50 A JOURNEY IN BRAZIL. 
April 24th. To-day we ladies went on shore for a few 
hours, engaged our rooms, and drove about the city a little. 
The want of cleanliness and thrift in the general aspect 
of Rio de Janeiro is very striking as compared with the 
order, neatness, and regularity of our large towns. The 
narrow streets, with the inevitable gutter running down the 
middle, a sink for all kinds of impurities, the absence 
of a proper sewerage, the general aspect of decay (partly 
due, no doubt, to the dampness of the climate), the indolent 
expression of the people generally, make a singular im- 
pression on one who comes from the midst of our stirring, 
energetic population. And yet it has a picturesqueness 
that, to the traveller at least, compensates for its defects. 
All who have seen one of these old Portuguese or Spanish 
tropical towns, with their odd narrow streets and many- 
colored houses with balconied windows and stuccoed or 
painted walls, only the more variegated from the fact 
that here and there the stucco has peeled off, know the 
fascination and the charm which make themselves felt, 
spite of the dirt and discomfort. Then the groups in the 
street,- -the half-naked black carriers, many of them 
straight and firm as bronze statues under the heavy loads 
which rest so securely on their heads, the padres in their 
long coats and square hats, the mules laden with baskets 
of fruit or vegetables, all this makes a motley scene, 
entertaining enough to the new-comer. I have never 
seen such effective-looking negroes, from an artistic point 
of view, as here. To-day a black woman passed us in 
the street, dressed in white, with bare neck and arms, 
the sleeves caught up with some kind of armlet, a large 
white turban of soft muslin on her head, and a long 
bright-colored shawl passed crosswise under one arm and 
