If you forget your shirt,
or coat, or boots, it will matter little, but the absence of a tie
will give the negro cause to insult you.
Some large, box-like cars have the words "Descalcos e Bagagem"
(literally, "For the Shoeless and Baggage") printed across them. In
these the poorer classes and the tieless can ride for half-price. And
to make room for the constantly inflowing people from Europe, two
great hills are being removed and "cast into the sea."
Rio Janeiro may be earth's coming city. It somewhat disturbs our
self-complacency to learn that they have spent more for public
improvements than has any city of the United States, with the
exception of New York. Municipal works, involving an expenditure of
$40,000,000, have contributed to this.
Rio Janeiro, however, is not the only large and growing city Brazil
can boast of. Sao Paulo, with its population of 300,000 and its two-
million-dollar opera house, which fills the space of three New York
blocks, is worthy of mention. Bahia, founded in 1549, has 270,000
inhabitants, and is the centre of the diamond market of Brazil. Para,
with its population of 200,000, who export one hundred million
dollars' worth of rubber yearly and keep up a theatre better than
anything of the kind in New York, is no mean city.
