PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS OF RIO DE JANEIRO. 477 



lias 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. 



