378 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[August i, 1910. 



Para, Manaos and the Amazon. 



By The Editor of "The India Rubber World." 



FIFTH LETTER. 

 Arrival at Manaos. the Upriver Rubber Capital. — Touring the City 



in a 



Motor Car. — Its Fine Modern Appearance. — The People and Their Character- 

 istics. — The Rich Products of Amazonia. Especially Rubber. — Notes on the 

 Commercial Association and the Rubber Confess.— The Transportation System. 



LEAVING the muddy Amazon, we were soon forging through 

 the black waters of the Rio Negro. Or. the north were 

 high, red, clay banks, rather scantily clothed with vegetation 

 — that is, as compared with the jungle lands below. Native 

 houses began to multiply and soon we saw the city of Manaos 

 in the distance. A little later we anchored out in the stream, as 

 several ocean steamers which were discharging at the floating 

 .locks took up all of the room. Hardly was the anchor down 

 before friends were aboard, who attended to all of the cus- 

 toms formalities, and we walked by the Federal and State cus- 

 toms' men just as if they were non existent, and, embarking 

 upon a launch, were soon ashore. 



The great Rubber Congress was in session, or soon to be, and 

 the Commercial Association paid me the compliment of making 

 me its guest, with the privilege of living at a hotel, or at the 

 house of the local representative of "Casa Alden." I chose the 

 latter, for had I not met him in Boston the year before, and 

 was he not an American with an American wife and a Yankee 

 baby born in Brazil ? 



There was much excitement in the rubber market the day of 

 my arrival. The first of the series of spectacular jumps that 

 carried the precious commodity up to $3 per pound had oc- 

 curred, and then the river had interrupted the cable. Fortunately 

 there was little rubber in to quarrel over, but everybody was on 

 the <jiii live just the same. 



We walked from the substantial quays that form the boat 

 landing, past the imposing custom house, to one of the rubber 

 warehouses, and sat there and chatted and smoked while we 

 cooled ofT, for the day happened to be hot. Then we visited 

 several others in the same line and learned the latest news, 

 which was but a repetition of the story already told. The rub- 

 ber houses in Manaos were almost exact duplicates of those 

 in Para — a huge warehouse on the ground floor for receiving, 

 examining, and boxing ; offices on the floor above, always with 

 a large staff of assistants and clerks. As in Para, rubber was 

 everywhere in evidence. Open wagons loaded with it passed 



continually. One enterprising house had a motor truck that 

 crashed along the pavetrient with just the same awkward energy 

 it would display in New York or London. 



Later we took a carriage and drove to the residence where 

 I was to be quartered; a fine modern house in the residential 

 part of the city, where I received royal entertainment and the 

 home cooking for which my soul had been yearning. 



We might have taken the "bond" instead of a carriage, but 

 the electricity was weak, and the cars were only crawling as they 

 made their rounds. In answer to the reader's unspoken ques- 

 tion, I do not know why the electric street car in Manaos is 

 called a bond, nor does any one with whom I am acquainted. 

 The road was built by Americans — in fact, financed by them — 

 and later sold to the government and for awhile the service 

 was good. Then one noon the engineer and his helpers had 

 their siesta interrupted by the blowing out of a cylinder head on 

 the great engine. Unfortunately no one was hurt, the afore- 

 mentioned public servants escaping. At the time of my arrival 

 new equipment was going in, competent engineers had been 

 engaged, and better service was in sight. 



A FIRST VIEW OF MANAOS. 



After dinner that evening a Renault with a bright yellow body 

 and the muffler wide open drew up in front of the door. It 

 was garrisoned by an expert driver and a friendly young French 

 Brazilian-American interpreter, which car and appendages I 

 learned had been placed at my disposal during my visit. One 

 of the first uses to which I put it was to tour the town. 



The city itself is a counterpart of what a young, rich. North 

 American city would be that had grown up overnight. Not 

 architecturally, of course, for the tropical world evolves a style of 

 its own, and gorgeous colorings come without bidding and are 

 most fitting. The public buildings were beautiful ; particularly the 

 $2,000,000 theater situated on an eminence in the middle of the 

 city, dominating all the rest. Palaces, parks, libraries, hospitals, 

 were very fine. Sandwiched in between them were waste spaces, 

 old fashioned tiled residences, and much that showed the sud- 

 den growth of the city, but all this was being rapidly changed. 

 When one considers that this city is a thousand miles from 

 the seacoast, in the heart of a vast tropical jungle, with wild 



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