The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-12-26


 of nearly 100000 square miles which | await him. He will find himself for | once In a truly new world. where ancient | civilizations and the environment of a
 virgin continent have been blended to- l gether with results which differ aa widely
 as possible from those produced by a similar process in his own land, and | yet are quite as sahrpiy distinct from those of English speaking America. He
 will also have brought home to his con-
 Bciousness some facts about tho indus | trial, scientific and artistic progress made | by such countries as Ere gil, the Argen- ! tine Republic and Chile, which will cause | a revision of the too common Jumping of ! the Latin-American states as lands of | yellow fever, jungle and perennial rev. ! olution, varied by occasional earthquakes
 and volcanic eruptions. Travellers who have penetrated to all corners of the world declare that no other continent | offers so much of interest, either fin nat ural scenic attractions or in picturesque
 sights and odd customs as will be re- vealed to voyages on these new cruises for which some of the finest Atlantic
 liners are employed, such as the crack l Bluecher which Is to start the new service by sailing from here on January
 2 for the principal Atlantic ports of South America.
 Distances. of course. are much great CT than on the trip to Europe. For
 instances. in travelling from New York to the Straits of Magellan and back | one traverses over 1s.oo0 miles or | more than three times the round trip to Europe. Para, which Is the first city on the Atlantic coast of the south ern continent at which a stop Is made,
 is on the other side of the equator. 5000 miles south of New York, and | some 2s degrees of longitude farther | east In fact. the whole of South America. excepting the extreme west | ern strip of Colombia, Ecuador and | northern Peru, lies east of the fneri- | dian of New York. The man who steps | on board a steamer here and stops off in Para will have no difficulty in re- alizing that he Is in a new world. So
 most Americans the name of the city.
 if 1t carries any association at all, Is 1 associated with rubber. That Is, in- l deed, it's principal claim to commer- | cial distinction. It Is the greatest ] rubber market fn the world. All tie rubber gathered for 5000 niles up the
 Amazon valley Is handled here. More l surprising to those who never have 1 visited 1t, Para is modern city. of 20O,e00 inhabitants and the terminus | and capital of great navigation sys- tenn, aggregating 4o.00o miles of wa terways which ramihes from its wharves away into the farthest interior of Brazil and to .Iquitos in Peru, just across the backbone Of the Andes from the Pacific ocean.
 Fifteen hundred miles south of Para is Bahia, the second largest city of Brazil, with varf-colored houses. built upon a series of terraces rising picturesquely one above the other from bo 14 ha faa foy
 between the upper and lower levels
 being by inclined tramways. One of the things about Bahia which interests the tourist is that it Is the principal center of the Brazilian diamond mar ket. It Is also distin guished by the presence of numerous sixteenth century churches and convents
 After Bahia comes Pernambuco, or Recife. The latter name, meaning "reef'' is derived from the immense coral reef which here lines the coast for hundreds of miles. Pernambuco was once Dutch colony and the Dutch influence is still traceable in the buildings of Recife, the most impor- tant of the three divisions of the city. Industrial1y Pernambuco depends prin cipally upon the sugar industries of
 which 1t Is the great center.
 It is when the tourist reaches Rio de Janeiro, however, that he has the first l real glimpse of the modern South l America. Here Is an up-to-date city 1 of over three-quarters Of million in l habitants, the capital of a country larger than the United States, situated ! upon the shores of the largest land- | locked bay in the world, amid natural | surroundings which, upon the unani- | nous testimony of travellers, rival in ! beauty those of world-famous Naples | and Sydney. And the city, since the recent scheme of municipal improve ments has been completed at cost of | over $40.00o, is worthy of its surround | ings and its country. It might be hard | to find in city of the United States Y thoroughfare to equal the new Avenida Central, which Is Rios chief ! est pride-a boulevard POO feet wide | cut straight through the heart of the city at a coast of s11, 100000. At one | end of this magnificent street stands | the Monroe Palace, brought from the | St. Louis Worlds fair, in which were | held the meetings of the Pan-American | congress attended by Secretary Root in l 1o06 Rio is the crown of Portuguese | civilization in the new world.
 For its compeer as an expression of | the achievement of Spanish culture one l has to go to Buenos Aires, the city of I good airs" and nothing could be more | unlike than the respective situations | of these two rival capitals, the second | and third Latin cities of the world, re- | spectively. Buenos Aires owes nothing | to its situation. 1t lies at the mouth ! of the River Plata much as Chicago | camps along the shore of Lake Michi- l gan. That however, is as far as tn 6 1 comparison goes, unless one finds tone l in the fact that Buenos Aires brides | itself on being the most enterprising g l and thoroughly up-to-date city of the l South American continent. There are
 familiar phrases to the ear of "El
 Norte Americana" in the terms in
 which patriotic citizens set forth the
 claims of Buenos Aires. The hand-
 somest newspaper building In tie
 world; the largest and finest race
 course in the world; the finest theatre
 in two Americans-North and South
 this city of million and quarter peo-
 pie situated 2400 miles south of the
 equator, lays claim to them all. It Is
 truly cosmopolitan city, also, as be-
 tance. English, Spanish, German,
 French. Italian, Portuguese. Yankee.
 MeztIbo, the treveler will ind them all
 here. It Is the center of the political
 and commercial life of Argentina as
 probably no other capital in the world
 Is of its country. One may almost say
 Buenos Aires is Argentina. One-six tn
 of the countrys population and most of | It's wealth are concentrated here. il
 Is the center from which all the Ar l genine railway systems radiate.
 | It is also the point from which one de-
 parts on the soo-mile trip to Santiago and