XfCO CHmsTOBAi Hidalgo LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. Chap.E/S.af Copyright No... UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. E Wy^4 M (e XjT/fc O V&3M, '•■lorfoafl T'»««fai) """MtoVJJl © a»;"5 ChillcotO /' I v^ ^atk!^ VI.- ^I>\ ''^"> S.OregA "Solcdad 1 . "^ r^ , jEnraroiida A „, I ^ta-Rosa de Miuquli j LCttbonillo^ "'n' V,\ .J' /T r«»» ?"**53«/^J|^^W^ £S"N rosssS VG .oi N^ N^ MEXICO. SUPPLEMENTARY TO THE NEW GUIDE TO MEXICO, PUBUSHED BY THE WHITAKER & RAY COIVIPANY, San Francisco, SCALE OF STATUTE MILES. J, ,_ „ \ M't^c\ L i,' .,.JV_ \° oCiin,. J^^s^TV". ,3--v^ ( ^?Vl' a u\L^ £' M E X I C o Capitol of CouQlry: @> Caiiituls of States: © L I GUIDE TO MEXICO CHRISTOBAL HIDALGO. Not in the interest of Railway nor Land Company nor private party. The only ^* Guide" that gives correct and reliable in- formation about all sections of Mexico, and how to go there and secure desirable homes or good situations. save Americans who visit Mexico for business or pleasure much money, valuable time and pettv annovance. Published for the Author BV THE WHITAKER & RAY COMPANY [incorporated] San Francisco, Cal. I Q o o TWO COPIES RECEIVED, Library of Gotsgr&S9i Of«ce of the Keglster ef Copyrights 56908 Copyright, 1900y by . The Whitaker 37 Cocoanuts 38 Other Fruits 3a Coffee 38 Vanilla . 39' Chocolate , 40 Eubber 4a (5) 6 CONTi^:NTS. AVoods 42 Fibres 42 Cattle Industry 42 Hog Breeding 44 The Dairy 45 Poultry and Eggs 45 Fish / "" 46 Coast Advantages 46 Farm Stock . / " 47 Clearing Land 47 Furniture 47 Common Labor r •. . 50 Stenography 50 Bookkeepers" 52 Minor Positions 53 How to Get Positions 54 Business Enterprises bb Manufacturing Industries 60 Important Cities (i'i Chihuahua 62 Santa Rosalia 63 Jimenez 63 Escalon 63 Lerdo 64 Zacatecas 64 Aguas Calientes 65 San Luis Potosi ^6 Tampico ^'^'^ Lagos <>'^ Leon ^y Silao • • «*J Guanajuato • • "^^^ Irapuato ^'^ Guadalajara ^^ CONTENTS. 7 Salamanca 72 Celaya 73 Qiieretaro 73 Tula 73 Pacbuca 74 City of Mexico 76 Mexican National Railway 76 Monterey 77 Toluca .' 77 International Railway 77 The Monterey & Mexican Gulf Railway. .... 78 The Mexican, C^iernavaca & Pacific Railway. . 78 The Hidalgo & Northeastern Railway 79 The Mexican Southern Railway 79 The National Isthmus of Tehuantepec Rail- way 79 Mexican Railway 80 Yera Cruz . . /. 80 (^ordoba 82 Orizaba . 82 Mai Trata 84 Apazaco 84 Puebla 84 Interoceanic Railway 84 Jalapa 84 Alverado Railway 85 Prontera 86 How to go 87 Silver 90 Christmas in Mexico 96 The Bull Fight 102 The Theatre 100 The Shrine of Guadalupe 108 Ancient Wonders 11" LIST OF ILLUSTEATIO^S Pyramid of the Moon and Pulque Eaneh — San Juan Teotihuacan 2 Eanch Life — San Nicholas, Vera Cruz 11 Washing in San Juan Eiver ID Vineyard — Parras, Nuevo Leon 27 Orange Grove — Guadalajara, Jalisco 35 Eubber Eanch — Acayucan, Vera Cruz 43 Lemon Grove — Coatepec, Vera Cruz 51 Quinine, Chocolate, Vanilla Trees — Tuxpan, Vera Cruz 59 "War Dance of the Xative Indians 67 Alameda, Mexico City 75 Coffee Eanch — Orizaba Valley 85 Year-Old Banana — Frontera, Tabasco .... 99 Date Palm Grove — Carmen, Tabasco 99 Pyramid of the Sun — San Juan Teotihuacan, Mexico 115 (8) MEXICO. MEXICO is the only country in the world that can offer settlers cheap homes in rich sections, without frost, with health equal to the average health of the United States. The coffee and fruit belt of the State of Vera Cruz is the most desirable for those who wish to till the soil, for the reason that coffee and all the fruits of the tropics grow to perfection, while most of the products of colder countries also grow side by side with what cannot be produced in any part of the United States. Parts of the States of Tabasco, Oaxaca, and Moreles, adjacent to the State of Vera Cruz, also are desirable, though, with the exception of Tabasco, more remote from water transportation than the State of Vera Cruz. The Gulf of Mexico is the great cheap-freight route for the products of Mexico to the United States. Peaches, apples, pears, grapes and wheat do not thrive with coffee, but they Degin to appear in sight of where coffee stops. Tobacco, equal to that of Cuba, grows with coffee, and corn, not much surpassed in Illinois, grows anywhere in the coffee belt, or on the coast, where the country is (9) 10 GUIDE TO MEXICO. too low for coffee. Sugar grows wherever tliere is coffee^ and even better in the low country. Po- tatoes, tomatoes, and other vegetables, common in Florida, or California, grow anywhere. Bananas grow wherever there is coffee, and yet better in the low country, while pineapples grow nicely up to the center of the coffee belt, and to perfection in the low country. No country surpasses all the coffee belt and the coast for oranges, while the possibilities of lemons are not less than other countries that are not exempt from' frost, while cocoanuts abound on the coast, and mangoes, alli- gator pears, and other delicate fruits of the tropics are on the coast and up to the center of the coffee belt. Lower than one thousand feet above sea level, and more than five thousand feet above sea level, is not suited to coffee growing. A little more than one hundred miles from the port of Vera Cruz, the inhabited country rises more than eight thousand feet above the sea level, and the uninhabited to more than seventeen thou- sand feet, where eternal snow crowns the moun- tain above twelve thousand feet. Forty miles from the snow line is the cream of the coffee belt. The City of Mexico is nearly eight thousand feet high; and corn, wheat, barley, peaches, apples, grapes, pears aiul strawljerries grow in many sec- tions of altitude between six thousand and eight thousand feet. The high country is not exempt from frost, though fresh strawberries are in the market of tlie City of Mexico every day in the year. p p o <1 c 13 GUIDE TO MEXICO. Cattle, sheep, goats and hogs ahound in nearly all the high country, though long droughts render that part of ^lexico unsafe for small farmers from the United States. It is also the pulque country, where the national drink of Mexico grows in the juice of a plant, a very profitable industry, though some seven years are required to make it produc- tive. The State of Jalisco, of which Guadalajara, the prettiest Spanish-American city on the continent,, is the capital, is a good liealthy country. But there is not that diversity of crops that makes the Vera Cruz belt the garden spot of the Eepublic, although oranges and sugar do well, and other fruits abound low down on the Pacific side, while no part of the country boasts finer cattle. It is not a coffee country and has no transportation,, except all rail, without competition. Guadalajara has more. than one hundred thou- sand inhabitants, and is a manufacturing city of considerable promise, with room for enterprise. The other sections of Mexico are not specially promising to people who want to grow crops or raise cattle, as their products will not bear ship- ment to the Ignited States on a large scale, and farming for home consumption is not a very prof- itable business. Tampico has back country that is productive,, but not exempt from frost. The mining, manufacturing and commercial cities will be noted in connection with business, positions and skilled labor. The coast country of Vera Cruz and adjacent GUIDE TO MEXICO. 13 States is the natural field for rubber production, that is, practically unlimited, while there is no better cattle section anywhere, as pasture never fails. The poultry business has great possibili- ties, as Vera Cruz is a good market for fresh chickens and eggs, always at paying prices. The city of Vera Cruz is the only important point not usually free from yellow fever, and it has not been epidemic there in two years. Yel- low fever never visits the farming districts, though trade with Vera Cruz is not interrupted when there is an epidemic there, for the reason that the natives of Vera Cruz never have it, and there is no danger of it going inland, except to Cordoba, which has an epidemic about once in ten years. Vera Cruz would never have an epidemic if always clean, and the disposition to keep her clean is growing. Trains and steamers run in- land every day when there is an epidemic in Vera Cruz, the same as when there is no fever there, for the reason the people in the country know they are safe from contagion. The other maladies of Mexico are identically the same as are common everywhere in the United States, and no more serious. The question of homes in Mexico, whether for families or single persons, is an interesting and a very important one, little understood, and not duly appreciated in the United States, for the rea- son that the information within the reach of the public is mostly incorrect and misleading, being from interested land and railroad companies, seek- ing to induce settlers and travelers their way. 14 GUIDE TO MEXICO. There are land companies that describe their own property correctly, and railways that do not mis- represent the scenery along their own lines, hnt that conceal what may be more desirable to Amer- icans elsewhere. This is natural. For these reasons this effort to give correct and impartial facts, entirely independent of land dealers and railroad people, is made in the inter- est of those who may wish to visit Mexico, seek- ing homes, business or pleasure, so they may avoid the mistakes, delays and needless expenses to which Americans are almost always subjected on their first visits to Mexico. For this reason this information cannot be given free, as are the adver- tisements of interested land and railroad people. I'he small price charged covers actual labor and expenses. The first step that should be taken by all who contemplate a visit to Mexico, no matter for what purpose, is to learn enough of the Spanish lan- guage to get along without an interpreter. This is an easy, and should be a pleasant, task. Get a De Torno's method of teaching Spanish to an English speaking person. There are other good books, but De Torno's is the simplest and best for a person who cannot have a teacher. If your bookstore has none the book may be ordered from D. Appleton & Co., Xo. 3 Bond Street, New York, the ])ul)lisliers. Tlie price is two dollars for the book, with Spanish key to the English exercises. But in buying or ordering l)e sure to get a l)ook to teach an American S])anisli, not a Spaniard Ku- glish, as this last would not teach you the pronun- GUIDE ro MEXICO. 15 elation of Spanish. Learn first the sound of the Spanish letters. This is easy, as a letter has hut ■ one sound. Then learn the Spanish of the first lesson, which is opposite to the English, so you know it perfectly. Then proceed from lesson to lesson, the same way, never passing a lesson un - learned. Be careful to learn and remember the tenses of the verbs, and especially the tenses of the irregular verbs that are irregular, and the genders of the nouns. Moderate application should make any one of ordinary capacity master of the book in three months, so every word and feature mil become natural as breathing. Thus qualified, it will be easy to get along with Spanish-speaking people, and every day of practice with them will make one more a]id more proficient. It would keep a hundred good gold dollars in the pocket of any tourist and give him a thousand dollars more pleasure and satisfaction than is possible with the best interpreter, and double the gain of a settler, a man of business or a person depending on a salaried position. Some knowledge of the language is half the battle and compensates for the want of capital to a great extent. It is folly to go there entirely ignorant of Spanish to engage in business or seek employment. Those who wish to become bookkeepers, sales- men or stenographers should learn the Spanish with some assistance of a teacher and an Ens^lish and a Spanish dictionary, in order to learn more words than the text-book contains. 16 aVIDE TO MEXICO. Spanish may be learned without interfering with the regular duties of daily life, on the way to and from work, at night and in the early morn- ing. Ten new or difficult words may be learned daily by writing them on a card and keeping them in sight when at work. In one day they will be- come familar. Thus, in a few months, a full stock of words- will be garnered in. the storehouse of memory, ready for future use. The farmer who knows a little Spanish can make twice the headway with his work and the country people as he can if he knows none. The natives are very kind and gladly help one along in the use of the language, if one is social and disposed to make the best of his new situa- tion. The next step, after learning the rudiments of the language, is to decide what one intends to do and select a held in which to labor, and the most desirable route to reach it. A man of family should go alone and prepare his home before he moves his family. This is cheaper, safer and better than having a family in a strange land without a home. Farmers might select one among them to go and find a desirable location for a settlement, and thus save much expense. Persons wishing to engagein commerce or man- ufacturing should go in person and select a field for their operations. Clerks, bookkeepers and stenographers may se- cure work by advertising in Mexico and by cor- respondence before going, so as to have work ready GUIDE TO MEXICO. 17 on arrival. How to do this will be explained in due time and place. As people going to a foreign country will natu- rally wish to know something of its government and institutions, it may be well to dispose of these features at once. POLITICAL ORGANIZATION. Mexico is a Republic of twenty-seven States, two Territories and the Federal District, which is the Capitol and the City of Mexico, the same as the District of Columbia, and Washington City are the Capitol of the United States. The Constitu- tion of the country is modelled after that of the United States. The President is elected for four years, and has a Cabinet very similar to that of the United States. The Congress and Senate are elected, a Con- gressman for every 40,000 inhabitants and frac- tion between 20,000 and 40,000, for two years, and two Senators for each State and two for the Fed- eral District, for four years, all by popular vote. The Courts are much the same as those of the United States, the Judges of which are appointed by the Ministers of Justice and Education. The States elect their Governors and Legisla- tors and are equally as independent of the Fed- eral Government as those of the United States. Mexico — 2 18 GUIDE TO MEXICO. AREA. There are 770,000 square miles, with 6,000 miles of coast, 1,700 on the Gulf and 4,300 on the Pacific Ocean, while the country is 2,000 miles long and from 140 to 750 miles wide. The Gulf ports of entry for foreign commerce are: Vera Cruz, Tampico, Frontera, Progreso, Coatzacoalcos, Campeche, Tuxpan, Carmen, An- ton Lizardo and Matamoras; and those on the Pa- cific: Mazatlan, Manzanillo, Guaymas, San Bias, La Paz, Puerto Augel, Acapulco, Salina Cruz, Tonala, Ensenada, and Soconusco or San Benito. POPULATION. There are about fourteen million people in Mexico, of which some nine and a half million are of the laboring classes, including Lidians, and there are some three hundred thousand foreign- ers, representing nearly all nations, in. the indus- tries of mining, manufacturing, trading and agri- culture. PROPERTY. The titles and riglijts to property are good a& anywhere, and one is protected in same by law as much as in the United States. Tlie wealth of the country is increasing very rapidly, so that land and houses will be worth very nuuli more a few years hence than they are now^ in 1898. g^,4'«:j?