Show WITH THE ARANESE Life in the Chief City of the i j Amazon WELLS AND WATERCARRIERS Votive Offerings to Our Lady of Nazareth Jsuudiy Theatre GoinzBugs JIancabeira Trees PjUtA Brazil Aug Correspondence to THE SALT LAKE HJJRALD Whatever may be said of the delights and discomforts of traveling in Brazil one thing is true that the interest of it never Sags for each city has its own distinguishing peculiar His which render it unlike any of the others and each days sightseeing expedition expedi-tion develops things new and strange This morning we wont out to Marco da Legua five miles distant to visit the wells which furnish the citys drinking water A peculiarity of Para is that it contains not one artificial fountain whereas every other South American town has a surplus of thorn The group of wells above mentioned men-tioned and some springs in the eastern suburbs ere the only water supply for more than 100000 people eked out of the chocolate colored current of the river by tbe less fastidious for lavatory purposes You go to to the wells by tramway along the aristocratic residence street called the Rua da Nazareth which for the first three miles is lined on both sides with pretty cases built after the Portuguese fashion some with walls of tinted stucco others coated with blue and yellow tiles and all fronted by splendid palm trees whose feathery tops are in perpetual motion mo-tion apparently nodding and whispering to one another while their tall column like trunks remain unmoved in the fiercest storms The air is heavy with the fragrance I fra-grance of orange groves in interior gardens and in tho middle of every house the trees of tho patiostrange trees known only in the tropics lift their heads above the mossy roofs About midway is the oeau I tiful Plaza da Nazareth circular In form BO named from its church which is especially es-pecially devoted to the worship of Our Lady of Nazareth HALCTON AND VOCIFEROUS PROCEEDINGS At the wells we find a scene of indescribable inde-scribable confusion a dofening bable of Toices a crowd of negro lavendars washwomen wash-women and Portuguese wetercarriers all jabbering and gesticulating like mad BO that cue momentarily expects to see knives drawn and blood shed But it is ota riot or an incipient revolution as one might well imagine only the every day cheerfulness of the native lower classes whose customary deportment when two or three are gathered together is more like that of lunatics than of sane human beings GALLEGOS In Para the water carriers are called gallegos a term of contempt which was 5 first applied by the Portuguese to the Spanish emigrant from Gallcia who took Iii to tbe business of carrying water when ar e rived In this country as universally as the if Q emigrants from some provinces turn to fybivg from others to fnrmiog and soon 1r r R J C Q a j < J By and by the Brazilians adopted the word gallegos and applied it to the few Portuguese Portu-guese who were engaged in the same business busi-ness so that now everybody who carries water is a gallego as in Mexico all English speaking people from either side of the ocean are gringos WATER CARTS AND JAR BEARERS Until within a few years the drinking water was peddled about the streets of Para on horseback each horse staggering under four enormous jars strapped to his back but lately Some benevolent wanderer from the land of Bergh and humane societies socie-ties pitying the overworked equine skeletons skele-tons introduced carts each to be drawn by an or or mule But nobody thinks of ameliorating the condition of the human beasts of burden and though several hundred hun-dred water carts are constantly going the rounds of the city one meets many more negroes and Indians male and female bowed under the weight of water jars poised upon the head each of which look heavy enough to crush an ordinary skull Dun LADY OP NAZARETH On tho way back to town we stopped at Nazareth plaza and took a peep at the votive vo-tive offerings which are hunt upon the walls of its famouschapel for Our Lady of Nazarethso say the Brazilianshas wrought more miracles than all the other virgins and saints on record Her festival occurs in October and draws great numbers of people to Para from all tbe Amazonian provinces It continues a fortnight fort-night and more and during all that time the square is literally packed hundreds of families having brought their household goods and encamped on the spot The trusting faith of the pious Brazilian as well as the efficacy of prayer and the power of Our Lady is exemplified by thereat the-reat number and variety of these votos There are thousands of busts and arms and legs and hands and faces either molded in wax or carved in wood each bearing a more or less lifelike life-like representation of the particular particu-lar disease or infirmity with which it had been afliicted as for instance ghastly caricatures of wounds ulcers tumors protruding pro-truding bones etc There are breasts nearly eaten away by cancer necks with enormous goitres and other horrors too many to enumerate There are paintings also graphic counterfeit presentations of ships at sea about to be dashed upon beetling crags and the virgin flying down hastily to the rescue when appealed to pictures of men and omen on beds of sickness and the same obliging lady coming com-ing through the ceiling with a bottle of medicine One of them shows an invalid I sitting in an armchair and the legend below i be-low sets forth how the good man had not I been able to walk a step for twenty years until followingsome