Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-09-05

basis. The country has a constitution
like ours. The government has three
branches. First Is the legislative
branch. consisting of a chamber of
deputies and a senate, corresponding to
our Congress. Then comes the execu-
tive, whose powers are exercised by
the president of the republic. And third
is the judicial branch constituted by
the supreme court.
The Republic of Brazil consists Of
twenty states and one territory. some
of these states are enormous, others
compare in size with the smaller states
of the Union, although none is as small
as Maryland. Amazonas. which In
cludes the western half of the Amazon
basin, is bounded on the north by Brit
ish Guiana. Venezuela and Colombia:
on the east are Colombia. Ecuador and
Peru Its southern boundary touches
Bolivia.
This state Is one-fifth as large as the
whole United States. including Alaska.
1t would make eight states as big as
Kansas or sixteen the size Of Ken
lucky. Nevertheless, 1t does not be-
gin until hundreds of miles east of the
Atlantic, and 1t has thousands of miles
of river navigation. You can cross
Amazonas on steamers from east to
west and the largest ocean vessels can
come from the Atlantic to Its capital,
Manaos,' which is more than a thou
sand miles from the mouth of the Anna
zon. Manaos has $4,000 population. 1t
has telephones, electric lights, electric
street cars and a beautiful theater 1t
Is a great rubber port. Amazonas has
70
earth. Much of the country is low and
covered with woods. 1t has also high
lands. 1t has a network of rivers,
many of which carry more or less
gold.
The big state east Of Amazonas is
Para This state is ten times the size
of Pennsylvania and about eleven times
as big as Ohio, Virginia and Kentucky
1t comprises the eastern part OF the
Amazon basin. and 1t has one city.
named Belem. which has over 100000
Inhabitants. Belem has been one of the
death spots of the world. 1t has been
noted for it's yellow fever and other
diseases, but they are now inaugural
ing sanitary regulations like those that
cleaned up Panama and 1t Will eventu-
ally be as safe as any tropical city.
The total population of the state of
Para is not half that Of Greater
Boston, while you could put all the
people who live in Amazonas into Buff
1alO ana SIlll nave IOOA LUZ
like 100000 more.
Just south Of these two states and
bordered on the west by Bolivia and
Paraguay Is Matte Crosse, a great un-
developed region which is bound to
boom in the near future. This state is
a vast plateau nine times as large as
either Illinois or Wisconsin and more
than six times as big as either Minne-
sofa or Kansas. It is in the tropics.
but it is SO high that 1t Is healthy and
parts of 1t are already feeding mil
lions of cattle. This country SO far is
inaccessible by railroads. It's capital,
Cuyaba, has to be reached from Rio de
Janeiro by travelling several thousand
miles. The steamers go down to the
mouth Of the Rio de la Plata and
thence up tho Parana and Paraguay to
Asuncion. From there the trip is by
smaller steamers UP the Paraguay to
Cuyaba. When tho railroad is COM
pleted Cuyaba will DO reached from
the Atlantic as easily as Cleveland is
reached from New York. The distances
are tho Same. Then the trains Will
bring the Matte Crosse cattle to the
packing houses that are now being
erected for the purpose at Sac Paulo.