| X/1 P 20 GUIDE TO MEXICO. TAXATION. The State tax on lands and houses vary from .75 to 1.50 per year on the $1,000 of assessed value, which is always moderate. Federal taxes are in the forms of duty on im- ported goods and stamp on all business documents, and amount in all to some fifty million dollars per annum. There is little likelihood that taxes will ever be higher and a strong probability they may be lower than thev are now. INDUSTRIES. There are some one hundred and fifty cotton and woolen factories, with capital of some twenty- five million dollars invested, supporting, in the production of material, in the field, and by labor in the mills, some sixty-five thousand families. The annual production of the factories equal the amount of capital invested. There are some dozen paper mills, several glass factories, quite a number of breweries, some fruit preserving establishments, iron, brass and nail foundries, cotton seed, castor oil mills and soap factories, all doing well, with yet more room for skill and capital in any of them. The government is very liberal to all who wish to establish industries to develop the resources of the country. GUIDE TO MEXICO. 21 RAILWAYS. There are nearly nine thousand miles of rail- ways in the Eepiiblie, and the mileage is rapidly increasing. They have all been built in the last twenty years, by more than a hundred million dol- lars' aid from the Mexicon Government. It has all been practically the inspiring work of one man - — President Diaz — without whose cold judgment and ,2:uiding hand of destiny the country might yet be the bloody scene of revolution. TELEGRAPHS. The railroad companies have their own wires and do public business, while the Mexican Govern- ment has some thirty thousand miles of wire, reaching the most remote sections of the Republic and the United States and extending service by cable to all parts of the civilized world. POSTAL SERVICE. ^ Is about the same and equal to that of the United States, with some sixteen hundred offices in the country, and is in the Postal Union. There are carriers and free delivery in all cities that have population to entitle them to have that system. Letter postage is five cents per half ounce and the second class is two cents for sixteen ounces or fractional part thereof, to all parts of the Republic and foreign countries in the Postal Union. 22: GUIDE TO MEXICO. Local postage carries a letter from the United States to any part of Mexico. Many people do not kiiow tills fact and waste stamps when writ- ing to Mexico. THE METEIC SYSTEM of, weights and measures has been adopted by law, -which makes a uniform standard the first, time in the history of the country. Before this there was much confusion from different methods in vogue. EDUCATION. There are some eleven thousand public primary schools in the Eepublic, with some seven hundred tiiousand average attendance. Primary education is compulsory. There are also many church and private primary schools which have a respectable patronage. Most of the national schools have classes ior teaching arts and trades. There are also colleges, military, -medical, musical, profes- sional, of high grades. There are some seventy-five public libraries in the Eepublic, the National one alone, in the Gity of ]Mexico, containing some two hundred and sev- enty thousand volumes. The government spends more than five million dollars a year in education. There are more than three hundred and sixty periodicals published in the country, some of which are daily ne\vspa])ers in English, while there are spme in Erench and German. There is complete religious liberty, the same as all creeds enjoy in the United States. GUIDE TO MEXICO. 23 Any person may reside and travel at pleasure anywhere in the Eepublic without passport or other document, whose conduct is respectable and law-abiding. Law and justice are equal to all classes^ and life and property are more safe and secure than in New York or Chicago. CLIMATE. Almost enough has been said on this subject, as the climate of Mexico is difficult to define or understand. The coast country and up to an elevation of some 3,000 feet is known as the "Hot Country/^ although the average temperature the year round is no more than 75° to 82° Fahrenheit, no more than Florida would have, were she equally exemf t from frost. What is called the temperate zone, from three thousand to eight thousand feet eleva- tion, often has hard frost at the top, while the temperature is 75° at the bottom and 50° at the center, but the average annual temperature is 60° to 70° over the zone. The third zone, from eight thousand, feet to the eternal snow line, is scarcely worth the time and space required for discussion. There is not much industry nor production above nine thousand feet. At eight thousand feet and higher the sun may glow with as much force as at three thousand feet, but the night is sure to be chilly, sometimes frosty. The air is bracing and healthy in the high zoile, 24 GUIDE TO MEXICO. and warm and moist in the coast zone, though very salubrious as a rule. The near proximity of vast sheets of water and constant sea breezes modify the heat of the "Hot Country" to a degree till the heat is not near as oppressive in the shade as it is in the United States in hot summer weather, while the nights are almost uniformly cool and refreshing. Sunstroke is unknown. Water is good and abundant everywhere. RESOURCES OF AGRICULTUJRE. As already stated, no other country in the world can rival Mexico as a practical and profitable field of agriculture, for the reason the crops of her frost zone are ripe when the frost comes, and the lower zones are absolutely exempt from frost. The pro- ducts of the world, without one exception, have their native soil and climate in abundance and to spare in Mexico. Land and labor are cheap, hence a hundred dol- lars gold invested in farming in Mexico will yield more profit than a thousand dollars in the United States, with about one twenty-fifth part of taxes required in the United States. Land that costs anywhere from twenty-five dol- lars to one hundred and twenty-five dollars per acre, in productive sections of the United States, can be bought from four dollars to ten dollars gold, per acre in the coffee and fruit zones of Mex- ico. On this expensive soil of the United States, corn, oats, wheat, potatoes, and some other vege- tables grow, never exempt from frost, often with GUIDE TO MEXICO. 25 little or no profit, above the cost of production and marketing. If there is a little profit fuel and stock feed, and idleness in winter, eat most of it up. The same crops, wheat and oats alone ex- cepted, grow with much less labor on the clieap Mexican land, while coffee, sugar, and many trop- ical fruits, grow with them, in the coffee belt, and all, except coffee, in the low belt, with many other products that do not grow with coffee. The present low price of coffee has wiped out most of the fancy profits of recent years in that industry. But vanilla still produces more than thirty dollars per acre, while chocolate reaches two hundred dollars. Eubber will produce more than three hundred dollars per acre, but six years are required to grow the tree, which is good for a lifetime after it once\ becomes productive. Price of crude rubber has more than doubled in ten years. Many other crops will produce as much, value on an acre as a small farm of corn or wheat in the United States. Food products can be grown for home consumption while cultivating the money crops, without extra cost. Good native labor costs an average of fifty cents Mexican money a day, but sixty-two and one-half cents per day gets nearly fifty per cent more labor and secures the best hands. The same labor would cost one dollar a day in the United States. The labor in Mexico in gold, at the last price named there, would cost seventy cents a day less than in the United States. The one hundred dollars gold, to be invested in Mexico against one thousand dollars in the United 26 GUIDE TO MEXICO. States, is worth two hundred and ten dollars in the silver currency of the country, which buys more labor or native food than the same amount in gold will buy in the United States. The money crops, for export, are sold for gold value, which produces a big sum when converted into silver. Gold has no other use in Mexico, and is never seen in circulation. Two crops of corn, beans, and many vegetables can be grown in a year in the coast country, and two years' work can be done in one year, as there is no winter nor other weather to stop farm labor a dozen days in the year; and stock require no food in winter more than they need in the United States in summer. COEK Corn is a native of Mexico, or was cultivated by the Indians there a thousand years before the dis- €Overv of the new world by Columbus. It is the greatest crop in the country, as it grows every- where, and is the bread of the poor. It yields as much as seventy-five bushels per acre under im- perfect Mexican culture, on irrigated land, and as much as forty bushels from natural moisture. It is planted on the coast in May and November, for the two annual crops. WHEAT. Mexican wheat took the first prize against the world at the Centennial Exposition in Philadel- p p p o O P 1 28 GUIDE TO MEXICO, phia, in 1876. It yields as much as eighty bushels per acre, under crude system of Mexican culti- vation, on irrigated land, and as much as twenty- five bushels with natural moisture. One bushel is worth more than twice as much in Mexico as in the United States. The crop is by no means cer- tain without irrigation. The production could be greatly increased by more extensive irrigation, but when in excess of native consumption the price for export would not justify the cost. For these reasons it would be folly to go to Mexico to grow wheat on a small scale, as irrigated lands are not for sale cheap in small lots, and wheat lands without irrigation would not be prof- itable. BAELEY. The production of barley is increasing since breweries started to work, though it grows under the same conditions as wheat, and is not a crop to tempt small American farmers. The straw is sold for hay at double the price of wheat straw. OATS. Oats grow in the same districts as wheat and barley, and under similar conditions, with favor- able results. EICE. The Aztecs used rice for a food before the Span- iards disturbed the languid tranquility of the country. It has received less attention than al- GUIDE TO MEXICO. 29 most any other article, . though it yields abund- antly in the low coast country, and would pay a net profit of some two hundred per cent. Every body eats rice in Mexico. VEGETABLES. Nearly all the garden vegetables of the United States and Europe grow well all over Mexico, except the Irish potato, which does not do well in the very low, moist country, though water melons do as well in some parts of the coast of Vera Cruz as in Georgia, and musk melons better than any- where in the United States. TOBACCO. The Aztecs smoked through amber tubes long before the Spaniards ever saw Mexico. Tobacco is a native of the country. The State of Vera Cruz grows a very fine, mild leaf, equal to the best produced in Cuba, while a belt of some bordering States claims the same superior stock. The States of Chiapas, Campeche, Yucatan, Guerrero, Michoacan, Jalisco, Colima, Sinaloa, Hidalgo, and the southern part of Tamaulipas, also grow tobacco, somewhat heavier and stronger than that of the Vera Cruz belt, but desirable working stock, that makes very popular goods for smokers. Thus it will be "seen that half the States are tobacco growers, and the land suitable for this in- 30 GUIDE TO MEXICO. diistry is nnlimited, as it will remain for many generations. The best tobacco lands in Cuba and Manila are nearly exhausted, so that Mexico is rapidly becoming the fine tobacco field of the world. The crop is surer in the coast and coffee belts of the Vera Cruz country than elsewhere, for the reason that there are almost always seasonable rains, when it is dry in other districts. The price of tobacco advanced as heavily as coffee declined during 1897. The cultivation was very profitable at prices of 1896, more than two hundred per cent, when the price was twenty-five cents to forty-five cents per pound. Prices are twice to three times as much now, though too high to remain, when the production approaches what consumers require, yet the profit will always be large. The yield is two thousand five hundred to four thousand pounds per acre. At a clear profit of fifty cents a pound, which the crop of 1897 is giv- ing, the average result is fifteen hundred dollars clear gain per acre. The profit will not likely run under five hundred dollars per acre in this age, and there is not much probability that the pres- ent high prices will decline much in the next few years. Hence, a few acres in tobacco will yiehl a sure fortune, at less cost and risk than gold seeking in Alaska. SUGAE. The coast country and coffee belt is the best sugar territory in the world, producing from GUIDE TO MEXICO. 31 fifty per cent to one hundred per cent more to the acre than Cuba or Brazil, running as high as six thousand pounds of dry sugar to the acre. The molasses and other waste go into rum, which pays the expenses of the plantation. Cane will grow on ten times more land than will ever be planted. There are some plantations that make two or three million pounds sugar annually. One planting is sufficient for six to fifteen years, according to the land and locality. Little more than enough for home consump- tion is now produced, but some experiments of exporting in 1897 were very satisfactory. The sugar is very sweet, nearly double the strength of beet sugar. Small farmers may make common brown sugar,, for home use, by a process about as simple and cheap as that of making sorghum molasses in the United States. COTTOK. Mexico is the home of cotton. The Spaniards found it and its products there. There is one species that grows and produces for many years, becoming a tree from one planting, while the other is the same as that grown in the United States, and planted every year. The latter has the best fibre. Cotton grows and produces well in the coast country, and is cultivated to some extent in the States of Nuevo Leon, Durango, Chihuahua, Oaxaca and Coahuila, where there is plenty of land suitable for this industry. 32 OUIDE TO MEXICO. There is nowhere near enough produced for Tiome consumption, though the profit is three times as much as in the United States; and there is a market for millions of pounds of cotton seed oil, annually imported from the United States. FRUITS. A greater variety and quantity of fruits of a high commercial value might be grown in Mexico than in any other country in the world. Central and northern Mexico might outrival California in the production of apples, pears, peaches, apricots, plums, cherries, olives, grapes, and all the berries, as there are some grown of ex- ceptional fine quality under crude methods of na- tive cultivation. ORANGES. Mexico could produce more oranges than California and Florida combined, and of better quality, with the same high grade of cultivation bestowed on this fruit in those States, much <}heaper, as no fertilizers are needed in Mexico, where no damage from frost ever occurs. Florida is practically ruined by cold waves. California has lost a heavy per cent of three crops in five from the same cause; and it is merely a question of some years when her trees will meet the same fate those of Florida suffered. Then Mexico will be the orange belt of the continent. Mexican oranges have never been cultivated. The trees are all seedlings, mostly volunteers, GUIDE TO MEXICO. 