directions he received I in a dream he became well the very next day THE CATHEDRAL OF 4AitA There are several churches here but though several are much handsomer there is none so interesting as this of Our Lady of Nazareth The cathedral is an enormous edifice which boasts of the greatest variety of marbles from all parts of the world that was ever collected under one roof The I I great high altar contains no fewer than fifteen fif-teen different kinds and the floors and I walls and galleries are a mosaic of countless count-less varieties of tho same beautiful material i mater-ial Everybody has heard of Paras great opera house the largest on tho South American continent and one of the largest in the world It is situated at one end of a plaza and is built of brick and stucco three sides of it having deep alcoves supported by massive marble pillars with fluted shafts and Corinthian capitals Behind the pillars aro extensive marblepaved porticoes in which people maypromenade e z i a t Ci between the acts or find shelter from the rains which fall every day during nine months of tbe year Squatting all along the pavement in front of the main entrance en-trance are always scores of greasy negresses doing a flourishing business in the sale of sweetmeats and bonbons Just inside the door is a large bar room which the audience visit frequently during an evening gentlemen taking out their ladies for sweet drinks beer and champaigne The interior is very handsomely decorated decor-ated in crimson white and gold There are five tiers of boxes and each box has a little anteroom where the occupants receive re-ceive and entertain their friends both between be-tween and during trie acts for here as well as elsewhere in SpanishAmerica people come to the theatre apparently for anything except to listen to the performance perform-ance If there are no callers tho ladles and gentlemen promenade the corridors and even take an occasional turn at waltzing waltz-ing in the large ball room that fills tho front of the building There are no proscenium boxes but in tbe centre of the middle tier is a gorgeously ornamented stall reserved for the president presi-dent the governer and the bishop The galleries are remarkable in that none of thorn are upheld by pillars but are supported sup-ported on slender iron brackets As in European opera houses onehalf the par quette has seats which are sold at a reasonable reason-able price and the other half for double and treble that suma distinction without a difference exceptin the amount of money charged SUNDAY THEATREGOING The orchestra of twentyfive performers has no leaner and the leading instrument is a piano Sunday is the most fashionable evening for theatregoing here as in all other South American cities and the ladies universally appear in full ball costume cos-tume uncovered heads adorned with I flowers or jewels bare arms and no bodices to speak of Though 830 is the advertised hour tho performances usually begin an hour or so later but nobody seems to be disturbed in their gaiety and cheerful How of conversation by whatever may be happening hap-pening on the stage and us a rule fashionable fashion-able Para audiences sit with their backs to the performers and pay thorn not the slightest attention The great theatre was erected just after the close of the long and I bloody war with Paraguay and to commemorate com-memorate that event it was named the Theatre of Our Lady of Peace THE GOVERNMENT HOUSE I The next building in point of architectural architec-tural pretensions is the government housea very large but plain twostoried building facing an extensive plaza which is covered with rank grass like a meadow The plaza is surrounded by quaint one story casas and rows of old mango trees and in its center is a tall whitemarble monument erected in honor of some famous fa-mous Paranese warrior but we must bog you to excuse us from wading through that tangled pathless and doubtless snake infested grass to discover his name Close by is a fort mounting guns of light cali bre and following the same street which for half a mile or more is bordered by a double row of royal palms like those in the Botanical garden at Rio we may pass the governors mansion and bring up at the great Market House But the latter is an institution worthy of an especial visit and today we will pass by it MANGABEIRA While the city as you know fronts the river its rear Is skirted by a shaded walk or paseo as it it here called whose equal would be hard to find on the American continent con-tinent It is called the Esbrado dos Manga beira from the huge mangabeira trees which lino both sides and extend several miles = from the marine arsenal to the river side to the Largo da Polvora on the eastern extremity of k J t 5 11 t n the city and is intersected by avenues I leading to the Largo do Quartet and the Palace square The bark of these trees is silver gray and they produce coarse cotton cot-ton which is used for various purposes Just beyond the Estaba dos Mangaboirus which is always filled with carriages and pedestrians ono may plunge at once into the primeval forest and in five minutes stroll become lost to every trace of tho near residence of man Stories are told of persons who even within the present year have become bewildered in the mazes of these jungles and though but so short a distance I dis-tance away were utterly unable to find their way back to town and many are known to have perished in that manner All important posts throughout the city and the approaches thereto arc