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™E DEVIL'* 
 MEXICO 
 
 <?, ^.?r 
 
 G. L. MORRIL 
 
<r, 
 
 The Complete Music Store ^ 
 
 Sole Repieientative 
 
 Steinvray 
 
 Irers & Pond 
 
 Ludwig 
 
 Bacon 
 
 Pianos 
 
 E*cb b its gr«de 
 absolutely Aandud 
 
 Genuine 
 
 Pianola Players 
 
 Pianos 
 
 The Famous 
 
 Duo Art 
 
 Self-PUyer 
 
 Piano 
 
 Thtt Busical marrel of 
 the Twentieth Centuij 
 
 Pianos for Rent 
 
 For any and all oc- 
 
 canoni. by the day 
 
 wcdc or month 
 
 Pianos Tuned 
 
 By trained men whose 
 sole work is to intelli- 
 gently perfonn this duty 
 
 Pianos Repaired 
 
 Our own workmen, in 
 
 charge of a piano ex> 
 
 pert, will take care of 
 
 your repairs. 
 
 Real Service m 
 
 Victor Records 
 
 A complete fiock aU 
 ways. Inquire about our 
 new "approval" plan, 
 which gives you the 
 privilege of trying before 
 bujring. 
 
 Victrolas 
 
 Ranging in price from 
 $15 to $300 mall fin- 
 ishes. Convenient pay- 
 ments may be ananged. 
 
 Music 
 
 Popular Song Hits^ 
 Patriotic Band Marches, 
 Arias from the Operas, 
 Sacred Music and 
 Songs, Inftrumental Se- 
 ledions. Lively Dance 
 Music, etc.. Our enor- 
 mous Aock makes it a 
 pradical certainty you 
 can find here the piece 
 you want. Try! 
 
 Player Piano 
 Music Rolls 
 
 Our 8ele<ftion is very 
 complete and we receive 
 all the new rolls as fait 
 as they are published. 
 Call in and we will 
 play some over for you 
 
 METROPOUTAN MUSIC CO. 
 
 THE COMPLETE MUSIC STORE 
 
 ^V 41-43 So. Sixth St, Minneapolis, Minn. /^ 
 
A BUZZARD'S BANQUET 
 MEXICO 
 
G. L. MORRILL 
 
THE DEVIL 
 IN MEXICO 
 
 BY 
 
 G. L. MORRILL 
 
 ("GOUGHTLY") 
 
 PASTOK OF PEOPLE'S CHURCH, 
 Minneapolis, Minn., U. S. A. 
 
 LOWELL L. MORRILL 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHER 
 

 Copyright, 1917, by 
 G. L. MORRILL 
 
 / 
 
 NOV 19 1917 
 ©CI.A49435V 
 
 h^ 
 
 '^-^ ( 
 
Dedicated 
 To 
 
 My Son 
 
 Lowell L^ Morrill 
 
BOOKS BY G. L. MORRILL 
 
 ROTTEN REPUBLICS— CENTRAL AMERICA 
 
 TO HELL AND BACK— SOUTH AMERICA 
 
 GOLIGHTLY 'ROUND THE GLOBE 
 
 TRACKS OF A TENDERFOOT 
 
 SOUTH SEA SILHOUETTES 
 
 PARSON'S PILGRIMAGE 
 
 A MUSICAL MINISTER 
 
 FIRESIDE FANCIES 
 
 HERE AND THERE 
 
 PEOPLE'S PULPIT 
 
 EASTER ECHOES 
 
 THE MORALIST 
 
 UPPER CUTS 
 
 DRIFTWOOD 
 
 MUSINGS 
 
The Devil in Mexico 
 
 Go to the Devil, gentle reader, if you want to know Mexico, 
 for he has made it his favorite resort. There is sulphur and 
 smoke in volcanoes; heat in climate and food; torment in 
 cactus plant and insect life; fire in the eyes of the seiioritas; 
 hell-hate in the hearts of the rulers and despair in the souls 
 of the peons. From the beginning the Devil has been Mexi- 
 co's mental, moral and military hero and today he is the real 
 patron saint of the people. Viva Diablo ! 
 
 — GOLIGHTLY 
 
Foreword 
 
 Mexico is one-sixteenth of an inch nearer hell than any country 
 I have ever visited in my round-the-world travels. 
 
 "M" in Mexico means miu*der and misrule. Her flag — green, 
 white and red — stands for jealousy, cowardice and butchery. The 
 national bird should be a buzzard, the coat of arms a skull and 
 cross-bones, and her national hymn, "Caramba, Damn the Gringo!" 
 
 Mexico is a land of dirt, disease, destitution, dishonesty, dilapi- 
 dation, darkness, despots, delay, debt, deviltry and degeneracy. 
 God has blessed it as one of the wealthiest and most beautiful 
 countries in the world, and man has cursed it. The country has 
 gone back to the days before Porfirio Diaz. 
 
 Mexico has mines of untold wealth, but she is bankrupt; oil, 
 but gross mental darkness; lovely climate, but no spiritual atmos- 
 phere; forests of every valuable tree but the tree of knowledge. 
 Her bloom and charm are gone — so are most of the best Americans. 
 This garden of Eden has become a back-yard ash-heap. 
 
 The cities are dens of thieves from the highest official to the 
 lowest office boy. The government chokes the people ^vith one hand 
 and picks their pocket with the other. From the Rio Grande to 
 Guatemala, Mexico is a Jericho highway of robbery. Many cities 
 are rubbish heaps of huddling, starving, pest-stricken paupers and 
 desperate thieves — ^mere homes of vermin and vice. 
 
 Mexico is the white man's burden — ^a burden of famine, fever, 
 poverty, ignorance, bankruptcy, war and superstition. "When the 
 Canaanites w^ere dying of corruption and contaminating the sur- 
 rounding nations, God commanded Israel to destroy them. This 
 Bible incident may be Uncle Sam's authority for trjing to preserve 
 the better part of Mexico for hei'self, as well as to protect his own 
 borders. 
 
 We were our brother's keeper in the Philippines and Cuba, and 
 our responsibility includes intervention in Mexico whenever it may 
 be necessaiy. This Tropic of Cancer country is a tropical cancer, 
 and it may be that the only cure is Uncle Sam's sword. 
 
 — G. L. MORRILL 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Page 
 
 Florida 1 
 
 Palm Beach Nuts 3 
 
 A Bunch of Keys 7 
 
 Sponges 8 
 
 In the Soup 9 
 
 Key Westers 10 
 
 Havana's Satanic Sabbath... 12 
 
 Insurrection — Cuba's Pastime IS 
 Mantazas Hermitage and 
 
 Caves 17 
 
 Ship Sports 19 
 
 "Custom"ary Thieves 21 
 
 Whiskey in Church 23 
 
 Unprogressive Progreso .... 24 
 
 Yucatan Chewing Gum 25 
 
 A Merida Market 26 
 
 A Despot 27 
 
 Underground Rivers 28 
 
 A Tame Dance 29 
 
 Cheer Up! 30 
 
 Merry Meridans 32 
 
 "Feast of Blisters" 34 
 
 Strung Up 35 
 
 Around Town 36 
 
 Wild Women 37 
 
 Sweet 38 
 
 Working Miracles 39 
 
 Church in the Lurch 39 
 
 Died Game 41 
 
 Street Life 45 
 
 A Slow Start 47 
 
 Night in a Benighted Village 48 
 
 The Road to Ruin 51 
 
 Attacked by Ticks 54 
 
 A Pyramid Climb 55 
 
 "House of the Nuns" 57 
 
 Uxmal's Governor 58 
 
 Ruin Ruminations 60 
 
 On a Yucatan Train 63 
 
 Campeche 65 
 
 A Vile Inn...^ 66 
 
 Firecracker Fiends 67 
 
 Masqueraders 70 
 
 Caricatured Clergy 70 
 
 Confetti 71 
 
 Native Dances 72 
 
 Carnival Curse 74 
 
 Page 
 
 The State of Campeche 11 
 
 A Fishing Village 79 
 
 Plague Passports 80 
 
 Throwing the Bull 81 
 
 A Sisal Hacienda 83 
 
 A "Peon" of Joy 85 
 
 Yucatecan Traits 86 
 
 Henequen History 88 
 
 King Sisal 91 
 
 Almighty Alvarado 94' 
 
 Adios, Yucatan 100 
 
 A Vera Cruz Holdup 102 
 
 Wharf Rats 104 
 
 Professional Pilferers 105 
 
 Night Life ...106 
 
 In a "Norther".... 109 
 
 Derelicts 113 
 
 Disease and Depravity 116 
 
 Train "Despatchers" 119 
 
 Viva Juarez ! 121 
 
 Afloat Again 123 
 
 Oil Factories and Olfacto- 
 ries 124 
 
 Red-Tape 126 
 
 Tampico Tramps 127 
 
 An Infernal Shame 129 
 
 Treaty and Entreaty 130 
 
 A De"Lind"quent Diplomut.134 
 
 Dub Diplomacy ■• . . . 135 
 
 Pershing and Politics.. 138 
 
 Died in Vain 138 
 
 "Plaza de Prostitution" 141 
 
 Watchful Waiting 142 
 
 Burned by Bandits 145 
 
 Between Stations 146 
 
 Kaiseristas in Mexico 147 
 
 A Silver Smelter 149 
 
 Montere - Landmarks 150 
 
 Hats 152 
 
 A Dirty Depot 154 
 
 Cattle Cars 155 
 
 Saltillo 157 
 
 Desert Stations 158 
 
 Hanged! 159 
 
 Hellish Atrocities 161 
 
 "Mucho Disgusto" 163 
 
 San Luis Potosi 164 
 
CONTENTS—Continued. 
 
 Page 
 Robbed 165 
 
 On the Anxious Seat 165 
 
 Queretaro and the Constitu- 
 tion 166 
 
 Martyr Blood 169 
 
 The American Club 170 
 
 A Farcical Election 171 
 
 Carranza the Criminal 173 
 
 A Malodorous Market 175 
 
 The "Imposing" Cathedral. .176 
 
 Ruined Zocala 179 
 
 Pickpockets and Thieves' 
 
 Market 179 
 
 Government Finance 181 
 
 Palace Bloodshed 182 
 
 Lovely Alameda 184 
 
 Joy Rides 184 
 
 Brutal Bullfights 187 
 
 World's Best Boulevard 191 
 
 Serenading a Poet 192 
 
 Wanted — A Newspaper 193 
 
 Grasshopper-Hill 197 
 
 Godless, Grafting Guadalupe. 200 
 
 A Fairy Story 202 
 
 Holy Steps 205 
 
 Sacred Sewer Water 206 
 
 Inquisition Infamies 208 
 
 Coffin Nails 210 
 
 Iturbide and His Hotel 211 
 
 Cockfight Gambling 212 
 
 A Perfumed Paradise 213 
 
 Floating Truck Gardens 214 
 
 Venice Out"ranked" 215 
 
 Xochtmilcans 216 
 
 Zapatistas 217 
 
 Fly and Dirt Eaters 217 
 
 Pernicious Pulque 219 
 
 Prohibition 222 
 
 Jailed 224 
 
 "Popo" and "Itza" 226 
 
 Hermits and Harlots 227 
 
 A Cold Reception 228 
 
 Theatres 230 
 
 Red Lights 231 
 
 Hotel Hells ....233 
 
 Disorganized 235 
 
 Sun and Moon Pyramids 235 
 
 "Road of the Dead" 237 
 
 Page 
 
 A Subterranean 'Town 239 
 
 Dig Up! 240 
 
 A War God 241 
 
 A Stone Calendar 242 
 
 Picture-Writing 243 
 
 A Butcher Block 244 
 
 Cruelty and Cannibalism. .. .244 
 
 Aztec Laws and Go Is 247 
 
 Crocodile Tears 249 
 
 Good Americans 250 
 
 Art and Artisan.. ..250 
 
 Beggars 251 
 
 A Gold Train 252 
 
 Angel Architects 254 
 
 Pav and Pray 256 
 
 Puebla 257 
 
 Ancient Cholula 259 
 
 Cortez, the Devil Crusader. .261 
 
 Choked to Death ...269 
 
 Good and Bad 269 
 
 The Star Mountain 271 
 
 The Valley and Shadow of 
 
 Death 272 
 
 Orizaba 273 
 
 Fleas, Feathers, Flashlights. 275 
 
 Seeing Things .276 
 
 A Nervous Ride 278 
 
 Tales of Travelers 280 
 
 A Brush with Bandits 280 
 
 Saved 282 
 
 Some Letters 284 
 
 The Revolution Habit 287 
 
 Mexican Beatitudes 289 
 
 "Damn the Gringo" 289 
 
 Why Not? 291 
 
 Muzzled 292 
 
 Morrillisms on Mexico 294 
 
 Mexico 328 
 
 Hell in Mexico 331 
 
 My Mexican Alphabet 334 
 
 A "Fast" Boat 335 
 
 Manicures 336 
 
 Stopovers 338 
 
 Patriotism 339 
 
 War 340 
 
 Liberty 342 
 
 Old Glory 343 
 
igpHitHii«ii«H«Ti5iRiraigiiaiRraiaCTgii5iia(«ii^ 
 
 List of Illustrations 
 
 m 
 
 A BUZZARD'S BANQUET Frontispiece 
 
 ■ G. L. MOREILL 
 
 ' INSURRECTOS ARRESTED, HAVANA, CUBA 
 
 mOME, SWEET HOME IN YUCATAN 
 
 MAYAN RUINS, UXMAL, YUCATAN 
 
 ' SHOT ON SUSPICION, YUCATAN 
 
 CLERGY CARICATURED IN CARNIVAL, 
 CAMPECHE, MEXICO 
 
 ^ PASSENGER TRAIN BURNED BY BANDITS, 
 NEAR VICTORIA, MEXICO 
 
 ^ "BEGGARS DESCRIPTION," VANEGAS, 
 MEXICO 
 
 A BREAD-WINNER, MEXICO 
 
 ^ A MEXICAN LANDSCAPE, CHARCAS, MEX- 
 ICO 
 
 -» REFINED PLEASURE, BULLRING, MEXICO 
 CITY 
 
 AN AZETC TRINITY, MEXICO 
 
 DEPARTED WORTH, PLAZA, MEXICO CITY 
 
 ^ SOLDIER-GUARDED TRAIN, ESPERANZA, 
 MEXICO 
 
 -TOWN DESTROYED BY BANDITS, NEAR 
 CORDOVA, MEXICO 
 
 Eai0MS^QPISiSISIBSIQIffllHIQIE3la!BlaiBiaiSIBlSialQS!S!Q|Q|Q|ElaiEaiQIQ!E3lEalQIEIQ 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 FLORIDA 
 
 HE United States government refused to give me a 
 passport for travel in Mexico, or letters of introduc- 
 tion to American representatives there. Since I was 
 a good American citizen, and not a criminal fleeing 
 from justice, I went just the same. After making my will and 
 kissing my wife good-bye, I started off with a bandana <hand- 
 kerchief as a flag for protection, armed with a safety razor, 
 gun-metal watch, box of insect powder, a cake of soap and 
 the Bible. 
 
 Minneapolis was snow-bound, only one train pulled out for 
 Chicago, I was on it and got there with it late next morning. 
 From Chicago to Jacksonville the Dixie Flyer was slow as a 
 fly in molasses, but gave me plenty of time to look out on my 
 old Kentucky home, with its fair women, fast horses and fine 
 whiskey; Tennessee, with Lookout Mountain, historic battle- 
 field and cemetery ; dear old Georgia, where an untimely frost 
 had made food and vegetables more dear than ever; and 
 Florida, the land of flowers, fruits, "crackers," moss, swamps, 
 alligators, land-speculators, invalids and tourists. 
 
 Ponce de Leon was the first tourist who came to Florida. 
 He landed in 1512 and tourists have been "landed" on ever 
 since. It was at Easter, a little late in the season, yet he was 
 early enough to grab a few acres of real estate. He was lured 
 by a fake ad of a "fountain of youth," "elixir of life" and 
 "magical spring." He was disappointed and didn't find what 
 he expected, like many who go there now and tan and fatten 
 while their pocketbooks grow thin, sickly and waste away. 
 
 The day Ponce landed he planted a Spanish cross of stone, 
 but thank God it has not grown very well on American soil! 
 
2 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 He saw the mainland on Easter Sunday, but it is far from 
 being a pious peninsula now. The day was *'Pascha Flor- 
 idum," feast of flowers, and he called the land "Florida." 
 Did his ship movie man, photographer or cartoonist make a pic- 
 ture of him landing? If so, I'm positive the negative has been 
 lost. Later he came to a place, now St. Augustine, and slept 
 out of doors. Were he to visit it now he could stay in a 
 hotel with his name on the front door. 
 
 Spain made Ponce governor of Florida and gave him power 
 to colonize it. He started the first Florida Land Colony Co. 
 which failed like many others since. The native Seminoles 
 were not as anxious then to receive tourists as the Floridians 
 are now, and they made him a target for a poisoned arrow 
 from the effects of which he died. However, his name lives, 
 not only in history, but in the big hotel at St. Augustine, and 
 his name and fame have been carried all over the world by 
 travellers who have stolen this hotel's silver spoons and linen 
 napkins bearing his monogram. 
 
 Iri St. Augustine I remembered some interesting history. 
 The Huguenots were so persecuted in France that Admiral de 
 Coligny sailed to Florida to find a haven of refuge. He 
 founded a colony near St. Augustine. Then appeared on the 
 scene a perfect gentleman — the mild-mannered Mendez — as 
 perfect a Spaniard as ever burned a native or cut his throat. 
 He politely massacred the whole colony. He came with orders 
 to "gibbet and behead all Protestants in these regions." 
 French animation was suspended by the neck, and this Christ- 
 like inscription was tagged to each hanged body, "Not as 
 Frenchmen but as heretics." 
 
 St. Augustine is the Methuselah of American cities, dating 
 from 1565. There is no doubt of its antiquity. I knew it was 
 the oldest city from a visit to one of the restaurants. The 
 bread was hard as the famous gateposts, the butter strong as 
 Fort Marion, the eggs old as the cannon balls, and the meat 
 as fresh as the sulphur fountain. 
 
 St. Augustine is advertised as a famous "winter resort," 
 and I found it so, for every one was wearing furs or over- 
 coats. Jack Frost had just held a Florida carnival which 
 had cost millions of dollars in frozen oranges, pineapples, etc. 
 Added to all this sorrow was the grief of a policeman who 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 3 
 
 told me the town was dead ; that there were only seven police- 
 men, and no public gambling or drinking; that the red light 
 district had been driven way out beyond the city limits, and 
 tourists now had few attractions. He hoped for a better 
 
 season next year because Rev. , who had organized 
 
 all this reform, had received a letter advising him to buy a 
 passenger ticket and "git," or he would occupy a box all to 
 himself in the baggage-car. 
 
 The reel life of the town is the movie people who come 
 here to make pictures, put up at the swell hotels, and act at 
 night in a way that would be severely censured in good 
 society and censored on the screen. 
 
 The town of St. Augustine has reformed like the saint it 
 was named after, who, according to his own classic "Con- 
 fessions," after being a devil in his own home town of Car- 
 thage, became a philosopher and preacher. 
 
 PALM BEACH NUTS 
 
 ALM BEACH is where the palm is held out for your 
 money as soon as you land. What do you go to 
 see? See your money go. We went to the 
 beach. It was cold and no one was in swimming. 
 Instead of bare legs we saw bare sand and empty 
 chairs. The price was twenty-five cents a chair and 
 well worth it if we could have viewed the merry mermaids. 
 The white breakers rolled in saying, "Nothing doing," and 
 sighed at the absence of fair figures, fancy bathing suits and 
 fastidious pleasure-seekers. This beach was like any other 
 for no one was there, but on warm days, when the girls are 
 there. Palm Beach is better than the first row in a burlesque 
 show. Then color, costume, commotion, low necks, high 
 skirts, bare legs, wicked winks and studied poses kindle the 
 onlooker's thoughts into a flame that Neptune cannot put out. 
 This is the place for high jinks that would shame the half- 
 naked savages of the South Seas and outdo the love-antics of 
 the nymphs and Gods in old mythology. 
 
 We didn't swim, play golf, dance or flirt, yet managed to 
 get in the "push" by having a negro trundle us in a sort of 
 invalid rattan wheel-chair, variously called a "pushmobile" 
 
4 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 and "Afromobile." Passing along the shore of Lake Worth, 
 with its private yachts and homes, we wound through the 
 "jungle trail" with its birds, trees and flowers, and reached 
 the "alligator farm" with its crocodiles and sea-cow. It was 
 a relief to get away from showy, human nature to this soli- 
 tude of nature, though stillness was broken by our ebony 
 guide who told us things that made us think this wild jungle 
 trail was very tame except for the wild lovers who haunted 
 it afternoons and nights. At Palm Beach nothing is free save 
 the air, looks and morals of the visitors. 
 
 "On with the dance and off with formality and extra 
 clothes," is the slogan of the fast crowd who dance in the 
 Cocoanut Grove at 5 P. M. I watched the colored lights 
 shine on highly colored cheeks and costumes. Even in the 
 slow dances many of the colors were fast. Now it was a mad 
 mob of merry-makers, then a swarm of butterflies, or a bunch 
 of Bacchantes. In the morning you see the beach nuts, in 
 the evening the Cocoa nuts. 
 
 It was a relief to meet my Minneapolis tent and avniing 
 friend, C. M. Rawitzer, sitting with his family contented and 
 yawning in the shade of the palm trees. 
 
 Dinner is the day's event at the Poineiana Hotel. 'Tis a 
 thrilling sight to see an army of waiters "charge" through 
 miles of dinner-table trenches, while the guests, armed with 
 saber knives and bayonet forks, fight to get food. After the* 
 attack the survivors sit around in the lobby, stand or march 
 about the miles of halls and foyers, shooting glances at each 
 other and attempting to make "conquests." Despite the heat 
 of the room there were many chilling glances and cold shoul- 
 ders if you were not one of the "regulars." Giddy boys and 
 girls, thorough-bred sports of men and women were all there 
 to see and be seen, to show all they dared, to flaunt their 
 gold and diamonds and exhibit everything they could on 
 their outside which did but advertise the naked poverty of 
 their inner mentality and morality. 
 
 'M"id all this glare, gold and giddiness I watched an old 
 woman, who was out of the society race, but painfully anxious 
 to be noticed. This slave of fashion with rope of pearls 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 5 
 
 around her neck, bosom bound round with chains of gold, and 
 handcuffed with bracelets, leaned back in her chair. When 
 she saw me look at her she raised the lace on her breast that 
 I might see her hidden diamonds, then rested her withered 
 arms for me to' admire her bracelets, moved her bony, bedia- 
 moned fingers, heaved her upholstered bosom, and writhed her 
 wrinkled, snaky neck. 
 
 Ye gods, what a sight! This last leaf on life's tree — this 
 winter of discontent amid these tropical surroundings — this 
 dying spark in life's conflagration of passion — this woman of 
 three score years making this unholy show of herself, when 
 she ought to be in bed or with a Bible on her knees preparing 
 to meet her God. This after-dinner sideshow was a fulsome 
 fiesta of Fashion, a vicious Vanity Fair. I was glad to leave. 
 
 The ''Beach Club" is the Monte Carlo of U. S. A. To gain 
 admission you must be a member, or be vouched for by a 
 member in good standing. I met a member who offered to 
 take me in and show me around. I had seen the real Monte 
 Carlo abroad and was told this was like it with its games 
 and sports. I did manage to get by the Cerberus at the door, 
 but was then politely stopped by a smiling, monkey flunky 
 with an expression of, "Thus far shalt thou go and no fur- 
 ther."' He informed me I couldn't enter without being in 
 evening dress. Since I was like the man in Scripture, without 
 the wedding garment, I was cast out. Nevertheless, at the 
 door I saw two old satyrs taking a chance with two pow- 
 dered, painted dames, who in life's game had evidently lost 
 everything worth having. One of the girls was tipsy. They 
 made some fly remarks and were welcomed in. 
 
 This "Beach" club is a place of financial and moral 
 wrecks. It is openly run in defiance of the Florida state law 
 against gambling. There is not a law of man or God that it 
 does not break, except the one that unless you wear a tuxedo 
 or Prince Albert you cannot enter. Here hearts, heads and 
 bank accounts are broken. Fabulous amounts exchange 
 hands among the players. If you are just a looker-on you pay 
 for the privilege — a dollar for a glass of water or ten dollars 
 a plate for light luncheon. Question: Why does the gov- 
 
6 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 ernment pinch the little gamblers and permit this "white 
 house" to be a black palace of ruin and despair? 
 
 Palm Beach is a rich fool's paradise — a lunatic limbo for 
 people with loud clothes, lots of money, loose morals and light 
 heads. There is some excuse for the routine of an insane 
 asylum but none for the silly Palm Beach daily program. 
 Here it is: Yawns, idleness, ennui and indigestion; dressing 
 for beach and undressing for dinner; sun tan at the "Brown- 
 ing Club" and tonic baths; whisking around in an invalid 
 wheel chair in company of dudes and pug dogs; driveling 
 talk of clothes and looks; drinking pink tea or cocktails; 
 reading the latest trash ; spooning, dancing, flirting, golfing, 
 yachting, sporting, and parading high-jpriced dogs, cats and 
 monkeys whose mentality and morals are often higher than 
 their owners. 
 
 Palm Beach is the place where bad people go to have a 
 good time. The more disreputable the resort, the more popu- 
 lar it is to high society. Poor pleasure-seekers, whose law is 
 fashion and folly their pursuit! Bubbles on the wave of 
 pleasure, a tracery on the sand which time's tide will soon 
 erase. Every year the siren voice of society calls, "Get into 
 the social sv/im of Palm Beach; come with your private car, 
 or in your yacht on the Gulf stream of gold; come with full 
 purse and empty head and heart; come, you 'best' society, 
 that you may be seen at your worst ; come, all ye who would 
 desert the temple of your mind and soul for this Circe's palace 
 of fleshly pleasures." 
 
 Even Mother Nature here is togged out in society form, 
 laced and corseted. Trees and flowers are trimmed out of_ all 
 picturesqueness ; natural curves give way to geometrical 
 squares ; lawns are imprisoned in concrete curbs ; the air is 
 perfumed with the balmy fragrance of cigarettes and cigars; 
 there is no rest found iDeneath palms, fruit trees or among 
 plants and flowers on account of the stinging swarm of society 
 gnats. Florid Florida folders describe Palm Beach as para- 
 dise, but the attractions to me were outside the garden. 
 Everything is overestimated. It is very far from the luxuri- 
 ance of Hawaii, the sport of Monte Carlo, the beauty and his- 
 tory of Mediterranean resorts. It takes more than a railroad 
 and a big hotel to beat them. 
 
INSURRECTOS ARRESTED 
 
 HAVANA, CUBA 
 
HOME, SWEET HOME IN YUCATAN 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 Palm Beach pauperizes and provokes. Her short season 
 sickens and shames. She is the painted, pampered prostitute 
 
 of Florida. "Do as you d please," is her motto. This 
 
 was no place for me or a minister's son, so "L" and I took 
 the midnight train for Key West. 
 
 A BUNCH OF KEYS 
 
 WE lay "dovrn to pleasant dreams and awoke with a jerk 
 early next morning to find ourselves covered with 
 white blankets of sand. The train did not come with 
 break-neck speed through the swamps, but it stopped 
 with a jerk that drove my head against the partition and nearly 
 broke my neck. This Flagler system is a heathen law to itself. 
 Porters and conductors are not overobliging or courteous, and 
 their rules, while on the run, are like Vanderbilt's, ''The 
 
 public be d d." Yet one can scarcely blame them when 
 
 he recalls the fussy society folks and mutt millionaires who 
 travel on this East Coast route expecting heaven above and 
 all earth beneath to wait on them and their whims. 
 
 Like the people who imagine there is a bridge connecting 
 Australia with New Zealand, I had always thought this Flor- 
 ida "sea-going" railroad ran over a low bridge all the way 
 to Key West, and the waves dashed up to wash the cars and 
 clean the sand from the trucks. But it was muchly other- 
 wise. Instead, the road from Miami to Key West is 156 miles 
 across some 30 little islands, called "keys," joined by steel 
 and concrete bridges. Eiding along you see a smooth, glassy 
 gulf, green, blue and gold and gemmed with palmy islands 
 between which appears now and then a white-gleaming sail of 
 a fisherman's boat. 
 
 If you are a disciple of Izaak Walton and worship ichthy- 
 ology you may make a short stay at Long Key, or some other 
 point, and catch over 300 varieties of fish — maybe. Cavalla, 
 barracuda, amber-jack, sharks, swordfish, devil-fish, and tar- 
 pon, known as silver king, are waiting to be caught or catch 
 you. These keys unlock untold wealth to the fishermen. 
 
8 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 The word "key" is from the Spanish "cayo," meaning 
 island. Key West signifies "Cayo Hueso," which means 
 "Bone Key." "Ki-yo Way-so," "Cayo Hueso," degenerated 
 into "Key West," and Key West has been degenerating ever 
 since. The word is supposed to refer to the bones of the 
 early Indian inhabitants, but the only bones you find now are 
 bone heads and fish bones. 
 
 SPONGES 
 
 AT Key West we stopped at the Oversea Hotel and then 
 started out to see the sponge industr3^ I had just had 
 ample proof that the sponge belonged to the animal 
 kingdom, for we had traveled here with human 
 sponges who crowded the sleeper aisles with extra baggage and 
 in the washroom "soaked" up all the space. They filled the 
 seats with the contents of handbags, hung up coat, vest and 
 tie on different hooks, stood in the middle of the room splash- 
 ing water like a walrus, or cleaned their testh and spouted 
 water like a whale. Some wrestled with a towel in taking a 
 bath, others stood with arm akimbo getting a cowardly shave 
 with a safety razor, and one old man bestrode the room like a 
 Colossus as he picked up an old-fashioned razor and braced 
 himself to avoid cutting off his ear, nose or lip. 
 
 Along shore we saw a fleet of sponge boats. A wooden, 
 weather-beaten, barn-like warehouse stood near by. We 
 climbed up its rickety stairs to see the process of scrap- 
 ing, drying, cutting, sorting and packing the sponge. 
 The manager was kind and I "sponged" on him for 
 information. Sponges for the United States were formerly 
 shipped from the Mediterranean and the Bahamas, but later and 
 better from Key West after 1852. Then some 150 sailing ves- 
 sels, with 1,500 men, brought back catches from around Key 
 West that were worth seven and eight hundred thousand dol- 
 lars. There is a great falling off now. The men go much further 
 and get less. In 1904 the Greeks came with diving apparatus 
 and made headquarters at Tarpon. The old catcher shook his 
 grizzled head and said it was too bad. The Greeks grabbed 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 9 
 
 the young sponges, tramped all over the beds with ruin, so 
 that today the sponge industry is quietly sleeping in its bed 
 and almost dead. 
 
 The sponge is a fish and an animal. When his thin, slimy 
 skin — his life — is stripped off, the skeleton is left and that 
 is what we use and find in so many closets. Sponges are 
 small and big, light-colored and dark, fine and coarse. He 
 showed me specimens called "green, ;velvet, grass, glove, 
 sheep-nose or wool." 
 
 The sponge belongs to the animal kingdom — so does man, 
 the biggest sponge of all. You find him in religion, society, 
 business and politics, always soaking up and getting something 
 for himself, seldom giving out anything much but dirt. The 
 human sponge takes the cake for being dirty and selfish. 
 Don't be a sponge; be a fountain, an artesian well, and give 
 up and out for others. 
 
 IN THE SOUP 
 
 TjHERE is no mock-turtle soup here, for they have the 
 I real thing. I went back of "turtle dock" and saw 
 ^^^1 the "crawls." Here were half a dozen turtles 
 ^^^^^B swimming in pens where they are kept and fed on 
 sea-weed until the time comes for them to be fished out and 
 killed. They are vegetarians, eating no kind of meat. They 
 tip the scales anywhere from 25 to 1,000 pounds, but the 
 choice specimen is about 200 pounds. Formerly they were 
 caught around Key West waters. Now they are scarce and 
 are found in the Caribbean. Poor turtle ! One came up for 
 breath and looked at me as much as to say, "Are you the 
 cannibal who kidnapped me from my happy home and put 
 me in this little pen?" Byron's poetry, "Love of the turtle 
 now melts into sorrow," has been revised by prosy Key West 
 to read, "The love of the turtle now melts into soup." I was 
 unwilling to linger and see his "sorrow" and turned towards 
 the ' ' damned ' ' blood spot on the wharf where his brother and 
 sister had been beheaded the day before. This made me sick 
 and I went to the turtle canning factory, the only one of its 
 kind in the world, where they boil out in vats and cut up 
 
10 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 Mr. Turtle into a fine grade of green, greasy soup that is 
 canned and exported for epicures the world over. It's fine; 
 I ordered it three times a day in restaurant and cafe. 
 
 KEY WESTERS 
 
 KEY WEST caters to the epicures with acquired taste 
 for unnecessary luxuries of sponges, turtles and 
 cigars. The cigar is one of the trinity that lives and 
 rules here. What it needs to thrive on is clear atmos- 
 phere, equable climate, good water, freedom from smoke and 
 dust. It does well here. Of the many cigar factories, we 
 visited the *'Cortez" and watched the process I have seen in> 
 Cuba and the Philippines. A reader was entertaining the 
 hands with a story while their hands were busy rolling, filling 
 or wrapping the cigars. A rose or cigar by any other 
 name smells as sweet or strong to me. I don't smoke, but 
 they say these cigars burn well. It may be because they are 
 named after Cortez, who burned ships and natives and is now 
 probably burning himself. 
 
 We took a staring stroll about the town. There were 
 no flies on Thomas Jefferson, but there were many on the 
 hotel here that bears his name. Key West is America's 
 Gibraltar. It is situated between the gulf and sea and in 
 some ways is more "rocky" than the European place. The 
 naval barracks were closed, the courthouse and coffee houses 
 were open and filled. In one coffee place we saw several 
 school-children, about nine or ten years old, sitting around 
 a table. I supposed they would order ice-cream. You 
 can imagine my horror to hear them call for black coffee, 
 which they drank without milk and with plenty of sugar. 
 After this they lighted cigarets and walked out as if they 
 were real, big men. Coffee is the beverage since the liquor 
 saloons are closed. It is strong, but makes the excessive 
 drinker weak. I noticed a man leave a court-room desk. 
 Without waiting to put on his coat, he hurried to the caf6 to 
 get a big glass of coffee. Smoking cigars, quaffing coffee, eat- 
 ing turtle soup are the chief pursuits of man here. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 11 
 
 Key West is a loafer's paradise. Men stand on street cor- 
 ners, idle on docks, doze in windows. Laziness is so prev- 
 alent that one sees signs near steps of the public build- 
 ings, "Sitting Prohibited." The only busy beings I saw in the 
 streets were ants. Men lean, houses lean, everything has a 
 lean and hungry look. Homes and buildings are mostly wood, 
 ramshackle and unpainted. I saw many burned houses. Had 
 they burned with shame at their neglected condition, or were 
 they in ashes because careless smokers had thrown lighted 
 stumps on them? 
 
 I met one man who was an exception to this general rule of 
 idleness. He evidently was not the hero of Dekker's "Shoe- 
 maker's Holiday," for he is busy all the time. I looked at 
 and listened to him while he fixed "L's" shoes. He had been 
 a worker all over the world, a gold-miner and diamond-digger 
 in South Africa, and could speak five languages. He came to 
 Key "West for work and worked, but it was such an unusual 
 and demoralizing sight that the lazy lookers-on were first 
 astonished, then jealous, and afterwards made fun of him, 
 calling him names, and finally plotted against him and trapped 
 him into trouble. 
 
 Crooks go straight to Key "West. Not only are many ships 
 wrecked near by, but it is the place of moral driftwood. Once 
 the haunt of the pirate and smuggler, it became the rendezvous 
 of the crook and gambler. I met a former gambler on the 
 street. He told me the town was ruined, for gambling had 
 been shut down a few weeks before, and that he had been com- 
 pelled to open a butcher shop to make his daily bread. His 
 eight-year-old son stood by him, looked into his dear papa's 
 face and listened earnestly as the father spoke in praise of the 
 virtues of roulette and drink. The only "wicked" game I 
 saw that night was one of checkers at a colored club, I ate a 
 Key "West dinner in a former dive. The turtle soup was tooth- 
 some, the proprietor said his place was clean now and he would 
 
 be G d d if he'd have any one around who swore in 
 
 his presence. 
 
 The citizens of Key "West are born with cigars in their 
 mouth and at an early age are well educated in the arts of 
 loafing, stealing, smuggling and gambling. The good people 
 
12 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 are very good — the bad, not atrociously bad, but addicted to 
 
 small vices. 
 
 The city boasts the finest brand of climate in the U. S. A., 
 and is the only American city below the Yankee frost line. 
 Its golden sunshine, gulf current, soft trade winds are excel- 
 lent for everything but work. Key West is a lovely location 
 for the Castle of Indolence, 
 
 Florida climate is great for oranges, grapefruit and 
 "crackers." The state raises the finest fruit and some of the 
 poorest specimens of humanity. The climate is a bane and 
 not a blessing. Florida is the outer reef of Latin manana 
 land. It would postpone the sun's rising or setting and do 
 tomorrow, or never, what should be done today. Florida really 
 belongs to the Procrasti-Nation. Her "cracker" citizens are 
 pulled off the stage of action by the "hook" worm. 
 
