The Ely miner., 1933-05-26
BRAZIL'S CITIES
ARE WONDERFUL
Rio, Sac Paulo, Pernambuco
and Bahia Pictured.

duu Dduld IlCtuTcu.
Prepared by National Geographic Society.
Washington. d. C.-wNU Service.
~ENSUS enunerators recently
have completed counting A.
~ 931 ,042 people in Brazil While
the state spreads over an area
greater than that of the United States.
nearly every great population center
lies on the Atlantic coast.
There are ten Brazilian cities with
more than 100000 inhabitants. OF the
first four, Rio de Janeiro, Sac Paulo,
Pernambuco (Recife), and Bahia (Sao
Salvador), only Sac Paulo Is inland.
Rio de Janeiro, the capital, contrib
uted nearly 100000 people to the CEN
sus enumerators' figures. Amid all
Brazil's amazing coastal panorama of
verdant forests, mysterious rivers,
foaming cascades, untrod mountains
and polyglot, populous towns, Rio re-
mains the very acme of human inter-
est.
AS the traveller enters glittering
Rio and beholds the alabaster-like city
of palms, marble, mountains and color,
he is astounded. Here is an illusion
from an Arabian Nights dream, mag
ic supercity never built by man. Look
at those amazing mountain peaks that
rise from the sea. They cannot be of
this world; they are unreal, like a
landscape on the moon pictured
through a telescope.
To enter this great world port you
walk down the gangplank and straight
out into a formal garden with big
bronze fountain. This leads off into
Fifth avenue-like boulevard which in
turn flows into wide, wOrld-famous
beach drive, past embassies, clubs, and
more palms and geometric gardens.
Dingy docks, pawnshops, pool halls,
quick-and-dirty cafes, cheap rooming
houses, touts and runners, dirt, smells
all the trash and claptrap of many
other water fronts, are missing here.
Rising fully 1000 feet and almost
straight out of the sea, Sugar Loaf,
lofty sentinel Of the Rio harbor, is
easily the city's outstanding landmark.
Incoming air pilots, If half lost in fog
or rain, hail its familiar outlines with
grunts Of relief. In queer aerial
trolley-a dizzy trip which is SUI
preme triumph for the nervous-you
can reach it's top.
Rio Is Work of Art.
Look at this spectacular city from
Sugar Loaf or any high angle, and
you see how smoothly in mass, form
and color it harmonizes with the shape
and shades of its terrestrial environ
ment. You observe that it is cohesive,
one work Of art; yet it is not solid
city with checker-board pattern of
blocks and squares squeezed into rigid
"city limits" like Leipzig or Indian
apolis.
Something easy, loose, and fluent In
its multicolored distribution makes you
feel that Rio is simply flowing down
from mountains about it in graceful,
architectural streams, then coming to
rest in quiet valleys and on sandy
beaches.
Leading North American papers, pop
ular North American magazines, chew
ing gum from Chicago, your own IA
vorite brand of safety razor, cigarettes,
fountain pen, writing or talking ma
chine, sport roadster, ice-box, or out
board motor boat-all are mere, with
all their familiar show-window pla-
cards that greet you on Main street
anywhere from Syracuse to Seattle.
Likewise radio sets, grooming to
crowds the fastest Broadway 'hits" |;
displays of North American cameras !;
enlarged snaps of local bathing beau
ties having Brazilian "it'; groups of
soccer players; the dark horse that
paid 20 to 1 at last Sundays races and
his popular jockey, pictured peeping
through big horseshoe Of flowers.
Sac Paul, second largest Of Brazilian
cities, is capital and business metrop-
oils of Sac Paulo state. 1t Is one Of
the oldest cities in South America,
but its age has not deprived it of mod
ern commercial development.
Fifty years before the Capt. John
Smith-P Pocohontas episode at James
town, Va, Portuguese sailor found
ed Sac Paulo and married the daugh-
ter Of q native Indian chief. Later
Jesuit missionaries established a
church at the settlement and held the
first religious service on the feast day
in celebration of the conversion Of St.
Paul
Sac Paulo's Swift Growth.
For three centuries Sac Paulo en-
joyed isolation, unfettered by colonial
laws of Portugal. 1t was about 1000
miles from the Portuguese government
officials who were, at that time, at
Bahia. In 1875 the ball Of commercial
progress started rolling among the in
habitants, and newcomers were in
stilled with boom spirit. In slightly
more than fifty years the city has in
creased in population from 10000 to
nearly 100000. New streets that were
built were made broad and straight
and fanked with modern buildings.
The railway depot, municipal and
state government buildings, museums,
libraries, schools, and some Of its new
business buildings would be flattering
additions to many cities of the world
Of the same size. Three huge public
gardens and more than fifty parks
break the monotony of the miles of
streets.
Sac Paulo might properly be called
the city that coffee built. Many of the
palatial residences are those of coffee
"barons." In Sac Paulo streets huge
trucks. heavy carts, and perspiring
men laden with sacks of coffee are
always within eyeshot. Coffee was not
introduced into Brazil until two GEN.
turies ago, but the price Of coffee now