the decree for which she signed on July 10, 1888. In this act her
courage and devotion were put to the severest test, yet realizing fully
that her signing the decree would perhaps involve the overthrow of the
empire and certainly lose her much popularity, or, at any rate, much
influential support, she did not falter; nor did she content herself
with a mere concurrence in the legislative course, but issued a
declaration in which she exalted the act and glorified the emancipation.
Her strength of character and her fidelity to her trust rose above all
personal or party considerations. Soon followed, in fact, the quiet
revolution of a few hours and the empire had vanished; a great republic
was installed, and in this crisis Isabel again stood dignified and
lofty, in her farewell manifesto to the Brazilian people proving her
patriotism and voicing her womanly sentiment and unfeigned sorrow.

The political, social, and economic changes effected by emancipation in
Brazil were not attended with violent disturbance as was the case in the
United States. Generally, the act was favorably received, although great
hardship was caused to many individual slave owners. So far as this
measure has affected Brazilian women, the result may safely be assumed
as making for their uplifting. Woman has been stimulated to greater
activity, intellectual, domestic, and social.

Of the emancipated race it can hardly be doubted that they are in better
state. In the large cities where the negroes constitute a large
proportion of the population, as in Bahia, their condition betokens
relative material prosperity and physical content. A most characteristic
picture is presented on a holiday by a Bahian negress, when the occasion
permits of the racial indulgence of lavish display. Her deckings are
dazzling in color and bewildering in variety,--dress ornaments and air
of self-satisfaction offer a moving picture that cannot well be
forgotten. In the many industries of Brazil where manual labor still
holds relatively great preponderance over mechanical, the negroes
furnish a very considerable part of the labor, as also in the work of
the great _haciendas_. What may almost be termed a general industry is
the preparation of manioc or mandioca, the cultivation of which was
considered of such importance in colonial days as to be obligatory. It
is an article of almost universal use in Brazil, and the free negroes of
to-day are no less skilful in cultivating and pr