sit down and smoke and talk as long and no urging them to
work seems to do any good. One can make a living there with half the
work it takes here and that is all they care for.

The Brazilians have some odd customs. People always carry their burdens
on their heads. Baskets as large as barrels are carried in this way
without a bit of trouble. They say that four men will carry a heavy
piano on their heads but I never saw them moving one. On almost every
street there are venders of sweetmeats, vegetables, brooms, baskets and
furniture. I saw one vender with two dozen brooms, a dozen mops, two
chairs, and a lot of other truck on his head. He had the chairs hooked
on the brooms, baskets on the chairs and a lot of other stuff piled up
so that he looked like a moving express wagon.

Streets in Brazilian cities are often named for days or months. I
noticed one of the prominent streets in Rio named "13th of September,"
another "15th of November." Rio de Janeiro means "River of January." I
never saw a chimney in the city, yet the streets and many of the houses
are washed every night. Everything is shining. They seem to have a
wonderful appreciation of beauty and never in any other city in the
world have I seen more beautiful or artistic shop windows.

Everybody seemed to be in a good humor. Policemen are small of stature,
but they direct the street traffic in a most wonderful way. Everybody
smiles and there is no loud talking, or drunkenness. The national drink
is coffee and there are coffee shops with tables and cups everywhere.
Men often drink a cup or two of coffee a dozen times a day. There are
hundreds of coffee shops in Rio. Of course, liquor is sold in many
places, but it is mostly drunk by foreigners. I never saw a Brazilian
drinking liquor in their capital city.

CHAPTER XXI

URUGUAY AND PARAGUAY

Uruguay is the smallest of the South American republics. It is just a
little larger than the state of Oklahoma. It is a little wedge between
Brazil and Argentina and is, all in all, the most advanced country in
South America. At the time of the visit of the writer it was the only
country in South America whose dollar was worth a hundred cents. The
population is about a million and a quarter--eighteen to the square
mile. The principal industry is stock raising. The country has something
like nine million head of cattle and fifteen million head of sheep. The
meat packing business is enormous for such a small countr