 From the time the passengers on Noah's Ark talked of the 
 weather it has been a leading topic of conversation. Good cli- 
 mate is something but not everything. I would no more speak 
 disrespectfully of the climate than of the equator. Were the 
 subject of climate and weather to fail, the universal topic of 
 conversation would cease. How could strangers break the 
 ice, or lovers grow warm, or diplomats succeed if there was 
 no weather to talk about? Cloud or shine, heat or cold, rain 
 or frost mean much. Think of rain on the bride, snow on the 
 coffin, frost on the oranges, showers at picnics, clouds before 
 church time or a ball game ! Was it not rain-made mud that 
 was one cause of a lost Waterloo? The recent cold spell in 
 Florida spelled the ruin of 75 per cent of its fruit and vege- 
 tables. 
 
 HAVANA'S SATANIC SABBATH 
 
 THE good ship "Governor Cobb" took us the ninety 
 _ miles from Key West to Havana. The dinner was 
 
 e^p^' good and a smooth sea enabled us to retain our nour- 
 ^^SsBM ishment. At sunset we swung by old Moro Castle, 
 docked and stepped into Havana and into a Cuban revolution 
 of which we were to see much and hear more. 
 
 Sunday morning the market was full of people buying and 
 selling, but that was not the only place of traffic. In the plaza 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 13 
 
 I met two American tourists seated on a bench who hailed me 
 and said, "Hello, see what we got." I looked and found two 
 Cuban girls by their side. They were not their wives or sis- 
 ters, just some of the many female friends one picks up here 
 for little or nothing. 
 
 After this illustrated sermon, "Thou shalt not — ," I hur- 
 ried to the Baptist church, where I heard Dr. Lucas preach. 
 At the close of the service he came down, took me by the 
 hand and performed a miracle by saying, "I'm glad to see 
 you. I can't forget the speech you made twenty years ago in 
 Chicago." Whether he intended this as a compliment or not 
 I leave my reader to decide. 
 
 In harmony with the race of Cubans there was a horse- 
 race this Sabbath afternoon. Taking a slow street car we 
 finally reached a park paddock. The revolution was on, yet 
 there was no falling off of the crowd. Preceding the race 
 there was a ball game between the "Reds'^ and "Whites." 
 To a real baseball fan it was a blue spectacle. The crowd 
 was impatient for the race, and when the game ended they 
 rushed for the course. 
 
 This Oriente track has a bad name even among sports. 
 During the racing season Havana is a crooks' convention city. 
 There was no exhibition of fine, fast horses or fast time, simply 
 of a fast set who threw the races to the bettors who gave the 
 most graft. Even racing people complained through the col- 
 umns of the press at the rank raw deals given day after day. 
 It was no such gala affair as I had seen in Sydney or Buenos 
 Aires, where horse-racing is a society and sporting event. The 
 horses were poor, the jockeys fouled, sprints were short as if 
 the horses were not acclimated. They were long at the post 
 in starting and the races were pulled off in the corner of 
 a back stretch instead of in front of the grandstand. It was 
 hot, but the betting fever was hotter. The horse race was 
 slow, the human race fast with boozing and gambling, curs- 
 ing and crookedness. 
 
 Sunday in Cuba is an all-around sport day, and to make it 
 complete we went to a cockfight. En route we passed by a 
 country pavilion where dancing swains were swirling and 
 sweating, and by a football game that was making a center- 
 rush through the commandment, "Remember the Sabbath day 
 
14 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 to keep it holy." The Cuban loves a fight, whether it is 
 political, revolutionary, bull or cock fight. The cockpit was 
 packed, and from the wild howls and yells issuing from it, it 
 might well have been called the bottomless pit. Not only 
 were game men and roosters here, but old hens and "chick- 
 ens" were fluttering their fans in the boxes, puffing cigarets 
 and applauding when the cocks pecked each other's head to ai 
 bloody pulp. Here, too, betting was the main feature, the 
 goddess of chance presiding, and man, Plato's two-legged ani- 
 mal without feathers, received the money. 
 
 Next on the Cuban's pious program is to visit the Malecon. 
 There we saw them drink daquirias, view Morro and the sea, 
 listen to the band, promenade the walks, watch the passing 
 autos and flirt with and mash the Cuban ladies. 
 
 The next act of Cuban devotion is to attend the theatre. > 
 Havana prides herself on a theatre that would have shocked a 
 veteran theatre-goer in Sodom. We watched two girls on the 
 stage vie with each other in vile dances. Their loose-fitting 
 robes fell off as they danced until only one piece of X-ray 
 underwear remained. Every move and posture was one of 
 studied lewdness. The worse the word and act the greater 
 the applause. It would have disgraced the Roman "Floralia" 
 when obscene dances were performed upon the stage by the 
 lowest courtezans. "When I commented on this stage of af« 
 fairs I was told things were much "better" now than a month 
 before, when the dancers had nothing on at all. Foul maga- 
 zines, Ijooks and pictures, recently prohibited from public sale, 
 could still be had at the theatre entrance. 
 
 After the show I went to one of the leading hotels. In the 
 foyer I met a polished Cuban gentleman who introduced him- 
 self. He invited me to join a party that night to be held at 
 the home of some young ladies who were to dance divested of 
 all necessary apparel and entertain the guests with the latest 
 diversions in debauchery. When I said I was unable to go, 
 he told me of his literary attainments. I found he was a 
 most accomplished gentleman and scholar. He had just trans- 
 lated a book of smutty Spanish stories into the best depraved 
 English without losing any of the original impurity of the 
 Spanish. He wished to show and sell me the book. I replied 
 I wasn't making collections of literary garbage on this trip. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 15 
 
 One night I met my great artist friend, Paderewski, and 
 shook hands with him and his wife. He remembered me and 
 the warm welcome he had received in Minneapolis and spoke 
 of the Mill City's kindness and generosity. In Havana he was 
 given a chilly reception. The audience was small and their 
 appreciation and applause was even smaller. It was so shame- 
 ful that he canceled one of his concerts. A newspaper said it 
 was because of rheumatism in his fingers. I don't think so. 
 It was the inartistic, indifferent, icy heart of Havana, and 
 just what you may expect where people think more of a danc- 
 er's shapely foot than of the heart and hand of the world's 
 greatest living pianist. 
 
 There is time, money and room for everything but mental 
 attainment. The press called attention to the crying shame 
 that there was no place for many children to go to school, and 
 then only for a few hours daily, that a large per cent of 
 Havana children grew up without even elementary education, 
 and that the !^/'hool period had been cut to take care of more 
 scholars. All appeals for betterment were met with the 
 answer that there were no school funds available. Yet there is 
 plenty of lottery money. Why not withold some of this 
 swindling graft for schools? 
 
 INSURRECTION— CUBA'S PASTIME 
 
 THE Latin American pastime of revolution was in full 
 swing when we landed in Havana. President Meno- 
 cal had discovered plots to kill him in his palace and 
 was on guard and guarded. Daily, insurrectos were 
 caught and led prisoners through the streets in wire-caged 
 carts. The fort of Cabanas was closed to tourists, as it was 
 filled with high-treason plotters. Every train from the coun- 
 try brought in crowds of captured rebels and revolting mayors 
 were arrested. The "Heraldo" paper was suppressed for "ex- 
 aggerated statements" and all copies confiscated, taken from 
 newsdealers and even from the hands of readers in the street. 
 Teleqrraph lines were cut, bridges burned, train service inter- 
 rupted, daily battles reported in the country, and sugar plan- 
 tations and mills set on fire. Yet Havana, the capital city, 
 
16 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 laughed, said it was a joke, and told tourists not to be fright- 
 ened, for the revolution would be over in a few days. But 
 those on the "inside" knew it was a serious matter, and when 
 I returned two months later it was still going on and as bad 
 as ever. 
 
 This revolution I had prophesied a year before, when here, 
 and spoke of on the lecture platform and in my book on my 
 return to America. Some people thought I was unduly ex- 
 cited, but I had the goods and knew the "dope." I had trav- 
 eled from Santiago to Havana and met Liberals who said their 
 man would be elected at the coming elections without any 
 doubt, and if he was, and the crooked "ins" tried to count 
 him out, they intended to fight even if the revolution caused 
 United States intervention. The elections came off, and but 
 for President Menocal's millions, friends and political graft- 
 ers, it was conceded that Zayas, the Liberal candidate, was 
 elected. This stirred up a hornet's nest. Menocal had money, 
 soldiers and all else that he used in public and private against 
 Zayas at the polls. Menocal occupied the presidential chair 
 and his might made right. It isn't a new thing for Latin dic- 
 tators to use arms to be re-elected. Now when I was here 
 there was a "re-election" in Santa Clara and Camaguey 
 provinces, Menocal^ soldiers were stationed at the booths and 
 all would-be Liberal voters were intimidated. 
 
 On this trip to Matanzas my train was preceded by train 
 loads of soldiers en route to shoot rebels. At the Matanzas 
 station I met a Liberal who first looked around to see if he 
 was watched, and then told me in whispers of Menocal's force 
 and intimidation that arrested the Liberals whether they had 
 plotted or not or were unarmed. 
 
 The Cuban rebels burn and pillage, threaten U. S. capital 
 and life, and will continue to until Uncle Sam lands on the 
 usurper I\renocal instead of landing marines on the Cuban 
 shore. The negro rebels do not forget that in 1912 5,000 of 
 their race were killed and their wrongs never avenged. Thej'- 
 are organized to terrorize by torch and snake. A Liberal told 
 me the snake dreads fire, and they were prepared to repeat the 
 Samson act of the fire-brands, only in this case to tie torches 
 to the snakes' tails, light the torches, then set the snakes free 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 17 
 
 to glide through the sugar cane plantation and so do great 
 damage by fire. 
 
 The "watchful waiting" that has ruined Mexico will do 
 the same for Cuba. The rebels burn and raid, yet Menocal 
 has so hypnotized the U. S. government that it believes the 
 revolution there is over and all is well. 
 
 MATANZAS' HERMITAGE AND CAVES 
 
 N front of the Matanzas station there was a park with 
 an iron fence around it. It was filled with rubbish, 
 papers and filth. A dirty statue stood in the centre 
 of it — a fit presiding goddess over the unclean natives 
 around. Like the natives, the statue needed a bath. 
 
 We lunched at a hotel. The one attractive thing on the 
 menu was the fair cashier, but she was not included in the 
 bill — she was extra. There was an abundance of grapefruit. 
 It should always be eaten with an umbrella or in a bath tub. 
 Matanzas is the birthplace of Cuban independence. It has 
 freedom of everything but dirt. Like other Cuban towns, it 
 is well preserved in a fine state of decay. The faces of the 
 women were so powdered that they looked as if they had 
 taken a somersault in a flour-barrel. The only fight I actu- 
 ally saw during the revolution was before our hotel, when 
 two ragamuffins mauled and scratched one another as if to 
 entertain us. Everybody applauded and the ladies most of 
 all. In this liberal town, full of Menocal soldiers and spies, 
 this was about the only thing they could applaud or talk of. 
 
 Mountserrate hermitage is one of the sights and our guide 
 was a man who had been educated for the priesthood. In 
 this place of alleged miracles, the only miracle I saw was that 
 any one should believe the laughable legends and foolish fairy 
 tales ascribed to Our Lady of Mountserrate. The idea of give 
 and take, do this for me and I will do this for you, has resulted 
 in a pious pawnshop, where the healed and helped have made 
 offerings of flowers, shellwork, beads, jewels, pictures and 
 images. The hermitage is here, but the hermit age is gone. 
 With so many pretty seiioritas this custom is more honored 
 
18 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 in the breach than in the observance. No longer does it seem 
 seemly for a played-out pleasure-seeker to become a religious 
 recluse, and " hermiticaily " seal himself up from society -in 
 general while opening his heart to some "friend" in particu- 
 lar. Too bad the face of Nature in this beautiful Yumuri Val- 
 ley is marred by such an ecclesiastical excrescence 1 I hope 
 the hand of Dr. Time vs^ill remove it. 
 
 The Bellamar Caves at Matanzas were discovered by a 
 "Chink" vt^ho let his crowbar fall through a chink in the 
 ground while digging for limestone. The caves with their 
 underground river and tunnels would make a good hiding 
 place for rebels, while the curious formations of stalagmite 
 and stalactite would make fine war-clubs. Information on 
 this formation disproves the proverb that continuous drops of 
 water wear away, for it is the drop, with lime in solution, ~ 
 that builds up and makes these formations. In the caves I saw 
 the "Gothic Temple." Vandals had desecrated it for souven- 
 irs and smoked the walls with their names. Now it is lighted 
 by electricity. Not only did the water overhead drip on me-, 
 but I was dripping wet with sweat. The heat was terrific. 
 Before entering the cave it was so warm we removed our 
 coats and after climbing and descending some of the three 
 miles and thirty separate halls, we were disposed to remove 
 everything, including skin and flesh, and sit down in our 
 skeletons, though ladies were present. The cave was worse 
 than a steam-heated fiat, the paths were slippery as sin and 
 I was taught a lesson in humility and that it paid to stoop to 
 conquer. Frequently I tested the thickness of the cave walls 
 and my skull by bumping my head. I was glad I had sense 
 enough left to get out. 
 
 On the way back from Matanzas we not only had the usual 
 delay on account of sugar cane that has the right of way, 
 but more from soldier transportation. Cuba has a red soil 
 fit to raise revolutions and sugar. We didn't care so much 
 whether the train was on time as whether it was on the track. 
 After six hours wait, improving my "Liberal" education with 
 conversation with a man I believed to be thoroughly honest 
 and good, we boarded the train for Havana. It was crowded, 
 but our empty stomach was not. There was nothing left 
 except ginger-ale, dry soda crackers at a big price and some 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 19 
 
 guava jelly which we bought at one of the stations. Many 
 of the passengers, who had started that morning for Cama- 
 guey, went but a short distance and were compelled to return 
 to Havana. They told tales of burned bridges, rebels and 
 revengeful feelings that might well be expected from a peo- 
 ple who believed that politically they had been grossly and 
 greatly wronged. 
 
 SHIP SPORTS 
 
 DIOS to Havana and Cuba Libre! Autoing to the 
 wharf we passed a crowd around Menocal's guarded 
 palace. I looked at the soldiers and wondered how 
 long they would be loyal, for mutiny and desertion 
 is the badge of all their tribe. Out from the wharf the 
 "Esperanza" lay anchored, and we were soon aboard. She 
 was two days late on account of storms, yet there was much 
 in her name **Esperanza," "Hope," that springs eternal in 
 the human breast. Hope she had been to the fleeing American 
 refugees in Vera Cruz, whom she carried to Galveston; hope 
 long ago, when she carried happy prospectors to Mexico, which 
 seemed a heaven; hope of service to those who fled its literal 
 hell. This boat had carried ammunition labeled as hardware 
 a few months before from the United States to Vera Cruz. 
 One of the boxes dropped and the "hardware" cartridges 
 rolled out on the wharf. This was the time when our govern- 
 ment had placed an embargo on ammunition. It was unlaw- 
 ful, but I regret the "Esperanza" did not carry enough to 
 supply an army of our soldier boys down there so that the 
 miserable Mexican farce of go and come and hide and seek 
 might long since have been ended. 
 
 J. R. Curtis was the Captain of the "Esperanza," and th« 
 C in his name stands for capability, courage, courtesy and 
 consideration. This tribute testimony I give him is only an 
 echo of the compliment he officially received from the "War 
 Department at "Washington for saving American lives. The 
 ship crew was a bunch of fine boys who gave splendid service 
 in spite of the spigotty passengers whose habits were disgust- 
 ing in room, deck and at the table, and whose evil communi- 
 
20 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 cations would corrupt good manners and ruin any ship. If 
 it wasn't for the Latin passengers the Ward Line would be 
 perfect. Its staterooms, table board and deck accommoda- 
 tions are in every way desirable. If the U. S. government 
 takes the letter d from the "Ward Line and impresses its boats 
 into service, it will be a first-class War Line in every respect. 
 
 That night when the dining tables were filled, a refined, 
 typical Latin passenger attracted my attention by coughing up 
 phlegm and spitting on the floor. The other Latins failed to 
 notice it, for with them it is a usual thing. This was enough 
 to make me seasick, but fortunately the sea was smooth. 
 Later there was dancing on deck to the grind of a grapho- 
 phone. The senoras pounded the piano in the saloon parlor 
 while Latin lovers were in close quarters in the bow or stern 
 of the ship, 
 
 Latin American boats seem to carry more game sports 
 than any other ship line. The smoke room was the social 
 centre day and night. The drink tables were turned into 
 card tables and on the turn of a pasteboard fortunes changed 
 hands. Gold and bills were piled up as in banks, and fate 
 and fortune made good and bad exchange. 
 
 The sun is the only thing that rises early in Yucatan. We 
 reached her port of Propreso at daybreak, anchored four miles 
 off shore because the water was so shallow, and it was nearly 
 noon before the lighter arrived to take us ashore. Passengers 
 before disembarking were asked questions many and definite, 
 by government officials, to learn whether they were honorable 
 men and women and with honorable intentions. After the 
 doctor looked me over he asked if I had ever been to Yucatan 
 before. Useless question! As if one who had ever been here 
 before would care to return, or if he cared to, would have 
 anything left to return with. But there is a reason. Alvarado, 
 Yucatan's dictator, has banished his enemies, and his agents 
 are everywhere watching for their return. 
 
 With heavy hearts we looked at the loading of our bag- 
 gage on the lighter. An American baggage man would turn 
 green with envy to see how the stuff is banged and battered. 
 The natives unloaded a brand new auto whose enamel and 
 glass gleamed in the sun, and then proceeded to pile big bags, 
 bales and boxes or whatever else they could on it. The owner 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 21 
 
 vainly protested as the boxes were dropped and dumped 
 •down on his car. I fear that by the time it made the four- 
 mile trip to shore it looked as if it had made a cross-continent 
 trip. Then I noticed they were using one of my valises as a 
 platform on which to throw valises and trunks. I yelled 
 something they seemed to understand, though not in their lan- 
 guage, and they quit. The boat bar was crowded. It is a 
 long time between drinks in Yucatan, for liquor is prohibited 
 on shore, and boats come infrequently. 
 
 Leaving "Esperanza" hope behind, and Captain Curtis and 
 his crew, we at last got off and made slow progress to Pro- 
 greso over a sunny, sapphire sea. In the distance gleamed the 
 land, a long line of yellow sand with green palms and light- 
 house. 
 
 *CUSTOM"ARY THIEVES 
 
 AT the wharf we successfully attacked an army of 
 Yucatan beggar boys and compelled two of them to 
 carry our bags to the custom home, the customary 
 penalty of visiting a foreign land. I always travel 
 with hand bags in Latin America, for I have learned it is an 
 expensive nuisance to carry a trunk. The officers soon saw, 
 there was nothing worth taking out of hand bags and they 
 passed us up, but woe betide the trunk traveler, the woman 
 with her fine dresses, the drummer with his samples and the 
 merchant and contractor with their goods. 
 
 The vultures here live on the refuse and these custom 
 house buzzards live on what they can pick off the strangers. 
 You are lucky to get out of Progreso with the clothes on your 
 back. No package of any size or value ever gets through to 
 the capital at Merida without an enormous bribe. My travel- 
 ing companion B > — was delayed a week here and in addi- 
 tion paid an excessive bribe and fine of $150 to get his trunks 
 of merchandise to the capital. These grafters made him pay 
 as much for machine-made as hand-made lace. Later in Merida 
 I met a man who knew how to "fix" matters, and he slipped 
 $2,000 worth of goods through by greasing the custom house 
 hand with $200. In this custom house samples are stolen, 
 
22 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 boxes broken open and contents pilfered. Trunks disappear, 
 and canned goods, fruit and market produce are "appropri- 
 ated." One importer told me that out of ten barrels of apples 
 six barrels were stolen, and three ba'rrels out of six were rot- 
 ten. From an order of 200 bottles of champagne he only re- 
 ceived 65. One of my fellow travelers had his trunk wilfully 
 misplaced in this custom house and later had to go back to 
 New York without it. The revenue system, as in all Mexican 
 and Latin American ports, is rotten. Instead of helping you, 
 they throw every possible hindrance in your way, on the 
 principle that the longer they detain your goods, the more 
 time they will have to make a careful selection of what they 
 want. A $500 auto delivered at Progreso costs the buyer 
 $1,500 before he can get it to Merida, the capital, twenty-four 
 miles away. This is a very poor run for your money. But 
 there is no use to kick or cry. It is a government job in pay 
 for services rendered. The pilfer privilege is part of the cus- 
 tom contract. The custom chief needs money for himself and 
 subordinates, whom he has also bribed. This may be news to 
 some readers, but not to travelers through Latin America, 
 where the L and A stand for "looters all" and "larceny 
 always." 
 
 Making our way through sun-dazzling, dusty streets, we 
 arrived at the hotel. It is called "Llano," but from its smell 
 and food should be called "Guano." Piling our bags in a cor- 
 ner near our dinner table, to see they were not stolen, we sat 
 down. I picked up the menu and found that dirt and flies 
 were the two leading things on it. "L" and I had a suspi- 
 cious-looking omelet, some stale tomatoes, hard bread and a 
 glass of orange ade, for all of which we paid $4 gold, though 
 there was less than $1 worth of food. Prices are designedly 
 left oflf the menu card and there are wide margins for them 
 to fill in and charge you any price they please. We had no 
 napkins, but I noticed an innovation. After this luxurious 
 feast I went to a wash-basin near by where there was a pack 
 of toilet paper in lieu of towels. I didn't wash. One look 
 at the hotel rooms was enough, with their bare floors, iron 
 beds, filthy coverings, and they are only to be reached by a 
 walk through a slimy patio. A week here would make a man 
 bankrupt or bughouse. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 23 
 
 WHISKEY IN CHURCH 
 
 HINGS were more attractive outdoors than inside, 
 and despite the terrific heat we roamed around the 
 town; saw the lighthouse that shines out seventeen 
 miles to sea ; big warehouses piled high with bales of 
 henequen ; flat cars loaded with sisal ; the busy ship offices ; the 
 drowsy market with ice-cream sellers; the sun-baked plaza 
 with plants and statues, and little stores and shops full of 
 American goods. 
 
 I went to a pretty stone church and was met at the door by 
 a smiling custodian in shirt sleeves, who piloted me around. 
 There were no worshippers, yet the atmosphere was very 
 "spiritual." God had been superseded by Gambrinus. The 
 altars were boxes of booze, and the pulpits beer kegs. There 
 were liquor invoices instead of choir voices; whiskey stains 
 and not stained glass; the stations of the cross were hidden 
 behind two-by-four cross beams; the attendants were clerks 
 and not clerics, and robed in short sleeves and long smiles 
 instead of long robes and long faces. Where was I? In a 
 former house of God which had been converted into a whiskey 
 warehouse. One would think a "spiritual" church like this 
 would appeal to many and show a large membership, but no 
 one is permitted to join or enter. 
 
 A change has come over the spirit of the Yucatan people. 
 They grew tired of a creed that chained them in body, mind 
 and soul ; of a church that gave them stone architecture when 
 they cried for bread; of a clergy whose six days' conduct 
 gave the lie to their seventh's day creed. So these church 
 members broke up their church meetings and furniture, made 
 way for liberty, and under Alvarado drove the clergy out of 
 the country. Alvarado then acted the part of a prohibition 
 dictator, prohibited liquor and made hard drinks harder than 
 ever to get. Booze was confiscated and stored in many of the 
 closed churches. It was the dry season for Progreso and the 
 town was dry except for beer, "cerveza," which is only al- 
 lowed in certain places at certain hours. The Yucatan peon 
 has a tough time. Strong drink is prohibited and water is 
 scarce. Water often costs 13 cents gold a gallon and is much 
 higher in the dry season. Each, house has a tank or reservoir. 
 
24 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 Rain water is caught and well water is pumped up by wind- 
 mills for washing and laundry. The cenotes are alkali and 
 salty. Still you can get stronger stuff any time, for the wise 
 guzzlers have a soft snap in smuggling hard drinks. After 
 seeing the town, I am inclined to be charitable and excuse 
 anyone who drinks to forget his surroundings. 
 
 Next door to this former house of worship, now a ware- 
 house, is a convent building now turned into a public school. 
 The church bell has given way to a school bell, and the chil- 
 dren come, for come they must, and learn something besides 
 musty, Middle Age mummery that has no helpful bearing on 
 time or hopeful uplift for eternity. I looked in the door, was 
 glad to see maps of the geography of earth, mathematical in- 
 stead of saintly figures on the blackboard, books of some 
 every-day sense instead of lives of dead saints whose virtues 
 never existed except in the lying imagination of their writers. 
 The Yuca" tanned" teacher welcomed our curiosity with a 
 smile, and when I pointed to my kodak and asked for a pic- 
 ture, she quickly assented, dismissed the children and arranged 
 them outside in front of the school. 
 
 UNPROGRESSIVE PROGRESO 
 
 USING a mule car as a rubberneck, we rode by stores, 
 plazas, sandy streets and towering palms until we 
 reached the sea shore. This is Yucatan's Newport 
 and in the summer season people come from Merida, 
 rent houses and cottages and make it a bathing resort. The 
 street cars never run on time and often off the track, yet no 
 one is in much of a hurry and so no one cares. Our driver 
 stopped the car at his own pleasure, stepped off and got a 
 light for his eigaret from an obliging friend of his on the side- 
 walk, and then slowly returned to puff the smoke in our 
 faces. 
 
 The outskirts of Progreso were bedraggled with water and 
 mud. The streets were like lakes and the natives paddled in 
 flat boats from one thatched house to another. This back wa- 
 ter from the ocean does not dampen the spirits or worry them. 
 Nothing does. They are all very tame Indians. At night the 
 town goes to bed early or to the movies. When a lover wants 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 25 
 
 to see his sweetheart alone, he gives her parents tickets to 
 the movies. They go and he stays and often plays the part of 
 Faust to Margaret, using her home as a place of shame and 
 ill-fame. 
 
 The only light is the light house. The red light has been 
 extinguished by Alvarado's orders, but with this result, as 
 everywhere else in the world, that what is not quarantined is 
 scattered. Progreso hotels include lady guests in furnished 
 rooms. 
 
 There are all kinds of wrecks here. I met a captain whose 
 ship had been wrecked a few weeks before in a "norther" 
 hurricane. He had vainly tried to procure tools to get his boat 
 off the reefo After two days' waiting he discharged his sail- 
 ors, for he couldn't afford to feed them. No one stops in Pro- 
 greso if he can help it. Even the ships dread the place on 
 account of the shoals, shallow water and "northers" that sweep 
 around. The population is mostly composed of pirates who 
 rob the visitors coming, staying and going. Prices are higher 
 than the lighthouse, and the most unblushing I ever faced. 
 Labor is king in Yucatan, Men meet and plan and are strongly 
 organized. Even the laborers on the lighters demand about 
 seven dollars gold for eight hours' work. 
 
 Grladly and not sadly I left Progreso, although my first- 
 class rail ticket compelled me to hang onto the platform steps 
 on account of the crowd. There were no extra coaches, though 
 the company knew they were needed. They had our money 
 and that was all they wanted. The trip to the capital is 
 twenty-four miles, first through dark, monotonous marshes, 
 then by green henequen fields stretching for miles and miles 
 on both sides of the track. The plant is green, strong and 
 sturdy, as it rises from this coral rock. Many of the planta- 
 tions had gone to blossom through lack of labor and were 
 therefore worthless. 
 
 YUCATAN CHEWING GUM 
 
 T 
 
 HE little suburb lights of Merida soon appeared, then 
 
 the city, the depot and a cab, and we were slowly 
 
 trundled to the Hotel Alameda. We climbed a big 
 
 stone staircase to our room. It was large, had a 
 
 front street veranda, boys for chambermaids, a bam-door pad- 
 
26 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 lock and chain on the door, water was free, soap extra, a 
 nightly convention of mosquitoes was thrown in, and as a sou- 
 venir the proprietor gave me a chunk of chicle big as a cake 
 of soap. 
 
 All some people know of the geography and history of 
 Yucatan is the name on a package of Yucatan chewing gum. 
 Uncle Sam is the biggest gum-chewer in the world. It takes 
 about 7,000,000 pounds of chicle annually to satisfy him, and 
 costs him $35,000,000. Gum-chewing is one of America's great- 
 est national ''movements," a pastime rivaling baseball and 
 rag dances. Gum is a poor substitute for food, yet aids diges- 
 tion and expectoration. It sweetens the boozer's breath, eases 
 the lover's heartburn, and beautifies ugly mouths. It is a 
 short-cut, calesthenic course to the jaws of young and old. 
 Ex-ministers, editors and statesmen get their pictures in the 
 papers for approving it and a good check in addition, while it 
 is an unchecked lubricant to the perpetual jaw-motion of 
 female scandal-mongers. The Bible says "Eschew evil" — 
 whether it refers to chewing-gum or the rag is a question 
 upon which the wisest philosophy of today is undecided. Each 
 reader must "choose" for himself. 
 
 A MERIDA MARKET 
 
 LOOKING out of the window in the morning, we saw a 
 city of windmills, enough to keep Don Quixote on a 
 tilt for a lifetime. It was carnival time. At the big 
 market across the street, in addition to food, drink 
 and drums, the natives were selling masks and balloons. Street 
 musicians played under awnings to attract trade to the stores, 
 and the only collection was the crowd. Market prices were 
 high, but the place was so clean the death rate should be low. 
 There were fish, fruit, vegetables, pigs, chickens, eggs, hats, 
 shoes, cloth, waists and piles of soap. With their churches 
 closed the Indians believe in washing their clothes and bodies 
 and practising a cleanliness that is first-cousin to godliness. 
 There was an abundance of the usual tropical fruit, but what 
 they liked most were apples imported from New Orleans. They 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 27 
 
 sold for five cents each. This fruit was the apple of their eye. 
 The native Mestizo women here are shorty fiat-faced awd wear 
 a white, sleeveless, one-piece dress which makes them look 
 as if they had just gotten out of bed and were running around 
 in their nightgowns. The edges of this holoku Mother Hub- 
 bard are stamped with red and blue patterns. The women 
 were happy, but carried a cross on their necklace or bracelet. 
 They^ were either barefoot or wore high-heeled shoes painted 
 in rainbow colors. Merida is oriental in color in the blue and 
 white of her houses and the dress of her natives. There are 
 seventy-two miles of fairly clean asphalt streets and many 
 domes, cupolas and minarets on the public buildings and 
 churches. 
 
 A DESPOT 
 
 HERE was no room for us in the Gran Hotel, but we 
 called there, for all the travelers, tramps, drummers, 
 actors, big reputables and disreputables make it their 
 headquarters. Here I met John Vizcarra of New 
 Orleans, who knew enough for two. Hotel life in Merida is 
 interesting. Guests need not be surprised to be awakened by 
 bullets and bands of revolutionists. Two weeks before this 
 hotel was the storm centre of political discontent. A Mr. 
 Mena came to run against Alvarado for the position of gov- 
 ernor. His train was delayed, and when he finally arrived he 
 was compelled to make his way through opposing crowds 
 armed with sticks and stones to this Gran Hotel, where he 
 was to make a speech. He stepped out on the balcony and 
 was not only made a target for abusive remarks, but bullets 
 from Alvarado 's crowd. The police broke into the hotel and 
 arrested him. He was jailed, but finally released on condition 
 he would leave Yucatan. His room was No. 5. I entered it 
 and saw the bullet marks above the balcony where he had 
 spoken. 
 
 "Ne lacessit me impune." Not to fall in with Alvarado is 
 to fall out, and you are fortunate if the undertaker does not 
 pick you up. Political speeches are limited to subject, time 
 and place. If they are not 0. K.'d by the chief, they are in- 
 terrupted and finished behind the bars. 
 
28 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 Alvarado leads the alphabet and all else in Yucatan, He is 
 a vest pocket edition of the late czar, and rules with a rod of 
 iron. If you object, he removes your objection with the thrust 
 of a sword or bayonet, or puts you up against the wall for 
 target practice, or hangs you by the neck to a tree on the 
 leading avenue. The public is always cordially invited to 
 these social gatherings. 
 
 Alvarado came into Yucatan as Carranza's general, but 
 jumped into the military saddle and has ruled the people 
 with General Consternation ever since. He is a dictator giving 
 orders and combining in himself the three governmental func- 
 tions of legislature, judge and chief executive. He has been 
 called agnostic and atheistic, but is an orthodox believer in the 
 trinity of education, prohibition and socialism. 
 
 He has made many public improvements with other people's- 
 money, after having first improved his own bank account. 
 
 'Tis but a step to the penitentiary, yet I rode there of my 
 own accord. This prison is named after the great liberator, 
 Juarez. It is large enough to accommodate the many guests 
 and cost upwards of half a million dollars. We overtook a 
 number of prisoners marching to the pen and took their pic- 
 tures. It is Yucatan's Bastile of body, mind and soul. Alva- 
 rado 's. plans are faithfully carried out and his will executed. 
 It is the largest building in the city or state, and you may 
 always look for such a building when the "state" is a Louis 
 XIV big head who says, "I am the state." Given a dictator- 
 ship, dungeons will follow and be full. "Turn the rascals" 
 out would be a good motto and idea if it made way for the 
 bigger government rascals out who should be in. Big as the 
 pen is, it would be too small to entertain all of them at once. 
 
 UNDERGROUND RIVERS 
 
 FROM this depression and heat it was a relief to ride 
 to the "cenote, " or swimming hole, on the other side 
 of the city. When boys play hookey they don't go 
 to lake or river, but to these underground water 
 caves. Yucatan is coral rock — if you want water it must come 
 from the clouds above or river beneath the ground whose bed 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 29 
 
 was made and rocked by earthquakes. The ancient Indians 
 discovered where the water came up to the light and they 
 naturally built towns by these water holes. Since the streams 
 were underground they marked the underflow bed by piles 
 of stones above. 
 
 At the end of the tram line we came to a cluster of houses, 
 entered a stonewall gate and found ourselves in a big fruit 
 orchard of oranges, lemons and palms. There were walks, 
 windmills and reservoirs that the once poor, now well-to-do, 
 owner was proud to show us. Hearing shouts and splashes, 
 we came to the hole in the coral ground with sloping steps 
 and there below were men and boys diving and swimming in 
 the clear, cool water. One would expect to see in such a ro- 
 mantic cavern nymphs and water witches instead of mere 
 men and boys. Bewitching Mestizo girls and women do come 
 here certain days of the week to wash their clothes and them- 
 selves — when no men need apply. The fish in these caves, 
 like those in the Mammoth Cave, are said to be blind— what a 
 pity! 
 
 Returning and waiting for the tram we watched some boys 
 play ball with a stick for a bat and a hat for a glove. They 
 appeared to enjoy it more than any professional game I ever 
 saw. Baseball is very popular in Yucatan and is advertised 
 by big signs on church walls and buildings. All the chil- 
 dren play it and there are some crack teams. Let us hope 
 they will substitute the game of baseball for the game of war. 
 
 A TAME DANCE 
 
 THAT night we saw a different ball, a carnival dance 
 in a club house at the corner of the plaza. None but 
 special guests in stylish garments were admitted. We 
 stood on the outside with the peon crowd and looked 
 in. There was a little program of speaking and singing, then 
 the band played and men and women danced in sedate and 
 sad style. Apart from the electric lights, it was not a par- 
 ticularly brilliant affair to a foreigner, but to the peons it was. 
 "With wide-open eyes and mouth of delight, they watched the 
 
30 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 dancers from 9 p. m. to 3 a. m. This was carnival-time, 
 but King Carnival had been dethroned, things were rather 
 dark and quiet, so they made the most of this affair. It is the 
 one time of the year when they awake from their annual sleep. 
 It was very warm and the dancers were very thirsty, yet the 
 only drink allowed and served was beer — no cocktails, however 
 much desired and appropriate. The beer sold for two dollars 
 American gold a bottle. Before the carnival it could be 
 bought for a dollar a bottle. People who dance must pay, 
 not only the fiddlers, but the liquor dealers as well, who were 
 smart enough to corner the beer and double the price. 
 
 There were other dances in various parts of the town that 
 Saturday night, reminding me of negro night in Kentucky. 
 The streets were so crowded with peons one could hardly pass. 
 They were gazing in the open windows, while the autocrats, 
 and rich citizens rode around in autos and carriages. It was 
 amazing that people familiar with public hangings and shoot- 
 ings should stand, straining their eyes and necks, on tip-toe 
 for hours to get a peep through a window at the thrilling 
 sight of some people drinking beer and dancing a two-step. 
 Were it a ballet Russe, can-can, hula-hula or naked South Sea 
 island dance, I could understand, but this was beyond my 
 ken. These simple pleasures of the natives are very simple. 
 
 CHEER UP! 
 
 L 
 
 AUS deo! Sunday in Yucatan is a real day of rest 
 and the tired traveler can get his beauty sleep. He 
 is not awakened at 4 a. m. by the infernal jangle of 
 
 church bells and damnable ding-dong one hears all 
 
 the way from Patagonia to Mexico, that beautifully illustrates 
 Poe's ''Devil in the Belfry." At nine o'clock Sunday morn- 
 ing the people go to the bright plaza and not to the gloomy 
 church, to listen to merry band music and not a melancholy 
 minister. What a strange sight in a Latin American town. 
 The big cathedral was shut and the crowd devoutly happy as 
 they sat around on the park benches listening to the band. It 
 was a good one playing classic music, military marches and 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 31 
 
 closed with Chopin's "Revolutionary Etude," a most fitting 
 and up-to-date selection for a revolutionary people. 
 