33 growing where they came up, without pruning or attention; yet the fruit is sweet and juicy, equal to the best Florida and better than California. Some hundreds of carloads of Mexican oranges have been shipped to the markets of the United States from each crop of the past three or four years, and found much favor with dealers and con- sumers, the drawbacks stated above, and imper- fect or bad methods of transportation notwith- standing. When the orange in Mexico is once budded with the best varieties and cultivated, the same as it is treated in Florida and California, and the trans- portation becomes as good as it is in the United States, the industry will be established to stay, not only in Mexico but in the markets of the United States. There are Floridians and Californians in Mexico, putting out big groves, so that it is a question of but few years when all the trees now in Mexico will be budded and cultivated, and mil- lions of new ones planted. Then Mexico will be the orange country of the world. High duty will not keep her fine, sweet fruit out of the United States. The coast zone and coffee belt of the Vera Cruz district has ten times more good orange land than the entire State of Florida ever had, with bearing trees in every community sufficient to produce five hundred carloads; though not much more than a hundred cars have ever been shipped to the United States in one season. The possibil- itv of cheap, quick water transportation from the Mexican Gulf ports to New Orleans and Mobile, Mexico— 3 34 GUIDE TO MEXICO. and thence by fast fruit express trains, now in vogue for banana service, to Western and Cana- dian markets, renders the Vera Cruz belt the most promising orange section of Mexico. The States of Jalisco and Sonora are now far ■in the lead of all other sections of Mexico in the production and shipment of oranges; but their geographical positions preclude them from the possibility of cheap water freight, that is a cer- tainty from the Gulf ports of Vera Cruz and Ta- basco, when there is business to support fast steamers. As Americans are going by hundreds into that district there will soon be business to justify the steamers to run direct and under high speed. There are now two lines of coasting steamers between Mexican Gulf ports and New Orleans and Mobile, ready to put on fast, direct service as soon as needed. Oranges can be produced in Mexico at half the cost in Florida and California, with no crops lost as the result of frost. LEMONS AND LIMES. Lemons and limes grow wild in all the orange belt of Mexico and have never been cultivated, but as fine fruit can be grown there as any in the world, and very cheaply. BAXAXAS. Bananas grow wherever there is coffee, and any- where below the coffee zone. The low coast coun- o p o o o p *<) o p p ■^^'■•^^y ^S^^^- '^■- 44 GUIDE TO MEXICO. right sections, where pasture is good and water is abundant all the year, it is nearly all profit, after the start. The coast and coffee belts of Vera Cruz district, and the State of Jalisco, are probably the best fields for men of moderate means. A new era is dawning for the cattle industry of Mexico, as the Government is arranging a fran- chise to a big American company, whose business will be to facilitate the improvement and breed- ing of cattle, and the canning and preparation of carcasses for export to Europe — that is, dressed beef fresh in whole carcasses, as well as canned. The consumption is constantly increasing in Mex- ico, while the export trade goes on to the United States, in the face of high duty, and to Cuba, as it must continue a long time, even after the war is over, as the stock of cattle in Cuba will be ex- hausted. All these things will stimulate the cattle busi- ness of Mexico, and render it more profitable. It will cost about the same to raise an ox that weighs fifteen hundred as one that weighs no more than six hundred pounds, when breeds are once improved. There is no probability that there will ever be a surplus sufficient to lower prices. HOG BREEDING. There is more promise in the pork business than almost any other in Mexico, as the supply never equals the demand, and prices are always high. As a special business, on a large scale, or by the small farmer, in connection with other crops. GUIDE TO MEXICO. 45 there is money in the hog. Lard pays more than meat, and native brings much more money than imported. The parts of the hog that cannot be turned into lard is used as fresh pork. Very little bacon is made in Mexico, and not much used by the natives. Hams are used more than other smoked parts of the hog. . Bananas could be utilized for raising and fat- tening hogs, as no other food is better, and none can be produced as cheaply as that in the coffee belt, where bananas are grown to shade coffee, and have no value, as they are not suitable to export. THE DAIRY. There are great inducements in the dairy in- dustry, as nearly all the cheese and butter used are imported. What little produced is the business of foreigners, chiefly from imported cows. Con- sumers pay forty cents to seventy-five cents per nound for cheese, and fifty cents to one dollar for fresh butter, with no supply to equal the demand. As a matter of course, this industry would have to be in reach of a city. Dairy and hog industries would work well to- gether. POULTRY AND EGGS. The poultry- and egg industry will pay twice as much anywhere in Mexico as it pays in the LTnited States. The crude methods of the natives, on small scales, is the way the business is done. 46 GUIDE TO MEXICO. FISH. The Gulf coast and the rivers that empty into the Gulf swarm with fine salt w^ater fish, but few of which have any market value, for want of near- by consumers and suitable transportation to carry them to the inland cities. Families have all they want, with very little trouble of catching them. There are some small oysters along the coast that have a very fine flavor. The Pacific Coast has its- fish and oysters, but is not accessible and practi- cal for American settlers. COAST ADVAjSTTAGES. Excepting wheat, barley, oats and cold country fruits the settler has all the multifarious crops- and resources of ]\Iexico concentrated in the coast and cotfee l)elts of the Vera Cruz district, with cheap water freight for his export products, and the machinery or other goods he may wish to im- port. These are advantages that cannot be estimated^ and that do not exist in any other country. From one hundred dollars to two hundred and fifty dollars, Mexican silver, will build a house that will do for a home at the start in that warm country. Clothinof costs very little, as light, cheap material is sntlicient nearly all the year round. The same energy and labor expended on the crops of tlie Ignited States would ]iroduee i^n times more results in ^lexico, where such a di- versity of profitable crops may be grown on the same small farm or large plantation. GUIDE TO MEXICO. 47 FARM STOCK. Horses are worth ten dollars to fifty dollars; work mules twenty-five dollars to seventy-five dollars; work oxen forty dollars to seventy-five dollars per yoke of two; bnrros, the great pack animals of Mexico, from five dollars to fifteen dol- lars, and milch cows from ten dollars to twenty- five each, in silver. There is no standard price for stock hogs nor stock fowls, but they may be bought at reasonable prices, compared with their market value when ready to market. Farming tools and machinery are mostly super- fluous, as there is very little cultivation of crops, more than cutting down the grass and weeds. It would be a good plan, when families are go- ing by steamers, to take a couple pair of pigs of good breed, as most of the hogs in Mexico are of the old razorback breed. CLEAEING LAND. The cost of clearing land, ready for crops, will range from five dollars to ten dollars per acre, sil- ver, according to locality and timber. The natives do such work by the job for less money than the usual cost of day labor, as they thus have a show to earn more than current wages in a day, by rush- ing and long hours. FUENITUEE. Families going by steamer would do well to carry the more necessary articles of household 48 GUIDE TO MEXICO. furnitiTre, where the distance by rail to the steamer is not too great and the freight near half the value of the goods. All rail it would not pay to carry anything that could not be packed in trunks, unless shipped as freight, which would be very long on the road. This would be better than buying in Mexico. Most of the furniture sold in Mexico is im- ported and sold at very high prices. Furniture taken to Mexico by families emigrating there to make homes, and carried for their own use, is ad- mitted free of duty by the government. The freight, when not carried as baggage, in excess of the weight allowed by transportation companies, would not be one quarter of the cost of new fur- niture in Mexico. Books will also be admitted free of duty, when a part of family effects, as well as pianos or other musical instruments. When household goods are shipped by freight, and do not accompany the owners, a certificate of the head of the family, made before a notary pub- lic, that he or she, head of a family, is emigrating with family to make a home in Mexico, and that goods shipped is family property, necessary for housekeeping of said family and not for sale. This certificate, with a letter from the railroad agent shipping the goods, stating that the certifi- cate represents the facts, should be mailed to the Mexican collector of customs at the point where the goods would cross the border, if all rail: viz., Ciudad Juarez, if by El Paso route: Ciudad Diaz, if by Eagle Pass route; and Laredo Nuevo, if by GUIDE TO MEXICO. 49 Laredo route; or to Vera Cruz, Tampico, or what- ■ever port of entry, if by steamer. The fact that the goods are family effects, of •emigrants seeking homes in Mexico, should be noted on the bill of lading and the way bill, issued and made by the agent shipping the property. A perfect invoice should be made by the owner, and the boxes numbered, should there be boxes, and number of each box placed at the head of the items of its contents in the invoice; and the sec- ond-hand value of each item in the invoice should be entered opposite it. This invoice should be ab- solutely correct, and so certified by the owner, before the notary public, and be sent with other documents named, in one enclosure, to the Mexi- can collector of customs, as already explained, while a copy of said invoice should be attached to the way bill, with a request from the shipping agent, to the American agent at the border, to ask the Mexican agent and the collector to forward the goods to destination without delay. A false invoice subjects the shipment to seizure and confiscation, or makes it liable to a heavy duty, according to circumstances. No passport is needed to land in Mexico, and none to travel after landing in the country. Americans cannot be supposed to know such lit- tle, yet very important, requisites, that might cause them much annoyance and great inconve- nience, if learned after setting out or omitted al- together. Furniture, or any class of goods, 'is allowed as baggage, to a liberal weight, to every ticket- Mexico— 4 50 GUIDE TO MEXICO. holder on the railways leading out from Vera Cruz. In this way the poor Mexicans take their fruit, eggs and other small articles to market^ freight-free, paying only second-class fare for themselves. COMMON LABOR. Farm and railroad hands had hetter not go to Mexico to work for wages. There are plenty of peons for all classes of cheap labor; and Ameri- cans could not get half the current price of com- mon labor in the United States. If an American cannot start a little home, and work for his own account, as a common laborer, he had better not leave his own country. The day may come when the supply of native labor will be less than the demand, but that day does not seem to be very near just now. STEXOGEAPHY. There is a grand opening for stenographers in Mexico, able to take dictations and write in Span- ish. But there are plenty there who know noth- ing but English. American railway otlicials and American and English companies, who have large correspondence and shipping trade with the United States and England, use stenographers who know no Spanish. There are very few ste- nographers and typewriters who know Spanish. Mexican girls are not taught, and would not be al- lowed by their parents and social usage to take positions if they could write shorthand and use o B o ts Q o < I o o P <1 (t> ►-S Q 52 GUIDE TO MEXICO. the typewriter. Americans who go to Mexico with 40 knowledge of Spanish never learn there, though they often have the best possible opportu- nities. One in a hundred may learn. They herd with Americans or Mexicans who speak English. If a Mexican knows- just a little English he will not talk to an American in Spanish. ■ Mexicans know the value of English, and learn it much oftener then Americans learn Spanish, thouoh the task is ten times as hard for them as that for an American to learn Spanish. ; One must be fairly master or mistress of Span- ish to become a stenographer and typewriter in that language. Considerable study and practice are necessary to attain such mastery of the lan- guage. But the reward would compensate the la- bor. Without such qualification it would be need- less to seek employment as a stenographer in Mex- ico. Certainly there are many now filling posi- tions, as stated, without knowledge of Spanish; but there are more applicants of this class than places for them. • ^BOOKKEEPERS. " There is room for good bookkeepers who know Spanish. Less proficiency in the language would be required at the start of a bookkeeper than of a stenographer, though he must have • commercial words and terms at liis fingers' ends. Mexican law requires that all books of account shall be kept in Spanish. There are plenty of ^fexican bookkeep- ers, though few of them know Enoflish. GUIDE TO MEXICO. 53 Germans all learn the Spanish quickly, and hence take the best positions in the competitive race with Americans, who do not even try to learn. Germans then become partners or proprie- tors, or go into business for themselves, elsewhere, very soon. No German remains poor in Mexico. Americans without capital are as smart as poor Germans, but too proud, independent, indolent in their poverty. The German could never be any- thing more than a peon if he remained ignorant of the language of the country. But he learns Spanish, and makes it his capital, just as any poor American of education and fair average business capacity might do. Germans are all educated, or, at least, those in Mexico. MINOR POSITIONS. Clerks, salesmen and salesladies, and general ■utility men, somewhat familiar with Spanish, might find employment with the railroads, mines, factories and stores of the country. An army of persons are thus employed in all sections of the Republic, many of whom speak no Spanish, though, in many cases, persons who speak both Spanish and English are far more desirable, and would be paid more salary than those who know but one language. The demand for such help is constantly increasing with the development of new enterprises and the enlargement of old ones. The volume of all classes of business and indus- tries is steadily growing, as population and pros- perity augment .their inspiring influence. 