Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1916-12-22
FROM THE PEOPLE
Letter From, Brazil

son with you and the planting
time here. In your woods the
leaves are brown, golden and
sere and here the young growth or
spring is new and green, you have
the golden rod and the fields of
yellow daisies and the lespedeza
is mature, and in Brazil the
spring flowers are adding beauty
to the gardens and the lawns and
every valley and hill. But it is
spring here almost the whole
year. The leaves stay green,
though some of the trees shed both
leaves and bark. The fields and
pastures take on a dried up ap-
pearance throug July and August;
but it is more because of lack of
rain than cold. l would love to
see the swamps and woods where
the hickory leaves are yellow, the
gum leaves red and the holly so
green and pleasing. We miss
that season altogether here, but
the people have never known it,
SO they don't feel that homesick-
ness for it that I do. Well, |
console myself with the thought
that IL months of spring should
turn my thoughts of fancy to
thoughts of love much easier than
three months of spring can.
I want to ask Prof. McMillan's
high school pupils some questions
"South of Panama" Before do
though, should like to say that
the average person of the United
States is densely ignorant about
South America. About all we
know about it is that it is some
where in the northern part; there
is a large river whose swamp has
trees with limbs that turn down
and take root in the ground, and
that in the swamps are large
snakes, parrots and many mon
keys. All this knowledge is
usually gotten from the school
biographies. The average high
school pupil here can tell, hun
areds OF facts about the United
States. They DON'T know SO much
Latin, Greek and mathematics,
but they have us beaten on world
information and, too, they usually
know French and Spanish Ian
guages, are musical and the boys
are given music and painting. /
believe these people are right. |
like the idea of dividing the fam,
lily income equally on music and
art for the boys and girls.
Now, in regard to these ques-
tions, don't look for the answers
until you have given them trial
of. hand. They are to test Mr..
Mcmillan and the other members
of his faculty also. I'd like to see
some of the answers, off hand, to
these very simple questions:
1. What is the comparative size
of Brazil to the United States of
America?
2. What is the national Ian
guage of Brazil?
8. What longitude is most east,
erly point of Brazil?
4. What form of government
has it?
5. How many divisions has it9
6. What is it's population?
7. What is its religion7
8. What is the capital and it's
populations
9. Most of the high school chill
dren can name many of the presi-
dents of the United States. Can
you name just one ruler of any
South American country?
10. How many countries south
of the Panama canals
II, What is the population OF
s. Al
12. Where does it's most wester-
ly point of longitude touch the
U. s.
Now, these arc general ques-
tions, questions any high school
pupil should be able to answer,
vet l could not have answered one
positively a year ago. | am
ashamed that | am so ignorant of
this continent that comprises one
seventh of the.land of the earth,
and you should be also ashamed
of your complete lack of knowl-
edge of this half of the western
hemisphere. We have held our
selves the guardians of s. A.
since the passage of the Monroe
doctrine and yet 60 uninformed.
I hope this is a joke. Yet, not
long ago, a congressman to the
United States asked a Brazilian
who was visiting Washington if
Rio de Janerio is the capitol of
Buenos Ayres.
The fiercest battle in the great