PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS OF RIO DE JANEIRO. 477 
has so high a standard of excellence in its charities can 
hardly fail, sooner or later, to bring its institutions of learn- 
ing and its public works generally up to the same level. 
Excellence in one department leads to excellence in all. 
From the hospital we continued our walk to the military 
school, some quarter of a mile farther. It stands in the gap 
between the Pao de Assucar and the opposite range of hills, 
and has the Botafogo Bay on one side, the Praia Vermelha 
on the other. Here, as elsewhere in the public schools of 
Rio de Janeiro, there is a progressive movement ; but old 
and theoretical methods still prevail to a great degree. 
The maps are poor ; there are no bas-reliefs, no large globes, 
few dissections or chemical analyses, no philosophical ex- 
periments, and no library deserving the name. The school, 
however, has been in efficient operation only six years, and 
improvements in the building, as well as in the apparatus 
for instruction, are made daily. So far as its domestic 
economy is concerned, the appointments of the establish- 
ment are excellent ; indeed, one is rather inclined to criti- 
cise it as over-luxurious for boys educated to be soldiers. 
The school-rooms and dormitories, as well as the dining- 
room, where the tables were laid with a nice service of 
crockery and glass, and also the kitchens, were clean and 
orderly. We cannot but wonder that the streets of Rio 
de Janeiro should be dirtier and more offensive than 
those of any other city we have visited, when we see 
the scrupulous neatness characteristic of all its public 
establishments. The observance of cleanliness in this re- 
spect shows that the Brazilians recognize its importance, 
and it seems strange that they should tolerate nuisances 
in their streets which make it almost impossible to pass 
through many of them on foot. 