54 GLIDE TO MEXICO. It is not reasonable that more people will be- come qualified for such employment in the United States faster than there will be places ready for them to fill in Mexico. The knowledge of Spanish being the key to suc- cess in any business or position in Mexico, it is, or would be, just as reasonable for one who is ig- norant of shorthand to seek a position as a ste- nographer as for one without a knowlege of Span- ish to apply for skilled employment in Mexico. This is why there are always so many disap- pointed and disgusted Americans in Mexico City, virtually living on their wits, or such of their newly arrived countrymen as they can manipulate. Adventurers fare no better, after they are once known, in Mexico than on the frontier in the United States. They have done the honest, indus- trious American, whose lot was cast in Mexico without money, much detriment in the past. But now Mexicans understand them, and are able to discriminate between them and those of sterling worth to tlie country. Workers in the vineyard, not drones, have a warm welcome awaiting them at all times and in all parts of Mexico. HOW TO GET POSITIONS. The cheapest method of securing positions in Mexico would be to advertise in the want columns of "The Mexican Herald," an English paper, and "El linivcrsal," a Spanish jiaper, publislied in Mexico City, daily. Nearly all business and manu- facturing people in the Eei)ublic.read one or the aUIDE TO MEXICO. 55 other. The rates are very moderate, in silver — one dollar in gold would get several insertions of an ordinary want advertisement. Other prelim- inaries and details could be arranged by mail. Be sure you are qualified for the place you seek, and you will be almost certain to get answers that will lead to an engagement. There are plenty of both English speaking and Spanish speaking people who want first-class help that can use both lan- guages. They will soon become interested when they see persons in the United States are offering their services in Mexico. Persons well qualified could safely go to any large city at this time certain to find employment, if not at once, surely in a little season. But a bet- ter price might be secured from home, in the United States, at much less expense, and without annoyance or delay after reaching Mexico. It would be ever so much nicer to start direct to a good position than to go blindly to seek one. BUSINESS ENTEEPEISES. With some capital, and practical methods, there is room for a good business man almost anywhere in Mexico, and in almost any line of trade knowl- edge of the language would make success certain. There are good points for a small business, where a large one would not be practical. At many points, as in the Vera Cruz district, one could en- gage in the sale of merchandise and the exporta- tion of the products of the country, at the same time, which would work beautifully together and 56 GUIDE TO MEXICO. help the merchandise feature wonderfully. Other places have articles of various classes that might be exported or sold in markets of the Republic^ where merchandising would be feasible. Before engaging in any mercantile enterprise one should go and study the situation carefully^ first deciding what district would be most desir- able. It might be well to visit several places, to find the most promising one. There are grand openings for several classes of commission business in Mexico Cit}^, but time and patience would be required to make them profit- able. Present methods of business would have to be revolutionized, which would go slower than changes are made in the United States. There are no large distributing depots for native and foreign produce. The primitive methods of age& are still in vogue. Small, filthy, badly-ventilated little dives contain all the fruit and other native and foreign produce, which Indian peddlers carry around the streets on their heads all day, in sun or rain, and sell at prices much higher than Amer- ican methods of business would require. Such peddlers gain little if any more than peon wages, and the dealers do not ^q\ rich, for the reason that their stock goes fearfully to waste, the bulk of which should be condemned by the board of health, and would be but for the fact that there is nothing better, before it is sent out to sell. Nearly all the fruit and produce of the Republic arrives at ^lexico City in bad shape, owing to bar- barous gathering and handling. Three quarters of the Republic grows no tropi- GUIDE TO MEXICO. 57 cal fruit. Mexico City is the natural distributing point for all such territory, where an immense trade could be built up, by having practical con- nections at each interior point, that may be reached by rail, many of which would become sub- distributing points for back country towns and settlements. Nearly all the State of Texas may be made trib- utary to Mexico City by direct and quick rail con- nections; and much business is now done with Texas under the present suicidal methods. The consumption would be enormous in Mexico City were the perishable goods handled the same as they are in the United States. The fruit can be brought from the coast to Mex- ico City in j)erfect shape, and then delivered to any point in the Republic or Texas in better con- dition than most of the tropical fruits reach in- terior markets of the United States. The high, dry, cool air of Mexico City and the interior tableland country is almost equal to re- frigeration in hot weather in the United States for the preservation of fruit and vegetables. There is an equal opportunity to monopolize the fish and oyster business, which might be done by the same combination necessary to make, the fruit and vegetable trade profitable in a high degree. The coast of Vera Cruz and Tampico now supply all the fresh fish and some of the oysters used in Mexico City and the interior tableland country. The methods are antiquated and the prices the same. There are tine large oysters in great abun- dance near Tampico. 58 GUIDE TO MEXICO. There would he a quick fortune in the business at half present prices. A big trade could be built up in California fruits, after the season for Mexican fruits of the same classes is over, by bringing them in carloads, by freight, to Mexico City, and there distributing them all over the country, even to Vera Cruz and the coast. Many such fruits are now brought all the way by express at an enormous freight, and all sold at famine prices. There is some little trade in American apples and potatoes, which might be largely increased. The business might be made reciprocal and grand. Country connections could sell all classes of goods and buy local produce, suited to ship to the market of Mexico City or to the United States, according to circumstances. Mexico City is now the principal distributing point for general merchandise, mostly in the h.'inds of German, French and Spanish merchants, in whose business fields Americans might cut broad swaths. Vera Cruz is the natural distributing point for much of the coffee bell and coast country; and there are large, rich houses there now, but doing business under much the same methods as Mexico City, with the same show for American vim and enterprise. The Mexican government is spending twenty-five million dollars making a deep, secure harbor at Vera Cruz, which will enhance her com- mercial importance beyond the power of words to estimate. It will i^rohably be finished this year. The same company that is building the harbor of Vera Cruz has just completed the great canal P P Q o o o p p CD d p p < p Q &3 60 GUIDE TO MEXICO. for the clrainaoje of the A'alley of Mexico, at a cost of more than twenty million dollars to the Mexi- can government. MAXUFACTURIXG IXDUSTEIES. There is no practical limit to the possibilities of factory industry, large or small, in almost any branch and nearly everywhere. There are more cotton and woolen mills than any other class of factories; and twice the number of looms and spindles could run all the year round profitably. All the hides and pelts of the Eepublic might be tanned and made up into goods at a profit. There is room for foundries, large and small, as demonstrated by the enormous works at Mon- terey. There is room for every industry in wood. jMon- terey has a furniture factory that is coining money. Vera Cruz is probably the best place for iron- works, because of llie cheap freight on pig iron and coal, and water routes to distribute much of the products of such industries to the coast coun- try and the interior points, reached by river. Even Mexico City could be reached cheaper than from ]\Ionterey or other border point. Tampico might be a better point than Vera Cruz for a very large part of the Republic for. iron-workinsf inrlustries, as freight would be cheaper and (piickor than from Vera Cruz. There would certainly be much more economy GUIDE TO MEXICO. 61 in working up material on the coast and shipping the product to tlie interior than paying freight on material and coal to the interior, and then distrib- ute the product at about the same rate of freight as would have to be paid from the coast. Orizaba, in the State of Vera Cruz, or along the river between there and the low country, would be a magnificent field for woodworking factories, not only owing to the close proximity of fine woods, but also on account of splendid water power, sufficient to run a hundred factories, as the falls are frequent and stupendous. The cost of transportation of lumber from the coast to Orizaba would be nothing compared to the advantages of water power. There are grand openings for sugar refineries on a large scale, wherever cane grows in paying quantities. Fruit canning and preserving have great possi- bilities, and wine making could be made very profitable, as there is much material, including oranges that might be utilized for wine. Canned fruit and preserves could be exported to Germany and other foreign countries in large quantities, while home consumption would require a large supply. Papermills that could produce tissue paper, suitable for fruit packers, and good writing pa- per, would do well. There are other industries, including fine grades of glass, that could be made profitable. Common grades of glass and glassware are cheap, there be- ing several factories in the country. 62 GUIDE TO MEXICO. IMPORTAXT CITIES. The limits of this guide will not admit an elabo- rate sketch of all the interesting little places in Mexico. The leading central points will suffice for all practical purposes. It will probably be more satisfactory to any one wishing to visit the country, either for business or pleasure, to have such places presented systemati- cally, according to the line of transportation by which they must be reached. Assuming that this hypothesis is correct, the Mexican Central line will be the first introduced. The Mexican Central Eailway passes through long stretches of dreary waste and awful, desolate grandeur — valleys of pulverized alkali and barren mountains of cinders and ashes, as if the remains of a world destroyed by fire. The main line, from El Paso, Texas, to Mexico City, is twelve hundred and fifty miles long, and this line and its several' branches reach the most important centers of the I?epublic. CHIHUAHUA. This is the capitol city of the State of the same name, and the first place of commercial and manu- facturing importance. Ciudad Juarez, just across the Rio Grande from El Paso, is the starting point of the Mexican Central Railway, and the site of the ^Mexican Custom House, but otherwise of no great. importance to Americans as yet. GUIDE TO MEXICO. 63 Chihuahua is styled "The American City," be- cause quite a number of people from the United States are doing a prosperous business there. It is a great stockraising and mineral center. It is the tragic scene, the stage, where Hidalgo, the father of Mexican Independence, was executed by the Spaniards, July 30, 1811. The cathedral, the swimming baths, the chapel of Guadalupe, two causeways, and an aqueduct, the latter built more than two hundred years ago, are places of interest to the stranger. Chihuahua boasts two smelters, a big iron foun- dry, a cottonseed oil mill, a soap factory, and a. brewery, and room for other enterprises. SANTA EOS ALIA. Here are the hot springs, said to excel any in the United States, and sure to cure inflammatory rheumatism, and all blood and skin diseases.. Otherwise the place is unimportant. JIMENEZ. This is the shipping point for the rich silver mines of the Parral and Gtianacevi districts, with which Jimenez is connected by daily stage lines.. Jimenez has some ten thousand inhabitants. ESCALON. This is a small place, but the junction of the' Mexican Northern Railway, running seventy-eight 64 GUIDE TO MEXICO. miles east to the great mining district of Sierra Mojada, said to be the largest carbonate camps in the world. LERDO. This beautiful little city of some twelve thou- sand inhabitants nestles in a district similar to the valley of the Nile. Eain rarely ever falls. The country is irrigated by large canals, watered from the river Nazas, which overflows twice a year. The section is called the ^'Lagiina'^ country, and produces the finest cotton in the Republic, planted once in seven years. Grapes and other fruits, equal in flavor and quality to the same produc- tions of California, grow in this magic vale, i^at- urally these irrigated lands are not cheap, and those beyond the margin of the valley will not produce one blade of grass. ZACATECAS. This is a city of more than ninety thousand in- habitants, and the capitol of the State of the same name. It is the celebrated silver center of Mexico, discovered in September, 1546. In 1818 the out- put of silver had been nearly six hundred and sev- enty million dollars. The mines have since pro- duced, and are still yielding, immense quantities of ore, and late discoveries promise to make Zaca- tecas famous as a gold producing point. The mint is a wonder and a show. There are other beautiful public buildings and parks, called alamedas and plazas in Spanish. GUIDE TO MEXICO. 