 Nature moves oftener to the time of "L 'Allegro" than "II 
 Penseroso," the major and not the minor chord predominates. 
 The carol of birds, hum of insects, rustle of leaves, ripple of 
 water and chirrup of cricket are only sad to those whose 
 natures are harsh. There is more of light than shadow, and 
 we feel it as we look at matchless sunrise and sunset, glint- 
 ing stars, deep green of forest, lighter color of meadow and 
 grain field and the sunbeams chased by the wind across hill- 
 side and valley. 
 
 The Christ came from heaven to earth to save us from our 
 sorrows as well as our sins. The church is not a cemetery, 
 the minister is not a death's head and his church members 
 should not be mummies. The world was given us to cheer 
 our hearts ; religion was never designed to make our pleasures 
 less, and when it does we have less of religion and more of 
 something else. To be a child of God is to be a happy mem- 
 ber of his family in a present Eden which thrills the brain, 
 fills the heart and makes us jejoice in the hope of a home 
 where sin and sorrow shall never enter. 
 
 The historian, Hume, found that King Edward II had paid 
 a jester a crown to make him laugh. That was a good invest- 
 ment. How much better it is to have a fool to make one merry 
 than experience to make one sad. Why not have Christmas 
 cheer fifty-two weeks in the year and let it brighten and bless 
 spring, summer and autumn until winter comes again ? 
 
 Shakespeare says, "One may smile and smile and be a vil- 
 lain," but I think the man who does not smile is the villain 
 "fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils." 
 
 A smile is the difference between man and brute, though a 
 laughing hyena is preferable to a scowling misanthrope, and 
 a heathen who only wears a smile to a Christian garbed in 
 gloom. 
 
 Cheerfulness does more for health and holiness than pills 
 and preaching. Why not smile in a good world with a gra- 
 cious God? 
 
32 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 The man ought to be arrested who comes downtown in 
 the morning with an insulting scowl which curdles the milk 
 of human kindness. One smile is worth a dozen snarls. 
 
 Horace, the Latin poet, taught truth by laughter; in poli- 
 tics a smile has controlled kings, and Swift and Heine did 
 more by their smiles for freedom than swords. We can't all 
 be poets, painters and presidents, but we can all be end men 
 to life 's minstrel show. Mark Tapley was always cheerful and 
 Sydney Smith said, "I have gout, asthma and seven other 
 maladies, but otherwise, thank the Lord, I am very well." 
 
 "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine." 
 
 MERRY MERIDANS 
 
 THERE is an unfinished band stand in the middle of 
 the plaza. It has been built up and torn down by 
 different governors until it is a standing joke. There 
 is not much hope for a government that cannot erect 
 a music stand for the people in a principal plaza. 
 
 Alvarado's name is only mentioned with bated breath. In 
 fact, in all Mexico, with spies and soldiers all around, you 
 must be on guard with your eyes and ears open and your 
 mouth shut. In Merida the park benches are arranged in such 
 a way that any plotting conversation may be overheard. For 
 once I was cautious. I spoke of Alvarado as "alphabetically 
 number one," Carranza as *' number three," Diaz as "number 
 four," Villa as number "twenty-three," and Zapata as "num- 
 ber twenty-six." 
 
 Sunday a few churches are allowed to conduct services 
 for the really pious. There are not so many as formerly, but 
 enough, and these few are not crowded. We attended the 
 Santiago, and there was rivalry between a merry-go-round out- 
 side and some sad-faced persons going inside the church. I 
 learned the priest was over fifty years old, that the young 
 priests had been driven out of Merida and were to be kept out, 
 for there were too many wolves in church garb preying on 
 the female flock. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 33 
 
 A child in carnival attire attracted me. I spoke to him, 
 took his picture, and the pleased parents invited me into their 
 patio and parlor and showed me flowers and pictures. There 
 was a grand piano, I played, then the wife played, and we all 
 left good friends. 
 
 There was a grand promenade at noon, evening and night. 
 All Merida and his wife, dressed up in their best, rode in car- 
 riages and autos up and down one street looking at each 
 other and the crowds lining the sidewalks, who in turn stood 
 and watched them. Formerly there was great style displayed 
 on this carnival occasion. Now if you look too wealthy or too 
 well-to-do, Alvarado comes and helps himself to your bank 
 roll, and as a result many rich people were riding in hired car- 
 riages instead of their autos. It isn't safe just now to parade 
 your wealth, for it will attract the covetous eye of the govern- 
 ment and be confiscated. 
 
 Later in the afternoon the carriages came and went two 
 deep in opposite directions along the main avenue. It was a 
 Fifth Avenue drive on a small scale. If the church bells were 
 silent, the city belles were loud in clothes. The Paseo dis- 
 closed many dark skinned, haired and eyed damsels, who 
 darted glances at the spectators and delightedly showed their 
 white teeth. We watched the parade from the Hidalgo Plaza 
 in front of the Gran Hotel. In our parades we say "hello" 
 with hilarious laugh or shout. Here it was solemn as a funeral 
 or religious procession. When friends met and wished to rec- 
 ognize each other they acted like idiots and deaf mutes, rais- 
 ing their hands to their eyes and wiggling their fingers 
 around. I let out a husky shout to one of the boat passengers 
 and nearly broke up the procession. Meanwhile the people 
 on the curbs looked at the show as if it were a circus parade. 
 Fathers and mothers thronged the corners, filled the gutters 
 and held up their children above the crowd, fighting for a 
 good position to see — not an elephant, lion or clown, but 
 simply rigs filled with very common folks. 
 
 During the day troops of motley, merry masqueraders, 
 grotesquely garbed, pounding drums and carrying banners, 
 marched down the streets. All this was but a faint suggestion 
 and echo of what we were to see and hear later in Campeche. 
 
34 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 "FEAST OF BLISTERS" 
 
 THE Feast of Blisters" is another of Yucatan's carni- 
 vals. It commemorates the following undoubted 
 facts. One Lenten Friday a cowherd saw a tree 
 that threw out a bright light. Not being a coward, 
 he went up to it, cut it down and took the trunk to the rectory. 
 It was piled in a room until one day a sculptor came and 
 asked the cura for work. He told him to take the trunk 
 and make an image of the Miraculous Conception. The artist 
 replied it was more fit to make a crucifix, but was ordered to 
 make that also and was shut up in the room with the tree 
 trunk. When the cura opened the door next day to see how 
 the artist had succeeded, the sculptor was gone, not a block 
 or chip of the wood was seen, and there stood the image and 
 a perfect crucifix floating upright in the air. This was miracu- 
 lous. The image was taken out, set up in the church and 
 crowds came to see it. 
 
 All this happened in the year of Our Lord 1651. After 
 the image had been worshipped for nine days the church 
 burned down. It was a big, hot fire, the woodwork was 
 ashes, the stones burned to dust, and all the metals melted, 
 but the image was unharmed, merely blistered. If you don't 
 believe me, go and see it for yourself. Its marvelous influence 
 was now too limited, so it was taken from Ichmul to the cathe- 
 dral at Merida in 1656: Here it happened that the image in- 
 stantly cured a man of his leprosy, and he was so grateful 
 that he built a special chapel for it. Immediately business 
 picked up. The image had a larger field of influence and did 
 bigger things. It freed the province from an awful pestilence 
 and later of famine, yellow fever, locusts, hunger and many 
 other ills. After each miracle some new feast day was pro- 
 claimed and Pope Clement XI approved and allowed special 
 indulgences. The 29th of September was the great day of 
 devotion and dedication to the image, and the different guilds 
 in Merida vied with each other in their offerings of money to 
 the image, so that thousands of dollars were placed to the 
 good — of the church. 
 
 This feast, called "La Fiesta de los Ampollos," is now 
 generally observed in October for two weeks. As a joy-fes« 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 35 
 
 tival and hell-raiser this nine-day feast rivals the Pre-Lenten 
 carnival. 
 
 Yucatan is the most fitting place to celebrate this Feast of 
 Blisters, whose inhabitants have been blistered by sun and 
 slavery in the sisal fields. I missed this blister feast, but had 
 several of my own in Merida when I ate my meals, principally 
 composed of peppers and hot sauces that blistered my lips and 
 throat. 
 
 STRUNG UP 
 
 HE Paseo de Monte jo is a beautiful boulevard and 
 rendezvous of the rich. Though the climate is hot, 
 high society is very cold in its reception of tourists. 
 However, through the introduction of my friend, 
 Joseph Alameda, we visited the million dollar mansion of the 
 former governor of Yucatan, General Francisco Canton. He 
 had recently died and his son kindly showed us all over the 
 palace, pointing out and describing the imported, rich, 
 carved wood furnishings, tapestries, statuary, paintings, 
 armory, library and marble stairway. He led us to the roof 
 garden whence we saw a forest of windmills and trees. To 
 plant trees here you must first blast out the coral rock, then 
 fill in with dirt, and last of all plant your tree. Many of the 
 nearby palaces were empty because their owners had been 
 compelled to skip out for political reasons. He pointed to 
 many mansions that had already been confiscated by Al- 
 varado. When we left I thanked him for his kindness and he 
 gave me a souvenir autographed book on Yucatan by Char- 
 nay, which he himself had translated into Spanish. 
 
 There was some life on the boulevard, but not so many 
 people were riding, driving or hanging around as when Alva- 
 rado strings up some poor, suspected devil on a big tree. On 
 the avenues you find trees and statues, yet Alvarado 's original 
 genius goes farther. He makes a gibbet of a tree and hangs 
 a man until he is still and statuesque. It is a new and 
 strange way to make a thoroughfare attractive. It gives 
 passers-by something to look at besides each other, and some- 
 
36 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 thing to talk about besides the weather. For instance, a 
 lover passes by the swinging corpse and says, ''He doesn't 
 look nice and fresh now — don't you think, dearie, his face is 
 much discolored, and his cheek fallen in, and it is time to 
 bury him and get a new one?" A business man says, "Poor 
 fellow! Hte isn't worth much now;" a gambler, "I'll bet he 
 never expected such a finish;" the politician, "Alas, what are 
 we coming to?" the schoolboy, "Gee, he learned an awful 
 lesson;" the cleric, "May the saints save us from a similar 
 fate;" the undertaker, "I wonder who buries him." All this 
 is food for reflection, and for the birds if he hangs there long 
 enough. 
 
 AROUND TOWN 
 
 CAFES are numerous where one may get ices and 
 drinks. Milk is popular and I tried a tall glass of 
 boiled milk. You sweeten it according to taste and 
 for flavoring pick up an ink stand of lemon or 
 vanilla extract, put a dropper in it, and proceed as if about 
 to fill your fountain pen. 
 
 In Yucatan restaurants I paid twenty-five cents for an egg, 
 thirty cents for a pat of butter and for other food in propor- 
 tion. Shoes, hats and clothing are luxuries which are not to 
 be indulged in unless absolutely necessary. 
 
 The Yucatecan likes the movies and there are many of 
 them. The peon now makes money enough to come to town 
 several times a week. Any film pleases him, for like a child 
 he is pleased with a rattle or tickled with a straw. Since 
 bullfighting and cockfighting are prohibited he goes out on 
 a movie rampage. There was a time when bullfights were 
 held in the Circo Theatre and later there were refined dramas 
 and operatic concerts. Now there is little high ideal perform- 
 ance, and though prices are small, most of the seats are empty. 
 Vaudeville is all the vogue and cheap theatres are full with 
 their programs of song, dance and burlesque. 
 
 As in Salvador and Costa Rica capitals they have built 
 a big theatre much too large for the few who attend it. The 
 show place is called Peon Contreras, named after two leading 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 37 
 
 men who died in Mexico City. It is only for show on the out- 
 side, cost nearly a million and a half dollars, is built in the style 
 of the Italian Renaissance and was devoted to the movies 
 while we were there. It is a monument of vanity and extrav- 
 agance. We walked all around and through it and climbed 
 to the top where we found some fine city scenic effects that 
 made up for the lack of show inside. 
 
 It was light in darkness to meet Diaz Canton, the manager 
 of the City Gas Co. He was bright not only in business 
 ways but socially and religiously as well. He took us by 
 auto to the ever well-patronized penitentiary, to a big park 
 'with trees, flowers and zoo, and then to the hospital with 
 separate buildings for the sexes and each disease. Here 
 everything was on a broad and beautiful scale and up-to-date. 
 Money is now spent for body and not for souls, for clinics 
 and not churches, and the sick are well off. The place is 
 always full, and I do not wonder, as it is so much better 
 every way and day than the poor patients have at home. 
 
 WILD WOMEN 
 
 NEXT we visited the Ayola Insane Asylum, named 
 after the Yucatecan philanthropist who endowed it. 
 It is immense in itself and surroundings of flower 
 beds and gardens, and everything from bake shop to 
 barn was like spotless town. They were building a concrete 
 pen for a Mr. Bull. It was a palace compared with some of 
 the cane-thatched huts the peons live in. The asylum is a 
 bug-house with no bugs. We saw the peacefully and violently 
 insane. One caged man swore he was the Kaiser and I 
 wouldn't have cared if he had been. I can never live too 
 long to regret his mistaken identity. In the twilight this 
 house became haunted and spooks seemed to accompany us in 
 garden and walk. Once we paused to listen to a love-song 
 of a poor demented damsel "wailing for her demon lover." 
 She was dressed in white and her black hair streamed down 
 her back. There was as much music and sense to me in what 
 she sang as some operatic and upper attic music I have 
 
38 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 heard in concerts, or from moonstruck lovers in the park. 
 
 One room echoed with the cries of a dozen disheveled, 
 wild-eyed girls who shrieked like women fans at a ball game 
 or Saturday bargain counter. A crazy girl came to me, bare- 
 armed and legged like all the other inmates, spoke in soft, 
 Spanish, seductive tones and did a little dance. I asked 
 Canton what she wanted. He said, "A mouth organ." It 
 appears she had been a musician. She illustrated it by run- 
 ning her fingers across her lips as if her teeth were the notes 
 of a harmonica. Canton promised to get her one. Then her 
 face lighted with joy and she bent over and kissed his hand. 
 I was glad it was his and not mine, for I am sure it was a 
 cold, creepy kiss that would have crawled over my sheets and 
 pillow all night in a bad dream. Poor girl, she seemed modest 
 and in her right mind compared with what many sane singers 
 and dance girls have asked me. The twilight had merged 
 into night and I was glad to hasten from this horror-haunted 
 home, where the light of reason had failed, to welcome the 
 chug of the auto that drowned out wild maniac cries. 
 
 SWEET 
 
 MR. CANTON not only ran the American Gas Co., but 
 a range. He had a gastronomic Chinese cook who 
 baked white bread and pie for Merida upper crust 
 families. After our auto ride and visit he invited 
 us to a supper where we were surprised at American bread 
 and pie instead of Mexican tortillas and pan dulce. We spent 
 the evening at his home. His wife was not a musician but 
 some of his neighbors' pretty daughters played the piano. 
 Since I couldn't speak Spanish and tell the attractive wife 
 and lady visitors how pretty they were and how much I liked 
 them, I used the piano as an interpreter, expressing my feeling 
 through my fingers. I must have been very sympathetic for 
 they said I was "mucho simpatico, " wondering how an 
 American could put so much feeling in a piano. Well, I had 
 to, that was all I could touch, although as I left, after the 
 young lady had played con amore, I pressed her hand with 
 a fervent adios. 
 
MAYAN RUINS 
 
 UXMAL, YUCATAN 
 
SHOT ON SUSPICION 
 
 YUCATAN 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 39 
 
 WORKING MIRACLES 
 
 WE WENT to one Christian service in this heathen city. 
 The Presbyterian mission is doing a big work in a 
 small building. The native children sang earnestly 
 and seemed greatly interested in a colored chart 
 that illustrated the Bible story of the Centurion. I opened a 
 Bible and the first vrords I saw there were, "Let there be 
 light," and I certainly wished that light might come to 
 darkest Mexico. There was a Mexican flag near the pulpit. 
 I hoped the flag would soon learn the spiritual lesson, "Ye 
 shajl know the truth and the truth shall make you free." 
 
 There was an organ, the children were singing and had a 
 blackboard lesson. There were colored lesson maps, mottoes 
 and banners on the wall. The girls were bareheaded and the 
 women's heads were covered. I saw one woman get up and 
 go out to spit. It was a miracle — the most astounding fea- 
 ture in the whole service that she should not use the floor 
 for a cuspidor. If nothing else is taught this is worth all 
 it costs to support this mission. 
 
 Religious and class distinctions are much marked in 
 Merida. Like truth, this building was remote and hard to 
 find, so it is planned to have a place larger and more central 
 and so inviting that the rich may meet with the poor in a 
 preaching service at least once a week. Christianity is love 
 or nothing, and it will take a lot of love and time before 
 the hate of plutocrat and peon is removed. 
 
 CHURCH IN THE LURCH 
 
 HE church opposite the Hidalgo Park has been con- 
 verted into a museum. Instead of finding useless 
 religious relics and an antiquated theology, one sees 
 old Indian relics, pottery, Aztec carvings, orna- 
 ments, birds, woods and ores, as he would in an exposition 
 building. 
 
 Merida once possessed a familiar and famous Franciscan 
 convent. It dated back to 1547. Its wall was 40 feet high, 
 
40 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 8 feet thick and enclosed 2,000 friars, some of whom, accord- 
 ing to their own theology, must now be literally frying on 
 the devil's gridiron. The place and people are no more. In 
 1820 the order was ordered out and more order and less dis- 
 order has been the result. 
 
 One night in a cafe I noticed a native wearing a Masonic 
 charm. Of course I was charmed and indicated it. He 
 signed me to come over to him and through a mutual friend 
 interpreter invited me to attend a meeting and see the 
 new Masonic temple which was formerly a Roman Catholic 
 church. This Masonic society, at once pious and patriotic, 
 standing for light, law, liberty and love, exists here as else- 
 where in Latin America, and has done great things for God, 
 home and native land in spite of all the clerico-politico, mur- 
 derous opposition aimed against it. 
 
 The cathedral was built in the time of Philip III of Spain. 
 It is a big pile ai^d cost a pile of money. Columns, roof and 
 towers remain, but the high altar, carvings, statues, chapels, 
 nave and aisles are gone. It is closed during Sunday and 
 the week and none but soldiers are allowed to enter. Early 
 one morning I saw the front door open, and looking in diS' 
 covered the church was a barracks. An officer was sitting 
 by a table making government notes and reports in the place 
 formerly occupied as a religious counter for crosses and 
 beads. "L" and I didn't look very religious, so he had no 
 objection to our entering and looking about. What a fall was 
 there, my countrymen! Formerly marvelous wealth and 
 adornment, gorgeous ritual, pomp and splendor — now all dark 
 and empty, the altar demolished, the pictures, saints, images 
 and statues destroyed. Instead of pious, prayer-repeating 
 worshippers on their knees, drowsy soldiers were stretched out 
 on the floor snoring. Guns were stacked around the massive 
 pillars. A guide-book description of the interior of this 
 cathedral as it now exists would be an amusing satire. "When 
 the people became incensed at the clergy they entered this 
 cathedral, desecrated and despoiled the high altar, made the 
 church furniture resemble a second-hand furniture store, 
 knocked the saints from niches and used their broken arms 
 and legs for baseball bats in the plaza. Much else was pub- 
 licly burned. During the recent revolution the cathedral 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 41 
 
 was used as a fort; later a school to teach and a hall for 
 speeches and banquets; and a siege storehouse for vegetables 
 and canned goods when the Yucatecans feared the U. S. would 
 intervene after the affair at Carrizal. I saw the great search- 
 light on the roof all ready to spot any of our troops who 
 might come up from Progreso. 
 
 The Bishop 's Palace next to the cathedral has been torn 
 down and is being made into a Palace of Art — the art of 
 music, painting, sculpture and oratory where the Merida 
 maids and Yucatan youth may learn what David said, "That 
 our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that 
 our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the 
 similitude of a palace." The only marring effect I saw in 
 this building was the employment of child labor. Little boys 
 scarce ten years old carried burdens of stone and cement 
 heavy enough to break their backs. 
 
 ''Persecution" is the cry of the now powerless church, 
 but what in comparison with their persecution of the peons 
 in the last 400 years ! Freedom is not gained by a whispered, 
 "If you please," or by perfumed, written notes. Revolution 
 is always spelled in blood letters as when the French threw 
 off the kingly yoke. 
 
 I learned that the churches in the country districts had 
 been changed into schools; that in Merida one had been torn 
 down to make way for a public park; another for a students* 
 club; another made into a committee room for a bricklayers* 
 union. Near the railroad station we entered one church that 
 is being used as a storehouse for contraband alcoholic liquors 
 since prohibition went into effect. Baseball and theatre signs 
 are posted on the big cathedral walls, as well as warnings 
 against sanitary defilement. 
 
 DIED GAME 
 
 |T THE REAR of the cathedral a red flag caught my 
 eye. It must anger the Papal bull very much, for 
 the building from which it floats is dedicated to 
 Francisco Ferrer, and is used as a school. 
 Ferrer, the Masonic martyr, hated by the Spanish church, 
 arrested, lied about, tried by court martial and shot for 
 
42 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 "founding schools," urged light and liberty in Spain such as 
 we enjoy in church and public school, and died saying, "Aim 
 straight, long live the modern schools." The echo of that 
 speech and shot will yet overturn every altar and the throne 
 of Spain. 
 
 "To die game" is to keep one's nerve and spirit to the 
 end, and it is this courage and endurance to the death- 
 struggle that thrills and throbs and causes the eye to gleam 
 and the heart to leap. 
 
 The tree of civilization — of physical, mental and spiritual 
 liberty — is not watered by rain but by the tears, sweat and 
 blood of prophets, patriots, philanthropists and parents. 
 
 Were St. Paul living today he would write another epic 
 of heroism and add to his eleventh chapter of Hebrews the 
 many others, "of whom the world was not worthy — who were' 
 tortured, not asking deliverance." 
 
 Socrates, whom Plato called the wisest, justest and best 
 of all the men he had known, and of whom Cicero said, "He 
 called down philosophy from the heavens to earth and intro- 
 duced it into the cities and homes of men," was accused of 
 not worshipping the gods, of corrupting the youth, and was 
 condemned to drink the poison hemlock, but as he watched US 
 fatal effect he discoursed on the immortality of the soul. 
 
 Leonidas. the Spartan warrior, famed in song and story, 
 with his three hundred band opposed the myriad force of 
 Xerxes at Thermopylae, and by his death inspired his com- 
 panions to drive back the invaders. He leaves an influence 
 through the centuries which makes hearts glow and arms 
 grow stronger. 
 
 The Roman sentinel, at Pompeii, stands while Vesuvius 
 pours forth mud, gas and ashes, and when all had fled, re- 
 mains faithful in death, encased in lava, a statue for all time, 
 showing how a Roman soldier did his duty. 
 
 Arnold von Winkelried, the brave Swiss, bares his bosom 
 to the Austrian spears and makes way for liberty, crying, "I 
 will open a path to freedom — protect, dear comrades, my 
 wife and children." 
 
 John Brown, at Harper's Ferry, gives his life a ransom 
 for the slave's freedom — kisses the negro baby, mounts the 
 scaffold and signs the death warrant of the old South. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 43 
 
 The soldiers of the Revolution, Rebellion, Spanish and 
 Mexican wars gave us our liberties, not paying with cash or 
 lands but with home, family and blood which has dyed our 
 flag with reddest stripe. 
 
 Vanini, pursued by the savage dogs of the Holy Inquisi- 
 tion, because he loved liberty and was brave enough to think 
 and talk for himself, goes to the stake smiling, saying, "Let 
 us go joyfully to die, as becomes a philosopher." 
 
 Bruno, warring against th<^ lifeless physics of Aristotle and 
 opposing the Scholastics in their persecution of Galileo, is 
 condemned by an infernal Inquisition which never shed blood, 
 preferring to burn the accused to cinders. 
 
 Carl Hans Lody, my personal friend and guide around the 
 world, is arrested, tried and shot as a German officer spy in 
 the tower of London. After making his peace with God, and 
 looking with unbandaged eyes into the muzzles of the English 
 rifles, he says, "May my life be honored as an humble offering 
 on the altar of the Fatherland." 
 
 Heine sang every note of joy and grief in prose, poetry, 
 philosophy and politics while bed-ridden for eight years, nailed 
 to the cross of paralysis by spikes of suffering. 
 
 Green, the historian, bravely struggles with hopeless dis- 
 ease while he writes his history of England and at death 
 leaves his "Conquest of England" to be edited by his widow. 
 
 Stevenson dies in Samoa, after a life of literary work 
 between coughing, fever, pain and blood. 
 
 Livingstone, thirty times stricken with fever, and nine 
 times seeking the slave-hunters at the head of the Nile, refuses 
 to be rescued by Stanley, and far away and alone writes 
 with dying hand, "May heaven's rich blessings come down 
 on every one who would help to heal this open sore of the 
 world." 
 
 Captain Scott, at the South Pole, with snow for shroud 
 and ice for monument, writes with freezing fingers and warm 
 heart his love to wife and child, his devotion to science and 
 native land. 
 
 Goodyear, the discoverer of rubber, thinks and experi- 
 ments for 20 years in poverty and hunger and dies with heart- 
 ache and in want. 
 
44 TPIE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 Our forefathers died game in their fight against rude nature, 
 savages, flood, famine and wild beast. 
 
 Sailors have gone down with their ships; engineers have 
 been crushed at the throttle; experimenting physicians at the 
 Panama Canal have been stung to death by yellow-fever 
 mosquitoes, proving that progress leaves a blood mark in 
 every step of advance. 
 
 Fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, sweethearts and 
 friends have denied self and sacrificed daily for others. My 
 brother **Dave" rescued his three brothers from drowning 
 and then sank down while his soul went up to God. 
 
 The Martyrs in the Coliseum were stoned, flayed, burned 
 and fed to wild beasts as a testimony to their spiritual faith. 
 
 Savonarola thunders in San Marco agains tthe corrupt 
 priesthood and laity of Florence and fearlessly offers his body 
 to the flame of bigoted hate. 
 
 Cranmer translates the Bible, becomes Protestant, is con- 
 demned for heresy and treason, through fear recants, but 
 when bound to the stake denies his recantation, thrusts 
 his right hand into the flame, saying as he held it there, 
 "This hand hath offended; this unworthy hand." 
 
 Paul, greater than Alexander, Caesar and Napoleon in his 
 influence on the world, though poor, hunted, imprisoned and 
 persecuted, fights a good fight and meets his death with 
 happy hope of heaven in his heart. 
 
 Jesus, from the stable manger to the cross on the skull- 
 shaped hill, planned to meet his trial and fate. Calm and 
 courageous, he exhibited no weakness nor hesitancy. He did 
 not stumble, faint nor falter on his way to cross, as ignorant 
 sentimentalists and superstitious painters would have us 
 believe. Discarding angelic help, with the cry of a howling 
 hell-mob in his ears, he climbed the Calvary of death and 
 gave his life, praying for his ignorant murderers, the repent- 
 ant thief and his sorrowing mother. Feeling forsaken of God, 
 and dying of thirst, he prayed, "Into thy hands I commit my 
 spirit" and came from the dark, where stars are lost, through 
 intervening orbits to the Sun of Righteousness which eternally 
 shines on Ilim. 
 
 In life, duty and death are synonymous. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 45 
 
 Moral cowardice is the curse of this century. Mentally 
 men will meet problems and physically defend themselves 
 against robber attack, but when it comes to political injustice, 
 social rottenness, commercial robbery, un-American practises, 
 clerical abuses and newspaper conspiracy, they are cream- 
 faced, lily-livered and goose-fleshed. 
 
 To die game a man must live game and take his orders 
 from Almighty' God in the light of his own conscience, his 
 Father's Bible and his mother's Christ. 
 
 In the future, as ever in the past, social, political, scientific 
 and religious advance has been born of sore travail of body, 
 mind and soul, baptized with tears, annointed with suffering, 
 fed with disappointment, boycotted and blackguarded by men, 
 but loved and rewarded by God. 
 
 STREET LIFE 
 
 EVERY town has its oldest house. So here, facing the 
 plaza, is the famous Montejo house built in 1549 by 
 Don Francisco Montejo, who was "granted" the 
 privilege from Spain to conquer and colonize Yuca- 
 tan. There is an old, odd design of Indian and Moorish stone 
 carving above the doorway showing two armor-clad knights 
 with cuirass, visor and helmet, tramping and stamping on 
 some fallen Indians. However inaccurate the carving may 
 be, the fact is true to history. My photo of this building 
 shows a tablet with the inscription: "Esta obra mando 
 hacerla el Adelantado Don Francisco de Montejo, anno de 
 MDXLIX," which means that the Adelantado Don Francisco 
 de Montejo caused this to be made in the year 1549. Its cost 
 was said to be $14,000, a truly large sum when material and 
 labor were cheap. Fickle fate! A man will die for his 
 country or an idea and be forgotten — another builds a house 
 for himself and is remembered. However, should this house 
 perish history will not forget this cutthroat, gold-seeking 
 murderer. 
 
 From travelers' descriptions, I imagined Merida's streets 
 were clean as those of the "New Jerusalem," or that one 
 could sit on the curb and eat dinner on it in preference to the 
 
46 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 hotels. I found their statements slightly exaggerated. So 
 long as Merida has mule trams instead of electric cars, and 
 horse carriages in lieu of gas jitneys, I prefer to select my 
 hors d'oeuvres from the hotel bill of fare. Nevertheless, most 
 of the streets are all right when it comes to angles. Numeri- 
 cally they are oddly or evenly named according to the points 
 of the compass, though names of prominent men and days 
 are now being used in places. Long ago the ignorant Indians, 
 who had not studied arithmetic in school, got lost looking at 
 the street numbers, so the kind city fathers placed images and 
 paintings of birds and beasts at the corners. One might 
 judge from the names of the streets that the early settlers 
 were "flamingos" and "elephants," but a casual look at the 
 inhabitants proves they are descended from a different 
 ancestry. 
 
 There are remains of ancient arch gateways at the ends 
 of some of the streets that give a picturesque vista. They 
 contained, as some do even today, spaces filled with images 
 of the Virgin, or some saint looking down on the people 
 passing below, who look up in vain for any real help to make 
 life better or easier. The spirit of modernism passes this by 
 now and the people, flushed with the memory of Carranza 
 and Alvarado, who have enabled them to throw off clerical 
 chains, are proud to look up to the Arch of the Revolution 
 that unites the Palace and Cathedral. This is the true Arch 
 of Triumph and a standing warning to any arch plotters 
 across the sea. 
 
 From early days the Indians were treated as animals by 
 the Spaniards, which may be a reason why they are so cruel 
 to their animals. The poor mules are unmercifully loaded 
 down and beaten up. One afternoon after it had been raining, 
 and the pavement was more slippery than ever, I saw a car 
 packed with a carnival crowd. They shouted and laughed as 
 the little mules slipped, stumbled and fell up the hilly street 
 while the driver lashed them most cruelly. 
 
 Street life is interesting. Now you see an ice-cream vender 
 selling his ice-cream in the form of a shaving stick, or a 
 Chinese baker carrying a wash-tub full of bread on his head, 
 the only "loaf" about for him, for he runs so fast your kodak 
 can't catch him. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 47 
 
 Yucatan has more holidays than holy days. It was Feb- 
 ruary 22nd and a double gala day to me, for while the flags 
 were floating at half mast for Madero, I pulled out my little 
 American flag and celebrated the day in honor of George 
 "Washington, a birthday and not a death day. 
 
 A SLOW START 
 
 CAME to Yucatan to see the ruins but almost went 
 away without seeing them. It is only two hours 
 by rail and five more by cart to the crumbled city of 
 Uxmal, yet from the work and preparation for the 
 trip it looked as if I were going on an expedition into darkest 
 Africa. In Merida I met a Mr. Goff who kindly cashed my 
 American Express checks, refused by everybody else because 
 they did not know what they were. When I told him I wanted 
 to see the ruins, he laughed and said, "You wouldn't if you 
 knew what you would be up against." Sad but true, people 
 who go to see the ruins are ruins by the time they return. A 
 Mr. King and others had tried and planned for six days to 
 get guides and rigs, but things move slowly in manana-land, 
 and the revolution, too, had made mules and horses very scarce 
 for tourists. The few left were used in hauling the "green 
 gold" henequen from the plantations. 
 
 One man I was to have had for a guide had fallen in love 
 with a girl the carnival week before and couldn 't leave her for 
 me. Finally Gofl: took pity on me, came to the rescue and 
 gave me a full-blooded Mayan Indian clerk in his employ, 
 "Gustav" by name. He could talk some English and was 
 anxious to see the ruins of his ancestors. He was every inch 
 a man to tie to in such a trip — short, swarthy, with heavy, 
 black straight hair, dark eyes, broad shoulders, and keen, 
 kind and capable. 
 
 It was necessary to lay in provisions or starve, for there 
 is no provision made for hotel or house care in the ruins 
 themselves. Gustav went to a grocery and bought cheese, 
 crackers, several kinds of canned meats, olives and other 
 edibles of U. S, A. make at top-notch prices for our picnic 
 
48 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 lunch in the graveyard of the past. "With thoughts of pto- 
 maine poisoning and a possible graveyard in the present, we 
 took the train, I mean the train took us, to Muna. 
 
 Nearly all the way we sailed through a green sea of hene- 
 quen, and before we arrived the heat of the day was pushed 
 up towards blood heat by burning sisal, not in the fields, but 
 along the railroad tracks. Our old engine was a wood-burner, 
 Avith old-style smokestack, and it threw out a big spark or 
 cinder that fell on some stacked sisal by a railroad station, 
 resulting in a big blaze. 
 
 NIGHT IN A BENIGHTED VILLAGE 
 
 UNA is a native village with small depot and no bus 
 or hotel accommodation. It has about three thou- 
 sand souls who live in and around and generally 
 stay around outside most of the time working on 
 the plantations. We learned this when the man, to whom we 
 had a letter of introduction, was not at home, but away on his 
 butcher cart. We trudged along the stony and dusty street, 
 stared at by dogs, pigs and children, until we came to a 
 native plaster hut with a thatched roof. The short, fat mis- 
 tress of this manse came out with a "guipo" and smile on. 
 She was a Mayan and Gustav soon made an arrangement for 
 our entertainment. 
 
 Taking as a motto, ''Make hay and notes while the sun 
 shines," "L" and I started on a double quick trot to cover 
 the town. The plaza is a big, treeless, grass cow pasture. 
 There is a bust of Juarez, the patriot, on a pedestal in the 
 center and there are four lean-to lamp posts around it. This 
 place is not frequented at night because of darkness and 
 slippery cow paths. A large well, with a little stone curb 
 about it to keep you from falling in, was of interest. It was 
 deep and the girls were hauling up buckets by ropes that 
 had made deep ruts in the logs thrown across it. It was a 
 long haul, and when made they carelessly spilled half the 
 water before emptying it into their jars. Foolish virgins! 
 
 School let out and a group of barefooted boys and girls 
 rushed out yelling welcomes to us. The boys began to play 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 49 
 
 baseball and the girls sauntered home. In a comer building 
 a few men were playing pool. It didn't look inviting, so we 
 headed for the big closed cathedral, after first hunting up 
 the man who had the key. It was a mere shell with the 
 kernel gone. Everything within had been pulled down, 
 smashed or destroyed as if it were another Belgium building. 
 
 At dusk hunger called us to our hut where a lamp threw 
 out a gleam of welcome and we entered the little door to the 
 one and only room in the house. The table was set and we 
 sat around in chairs while the Mayan mistress swung in the 
 hammock and gave orders to the barefooted Indian women 
 servants, w^ho came in and loaded the table with hills of 
 tortillas, lakes of black bean soup, stacks of rice, fried eggs, 
 meat, coffee, chocolate and fruit. Not much style or service, 
 but plenty of good grub. It smelled and looked so good that 
 the dogs came in from the street through the open door, and 
 by the lamplight I could see the faces of children peering in 
 through the barred windows to see how very hungry and 
 human the white folks were. 
 
 After this food exertion we rested a little and fell to won- 
 dering where we were to spend the night. There were two 
 hammocks in the room, three of us, she, and her husband who 
 had not returned. Of course, on a pinch, and it would be a hard 
 one, six could sleep in two hammocks, but that would have 
 been neither proper nor comfortable. The Yucatan way is 
 two in a hammock, head to foot and foot to head like sar- 
 dines, with a chance to be asphyxiated and have your brains 
 kicked in. During our meal the mosquitoes took two bites 
 of us to our one of the food, and almost ate us up alive. 
 Things were crowded and there was no room for any sani- 
 tary measures. There was no up-to-date lavatory in all the 
 city. Highways, by-ways, front and back yards were pressed 
 into service at short notice with no posted notices pro- 
 hibiting. 
 
 "Wondering whether we would be compelled to sleep with 
 the family or other arrivals, we were relieved when Gustav 
 came in with two big hammocks, he had rented from a store, 
 which we were going to swing in in the schoolhouse. 
 
 On our way to rest we passed a night school, a large room 
 in which old men and boys, who had worked all day cutting 
 
50 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 sisal in the henequen fields, were cutting their wisdom teeth. 
 To encourage them we entered. The boy teacher showed us 
 the classes in reading and figures, and pointed to the black- 
 board with its stanza of poetry which the old boys were 
 trying to copy into legible letters with their cramped fingers. 
 The school tables were more popular than the pool tables on 
 the corner. 
 
 It was so dark outside that without flashlights in hand 
 and the stars overhead we could never have navigated without 
 shipwreck to our shins and plans. Tam o 'Shanter saw a light 
 in the church and we saw one in the cathedral. Whether it 
 was a haunting ghost or not we boldly went to the door and 
 looking in saw an officer at a desk. Times have changed. 
 Instead of the church taking money from the peons, the peons 
 were being paid off here by the government for their day's 
 work. I am sure the Master, who whipped out the money- 
 changers from the temple, would not molest this plan of 
 changing money from one hand to the other hand which had 
 earned it. There was no midnight mass, just two or three 
 gathered together in the name of humanity and honesty. 
 
