THE TROPICAL AQRICULTURIST. 
[October i, 1890. 
guarantee was 7 per cent whioh is all repaid and 
the line gives now an excess of receipts over ex- 
penditure, £400,000 a year. 
Railway oomtnunioation is extended from here by a 
BrazilianiCompany called the Paulista Railway Com- 
pany on the samegauge,dft. 3in, and has no guarantee. 
The English Company had the preference for extending 
some 80 miles farther into the interior — to Rio Claro 
— but in these days, in 1870, the coffee crop was not 
more than a quarter of the present yearly yield, and 
they did not feel their capital would be secure, and 
contented themselves in being the trunk line through 
which all the produce has to pass on its way to the 
sea coast from the interior. The Paulista Company 
opened the hrst section from Sundiahy to Campinas, 
a distance of 28 miles in 1873, and to Rio Claro 55 
miles farther in 1876 and to the river Magy-quassu 
some 40 miles more in 1878. Magyquassu was made 
navigable by clearing out the rocky obstructions 
with dynamite for some 120 miles farther, at the 
expense of the Company, and they put appropriate 
steamers and barges on some three years after- 
wards. The Company has never paid less than 
9 per cent per annum. 
The train stays only the length of time at 
Jundiahy to change engines and take out the luggage 
of passengers going by the Ituana line. Carriages are 
not changed ; the English and the Paulista Com- 
pany are the same gauge, and accommodate each 
other as regards passenger and goods wagons. 
Between Jundiahy and Campinas we see the first 
of the large coffee plantations, and we enter into the 
region of terra rocha. What a falling-ofl is there ! 
In the Seventies these coffee fields by the side of the 
railway used to be loaded with coffee every year, 
and judging then from the healthiness of the trees 
and the strength of the soil one would have thought 
the planter was secure of a large income for a 
long lifetime ; but weeds and wash tell on the 
best soils, and on even the best formed helds, 
and many of these are giving only as much crop 
as pays expenses. All available forest-land had 
been planted up years ago, and no young 
coffee could be seen. 
Campinas was reached in due time and here we 
had to change carriages from the wide gauge of 
the Company Paulista to the narrow of the Moggana. 
There was time for us to take breakfast, but 
there was a crush in procuring seats. The tickets 
were checked at once, and the doors were locked 
and the train did not start for more than half an 
hour. This was annoying as we calculated on 
breakfasting at Campinas ; but fortunately some of 
the sandwich loaf we bought from Rio the day 
before, was still to the fore, which stood us in good 
stead. Campinas still shows signs of having been 
the coffee capital of Sao Paulo, for there are no 
fewer than four large foundries, with machine shops 
attached. These are all new to me, for when I 
was here before, machines were made in Europe 
or the United States, and merely fitted up here. 
Now only steam engines, boilers, and iron water- 
wheels are imported, and what is properly called 
cofiee machinery is made here. The workshops 
are all beside the railway station. In these four 
large establishments and in the repairing and 
erecting shops of the railways there are said to 
bo some five hundred mechanics, comprising fitters, 
boilermakers, coppersmiths, millwrights, moulders, 
carriage builders, and painters, and these see nearly 
all British subjects. Here in Campinas 1 had 
u any friends in "the days of old,” but for reasons 
slated before 1 could not wait for a day to see 
them. The station is on rising ground — above the 
town to the huuIIi of it. The town itself is 
in a lowlying hollow : a sort of birds-eye view 
of it is got from the railway. Here as in ail 
other places, the increase in size and the im- 
provements in buildings are all on the side 
of the railway station. When I knew it be- 
fore the station was surrounded by green fields ; 
the hotels were all down in the hollow where 
all the houses of the planters were, and all the 
places of business. All this is altered ; quite a new 
city has sprung up. Spacious hotels and lofty 
mansions and neat cottages cover a large piece 
of what was waste common. 
Although coffee has well nigh abandoned the 
Campinas district, and the extension of railways has 
sent cultivators of the berry into the interior, where 
soil is much uperior, and available land plentiful, 
still a gitat many of the old wealthy planters 
retain their establishments in Campiras and live 
with their families, alternately on tire fazenda 
and in the town. They used to have their seasons 
of balls and parties, their race meetings, and above 
all their great church feasts, at which as much 
money would be spent in fireworks and tomfoolery, 
as would clothe and educate all the poor in the 
district ; and there was the Carnival when for some 
three days all the youth of the town would turn 
out in masquerade and processions formed of 
emblematical pageants parade the town in fantastical 
dresses, caricaturing. Local and political events 
play all sorts of antics, and cut all sorts of 
practical jokes. Chief amongst the latter would 
be to blow with a tinhorn into the ear of some 
inattentive person or squirt scented water on the 
face or neck of some unsuspecting fair passenger. 
Nor are these fair ladies without their “ bisnagas " 
(as they call them, made of lead whioh they squeeze 
to eject the water) and lemons filled with water 
whioh they apply in return. Then they will have 
their fancy balls in the evening where all classes 
mix in disguise, and dancing, mirth and fun go 
on till early hours of the morning. Easter week 
sends all to town to enjoy Newfoundland cod-fish 
for three days (as the only food allowed) and 
finish up with balls from which the faithful — which 
include nearly all those attending those luxurious 
functions — sally out to meet the midnight processions 
at which the images carried, the prayers read, and 
the sermons preached on the street are intended to 
impress the people with the death, burial, and 
resurrection of our Saviour. 
Christmas week also sends many to town. 1 have 
always thought there was less warmth of demon- 
stration amongst the people of this country than in 
those of Europe at their Christmas festivities.* 
Europeans, especially Germans, do their bast to 
imitate the doings at these Christmas celebrations, 
and by them the priest is not put forward as the 
most important personage. Many other occasions 
send the planter to his town house. 
It is considered fashionable to have a taste for 
music, particularly of the lyrical order, represented 
by Italian opera ; and to secure good companies the 
rich people subscribe large sums which entitles them 
to boxes or stalls for their families during all the 
recitations. Often European operatic companies 
visit Rio de Janeiro, and some of these are induced 
— particularly since railway communication became 
BO general — to visit the towns in the interior, when 
success is secured by a large subscription list. Nor 
must I forget to mention that Campinas is the birth- 
place of a contemporary composer — Carlos Gomes — 
author of some very good operas, whioh have been per- 
formed in Europe. Among these are "Salvador 
Rosa,” “Fosca,” “ the Guaruny,” and “ Lo Sohiava ” 
The slave. Carlos Gomes had early developed 
Tills may bo accounted by thoir having so many fes- 
tivals during the year, and the great yearly feast which takes 
place at dlficrcnt times for each town or district, which 
outvies all other feasts. 