65 Tram cars run out to the splendid cathedral of Guadalupe, which contains some paintings and frescoes of surprising beauty, said to be emblems of supernatural production. But Guadalupe and her wondrous influence in Mexico will be pre- sented more fittingly in a special feature as a pecu- liar institution of Mexican, character. The road passes directly over some of the mines, and the train affords a magnificent view of the city, just as it winds around the mountain side to plunge down into the cultivated valley below. AGUAS CALIENTES. This is a city of probably fifty thousand inhabi- tants, famous for its hot springs, attractive bath houses, and healthy climate. The feast of San Marcos, one of the most celebrated and largely at- tended fairs in the Eepublic, is annually held at Aguas Calientes in the month of April, when thousands of people from all over Mexico throng the streets and parks of this old and beautiful city. Here the beautiful needle drawnwork is made and brought to the trains for sale at very low prices. One of the largest silver-copper smelt- ing plants in the world is nearing completion here. This is also the greatest chicken and egg center in the Republic. Aguas Calientes is also the junction of the Tampico branch of the Mexican Central Railway, which may be sketched now as well as later. This branch passes through Salinas, important only on account of its famous salt works. Mexico— 5 66 GUIDE TO MEXICO. SAX LUIS POTOSI. This is a city of eighty thousand or ninety thou- sand inhabitants, on the Tampico brancn, and the capitol of the State of the same name. It is one of the most important business centers in Mexico, the principal distributing point for much of the northern part of the Eepublic. It is situated in a fertile valley surrounded by mountains teeming with mineral wealth. This city possesses the most extensive silver-lead reduction works on the American continent, and has inviting room for many diversified industries and business enter- prises. The views between San Luis Potosi and Tam- pico almost rival those of Switzerland. San Luis Potosi is six thousand one hundred and eighteen feet above sea level. The plain gradually slopes, by series of terraces cut through ever and anon by canons, for passage of watercourses descending from the tableland to the Mexican Gulf. The train rapidly glides down through one of these openings into the wild Ysidro Valley, beneath the sombre shadows of dark green mountains, whose sides are draped with the lugubrious foliage of dense forests. Farther on the train descends abruptly into the charming valley of Canoas, and thence plunges into the grand canon of Tamasopo. Through a succession of curves and tunnel the train ^\nnds its serpentine course along shelves hewn in, the sides of almost perpendicular cliffs, and finally reaches the mouth of the canon, where a magnificent view unfolds. Far beneath spreads ^8 GVIDE TO MEXICO. a smiling valley in an emerald circle of towering mountains. Down below twelve hundred feet ap- pears, in seeming ripples of undulating waves, like a sheet of old ocean lashed into foaming green, a luxuriant tropical forest, studded here and there with cane fields and groves of tropical fruit. At many points along the route water plunges over headlong precipices three hundred feet, and the train crosses water two hundred feet below. TAMPICO. This is a very old town, and now has possibly twenty thousand inhabitants. It is on the Panuco river, seven miles from the mouth, and is a port of entry of growing importance. Large ocean steamers come up to the dock and discharge cor- goes and passengers, without lighterage or trans- fer. Eegular lines run to Mobile, Xew York and Europe, as well as Havana. It is the only inland port on the gulf of Mexico along the Mexican coast. Emigrants from the eastern and southern States should take steamer to Tampico, if going to ^Tonterey, or any point on the Mexican Central Eailway or its branches, not farther north than Zacatecas, if economy is a question worthy of con- sideration. There are fine vegetable and fruit lands up, the river from Tampico, but not always exempt from frost; It is expected tbat Tampico will ship one hundred carloads of tomatoes to the United States ihig year, 1808. GUIDE TO MEXICO. 69 There is a sort of inside rowboat route from Tampieo to Tiixpan, the region of wild monkeys and parrots, a genuine tropical country, in the State of Vera Cruz, and a gulf port; but it is time to return to the main line. LAGOS. This is the first place of note, south of Aguas Calientes, on the main line, a fine manufacturing city of about forty-five thousand inhabitants, with room for new industries and enterprises. LEON. This is a city of some one hundred and ten thousand inhabitants, a great manufacturing cen- ter, in a valley of extreme fertility of soil. One industry is the manufacture of beautiful, soft leather clothing, tastefully embroidered m gold and silver bullion, worn by wealthy people on their estates, but going out of date in the cities be- fore the inexorable march of developing progress. SILAO. This is a rather pretty little city, and important as the headquarters of the Mexican division of the railway, and the junction of the fifteen-mile branch to Guanajuato. 70 GUIDE TO. MEXICO. GUANAJUATO. This city of some seventy thousand inhabitants -is picturesquely set in a frame of great mountains, in the center of a very rich mining district. It contains many fine public and private buildings and a branch mint. American enterprise and in- dustry could make room and business here. TEAPUATO. This is a city of some twenty thousand inhabi- tants and a lucrative business point, with room for Americans. It is a fair agricultural section; but, like nearly all parts of Central and Northern Mex- ico, the farms, or ranches, as they are called in Spanish, are too large and expensi\^ for small American farmers of moderate means. It is known as the "strawberry market,"' because there is never a train passes in the whole year, but fresh, ripe strawberries are offered for sale to the pas- sengers at twenty-five cents a basket in Mexican silver. It is also the junction of the Guadalajara branch, extenrling west one hundred and sixty-one miles. This branch line runs through a very rich agricultural country, that grows big crops of wheat, corn, sugar, and as fine oranges as any in the Republic. The train passes through Penjamo, a rustic old city of some ten thousand inhabitants, and thence to "La Piedad," with about the same number of souls, and no less quaint and ancient. The next station of importance is La Barca, a city an IDE TO MEXICO. 71 of fifteen thousand, and the greatest orange ship- ping station in Mexico. It is situated on the Ler- ma, the longest river in Mexico, near where it empties into Lake Chapala. Fifty miles west of La Barca, and fifteen miles before the train arrives at Guadalajara, at the station "El Castillo," a tramway leads out to the falls of Juanacatlan, the ^'^Niagara of Mexico." The river plunges headlong over a precipice a hundred feet to the rocks below, making a sublime scene of awful grandeur. GUADALAJARA. This is the capital of the State of Jalisco, with a population of one hundred and thirty-five thou- sand, the finest city in Mexico, and second only to the city of Mexico, in point of inhabitants and commercial importance. It is well laid out, with .streets running at right angles, exquisitely shaded with lovely trees, and embellished with the most beautiful parks, gardens, and public buildings in Mexico. The hospital contains twenty-three •courts, called "patios" in Spanish, each a tropical grove and garden of flowers in itself, with foun- tains and walks. There is a fashionable drive, "The Pasco," laid out along the Eiver San Juan de Dios. This is also a big shipping point for or- anges and a leading manufacturing center, as well as distributing market for a vast and rich ter-r .Titory. The city is clean and has no beggars. Its schools are of the highest order. The climate is delightful all the year round, and rainfall boun- tiful, but not entirely exempt from light frosts 72 GUIDE TO MEXICO. once in a great while. No place under the sun has a more promising future for Americans, with large or small means, as population and business ^vill probably double in the next fifteen years, or less, at the present strides they are making. The extension of the railway now terminates at Ameca, a booming town of twelve thousand in- habitants, down in a delightful valley, between Guadalajara and the Pacific Ocean, in the direc- tion of Banderas Bay. The road leads through one of the finest agricultural and grazing districts in the country, which stretches away far and wide on either side and yet lower down toward the coast. Corn fields, under crude native methods of cultivation, with as good crops as any in the United States, abound in all directions. The State of Jalisco is a great country in itself, extending from the high tableland region to the Pacific coast. It has room for as many American farmers, large or small, as may care to seek homes in its bounds. But water transportation to the United States is far less practical from the Pa- cific than from the Gulf coast of Mexico. But it is time to go back to the main line at Irapuato. SALAMANCA. This is a thriving manufacturing city, whose straw and leather goods are celebrated, though a small place, the next of importance south of Ira- puato, with room for enterprise and industry. GUIDE TO MEXICO. ^ 73. CELAYA. This is a city of some eighteen thousand in-- habitants, with extensive cotton and woolen mills, and makes fine confectionery that is famous. Americans can make room there for new enter- prises and industries. QUERETAEO. This is the capital of the State of the same- name, and a city of some sixty thousand inhabi- tants, supposed to have been founded by the Az- tecs about the year 1446. It is a manufacturing center, and has near it the most extensive cotton mills in the Eepublic. It is also the center of the wonderful opal mines of Mexico, that have been worked for centuries and continue to yield goods of very superior quality. Queretaro is where Maximilian was captured and shot in 1867. TULA. This small place is noted for its ancient ruins,, being one of the oldest places in the Republic, and has a church three hundred years old, with walls seven feet thick and a tower one hundred and twenty-five feet high. It is unimportant now, except as a junction of the Pachuca branch of the railway. 74 ' . GUIDE TO MEXICO. PACHUCA. This is a city of possibly fifty thousand inhabi- tants, and a mining center with a mint. It was very prosperous till many of the mines became flooded some two years ago; but they are getting in shape again to resume work. There is nothing there to tempt Americans beyond mining indus- tries and the employment they afford. There are many English-speaking people there. But a re- turn to the main line is again in order. The first scene of interest, south of Tula, is the great Nochistongo cut, commenced in 1607 — a work designed by the Spaniards to drain the val- ley of Mexico, in which they sacrificed more than three hundred thousand Indians. The cut is from two hundred and eighty to six hundred and thirty feet wide and one hundred and fifty to one hundred and ninety-six feet deep, and of great length. The dirt was all carried out On the backs of Indians. The great enterprise was worthless, being too high to drain the valley. From the cut, along the side of which the rail- way was built, the train passes over a low range of hills and enters the great valley of Mexico. The spires and domes of the capitol of Mexico gleam against a background of eternal snow, the summits of Popocatepetl and Ixtaccihuatl ascend- ing heavenward. It is a sul)lime spectacle. The valley is in a high state of cultivation,- dotted thickly with numerous small towns,- through which the train glides along into its final station of Buena Vista, a name immortalized in the Mexican war. 76 GUIDE TO MEXICO. CITY OF MEXICO. This city has probably more than three hundred and seventy-five thousand inhabitants, and is sup- posed to be more than six hundred years old. It contains one hundred and twenty churches, the grand cathedral having eighty-five thousand square feet of floor space and two towers, each two hundred feet high. There are some palatial private residences and fine business houses. There are many Americans, and English is spoken in nearly all stores of any pretensions. American enterprises and industries might make room for themselves on a large scale, under methods en- tirely different from those now in vogue. Ameri- cans now in business are getting on nicely. Every schoolboy should know so much about the City of Mexico that it seems a waste of time and space to dwell longer on its description, which is merely an enlarged photograph of other points^ in many respects and features. MEXICAN NATIONAL EAILWAY. This is the Laredo route, and enters Mexico at New Laredo, opposite Laredo, Texas. It is two hundred and sixty-five miles, shortest route, to Mexico City, but this advantage is largely counter- acted by the fact that it is a narrow-gauge road that necessitates the transfer of passengers, bag- gage and freight. There is fine scenery on the line, ten thousand feet above the sea level. San Luis Potosi, described already, is also on this QVIDE TO MEXICO. 77 line, which leaves but two other commercial cen- ters of importance. MONTEEEY. As already stated, this is a very important manufacturing city, with large and prosperous American industries, which prove clearly what is possible at many other points. TOLUCA. This is a beautiful and thriving place, in a fer- tile and productive valley, some six hours' run from Mexico City. It is a manufacturing center, and has one of the largest breweries in the coun- try. There are many tributary towns of respect- able size, not on the railway line, that greatly in- aying medium was worth less gold than in any jirevious season. ^A,-: %'^ J Year-Old Banana— Frontera, Tabasco. 92 GUIDE TO MEXICO. This is true, in a greater or less degree, as to most exportable products of the country. They are bought, without exception, for silver, and sold for gold. Hence, exporters are not trying to get the gold standard in Mexico. All home products consumed in the Eepublic are bought of producers and sold to consumers for silver. Eailway passage and freight, in Mex- ico, are in silver. Wages are paid in silver. Local prices of native commodities and prices of labor do not change with the rise and fall of sil- ver. The medium and poor classes use very little value "of foreign goods. The rich and dressy peo- ple only know that silver is cheap when they go to buy luxuries, and the importer knows it when he goes to buy foreign exchange, to pay for the goods that he must sell for cheap silver. For practical purposes, among the masses, a cheap silver dollar goes about as far in Mexico as a gold dollar in the Fnited States. But, how long is this going to last? It would not work at all in the United States, where labor organizations are ready to strike at any moment, for less cause than paying them in dollars worth less than fifty cents. In Mexico there are no unions of labor and no strikes. It is a matter of no consequence to the poor what the rich have to pay for luxuries. The majority of the people do not even know that silver is depreciated, for the reason that they never see any other money, and that a dollar always buys about the same quantity of the necessaries of life, unless the ex- treme shortness of some staple crop raises prices; GUIDE TO MEXICO. 