 Muna's one movie house shows three or four times a week. 
 There was nothing this night, for the reel had failed to arrive 
 on the train, but next night I saw rockets shot off to inform 
 the Indians that the show house had a picture. This was 
 equal to any press advertising, and much more spectacular. 
 We passed some Indian girls on the way to the theatre. "L" 
 flashed out his light and the women shrieked and ran, it was 
 so sudden. 
 
 Near the movie was a thatched rustic pavilion with one 
 open side and all fenced in like a stock-yard barn. It 
 was deserted, but two nights before, during the carnival, it 
 had been filled with a herd of merry makers. There was a 
 little band-stand and side dressing rooms, a ground floor for 
 dancers, tables for lunch and a hedge to keep the crowds in 
 and out. 
 
 The citizens of Muna gave us the best they had. While 
 there was no hotel or private home at our disposal, with the 
 consent of the city fathers we slept in the public school, not 
 as tramps or hoboes, but as guests of honor. The hammocks 
 were swung and **L" and I climbed in with our shoes and 
 
THE DEVIL EST MEXICO 51 
 
 clothes on. Gustay lay on the floor. During the night it 
 grew very cold within these stone walls. To keep out dogs 
 and stray animals we closed the doors, and this preserved the 
 bottled air which hundreds of lungs had filled the rooms with 
 during the day. One door opened on the patio and the cold 
 came in, a near cousin to Jack Frost. Rapid radiation of day 
 heat leaves night chill. I learned this Yucatan geography 
 lesson here without a book. There may be more uncomfort- 
 able things than a hammock, but if so I have never been in 
 them. It is hard to get in or to be comfortable when in. I 
 was heavy and sunk down in the centre until I looked like 
 a butterfly in a cocoon. My hammock was so big and fine 
 that I was lost in the meshes, resembling a fat spider in a 
 web or a sea monster in a net. It was very plain that I 
 was not to the manner or hammock born. How I longed 
 for an old fashioned bed as I lay awake and thought of the 
 coming day, the children busy at study and play and what 
 real work was to be theirs after life's school-day. The alarm 
 watch which I had often consulted with flashlight went off at 
 2 a. m., the hour to rise and make ready, for the cool of the 
 morning is the best time to travel in Yucatan. Being already 
 dressed, we went out into the dark and picked our way by 
 barking dogs and crowing roosters to our eating hut. Here 
 we pounded the door and turned the stout lady out of her 
 hammock. She hustled and soon we had eggs, chocolate and 
 a good lot of ballast for the jolting trip we were to have that 
 day. 
 
 THE ROAD TO RUIN 
 
 SECUNDITA was to be our driver, and by 3 o'clock 
 he had rounded up five mules and a two-wheeled 
 springless cart, open fore and back, covered on top, 
 and with flapping curtains on the side. The bottom 
 was braided sisal on which the landlady threw a thin mat- 
 tress. Bags and bundles followed and we piled in, placing 
 our bones between. It was like a torture chamber of medias- 
 val times, so built tha4: you could not stand up or lie down. 
 We had to sit opposite each other with backs braced on one 
 
52 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 side of the cart and our feet pushed hard against the other. 
 The driver was far afront with his feet on the cart tongue, 
 while the guide leaned on me. A shrill whistle, a crack of the 
 whip, a cry of ''inula, mula," and we were off with a rattle, 
 clatter, slam-bang of mule feet and big wheels over the 
 stones. 
 
 After the driver had the satisfaction of waking up the 
 whole town, he went through another village of huts and 
 woke it up. Then we went up a big hill and down, over 
 tumbled rocks like the path of an avalanche or a glacier 
 moraine. At first I wondered if the cart would hold up — 
 after half an hour I hoped it would break down. One may 
 get a faint idea of the trip and roads by riding up and down 
 the steps of the Capitol at Washington in a cheap auto. "We 
 were compelled to brace ourselves, for this was no dust road, 
 but coral rock bottomed with boulders piled all over it. The 
 two great wheels came down like trip-hammers, struck the 
 rocks like battering rams, climbed high on one side and 
 almost over-balanced. Once they jumped into a rut with such 
 a jolt that if we had not kept our teeth gritted hard together 
 they would have been knocked out, our cheeks chewed and 
 our tongues bitten off. We had to hang on for dear life in 
 order to avoid being shot out of the end of the cart, or up 
 through the top or through the sides of the flapping curtains. 
 All the while our bags and bundles were bounced from side 
 to side, and to keep ourselves and them in at the same time 
 was no easy matter. It was a winter of discontent with no 
 spring on the cart, not even a spring suit between us. 
 
 Five-minutes ride in this conveyance would turn the sweet 
 spirit of a saint into the vinegar soul of a sinner. There are 
 not enough oaths in a pirate's vocabulary to describe the 
 road. The softer you are the harder it is for your feelings, A 
 trip to Yucatan's ruins is like carrying coals to Newcastle, 
 for the cart carries you in ruins to the ruins. The jolts and 
 jars of this cart made Carter's Liver Pills unnecessary. Every 
 stony "tear" made the driver laugh. It jars the nerves of 
 the living and could jar the nails from the coffin of the dead 
 so that the corpse would get up, go to the driver, give him a 
 punch with his bony fist and ask him why he was not per- 
 mitted to take his last joy-ride in peace. This road would be 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 53 
 
 a good preparation for those who intend to ride motor tanks 
 and tractors in the trenches. No more fit punishment in this 
 life or the one to come could be invented than to compel the 
 makers of this road to make a daily round trip over it. It is 
 impassable and impossible. 
 
 Down hill at last and it lasted a long time. Then we 
 struck the level plain, but the road was as unlevel as ever, and 
 when the mules ran over it we were jarred as roughly as 
 when they walked up or down hill. Had it not been for the 
 side-curtains on the cart our faces would have been cut, 
 lashed, slashed and scratched by the thorny switches of the 
 brush through which we were passing. It was a kind fate 
 that kept us from going horseback through here. This was 
 a torture road as well as tortuous. The jungle reaches out 
 its branched hand and lashes the poor sinners on. It could 
 make you a Marsyas and flay you alive. 
 
 Falling down a mountain side or bumping the bumps is 
 pleasure to this. Our watches fell from their pockets, knives 
 and money were jolted out, buttons were wrenched off vest 
 and pants and shot us like bullets. Bags biffed and angered 
 us. **L's" white pants were torn from Dan to Beersheba, 
 From time to time we forced the driver to halt the mules so 
 we might count and reassemble our bones, set the disloca- 
 tions, rub the sore spots, untie the muscle knots from the 
 calves of our legs, get a long breath and offer a silent prayer. 
 
 "Without exaggeration, we resembled survivors of an earth- 
 quake, ship wreck and cyclone combined. All the while our 
 Mayan driver bounced up and down like a rubber ball, uncon- 
 cerned at our discomfort, except when he grinned at us as 
 we let out yells and whoops as if we were being murdered. 
 I suppose he was happy, too, because he believed the legend 
 that the stones were the tears of Clirist who wept at the 
 Indians* wrongs. These tears were turned into stones that 
 the Spaniards might not follow to rob and kill the Mayas and 
 destroy their cities. 
 
 Along the way we passed a few solemn-faced Indians. I 
 was surprised to find them carrying guns until I learned a 
 man had been recently murdered near by for his money, and 
 the people go armed for protection. No one would shoot us 
 for such a reason — we looked poor as Job*s turkeys. This 
 
54 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 reminds me that later, near the ruins, a man and woman 
 offered to sell me a big live turkey. It wasn't fried, though 
 the sun was hot enough to do the job. I refused to buy it. 
 
 It was 7 A. M., the sun had come up, dried the dripping 
 dew that had fallen like rain, and routed a foggy mist that 
 one might have drunk for water or pea-soup. Later that day 
 at 5 P. M. we met the turkey woman. She had sold her 
 turkey and walked thirty miles to do it — over that stone- 
 piled road and in her bare feet. 
 
 The hotter it grew the thirstier we were. Our guide had 
 a calabash, shaped like a double bellied God or Billiken, that 
 he had filled up with water at a hacienda. We lifted it to 
 our parched lips and though it was warm, flat and tasted like 
 a stew of old rubbers and shoes, it slipped down very 
 smoothly and seemed like nectar. One more turn of the road 
 and the ancient city of Uxmal burst on our blood-shot 
 eyeballs. 
 
 ATTACKED BY TICKS 
 
 TYING- our five mules to the shady limb of an old 
 Uxmal tree, we proceeded to tie up ourselves, our 
 pants at the ankles and sleeves at the wrist to keep 
 out the "pinolillo" and "garapata" ticks. Uxmal, 
 in the Mayan tongue, is said to mean "mother of large 
 progeny." Here I think it refers, not to the size and num- 
 ber of the natives, but to the millions of ticks. If you touch 
 a branch driving along the road or walking among the ruins 
 you are at once covered with something that resembles a red 
 pollen or pepper. "We wore white to keep cool, and for a 
 background for the red tick. Brush off at once, for they are 
 thousands of ticks who will remind you of hammock mos- 
 quitoes and the bugs of some Latin American hotels. They 
 bore into you as if they were artesian well-diggers, but they 
 are after blood, not water. You must put them to flight at 
 once. He or she is the most amazing of all the sects of 
 insects. If they once get in you, you must take a petroleum 
 or tobacco juice bath. They bite and mean business, and you 
 itch as much in seven days as some do in seven years. The 
 
CLERGY CARICATURED IN CARNIVAL, 
 CAMPECHE, MEXICO 
 
PASSENGER TRAIN BURNED BY BANDITS— NEAR 
 VICTORIA, MEXICO 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 55 
 
 Dite of this vicious insect resembles that of a big red ant. If 
 you stay long in these Uxmal ruins "some little bug" is sure 
 to "get you." 
 
 This is Mr. Bug's plan. He first discovers you and the 
 spot he wishes to attack. Then he sticks his two proboscii 
 into you and works his mouth between until he bites in deep. 
 Don't pull him out, just leave his head in and cut him in half 
 with a knife or scissors. This is a delicate operation, since he 
 is almost invisible. If aU goes well, and the operation is a 
 success, in a day or two he will be so lonesome for his absent 
 body that he will proceed to use what brains he has left and 
 come out in search of it. Should you rashly pull out his 
 head you may expect to be rewarded with a festering, fever- 
 ish sore. 
 
 We saw birds and butterflies rainbowing in the sun; lazy 
 lizards crawling in the heat; inguanas blinking on stone 
 walls, with mouth wide open for flies; poisonous snakes, not 
 only carved on walls, but gliding through the grass. How- 
 ever, the garapata are the most numerous and active inhabi- 
 tants of this dead jungle city. Little is known of Uxmal 
 Mayan stone antiquities, but I know this much of its an- 
 "tick"quity. 
 
 A PYRAMID CLIMB 
 
 I^XjUR next step was to climb the small, steep, stone 
 I ^7 J steps to the top of the ancient pyramid which rose 
 I^^^O in front of us. It is so steep that heavy iron chains 
 Irr^nll have been let down from the top that you may 
 climb hand over hand in safety. A single misstep would let 
 you tumble down in a way to break your neck as surely as if 
 you had been one of the religious victims legend tells about, 
 who, after being sacrificed on top of the pyramid, were given 
 a high-priest kick and hurled down a hundred feet till they 
 came to a dead stop. It is only 100 steps up, but it seemed 
 like 300 by the time we reached the top. Nature has car- 
 peted this stone staircase with yellow grass and vines. Like 
 a fly I walked over the face of the pyramid, which was rough, 
 old, wrinkled by time and whiskery with wavy grass. Its face 
 
56 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 was sadly in need of a shave, and one who climbs here has 
 a close shave to get up and down without injury. 
 
 It grew hotter every second. It was only 9 o'clock and 
 we had done seven hours' work. We were almost tired out 
 before starting to see the ruins. Unlike ruins in other 
 countries, the hardest work was to get to them. But 
 why come unless you dare everything? At this pyramid of 
 sacrifice it was worth the sacrifice of time and comfort to 
 get on top, see the view and feel the stiff cool breeze that was 
 strong enough to blow the ruins on you, or you off the ruins. 
 One imagines he is on the bridge deck of a ship, with a 
 smooth sea of brush below him stretching away to the semi- 
 circling shores of distant hills, while the native-made mounds 
 and ruins scattered about look like old derelicts. 
 
 These local Maya habitations have modern names, the 
 originals being lost, if there were any. The names are mis- 
 nomers and the walls are disfigured by tourist idiots who 
 have scrawled their initials and names on them. They are 
 as illegible as the cryptic hieroglyphic ornamentations, and 
 far less artistic. "The House of the Dwarf" is situated on 
 top of the pyramid. I am sorry if Mr. Dwarf had to climb 
 these steps every day after coming home from work. The 
 occupant should have been a giant wearing seven league 
 boots so as to make the v/hole pyramid in half a step. I 
 wonder who the architect or contractor was. All the build- 
 ings are on elevations, but have no elevators. He surely had 
 a picnic of a time up here on this pyramid that dwarfs all 
 other buildings. His house is small, 70 feet long and 12 feet 
 deep, when you compare it with its hill and rock pile 
 foundations. 
 
 We rested in the small rooms and wished the walls could 
 break their stony silence and tell of doings and carryings on 
 there. In vain we applied onr lingual talent on hieroglyphs 
 that the author must have written in a nightmare ; marvelled 
 at mosaics; stared at sculptures. As a good Mason I went 
 through the Maya arch built without a key stone, an arch 
 as unique in its way as the Roman arch. From this elevated 
 position the dwarf could look down on "The House of Nuns." 
 Perhaps the dwarf's house was built as a private observa- 
 tory, and though we have no records of the dwarf's observa- 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 57 
 
 tions they may have been as interesting as David's of 
 Bathsheba. 
 
 The descent was not easy but difficult and dangerous. 
 However, I was a good Shriner and hung to the chain rope, 
 feeling I had reached the Mecca of my hopes with no Nemesis 
 of accident. 
 
 "HOUSE OF THE NUNS" 
 
 TIhE old "House of the Nuns" is overturned, and 
 J Hamlet's advice, *'Hie thee to a nunnery," is obso- 
 lete. The Mexicans or Yucatecans won't stand for 
 it. Nunneries are in ruins here, as they should be 
 everywhere, because there is no warrant for them in sense or 
 Scripture, reason or Revelation. This quadrangular building 
 is erected on a three-tiered terrace. It is made of cut lime- 
 stone and is light brown. The stone is supposed to have been 
 cut with tools made of hardened copper. We stumbled over 
 debris, slipped on polished stones, tripped in tangled vines 
 and ruined a new pair of shoes in half an hour in wander- 
 ing through the immense patio. The wall sculptures were 
 very interesting. There were many meaningless mosaics 
 and bas-reliefs, though we easily recognized the squares, cir- 
 cles, broken images and gigantic serpents. Most of these 
 facades are defaced, overgrown with plants and decorated 
 with creepers. The many little prison-cell-like rooms, open- 
 ing not outwards but into the inside court, suggested the 
 questions when, who, why? Method in madness the artist 
 sculptor may have had, but it is as difficult to grasp as the 
 cubist painter's idea now. There is no consecutive design, 
 just one block of idea piled on or pushed next to another in 
 endless line, giving a general look of barbaric splendor. 
 
 The whole building looks like a war-riddled ruin. The 
 angles and shadows are softened by Nature's vegetation orna- 
 mentation. The big triangular Maya arch is well-preserved 
 and makes as striking an entrance as the gateway, in the old 
 Jerusalem wall, to Solomon's Quarries. The classic serpents 
 seized Laocoon and his sons, but here I saw two large stone 
 serpents trying to strangle a piece of statuary and eat a- 
 
58 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 hieroglyph. Perhaps the snake contortion was caused by 
 devouring a hieroglyph and being unable to digest it. On the 
 wall there is a sculpture of a man, maybe some Romeo, who, 
 on climbing over the wall, was petrified with fear at seeing 
 this serpent. Of course, in the "House of the Nuns" there 
 would be a man, but he is stone and mutilated. 
 
 Antiquarians have not decided what this building was. 
 I am not sure myself, except that these scientists seem very 
 "archeillogical" in their speculations and deductions. It 
 may have been a harem for women ; a stable for horses ; a 
 palace of a king; a temple of a priest; a prison for bad 
 priests; a flat apartment with kitchenettes for young mar- 
 ried couples or old maids and bachelors. No matter, time 
 will not tell, flesh hearts are dead and stone lips silent. The 
 natives have swiped the stones and curios for their bams and 
 houses and sold them to tourists and museums. 
 
 The jungle is burying the skeleton of this dead city. Its 
 sign language is dead, and the key which could unlock its 
 sepulchre inscriptions has not been found. At least, I looked 
 all around the stones and in the grass and was unable to dis- 
 cover the key. I fear the man who carried it was careless — 
 he should have had a key-ring, or he might have hung it on 
 the large stone hook designs on the comer of some of the 
 buildings. These strange sculptures look like the prow of an 
 ancient sailing vessel, a hammock hook for a giant, or an 
 interrogation mark to the question, "What do you know about 
 this place or the people anyway?" 
 
 UXMAL'S GOVERNOR 
 
 FTER this long stay in the Nuns' House it was quite 
 time to make a call at the "House of the Governor." 
 Taking my bearings, I sailed through a sea of plants 
 and bushes until I saw the Parthenon-like palace of 
 the governor, prominently placed and well-preserved. It 
 stands on tumbled-down, bush-grown terraces and shows sad 
 need of a royal care-taker. Were his royal nibs alive today 
 I feel sure he would be broken hearted to see his estate in 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 59 
 
 such sad ruins. Perhaps he died too suddenly to make a will 
 with provision for the upkeep of the place, or if he left money 
 for it, some boodlers probably broke the will and had the 
 appropriation directed principally into their own pockets. 
 
 I clambered up the terraces by means of ladders made of 
 young trees, with branches for the rounds — the stone steps 
 had long ago crumbled under the heel of time. The day was 
 hot, I was heavy, the ladders rickety and I felt like a burglar, 
 criminal, or old warrior scaling the ramparts of a besieged 
 city. 
 
 Up at last and in front of the palace. The palace is over 
 three hundred feet long, about forty feet deep and twenty- 
 five feet high. The stone building rises plain for ten feet, 
 then comes a strip of wide cornice, and from there on to the 
 top one finds a mass of sculpture that rivals a Turkish rug 
 pattern. It is a maze of amazing design. To think it, make 
 it, put it together is like working a funny block puzzle. The 
 entire sculpture is a puzzle, the game being to find what it 
 means, I grew warm at the thought even though I was sur- 
 rounded by a "frieze." 
 
 There is a roof garden here now, whether the boss had 
 one or not, that Nature made of wild flowers, vines and weeds. 
 Here birds sing and butterflies flit, dancing to the wind's 
 music, just as if it were a real roof garden. The large rooms, 
 their number and arrangement, led me to believe the Gover- 
 nor had many male and female servants, or both, to do his 
 bidding. Now all that flit around are the bats, and accord- 
 ing to native tradition, ghosts. My guide said no Mayan 
 native would sleep in these ruins at night for they were 
 haunted, and the ghosts of former occupants would return 
 and grab them and anything they might possess. Maybe, but 
 the only proof I saw of any occupancy was some empty cans 
 and beer bottles. Evidently some ghosts had been here 
 recently on a picnic and had a very good time. 
 
 As I stood here I wondered who the Governor was, how 
 he stole the election and the people's money, what deals he 
 put through, what graft he raked off for this many million 
 dollar palace, or whether he forced his slaves to build it for 
 nothing but their scanty board. "Whichever way you look at 
 it, he had a splendid view and a high old time. Think of the 
 
60 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 formal meetings, receptions, banquets, drunks, flirtations, 
 escapades and all those privileges vs^hicli come from political 
 office. The Governor's House is in ruins now, but I know of 
 some States that would be glad to put it in repair and send 
 their beloved governors here for a life-vacation with the com- 
 panionship of lizards, snakes and solitude. Lest we forget, 
 let me say this so-called "Governor's House" may only be 
 so in name. Who knows, perhaps it was his Private Sec- 
 retary's. 
 
 RUIN RUMINATIONS 
 
 TJHE "House of the Turtles" is located near the 
 I "House of the Governor," and is thought by some 
 learned scholars to have been the royal kitchen. 
 Other scientists say it was so named from the row of 
 sculptured turtles on the top cornice of the building, while 
 Professor Surmise declares that this was the place where the 
 highest grade of Mayan soup was manufactured. 
 
 "The House of the Doves" received its name from roof 
 formations that at a distance resemble dove-cotes or pigeon- 
 houses. To me the serrated ridge-points resembled the back 
 of a big serpent lifted up over the green of the jungle. How- 
 ever, in the absence of any reliable authority for the name, 
 the iDuilding was here and we went up to it, saw the row of 
 holes and perforated gables, pigeon-holes as it were, which 
 contained no documentary evidence, one could swear by, as to 
 the use of the building or its name. 
 
 The guide insisted on showing us what proved to be a 
 tree-covered hill. Man made the hill and nature made the 
 trees. I asked the name of the mound and he said there was 
 none. I was so hot, tired and scratched that I gave it one, but 
 it is omitted for the type-setter wouldn't set it up because it 
 upset his scruples. 
 
 The "House of the Old Woman" was pointed out to us 
 in the distance. It was so far away and broken down in 
 appearance that I said I wouldn't go there if there was a 
 young woman in it to fan my face and feed me ice-cream. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 61 
 
 'Twas high noon and time to eat. There was no spread- 
 ing chestnut tree with shade, so we pushed back to where 
 the mules and cart with food awaited us. No bandits had 
 disturbed it, but we found thousands of ants, gi-ants, which 
 disputed our right and left us no peace. Roughly brushing 
 them away, we opened canned stuff and there in the scanty 
 shade of the cart, at the foot of the pyramid and near the. 
 feet of the mules, we filled our aching voids. 
 
 After a sleepy sun-bath, for we were so weary that we 
 were too exhausted to seek a shady spot, we took a final view 
 and some more photos and left. There were no fond fare- 
 wells. We had come and seen enough monuments of this dead 
 past, and had tramped all around without the interference 
 of any police or signs which read, "No admittance" — "Keep 
 off the Grass." 
 
 These Mayan premises have given rise to many -false 
 premises and the ruins indicate the monumental ignorance of 
 tramp tourists and sedate savants. Who built these Uxmal 
 structures, when or why, no foreigner knows and no Yuca- 
 tecan cares. Had it not been for John L, Stephens, who not 
 only discovered so much here but described it so well, these 
 ruins would probably remain unknown, unvisited and unsung. 
 One thing is certain that J. L. S. put them on the map so we 
 could find them. 
 
 Though these ruins cannot compare in size, splendor, sculp- 
 ture, beauty, breadth, etc., with much I had seen in Egypt, 
 Greece, Rome, Java, India and Peru, they take the palm for 
 being the most ruined. As Yucatan iconoclasts had recently 
 smashed the images in the city churches, so Time, the great 
 iconoclast, has leveled these Mayan structures. 
 
 Today I have a very definite idea of this trip, some very 
 clear photos and have tried to outline my impressions. But 
 what are my poor efforts compared with the following lucid, 
 straightforward statement by one who lived near here, and 
 has so admirably summed up all that has thus far been known, 
 said, written and sung of these Mayan rains: 
 
 "We purposely omit going further into the description, as 
 to do so would be to draw too largely on the imagination, in 
 trying to describe what is, or rather what was to be seen, as 
 too much has gone to decay, to enable one to clearly repre- 
 
62 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 sent, what all originally meant, and with respect to other 
 sculptures, it is distinctly best for each- person, for so-called 
 student, to form his own impressions, as one person's views of 
 the matter, are about as reasonable as another's, it is per- 
 fectly impracticable for a thousand and one subjects to be 
 described, leaving it absolutely essentially that those inter- 
 ested in the study, should make a personal inspection of the 
 ruins, and arrive at his own conclusions." 
 
 Mirabile dictu! This reads as easy as the hieroglyphs on 
 the ruins themselves. 
 
 Chichen-Itza divides ruined honors with Uxmal in respect 
 to its church, temple of tigers, nunnery, observatory, sepul- 
 chre, sacrificial temple, stone heads, pottery and idols, and 
 sacred cenote where the beautiful girls and war prisoners are 
 said to have been thrown. 
 
 If Uxmal and Chichen-Itza are not enough for ruin-hunters, 
 or if any of them survive and want more, they may take their 
 pick and break their neck, leg or jaw on the following: 
 
 Kanichkakmo, Oxkutzeab, Yacatzib, Ytsimpte, Zubilnocac, 
 Kabahancan, Yaxche, Yakalxio, Xchmool, Bolonchenticul, 
 Chunj^axnie, Huntichmul, Ichpich, Mulultzekal, Xcalupococh, 
 Xcanalchen, Xlap-phak. 
 
 No, reader, this type is not pied. These are just a few 
 of many Mayan ruins. What a paradise for a lexicographer! 
 It is a sad fact that the great Noah Webster, who wrote an 
 early and original work entitled, "The Dictionary," went 
 insane. Lucky for us he never went to Yucatan for verbal 
 inspiration for he might have added a supplement to his 
 dictionary that would have made us all crazy. 
 
 We had to cut Chichen-Itza; out of our itinerary for 
 there was no time to go there, and if there had been, I was 
 so ruined at Uxmal that I never would have lived to tell 
 the tale. 
 
 Leaving the ruins, we stopped at a big hacienda, an oasis 
 for shade and drink in a sisal desert. We drove through 
 the big arched gate and unhitched the mules that filled up 
 on water and ran and rolled in the big front yard as if in 
 a circus. They became so lively that it was difficult to 
 catch and hitch them up. We, too, were thirsty and wanted 
 a drink, so we went up to the big house with its long, 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 63 
 
 arched porch; climbed the steps guarded by the Uxmal 
 double-headed tiger; ate oranges and drank from the deep 
 well; saw the hollow-log bee-hive made of short logs with 
 plastered-up ends and piled like cordwood; watched bees, 
 busy and not bothersome, for they have no stingers; and 
 looked at the Indian servants as quiet and still as the big 
 iguanas that were taking siestas on the porch. Much rested 
 and refreshed we entered our coffin cart and started home, 
 wiser but sadder and madder as the big cart wheels creaked 
 out from the axle a canto of cruelty, "I'll break your 
 back, I'll break your back ere you get back." "L" reached 
 Merida with his pants ripped in true Rip Van Winkle style, 
 and creased as if Rip had slept in them twenty years. He 
 used his two kodaks to hide exposures. 
 
 ON A YUCATAN TRAIN 
 
 N YUCATAN one cannot rely on anybody when it 
 comes to time. You need an alarm watch if you 
 intend to make an early train. The train to Cam- 
 peche left at 6 a. m. We asked the hotel guard to 
 wake us, but he didn't, for we later found him asleep at the 
 foot of the stone stairs guarding the front door. We rose 
 at 4:30 to dress, wash and pack, but there was no light in 
 the room or on the streets. We groped around to find our 
 clothes, wash-basin and valises and learned the meaning of 
 the lines, "The darkest hour of night is before the dawn." 
 Our flashlights came to our rescue, but not before we had 
 acted out Mark Twain's experience in the dark room of a 
 German hotel. 
 
 Once outdoors we hacked our way through the thick 
 darkness, bumping into a few people straggling home from 
 the carnival. The depot was a gloomy affair. I had the 
 name of the train, town and time written on a card by the 
 hotel proprietor. I shoved it into the little window of the 
 ticket-taker. This sounds simple, but it was difficult to do 
 on account of the beggars who stood on either side of me 
 with outstretched, dirty fingers. He wrote the price of the 
 
64 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 ticket and I paid him. When the train was leaving I found 
 I had been charged $1.25 in excess. I mentioned this to an 
 American, Mr. Briggs, who was on the train, and he told 
 me he had been "done" the same way, except that the 
 agent had simply charged him an extra seventy-five cents. 
 This is the way. The ticket-agent sizes up the foreign pas- 
 senger by his size and appearance and adds the amount 
 he wants for his own personal graft. The line was a narrow 
 guage one, but the agent was too broadly dishonest to make 
 me start with pleasant feelings — feelings that grew worse as 
 the sun and dust came up and the little, wood-burning, 
 smoking engine jerked us along in the old second-class car 
 by scrubby hills which are mountains to these people. 
 
 Natives were getting off at their home towns for the car- 
 nival. Such funny towns, with thatched roofs and plastered 
 sides ; long dusty roads and white stone fences ; piles of engine 
 fuel heaped at every station ; backyard views of native houses ; 
 women washing and making tortillas; and men smoking and 
 lazily looking on with approval. There were sisal plantations 
 whose henequen plants looked like rows of gigantic pineapples. 
 
 After five hours of heat, made more disagreeable because 
 it was necessary to close every window to keep out the 
 dust, we saw the sea through the wilted palms and entered 
 Campeche, 90 miles southwest of Merida. The Mestizos 
 think this train ride is better than Elijah's chariot ride to 
 heaven, so they save and spend their money to make the 
 trip for the mere "pleasure" of going and coming. To a 
 civilized man it is Hades on wheels. 
 
 "When we crossed the boundary line between Yucatan and 
 the state of Campeche, the quiet, well-dressed men in our 
 car, who had been forced to a state of dry content with 
 beer, began to show signs of life. They stopped at the Cam- 
 peche stations and returned with hands and pocketfuls of 
 bottles of the strongest liquor that is prohibited in Yucatan. 
 They drank for self, to and with each other, sang, spoke, 
 laughed, howled and drank some more. There was so much 
 of good spirits in the car that we unconsciously felt some of 
 the intoxication. They were after a good time and left 
 Yucatan to find it. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 65 
 
 CAMPECHE 
 
 THE station of Campeche, the capital, was like an old, 
 wooden, river boathouse. Here they not only take 
 your baggage but your temperature. We stood in 
 line and the officials jabbed the temperature tubes 
 in our mouth. When the officials decided we were not liable 
 to infect their town with yellow fever, they asked our names, 
 nationality, etc., and admitted us to the freedom and priv- 
 ileges of the city. How to get there was the question, for 
 we were miles from it. We waited in the heat half an 
 hour for a bus. Finally one appeared covered with tinsel 
 paper decorations and ribbons on the head of the horse and 
 hat of the driver. It was carnival day and the driver de- 
 manded five dollars to take us to the hotel. Since the depot 
 was at the end of the mule-tram line we decided to wait 
 for a car, and wait we did. This line only runs to the depot 
 when the train comes in. We piled in, many hung on the 
 inside and the outside, and the conductor forced some to get 
 off because the mules couldn't pull the car. This was bad 
 for it was the only car to town, and those who had to walk 
 were ready to fight with tongue and fist. Valises were 
 charged extra in this combination of passenger and express 
 car. 
 
 I hung on the outside and kept my head inside to prevent 
 being sunstruck, while I made my feet and body small as 
 possible to avoid having them crushed by houses and curbs 
 that projected dangerously near the tracks. The streets 
 were narrow, it was high noon and high carnival. Suddenly 
 we stopped, for just ahead was a great crowd under an 
 awning stretched across the street. This wasn't the end of 
 the line, but the car couldn't pass, so we got off with bags 
 and umbrellas and made a centre rush through the crowd. 
 This was carnival day when everything goes except what is 
 necessary, which is side-tracked and still. Carriages were 
 mixed up in the crowd and everybody on foot and in the 
 carriages was assaulting each other with showers of con- 
 fetti. It was a howling, happy mob. We pushed through 
 with the help of our American friend Briggs, who guided us 
 to the Nuevo Hotel Betancourt overlooking the old city 
 wall and sea. 
 
66 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 A VILE INN 
 
 ONLY a stretch of language and imagination could 
 call it a hotel — as for "nuevo," new, that adjective 
 had long since fallen into disuse. A bare-legged, 
 chambermaid boy showed us our room. Then he 
 swept all the dirt on us and brought in a wash-basin, and 
 some old towels supposed to be clean, but caked with mud. 
 I looked at the mattress and it resembled a lava bed, hilly 
 and lumpy, and it was just as soft. There were no sheets 
 or pillows, yet it was covered with a blanket of grey dust 
 from the street. The best thing was the view from the 
 balcony of a dimpled, lazy sea, a few sails, an idle wharf, a 
 fort just across the street with Spanish turrets and some 
 vultures perched on the wall, winking at each other and 
 looking wickedly at us as if to say, "I can see your finish. 
 You can't live over there very long and we'll get your meat." 
 I left the balcony for fear my weight would break it and 
 drop me to the sidewalk. 
 
 The hotel had a patio, and since we were upstairs, we 
 were in a position to get all the vile smells of the cooking 
 and garbage heap, and see the piled up dirty clothes and 
 unattractive servants. Like the usual Latin hotel, sanita- 
 tion was of least concern and the last thing thought of. The 
 lavatory stench arose above all the surroundings and smelled 
 to heaven. However dark the night, I always found this 
 hotel by following my nose. 
 
 The hotel's four dining tables were placed in the passage 
 way. After a dinner of shrimps, shark-meat, rice, beans and 
 bread we sauntered out. Over the main entrance I spied 
 a Spanish sign, "Baths for thirty cents." Any man wno 
 stays here for one night will need one at least. Let me illus- 
 trate the progressive push and punctual spirit of this town. 
 Though I stopped two days at the hotel, it was not until I 
 was leaving that my name was chalked on the blackboard 
 register. It was well, however, for the people who usually 
 call on strangers here were of a class I did not care to meet 
 — thieves and courtezans. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 67 
 
 FIRECRACKER FIENDS. 
 
 ^ 
 
 LONG the water front there was a little plaza in 
 ruins. The statues were overturned and the wall 
 seats tumbled over. This was not due to an earth- 
 quake but to a recent revolution. The soldiers had 
 mutinied and driven the governor out of the state, but he 
 had returned, put the rebels against the wall and silenced 
 them. 
 
 The main plaza was the centre of carnival life. The can- 
 tinas were as full as the people in them. Our two kodaks 
 attracted the crowd and they at once surrounded us and 
 began to throw lighted firecrackers that exploded on our face 
 and neck. I didn't care to lose my eyes or good clothes, and 
 started to get away. This made bad worse and I conceived 
 the idea of taking their pictures to keep them still. Their 
 leader was drunk, but delighted, and made his crowd line up 
 and stand for it. This left a wide space between us, and 
 with this start we snapped the kodak and escaped. 
 
 At the fort we met a dozen soldiers on dress parade with 
 bare feet, straw hats and white suits, and cartridge belts 
 slung over their shoulders. I asked the officer for permission 
 to take a snap shot at them for fear they might take a 
 rifle one at us. He smiled, lined them up, we fired and this 
 broke the monotony for them and us. Both sky and sea 
 celebrated the Campeche carnival by being decked out at 
 sunrise and sunset in their brightest colors. 
 
 From two to four o'clock the carnival crowd was resting 
 and preparing for evening attack. We had no time to rest 
 and strolled around. We found a church that had been 
 made over into a school to illumine the darkened minds of 
 the children who knew little but catechism. Significantly 
 on the tower of the building there was an improvised light- 
 house illustrating the scripture, "Let there be light." As 
 the weather was warm and the water was fine, there were 
 many men and boys swimming on the beach in suits that 
 suited them — plain bare skin. 
 
 About four-thirty the quiet was broken by shouts, music 
 and a cannonade of crackers, and we started out to see the 
 fim in the plaza. On the way from the beach we noticed 
 
68 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 two mule carts filled with men who had gathered piles of 
 slimy seaweed and there were other carts filled with talc 
 powder. I wondered what this was for and soon learned. 
 When the mob saw a cart approach, it rushed out, seized the 
 mules and rained exploding firecrackers on the driver and 
 those with him. The army mule was in his element. He 
 pushed ahead with the crackers shooting over his ears and 
 jumped when some mischievous boy put a pack under his 
 harness or tail. The men on the cart resisted and fought, 
 shielding their eyes with one arm, using the other to throw 
 flour and filth into the crowd, or to pick up packs of exploding 
 crackers and throw them back into the faces of the men who 
 threw them. Shirts and pants were blackened and burned 
 full of holes or nearly off. A few swells wore good clothes 
 and Panama hats regardless of results. The majority were 
 barefooted, wore cheap pants, undershirts and slouch hats. 
 Some were armed with a bedroom utensil which they wore 
 as a helmet. Others used tortoise shells for shields. We 
 watched the crowd haul one man off his cart and drag him 
 through the streets while firing crackers at him. It was a 
 Walpurgis night, hobgobblin, hoodlum affair. 
 
 Young girls and women were either on the balconies above, 
 ranged round the plaza, or standing tiptoe behind the high 
 iron fence watching the fight. The drunken leader I had 
 seen in the morning was again busy. He was bad and brave. 
 He sneaked up behind them in the plaza enclosure and set 
 off the crackers under their skirts. Like a mouse, a fire- 
 cracker is a very terrible thing to ladies and they fled to the 
 church for a sanctuary. He v/as the chief devil of this infernal 
 carnival. 
 
 Campeche's cathedral was big enough but there was no 
 time for religious devotion. The Devil was enthroned out- 
 side and one of his imps, in the form of a drunken masque- 
 rader, offered to take me in the church and to the top of 
 the tower to see the cit3^ I gave him a "Get behind me 
 Satan" and left him. 
 
