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40 THE CRISIS

making a most beautiful tropical home. In these homes there is always present an atmosphere of refinement, culture and hospitality. The Brazilian makes you welcome, he endeavors to please and to that end no inconvenience is too great if it will serve the traveler to have pleasant reminiscences of Brazil and her people.

The lower city on the other hand reeks in filth and disease. There seems to be no thought given to sanitary measures. On all sides is seen refuse piled in heaps, in all stages of decomposition and fumes permeate the air with many foul odors. Other contrasts in the city are everywhere apparent: some of the fairest and loveliest people one would wish to look upon, and also some of the most ungainly and ugly. Here are the fabulously rich and the miserably poor. Intelligence and ignorance, refinement and vulgarity are present, for Brazil is a country where aristocracy of wealth is all powerful and predominant.

Although the thermometer registered one hundred degrees in the shade the lower town presented a scene of great commercial activity. It is the commercial center of Bahia. Hundreds of natives were busily engaged in loading and discharging cargoes of dozens of ships at their moorings. Rambling mule-drawn carts full of sugar-cane formed a continual procession. 

Bahia is one of the largest exporting cities of Brazil. Its chief exports are hides, sugar, tobacco, cotton and diamonds. Although the output of diamonds from Kimberley mines in South Africa is greater, the largest, most brilliant and valuable stones come from the state of Bahia. They are mined principally by Negroes.

How polite these people are! In answer to your questions it is always Si Senor or No Senor with a suavity and polish which seem to be inbred. Their thanks for your purchases are effusive and appreciative. This is a characteristic trait of the Brazilian!He is polite. No matter how illiterate or ignorant he may be he has time to be polite. A more courteous, quiet and well behaved people could hardly be found. 

It is in Bahia that one first gets a glimpse of racial mixture which is in process of evolution. the Indian element is predominant in most of the South American Republics, least so, however, in the Argentine Republic. The Negro element is greatest in Brazil. From Panama to the Argentine and from the Atlantic to the Pacific there is no color prejudice. It is well to remember that the Brazilian is composite of three races, viz., Portuguese, Negro and Indian. The early Portuguese settlers, not bringing wives with them, readily intermingles with the natives; and thus sprang into existence a large and increasing population of Mestizos. Africans were later brought over as slaves and with them unions resulted with the Portuguese and Indians and thus another element was added to the population as any country in the world. The mixture is so general and diffused that color ostracism does not exist. In fact, it cannot exist. 

Some of the finest people are these colored Brazilians. They are fully acquainted with the infamous conditions in the United States. They know of the lynchings, "Jim Crow" legislation and the wanton disrespect for law and order that are so prevalent here in the States. These forms of injustice a Brazilian will readily tell you he cannot conceive of existing in his country. Never in Brazil will American prejudices, hatreds, and the doctrine of inferiority of races become implanted!

First, the Brazilian is a Brazilian. It chafes him to be taken for a Spaniard of a member of some other race. Whether the be black or white, in answer to your question he will courteously reply: "I am a Brazilian!" No matter what color he may be there is no other designation. From his emphasis and tone you could judge that he was rightly proud of his country. How could a man be otherwise when the government under which he lives gives him every opportunity, encouragement, and assistance to achievement and recognizes him as a man possessing the same feelings, aspirations and ambitions as another?

The approach to Rio Janeiro on a clear day presents a panorama which 



GLIMPSES OF BRAZIL

for picturesque beauty cannot be duplicated the world over. The majestic "Sugar Loaf" is a solid bare rock jutting from the sea a thousand feet into the air. The beautiful villas dotting the shore, the surrounding mountains and the waving palms lend their charm and beauty to adorn this, the wonder city. The bay is set with numerous islands blossoming in tropical verdure, like rare gems set in background of torquoise. Steaming into the bay one passes several forts equipped with the latest guns and manned by Negroes. With the aid of binoculars dozens of them can be seen in their bright uniforms, promenading the parapets. 

The founding of Rio dates back from the middle of the sixteenth century. Today it has a population of 1,100,00 composed principally of Portuguese, Negroes, Indians and their varying degrees of mixtures. It is impossible to single out any one predominating type, such is the heterogeneity of the population. What a kaleidoscope of white, black, brown, yellow and dozens of variations. In Pernambuco and Bahia nearly every one is black but going south toward the temperate zone they become fewer in numerous in Rio but the majority of the people have at least a tinge of Negro blood coursing through their veins. Even in the upper classes this same blood is there, many of them appearing like mulattoes, quadroons and octoroons. The specious argument that such racial intermixtures bring into existence a hybrid both mentally and physically inferior to either of the parent stock has no foundation here. There are no signs of this deterioration anywhere in Brazil. 

Of all the countries in South America Brazil is the one best disposed towards the United States. Although the sentiment is not pro-American it is not strictly anti-American. Their attitude is one more of indifference. In the other countries, and especially in Argentine the sentiment is strongly anti-American. The Yankee, or gringo, as he is reproachfully called, is not at all liked or welcomed. 

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[[caption]] BRAZILIAN SAILORS ON THE WHARF, RIO JANEIRO [[/caption]]

For the ambitious and intelligent colored man, in quest of fairer fields for expansion and growth, for an atmosphere not tainted or permeated by the endless varieties and forms of race prejudice to be found int he United States, it might be well to turn his attention in the direction of Brazil. For the man without capital, the inducements are not alluring. Far from it. But if he has capital, or if a professional man or woman seeks an unrestricted and welcome environment, Brazil offers many inducements. Doctors, dentists, lawyers, teachers and professional men in any line do well. Living is high but high fees are paid for services. The warm sentiment of the people for those educated in our schools is exemplified in their support of such men. The colored American doctor, trained and educated as he is in modern therapeutics and