93 and even then the money is not blamed. The Mexican masses are very docile and very patient. If idle they do not make any disturbance. Bnt all this is no valid argument that Mexico and her people are better off with dollars now worth forty-five cents in the United States than they would be with a currency at par. Certainly, the exporter would lose much of his big profit, and the producer would have more money to spend, compared with present foreign standards. The people are better off now than they were when their dollars were at a premium in foreign markets, some twenty-five years ago, and even since, yet it were absurd to assume that the de- cline in silver improved their condition. Little more than twenty years have passed since the time when there were no railways nor factories in the country, and when the devastation of civil war blurred the face of every section of the Ee- public. The people were reduced to conditions of pitiful distress, and sheer want, in many commu- nities of Mexico. Peace, plenty of labor and the general pros- perity that railways, factories and the export of products have created, have ameliorated the hard lot of the poor, while the purchasing power of their dollar was steadily decreasing abroad. It Avere idiotic to assert that they would not be as well off as they are now had their money re- mained at a premium, or even at par. There are certain irresistible radical forces at work to change the financial status of Mexico. What are they? Education and the progressive 94 GUIDE TO MEXICO. light that it kindles. The 3'oimg generation of Mexicans will be bright and w.ell posted, and wide awake to the vital interest of individuals, com- mnnities, States and the Eepublic. When the President of the Republic stands up and publicly distributes the school rewards to hundreds of children, rich, middle class and poor, indiscrim- inatel}^ the education of the masses receives an impetus sure to develop a high grade of popular intelligence. All the foreo:oino; causes seem to be evolutioniz- ing the people, as very many parents, abundantly imbued with a copper hue of complexion, have blond, blue-eyed children. This fact is notice- able, in some degree, in all sections of the Ee- public. The rising generation of Mexicans will not be behind the people of the United States in pro- gressive ideas end institutions, and will not be satisfied with a depreciated currency, nor with the stranger doing the business of the country. ^lex- icans, even the most stupid of the old peon class, learn any class of skilled labor very quickly, aud are apt pupils in learning such other tricks of the stranger as anyone tries to teach them. The new generation will need no teachers. Tlie young Mexicans will have caught the progressive vim of the Yankee without imbibino: his ruinous political propensities, and hence, be able to cope with financial problems thnt threnten to wreck the free institutions of the Ignited States. For these reasons the Mexican dolhir will prob- ably be at par, or nearly so, with tlie money of GUIDE TO MEXICO. 95 other countries, within the next ten years. Even the men of this day are waking up out of the lethargy that has been the curse of Mexico for ages. They see what the stranger is doing in their country, and many of them are beginning to imitate and follow his methods. The reader now has a fair general idea of Mex- ico, as concisely as so large and varied a question may be presented, sufficient, it is hoped, to lead him to intelligent conclusions. All that has been said has been without the bias of partiality, asserted without fear, favor or affection, under the conviction that the people of the United States have never had full information about Mex- ico, and how to go there. ISTo railway company, land company, government nor private party has contributed toward the cost of this production, nor has one sentence been written with a design to benefit anyone beyond the actual merits of the line named or the interest indicated. The inter- est of prospective settlers has been the actuating motive throughout, and under no other state of circumstances could a fair, honest guide be writ- ten — one that would not mislead by its omissions of interesting features, while its selfish statements might not be too highly colored. Read a cartload of all the railroad and land company literature, that is poised as finger boards to Mexico, that is given away so profusely that rag pickers o^lean it from ticket offices, in their rounds, after reading this, and decide which gives information most practical and serviceable to ona wishing to visit Mexico for any reason. 2Q GUIDE TO MEXICO. Before concluding, it seems opportune and ap- propriate to give some little outlines of predomin- ating characteristics of the Mexican people, wherein the line of demarcation differs widely from what prevails in the United States; and. es- pecially, as already promised, some account of the inflexible faith in their Virgin, Guadalupe. Their feast days, called holidays, in English, make a very strong feature in the Mexican life. And their religious loyalty is a marvel of mysteries, superficially viewed, when one remembers whence came the faith to which they pay homage; and the bitter antipathy they cherished for so many dark and weary ages, for their conquerers, makes it appear yet more extraordinary that any insti- tution that came from Spain should now be an object of reverence, among the liberated masses, who yet hate Spain and Spaniards as cordially as their ancestors detested them, in days of the most galling slavery Mexicans ever endured. But, there is perhaps one explanation, and only one, found in the name "Guadalupe.'' Christmas will be the first festive scene pre- sented, which may serve as a passing relaxation from the prosy monotony of practical things. CHRISTMAS IX MEXICO. Christmas in Mexico would be a wonder and a show to Americans who never passed the holidays in a Spanish-American country. Reflect one passing moment on the stage of the scene about to shadow forth, and try to imagine GUIDE TO MEXICO. 97 what you cannot see and what none can ever know. Here we are on the classic strand of the Mexi- can Gulf, whose sleepless tide chants the plaintive lullaby that was old a hundred thousand years ago. The shore is the border of a land whose deep, un- told mystery has, perchance, no rivaling history beneath the starry marvels of the sky. Euins of dateless cities, older than any accorded a place in the page of remotest chronicles, attest that Mexico was older than Babylon is today, long ages before the Aztec race ever roamed over her mystic vales. This is no idle dream. Let those who doubt come and see the proof. But it was of Christmas, in this strange land of peculiar people, that we were to debate. Yet, pause one fleeting moment and contem- plate the people who dwell from mountain peak to ocean wave. Where was the natal shore of the blood that came not from Spain? Who were the people who perished ere the Aztec came, or were exterminated by his race? Both they and he had their gods and temples more grand and massive than those Rome has built on their nameless ruins — sites that hence yet appear more divinely desolate than they would with no shrines above their silent tombs. Why did they all die and leave no pictured page nor fairy legend to tell their pathetic story? Nothing remains but buried cities and voiceless shrines to tell you what was and is not, save something vague and shad- owy in the restless, dreamy eye of sorrow that Mexico— 7 98 GUIDE TO MEXICO. looks upon you in every walk of life, and seems to bear a speechless record of the distant past. But, now there appears a dash of Spanish blood in almost every Aztec vein. There is scarcely one clear-blooded native in a thousand. And like their blood, their gods and temples have been changed, and such a change. Eome and the cross have triumphed over all besides. But they have their Christmas, a gay and fes- tive one, free from care and sorrow, a more merry Christmas than the freer and more favored chil- dren of the United States ever enjoy. Come and see them in the gloaming of a tropic eve that dies without a twilight, tripping light-heartedly from shop to shop, bent on missions of love and duty. This is on your Christmas eve, their "noche bueno," as it is called in Spanish. There are hasty calls and reunions of friends and families, through all the early hours of the night. The streets, the shops and the dwellings are brightly illuminated and fantastically decor- ated. At length the weird midnight spreads a brood- ing, flapless wing over the mirthful scene; but the merry revelers heed it not, as the deep-toned bells that proclaim the phantom hour, that is sa solemn and still in other lands, knell the incep- tion of the feast. All the world is then sum- moned to the table to partake of the Christmas dinner the people of the United States eat at noon Christmas day. There is notliing solemn nor sad in all Mexico. The lights are not permitted to burn blue, as they arc said to burn at midnight 100 GUIDE TO MEXICO. in other climes. The slave is free, the poor are rich, and earth is heaven for a little season. For an hour or more the tables hold f casters spell hound, not only by exquisitely tempting dishes and delicately flavored wines, but by witch- ing conversation, for which the Spanish tongue is unsurpassed by other language of the earth. Sleep is not on the bill of fare. Little children are not drowsy. The festal dinner is but the beginning of raptures of the night. From the tables there is a rush for the ball rooms. All is life and joy. The air is rife with perfume and resonant with divinest music. Eare evergreens and matchless flowers are everywhere. Mexican dances are slow and languid, but full of majestic motion, and rapturous beyond any other episode of life among young people of the Eepublic, as the beau and the sweetheart are paired in ever}^ set. At no other time is there ever close communion among young lovers, except in the blissful dance. They never go alone to theatre, nor church, nor for a walk nor a drive, nor is the beau admitted to the liome of the girl. It is an extraordinary event if she sees him in her house. She must receive him through a grated window, like a fairy prisoner, while he stands in the street outside her home, in sunshine or rain. If he is not at his post once in twenty-four hours, he is by no means a devoted lover. This goes on for years and years, when the young man is not able to make a home and ju'ovide for a wife. The girl receives the attention of no other man. This social law is as inexorable as that of the Medes and Persians. GUIDE TO MEXICO. 101 The Mexican girl is as attractive in the ball room as the dark-eyed maids of Spain, about whom poets have ever raved. It is very rare to see one perfectly homely, without some redeeming trait of beauty. The hair and eye are sure to be luxuriant and winning, no matter how ugly the features. There are three types; the clear-blooded Cas- tilian, the offspring of Spanish parentage, that never mingled with the native race; three-quarters or more of the same Spanish blood, lightly tinged with that of the yelloAV tribes; and three-quarters^ more or less, of Aztec blood, gently modified by pure infusion from proud Spanish veins. Some of the maids of this last t)''pe are very beautiful, the copper color of their race being toned to a deep brunette, with long, glossy, black hair and the soft, dreamy, dark eyes of Andalusia. Some few of the other types are as beautiful as any women on the earth, and most of their less for- tunate sisters are not without winning character- istics. Such are the components of the upper walks of life. The second class contains the same ele- ments of blood, but possesses less of the material things of earth, which puts its members below the social cream. Beneath all comes the poor peon, the bone and sinew of Mexico, the slave of Montezuma, of the Spaniard subsequently, and of the class that holds the lands and other substance of the country to- day, though often with the same blood throbbing in lowly veins that pulsates in the upper walks of 202 GVIDE TO MEXICO. life. He^ too, has his midnight dinner and dance, truly more humble than those of his master, yet no less real and impressive. While he has his fowl he is content with pulque, the national bever- age or rum, the cheap intoxicant of Mexico, in- stead of wine. Early mass in the cathedrals is a grand feature of Christmas morning in Mexico, and everybody goes to church some time during the day. The decoration of the churches would be incon- ceivable among people of frosty countries, where it would be almost impossible to have such a dis- play of flowers on Christmas day as render the churches of Mexico beautiful beyond description. Such exquisite' flowers are the free-will offerings of the lady members of the churches, plucked from their own gardens, without money and without price. THE BULL FIGHT. This may appear to the average American as a peculiar feature .of Christmas devotion, following the beautiful and impressive services held in all the churches, previous to the hour of admittance to the bull ring. People of all classes go. The sport is an ancient one, that came from Spain to stay while Spanish blood flows in Mexican veins. Whether it ever had the approval of the Church, who can tell? It certainly never had the inter- diction of the Church, which has nearly always had the power to have stopped in Spain anything obnoxious to its will. The exhibition of this spectacle often takes place on Sunday, and on the GUIDE TO MEXICO. 103 yet more sacred holidays. On some occasions, in Mexico City and other large places, twenty-five dollars, and even fifty dollars are paid for the more desirable seats, and as much as five dollars for standing room in sun or rain, as the case may he, so long as there is an opportunity to see the arena of blood. This is proof positive of the popular interest in the bull fight, possibly too powerful for the law and gospel of this age. The bulls are bred of peculiar stock, and wild as beasts of prey. Fortunes have been made in this industry. Many of the best animals are jet black, and as fine specimens as eye ever saw, majestically bold and terrible, in appearance, as the ferocious lions of the bloody circus of ancient Rome. This noble animal is confined in a narrow stall, with a door that opens into the arena, so that ■when opened he sees at once a chance to gain his lost liberty, for which he makes a frantic, joyful plunge. What a cruel deception. His stately head erect, his proud nostrils distended, his grand eyes fiashing defiance, he dashes forth to the view of an expectant, impatient audience, with more precipitate action than the rising curtain ever discloses the culminating scene of a dread tragedy on the stage. He is greeted by the wild huzzas of thronging thousands, the gorgeous ap- parel and waving handkerchiefs of the frenzied multitude. This is all new to his unprepared nature. If he has thinking faculties and takes time to reflect, he imagines he has been suddenly hiurled headlong into pandemonium. But the 204 GUIDE TO MEXICO. tumult is in the seats above him. He knows from instinct or intuition that the people up there are not barriers in his way, and he rushes madly for freedom on his own level. Lo! he quickly beholds that he is surrounded by impassable walls and menaced by horsemen, the same foes, apparently, who deprived him of his liberty and forced him, a captive, from his native mountain to his narrow prison of the moment. Unawed he dashes into the combat, so unequal as to make his courage more admirable than any human bravery. He disdains his adversaries, and seeks neither liberty nor escape from their on- slaughts. Danger is an unknown factor to his gallantry. At the first daring bound horse and rider go down before him as if struck by an engine in a career of sixty miles an hour. The horse is fin- ished, and the rider lands sprawling flat on the ground. His bullship promptly disengages his horns from the body of the horse, and is ready to make quick work of the imperiled rider. But a goad pricks him from behind. Like an athlete he turns to face his new assailant, while the most frantic shouts of delight ring, again and again, from above. In an instant the second horse and rider are in the predicament of the first, the peril of the rider being yet more desperate, ere rescue turns the brave animal in an other direction. Faster and more furious the valiant animal now wages the combat, his body bathed in his own blood and that of the horses he has slain. Tn quick succession two more horses go down before GUIDE TO MEXICO. 