 During the cracker fight the street car service was sus- 
 pended for two hours and passengers and pedestrians took 
 to the side streets. At dark everything stopped from exhaus- 
 tion, accident or because the city was poorly lighted. The 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 69 
 
 following afternoon was the last day of the carnival and 
 wilder than ever. You may imagine my surprise when I saw 
 an American at the head of this fiend brigade. He was a Mr. 
 Davis from Virginia. He came to me and asked why I didn't 
 put on an old suit of clothes and join the gang, saying it 
 wasn't safe to be about with good clothes. He promised to 
 keep his crowd from burning them off if I would go to the 
 hotel and put on an old suit. I tried to keep them from 
 throwing crackers by explaining these were the only suits 
 we had brought along with us, but they laughed and began to 
 chase us. The one chance to get away from them and the 
 town was to find a street ear, and as we made for it we 
 looked up and found nice ladies and men in the balconies 
 looking down on us. With the crowd on the walks and in 
 the plazas and carts they gazed at us as if we were objects 
 of amusement, like bulls in the ring or martyrs in a Roman 
 arena. They laughed, applauded and shrieked ''Gringo," as 
 we were chased from one end of the plaza to the other. It 
 was amusing for them but not for us. It was hot, I weighed 
 two hundred and attempted to outrace the pursuing mob, 
 for I was not anxious to have my eyes burnt out or my 
 clothes burnt up. I spied a street car just ahead and ready 
 to start. It was full, but "L" and I leaped on and hung to 
 the back platform rail. Mules are always slow and never go 
 where, and only occasionally when, you want them to. The 
 con pulled the bell, the driver said "Mula," lashing them 
 with whip and tongue, but they did not stir. During the 
 carnival the street car is believed to be a sanctuary of refuge, 
 an isle of safety, but not for gringoes. As we stood there we 
 made a fine target for their laughs and firecrackers. Not sat- 
 isfied with this, a cart full of hoodlums drove by, stopped and 
 covered us with flour, filth and seaweed, making the hit of 
 the performance. I prayed for resignation, smiled like a 
 Christian martyr and stood ready to die, when the mules 
 suddenly decided to move. The car started and we made our 
 exit 'mid the wild hootings of the town. 
 
 Later Mr. Davis told me this was a quiet carnival com- 
 pared with those of preceding years on account of the in- 
 creased cost of confetti and crackers. He had spent $60 in 
 U. S, money and remarked that the poor had saved up their 
 hard-earned money and spent most of it for the blow out. 
 
70 
 
 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 MASQUERADERS 
 
 BANDS of masqueraders trooped throgh the streets. 
 One man had on a bear costume and his master led 
 him around. When he reached the plaza the crowd 
 attacked him, tore off his costume and left little on 
 except his hide. Another animated throng bore banners with 
 "Vive" this and "Vive" that. They were all togged out 
 like Solomon Islanders. Their faces were black, and to imi- 
 tate bushy hair they wore big, black sea-sponges strapped to 
 the top of their heads. Some had wreaths of flowers on their 
 hats and others, dressed in skirts, imitated women. A few 
 had Yankee Doodle plug hats painted with stars and all were 
 loaded with clothes though the thermometer was up to 100 
 in the shade. 
 
 Men who looked like chimney sweeps, or as if they had 
 slept in the Betancourt hotel, made music with guitars, bones 
 and drums. They sang, danced up and down with a wiggle 
 and jiggle, acting out pantomime like a minstrel show. They 
 sang, sweat and swayed with joy to themselves and others. 
 A clown and clowness acted the part of lover and swain and 
 husband and wife in droning monologue. I didn't under- 
 stand it, but the crowd did and roared with glee. 
 
 CARICATURED CLERGY 
 
 HE only clergy I saw on the streets in Campeehe 
 were in caricature. The cathedral here holds a 
 quiet servivce, for times have changed. Formerly 
 
 church and state were one, but now they are several 
 
 things and pretty widely tied apart. Instead of the day 
 when processions were on the streets and sidewalks, man 
 and beast were crowded to one side, and every one was com- 
 pelled to bow and kneel at the procession of the Host, the 
 time has come when the laity have their rights and the right 
 of way. No longer do they bend the knee, bow the head or 
 take off the hat, but applaud and caricature the things they 
 were once compelled to revere. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 71 
 
 We were drawn into a whirlpool of mad mirth. "We saw 
 two men in mock garb of clerical paper cap, lace-trimmed 
 stole and surplice and rosaries on their necks made of rotten 
 lemons and tomatoes, to which there was attached a large 
 bamboo cross. The attendant carried a big cowbell which 
 he violently rang and large scrap book to represent a missal. 
 Both wore carnival masks with long red noses. Both mum- 
 bled prayers, stretched out their hands in blessings, 
 kneeled, postured and prayed. They took the prize over all 
 other masqueraders in the crowds and cheers that followed 
 them. 
 
 CONFETTI 
 
 HE proper thing to do carnival morning is for the 
 boys and men to get their girls and give them a 
 drive in a rude mule cart covered with a small 
 canvas awning and decorated with paper flags and 
 palms. The girls made a glorious contrast decked out in 
 their best and brightest colored dresses. There was a long 
 parade of them and they drove up and down the streets 
 for hours bombarding each other and us with confetti. On 
 one street corner we rested and took refuge. A kindly 
 owner came out with chairs, invited us to rest, and in broken 
 English entertained us and offered us a drink. I politely 
 refused, but took some camphor to moisten and dry my lips 
 which had been sun-blistered. 
 
 At night Campeche is dark as Erebus — only one little light 
 for every two or three squares. This is a good way to keep 
 people off the streets. I wonder how they spend the evening 
 indoors, where it is just as dark. Do they go to bed or 
 read raised letters like the blind? I fear the town is as 
 dark intellectually as it is materially. 
 
 One night our rest was disturbed by the band in the plaza 
 and to escape we took the car to the end of the line to seek 
 other sights and sounds. At a carnival booth, instead of an 
 ice-cream soda as a thirst-quencher, we ate crushed ice 
 
72 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 papaya. An old man had directed us to a stand where his 
 pretty daughter was standing mixing fruit drinks. He 
 rubbed his stomach to indicate that the papaya drink was 
 good. It took a long time to make but gave me a chance to 
 smile at the girl and be sweet while she mixed the sugar in it. 
 
 NATIVE DANCES 
 
 AFTER smacking our lips, not hers, we entered a little 
 park where the peons Avere crowding into a large wood 
 building called the "Nuevo Circo Theatro." It had 
 a tin roof, two lions on the side of the entrance and 
 a prosaic statue of a native holding a spear over the door. 
 Paying a dollar each we entered. The price entitled us to 
 the ground floor where benches were arranged on the sides 
 so we might sit and watch the dancing in the centre of the 
 room, or ask the girls who came in, or those sitting around, 
 to dance with us. The balcony seats were cheaper but the 
 holders could only see, not dance. We sat with the men on 
 one side while the women were opposite us. 
 
 Alas, the band we thought we had escaped, entered the 
 room, marched to the stage and was soon busy. A half- 
 soused condition moved them to force from their poor instru- 
 ments the most hideous, horrible, head-splitting, heart-break- 
 ing sounds ever heard outside the region Dante made famous. 
 There was more music in a laughing jackass, braying 
 donkey, screeching owl or chattering monkey than in them. 
 This band of musical pirates, that wrecked the high Cs, 
 should disband. Idea of time and tune they had not, or if 
 they ever had, they had left it with the "Lost Chord." It 
 was a jackass or jazz band in early i^rocess of evolution. 
 
 On with the dance, and a South Sea dance had nothing on 
 this one. Soon as the music started up, the men arose, 
 walked over to the girls and asked them to dance. There 
 were several preliminary quiet dances and then some less so. 
 There was one I never can forget. I have seen country-barn 
 dances at corn-husking time but this one, from the clatter 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 73 
 
 of their heavy-soled shoes, sounded like horses kicking in 
 fly-time in a livery stable. It was no vi^altz or bunny-hng. 
 The dancing partners stood opposite and apart from each 
 other and jiggled and jumped up and dovv^n on one foot and 
 then on another, the object being apparently to see w^ho 
 could dance the fastest, loudest and longest. It w^as an exer- 
 tion and exhaustion dance. On© by one the parties and 
 couples slowed up, stopped and sat down. Sad to relate, the 
 band was never exhausted. One dancing man and woman 
 lasted a long while," breathing and sweating like Marathon 
 runners. They were very strong. The dancers gathered round 
 to watch them. Finally he quit his St. Vitus jump, and his 
 girl, with a woman's usual lung-power, hopped a little longer 
 and then sat down to receive the applause and the reward of 
 a purse. 
 
 Mr. Goyta is Campeche's ice man. He had studied in New 
 York, recognized us as Yankees and extended a warm invita- 
 tion to attend a high society dance when he found we had 
 been to a low one. This function was held at a theatre and 
 was a full-dress affair with better people, music and visitors. 
 The couples danced on a finely woven sisal mat. After we 
 watched them we were invited into the side bar where we 
 wished Goyta and everybody health and happiness in a soft 
 drink. 
 
 I chanced to remark that we were leaving next morning, 
 and he asked us whether we had been vaccinated while here, 
 for we would not be permitted to leave the town without 
 some further "mark" of appreciation by the good citizens. I 
 replied we had not been but would go and submit to a 
 scraping acquaintance with the doctors. Had Goyta not 
 informed us of this peculiar Campeche custom, we would 
 have gone to tjie railroad station next morning, asked for a 
 ticket to Merida, and been refused because Ave had no health 
 certificates. This rule may be required for government graft 
 but is necessary to protect Merida from the infected Cam- 
 peche natives. Campeche has the reputation of being a dirty, 
 pestilential place. She is like a drab all the year until car- 
 nival time, when she puts on her paint and powder para- 
 phernalia. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 CARNIVAL CURSE 
 
 THE word "carnival" is from the Latin "caro," 
 which means "flesh," and "levare," meaning "to 
 lighten." It refers to masquerade merriment and 
 riotous revelry. It is a fast and furious festival 
 celebrated in Roman Catholic countries a whole week before 
 Lent. There may be some doubt about the origin of the 
 word but there is no doubt of the doubtful practises of the 
 |)eople. They pretend to walk in the straight and narrow 
 way for fifty-one weeks in the year, and then emphasize all 
 their hypocrisy by throwing the reins loose on the neck of 
 Plato's black horse of passion, debauchery and drunkenness, 
 and galloping to the hell-brink of everything vile, villainous 
 and vicious. 
 
 The carnival was devil-invented and is hell's holiday. It 
 is not only anti-Christian but ante-Christian and goes way 
 back to B. C. — "bad carnival" — w&y back to Bacchus, to 
 Dyonisius of Eastern origin. He was the God of the Grape, 
 son of Zeus, and his worship symbolized the reproductive 
 forces of nature. He was more fantastic in his decoration of 
 asphodel, ivy and laurel than poor, demented Ophelia. Influ- 
 enced by a stronger preparation of grape-juice than any Bi*yan 
 brand, he was led to love such animal pets as the panther, 
 tiger and ram. He was convivial, loved to treat and always 
 had a Bohemian club around him, Falstaff Silenus, orchestral 
 Pan, goatish satyrs, rough-shod centaurs and bagnio Bac- 
 chantes. His influence was wide-spread and among the various 
 legacies he has bequeathed us is the song, "Cheer, cheer, the 
 gang's all here." 
 
 The worship of Bacchus had no such mj'-steries as are 
 commonly supposed. The first carnival history we read 
 about is when Bacchus and his boys and girls went out on a 
 lark in hills and deserts without chaperons, the old folks 
 being busy among themselves. They wore few clothes, 
 except the clinging vines around their necks, and didn't care 
 a fig for the figleaf. They rode goats and asses and carried 
 sex-symbols aloft on poles, in front of the procession, to incite 
 to deeds without a name for shame. The Greeks and Romans 
 worshiped Bacchus, and Saturnalia was one of the Roman 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 75 
 
 carnivals. The Roman poet Martial marshalled his poetic 
 lines in celebration of it : 
 
 "Ye stern brovrs and severe looks of rigid Catos, ye 
 daughters of rustic Fabricii, ye mock-modest, ye censors of 
 morals, and all ye proprieties opposed to the joys of dark- 
 ness, flee hence! Hark! my verses exclaim 'Hail, Satur- 
 nalia!' We are at liberty." 
 
 The carnival, a rank plant of Paganism, has been culti- 
 vated into a beautiful "passion" flower by the church. 
 Instead of opposing this Paganism the Holy Fathers liked it 
 and incorporated it into their service. It attracted them and 
 led them to attract others. It v^^as in line v^^ith their daily 
 practise, if not with their Sunday preaching. Popes not only 
 patronized but promoted it. It flourished under such sacred 
 souls as Paul II, Julius III, Paul IV and Sextus V. 
 
 In converting the Indians in Central and South America 
 I saw how the church had taken over many of their idols 
 and ceremonies, putting gold and lace on the former, and 
 substituting Latin for Indian dialect in the service. At Copo- 
 cabana in Bolivia they placed Mary's image above the golden 
 Inca throne where the oracle had stood, and at Guadalupe in 
 Mexico devoted a shrine to her in a place once sacred to 
 Tonantzinziv, the heathen god-mother. 
 
 The carnival is just a Roman Catholic custom. We have 
 street and New Orleans carnivals, but they are far different, 
 being personal, public, patriotic and commercial. But Latin 
 America's and Europe's carnival is altogether different. I 
 have seen native carnivals in South Sea islands, a dragon 
 parade in Japan, festivals in India and holidays in Egypt, but 
 when it comes to the Pre-Lenten Roman Catholic church car- 
 nival in Southern Europe and Latin America it has always made 
 me think Satan had adjourned to earth for a holiday and 
 
 was having a h of a good time. What a sad and bad 
 
 philosophy that permits votaries to be Pre-Lenten devils if 
 they will only be Post-Lenten saints. 
 
 Byron paints a good carnival picture in his Venetian 
 Btory of "Beppo": 
 
76 THE DEML LN MEXICO 
 
 *' 'Tis known, at least it should be, that throughout 
 All countries of the Catholic persuasion, 
 
 Some -weeks before Shrove Tuesday comes about, 
 The people take their till of recreation, 
 
 And buy repentance, ere they grow devout, 
 However high their rank, or low their station, 
 
 "With fiddling, feasting, dancing, drinking, masking, 
 
 And other things which may be had for asking." 
 
 The people may not believe in the church, but they do in 
 the carnival, looking forward to it through all the year and 
 saving their money for it. Carnival and carnality are 
 synonymous. Stomach rules the soul and the animal the 
 angel. "World, flesh and devil are the Trinity worshiped. 
 
 There is a Spanish proverb, "The Devil lurks behind the 
 cross." When the old world Spaniard came to the New 
 "World, he acted like the devil, used the cross in the form of 
 the sword and killed the poor Indian who objected to being 
 baptized in the "true church." The poor peons stood this 
 for 300 years, and as soon as they were able, took swords 
 in their own hands, put the clergy to rout, recovered their 
 wealth, overthrew Maximilian and went back to idol love 
 and, "worship. Their feast days, gods and carnivals were 
 quite as good as those of the Christians in their judgment. 
 
 The clergy believed a fair exchange was no robbery and 
 forced their own feast days and symbols on the Mexicans. 
 The Indians were compelled to swap gods and ceremonies, 
 and with clerical favors and pleasures, entered the new 
 religion. But it was such a noisy, noisome nuisance that 
 either the church or state had to surrender this carnival 
 carouse, and the state won out, compelling the church to sur- 
 render its bell racket and prohibited its carnival processions. 
 The carnival was the crowning curse of Catholicism. The 
 difference between Christianity and Paganism in Latin 
 America was in favor of the latter. 
 
 The carnival is a curse to a country. "Wliether Lenten or 
 other it is a mental, monied and moral loss. Some carnivals 
 of two or three da3'S require weeks of preparation, months 
 of recuperation and evil results are seen in broken heads and 
 hearts. The main days in the calendar are not work days 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 77 
 
 but play days. The native takes a siesta between fiestas. 
 If we had such carnivals and so many holidays in the United 
 States we vv^ould neither be nor do much better than Latin 
 America. Life to them is a masquerade ball. If they ever 
 get to heaven they will want to make it a carnival, to dance 
 with the angels and throw star-dust confetti at each other. 
 
 Carnival days are faster than the fast. At Campeche it 
 was a time of utter abandon. Burned clothes were in style, 
 powder-marked face and blistered fingers were signs of 
 bravery. The man who drank enough to be a walking can- 
 tina, or who swore most profanely, or told and sang the 
 worst stories and songs, or had been in the greatest number 
 of dances, or had debauched the greatest number of girls, was 
 the hero of the day. Carnival is Pleasure's Sabbath. As of 
 old it is the most lawless, loveless, lax, loose, licentious sea- 
 son of the year, recalling the old carnival times of Venice 
 with its bacchanal bestiality when the grand march was led 
 bv Death. 
 
 THE STATE OF CAMPECHE 
 
 WE slipped out early one morning to the market to 
 see the signs of life, and if there was anything that 
 could support it, for it was too early to get anything 
 at the hotel. The help was sleeping off its carnival 
 effects of the night before. John Chinaman, always ener- 
 getic, was at the market and ready to serve us with good 
 coffee and sweet bread. We thought some fruit would taste 
 good but what was offered us for sale should have been 
 carried away in a garbage can. So we rambled down to the 
 wharf, where a banana boat had just come in from Frontera. 
 Natives were bargaining for bunches and taking them home, 
 or to the market. Boarding the boat we went into the hold 
 and bought and ate until we could hold no more. A native 
 wanted to sell me a large, live tortoise to take home to 
 America, and wondered why I objected, since he had offered 
 him so cheap. 
 
78 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 On the old Spanish sea wall the buzzards were lined up 
 like soldiers. When the tide is out and anything is left to 
 eat on the beach, they swoop down and fight for it. They 
 are the city scavengers, black white wings and the board of 
 health. The season for killing these black birds is always 
 closed. 
 
 Campeche has a population of about 18,000. It is an old, 
 fortified Mexican city. Her harbor is shallow and the city 
 is left high and dry so that big boats sail by and only little 
 ones come to shore. The country produces cedar, logwood, 
 mahogany, sisal, cordage, chicle, wax, cocoa and salt. The 
 principal manufacture is cigars. Talc, marble and salt 
 mines are in the vicinity. Small coast boats come up to her 
 docks to carry away these exports. 
 
 The city was supposed to have been founded in 1540 and 
 built over artificial Mayan catacombs used for sepulchral 
 purposes. Idols and mummies have been found in them. 
 Except in the carnival season, this graveyard spirit beneath 
 rules the city above, for Campeche is just as idle, sepulchral, 
 mummified and dead. 
 
 Her citizens were hustlers once in the sixteenth century, 
 when, to protect themselves against the English and Spanish 
 pirates, who came to loot the town or make the bay a hiding 
 place whence they could rush out and rob vessels coming 
 from Vera Cruz, they built a great sea wall over 25 feet 
 high and half as thick. It required 70 years and several 
 hundreds of thousands of dollars. The citizens do not fear 
 an attack of pirates now, but of the smallpox. 
 
 The state of Campeche is in a state of ruin and dilapida- 
 tion. Formerly, when a part of Yucatan, there was sub- 
 stantial growth and progress. But lazy in itself, swinging 
 in hammocks, it became jealous of Yucatan's industry and 
 intelligence and pulled out in 1858. The Yucatecan is a near 
 relation in blood and territory but miles away from the 
 Campechano in progress. Campeche is self-sidetracked, slow, 
 drowsy and dreaming life away like the turtles we saw on 
 the beach. She only wakes up once a year at carnival time. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 79 
 
 A FISHING VILLAGE 
 
 LERMA is a small fishing village up the coast, an 
 hour's ride from Campeche. A little mule tram, not 
 worth a dime, dragged us by dirty shrines set in 
 the house walls, by the beach with some wrecks and 
 fishermen and passed hills covered with brush and crumbling 
 Spanish forts, and fields of goats. The most interesting sight 
 was breakfast in our mule car. A pretty Indian girl opposite 
 bared her breast for her hungering half-naked boy. It was 
 a big meal in two courses. The little sucker enjoyed it im- 
 mensely, smacked his lips, clapped his hands and made me 
 hungry. She was a kind, sacrificing little mother, evidently 
 poor and doubtless with much to be sour at, but the milk of 
 human kindness had not been dried up or curdled in her 
 breast. 
 
 Lerma is a deserted village along the shore with houses 
 falling into decay and walls tumbling into the sea. We 
 watched some robust-looking Rebeccas drawing water at a 
 well with no nearby Isaacs to court them. One other occu- 
 pation Lerma citizens are engaged in is sleeping in the sun 
 on stone benches like so many lizards. This was the day 
 after carnival, but most of them do little else the rest of 
 the year. One staggering, drunken Indian came out of a 
 cantina, introduced himself to us as a guide and insisted he 
 could lead us straight to the talc mine I had inquired for. 
 We politely refused. I went ahead but he followed and 
 attempted to lead us to a lonely rocky ravine,. a fine place 
 for a murder. W^e were alive to the occasion, ignored him 
 and his services and escaped. He left muttering some strange 
 words we were glad to be ignorant of. 
 
 Proceeding to Mr. Davis' tale mine we found it closed 
 on account of the revolution. We entered the gate and looked 
 at the mineral deposit and machinery. There seemed to be a 
 lot of talc here, but from the way the Campeche brunettes 
 powder their faces, I fear the mine will be soon exhausted. 
 
 When I had started out sight seeing I had requested the 
 conductor to hold the car for me till I came back, for street 
 cars here are few and far between. He promised to ring 
 
80 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 the station bell five minutes before he started. "We heard the 
 bell, rushed to the station and reached it in time to see him 
 lift the big bell off the hook and lock it in the office. If 
 you Avant to find anything here where you put it you must 
 lock it up. They steal everything except a march on time. 
 
 PLAGUE PASSPORTS 
 
 OjUR simple request for a vaccination certificate was 
 I not sufficient. It required two hours of watchful 
 waiting and working to procure the precious scrap 
 of paper necessary before we could get our railroad 
 ticket from Carapeche to Yucatan. In the dark, stuffy office 
 of the government building I saw a crowd of natives, men, 
 women and children, all with arms bared, besieging a dimi- 
 nutive doctor. It was an indiscriminate scrimmage. We 
 roamed to the end of the room and looked at the portrait 
 patriots who gazed down from the wall unmoved at our pre- 
 dicament; went out on the scorching balcony where the lazy 
 natives lay unconcerned; then looked in the official office 
 where we saw our hotel proprietor to whom I had paid good 
 money for bad service. He, too, was unmoved. Davis and 
 Goyta, the only men in the city who talked English and had 
 promised to be present, were nowhere to be found, according 
 to the Latin method of keeping appointments. Here we were 
 with the possibility of missing our train and remaining 
 another day* pestered in this pesthole. I grew feverish in 
 waiting and was certain I could get any bad disease in another 
 twenty-four hours. As it was, I felt I held the record for a 
 fresh foreigner to live in Campeche a day and not be sick. 
 Just then a pretty Cam" peach" passed by, and in my lonely 
 distress I looked so appealingly to her that she understood 
 the troubled beating of my heart. I pointed to my watch, 
 said "ferro-carril," and with a knowing smile she left and 
 returned with a gray-haired man kind enough to be her 
 father. I had the official certificate price and gave him the 
 money. lie pushed the crowd of natives aside and procured 
 a blank for me to fill out, had it stamped and handed it to 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 81 
 
 me. I was so grateful I would have been willing to kiss his 
 pretty daughter if she had been near, and willing to receive 
 the stamp from her lips. 
 
 I could have read Pollock's ''Course of Time" in the time 
 it took the mule tram to take us to the depot. Exchanging 
 my money and health certificate for a railroad ticket, I 
 entered a first-class coach. I knew it was a first-class coach 
 because of the piles of baggage, boxes of chickens and loose 
 dogs the passengers brought in with them. But we were an 
 hour early and secured good seats. With these animals, the 
 breath of those who leaned on me, the bad tobacco smoke 
 blown around, and the natives sitting on the arms of my 
 seat, you can easily see what a delightful, restful five-hour 
 trip I had back to Merida. When we reached there it would 
 have been well if there had been an official at the depot to 
 welcome us with a hose of medicine to spray and disinfect us. 
 
 Yet I am glad I went. Aside from a few scorched places 
 on my clothes, holes burned in my hat, bruises received from 
 my Procrustes bed mattress, bug-bites, anxiety and narrow 
 escapes, etc., etc., I had the carnival time of my Mexican 
 trip. Should I come down here this way again next year, I 
 am sure I will stay — away. 
 
 THROWING THE BULL 
 
 ULLFIGHTING is a prohibited sin in Yucatan. It is 
 cruel to kill the bull, but right and gentle to torture 
 him as a Sabbath pastime. We left the train at 
 
 Tixkokob and jumped in a hack to make the train 
 
 for Merida at the other side of the town. As we rattled by 
 the plaza a great shouting throng drew our attention.^ A 
 space in the plaza, in front of the cathedral and municipal 
 buildings, had been fenced off. The whole city was there and 
 the people were packed five feet deep on and around the fence. 
 Those who had influence and money had "box" seats on 
 the roof of the houses and balconies. The band was playing 
 and I asked the driver what was going on. He replied, "A 
 
82 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 bullfight." I answered, "But it is not allowed." He said, 
 "Oh, we do not kill the bull, we only play with him." 
 
 We jumped out of the carriage and took the risk of miss- 
 ing the train rather than the sport. I asked my friend Guerra 
 if they had a bull-play every Sunday. He asked the driver, 
 who replied it was only during the carnival, I said the car- 
 nival was over five days ago. "Yes," said the driver, "but 
 you see we wanted one extra day just for fun, and so we 
 put it on Sunday, which is the biggest and best day of all." 
 Can you imagine citizens of United States having two or 
 three Fourths in the year and several Christmases just to 
 please the small boy? 
 
 For this Sunday service a man was making the rounds of 
 the fence taking up a collection for the bull-throwers. 
 Guerra gave him ten dollars for political effect, and it had 
 its effect. The official bowed with many thanks and the 
 crowd cheered with glee. For that generous gift we were 
 ushered to the roof of a public building where an Alvarado 
 officer, a boyish-looking man, sat surrounded l)y his party of 
 gilt-braided men and gayly bedizened dames all dressed in 
 their Sunday best. The band was blowing itself. A trumpet 
 call was given, the crowd parted below in the plaza, and the 
 bull was pushed into the plaza ring. 
 
 Now desperate looking men appeared on horseback. Swing- 
 ing lariats and catching the bull by horn and hoof, they dragged 
 him to a tree where they cruelly tied him, and tried to make 
 him wild and "playful" by torturing him, twisting his tail 
 into knots, tying the rope around his nose and belly and 
 jabbing banderillos in him. This done, Mr. Bull was freed 
 and chased all' over the ground by amateur chulos who 
 flaunted their ragged, colored shawls in his face and stuck 
 him full of barbs. 
 
 Pretty ladies smiled and applauded this pastime, just as 
 at Havana I had seen their sisters wave their fans at the 
 edifying spectacle of a cockfight. These bulls refused to 
 work overtime or on Sunday. They stood still, or rushed 
 the crowd and tried to hurdle the gate. Then the trumpet 
 blew again, the bull was led out and a fresh bull brought in. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 83 
 
 We felt it was time to leave and drove to the depot. The 
 agent informed us he had just heard the train M^as an hour 
 late, so we returned and watched the bull-fight crowd prom- 
 enade. We were asked to stay over, for there was going 
 to be a hot time in the town that night, and we were invited 
 to see the ladies, but we felt it was better every way to go 
 back to the depot. So we started through the dusty streets, 
 and half way there we looked at our watches and found we 
 were twenty minutes early. But imagine our dismay to hear 
 the train whistle and see the curling smoke in the distance. 
 Lucky for us it was a slow train. We beat it to the station 
 and leaped aboard just as it started. Moral — Never believe 
 a Yucatan station agent. 
 
 A SISAL HACIENDA 
 
 WE were invited to a hacienda by a sisal owner who 
 wanted us to see where they grew the sisal, or twine, 
 we use for binding wheat grown in Minnesota. On 
 our way from Merida we passed a railroad graveyard 
 where scores of trains and trucks were rusting and rotting 
 away which should have been in running order. They simply 
 served as an example of the careless and don't-care spirit of 
 the government. Here were cars and to spare, yet we rode 
 in cars without a spare inch of room and crowded to the plat- 
 form steps. 
 
 When we reached our destination, G's private mule tram 
 plantation car, that he had wired for hours before, was not 
 there. Not because it had no time to get there, but because 
 the telegraph despatcher hadn't found time to send the tele- 
 gram. G phoned, and at last the driver with his mule and 
 toy car arrived. The hacienda runs three kinds of ears, for 
 the owner, the overseer and the peon. We sat in the shade 
 of our private car and bowled along the narrow gauge on a 
 good road-bed over rails imported from France. The sun set 
 in a sea of henequen and our little car rocked like a ship in 
 its green waves. We rode through little villages, across inter- 
 
84 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 secting tracks that ran to and through different sisal sections, 
 and then arrived at the big hacienda. It was all complete in 
 mansion and servants' quarters like the most up-to-date mas- 
 ter's house in a Virginia wartime plantation. There was the 
 same generous hospitality. We sat outside on the vast ve- 
 randa with its mosaic floor and Moorish arches. 
 
 In the centre of Yucatan one only expects the sun, moon, 
 stars and lightning bugs for light, but here there was an acety- 
 line plant that made everything luminous and resemble an 
 Aladdin's Palace. The servant called us indoors to a spread 
 of beans, meat, rice, tortillas and much else, in addition to the 
 canned stuff we had brought. Now I learned the Yucatan 
 way of eating. There were knives, forks and spoons, but our 
 host did not use them. He took a pancake tortilla, dexterously 
 turned and twisted it with thumb and forefinger into a little 
 funnel shape, then used it as a shovel and scoop to pick up 
 the meat and gravy and ate the whole thing at once. This 
 made a good combination and saved the servant the extra 
 washing of the silver. After several failures, in which I 
 spoiled the tablecloth and spilled the beans in my lap, I got 
 the knack of it, and believe I would like to eat that way 
 now if U. S. food and style permitted. Here's a hint for 
 Hoover. As a crusade against waste it beats licking the plate 
 clean. After a little chat and some piano music, "L" rolled 
 into his hammock, I preferred a bed, and we were soon lost 
 in dreamland. 
 
 The problem in Yucatan is to arise early, beat the sun 
 and get to w'ork before nine o'clock. So we beat it and went 
 out to an Eden of a fruit garden where we prefaced our break- 
 fast with delicious oranges. "We couldn't go to the plantation 
 church this Sunday because the government had ordered it 
 closed, but we did go to a school. There were no scholars but 
 the teacher pointed out the books and the maps. He showed 
 the children's drawings and their practical work, which was 
 planting gardens in the school yards. Two curious scholars 
 came along and kindly stood on a big stone by the school 
 door where they make their stump speeches. They held up 
 the Mexican flag with its tri-colors and symbol of eagle and 
 snake. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 85 
 
 A "PEON" OF JOY 
 
 NEW laws prohibit peon labor on Sunday, but they 
 can work for themselves. We noticed many of them 
 with their bare legs, apron skirts from waist to knee, 
 and straw hats on their heads, who were building a 
 tree framework for their thatched cottage. In one native hut 
 with its happy family two girls stood in the doorway with 
 their constant companions, Mr. and Mrs. Pig, who always have 
 the freedom of the yard and house. Against the old Hebrew 
 law of gathering sticks on Sunday I photographed a man and 
 woman picking up sticks and piling them in stacks on their 
 backs. 
 
 It was growing warm and we entered a home. For refresh- 
 ment they went out into the yard and knocked down some 
 cocoanuts and gave ns a sweet, cool drink that discounted the 
 finest soda fountain. 
 
 The hacienda is well equipped with servant quarters. We 
 met the intelligent blind overseer and the young plantation 
 doctor who later came to ''L's" rescue and extracted from his 
 ankle a sword-pointed shoot of a sisal plant. 
 
 The peons in their cane huts appeared to be as happy as 
 their master in his fine mansion. Formerly they were mere 
 slaves with a mean wage for an all day of hard work. Now 
 under Alvarado they earn a dollar and a half gold a da^^, 
 good w^ages, and extra money for every extra sisal leaf they 
 cut. Peon's life is a paean of joy. So far their only ambi- 
 tion is to work several days and make enough to loaf the 
 rest of the week, when they visit movies, ice-cream parlors 
 and the promenades of Merida. It remains to be seen 
 whether they will become ambitious to be educated and civ- 
 ilized. 
 
 Times have changed for the better for them. They are 
 well taken care of, have schools, doctors, wages, weddings and 
 Christmas presents. The moral conditions on this hacienda 
 were good. Elsewhere they are reported to be very bad and 
 lax. Peon men are often subject to the cupidity of the master 
 and his son, and the girls and women to the lustful caprice of 
 the hacienda owner and son. Even now with all their free- 
 
86 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 dom, many of the peons dare not resent the advances of their 
 brutal lords. 
 
 The Yucatan peon on the sisal plantation is having his 
 innings now and is uo longer overworked and underpaid. 
 Alvarado has declared that labor shall be eight hours a day 
 and with high wages. Mr. Peon lays off, goes to town, wears 
 necktie, white shoes and Panama hat, eats white bread, 
 drinks beer in the cantina, smokes cigarets, listens to the band 
 in the plaza and promenades, taking up all the walks and 
 seats and crowding out the wealthy aristocrats. He doesn't 
 improve his mind. When his money is gone he goes back to 
 the plantation and works, for his owner can't fire him wnth- 
 out a heavy fine. To get rid of him at all he must give him 
 long, previous notice. Meanwhile the henequen fields are 
 unworked, weeds grow and the sisal plants blossom and die. 
 
 YUCATECAN TRAITS 
 
 ACCORDING to the Genesis of Mayan mythology, God 
 made the first man out of a handful of earth and 
 grass. From the earth came his flesh and bones and 
 from the grass his skin and beauty. 
 
 The Mayas were the original settlers of Yucatan, so far as 
 we know, but despotism settled their fate a long time ago. If 
 Yucatan was the kindergarten of the Western Hemisphere, 
 the only things I found left were the building blocks of ruined 
 cities and temples. Death planted the ancient Mayas under 
 ground, either because of epidemics, lack of sanitation or 
 exhaustion of the soil. 
 
 The Mayas practised phallic worship as represented by a 
 cruciformed tree of life signifying generative power. In the 
 famous cross at Palenque is found the union of the two male 
 and female ideas. There is a human figure on the left and 
 one on the riglit and they are ofi'ering a child for sacrifice. 
 The arms of this cross are composed of four chronographic 
 signs. The cross represented a period of 8.000 years and was 
 "sacred to the sun as the great creative power, to the year as 
 the producer of rains, and to the maximum period of time." 
 
1^ 
 
 "BEGGARS DESCRIPTION" 
 
 VANEGAS, MEXICO 
 
A BREAD-WINNER 
 
 MEXICO 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 87 
 
 The Mayas may have been scholars to read and write, 
 artists to inscribe and carve, and practical engineers and 
 mechanics to build, but you v^ouldn't judge so if you looked 
 in the faces of their hopeless and helpless descendants, vv^ho 
 live now in huts instead of palaces and are only ambitious 
 enough to get money enough by raising henequen to raise an 
 unheavenly kind of a time the rest of the week. Whence 
 came the Toltec and Aztec ancestors? Science speculates and 
 says "I don't know." Neither do I, but I do know where 
 most of their descendants are going. 
 
 The Yueatecans have a characteristic character. They are 
 quiet, modest, happy, clean and moral compared with the 
 Mexican's greatly corrupted condition. There is little crime, 
 few beggars and good health, though there is some tubercu- 
 losis and occasional cases of yellow fever. The men at work 
 resemble Egyptians in their dress of a truncated bag on their 
 head, a "pita" which falls down their backs, white pants and 
 a white apron called "delantre" from their waist to knees. 
 The women wear a "hipil," a sort of Mother Hubbard or 
 holuku. It is made of one piece of cloth ornamented with 
 hand-made embroidery and hangs down ungirdled from shoul- 
 der to ankle. 
 
 The Yucatecan woman is no mere "white" slave but a 
 brown, domestic drudge. Her life is one dismal grind, grind- 
 ing corn and castor beans. Instead of social teas and euchre 
 parties she makes tortillas and washes clothes from morn till 
 night. She is small, well-formed and wears a fine coat of 
 Yuca"tan." She wears a kind of Mother Hubbard and combs 
 back her black hair so that it falls out in front, leaving a high 
 forehead. She is loaded down with gold coins, crosses and 
 ornaments, until, like her Hindu sister, she is a regular walking 
 bank. 
 
 Mayan men are short, have black straight hair, shiny eyes, 
 and their swarthy, sweaty skin looks like a glistening ham- 
 rind in the sun. The Mestizos are lighter color is skin and of 
 a happier disposition. The Mestizo, compared to a Mayan, is 
 maple sugar to molasses. The Mestizos are a good mixture 
 of Indian and Spanish blood. All Yueatecans have some 
 native blood, but they are called "white" unless they have 
 more than 10 or 15 per cent Maya blood in them. 
 
88 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 Yucatan was our first stop in Mexico, but if you want to 
 insult a Yucatecan, call him a Mexican. He hates the Mexi- 
 can as the Mexican hates the American. I do not blame him, 
 for he is cleaner, more moral, honest and industrious, and 
 spends his time raising henequen instead of hell. 
 
 The natives are peaceful and law-abiding, but tired of 
 despots and wish the U. S. would come in and free them. 
 They no longer want their hard-earned money to be taken 
 from them and spent bj'- government officials and generals for 
 graft, gems, girls and gasoline. 
 
