English. Americans and Brazil |