105 his impetuosity. The excitement among the spectators is vociferous and almost without hounds. The suspense becomes appalling, as the hull begins to gain, more and more, in the com- petitive race for the championship. At length he becomes indifferent to the attacks to turn him from the finish of his human prey. The fifth horse goes down. The bull frees his horns from the writhing flesh, just as the rider struggles to his feet, near the wall. With a quickness, almost rivaling the agile spring of the panther, before the other bull fighters in the ring or the audience above realize what is passing, or how it was done, the bull is seen starting on a wild career around the ring with the unhorsed fighter pinioned on his horns, which have passed through the center of the body. The climax of human tragedy is reached. Us- ually horses and bulls alone perish, men rarely. Once in a great while an extraordinary show cul- minates as a parting soul wings its way from the awful scene. The other fighters and the spectators are dis- mayed, but not so the bull. It is certain that the victim is lost, beyond help or hope. The bull, must be killed. There is no other alternative. Minutes seem ages. The bull appears the only being perfectly reconciled with this trying feat- ure of the show. Quickly the other bull fighters recover from their startling surprise and regain their confused presence of mind. But they fail to dispatch the bull or check his reckless speed at once. A 106 GUIDE TO MEXICO. dozen frightful wounds do not arrest him, till at last he falls, exhausted by the loss of blood. The fighter is gently released from the horns of the now impotent monarch of his absent herd, who has perished dumbly brave and all alone in the midst of so many human foes. The vanquished animal gasps out his last expiring breath into the rigid face of his antagonist, cold and stark in the icy embrace of death. It is nearly nineteen hun- dred years since Calvary, yet Christmas has an- other human sacrifice to a rite whose origin and object none seems to know nor care, unless it started as it yet exists, to satiate a craving to see the flow of blood, animal or human, what boots it which, so long as there is a sanguinary finish to the hilarious shows. The people now hie them homeward, satisfied with the result of the evening; and the other bulls procured for this occasion are kept for another day, as five horses, one bull and a man make a very respectable real tragedy. THE THEATER. Christm.as night is the grand theatrical occa- sion of the year. Standing room is at a premium. The best attainable talent is always present, not seldom imported for the holiday season. Mexi- cans love the theatre and the circus, and none are so poor and wretched tbat the luxury of a bull fight, the theater or the circus is not an occa- sional indulgence. These things seem to be nec- essary elements of popular life. They are the GUIDE TO MEXICO. 107 customs and the traditions of a country and a people about whom hover a halo of mystic wonder- ment. Who could have the heart to deprive them of this pittance of enjoyment after the long ages of woe that have been their heritage, from sire to son, till hope at length seemed an idle whim, a dream of mockery? Life among them — the very soil of their strange land — has been an endless civic drama, a tragic stage, that yet calls aloud for mortal sympathy from remotest and even savage shores; for have they not passed through scenes to touch the heart of the wildest race of earth, and call down the retribution of heaven? Ah! how slowly grindeth thine relentless mills, ye gods; yet are not Mexico and Mexicans at last avenged? K'emesis slumbered long, while the despoilers of "The land that is fairer than day,^^ bathed luxuriantly in metaphoric seas of "milk and honey, ^' fancying never ending- immunity was theirs. But a change came over the' spirit of their dreams, and what a change. Hidalgo, the priest, exclaimed "The day for more endurance has gone by, and by the eternal God this remorseless slavery shall end"; and he became a liberating warrior. That his deeds were unfeelingly bloody none may deny, yet he dealt out the coin of death that he at last received, to foes for whom no other mode of warfare had any terror. When the sun of freedom glowed at last for Mexico, and her pale young star came out in the galaxy of her liberated sisters, the eldest and the 108 GUIDE TO MEXICO. strongest smote and despoiled her afresh, while yet in her swaddling clothes of feebleness. After this most cruel of all her dastardly undo- ino's, and much internal ruin, the French came to scourge her anew. But this, too, had an end, as did another period of civil strife, and left her free and prosperous at last, though not till the present day. Then, who can grudge her the overflowing ecstacy of her festivities? THE SHEIXE OF GUADALUPE. Guadalu]3e is a name that quickens the pulse and inspires a feeling of reverence in every true Mexican heart. It is a name that binds Mexico indissolubly to the Church of Eome. It is the name of the immaculate native virgin, the patron saint of Mexico. Tlie story is one of woiulrous mystery. That of Mary and Christ combined is less sacred to the lowly and ignorant. Guadalupe, Mary and Christ make the trio that Protestantism can never break. While there is a Church of Eome and a Mexico, the religion of the people will be Catholic, if not wholly in reality and practice, surely in name and form of service. The stage on which Guadalupe shadowed forth is now a beautiful villa, "Guadalupe," and a splendid cathedral, the shrine of the virgin, a short .distance south of the city of Mexico, near the Mexican railway. This is the Mecca of ^lex- ico. Here rests the footsore and weary pilgrim from the remotest shore of Mexico. GUIDE TO MEXICO. 109 The strangest feature of all is that a priest of the Church of Eome was the sponsor of the virgin, which blended her marvelous story with the Church for all time in Mexico, no matter how it is esteemed in Eome. No priest denies in Mexico the valid sanctity of Guadalupe any more than that of Mary and Christ. She is a feature of the religion of the Mexicans that Eome herself does not dare to wrench from the faith of Catholics in Mexico. Gruadalupe has exercised a wonderful influence among the savage tribes, and served to render Mexican character docile and gentle. She has never been responsible for any cruelty. Her story runs in this wise: A great many ages ago, when the dominion of Spain was young in Mexico, and the Church little more popular among the natives than the government, a priest went out to a settlement, beyond the suburbs of Mexico City, to hold religious services. He sent an In- dian out to gather some flowers. When he re- turned with his first tribute the priest sent him for a second instalment. The Indian had a blanket, called "serape" in Spanish, because the early December morning was chilly. The second time he came without flowers, his blanket carefully folded, great beads of perspira- tion standing, cold and clammy, on his forehead, greatly agitated and speechless. The priest de- manded the cause of his singular conduct and per- turbance, with some indication of impatience. T^'he poor fellow merely put his finger to his lips, 110 GUIDE TO MEXICO. as a signal of silence to the priest, unfolded his blanket and said not a word. The priest started, aghast. He felt indisposed to ask farther ques- tions, at the moment. The poor Indian's blanket contained the most exquisite painting of the most beautiful being the priest had ever seen. He kne^A'" the poor man's blanket as well as he knew his face and voice. An hour before the blanket was plain cloth, without any vestige or semblance of any color or figure. The painting was clearly supernatural. Xo mortal being could do the work in months. But the matchless colors and handiwork were past human knowledge and skill. The priest was well answered, and in no mood to answer questions himself. There were ]^lenty of other witnesses present, who knew the blanket and saw the transformation nothing but a miracle could have wrought. Til ere was no chance for .imposition, hence no room to doubt. This was something that ad- mitted no skepticism, that the Indians would soon believe everywhere. When at lenoth the owner of the blanket recov- ered sufficiently to speak, he explained that the beautiful being whose living inuige was indelibly portrayed on his blanket had a])peared to him and placed her likeness on his blanket in an instant. Her name was Guadalupe, the Virgin Patron Saint of all the Mexicans, nnd that he must pro- claim her. and send word to nil the tribes for dole- gates to come there to the spot and see the token she had left, and hear what he had to tell tliem. -/ GUIDE TO MEXICO. m and that a Pilgrim's Shrine must be built there in commemoration, to preserve the blanket and its immortal picture, made without the touch of hand, in colors no painter's art could ever ap- proach. The priest naturally regarded the circumstance as a heavenly ministration, sent as an auxiliary to the work of the holy Church among the heathen tribes that did not take any -too kindly to the cause of the cross. Hence, he advised the Indians to do just as the strange apparition had bid their friend, and assured them of every possible assist- ance on his part. Swifter than tidings of the landing of Cortez flew over mountain and plain, the wondrous story of Guadalupe was borne to the utmost bounds of the dominion of the Spaniard, and beyond. The delegates came in return almost as quickly as the messengers went. Arrived at the scene of the divine miracle, the story was told by the Indian who was the owner of the now sacred blanket, and the other wit- nesses present, when he first brought it to the as- tonished priest. The priest let the crescent spell work its own destiny. There could be no treach- erous deception of the white man in the visitation of the chosen of heaven. Seeing was believing. Delegates from the tribes became eager converts. The early result was the foundation and build- ing of a splendid Temple of Guadalupe, which is to this day the magnificent Cathedral of Guada- lupe, whose ministers have ever been and are priests of Eome. 112 GVIDE TO MEXICO. Since then numerous churches and chapels of Guadalupe have been built in many sections of Mexico, under the auspices of the Church of Home, or her representatives in Mexico, and al- ways ministered by Eomish priests. But the original shrine has ever been and is the pilgrim^s goal, where the sacred picture of Guadalupe still remains bright and fresh, as its startling reality was first unfolded to the eyes of the priest; and the Mexican faith is that the souls of those who look upon the image of their Virgin shall never die. This faith is as beautiful and ad- mirable as it is innocent and harmless, so irre- proachable that the great and potent Church of Eome has never ventured to hurl an anathematiz- ing bull at it, nor her priests failed to minister in the chapels and temple of the Virgin, nor to hold extraordinary services in all the churches of Mex- ico on the grand feast day of Guadalupe. The day of Guadalupe is December the 12tli, the season of pilgrimages to the natal shrine. Since the advent of railways, excursion trains run for many days from every part of the Republic, crowded to their utmost capacity, while un- counted thousands make the journey on foot, even from the remotest sections of the country. It is the grandest holiday of all, except the national celebration of the independence of Mexico, Sep- tember the 16th, which is entirely different in character. The feast of Guadalupe, in Mexico, eclipses that of Christmas in other countries. Candles are burned all night, even in the most distant and humblest mountain cabins. The GVIDE TO MEXICO. 113 poorest peasants go to their nearest market town, not seldom fifty miles, to procure a supply of can- dles for the sacred occasion. They may be seen journeying, afoot, through dust or mud, as the case may be, with heavy burdens on their backs, of the respective produce of which each is master, ■even to charcoal and fat pine knots, to exchange ior the coveted and necessary supply of candles. No hardship nor privation is deemed too great a «acrifioe to avoid dereliction in the discharge of this imperative duty. It would be a reproach, if not a sacrilege, to be without candles. Work is suspended all day. Services as impos- ing as those of Christmas day are held in all the churches. In the afternoon the inevitable bull fights are in order, the grandest and most costly of the whole year being celebrated at Mexico City, owing io the great number of pilgrims there, who come to visit the nearby Shrine of Guadalupe. Such pilgrims all see the City of Mexico, which makes a grand boom for business. Guadalupe has been so long and is so firmly en- ihroned in Mexico that conjecture would be idle as to the age when her reign of faith will reach its zenith or begin to decline. When it ends Eome will fall, unless Mexico is first depopulated, or all the native blood of her people drained from their veins, so far as the sway of the Church ap- plies to Mexico. The growing skepticism of countries advanced in all fields of development will not take root rapidly in Mexico when Guada- lupe becomes the object of their attraction. Edu- Mexico— 8 114 GUIDE TO MEXICO. cation is not doing anything in the direction of eradicating the popuhir faith in the native Virgin. It is not likely to do more, as the deep-rooted faith, among the wealthy and most intelligent classes, is in the hosom of the mother, whence tlie daughter is certain to imhibe and transmit it on to remote posterity. Among the lowly the fidelity is inflexible everywhere, and needs no nurturing. Through the medium of this faith that of ]\Iary and Jesus has been established in Mexico, under the auspices of Catholicism, so securely that Protestants are wasting time, energy and money in seeking to gain favor among the native people. Protestants, as a rule, do not understand the peo- ple, nor how to convert them. They know little and care less about Guadalupe. They would tear her with a sudden wrencli from the native breast. The attempt is madness, as none know better than the priests, who hold and lead the people at will in spiritual matters. Otherwise the Church has no more power in Mexico than in the United States, and the Protestants have equal show with the Catholics, so far as the government is concerned. They have neither part nor lot in Guadalupe, and hence are witlu)ut influencing power to supplant Rome in ^fexico. But for Guadalupe Eome would have been exiled when Spain was expelled. No convents remain in Mexico, neither of nuns nor Jesuits, and are not likely ever to be per- mitted again. Tims l^ome is more circumscribed in Mexico than in the United States. The con- vents were a big loss to Rome in Mexico, though far less than they would have been had Guada- B Cu O Ms (-1- (D c I 5 o 116 GVIDE TO MEXICO. liipe never appeared and became auxiliary to the Church. The Temple of Guadalupe is an object of much interest to religious people, as it contains many ancient jDain tings, some of which are said to ante- date the time when the Aztecs came into the country, as well as the original picture of Guada- lupe, on the same sacred blanket, if holy men do not attest untruths. They are sustained by the assertion that there is neither paint nor artist competent to reproduce the picture, and that no artist has lived in the time of its existence able to produce it. Be all this as it may, the picture is a reality any one may see, and one in which the Mexicans have boundless faith. The writer is not a Catholic, and would be glad to see the growing power of Eome less vigorous than it is, owing to a fear that if able Rome would overthrow all other institutions of earth, and as- sume the supreme sway, alike of church and state, regardless of the seas of human blood through which she might have to wade to attain that