 HENEQUEN HISTORY 
 
 HE machine shop was open but not a wheei turned. 
 The sisal process was explained. "We saw the new 
 cut leaves piled up like cordwood. They are 
 shunted here in a small flat car from the field and 
 fed into a machine which mashes and pulls the yellow pulp 
 in each green leaf away from the sisal threads and fibres 
 which extend through its whole length. We next visited the 
 drying yard where the wet fibre had been taken and hung 
 on wire-like clothes-lines. It looked like the flaxen switches 
 of a hair merchant, or strings of macaroni in a Naples fac- 
 tory. Men were taking it off, although it was Sunday, to be 
 baled like so much hay and sent to Progreso for export. 
 
 We were muled all over the plantation, up one track and 
 down another, by thick fields of henequen. We thought it 
 would be a new experience to walk through a sisal field — it 
 was. The sun sizzled and before I had gone ten feet I had 
 been struck twenty times by sisal spear points. The plant 
 is like a bush of bayonets. Its standing order is "Charge 
 bayonet" to any one who advances. A field of this would be 
 superior to any European war barbwire fence. The tender- 
 foot becomes an Arnold von Winkelried, and ere he can say 
 "Make way for liberty," receives what Arnold was up against. 
 We were attacked in the front, rear and side all at once in 
 the attempt to get a few photos. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 89 
 
 This henequen grows out of the hard, dry, bare crevices 
 of coral rocks. The reflected sun rays at ten o'clock unite 
 with the heat overhead to make the field a gridiron on which 
 the poor peons are nearly roasted alive. How they do stand 
 it, walking about in their bare feet and with arms bare to 
 the elbow, is incomprehensible. Formerly they worked in the 
 sun stripped to the waist, with bodies pricked and bleeding. 
 Now the government compels the owners to furnish under- 
 shirts for their protection. Dante could have made an 
 addenda to his Inferno if he had worked in a sisal plantation. 
 The Federals surrendered here at Tixpeual, and I'm sure it was 
 a bloody battle if it was fought in the sisal field. I am glad 
 the peon's salary has been raised, and I do not blame him for 
 laying off as much as he can. Of course, this lazy idleness 
 lets the fields sprout up, flower and go to seed and ruin. If 
 we can't get sisal, we can't get binder twine for wheat, and 
 no wheat means no bread. A planter told me that already 
 the henequen production had been reduced thirty per cent, 
 and in two years his plantations would be ruined. He wanted 
 to go to the U. S. to do something worth while. Laborers 
 are imported from U. S. and Cuba but are sent back because 
 they cannot stand the heat. 
 
 United States receives some sisal from Manila and New 
 Zealand, but Yucatan gives us 90 per cent. This peon labor 
 problem must be adjusted or we shall be compelled to invent 
 new machinery to take the peon's place. 
 
 Going to the station our mule train tried to jump and turn 
 a somersault. It requires but little to throw the car off the 
 little rails. We all leaped out and avoided the ditch, then 
 pushed it back on the track. Meanwhile the mule looked 
 back and gave us the *' hee-haw." As we passed through the 
 native villages we saw the families at home, sitting in the 
 shade — the men in cotton pants and the women with only a 
 smile and a skirt. The latter were leaning over the fences 
 and gossiping in true womanly way. The men were on the 
 lawns or lolling in hammocks. The girls were the color of 
 molasses candy, a sweet set, but we had no taste for them, 
 and hurried to the depot. 
 
 At the station I watched a native take several threads of 
 sisal, roll them between the palms of his hands on his knee, 
 
90 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 and in far less time than one could roll a cigaret he had made 
 a rope and given it to me. Pie urged me to do the same and 
 I'll be hanged if I could do it, though I tried, tried again and 
 never succeeded. This is part of a native's education, for they 
 are born, live, labor, love and die in the hammocks that they 
 weave. The sisal thread is woven into the fabric of their life. 
 We watched them make hammocks on the curb, in hut and 
 market, which are packed in bundles to be shipped to the U. S. 
 From the sisal they make bags for packages, saddle cloths, 
 twine and rope, and money from all of it. The mule that pulled 
 us wore a sisal harness, and the whip the driver lashed him 
 with was made of sisal. In Yucatan we wiped our feet on sisal 
 mats, couples danced on sisal mats, ladies wear sisal slippers 
 and men sisal sandals. You may buy a sort of Panama sisal 
 hat. In absence of quill or wood toothpicks the natives use 
 a sisal string superior to our dental thread. In a true sense, 
 more fateful than fanciful, sisal is the Yucatecan's thread of 
 life. All political, social and financial life in Yucatan is bound 
 round with a sisal string. The henequen hammocks are big 
 and coarse, or small and fine. As I climbed the temples and 
 ruins of Uxmal I wondered how the stones were hauled and 
 heaped high without modern machinery, and my guide declared 
 the Mayas had used great sisai ropes. 
 
 The sisal plant is a well-known member of the vegetable 
 family, has near relatives of cactus and maguey in Mexico, and 
 very distant relations in IManila and New Zealand. The baby 
 bulb plants cluster around the dry mother plant which lives 
 on the hot, bare coral rock. At the proper time they are 
 weaned and taken to the nursery, set out and permitted to 
 grow like Topsy for three or four years. It soon arrives at the 
 teeth cutting stage. The leaves, now four or five feet long 
 near the base, are cut off with a machete, making the whole 
 plant resemble a gigantic pineapple. It is carefully tended 
 and brought up. The bad companions of weed and brush are 
 kept from it, and it grows up in three or four years into a 
 clean, strong youth. Then for twenty years the plant spends 
 a useful life, gladly giving its arms for a useful and philan- 
 thropic purpose. As in the human family, early good care 
 leads to good later life. If the plant is neglected and selfishly 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 91 
 
 allowed to grow up for itself, without pruning and lopping off 
 its excess strength it reaches maturity and dies useless. 
 
 KING SISAL 
 
 SISAL is king. Henequen is the "green gold," and 
 this is what millionaires have made their wealth by. 
 If you have enough sisal you can do anything except 
 buy a front seat in heaven. Years ago the church 
 tried to make the producer believe he could get even that if 
 he gave the church enough. 
 
 Sisal is first-cousin to Maguey (Maggy). For years the 
 Mexican got drunk on the juice of the latter and hung him- 
 self with the rope of the former. What wheat is to Min- 
 nesota, cotton to Mississippi and corn to Illinois, henequen is 
 to Yucatan. There are several hundred haciendas, and thou- 
 sands of acres owned by less than 100 holders, who by mar- 
 riage and manipulation have kept it in the family and made 
 it a monopoly. This sisal society and oligarchy had immense 
 social and political influence. They made things run as 
 smoothly their way as if they were a Standard Oil Co., and 
 had a loud voice in saying who was" who and what was to be 
 done. 
 
 In Yucatan these haciendas became a kind of slave market. 
 Diaz grew tired of the rebellious Yaquis in Sonora, and under 
 his active or passive rule the Indians were shipped to Yuca- 
 tan haciendas with their wives and children and made prac- 
 tical slaves. They were illy housed, whipped to death and 
 welcomed Hades as a relief to the hell of their earthly 
 existence. This is changed, thanks be to God, who put 
 Alvarado on the job. He took the sisal lash out of the over- 
 seer's hand and cracked it over his head, saying if there was 
 any more of this Uncle Tom business he would be the Simon 
 Legree. People who opposed him spent some of their big 
 money in making a hasty exist to revisit their rich summer 
 resorts in Europe or America, or they were boarded at public 
 expense in the pen. their rich palaces being confiscated and 
 their Shylock haciendas made forfeit by the law of Yucatan. 
 Some have remained here to hate in quiet, because Alvarado 
 
92 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 has made them divide their former gains with the govern- 
 ment and insists they shall now share large present dividends 
 with their peon help. Aye, but this is the rub ! Reaction 
 has set in, ex-slaves won't work much, plants are not im- 
 proved. 
 
 Owners say they are in need of money, and 12 cents a 
 pound would give them a satisfactory return for their invest- 
 ment. As it is now, they are not clearing 2 cents a pound. 
 Another owner admitted all this loss and sadly sighed, "I 
 guess it's retribution. We are reaping what we sowed." But 
 there's millions in it, though not now for the planter. "When 
 Alvarado turned the trick and won his government position, 
 he needed money, but the chest was as bare as Mother Hub- 
 bard's cupboard. He took over the old Commission Regula- 
 dora. It had been formed to protect the planter against the 
 plutocratic "International Harvester Co.," which imported 
 the sisal and made its own twine. But the corporation slippedi 
 it over the Yucatecan and was lassoing things its own way. 
 The Yucatan Reguladora did not regulate for Yucatan, so 
 Alvarado said we will make it work and work our way. He 
 borrowed ten millions from U. S. bankers, put the Reguladora 
 on a working business basis, forced the planters to sell their 
 henequen to the Reguladora by making a law that none should 
 be shipped out of the state that had not passed through the 
 government commission. He further regulated this irregular 
 Reguladora by compelling planters to loan money to the gov- 
 ernment, that is, to himself the government, for like Louis 
 XIV he is the state, and he gave them Reguladora bonds in 
 exchange. In this game he called a raise and got it. America 
 pays more than usual, the planter gets less than ever, and 
 Alvarado has most of all, and a part of this revenue goes to 
 higher wages for the peon, public city and state improve- 
 ment. 
 
 Today in U. S. I fearlessly use the name "Alvarado." "When 
 I was in Yucatan I called him "Mr. James," as I did every 
 other official, James I, II, or III, to avoid suspicion. Alvarado 
 has been beneficently despotic. Naturally, he has kept enough 
 for present sunshiny hours and future rainy days. Human, 
 he needs a home, food, clothes, servants, autos, diamonds, 
 bank accounts and a few other necessary things, but if he 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 93 
 
 has robbed the planter Peter he has paid the peon Paul. He 
 has taken planter loans and taxes and given the peon eight 
 set hours of labor, a decent w^age, a shirt to keep off the 
 sun and the barbed henequen spears from flaying him alive. 
 He has also made it possible for the peon's growing children 
 to have schools vrhere they may rightly learn the three R's. 
 
 The peon formerly received as wages about twenty-five 
 cents a day. Alvarado fixed a minimum limit of thirty cents 
 for the cutting of every thousand leaves. Some plantations 
 now give fifty cents a thousand. A hustling peon, who cares 
 neither for heat nor hurt, cuts as many as three thousand 
 leaves a day and is from one dollar to $1.50 to the good. Two 
 days give him three dollars with which to lay off and "lay on 
 Macduff," and anything but lay by for the rest of the week. 
 
 Sisal makes a monopoly of many things, but the main 
 thing is money. Graft thrives like the plant itself. Our 
 farmers were caught by their whiskers and shaken down in 
 1916 for $4,000,000 more than they paid in 1915. The prices 
 may be pushed just so far and long as Alvarado 's motto 
 is, "Yucatan needs the money. Uncle Sam has it, let's get it." 
 
 People in Yucatan feel they do the work and Carranza and 
 Mexico get the pay. "With a government Dives at the table, 
 they are like Lazarus under the table and fed with a few 
 crumbs. Naturally they are "sore." They are told to "go 
 to the dogs" for comfort. Admit Mr. Carranza needs the 
 money for the government, but does he spend it for a govern- 
 ment of the people or for the grafters who hate the common 
 people? 
 
 Suppose Americans do pay more for twine and bread. We 
 are able and generous and can stand it if we know the money 
 goes to help establish a decent form of government where 
 honesty shall prevail, the people be educated, the laborer get 
 some quid pro quo for his work and something more than 
 bare feet, blistered hands, broken back and a stomach half 
 full of dirty beans and dry corn tortillas. We don't care so 
 much whether they raise the price of henequen as whether 
 they raise the standard of living; not what they plant if they 
 plant ideas of morality, intelligence, truthfulness, honesty, 
 purity and liberty. Too long Yucatan has been a low, lime- 
 stone limbo of lost souls. 
 
94 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 The bread basket of the United States is made of Yuca- 
 tan sisal. Sisal is the bond between ns and Yucatan. It is 
 the binder twine that entwines our sympathies. Some think 
 we may be able to grow New Zealand hemp plants in South- 
 ern California and the coast region of Florida, Louisiana and 
 Texas. Already New Zealand and Manila are competitors 
 with Yucatan in a 10 to 12 cents a pound sisal delivered to 
 New York. 
 
 ALMIGHTY ALVARADO 
 
 ALVARADO has been called by capitalists a robber, 
 his plans devilish and his rule hell. If he is a "devil," 
 he has some good points, outside of his tail and horns, 
 that some "good" people might do well to imitate, and 
 they might follow in his cloven foot steps. He is but very human 
 in believing Yucatan for Yucatecans, first, la'^t and all the time. 
 How long his rule will last is questioned by those opposed to 
 him, who must admit he has already taken enough money from 
 the henequen production to give a rule caging the gambling 
 tiger or cutting his sharp claws. H'e has put out the Rod Light 
 and "white" and brown slavery, prohibited bull-fight killing if 
 not torture ; stopped cockfighting ; picked up the drunkard and 
 put him on a national waterwagon ; opposed the importation of 
 liquor; closed useless churches; opened useful schools; prac- 
 tically abolished sisal slavery and told the peon that after he 
 has worked eight hours a day he can spend the other sixteen in 
 rest and recreation, or do anything so long as he does not plot 
 revolution against the government. 
 
 The Yucatecan is waking up and is pinching himself to 
 find out if it is all a dream. He has slept through a long 
 night of horror, but the alarm clock of Liberty is ringing, and 
 he has rubbed his eyes, dressed and is ready to start out 
 towards a new dawn and day. May he make progress with 
 no capitalistic or clerical highwayman to slug him and put 
 him to sleep again. 
 
 Alvarado believes in school bells and not church bells. To 
 Yucatecans ignorance has been a blister and not bliss. 
 Formerly the rich and blue bloods were sent to select schools 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 95 
 
 in Mexico City, United States or Europe. The poor peons 
 were left at home to work their hands and not their heads, 
 Alvarado decided that school products were as important as 
 sisal, so he sent to the U. S. for teachers, turned the churches 
 into little red schoolhouses, compelled the children to learn 
 and not loaf, and told pa, ma and the old folks they must go 
 to school, not a Sunday one, and learn to read and write. Just 
 think of little Yucatan having more than two thousand 
 teachers, and a teachers' congress at Merida. I believe in this 
 kind of a revolutionary army. 
 
 Alvarado is variously called a czar, a despot aild soldier 
 of fortune. Prom weighing sugar and lard, he went over with 
 Madero, kept his head after he was shot, and joined Carranza, 
 who sent him to double cross Arguemedo, who was planning 
 to make Yucatan independent of Mexico and make himself 
 its lord and heir. 
 
 Alvarado pushed him out of his military saddle, and all 
 booted and spurred as he was, jumped in himself, took the 
 reins of government in one hand and used the other to make 
 a derisive gesture from the tip of his handsome nose. The 
 sisal was the thing or string in which his hopes were tied and 
 entwined. He took over the private Reguladora Co., which 
 the planters had organized to regulate the sale of henequen 
 for themselves, and made it over for himself and the govern- 
 ment — the same thing. Making a lasso of hemp, he roped in 
 the planters and held them tight, declaring they should sell 
 the Reguladora all they produced at his price, and the 
 Reguladora would sell it at his price to the Yankee manu- 
 facturers who made it into twine for binding wheat and 
 stringing up the farmers with high prices. 
 
 "Alve" is thirty-six years old, is a born radical and grows 
 more so. Money is power and might and almost almighty. 
 Alvarado made it and made it stand up and say with Inger- 
 soll, "I know that my Redeemer liveth." He has kept him- 
 self in power because he has kept Carranza 's worthless rag 
 money out of the country. 
 
 Yucatan has always been less religious and more Chris- 
 tian than Mexico. She preaches less and practises more. Her 
 Monday conduct was ahvays longer than her Sunday creed. 
 Himself an atheist, and some say an "agnostic," Alvarado 
 
96 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 wanted a God to make good and prove that He was good by 
 making the peons good. Merida had 80,000 people, twelve 
 churches, 200 priests and a big family of sisters and nuns. 
 Believing that a government was no better than its homes, or 
 homes any better than its churches, he proceeded to do some 
 religious house-cleaning. He told the plainly proved political 
 and plotting priests to get out and they did, their "sympa- 
 thetic" sisters to do likewise, and they did, and the arch plot- 
 ter of all, the avaricious archbishop, to get out, and he did. 
 
 I saw four churches in IMerida where services are held, 
 under Alvarado's supervision, and was told there were no 
 nuns and only five priests in all of Yucatan. The field is not 
 very interesting now to the church, judged by former clerical 
 standards. One finds today a Syrian church, a Presbyterian 
 chapel and an American board of foreign missions. 
 
 The clericals called "Alve" a "robber." He replied in 
 substance that the churches had been built and supported 
 by robbing the people, and he intended to return their money 
 to them in a helpful way. He bought some of the churches, 
 monasteries, convents and nunneries at his own figure and at 
 a depreciated Carranza currency, but the rest he confiscated 
 for school, library, museum, warehouse and other sensible and 
 serviceable purposes. 
 
 He used one church as a warehouse for storing food sup- 
 plies, another as a school for teaching domestic science to 
 young girls and women, and one other as a library and uplift 
 club to young men. The big cathedral in Merida is closed, but 
 the San Juan, Santiago, Santana and San Cristobal churches 
 are open. Most of the churches throughout Yucatan are used 
 as schools. P. Diaz knew but cared little for the education of 
 the poor peon's children ; now on the haciendas they are taught 
 that they have minds and souls and are not mere hands to 
 make money for the planter. 
 
 Though Yucatan is a part of Mexico and the hacienda 
 owners are a part of Yucatan, thej'- are a little country by 
 themselves. The haciendas include from several hundred to 
 seven thousand acres with a proportionate number of laborers. 
 These "ranches" are miles from town so that if the children 
 are to get an education it must be on the hacienda. Formerly 
 the peon was enslaved in mind as well as body; now he has 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 97 
 
 broken away and thrown his chains in his captor's face. The 
 question was what to do. The natural and necessary answer 
 was, take the hacienda chapels on every farm, close them and 
 make them schools, for while all haciendas had chapels there 
 were but few schools. 
 
 Alvarado's genius shines here. In less than two years he 
 has founded more than a thousand public schools. And what 
 a gain for government and God, if you estimate relative 
 values and say that one good public school and its teacher 
 are more valuable than 50 private parish schools and priests. 
 More schools will follow. The poisonous, clerical shirt of 
 Nessus, which has been wrapped around the body politic so 
 long, is bound to be torn off even if the flesh goes with it. 
 
 It should be remembered that the closing, sacking and 
 robbing of the churches has not been done by Masons or 
 Protestants, but by the Koman Catholics themselves. It is a 
 matter of history that when Maximilian occupied Mexico it 
 was his French Roman Catholic soldiers who did more to de- 
 stroy the Roman Catholic churches than has been done during 
 the recent five years of revolutionary strife. The four churches 
 in the North, South, East and West quarters of Merida are 
 permitted to run so long as they prove the church is a pious 
 shop and not a political conspiracy. Alvarado's warning is, 
 "I'll watch you four and only permit you to exist so long 
 as you do not incite and excite against my government." The 
 church reaped what it sowed, as any denomination will when 
 the people are wise. Priests who become politicians, who 
 want earthly gold and not heavenly good, temporal and not 
 spiritual power, should neither kick nor complain when a 
 rival political power like Alvarado gets in and throws them 
 out. 
 
 Inspired by Alvarado 's free-thinking speeches, the laboring 
 men adjourned from meeting to sack the churches, to tear 
 down the idols and images from their niches, burn the con- 
 fessionals, cut up the paintings and make refuse of church 
 relies and regalia. This was even-handed justice. It is just 
 what the old Spanish bishop of Yucatan did when he came 
 over, ruled with iron sceptre and ordered the Maya Indian 
 records of their civilization to be destroyed. If the Yuca- 
 tecan's Maya fathers and brothers were murdered and robbed, 
 
98 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 and their sisters and mothers outraged, so have the men and 
 women of the church been punished. To the complaint that 
 so much Christian art has been destroyed, I exclaim **Art, 
 indeed!" This iconoclasm is good riddance of much bad rub- 
 bish. Latin church art, as a rule, is so atrocious, vulgar, 
 hideous and heartless that as I have looked at it my only 
 regret was that any of it was saved and not all of it destroyed. 
 
 The free-thinker is free to draw on his think-tank and 
 absorb any religion and philosophy he pleases, so long as it 
 does not make him a government traitor. The natives do not 
 weep over this clerical wreck. They have time and money 
 now for their family and are allowed some pleasures on earth. 
 They were sick of the mummery talk of how beautiful and 
 happy heaven was and how almost impossible it was to get 
 there, and how awful perdition was and what "unnecessarily 
 liberal facilities" there were for going there. 
 
 The greatest religious cry against Alvarado is made by the 
 female portion of the flock. It was they who principally sus- 
 tained and supported the church service. To them it was 
 earth and heaven, their physical, mental and spiritual solace 
 in one, and they naturally objected to being robbed. But this 
 loss is giving them a greater benefit. They have more money 
 to spend on themselves, more time to swing in the ham- 
 mocks, more leisure to care for their children, more hours 
 to visit their husbands and possess much more of the home 
 comforts and character without which all the creeds of Chris- 
 tendom are valueless and vicious. They are beginning to 
 be happy now with real "fathers" and real "brothers" and 
 real "sisters." 
 
 Yucatan is a Utopia of More to be realized. Much more is 
 to be done before the ideal is practical. Yet Alvarado is 
 hopeful. It took several days to build Rome, and several 
 months may be required here. Considering the big job and 
 the little time to do it, Alvarado has been a "well done" serv- 
 ant. Hated by the church, which he has put out of business, 
 hated by the henoquen planters whose millions he has divided 
 for the good of the laborer and the community, hated by dis- 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 99 
 
 appointed labor leaders who attempted to step in henequen 
 owners' shoes and walk away with an equal amount of coin 
 to the bank, Alvarado loves his work, worries little over his 
 critics and plans big things for the future. Among these 
 plans are government ships from Progreso to New Orleans, 
 government railroads, a government plant for making sisal 
 sacking and a government ownership of all public utilities. 
 
 Alvarado has taken the land owned by the government, 
 or by hacienda barons who had permitted it to lie idle and 
 uncultivated, and has allowed more than 350 peons, who are 
 now free, to have 50 acres each to have and hold for them- 
 selves. The only condition of ownership is that they must 
 work it up to a certain time when it is to be theirs. 
 
 Alvarado is consistent. He promised what he would do 
 and he has done it. His enemies call him "crazy," "devil," 
 "bandit," "robber," "despot" — but not loud in his hearing 
 — ^yet unswerved he pursues his plans. If any one stands in 
 his way, and Alvarado finds him out, he puts him out of the 
 way. 
 
 Alvarado is a mild-looking and mild-mannered man. Yuca- 
 tan had the reputation for growing henequen and despots, but 
 he took the henequen and made it pay for the education, labor 
 and religion of his people. Unlike P. Diaz, who worked more 
 for the material than the mental good of his subjects, he 
 adds schools, arts and culture to his catalogue of ships, rail- 
 roads, mines and sisal. Enemies in Mexico and Merida hope 
 to see him fall and fail. They pray for our intervention. Most 
 of them don't know what they want or what is for their good. 
 For the present they should let well enough alone and give 
 Alvarado a chance to use a free hand. 
 
 The world has had many malevolent depotisms, why not 
 try a benevolent kind? Whatever stands for schools and the 
 people is preferable to the military and clerical despotism 
 they previously had. There is more chance for Yucatan with 
 this kind of despotism than under the one she had. Yucatan's 
 limestone peninsula is in the limelight. Let there be light of 
 intelligence and liberty. 
 
100 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 ADIOS, YUCATAN 
 
 LIKE many others we made a hasty exit from Merida, 
 though for a different reason — to make a boat. In 
 ^lerida I had been flurried and fooled on my films -with 
 mafiana promises, and had but half an hour to make 
 ni}' train. I went to the photographer, Mr. Guerra, and asked 
 for my negatives. He said they were developed but not dry, 
 that I need not wait as he would send them on the next train. 
 I had already waited too long. Patience and time were ex- 
 hausted. I asked where the films were and he pointed to them 
 hanging and dangling on a line. I snatched them off, waved, 
 dried and did them up. In addition I had asked him to 
 make copies of some Merida photographs which he promised 
 to send to the boat, but they never appeared. He got the 
 money and I got left. 
 
 Another train ride through a sisal sea and we were again 
 at Port Progreso. Providence in the form of Mr. Gomez, the 
 "Ward Line agent, rescued us from the awful fate of sleeping 
 and eating that night at Hotel Llano. Gomez kept open 
 house for us, and baths and phonographs were the signs of 
 civilization. His Chinese cook gave us a U. S. A. meal with a 
 full course, ending with apple pie that made us weep with 
 joy and sorrow that we were to have no more for many a day. 
 Pie was a heathen Chink, but had a brand of apple piety that 
 was delightful. He was very chummy and told me of his 
 -w'de in England. She had been there for five years and could 
 not return to Yucatan. Every Christmas he asked Gomez for 
 money to send his Chinese wife for an annual new baby, al- 
 though he had not seen her during that time. John would 
 say, "I have one son more; I must have more money for my 
 wife and new baby." Pie was proud to claim her as his wife 
 no matter who the father of her children might be. 
 
 Every time a "Ward Liner is expected Gomez gets up early, 
 goes to the flat roof of his house and looks through the tele- 
 scope for it. He is the life of Progreso and sees that all sisal 
 is received and shipped out by lighters and ships. He also 
 handles human freight. More people recently have tried to 
 get out of Yucatan than the ships can accommodate. Refugees 
 and revolutionists besiege his office and cry and pray him 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 101 
 
 to take their money and give them transportation. Perhaps 
 this is the reason why his hair has turned gray. We were 
 safe and our berths secured. But at the boat office my sym- 
 pathy was drawn towards a would-be return passenger who 
 argued, cried and promised that if Gomez would get him room 
 on board there would always be room in his heart for him. 
 I noticed another Yucatecan talking to the American Consul. 
 He was speaking in broken English to prevent the Spanish- 
 speaking clerks from understanding that he wanted dynamite 
 and a few other innocent explosives for his plantation. "In- 
 nocent," maybe, but so much of ammunition and explosives 
 are smuggled in that restrictions are severe and many. On 
 the wharf, while waiting for the lighter, the big mules hauled 
 small flat cars full of boxes from a freighter. The cruel drivers 
 lashed them unmercifully and the mules ran and kicked at 
 their treatment. Fortunately for us, they did not knock over 
 and break up the boxes which were full of explosives. 
 
 When I left the steamship "Esperanza, " I came ashore 
 with a professional robber and murderer whom Alvarado had 
 made captain. He had been mixed up in several murders and 
 had the reputation of mutilating his captives after death. He 
 looked like a giant edition of Villa, his big brother in fact, 
 tall, broad, brutal, big-boned, square-jawed, heavy black hair, 
 brows and lashes, and several revolvers stuck in his belt. 
 Now on the lighter to the steamer "Monterey," which was 
 to take me to Vera Cruz, I was in company with Mr. Mena 
 and his private guard who was a walking arsenal. This Mena 
 was the handsome Carranza officer who had run against Al- 
 varado and, therefore, had been run out of Yucatan. When 
 the waves rolled the lighter, the guard, who could stand be- 
 fore bullets without wincing, became as sick as a baby. Nep- 
 tune is stronger than Mars. He is no respecter of persons. 
 Another noted passenger was a sturdy little revolutionist who 
 had been imprisoned in Merida and was ready to be shot, but 
 received a pardon the last minute and was told to get out 
 and mighty quick. 
 
 The "Monterey" was in a hurry to get away, for the 
 barometer was going down and Captain Smith's anxiety was 
 going up. He was not anxious to be struck by a "norther" 
 in this shallow sea. 
 
102 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 The night before we reached Vera Cruz, when the parties 
 and couples had settled into their places of friendship on 
 deck or room, the Mexicans who were bound for Vera Cruz 
 met in the salon and gave a private impromptu program. The 
 wife of the fat revolutionist sang opera, Carranza's officer 
 recited poetry and showed he could shoot ofi; his mouth as 
 well as a gun. A Mexican professor gave an original dramatic 
 poem with many gestures. A Gipsy-looking woman played 
 very tenderlj% although she was accustomed to hold her chil- 
 dren over the rail of the boat to terrify them. A Porto Rican 
 drummer played a cornet. I was finally conscripted into 
 service and did all I could to put the piano out of tune and 
 out of business for the rest of the voyage. For this service I 
 received the thanks of the officers whose needed sleep and rest 
 were often broken and disturbed by the merry Mexicans who 
 hammered the defenseless instrument at all hours of mom 
 and eve, 
 
 A VERA CRUZ HOLDUP 
 
 OUR cruise to Vera Cruz was a race with a "norther' 
 that was on the way, but had not yet caught up 
 with us. During the trip we passed a lonely light- 
 house way out from shore and signaled a "hello." 
 The lighthouses along the coast are unreliable, for the gov- 
 ernment does not pay the keepers and the bandits rob them. 
 However thrilling and romantic the history of Vera Cruz, 
 the city looks very commonplace to a globe-trotter, with its 
 sand-hills and tawny towers of custom-house and cathedral. 
 The traveler is never sure of seeing her background of moun- 
 tain wall, but is always sure of seeing the frowning walls of 
 San Juan prison in the harbor, with its damp dungeon and 
 dark deed memory. This was the political hell of Mexico 
 whore criminals and suspects were shoved into cells below the 
 water's edge and left to rot or become gibbering maniacs. The 
 San Juan jail at Vera Cmz cost Charles V 40,000,000 pesos, 
 and Liberty many lives. The expense piled up so that he 
 looked over the ocean to see if he could not see it. This pris- 
 on plague spot was wiped out when our U. S. troops went into 
 
A MEXICAN LANDSCAPE 
 
 CHARCAS, MEXICO 
 

 REFINED PLEASURE 
 
 BULLRING, MEXICO CITY 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO . 103 
 
 Vera Cruz, We felt safe now, for while there was a little 
 Mexican "boy" of war in the harbor, our white gunboat "Sac- 
 ramento" was near by. Old Glory was flying from the mast 
 and our sailors were skimming over the now peaceful water in 
 launches. 
 
 This Vera Cruz door of Mexico was slammed in our face 
 by the Immigration officials. United States ship officials here 
 never know what new and insulting kind of reception they or 
 their passengers will receive on landing. Between ship ar- 
 rivals the Mexican authorities think up some new indignity 
 with which to slight and insult Americans. On this trip only 
 passengers booked to Vera Cruz could disembark. Those go- 
 ing to Tampico were not allowed to get off. This was the 
 first time such a thing had happened and no reason was as- 
 signed. No American was permitted to put his Yankee foot 
 ashore on the wharf, but every greasy, grouchy, grafting 
 greaser, who wanted to come aboard and see the ship and buy 
 drinks, was welcome and was passed by the Mexican guards 
 who stood at the gang. This made Captain Smith so mad that 
 he said things no teacher uses in his Sunday school class. He 
 declared he was captain of the boat and if they would not let 
 
 his passengers go ashore he would be doubly if any 
 
 Mexican set foot on his ship. The Immigration Officer who 
 refused to let us off was a little, cocky, vain Mexican who 
 not long before was Mr. Nobody whom nobody cared to rec- 
 ognize. Now under the Carranza regime he was head of the 
 department. He strutted, twirled his mustachio and played 
 Sir Oracle so much that when he opened his mouth no other 
 dog dared bark. Captain Smith swore he would find out what 
 the trouble was if he was held up and shot for it. Donning 
 a civilian's dress and pulling his hat firmly over his head, he 
 marched bravely by the white-suited guard, down the gang, 
 up the wharf and into town to learn from the Ward Line 
 agent what was the matter. 
 
 Meanwhile we paced the deck liked caged lions. At last 
 the captain returned. He had received no reason or excuse 
 for this official detention, but told us Vera Cruz was greatly 
 excited. The people were reading the papers and talking 
 about the Zimmermann proposal to Mexico to have her unite 
 with Germany against the U. S. so that when we were de- 
 
104 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 feated Texas, New Mexico and California would be returned 
 to her as spoils to the victors. This may have been the reason 
 for our holdup. The steamer agent wired the government at 
 Mexico City to see if passengers could get off. Next morning 
 the answer was received that the government gave permis- 
 sion and that it had sent a copy of the order to the Immigration 
 officer at Vera Cruz. Yet it availed nothing, except to show 
 how weak the main government was and how wilfully strong 
 a subordinate officer was. The Immigration official insisted 
 he had received no word from Mexico, and when our tele- 
 gram was given him he turned up his nose at it and did 
 nothing. 
 
 WHARF RATS 
 
 |0, nursing our wrath to keep it warm, we looked 
 around at the life on the wharf. The arrival of a 
 Ward Liner at Vera Cruz draws beggars as molasses 
 does flies. The old and young, from baby to grand- 
 ma, dirty, half-dressed, ragged, horrible hags and pretty girls, 
 mothers with their own babies or babies of others, borrowed 
 to work on the passengers' sympathy, were all present. They 
 beg for bread, clothes, money or anything the sailors or pas- 
 sengers may give them. Begging and thieving is their pro- 
 fession. One girl came down with a bandaged hand and a 
 borrowed baby. In half an hour the bandage was gone and 
 she used it to wrap up things which had been tossed her. The 
 girls greedily grabbed cigarets thrown them and smoked 
 them. Sailors at the port holes looked on, laughed, leered 
 and threw buns, bones, fruit and garbage at them, making it 
 seem like a country fair pastime when visitors throw eggs at 
 the coon's head target in the sheet. Some beggars were busy 
 picking coal cinders, others heaps of ashes left by the wharf 
 switch engines that ran alongside unloading the freight from 
 the ship. Wharf-rats rolled over and over and fought for the 
 filtliy food flung them, attempting to hide it in their rags, or 
 steal it from each other. This is the submerged tenth; the 
 scum that flows down from the city to the sea; the human 
 dirt waiting to be swept off by disease into the dust-bin of 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 105 
 
 the grave. They were sons and daughters of disease and 
 deviltry. 
 
 Turning our eyes from these human ruins, we glanced at 
 the mechanical ones on the dock. Hoisting cranes that might 
 have lasted fifteen years with care were rusting away in five. 
 Only a few were in use. Once all were busy day and night, 
 now during the war there were just a few and only when the 
 boat arrives. Other ruins we saw were those of ship-skeletons 
 on the shore when we entered the harbor. They were old 
 enough to be the remnants of the Cortez fleet, scuttled and 
 sunk that his followers might not escape. 
 
 PROFESSIONAL PILFERERS 
 
 IEXICAN workers came aboard and went into the 
 ^^^^ hold to help unload the cargo. They bring it from 
 ^raggl the hold to the hatch, a-nd put the stuff in a big rope 
 ^S^^^ net which is hoisted by the cranes to the wharf. 
 They work slowly enough to hatch plans to "hold" over some 
 things for themselves. In this way the Ward Line loses 
 thousands of dollars worth of merchandise a year, although 
 they employ guards and special police to watch the laborers. 
 I noticed that when the workers left the ship they were all 
 held up at the gang and two expert searchers went through 
 their few clothes and found many things. One man had a 
 half dozen fine handkerchiefs hidden in his sombrero. An- 
 other, some lace and thin underwejar in, his trouser leg, 
 making it way out of proportion. "When caught with the 
 goods they scowled as if their regular trade had been inter- 
 fered with. Others looked surprised that such a little pec- 
 cadillo as pilfering should be noticed and punished by being 
 sent to jail. I saw six of them searched and sent up, and pos- 
 sibly felt worse for them than they did for themselves. But 
 the big fellows get away with it. The custom government 
 officials refuse to let merchandise get into Vera Cruz or go out 
 without payment of a big bribe. The imposing custom house 
 is simply a monument to graft. Duties are. often twice the 
 original cost and to this you must add much more. These of- 
 
106 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 ficial thieves do no retail business, nothing but wholesale. No 
 matter how much they hate Americans, they love our money 
 and fall down and worship it as the heathen did the golden 
 image that Nebuchadnezzar set up. Had I known earlier 
 what I learned later, I think we might have left the boat by 
 leaving something substantial in the guard's hands. At any 
 rate a man who came back on our boat said he had worked 
 the game that way, that money was the Sesame that opened 
 the officer's heart. Quien sabe? Perhaps this was the reason 
 we were held up because we didn't dig up. 
 
 NIGHT LIFE 
 
 AS A last resort to get ashore I decided to smuggle a 
 letter from Secretary Lansing recommending me to 
 the courtesy of the American consuls and British 
 officials of the West Indies. A German came aboard 
 from the wharf, I told him my dilemma and asked if he 
 would take this letter to the American consul, Mr. Canada, 
 and request him to give me permission to leave the ship. I 
 supplemented these official letters with a vigorous protesting 
 postscript of my own. Two hours later when I sat at supper, 
 making it a sort of funeral feast, Mr. Canada's secretary 
 brought me a pass for myself and son from the Immigration 
 official, permitting us to go ashore. I have always like Canada 
 from the Atlantic to the Pacific and have included this Vera 
 Cruz Canada within the boundaries of my friendship. We 
 didn't wait for the dessert, but prepared to desert the ship at 
 once. The villain at the gang was foiled. He flashed his light 
 on the pass again and again, then handed it back to me with 
 an air of injured innocence, stepped to one side and let us 
 off. 
 
