[CHAPTER XXIII.]
RAILWAYS IN BRAZIL.—COFFEE PLANTATIONS.—MANDIOCA AND ITS CULTURE.—TERRIBLE FAMINES.—SLAVERY AND EMANCIPATION.
There are several railways running out of Rio de Janeiro, of which the longest and probably the most important is the Dom Pedro Segundo, so named in honor of the emperor. The first section of the line was opened in 1857; it was started by a private company, with a government guarantee of seven per cent. interest, but the capital was speedily absorbed, owing to the enormous extent of the outlay beyond the estimates. Instances of this last have happened in other countries than Brazil, and will probably continue to happen until railways are superseded by other modes of travel and transportation. The first hundred miles took all the capital of the company, and then more money was needed. In 1865 the government bought out the stockholders, and since then the railway has been run as an imperial concern, like many of the railways on the continent of Europe.
The present length of the railway is about four hundred miles. The main line is extended every year or two, and branches are built whenever their value as feeders can be demonstrated. The road has been of great benefit to the coffee planters in the region it penetrates; in fact, the line was built for the transportation of coffee, and the people or goods dependent upon it. Nearly every passenger is in some way connected with the coffee interest, and nineteen twentieths of the freight has some relation to it. Take away the coffee business and the road would require government aid to pay the cost of the fuel for its locomotives. At present it returns to the government about five per cent. upon the capital invested in the line, without counting the indirect benefits of the development of the country's industries.
The other railways of Brazil are less profitable than the Pedro II., and some of them would be given up altogether were it not for the aid received from the government. Freight and passenger tariffs are very high, and the limited amount of business renders it impossible to fix low rates. The passenger fares are from four to five cents a mile, first class, and about half these figures for second class, while excursion tickets, limited in time, and not transferable, are sold at twenty-five per cent. discount from the double tariff. Every pound of baggage beyond that carried in the traveller's hand is charged extra, and a fair-sized trunk costs as much as a passenger's ticket. Live-stock may be said to "ride their heads off" if carried by railway in Brazil, and for this reason horses, oxen, cows, and goats are rarely shipped by the trains.
NEGRO HUT NEAR THE RAILWAY.
The freight on a sack of coffee (133 pounds) is about one cent a mile; coffee coming from the end of the Dom Pedro railway must pay four dollars a sack, which is about one third of its value, when delivered in Rio. From Rio to New York the freight rarely exceeds sixty cents a sack, and is often no more than twenty-five. Fifty miles of railway transportation in Brazil costs more than five thousand two hundred miles on the ocean.
A few of the planters send their coffee to market by mule trains, and say it is cheaper than by railway, and there have been several schemes proposed for organizing a system of mule transportation on a large scale, in the hope of making a material saving of money. Of course, the government would not favor such an enterprise; and as it could not be extensively conducted without imperial sanction, the experiment is not likely to be tried.