Rambles about Rio de Janeiro 69 



cabmen, the crowds on the side-walks reveal by a hun- 

 dred little traits in action and address that they belong 

 to the Latin rather than the Teutonic races. Who in 

 England or the United States has seen men carrying 

 their stock of vegetables about from house to house in 

 baskets slung at the ends of a yoke-pole? But in Italy 

 and Spain and North Africa such sights are common, 

 and everywhere in Rio de Janeiro we encountered 

 them. 



Many of the public buildings of Rio de Janeiro are 

 excellent in design and appearance. The influence 

 of French taste is conspicuous in many of them. 

 The Opera House, modeled after that of Paris, is as 

 fine a building as its prototype. The Monroe Palace 

 is recognized at once as the Brazilian Building which 

 graced the Exposition at St. Louis, and which, trans- 

 ported to Rio, now adorns the Avenida. There are 

 numerous streets which compare favorably with similar 

 streets in any of the great European capitals. The 

 most attractive feature of Rio is the system of boulevards 

 intersecting the lower portion and bordering the water- 

 front. Nowhere in the world is there a more beautiful 

 drive than that afforded by the Avenida Beira-Mar. 

 The road-bed is perfection, and the exquisitely beauti- 

 ful views of the bay and the mountains, which it offers 

 at every turn, cause all other great municipal thorough- 

 fares to suffer by comparison. The Riverside Drive 

 in New York, the Thames Embankment in London, 

 the Avenue des Champs Elysees in Paris lack alto- 

 gether the elements which combine to make the 

 great Brazilian avenue the magnificent promenade 

 which it is. The Hudson is a noble stream, and the 

 Palisades are striking; but to produce in New York 

 the effect of the view at Rio it would be necessary to 