 Making a bee line across the dark, dangerous and thief- 
 infested wharf and railroad tracks, we took the first street 
 car we came to, and after a few minutes ride entered the 
 plaza, the illuminated centre of the cit3^ What a climax and 
 contrast to what we had been forced to suffer for two days! 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO ■ 107 
 
 We felt like liberated slaves, or reprieved suspects who were 
 to be executed. 
 
 The plaza was not large, but all the city seemed gathered 
 there. The band was playing and a swarm of youths were 
 marching and countermarching round about. The wide side- 
 walks bounding the plaza are covered and arcaded and called 
 "portales." They were filled with little tables, at which sat a 
 Parisian-like crowd gayly dressed, eating, drinking and smok- 
 ing. On one side loomed the gloomy, old cathedral tower 
 frowning on the happy souls. On another rose the old crum- 
 bling arsenal wall and tower now used as a filthy barracks 
 home of the soldiers and their families. On the other two sides 
 were hotels and cafes whose rival music bands fought each 
 other for customers and their trade of drinking and gambling. 
 
 As we walked down the brightly lighted streets, to us all 
 strange and filled with strangers, we encountered an Ameri- 
 can, Mr. Hulett, a friend of my friend, Professor Aughin- 
 baugh of Leslie's Weekly, whom he had traveled with in 
 Venezuela. He kindly offered to show and chaperon e us 
 around, for we tenderfeet needed to be guarded and guided. 
 
 Passing by an open door cafe on the main avenue I was 
 struck with horror to see a girl, with loose dress and looks, 
 smoking a cigaret and sitting with one foot on the table and 
 the other in her gentleman friend's lap. This form of table 
 etiquette and manners we were unaccustomed to, but after a 
 week's stay in Vera Cruz nothing surprised us. 
 
 On we went enjoying new sights and sounds. Our good 
 guide took us to another plaza near which stood a large build- 
 ing. We entered. There was a guard at the door, the lights 
 burned low, and will you believe it, there before my eyes were 
 several perfectly nude ladies, perfect so far as their figures were 
 concerned. Stop, my shocked reader, before you go further — 
 you have another guess coming. It was not where or what 
 yju think it was, but simply a moving picture house. The 
 nude ladies we were introduced to were Annette Kellermann 
 and her nymphs in the "Daughter of Neptune." I wanted 
 to take my clothes off as well, for the place was a bake-oven 
 packed with well-dressed, powdered and perfumed ladies and 
 
108 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 gentlemen. There was some relief for boys kept stumbling 
 over us, offering lemonade and ice-cream for sale. I paid a 
 dollar to get in, a high price for a movie, but you must remem- 
 ber the government taxes theatres 20 per cent. No doubt one 
 reason for the large Mexican crowd was the novelty of seeing 
 some one in swimming and taking a bath, a most unusual 
 thing for people who believe more in powder and perfume 
 than soap and water. 
 
 Returning to the ship we saAV many strange women sitting 
 in the doorways in dishabille. They seemed to know us, but 
 we couldn't recall where we had ever met them before or had 
 been introduced. Vera Cruz was formerly called the "City 
 of the Dead" on account of her many yellow fever victims, 
 and the people who were lying dead asleep on the sidewalks 
 and streets reminded me of Bombay. Undisturbed by police 
 or pedestrian, they lay wrapped up in their scrapes sound 
 asleep in the doorways, on sidewalks, plaza benches and en- 
 trances to the railway station, "City of the Dead" it once 
 was when a hundred a week died of yellow fever in the 
 streets. Homeless by day, houseless by night and friendless 
 all the time, God pity them for man doesn't, 
 
 Mr. Whitney was another American, hale fellow and well 
 met, who hailed us as were headed for the ship. Following 
 the voice we entered the big Diligencias Cafe. He arose and 
 gave us the glad hand and compelled us to sit down and 
 take a drink of something I had lived thus long without ever 
 tasting. It was vermuth, not quite so bad as medicine, and 
 we drank to his health and vamoosed. 
 
 As in Panama, the Americans here have little else to do 
 but drink, talk and smoke, and drink some more. Water as 
 a rule is dangerous in the tropics, but more men have floated 
 to the Styx on fire-water than on the water that puts out fire. 
 No matter what natives do in India or Mexico, the American 
 must cut out the booze and ride on the waterwagon or in a 
 hearse. It was hot and this vermuth did not cool us any. We 
 went to our ship cabin bunks at eleven o'clock and were 
 awakened at 2 A. M., half frozen by a blustering, blowing 
 blizzard breath of Boreas, my old friend whom I had left in 
 the North a few weeks before. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 109 
 
 IN A "NORTHER" 
 
 ^IT T was indeed Mr, Norther, persona non grata, a per- 
 ^1 JL son possibly more unwelcome than any other 
 ^^^p Norther from America. We had made the aequaint- 
 ^^^t ance of a hurricane in the South Pacific, and it 
 sounded as if he had come up here from there. We hastily 
 exchanged pajamas for pants and went out to meet him. 
 
 We were surprised at his presence, hut the natives were 
 not, for he generally blows in from the North, from Decem- 
 ber to March, with a chilly welcome, causing the thermometer 
 to drop thirty to fifty degrees in an hour. The wind whipped 
 the white horses of the sea, the waves dashed over the wharf, 
 small boats bobbed up and down, like corks on a whirlpool, 
 and our big boat tugged on her hausers. Captain Smith had 
 been waiting for this visitor for two days and was up and 
 ready for him. We returned to the cabin, but were unable to 
 sleep for the howl of the wind. 
 
 Rising early we took a big breakfast for ballast and went 
 ashore. It was Sunday morning, but no Sabbath stillness per- 
 vaded the atmosphere. We thought it would be fun to walk 
 the streets, and it was about as funny as taking a pleasure 
 jaunt in a Sahara sand-storm. We could scarcely stand up 
 and reeled about as if we had taken more than one glass of 
 vermuth. The sand was like a shower of glass as it stung and 
 cut our faces. It was a blizzard of dirt that blinded our eyes. 
 We were whirled about like autumn leaves, compelled to turn 
 our backs and to run for shelter behind some street comer 
 building. 
 
 Did you ever see a mummy? The people we had seen 
 lying asleep on the street the night before, prostrated with 
 heat, were now all covered up and leaning like mumm.ies 
 against the curbs and walls. You couldn't see their face, 
 arms or legs for they were all wrapped up exactly like a rag- 
 bag. The men who were walking on the street wore sand- 
 glasses like auto-goggles. They looked like sea-divers or men 
 from Mars. The lower half of their face was bound with col- 
 ored cloths and bandana handkerchiefs to keep out the dust. 
 They resembled bandits or brigands. The citizens bundled up 
 in their blankets looked like wild Indians, and a sight of them 
 
110 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 would make a horse shy or a street car run off the track. 
 Every one was unusually surly, of "vinegar aspect," all were 
 sandy, and I must confess that in all my travels I never saw 
 such an army of dirty, villainous hoboes. Before I reached 
 the market I had sharpened my teeth with the sand as well as 
 my appetite. 
 
 Antonio was a merchant of Venice, and I met one here at 
 Vera Cruz buying a Sunday dinner. He was accompanied by 
 a tot at his side caiTying a basket on his head half as big as 
 his body, and trj^ing to keep it balanced. Antonio had mar- 
 ried a California girl, spoke English and felt kindly towards 
 Americans. lie offered to guide us around the city. 
 
 The first place he led us to was a shop where we could buy 
 some goggles, just as much of a necessary outfit here as an 
 umbrella is in America in April, Next we saw our way clear 
 to go to the old, one-towered and domed cathedral. It was 
 full of people who had found refuge from the storm, and their 
 ragged and tied-up appearance made the church look like a 
 poor-house or hospital. The sound of the service was drowned 
 out by the sand-storm on the roof. It was a sort of bombard- 
 ment that recalled the war-time when our troops stormed and 
 took the city, when bullets were flying, cannon booming, and 
 the bells in the belfry were struck and rung, not by the sex- 
 ton, but by shot. Inside there was a dim religious light by 
 which we could see the natives shuffling over a floor thick 
 with sand that had sifted in, and kneeling before patron saint 
 and altar. Images stood like ghosts in the shadowy corners 
 of the church. Near the high altar reclined a large statue of 
 the Christ with pierced, bruised and bleeding body in the 
 stj'le of the brutal realism of the Spanish artist Ribera. It 
 looked like a body on a dissecting table. The poor and pious, 
 dirty and devout worshippers approached and pressed their 
 famished, fevered and festering lips on the hand and feet of 
 the statue. It was enough to make a statue shudder. With 
 a silent prayer that the heavenly Father would bless his very 
 earthly children, we hurried away. 
 
 At the other end of the town we entered a church where 
 the rich and society people worship. Until recently it had 
 been used as a stable by Carranza's troops. As the govern- 
 ment grew more lenient it permitted it to be given back to its 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 111 
 
 influential worshippers who were now calling on Him whose 
 cradle had been a stable manger. There was a group of men 
 standing outside who did not enter. After service I learned 
 why. Just as at the Flatiron building in New York young 
 men meet on a windy day to see the ladies' size and style of 
 shoe, so their brothers here think more of hosiery than Rosary. 
 To them stockings and skirts are a celestial vision. 
 
 I picked up a flying church advertisement on the street. 
 It wasn't a printed bill, but a Presbyterian church sign which 
 the wind had sported with and deported like some Hallowe'en 
 boy. What a contrast to the night before, bright, light and 
 warm! After a tew hours a paradise was lost in a purga- 
 tory of sand, flying bricks, glass, tiles, plaster and signs — all 
 done by the magic wand of the wind. 
 
 This church sign was my card of introduction to the young 
 lady teacher at the door who spoke to Antonio and invited 
 us in. A woman was speaking and when she finished, An- 
 tonio told her I was a minister, and she kindly invited me to 
 speak. Certainly I would, and I surely will until I die, 
 whether people understand me or not. Antonio escorted me 
 to the pulpit, stood by my side and was my interpreter. It 
 was as novel to me as to them. For once I weighed my words 
 and spoke slowly, and if I might judge from the way they 
 received them I was confident that Antonio was not misquot- 
 ing me. The service ended with a Gospel song and I sat down 
 to the organ and played it, singing the English while they 
 sang Spanish. Our music drowned out the diapason and bass 
 of the storm. I observed the Ten Commandments on the walls, 
 whether the people did or not. Too many just keep them in 
 the Bible or church and nowhere else. At any rate, it was a 
 relief from plaster saints, and to me made as good a decora- 
 tion and a better declaration. The building was wooden and 
 shed-like, and every blow of the wind threatened to blow it 
 over. But there is much in a name. A sign over the en- 
 trance read, "Ecclesia Evangelica-El Sinai." Let winds and 
 northers come and go, rave and blow, and overthrow this 
 building, or another bigger and better, the real church mem- 
 bership founded on the rock of Sinai in the Old Testament, 
 and the Rock of Ages in the New Testament, will stand all 
 earthly storms. 
 
112 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 We saw many buildings that had been confiscated by the 
 government. One was a library that had once been a church, 
 others were religious buildings and convents put to practical 
 use. The wind kept howling through the streets and re- 
 minded Antonio of the norther a week before which had 
 blown street cars off the track. Everywhere tiles and plaster 
 were crashing down into the street. Turning a corner for a 
 picture, I heard some shrieks, a crash and saw a cloud of dust, 
 like a bomb-explosion, and some children running away. After 
 it cleared up I saw that part of the plastered side of the tower 
 had fallen down. Fortunate for me, if not for you, that I 
 wasn't there for burial. It was necessary for men to come 
 and shovel off the debris so the street car could pass. 
 
 It was indeed a big blowout. On my turning another cor- 
 ner some electric light globes above me crashed down on the 
 sidewalk. The big wreckage was in the plaza. Fronds and 
 plants were overturned, trees writhed and tossed, the park 
 benches were upset and blown about, the open air movie 
 palace had its fence, canvas and signs ripped off and moved 
 away. It made a thrilling moving-picture to stand on the 
 corner and see it all. The Diligencias Hotel arcade glass was 
 blown in and shattered and scattered out on the street. Places 
 were marked off by boards and barrels where glass and debris 
 had been collected. Houses and stores were barricaded and 
 shutters and doors let down as if the city were in a siege. 
 The wind was doing the sniping and glass breaking. From 
 the natural breastworks of the sandhills back of the city 
 the wind kept up a ceaseless fusillade of sand. 
 
 It was a "wild car ride we took over the city. The people 
 pushed in, pulled the canvas curtains tight, which soon tore 
 loose and flapped. The conductors and motormen, dressed in 
 their white duck suits, huddled together to keep warm. The 
 tall palms were much agitated. They wrestled with the wind, 
 bent way over towards the ground and sprang back. Their 
 fronded top was like a giant umbrella turned inside out. 
 Wind and sand played a Tschaikowsky rushin' symphony on 
 the leaves. The shore was white with waves and the salt 
 spray stung our eyes and lips until we stood like Lot's wife — 
 pillars of salt. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 113 
 
 This was no rest day for the weary or wicked. Sidewalk 
 cafe chairs and tables were moved into the big hotels, can- 
 vasses were put up to keep out the wind, and hundreds of 
 men crowded to the tables, chatting, smoking, gesticulating, 
 gambling and using strong drink and language. 
 
 Years ago these "northers" were welcomed as sickness- 
 destroyers in driving away the germs of fever and disease 
 such as smallpox and "vomito," yellow fever. However, 
 science later proved that Mr. Mosquito was responsible. Any- 
 way, the microbes enjoy the dust-storm if the people don't, 
 and on the aeroplane wings of the wind they fly merrily and 
 madly over the city, dropping disease germ-bombs on the 
 women and children. 
 
 Through it all our boat was snug and safe though others 
 were not. We watched some men frantically attempt to 
 bring their boats out of the surf to the shore, but it was 
 useless for they were too late. The owners had stayed out 
 too late the night before, so the norther's destructive hand 
 snatched the little lighters and crafts and flung them out 
 and down to wreck. From our ship deck we looked through 
 our glasses at a large sailing vessel attempting to avoid a 
 reef. Fate was against her, she drove her hard on the out- 
 lying reef and the crew's love labor was lost. No one dared 
 venture out to aid them or expressed any anxiety or sym- 
 pathy for them. This is nothing unusual. I learned a crew 
 had once been wrecked near the coast and not a soul went 
 out to give them aid or food, even after the storm had died 
 down. They would have perished if a passing ship had not 
 picked them up. All this in sight of land and known by 
 Mexicans on the coast. 
 
 DERELICTS 
 
 LIFE'S seas and shores are strewn with human wrecks 
 and derelicts. 
 
 "Derelict" is from the Latin "de" and "relin- 
 quere," meaning to leave or forsake. "We speak of 
 derelict or "abandoned" property and forsaken children. It 
 may mean remiss or unfaithful husbands, wives or Christians. 
 
114 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 Lawyers use the -word derelict referring to any article thrown 
 away. ^Yhen sailors use the word they mean a piece of land left 
 dry by the sea that may be cultivated, or a ship which is 
 abandoned. 
 
 Coleridge's "Ancient Mariner" tells of a wonderful dere- 
 lict that in the distance resembled a speck of mist. The only 
 crew aboard was Death and his mate, a woman with red 
 lips, free looks, yellow locks, skin white as leprosy, and an 
 influence that thickened man's blood with cold. 
 
 "The naked hulk along side came, 
 And the twain were casting dice ; 
 'The game is done! I've won, I've won!' 
 Quoth she, and whistles thrice." 
 
 A sad sight at sea in mid ocean or near shore, on rocky 
 beach or coral reef, is a ship once proud with life, beauty, 
 cargo and passengers, now idle and dead — the sport of wind 
 and wave, beaten to pieces or rotting away. Many such 
 derelicts I have seen in far away snowy or sunshiny seas. 
 How infinitely sadder the sight and greater the loss of human 
 derelicts on life's ocean! Souls that were launched from the 
 unknown sea and tossed in pain on the shores of time, were 
 rescued by the young father and mother and anchored in the 
 haven of the family home until they ventured out on a 
 voyage for themselves and were wrecked. 
 
 There are derelict row-boats of children abandoned to 
 vice and sweat-shop labor; derelict pleasure yachts of young 
 men and women drinking, gambling and sporting; derelict 
 merchant vessels of dishonest, lying business men; derelict 
 "tramp" vessels carrying a load of booze and blasphemy; 
 derelict pirate craft with crew of theft and cruelty; derelict 
 warships and submarines with cargoes of death and destruc- 
 tion. 
 
 Some ships become derelict because of false beacon lights 
 on the shore. History tells of wreckers who deceived the 
 sailors by making new lights, putting old ones out of posi- 
 tion or even by carrying a lantern to and fro along the 
 beach. So in life boys and girls from the cnnntrs-- and men 
 and women in the city have been led from their true course 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 115 
 
 of purity, honesty, sobriety and godliness. Some false bea- 
 con or light has been swung by some preacher, educator, 
 philosopher and writer and misguided souls have steered 
 false and crashed into ruin. 
 
 Other ships have become derelict because some sudden 
 and terrible hurricane or storm has swept from some unseen 
 or quiet quarter, and unprepared they have gone down. 
 Many souls have been sailing in peace when, from some unex- 
 pected quarter, there came a hell hurricane in the form of a 
 bad, beautiful woman, the sparkling of champagne, click of 
 roulette wheel, bribe of political office, foul story or sug- 
 gestion of a companion, and they have been driven from a 
 right course and safe mooring to become helpless and hope- 
 less derelicts. 
 
 Dare-devil bravado and recklessness have made many 
 derelicts. Familiarity with danger breeds contempt of fear 
 and of consequences. Sailors often make and take their 
 bonds of fate. The ''Titanic" raced with death in spite of 
 icebergs and vessel warnings, struck and went down — down 
 by no "mysterious providence," but by the murderous work 
 of men prompted by a hell of haste. Men and women take 
 chances. Boys and girls are willing to drift towards tempta- 
 tion once and at last they find themselves headed and driving 
 for rock and reef or sand and shoal. They sail on a sea 
 already black with derelict hulks, until they themselves are 
 the devil's castaways on some shore or headland of a lost 
 world 
 
 The Gospel ship of character that leaves the port of a 
 Christian home and church, that has the Christ of Galilee 
 for its captain, the Bible for its compass, faith for its sail 
 and hope for its anchor, will never be wrecked or derelict. 
 After the storm and stress of life's voyage it will dock safe 
 in the harbor of eternal rest. 
 
 We left for Tampico next day and several weeks later 
 returned to Vera Cruz from Mexico City. The norther had 
 gone, leaving the people with usual unruffled temper. Al- 
 though bandits were shooting up and burning trains within 
 an hour's ride of the city, the citizens were unconcerned and 
 sat around as usual, sipped coffee and chocolate and smoked 
 cigarets. Hurricanes and revolutions do not disturb them 
 
116 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 and they continue to pursue the even tenor and "base" of 
 their way. 
 
 The Diligeneias was our hotel and we had a big room that 
 faced the plaza. In the morning we could see the sun gild 
 the old cathedral tower and walls, hear the birds tell their 
 family secrets in shrill voice, and look down in the park at the 
 poor Avho had made the hard benches their bed and were 
 still sleeping on them. 
 
 The "zopilotes," birds of "prey," were early massed every 
 morning on the church roof and dome. They are very 
 religious, and though they have roof-garden parties in other 
 places of the city, their main place of meeting is the roof of 
 the church. These buzzards seem to know that the cathedral 
 is sadly run down and in need of paint and decoration, so 
 they meet and deposit a thick coat of lime all over it. 
 Vultures love corruption — the reason, undoubtedly, why they 
 light on this cathedral. Speaking of corruption recalls the 
 time when Vera Cruz was one of the worst pest holes in the 
 world. The death rate then, like the rates of living now, 
 was high. It was not uncommon to have forty yellow fever 
 or smallpox deaths per day. Foreigners were the first to die. 
 Science discovered that the mosquito was the cause and put 
 him to flight. Today Vera Cruz, comparatively speaking, is 
 a healthy city, though while we were here there were some 
 smallpox and yellow fever cases and much of something else. 
 
 DISEASE AND DEPRAVITY 
 
 SiiS 
 
 VC in Vera Cruz stands for venereal city. "El Dicta- 
 men" is the leading newspaper. It has only four 
 pages, yet whole columns are filled with advertised 
 cures for scrofula, syphilis, locomotor ataxia and all 
 the rotten ills that licentious Latin America is heir to. The 
 space we give to weather reports on the front page, or to 
 special news with extra headlines, is given up here to nause- 
 ating ads. The first thing one sees as he enters the plaza are 
 billboards, walls and buildings with sure cure ads. On the 
 main street I saw merry, curious groups of men, women and 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 117 
 
 children earnestly gazing in shop windows at photographs of 
 patients cured of filthy diseases. Under each photograph was a 
 name and address which the crowd was making a mental note 
 of for future reference. If Vera Cruz had a "safety-first" 
 eugenic bureau, similar to the one in Wisconsin, there would 
 be few legal weddings. 
 
 L A in Latin America stands for licentious animals. In 
 Vera Cruz, city of the "true cross," the principal male pastime 
 is to talk about girls and not of God. From 4 p. m. to 2 a. m. 
 men sit in the plaza portales drinking, smoking, telling dirty 
 stories and talking about the women who pass by. The lead- 
 ing subject of "town talk" is girls, the one they went to the 
 movie with last, the other one the night before, and the one 
 they hoped to get tonight. I saw them flirt, though I couldn't 
 understand their loud laughs and earnest talk. I asked my 
 Spanish-speaking friend what it was all about. He replied, 
 ' ' Guilty love. ' ' Even Americans who stay here very long fall 
 into the same habit. One can't talk five minutes to a citizen 
 of Vera Cruz without having the conversation turn to girls. 
 A European told me he could scarcely make a good sale of 
 his specialties. When he thought he had the full attention of 
 the buyer, the man would suddenly cry, "There she goes," 
 and dart out of the doorway after a skirt, returning after a 
 while to say, "You should have seen the dame I met last 
 night." 
 
 Literature in the book stores is not only imported smut 
 from Spain and Havana and questionable classics, but filthy 
 novels and salacious stories. Kespectable couples are made to 
 blush here three times a day, when they sit down to eat, at the 
 suggestive sex designs of bread and pastry, which look as if 
 made in a Pompeiian bake shop. There was no mistake about 
 the bad baker's design who moulded his bad thoughts into 
 bad form, his bread suggesting the vile bread of life his soul 
 fed on. Boys and men comment on this Priapean pastry in 
 words calculated to spoil any but a Mexican's appetite. This 
 is old as Rome and as rotten. In the classics we read that the 
 ancient Romans reclined at tables painted with lascivious pic- 
 tures and carved with indecent puppets, and were surrounded 
 by slaves ready to pick their toe-nails and wash their feet in 
 wine, or hand them feathers with which to gag and vomit. 
 
118 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 Harlots fanned them and "softeners" rubbed their limbs while 
 they drank wines mixed with perfumes from Priapean cups, 
 gorged on wild boar, nightingales and ostrich brains, and 
 pastry in the shape of a phallus. 
 
 You are soon known here by the company you keep or 
 keep away from. A resident told me that if one were foolish 
 enough to be seen walking in the plaza with a pretty girl one 
 night, it would not simply be the talk of the town for the 
 week, but he would be compelled to lock his hotel door 
 against the bargain counter rush of frail, female friends. 
 
 An old U. S. miner, who had been here many years, affirmed 
 the Mexican boy was as bright, good and obedient to his par- 
 ents as any boy in the world until he was about fifteen years 
 old. Then his nature utterly changes and his name becomes 
 Don Juan. This isn't a temporary sidetrack but the main 
 line of his life until he enters Death's depot. Not only moun- 
 tain bandits commit atrocities on women, but city boys and 
 men kill their dancing partners with worse than Apache vice 
 and violence. The word "morality" is not in Mexican liter- 
 ature or life. At the wharf half-naked, starved girls beg for 
 bread and sell themselves to the sailors for cake or candy. 
 
 The people make themselves a sewer for immoral filth; 
 court the devil Lust that eats and burns up their blood ; are 
 spendthrifts of body and soul ; waste their inheritance to pur- 
 chase dirty, loathed disease; pawn their bodies to a dry-rot 
 evil; make themselves patients for Lust's rendezvous, a hos- 
 pital, where their bill-of-fare is pills, not beef, and the doc- 
 tor's bill is longer than the moral law they have violated. 
 What I have said here about Vera Cruz morals applies to the 
 rest of Mexico where conditions are the same or worse. 
 
 Vice in high places and leading avenues has its influence 
 on the lower classes. The same immorality publicly seen 
 among officers and generals is found among the common 
 people. If old age is aghast at such conduct what shall we 
 say of youth, who sees vice and anarchy on every side — 
 of youth, in its critical period, with examples of open violation 
 of purity by military officers? 
 
 If a Mexican sees a girl he likes, he doesn't take the 
 trouble to court or marry her, but lives with her until tired 
 of her, then casts her out for some other new fancy. Inci- 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 119 
 
 dentally, there is marital laxity in all countnes, but in Mexico 
 it is the rule, and free love goes to all lengths. 
 
 Formerly the church charged such exorbitant marriage 
 fees that most of the poor were unable to afford a vv^edding 
 ceremony and were not married. Even now, with a civic cere- 
 mony, they have not formed the marriage habit, and live 
 together unmarried. If this relation were permanently mono- 
 gamous it would not be so bad, if they didn't change their 
 wives oftencr than they changed their dirty clothes. Gen- 
 erally there is no more sense of love, decency and morality in 
 their homes than the pigs and dogs have that run in and out 
 of their adobe houses. Old men have love affairs with young 
 girls and young boys with old women. It doesn't induce 
 cleanliness or morality for a whole family of ten or fifteen 
 to live in one room and bring up children like a litter of 
 puppies. At the age of eight boys are wise beyond their years. 
 At fifteen they are young Don Juans. It is horriblly shocking 
 to us in America, but in Mexico it is not even a matter of 
 comment. All this Mexican immorality suggests India, where 
 love ripens and rots before twelve years of age. In the United 
 States, when most young girls of twenty are looking for a 
 husband, their Indian sisters here, of the same age, are wives, 
 mothers, grandmothers and old women, world-weary and 
 wrecked. 
 
 The high and low classes in Mexico are as immoral as 
 those of Spain and Latin America. The girls are hot-house 
 plants. They tinkle the piano, make love and lace, read pious 
 meditations, flirt when they get a chance and run away with 
 the first gay Lochinvar who rides by. 
 
 TRAIN "DESPATCHERS" 
 
 T WAS as difficult and dangerous to reach Mexico 
 
 City from here as for Cortez when he wanted to call 
 
 on Montezuma. My plan was to go from Vera Ci'uz 
 
 to Mexico City, but the agent said it wasn't safe, 
 
 that he wouldn't make the trip for a thousand dollars. No 
 
120 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 one could tell when the train went. Often you went to 
 the station to find there was no train and no explanation, 
 I might, be able to get up part of the way, maybe all of the 
 way, but life in Mexico is uncertain enough without such a 
 risk. He consoled me with the statement that the bandits 
 were not such expert dynamiters between Tampico, Monterey 
 and Mexico City, and it would be "safer" to go that way 
 since bandits only burned up trains there instead of using 
 dynamite. 
 
 For the last two weeks the service between Vera Cruz and 
 Mexico City had been interrupted by bandits who dynamited 
 trains and killed passengers and soldiers. Then there had 
 been several so-called accidental train wrecks with many fatali- 
 ties. All this was on the main central line. I suggested there 
 was an Interocean narrow gauge line, and was told it was an 
 imaginary line, narrow-guage, but the broad road to death, 
 the worst shot up, held up, blown up line in all the country. 
 Anyway, no one went to the capital unless it was necessary. 
 Since most of the money is sent to the capital from Vera 
 Cruz, the bandits plan to intercept it. The Express Company 
 doesn't handle the money and it goes up under personal care. 
 Moreover, most of the cargo dropped at Vera Cruz goes over 
 this road and the bandits are out to get it. The bandits had 
 not blown up the bridges on this road because it would have 
 interrupted transportation. 
 
 This was a sad prospect. Though it was the scenic roate, 
 with marvelously beautiful mountains and valleys, I wasn't 
 over anxious to go unbidden through the Valley of the Shadow 
 of Death. The Vera Cruz hotels were filled with people who 
 had waited weeks to go to Mexico City when the road was 
 safe. U. S. Ambassador Fletcher had planned to visit the 
 capital by way of Vera Cruz, but he learned it was too uncer- 
 tain and unsafe. Half the time Death is the ticket-taker at 
 the railroad station and gives you the pasteboard for "that 
 bourne whence no traveler returns." 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 121 
 
 VIVA JUAREZ! 
 
 00 BAD that Mexico's great men are underground. 
 Among her greatest was Benito Juarez, one of the 
 sainted few who lives in the memory of the patriotic 
 Mexican. His bust and statue are found in Mexican 
 parks and buildings just as Washington's and Lincoln's are 
 with us, and Bolivar's and Morazan's in South and Central 
 America. 
 
 "VYe were in Vera Cruz during the celebration of the one 
 hundred and eleventh anniversary of Juarez' birth. The town 
 was given over to holiday festivity. Morning papers flamed 
 with his picture, history and editoral and poetic comment. 
 
 Juarez was an Indian fighter, governor of Oaxaca, his native 
 state, and the life of the Liberal party. He was exiled when 
 Santa Anna became dictator. When the republic was restored 
 he came back to Mexico. The Liberal president was over- 
 thrown in 1858. Juarez was the president of the Supreme 
 Court, a position equal to that of vice-president, in his case a 
 position without vice. He immediately took over the govern- 
 ment but was forced to retire and went to Vera Cruz, where 
 he and his government were recognized by the U. S. in 1859. 
 Juarez' chief opponent was Miramon, the clerical, the chief 
 executive of the reactionary party. But Juarez gave him a one 
 two punch in 1860 that knocked him down and out. It cost 
 money to fight, the treasury was exhausted during the Civil 
 War, debts piled up, Juarez was forced to suspend payment 
 and England, France and Spain intervened. Spain came over 
 in 1861 but withdrew, and she and England left the field to 
 the French, who loaded, aimed and fired, changed the govern- 
 ment into an empire and set the Archduke Maximilian of 
 Austria on the throne. 
 
 The story is a sad and short one. Maximilian was sent 
 to Mexico where he became a clerical tool to carve out a new 
 St. Peter's in Mexico City. In 1867 he was court-martialed 
 and shot in Queretaro, and Juarez became the people's choice 
 for a second term. 
 
 Benito was a rare old Ben and no has-been. He made 
 good and was re-elected in 1871. His defeated enemies 
 gnashed their teeth with rage and plotted against him with 
 
122 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 hellish ingenuity, foes instigated revolts and rebellions, but 
 he fought them, hung their political scalps on his belt and was 
 the big chief and victor when he died July 18, 1872. Like 
 Grant, Juarez was a man of few words and many deeds, brave 
 of intent and honest of purj^ose. 
 
 On his foundation work arose ^Mexico's greatness and 
 grandeur. No jealous, ignorant, bigoted or lying enemy has 
 been able to blacken his glorious influence. Intelligent, honest, 
 brave, rich not in wealth but worth, he divorced church and 
 state and laid down the law which comes down to us under 
 the head of "Laws of Reform." They were in advance of 
 their time, too heavy for "children" to understand. The dust 
 of years settled on them, and when Carranza came to town, 
 he took the cue from Juarez, brushed them up. annotated them 
 and made them the basis of his new Constitution at Queretaro. 
 As laws are made against criminals, so these reform laws w^ere 
 made against the criminal life and practice of a church greedy, 
 grasping, political, perfidious, robbing, revolting, exacting and 
 reactionary. But she is a wily criminal and manages to get 
 the money and political pull necessary to get around any law 
 divine or human that tries to reform her. 
 
 At this celebration bands played and school children pa- 
 raded, waving Mexican paper flags and banners, and carrying 
 great floral wreaths. The sidewalks were packed and the bal- 
 conies crowded. We fell in line and marched until we came to 
 the plaza with its big statue of Juarez. Here the children laid 
 their wreaths and covered the base of the statue. They sang 
 patriotic songs, keeping time with banners. Embryo orators 
 spouted and candy and peanut sellers mingled their cries wdth 
 the polished periods of the orators and the melody of the 
 band. Then came the national air and off came the hats of 
 rich merchant, ragged peon, government official, warship 
 sailor and laborer. Off came mine, not to Carranza or the 
 Mexican flag, but to the bronze statue of Juarez. There he 
 stood, 'mid all this cheering multitude, unmoved on his pedes- 
 tal, looking down kindly on his people as if he were well 
 pleased by their oration and ovation. As he stood above them 
 in the attitude of an orator, with his left hand on his heart, 
 a manuscript in his right hand and the throng below, I thought 
 I heard him say, "Thank you, my children, I love you. Don't 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 123 
 
 forget my advice. Follow my reform laws and you will be 
 happy and prosperous for evermore." 
 
 The sun set, as it always has, only this time it splashed 
 its gold all over the statue of Juarez and his admirers. As I 
 left him and the citizens, he had the middle of the stage, the 
 palms were waving about him and the spotlight of the setting 
 sun made him stand out as one of the great actors on the 
 stage of Mexican history. 
 
 That night Vera Cruz crowded into the plaza and filled the 
 hundreds of extra chairs that had been placed there at so much 
 per. Yet there was no music. The country is poor, Mexican 
 bands have given way to the bandit. The band we heard in 
 the afternoon, even for that special occasion, was very ama- 
 teurish. There was nothing for the throng to do but to look 
 at one another, promenade around the little walk and laugh, 
 flirt and talk. 
 
 The government has built a big promenade by the sea in 
 imitation of the Malecon at Havana. Here the people walk at 
 sunset, look out to the sea and parade under the large electric 
 lights at night — when the norther does not break the lights or 
 flood the pavement. 
 
 AFLOAT AGAIN 
 
 T" HE. "norther" had come and gone, but the sea was 
 
 still enraged at his visit. So was Captain Smith at 
 a white slave, with a red coat, who had been brought 
 on board by a Mexican in spite of his order, through 
 some bribe. This is an old ship game captains have to fight 
 along this coast. It is difficult to keep the boats here or on 
 the Pacific from becoming floating assignation houses. 
 
 Captain Smith was an uncommon man with a common 
 name. Short and round as a tub of butter, he was a sort of 
 sea-faring Santa Clans. He had red face, white hair, gray 
 mustache and looked like a flying Dutchman in his baggy 
 breeches. At first I thought the boat was rolling from the 
 after wake of the norther, but changed my opinion when the 
 captain moved to the port side, for the ship listed with him. 
 
 He was a jolly friend to me, three hundred pounds of jest and 
 
124 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 jollity. He was a fine story-teller, not especially for Sunday 
 school entertainments and church conventions, but for lodges 
 and stag parties. This sea-dog had many tales of the sea. 
 He entertained us in his room by the hour. When I think of 
 him and his ship I give "three cheers and one cheer more" 
 for Captain Smith of the "Monterey." 
 
 I thought I was sea-sick proof, but you never can tell 
 when your stomach will be as unreliable and unmanageable as 
 a horse, auto or woman. The norther had kicked the waves 
 up until the sea was as humpy as the hilly shore. I sat 
 bundled up in my steamer chair working the mind over matter 
 racket until I had little mind and it mattered less what I 
 thought. I rested up enough to go to the table every meal, 
 but it was very difficult to control my feelings. The cabin 
 was stuffy and smelly, the food unattractive and the big cap- 
 tain, who sat next and was sorry for me, kept asking me to 
 order something light and easily digested, such as greasy soup, 
 corn beef and cabbage, pork, beans, and other things, the 
 very names of which set my stomach in a state of Mexican 
 rebellion and revolution. 
 
 OIL FACTORIES AND OLFACTORIES 
 
 T'S only a day and a night to Tampico from Vera 
 Cruz and ours was the first boat within a month. 
 Naturally it was crowded and among its varied pas- 
 senger list there was an unusual number of Germans, 
 so many in fact, that I could easily imagine I was once again 
 sailing down the Rhine. They were exclusive, quiet and only 
 spoke among themselves on the deck or in the smoke room. 
 Why? Ask the Kaiser. 
 
 You smell Tampico long before you see it. We were 
 waked up early by a loud odor and in the dark I imagined I 
 was under my auto fixing something, while the gasoline and 
 oil dripped in my face. Later when I went on deck I found 
 the odor worse and was nearly floored by it. All passengers 
 were up early at the bar at the mouth of the Panuco river. 
 The sun rose and the oil-covered water made us think we 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 125 
 
 were sailing among the isles of Grease. An oil-tanker, with 
 the U. S. flag painted on her sides, was anchored near shore. 
 As we sailed by we hoisted the Mexican flag of red, white and 
 green, but it became tangled in the ropes, was torn and 
 flapped against the steel mast as if it were ashamed of its his- 
 tory in the presence of our flag floating at the stern. I hoped 
 it was prophetic, that in reparation for the insults Old Glory 
 had received here at Tampico, and all through Mexico, our 
 flag would proudly float over the whole country from the Rio 
 Grande to Guatemala, and that the Mexican rag flag would 
 hang its head in shame and the winds of heaven refuse to 
 kiss and float it. 
 
 The Panuco bar is unsafe, like many other bars in town. 
 The mouth of the Panuco, of course, is near the bar. Until oil 
 was discovered in the vicinity, Tampico was an unimportant 
 port. Now oil tanks with their industry and wealth seem to 
 have gown up like mushrooms in a night. 
 
