The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1913-06-01
AMBASSADOR BRYCE % Ssy Tos9 1 AND IT. as4l 1 s

:
the common belief that the South
Americans are slack and inert
How Is One to Describe Rto?"
! How Is one to describe Rio? It's
! bay has been compared to the bays
of Naples, of Palermo, Of Sydney, Of
San Francisco. OF Hongkong, and Of
{ Bombay, as well as to the Bosphorus.
! 1t is not in the least like any of these,
except In being beautiful. nor, should
fancy. is It like any other place in tho
world. Suppose the bottom OF the
Yosemite valley filled with water. and
the effect would be something like
| the bay OF Rio. Yet the superb vege-
tation would be wanting, and the views
to PARKWAY mountains, and the sense
of the presence of the blue ocean
outside the capes that guard the en-
trance.
The name driver OF january sug-
gests a river. but this was a mistake
of the Portuguese discoveries, for
nothing but trihing streams enter this
great inlet. 1t is a landlocked gulf,
twenty miles long and from five to
ten miles wide, approached from the
ocean through a channel less than a
mile wide, between rock prom ontories
upon which forts have been erected.
On the north side, inside the en-
trance. Is the town OF Nictheroy,
whose name commentaries long
extinct tribe of Indians. Bold rocky
isles lie In front of it and high hills
rise behind.
A City That Is Succession OF Towns.
The city OF Rio lies upon the south
side of the gulf. the great bulk of 1t
inside, though two or three suburbs
have now grown up which stretch
across neck of land to the ocean.
1t runs along the shore for five or
six miles, occupying all the space be-
tween the water and the mountains
behind, and cut up into several sec
tions by steep ridges which come down
from the mountains and Jut out Into
the water. The coast-line Is extreme
ly irregular, for between these Jutting
prom ontories 1t recedes into inlets, so
that when one looks at Rio, either
from off shore in front or from the
mountain tops behind. 1t seems like
a succession Of towns planted around
inlets and divided from one another
by wooded heights. All these sec
tons are connected by a line OF ave-
nues running nearly parallel to the
coast, so that the city sometimes mar
rows to couple of hundred yards,
sometimes widens out where there Is
a level space between the water and
the hills, sometimes climbs the hill
slopes, and mingles Its white houses
with the groves that cover their sides
Behind all stands up the mountain
wall, in most places clothed with lux
uriant forests. but in others rising In
precipiees OF grey granite or single
shafts of rock. Thus Rio stands
hemmed in between mountains and
! bays, There Ia hardly a spot where,
! looking up or down street, one does
not see the vista closed either by the
waving green OF forest or the spark
/ ling blue of sea.
! Things to Dream or, Not to Tell.
/ Other cities there are where noun
tains rising around form noble back
ground and refresh the heart of such
town jewellers as have learned to love
them. Such cities are Athens and
Smyrna. Genoa and Palermo, San
Francisco and Santiago de Chile. But
! in Rio the mountains seem to be al
most a part of the city, for 1t clings
and laps round their spurts just as the
sea below laps round the capes that
project into the bay.
Nor does one see elsewhere such
weird forms rising directly from the
yards and gardens Of the houses One
can hardly take ones eyes off the
| two strangest among these, which are
also the most prominent In every re-
spect, The Pan de Azucar (Sugar
Loaf is a cone of bare granite, so
steep as TO be scaleable at one point
only by the boldest climbers, which
stands on the ridge between the bay
and the ocean. The other peak is
the still loftier Corcovado. a vertical
shaft of rock which springs right out
OF the houses to a height OF over two
thousand three hundred feet.
Such strange mountain forms give
TO the landscape of the city a sort
OF bizarre air. They are things to
dream of, not to tell. Yet the gro
| tesqueness OF the shapes is lost in the
splendor OF the whole--a food of sun
shine, a strand of dazzling white, a
sea of turquoise blue. feathery forest
ready to fall from Its cliff upon the
city in a cascade OF living green.
/ Brazil's Modern Capital
It Is hard for man to make any city
4 worthy of such surroundings as Ma
ture has given to Rio. Except for two
or three old-fashioned streets in the
business quarter near the port and
arsenal, 1t Is all modern, and such
picturesqueness as there Is belongs to
the varying lines of shore and hill, and
to the interspersed gardens.
4 A handsome modern thoroughfare,
the Avenda Central. has been run
through what used to be a crowded
mass of mean houses. and 1t has the
gay effectiveness Of Partisan boule-
ward. Villas surrounded by trees
| crown the hills that rise here and
there; and one street is lined by tive
magnificent rows Of royal palms, their
stems straight and smooth as marble
pillars. crested by plumes OF foliage
At the east end Of the city the semi
circular bay Of Botafogo is surround
ed by a superb palm planted esplan
ade, whose pArapet commands the
finest general view over the entrance
to the bay and as far as the Organ
mountains which rise in a row of lofty
pinnacles thirty miles away.
Not less delightful are the environs
The Botanic Garden about a mile
away has long been famous for 1t:
wonderful avenue of royal palms, each
one hundred feet high. all grown from
the seed of one planted a hundre
years ago. in the days when the king
Of Portugal held his court here. Bul
1t has other things to show equally
beautiful and more interesting to the
botanist. Not even the garden OF CAL
cutta contains a more remarkable col
lection OF tropical trees, and its vista.
/ OF foliage and bowery hollows over