end. She is surely advancing steadily toward that goal, and may reach and seize it if so disposed. But let us charitably hope she cherishes no such even remote design. However all this may be, Protestants need not deceive themselves about the strong, uneradicable hold Eome has on Mexico; but it is difficult for a cold, dispassionate observer, living in the country and daily mingling with the natives, not hearing nor speaking a word otlier than Spanish in months, to imagine how Protestantism would in any way benefit ]\[exico or Mexicans. GUIDE TO MEXICO. II7 There are a great many other feast days, mostly of church origin, in Mexico, when the poor laborer is idle, though the stores are open half the day, as they are on Sunday. All Saints^ day, November 1st, is the day the graves are decorated in Mexico — a beautiful cus- tom. The cemeteries and graveyards claim and have tributes of floral offerings unapproachable in any other part of the world, at that date, as no other land, not even Florida, can produce the flowers. It were heartless to sneer at Guadalupe and Mexican faith in her, especially on the part of Christians who do not always live as well up to their own professions as those poor Mexicans do to theirs. God Almighty will never damn the Mexicans for a faith that never had a human vic- tim, and never caused man to make war on his fellow. It is a clean and bloodless faith, that never will breed distress on earth. Let the Mexi- cans enjoy it in peace, for they deserve a rest. AXCIEISTT WONDEES. It passes mortal knowledge whether the colossal pyramids of Mexico, or mounds, as they are known in common parlance, were religious or mili- tary. They unquestionably were the product of much devotion, great expenditure of current wealth, or undisputable slavery, not equaled in the construction of the pyramids of ancient Egypt. The stupendous one, in Cholula, on the Inter- oceanic Railway, some seven or more miles from 118 GUIDE TO MEXICO. the city of Puebla, is much larger than the grand- est in Egypt. The base, one thousand four hun- dred and twenty-three feet square, covers about forty-four acres, while the height is one hundred and seventy feet. The truncated summit has more than one acre surface. The surface of the whole structure is now covered with trees and dense shrubbery. There rests upon the summit a fine church, "Xuestra Sehora de los Eemedios," Our Lady of Remedies, in English. Historians have generally supposed that the great mound was the work of the Toltecs, as it is said to have been there when the Aztecs came into tlie plateau; but Ignatius Donnelly says it is the Tower of Babel, in his book entitled "Atlantis.'^ Whv he makes this asser- tion it is difficult to conjecture, unless he has heard or read something of a belief of some na- tives, that it was erected by a family of giants that escaped a great flood, and designed to rear it above the clouds, but were stopped by fire from heaven. This coincides with the story of the Hebrew flood and the Chinese tradition of a deluge, which seems to indicate that all ])eoples must have liad a common origin, with legends of creation and flood not all unlike. Speculation would be idle. The great work ex- ists, and was built by human hands, which is all we can ever know of its oblivious history. The pyramids of the Sun and Moon, in plain view of the Mexican TJaihvay, on both sides of the station of Otumba, the scene of the bloodiest bat- GUIDE TO MEXICO. 119 tie between Cortez and the Aztecs in 1520, are near San Jnan Teotihnacan. They are in about the same proportion, as to size, as the snn and Moon, the one of the Sun being not much in- ferior to the monarch of Cholula, just described above. The same people were probably the build- ers, and the purpose was likely the same, whether religious or military. There are numerous others in many sections of the country, some large, some small, but nearly all after one model. The ruins of cities the Aztecs are said to have found in the country, probably long antedating the Toltec race, seem to indicate that they were built by the same people who built the mounds. The ruins of Mitla, and many other nameless cities, are unquestionably evidence of civilization, probably not surpassed by that of any other peo- ple who ever lived on the earth. There are works of defense at Mitla that would make grand object lessons to military students and engineers of this age. This seems to indicate that the mounds may have been connected with great works of defense, and had a military, rather than a religious object. The ruins of a buried city as large as 'New York w^ere discovered on the Gulf Coast in 1897, en- tirely overgrown with trees and jungle. There are temples and palaces, and abundant other evi- dences of a high degree of civilization among the inhabitants, whose majestic city was probably mouldering in lifeless ruin thousands of years be- fore Babylon was founded. This is the most im- portant and mysterious discovery yet made amid 120 GUIDE TO MEXICO. the mounds and ruins of Mexico. It was certainly a mart of foreign commerce of or with people who had seagoing craft, and were masters of navi- gation. With whom and w^here did they have trade to create and sustain a metropolis of such stupendous magnitude, clown where the deep blue surge of ocean rolls? Was it with Tyre, Carthage, Eome, or all or none of these? Could it be the "Lost Atlantis'' reposing there, in her long and dreamless sleep? Surely she was never arrayed in more gorgeous splendor, nor claimed more in- habitants than the silent city that slumbers so profoundly on that desolate shore. ISTo wonder that the murmur of the wave and the song of the zephyr are ever sad, when they sigh and chant beside and over where there once must have been, for short or long, so much mortal agony; for all the millions who once smiled and sang and sighed and wept, in hovel and palace, never perished in the ecstatic bliss of rapturous dreams. How did they die? From the famine of siege and the sword of conquest, or the tidal wave of the remorseless Gulf? Who can tell? Did any ever know, after the overwhelming catastrophe? Could it have been the horrid shock to earth and nature, when the volcanic fires of Orizaba mountain first leaped with infernal force, in flaming avalanche, from the seething bowels of the world, that snuffed out the lamp of life, and left the fated city in eternal soli- tude? Something sufficient to wreck a world must have meted out that dateless doom. There seems to be strong possibility, if not logi- cal probability, that whatever force blotted that GUIDE TO MEXICO. 121 grand and populous city out of throbbing exist- ence, left the whole of Mexico cold and pulseless; else why such vast and numerous ruins everywhere that bear the same stamp of civilization, and ap- pear to have been the wrecks of the same age? It may have been depopulating vandal hordes from the far north, with which the wealthy and indolent denizens of the south were unprepared to cope, or the general doom-day of that shore and people, A^reaked by some unpropitious freak of perverse nature. Any way, they died, and left no record, nor yet hereditary story of their mel- ancholy fate; and their cities became ruins, never since the dwelling place of man. This seems to render problematic the theory of conquest: the vanquishing stranger would have been likely to have made him a home in the luxurious abode and stately palace of the despoiled, and preserved the beautiful cities for his own people, so they •would have remained tenanted when the Aztec came. But they, were deserted wastes then as they are now, according to the legend of the ancient tribes, bequeathed from sire to son and age to age,, and told till this day. The "Herald,^^ New York, contains elaborate,, graphic illustrated descriptions of these ruins, that are in no wise overdrawn. Books and books would be required to hold mere outline sketches of ruins and other prehistoric features of Mexico, not yet a part of her written history, as the work of discovery is but little pro- gressed; and the buried city, that remained wholly unknown until a few weeks past, may be no more 122 GUIDE TO MEXICO. than a single page in the voiceless marvels of her unexplored secret treasures. But these are problems that interest the anti- quarian and invite the attention of the student of ancient history. Over the weird, mournful scenes of such woeful cities there hovers a spell of pathetic mystery that should conjure romantic reverie into sem- blance of living forms, and repeople th-at solitary shore with beings that teem in the brain, and con- struct the inspiring cradle of poetic vision and its creative imagery. The unprepared prosy mind is rife with shadowy spirits that assume human shape and flit in the dread haunts of desolation, till they seem endowed with quick feeling and sufferance, that come stealing softly back upon them, till from the dull, dusty shades of ruin springs anev/ into brilliant splendor the lonely city of the dead. Who can tell if this is all mere dreaming fancy, or if the spirits of the past do not really make their presence felt, in some vague, un- certain sense, not clearly perceptil)le to the dull comprehension of flesh and blood? The experience amid siicli scenes of dead ages is fraught with aw- ful inspirations, it matters little why or where- fore; and one need not feel ashamed to confess the weakness tliat is impotent to resist the supernatu- ral influence that pervades the very atmosphere, and lurks in every shadow of ruin, grey with the traces countless years have inijirinted on each form and feature. ^lan is but human, and his nature ])rone to superstitious weakness, or it may be an untaught innate sympathy of his soul, that GUIDE TO MEXICO. 123 commnnes'with spirits of the long forgotten dead, and stirs too deeply the immortal fountain of his being. The dull insensibility of the flesh may obscure the vision of the soul, or the medium of the mortal may not possess transmitting faculties, able to catch and express the impressions with which the immortal is pregnant. Perchance it is the spirit within us that feels and realizes what the mind cannot see nor understand, when striv- ing to glance backward along the desolate wake of recordless time. It is not all idle nothingness that binds us under the responsive spell of name- less phantasy, and makes us linger in the spectral precincts of a perished world. There is a charm beyond and above the silent stage, within the dome that echoes nevermore. Where is now the dwelling-place of the emancipated spirits of count- less multitudes that died violently, without the common course of nature? Do not some of them lurk in grim recesses of the ruins, where their clay tenements repose in dust and ashes? Or may they not revisit, if for brief seasons, the weird loneli- ness of their native shore? Are they not the in- visible hosts of the spirits of pilgrims who go to view the shrines of a people whose altars burn no more, the very perfume of whose incense vanished long, long ago? Do they not try to tell us the saddening tragedy, in the scene that was their last on earth? Will not some one, some day, with a spotless soul, nurtured by a pure and blameless life, body forth as a medium, and converse with the disembodied spirits, whose phantom presence is a conviction, may be a reality, and tell the won- -^24 GUIDE TO MEXICO. droiis story to the world of life? This would be a. priceless revelation, and one not all impossible to attain, as records deemed inspired and holy unde- niably attest. Cannot the combined science and theology of this marvelous age of ever new reveal- ing light rear and endow one perfect mortal, fitted for the grand and glorious research? Poet and priest have vied with each other, por- ing over the ruins of Greece and Rome. For what? Because they were the fount of letters, the cradle of art, perchance transplanted from Mexico, near the end of all that was once illus- trious and brilliant there, certainly never bred from Greek nor Eoman seed. The ruins of Mex- ico hold and keep the dormant germs of inspira- tion, ready to spring forth into flowers and fruit, obedient to the awakening touch of researching genius, whose growing page would glow and burn with new wonders of unfoiding mystery. The vulgar dust we tread is holy, consecrated ground, the scene of romance and tragedy, untold by mor- tal words; and the air we breathe is melody per- sonified, sighing from nests of ocean foam to pin- nacles of snow, over a land whose every plant and flower exhales the divine essence of unuttered song. Florida — Italy — are cold and prosy, and never did and never can approach the frostless Edens of ^Mexico, where was once, perchance, the immortal garden, bartered for the fruit of knowl- edge, if ]\Ir. Donnelly errs not as to the site of the Tower of Babel. Then let us seek in the mystic realms of ]\rontezunia what we may not find in lands that have been long more favored. GUIDE TO MEXICO. 125 Poets need not call down the "black-eyed maid of heaven^^ to inspire their song; for the dark- orbed lasses of the torrid clime, laved by the melo- dious wave of the sleepless Gnlf, can create a spell to mock the power of the Grecian nymph, and invoke a muse whose lyre will soar beyond all Gre- cian melody. Why not praise the witchery of eyes, though mortal, that are divinely endowed — all gentleness — whose glance unfolds anew the hun- dred tales of love; or, in the flurry of overwrought passion — all fierceness — that reveals somewhat, or does not all conceal, the spectral story that should make their land immortal? Near Kansas City, in America, science has lately unearthed a battlefield, where countless thousands perished in combat more than twenty thousand years ago. N'o page of history names such numbers slain on any single field of mortal strife as repose there on the scene of their name- less struggle. Whom were they? Whence came they? May not one of the embattled hosts have come from Mexico? Perchance the army of Mex- ico was overwhelmed, and her fair land and matchless cities became a prey to the conquerors. These are themes for not all groundless stories, that might shame Troy and Marathon, and leave Canae and Waterloo eclipsed as mere petty skir- mishes. Who will disrobe them of their shroud of deep, dark mystery, and fling their breathing, pulsating, burning pages fluttering in the gale of enlightening revelation? The task might prove a labor of love, worthy of a master mind and a cun- ning hand — a rare artistic product of modern gen- 126 GUIDE TO MEXICO. ins. There should, and lanst, be some one thus endowed, or that the ruins and muse of Mexico would inspire. Once begun, the page will grow on, almost alone; the theme is so near a being of life and feeling that its lon,2: nent-up spirit will in- fuse impelling force into the medium that essays to clothe its long neglected, spectral image in a robe of language, and lend him a flowery pattern wherewithal to fashion and frame his words into pictured semblance. This is what Mexico has been, and is, and may be made, in miniature. She is no niggardly cus- todian of her boundless resources — mines of con- templation, where research will never exhaust the hidden treasures of dead thought and numb feel- ing; mines of silver, gold and jewels that will never fail; and soil and sunshine for a hundred million inhabitants: these, and more untold and much that is nameless, woo the stranger to her magic shores, far more invitingly bounteous than was the ancient Hebrew's fabled land of promise. 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