regularly guarded by soldiers and whoever approaches ap-proaches alter S oclock is hailed by the harsh call Quem vat lal who goes there The proper answer Is Un AmigoUa friend ana then the guardian of the peace retorts Passa LargotJgo along JUIMEVAL rORESTS Boron Hum bolt says If the name of primeval forest can properly be given to any spot on the face of the earth it is in the busin of the Amazon Ama-zon There is a sea of verdure in which one may draw a circle of 1200 miles In diameter which includes an always greon unbroken forest The variety of grand and beautiful trees is bewilderinga wild race of vegetable giants all draped festooned fes-tooned corded matted and ribboned with climbing and creeping plants in endless variety But these tangled forests otTer a bar to civilization almost ns great aa the sterilty of the African deserts This part of Brazil known as the Ama zones district its name derived from tho wellprevadlng rIverwhich has Para for its capital is indeed a Wonderland Its soil is so extremely fertile that the great difficulty in making any agricultural of it is to repress nature and it requires eternal vigilance prevent cultivated lands from going back to primeval forests From it at least seveneights of the worlds production pro-duction of India rubber is imported and though its rich territory covers an area equal in extent to all that part of the United Staten east of tho Rocky mountains practically nothing else is produced be causo rubber gathering is so much more remunerative re-munerative than any other employment teat it absorbs almost I the entiro labor of the country THE WAYS OF COMMERCE The great Amazonian valley has already about 50000 miles of available river navigation navi-gation and another 10000 might be added to the vast system of waterways by constructing con-structing a few hundred miles of railway around the rapids of the Maderra Tapaos and Tocautins rivers Para the gateway which opens all this to the world is the nearest port in South America to the United States commercially speaking if not geographically the distance to New York being n little less than 3000 miles by the direct route now regularly traversed by tbe United States and Brazil line of steamers At present there is only one steam railway in all Amazoniathe Bar aganca river line which runs forty miles out from Para and ends in the wilderness Its prospective terminus Baraganca a large new town about eighty miles northeast north-east of Para butMt is doubtful if it ever gets there The road has never yet paid half of its running expenses and the deficit is made up from tho public treasury except ex-cept in a very small portiun of Southern Brazil there is no population back of the coast to support railways along tbe rivers I whore water transportationis cheapest I We spent pleasant day going over the Baraganca road It is ua row gauge with I rolling stock of English make and sends but ono train a day And that is quito + enough for there is only ono village of any consequence along thoJinoand thediatrict j I i Q s f < f fA seems to bo almost uninhabited Though extremely tiresome the trip is well worth making for the sake of seeing the forest the entire distance dis-tance txcept a little space which has been laboriously cleared on either side of the tract being hedged by impenetrable jungle The novelty of it is perpetual for there are trees of infinite variety some with fluted trunKs others honeycombed others larger above than below some reared upon stilts of roots some buttressed upon narrow slabs of living wood projecting twenty feet from the magnificent pillar they uphold hundreds of palms and hardly tvo alike no treo lest than a hundred feet in height all straight as telegraph poles and few with trunks that would measure more than four feet in diameter Though they send forth no branches till near the top it looks like a solid wall of verdure down to the ground for to their summits the tallest monarchs of the forest are covered with flowering vines whose roots are grounded a hundred feet below liohens and orchids in every degree of gorgeousness Tropical plant life is as vast in variety as in quantity quan-tity and everything struggles upward for light sun and air Often a parasitic growth sends flower and foliage far above the tree it has scaled and then leaps from tree to tree weaving an intricate network of vines that looks lUte the sails of a ship In the lower half of the forest perpetual darkness reigns the slim straight stems standing so thickly as to shut out the light and the ground being cushioned to nobody knows what depth with damp moss and beds of flowering creepers soft and rich as velvet A BEAUTIFUL WILDERNESS At the end of the line you may walk straight into the junglo as far as you dare or can for the tangle but I assure you it will not be many yards The silence is as mournful as oppressive for if there is any spot on earth conducive to melancholy it is rthe still solemn twilight of a primeval forest in the torrid zone You feel as if in a Russian bath so hot and humid is the atmosphere It is this steaming moisture below and burning sun above which has produced the incredible luxuriance of vegetation vege-tation Everywhere are darting insects and llzzards like fonenes of fire wonderful butterflies and brightwinged but songless birds The beautiful wilderness is prolific of reptiles and insect life and of fnur footed beasts too but you are not likely to see any of the latter though burning eyes may be glaring at you from the thickets thick-ets FANNIE B WARD |