 However poetic and romantic it reads to sail up the Panuco 
 river to Tampico, the reality is prose fact. It sounds tropic, 
 but the air was chilly from the recent norther. Though it 
 was suppopsed to be a warm sail I nearly froze coming to this 
 tropical town and entered all wrapped up in an overcoat. 
 
 There were oil-tanks on the banks and oil-tankers in the 
 water. The English boats were carrying fuel for British 
 dreadnaught dogs of war and, although it was early, the 
 Panuco was as busy as the Thames. On shore the wort 
 trains were fi.lled with laborers thick as flies on fly-paper. 
 Engines were puffing and pulling in every direction. There 
 was oil everywhere — in oil factories and our olfactories. 
 Nero could have made human lamp posts and illuminations at 
 small expense here. Tampico oil, instead of smoothing trou- 
 bled waters, has added fuel to flame, whether in rival oil com- 
 panies, U. S. investments or German plots. The very atmos- 
 phere is combustible. Every one has an oilyagenous look as 
 if he drank oil and oil were his water of life. "What the steel 
 blast is to Pittsburgh, the stockyards to Chicago and brew- 
 eries to Milwaukee, oil is to Tampico. 
 
 One thing I "did like was the sight of our gunboats, flag 
 and boys in the harbor. I hoped if we fell into any trouble 
 on shore, orders would not come from Washington, as had 
 
126 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 happened once before, to have them pull out and leave good 
 Americans in distress with no protection against Mexican 
 murder except from English and German vessels. 
 
 The I\Iexican gunboat was up by the wharf being repaired. 
 It had attempted to go out in the river, nearly sank and was 
 towed in, rusted_ and ruined by the don't care policy of Mexico. 
 
 The name Tampico is malodorous to good Americans. It 
 was here that innocent men, women and children were threat- 
 ened, robbed, insulted and terrified by a Mexican mob and left 
 in the lurch by our government. 
 
 RED-TAPE 
 
 THE traveler in Mexico needs passports and medical 
 O. K. certificates at every port. You may pass one 
 Mexican port but that will not permit you to enter 
 another Mexican port a day away. This is not 
 simply because they fear you may contract some fever or 
 plague in transit, but to keep tab on every traveler, as well as 
 to give officials a chance to make some extra additions to their 
 graft fund. 
 
 At Tampico a new piece of red-tape was unrolled. No ship 
 passenger could leave without a passport. AVe had no pass- 
 ports to Mexico but showed the officer a West Indies one, and 
 a handful, not of gold, but of gilt stamped documents and 
 letters. It was our last chance, for if we failed here our 
 Mexican trip was a fool's errand and we could not get into 
 the interior. 
 
 This time I did not feel sorry that a Mexican was illiterate, 
 not only in his own but in a foreign language. One by one 
 I opened the letters and laid them before him — letters from 
 senator, governor, mayor and chief of police. He was em- 
 barrassed, dazed, and hesitated. Then I pla3'ed my last card 
 and showed him the American passport to the West Indies 
 which was perfectly worthless here. The officer scrutinized it 
 carefully, as if he were the Rhadamanthus of Mexico's Inferno, 
 and must be careful not to let a good man in. He looked to 
 his assistants and they to him, and rather than have it appear 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 127 
 
 that he could not understand the papers, he acted as if they 
 were satisfactory, gave us permission to get off the boat and 
 take all possible chances and risks. 
 
 TAMPICO TRAMPS 
 
 ALLAH be praised! The first man I met on the dock 
 was an American who had just arrived from Mexico 
 City, but my joy faded away when he informed me 
 that what I supposed was a safe route between Tam- 
 pico and Mexico City, had just proved to be a very dangerous 
 one to him. The train ahead of his, the day before, had been 
 held up and burned between Tampico and Monterey. He 
 thought if I went up the next day I might get there between 
 showers of bullets. I asked why I couldn't take the short 
 route from Tampico to San Luis Potosi and not go way around 
 to Monterey. He said this line hadn't been running for 
 weeks, and when it did, it didn't go far. 
 
 However, deciding to take a chance and leave next morn- 
 ing, we immediately set about to see everything in Tampico 
 and make the most of it as if it were our last day on this 
 planet. I can imagine how a convict in prison or soldier in 
 trenches feels the day before the fateful tomorrow. 
 
 At the foot of the big steel bridge which leads to the town, 
 we overtook some U. S. marines. When they saw we were 
 Americans and wanted their pictures for the home papers, 
 they gladly posed. The market is on the waterfront and 
 resembles a commercial regatta with all the canoes drawn up. 
 Natives had come down the river bringing produce and I 
 watched some cooking their dinners in the bottoms of the 
 canoes. From the looks of the vegetables piled up in the 
 market one would think they had never been near water. 
 Tampico 's climate is humid, hot and unhealthy — especially 
 for Americans, who are attacked, not only by yellow fever, 
 but by Mexican mobs. She has exported most of the Ameri- 
 cans and on account of the revolution her exports have fallen 
 off in respect to bullion, sugar, hides, fibre, cattle, cotton- 
 seed, coffee, sarsaparilla, rubber, broom-root, ores and asphalt. 
 
128 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 We went up town, climbing a stone stairway like the one 
 in Santiago, Cuba. The steps were broad and high, and 
 being a heavy man I was thankful it was not an every day 
 climb. The. plaza was dreary as a desert and hot as a frying- 
 pan. I pitied the statue of the martyred patriot who was 
 sizzling in it. It cooled off enough at night for us to sit in 
 the sagging bench seats and listen to the band as it played 
 lively airs to livelier boys and girls. The plaza is surrounded 
 by cheap hotels and dear cafes. 
 
 The cathedral is located in the main plaza. Its spires 
 were raised like hands to heaven and the strings of govern- 
 ment wireless stretched betwen them like skeins of yarn. 
 These spires were useful as well as beautiful. No matter 
 what messages had been received from within the church, the 
 government made sure of some messages from the outside. 
 At first I thought these wires were tight-ropes for some 
 angelic performance to please tlie simple natives ; a clothes- 
 line on which to hang the sacred vestments ; a phone wire 
 from a captive in one tower to a fair one in another. Did 
 the people send prayers or receive heavenly messages on this 
 wireless? Not much. The government stands for govern- 
 ment and not God, and has erected this wireless for business 
 reasons plain, earthly and practical. 
 
 From this dead, empty church we strolled to the Presby- 
 terian church. It was closed but there was a school next 
 door full of scholars. As we looked in a kindly old gentle- 
 man came to the door, greeted us in English and invited us 
 in. He and his wife taught the Mexican children English, 
 and among other needed things, honesty, for when I went 
 away I left my card and pocketbook on the desk by mis- 
 take, with my money, the only true passport here. I missed 
 it and hurried back to find it untouched, and was so grateful 
 that I asked for a picture of the only honest people I had 
 so far found in Mexico. 
 
 The coal used here is charcoal. I saw a little, dirty fellow 
 on a doTikey with two sacks of charcoal roped over the don- 
 key's back. Both would have made a picturesque charcoal 
 sketch for an artist. 
 
 American men and money have done much here. From 
 being a small fishing town with a dangerous and unsafe bar, 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 129 
 
 a little seaport of Tamaulipas on the Panuco five miles from 
 the Gulf of Mexico and 235 miles northwest of Vera Cruz, 
 Tampico has become the chief seaport city of Mexico. Tam- 
 pieo's big steel and concrete buildings seem very un-Mexican. 
 She is the hated rival of Vera Cruz and her business hustles 
 and hums. These tvs^o sisters by the sea are rivals in the 
 attempt to woo and win industry and wealth from U. S. and 
 Europe. 
 
 AN INFERNAL SHAME 
 
 THE three most interesting eyesore spots to a real 
 American in Tampico, not found in guide or folder, 
 are Sanborn's and the Imperial and Southern 
 Hotels. If the powers that be at Washington ever 
 come here I wish I could pilot them free of charge and point 
 out and explain what happened here April 6 to 11, 1915. 
 
 These are the damned blood spots that will not out. A 
 piece of recent history was written here that disgraced the 
 United States in the eyes of heaven and earth. Tampico 
 temperature is blood-heat and the thought of this unpunished 
 outrage makes one's blood boil. 
 
 On board the ''Esperanza" Captain Curtis showed me a 
 printed statement of the facts, given to the people of the 
 United States by 372 Tampico refugees aboard his ship, when 
 she lay in quarantine in Galveston harbor. It told how there 
 had been a battle between the Federals and Rebels in the 
 suburbs of Tampico from April 6th to 11th. American prop- 
 erty had been destroyed and the Americans had been driven 
 from their homes and occupations. The Mexicans blamed 
 the Americans for all the troubles of the past three years. 
 Our flagship "Dolphin," the cruiser ''Chester" and the gun- 
 boat "Des Moines" were in the harbor and stripped for 
 action. Suddenly April 21st they raised anchor and sailed 
 tranquilly out to sea, leaving 2,000 Americans unprotected. 
 No explanation was offered and they waited outside for the 
 Mexican gunboats to come out. "When news of the battle of 
 Vera Cruz reached Tampico, Mexican armed mobs howled for 
 blood. English and German citizens appealed to their con- 
 
130 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 suls and were hurried to their respective ships. A mob of 
 about 600 I\[exieans smashed the American hotel and resi- 
 dences, vt^recked Sanborn's American drug store and beat 
 against the Southern hotel doors for two hours thirsting for 
 American blood and possession of the American flag that 
 floated over the hotel. That flag remained floating at mid- 
 night. Two German officers of the "Dresden" appeared on 
 the scene and informed the Mexican mob that if it did not 
 disperse they would fire and disperse it. Then they rescue^ 
 the hotel refugees at midnight in a drenching storm and took 
 them aboard the "Dresden." 
 
 In this manner good American citizens were sneaked out 
 of Tampico on ships flying German and British flags, com- 
 manded by German and British officers. The American yatch 
 "Wild Duck," to which the Americans w^ere transferred from 
 the "Dresden," sailed out to the American fleet at sea, flying 
 the German flag and in command of a German naval officer 
 of the cruiser "Dresden." What a spectacle of the Ameri- 
 can administration's blundering stupidity and of the humilia- 
 tion of 2.000 disgraced Americans at Tampico. The Ameri- 
 can consul did all that was possible to protect the Americans, 
 but finally, like the other deserted Americans, left Tampico 
 on a British ship under a British flag. During all this time 
 American women were refused asylum on British ships until 
 British women were aboard. 
 
 TREATY AND ENTREATY 
 
 OUR treaty with Mexico is a "scrap of paper." Our 
 q:overnment was deaf to American entreaty. The 
 light failed when most we needed it. Just when we 
 expected Mexico would be compelled to live up to 
 her treaty promises, and if she did not, intervention would 
 surely come, Americans were told to hurry and get out of 
 the country. This meant but one thing, even a thick-headed 
 Mexican could see that, that the U. S. neither cared to nor 
 had she the courage to protect her citizens. So obedient 
 Americans picked up and pulled out from ranches and cities, 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 131 
 
 suffering loss and injujry and receiving no reparation or reim- 
 bursement. Our citizens v^ere shipped away in rotten, unsafe 
 hulks like so many cattle, quarantined in American ports and 
 laughed at and scorned by their own people. This was a 
 striking contrast to the way we transported the conspirator, 
 Felix Diaz, on an American battleship, two of the Madero 
 family sent by our cruiser to Havana, and at the beginning 
 of the European war when the U. S. sent a battleship and 
 $100,000 in gold for embarrassed Americans. Why the dif- 
 ference? These Americans in Mexico were law-abiding. It 
 was no fault of theirs, but of our government, yet they suf- 
 fered. Then insult was added to injury. At Galveston 
 Daniels dumped the Americans who had left their homes and 
 their business. When a chosen committee of refugees went 
 to Washington and asked that the Americans be returned to 
 Mexico, since regular steamer passage had been suspended, 
 and that they might protect their property, since our govern- 
 ment could not, they were told by this "Daniels come to 
 judgment" that if they had been worth their salt they would 
 never have left their country. A second time they went to 
 Josephus, who showed his colossal ignorance by saying he 
 didn't see how the government had failed to offer protection 
 by ordering the American ships out to the Gulf of Mexico, 
 utterly ignorant of the fact that Tampico was seven miles up 
 the Panuco river. The president was busy, Bryan was skep- 
 tical and finally the refugees at Galveston boarded the trans- 
 ports which were furnished them, after being compelled to 
 sign a document that they were going back to Tampico at 
 their own risk and would waive any protection from the 
 U. S. As Senator Baker said to a committee of Americans 
 who sought his help in March, 1915, after they had gone to 
 Mexico, "They went at their own peril" and "from the 
 time they crossed the Rio Grande the interest and respons- 
 ibility of the U. S. in them and in their safety ceased." All 
 the while the well-fed, ignorant stay-at-homes smiled at the 
 Washington policy and echoed sentiments of approval by 
 practically saying, "Served you right, you took a chance, you 
 knew what you'd get, now what are you kicking about?" 
 
 Can you beat it? Compare in contrast this government 
 position with what William M. Evarts, our former Secretary 
 
132 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 under President Hayes, wrote May 32, 1915: "The first duty 
 of a government is to protect life and property. This is a para- 
 mount obligation. For this governments are instituted and 
 governments neglecting or failing to perform it become worse 
 than useless." 
 
 In 1910, in reply to Porfirio Diaz' invitation and a treaty 
 guarantee of property and life, fifty thousand Americans 
 went to Mexico, risking their life, family, comfort and money 
 to get in the financial game. Mexico gave us the Macedonian 
 cry, through the lips of Porfirio Diaz, "Come over and help 
 us." It was heard and we hustled. We sent over our mer- 
 chants and mechanics and the result was that industries in 
 gold, oil, machinery and every department were improved by 
 good and generous men. There were some few scoundrels. 
 Even Judas got in among the disciples, but as a rule the 
 Americans who went W'ere honorable. Of course they were 
 able to make money — they went for that very purpose — but 
 at the same time they enabled the Mexicans to help them- 
 selves, for their wages were increased and matters of educa- 
 tion, sanitation and care of the sick were improved. They 
 gave the natives good wages, urging them to spend their 
 money to best advantage for that which should uplift and not 
 debauch them. Heretofore, there had been but two classes and 
 our men made possible a "third estate," or middle-class 
 between the master and slave. Mexicans were given higher 
 positions on the farm and in the factories, and good wages 
 that brought about better homes, food and clothing. They 
 were so successful that our American trade with Mexico was 
 60 per cent of all she had. As usual, jealous and ungrateful 
 Mexico hated any one who made her industrious or better, 
 but this hate or indifference was not to be expected from our 
 government Avhich left these "uplift" Americans and their 
 families in the lurch at Tampico to be murdered, or to get 
 away from murderous Mexicans the best way they could. 
 
 American investors received concessions from the Mexican 
 government, paid good monej^ for them and received permis- 
 sion to do business. The word "concession" is equivalent to 
 the word, "license." "When you get a concession in any 
 business you pay the patriot revolutionist a certain amount to 
 keep it from being destroyed. This is called "self-protec- 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 133 
 
 tion." Of course there is struggle for success or monopoly 
 in business, as in government and religion, but American 
 business methods in Mexico have never been harmful to the 
 laboring class. They have not exploited them but have 
 exerted good and helpful influence. If there were some pos- 
 sible exceptions they only proved the general rule. 
 
 These Americans were called by our government ''ex- 
 ploiters," "vultures" and "harpies." Although our men 
 went at the risk of health and money, not as Spaniards to 
 enslave and exploit, but to better conditions and open mines, 
 "Washington put them in the cutthroat class. Without our 
 aid Mexicans would be in the back ranks of undeveloped Cen- 
 tral America. It was our men who made this desert blossom 
 like a rose. We were the Doctor Franklins and Edisons to 
 draw and harness the useless lightning. Had we not done all 
 this the English and Germans would have done it for them- 
 selves and their country. This would not only have brought 
 money but an embarrassing strain on the Monroe Doctrine. 
 
 Mexico is the dust in our eye, the stone in our shoe and 
 the briar in our finger, socially, financially and politically. 
 U. S. treats Americans in Mexico like the devil and the Mexi- 
 cans politely tell us to go to hell. In spite of the smooth 
 speech of Washington orators we are treated as escaped crim- 
 inals and are hated and plotted against. 
 
 Our trouble in Mexico is not so much from foreign enemies 
 and interests as it has been our home enemies at Washington 
 who failed to protect our citizens and their interests. Ameri- 
 can investors in Mexico are not babies but men. They are not 
 asking for favors but for rights, the treaty rights of 1831, and 
 are praying the God of Nations to give them a government at 
 Washington, of, by and for the people, which Avill not give 
 them over to Mexican mobs in disregard of national precedent 
 and present fair demands. 
 
 It did look as if things might be settled in 1913. Secre- 
 tary Knox told Huerta that Uncle Sam wouldn't speak to and 
 recognize him unless he had a political house-cleaning, set- 
 tled his claims, gave satisfaction for loss of American life and 
 property and promised in good faith to do better. President 
 Wilson was elected. He declared that the American had con- 
 stitutional rights to be protected on the borders and through- 
 
134 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 out the world, and that having a passport in any foreign coun- 
 try he was "entitled to and must be given the full protec- 
 tion of the U. S. government both for himself and his prop- 
 erty." President Wilson watchfully waited. The murder 
 and robbery of Americans went on. 
 
 A DE"LIND"QUENT DIPLOMUT 
 
 TtlEN he sent that Swedish nightingale, John Lind, 
 to tell Huerta to pack up his trunk and sail away. 
 This diplomat was farther away in his language, 
 logic, love and learning in Mexican matters than 
 he was from his native land. Gamboa was Huerta 's foreign 
 secretary and Lind told him if he and his cabinet would get 
 away from Huerta, leave him iu the lurch and Huerta stepped 
 out, the U. S. Avould give the Mexican government, then so 
 hard up, the money needed. Gamboa had lived in the bribery 
 atmosphere of Mexico but this was too much, and with choking 
 utterance he assured John Lind and his master at Washington 
 in the folloving classic Avords that there was nothing doing: 
 "No loan from American bankers could be large enough to 
 induce the Mexican government to renounce the sovereign 
 rights of the nation and to permit its dignity to be lessened." 
 Then the Mexican press proudly roared through its 
 columns and boasted its superiority over Washington. As 
 for J. L., they laughed loud and long from capital to coast. 
 In palace, parlor and pulque shop he was the butt, the he-goat 
 of ridicule — a common subject of censure, comment, cursing 
 and caricature in public and private. To make it plain to the 
 peons, who could not read, the press pictured him as the 
 Devil's' Ass and started a comic weekly called "Mister Lind." 
 "Mister," mind you, not Honorable, or American or represen- 
 tative, or President Wilson's intimate friend, but just plain, 
 undignified, despised, "mister"— a mere man to be desig- 
 nated by an epithet of scorn and ridicule by their people. 
 "Good-bye, John, don't stay long" slang never touched him, 
 for most of the time he stayed at Vera Cruz away from the 
 capital, its business and its bother and as the special envoy of 
 
AN AZTEC TRINITY 
 
 MEXICO 
 
DEPARTED WORTH 
 
 PLAZA. MEXICO CITY 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 135 
 
 President Wilson busily employed himself diplomatically 
 drinking eoiifee in the portales and having a restful time with 
 the American consul. 
 
 I met and talked with many people in Vera Cruz, both 
 Spanish and American, who had seen and met Mr. L. What 
 they said of his diplomacy would prevent this book going 
 through the mail. His chief at Washington seemed to forget 
 him or had nothing for him to do, so there sat our friend 
 watching and waiting to do something, God only knows what. 
 
 That "personal envoy" sent to Mexico to discredit U. S. 
 Ambassador Lane proved himself to be a diploraut and de- 
 LINDquent. The Bible says: "There was a man sent from 
 God, whose name was John." But I am morally sure that 
 it does not refer to John Lind's mission to Mexico. 
 
 President Wilson told Congress that John Lind had dis- 
 charged his mission with "singular tact." It is generally 
 conceded that said John should never have been sent. "Singu- 
 lar" he was no doubt; as to "tact," he came back intact 
 with no good contact of the American-Mexico problem and 
 has been attacked ever since. 
 
 DUB DIPLOMACY 
 
 DIPLOMACY in the time of Benjamin Franklin meant 
 chivalry, courage and sacrifice; now it is a chess- 
 board on which to play a game for position, power 
 and plunder. The office of diplomut today means 
 to travel about, be well housed, to hobnob with other diplo- 
 muts, to ride in state, to be invited to functions, to move in a 
 little world of its own, and from its exalted position watch 
 the common people go by ; to go to church Sunday and occupy 
 a prominent pew, and then return to headquarters and plan 
 to pull wires, prevaricate, evade, suppress truth and juggle 
 justice. 
 
 To gain the good opinion of foreign nations, the diplomut 
 loses the respect of his own. He is as silent as the Sphynx, 
 except at after dinner speeches. When you ask him a ques- 
 tion he replies in a way to illustrate the definition of 
 language as a something to "conceal thought." 
 
136 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 Selfishness reigns in the diplomut's unpatriotic bosom. A 
 man may be a Christian when he goes into diplomatic poli- 
 tics, but if he stays long enough he will wear out his religion. 
 Many an official goes in John and comes out Judas. 
 
 The diplomatic minister believes in a religion of lies, 
 prates piously, spins thin theories and falls short in doing 
 practical things ; thinks more of rules than of rights, of words 
 than of deeds, of policies, than of principles ; adopts the Latin- 
 American motto of "Manana" and makes it the rule of his 
 life. Educated in the school of subtle diplomacy, he gradu- 
 ates and receives the degrees of D. D., LL. D. — "Doctor of 
 Duplicity" and "Life-Long Delay." 
 
 The Devil was the first diplomat and this "Father of Lies" 
 has many children in official positions. Too often our foreign 
 misrepresentatives suggest the classic definition of an ambas- 
 sador, "An honest man sent to lie abroad for his country." 
 
 No word came, the bad grew worse, Mexicans grew bolder, 
 insults more frequent, lives and property were threatened and 
 W. J. B., awakening from a graj)ejuicc debauch, sent word to 
 the Mexican authorities that they would "be strictly account- 
 able for any harm done to Americans, or injury done to their 
 property." Instead of holding this Mexican bull by the nose- 
 ring of treaty, President Wilson told the Americans to pack 
 up and leave, making it painfully clear to them that they were 
 like "The Man Without a Country." Time came and went, 
 more speeches were made and notes were written. Swinging 
 from our policy of non-interference, we told Huerta to 
 get out, not caring whether he went to either place 
 spelled by the first letter of his name. The embargo 
 on ammunition to Mexico, which had been placed by 
 President Taft, was lifted. We tried to keep arms from being 
 landed to Huerta and to force him to salute the flag, but he 
 got the stuff and didn't salute Old Glorj^ 
 
 During the ABC Conference ammunition was under an 
 embargo but Mr. Lind's advice permitted 3,000,000 rounds of 
 ammunition to get into Tampico instead of being sent to Ha- 
 vana, for an alleged reason of "stress of weather." 
 
 The Conference didn't learn its alphabet of ABC. We 
 landed at Vera Cruz, Huerta went, meantime hell was to pay. 
 Americans didn't want intervention, hadn't asked for inter- 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 137 
 
 vention and simply wanted peace and protection. Mexico was 
 mad and murderous, Americans were their hated victimty 
 and 20,000 of our people in a strange land were ground be- 
 tween the upper and nether millstones of Mexican insult and 
 American indifference. There was no justice in Washington 
 and no safety in Mexico. The president spread a banquet 
 table of "service of humanity" but no Americans were asked 
 to sit down — they were like Lazarus under the table with 
 the dogs. 
 
 America's Mexican policy is, "It is better to be killed 
 than kill." We said we wouldn't meddle with the Mexican 
 muss, and we did. We told Huerta to get out or we would 
 kick him out. Then we shelled and occupied Vera Cruz, lost 
 a score of marines and sailors and killed 200 greasers. Our 
 boys became white wings and scavangers, cleaned up Vera 
 Cruz and in the meantime Huerta slipped away. Five months 
 later we did the same thing. 
 
 Did Huerta kill Madero? Some say Yes, some say No. 
 Should we have recognized Huerta? The answer is No and 
 Yes. There are still many who believe that Huerta was inno- 
 cent, that as an Indian he could rule the Mexicans and that 
 he was Mexico's real choice. 
 
 The Tampico affair offered grounds for an intervention of 
 some kind. What did we do? Lay down and submitted to 
 insult. Did Huerta ever salute the flag that we told him to? 
 He did — not. And what of our friend Villa? We kissed and 
 blessed him and kicked him and cursed him, flirted with him 
 as a friend and then gave him the uppercut, jolt and jilt of an 
 enemy. We never tried to catch Villa. He very de- 
 cidedly came back, continues to rob and murder in North 
 Mexico, and we do — nothing. The order "Villa dead or alive" 
 provokes a sad smile. The U. S. officer at Columbus was 
 warned of Villa's intended night-attack, but sleepily allowed 
 himself to be attacked. Instead of being discharged with a 
 broad, black mark against his name, he received a thick coat 
 of whitewash. We sent and kept Gen. Pershing on a fool's 
 errand in Mexico for political effect till after election. We 
 lost in every diplomatic exchange with the Mexican Carranza 
 who bullied and bluffed us. He passed us the "buck" and 
 we stood with a big basket to receive it. 
 
138 THE DEVIL IX MEXICO 
 
 PERSHING AND POLITICS 
 
 PRESIDENT ^YILSOX sent Pershing with soldiers two 
 or three hundred miles into Mexico to get Villa — but 
 all he got was the smell of his powder. He went 
 into Casas Grande Valley, settled by the Mormons. 
 Instead of going for Villa and bringing him home "dead or 
 alive," he just stayed there and protected the Mormons, who 
 had fled there from the U. S. for polygamous practises, from 
 a Villa raid. 
 
 Salt Lake City rejoiced and was willing to pay the price 
 by voting solid for Wilson, who "Kept us out of war." Persh- 
 ing was withdrawn and then the ]\Iormon press charged Wil- 
 son with a double cross and lack of faith. It was not the 
 so-called progressiveuess of the West that elected Wilson but 
 the solid I\Iormon vote in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming and Cali- 
 fornia that put him in the White House. The price of their 
 votes was the protection of polygamous Mormon outlaws in 
 Mexico. To the usual campaign money must be added the 
 negro blood poured out at the Carrizal ambuscade, and the 
 money millions of the Pershing expedition in the interest of 
 the Mormon vote. 
 
 The Pershing "punitive expedition" was a farce and a 
 fiasco. Washington sent this brave, brainy general, after the 
 Columbus massacre, to "Get Villa dead or alive." Then Wash- 
 ington, not Carranza, blocked the way. At a cost of some 
 men and many millions Pershing remained, and later returned 
 making a "recessional" that Kipling couldn't have described. 
 Pershing didn't get the villain Villa, or protect the border, 
 or offensively or defensively stimulate Carranza to get his 
 hated rival. This costly blunder, like the one at Tampico and 
 Vera Cruz, cheapened us in the minds of the ^lexican 
 world, lowered the de facto government of Carranza in the 
 minds of the Mexican, and deified Villa as Mexico's only hope. 
 
 DIED IN VAIN 
 
 W 
 
 E are bound to Mexico by a rope of sand. The tears 
 shed by American and Mexican diplomuts are croco- 
 dile tears. Our dead at Vera Cruz. Columbus, Glen 
 Springs, Parral, Carrizal San Ignaeio and elsewhere 
 are unavenged so far, and appear to have died in vain. It was 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 139 
 
 an expensive experiment. It cost soldier blood, our national 
 respect and international humiliation, Mexico hates us today 
 more tlian ever for butting into her affairs. We spent more 
 than $100,000,000 to help Carranza get Villa. But Carranza 
 didn't Vi^ant to get Villa, nor does any decent Mexican vi^ant 
 him to, for Villa is a saint compared to Carranza, the idol not 
 only of the peon, but of all Mexico. 
 
 Villa vras made to walk the plank, v^e kissed Carranza and 
 kicked Pancho and border troubles followed. Secretary Lan- 
 sing wrote a love letter to Carranza enumerating Mexican in- 
 dignities to Americans and Carranza winked, pulled his 
 whiskers as if to say, "Well, what will you do about it?" 
 We replied with meekness and weakness, "Hello, old man, I 
 hope you will excuse us. Hope we have not troubled you by 
 referring to this little matter." 
 
 The word "duty" is spelled "duety" and refers to what 
 we owe. We are to be honest to Americans before being gen- 
 erous to Mexicans, After four years of destruction, murder 
 and humiliation there is a dead loss of $300,000,000 of property, 
 200,000 Mexican lives, 400 American lives and a loss of Ameri- 
 can manhood, womanhood and self-respect. 
 
 "He kept us out of war" was the soothing syrup Uncle 
 Sam doped his children with. Ye Gods, out of war, we were 
 in war all the time and he wouldn't let us fight our way out! 
 We accepted Carranza, we rejected Huerta, the ABC commis- 
 sion went to Niagara, took in the falls, and the world wouldn't 
 have missed them if they had fallen in and been carried over 
 the rapids, which would have been the only swift thing in 
 their lives. Here they proceeded to fall out with each other 
 and us. It's useless to mince matters. In plain words Mexico 
 has either got to put up or shut up. She must control her 
 border bandits, she must protect American life and property, 
 must guarantee legal rights and settle all foreign and Ameri- 
 can claims that are justly made. 
 
 Our Monroe Doctrine simply means that no Old World 
 power shall come to the New World territory and dominate 
 it, that Latin America shall be thus far free. But the Mon- 
 roe Doctrine does not mean that the U. S. has the right to 
 
140 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 dictate what political form of government Mexico, Central 
 or South America shall have. This was the un-American thing 
 and the anti-American thing — to drive Pluerta out and to 
 withhold protection to our own citizens — to serve aliens and 
 neglect Americans. 
 
 "When an American traveler sits at a ]\Iexican table he 
 eats out of their hand. For dessert he gets no bit of pie, 
 but a large slice of "humble pie" when it comes to diplomatic 
 affairs. The old proverb, "Physician, heal thyself," has a pres- 
 ent, practical, political pertinenc3^ While we expect to rule 
 affairs in Europe and clean up the Kaiser's shambles, we must 
 not forget to keep order in our back-yard of Mexico, 
 
 We are commanded to "love" our enemies, but the Re- 
 deemer, who bade us not cast our pearls before swine, does 
 not expect us to say "muchas gratias" to the Latin American 
 who burns, outrages, loots and stabs us, though the "Pan- 
 American" policy would have us do so. The blood of murdered 
 Americans is on the head of our administration, and stains the 
 plans of our Pan-American Bureau. John Barrett, its prince of 
 misleaders, would rather sacrifice all United States than one 
 dirty, little Latin American hot-bed of Yankeephobia between 
 Mexico and Patagonia. Barrett's motto is, "Better lose ten 
 thousand gringos than one greaser." 
 
 It seems Old Glory is not big enough to shelter American 
 citizens in Mexico, and that our government Avas not strong 
 enough to prevent it from being taken down, as it has been 
 many times, for Mexican soldiers to trample, spit upon, and 
 defile with excrementitious outrage. We should stand up for 
 our flag or haul it down. 
 
 A street car pulled us up and out to the American colony. 
 Here were beautiful homes and gardens, now empty and de- 
 serted because there was no home protection for them. We saw 
 the battlefield of the Mexican Federals and Rebels, climbed in 
 trenches, stood behind fortifications made of bent railroad 
 rails, heavy boards and a j)late of iron with holes in them for 
 guns. It would be a sorry task for one to try to capture these 
 trenches now, for they are filled with cactus, and an army of 
 bristling thorns has taken possession of them. I didn't have 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 141 
 
 to go to Europe to enter the trenches. When the Federal rob- 
 bers were in Tampico they stole $30,000 worth of cattle and 
 shot many others, simply stripping their hides and leaving 
 the meat to rot, although natives M^ere hungry. 
 
 The American Country Club is splendidly situated on a 
 crown of a hill commanding a view of field and river valley. 
 There are fine gardens, tennis-courts, and golf-links. The 
 building irself is ideal for repose, rest and refreshments. It 
 is very quiet now. 
 
 The little father in "Washington advised the good Ameri- 
 cans in Tampico to consult that book in the Bible called 
 "Exodus." They did it, and went from Club, home and pos- 
 sessions like wandering lost tribes. 
 
 I had met Captain Seastrom at the home of Mr. Gomez in 
 Progreso. His ship was in Tampico and we were invited to 
 dinner. Pie proved to be a fine host. When he knew that I 
 had visited his Scandinavian home, he ordered his cook to 
 prepare some choice dishes. The meal we had on the Ward 
 Line freight boat was better than some "eats" I have had on 
 passenger ships of other lines. We sandwiched in land and 
 sea stories and laughed so much that I feared it would be 
 necessary for us to stop over at Progreso and call on his doc- 
 tor friend for treatment. 
 
 On the wharf my Minneapolis Y. M. C. A. friend, Maxwell, 
 came and said, "Morrill, what are you doing here?" He had 
 been marooned in Tampico for two weeks, and was waiting 
 for his ship. Hotels had held him up, morals were low and he 
 offered to be what Virgil was to Dante and guide us to Tam- 
 pico 's lowest hell. 
 
 'PLAZA DE PROSTITUTION" 
 
 FOREIGNERS here from many different nations find 
 little to do at night except to go to bed, fight mos- 
 ^^^ quitoes, visit clubs or sit up smoking, drinking and 
 svlml gambling. After dark we boarded a street car that 
 carried a big red light in front. AVhether this light was a coin- 
 cidence or not, we w^ent to the end of the line and found a big 
 
142 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 plaza red light district. As we stepped out I asked Maxwell, 
 ' ' Where next ? " He replied, ' ' Here. " " What, in the plaza ? ' ' 
 "Yes," he said. 
 
 The district bounds the plaza on all sides and abounds on 
 the outside streets. By this time our car passengers were all 
 dispersed and visiting their favorite friends. I told Maxwell 
 I thought the name of the plaza should be called "Plaza de 
 Prostitution." The houses bore the satirical names of 
 "Hope," "Forget-Me-Not," "Star," etc. W^ere there ever 
 worse misnomers? Women trooped out of houses and wel- 
 comed mounted soldiers. They held the horses' bridles and 
 engaged in unbridled laugh and jest. Autos rushed here and 
 there filled with soldiers, sailors, citizens and fair compan- 
 ions. In some of the resorts pianos were playing, booze was 
 disappearing and couples were dancing with abandon. It is 
 a shady trick in many of the houses to have the lights sud- 
 denly turned off while the inmates pick the pockets of the 
 curious, casual caller. Most of the places were dingy, dirty 
 dens of one room that opened onto the sidewalk. The door- 
 ways were filled with sisters of sin, daughters of the devil, 
 who made remarks to the passers-by or attempted to snatch 
 their hats. These harpies of Hades were waiting to pick the 
 pockets, bodies and souls of anyone who might listen to their 
 siren song. It isn't surprising in a town like this to find 
 obscene clay images of men and women offered for sale. 
 
 WATCHFUL WAITING 
 
 BACK to the boat early, for it was necessary to get up 
 early to see the customs and make the six o'clock 
 train for Monterey. We were our own alarm clock, 
 rose at 5 A. M., stocked up in the pantry, stepped to 
 the dock and submitted to official search. The officers went 
 through our bags and finding nothing that they especially 
 cared to keep for themselves, passed us through. It was still 
 dark when we reached the station. The train came in from 
 Monterey with a heavy soldier guard and a rear freight car full 
 of soldiers with their women and families. The passengers 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 143 
 
 rolled out of the cars that Avere to be made ready for us in five 
 minutes, if the train was to leave at its 6 A. M. schedule. One 
 glance at the passengers and I knew what the filthy condition 
 of the train must be. Two men worked for fifteen minutes 
 in the small first-class passenger car, sweeping up a pile 
 of filth and rubbish knee-deep that would have done credit 
 to a second-class horse or cattle car. Then the train pulled out 
 to a side-track for something, and a man came up to the board 
 and marked the train's departure at seven o'clock. 
 
 T for Tampico and thieves. It's unsafe to put a bag down 
 long enough to buy a ticket. We saw everyone sitting down 
 on bag and bundle and we did the same on ours. The few 
 benches were full of Indians and vermin — no one else cares to 
 occupy them. The rest of the passengers huddled in heaps 
 on the platform. It was a lonesome crowd. Another hour 
 passed and the despatcher marked 9 o'clock on the board. 
 Then two Americans sauntered slowly from the hotel. I saw 
 them, thanked God and took courage, I asked them if they 
 were taking this train and what had happened to it, for I 
 had been there since six o'clock. They laughed and said 
 the trains never went on time. We might have to wait 
 three hours more before it started. 
 
 The train marked on the board to leave Tampico for San 
 Luis Potosi at 3 A. M. hadn't gone for weeks, and on the 
 board was the following: "This train leaves at 8 or before." 
 
 Finally the train came, and with it the soldiers, a pleasing 
 prospect. We made a rush, threw our bags into the window, 
 jumped onto the platform, piled into the car and seized a 
 seat. One American proposed that I stay over Sunday in 
 Tampico to see some fun for it was election day. Already 
 there had been fights and shots in the political processions 
 on the street and all women had been ordered indoors. No, 
 thank you. 
 
 As we passed the outskirts of the city, an American planter 
 who sat next to me, pointed to a big nail stuck in a small 
 platform and remarked if we had been passing by a few days 
 earlier we might have seen a bandit hanging on it. This was 
 cheerful. For the next forty minutes before he reached his 
 plantation station, he made the few hairs of my bald head sit 
 up and take notice. Although he owned a big estate, he 
 
144 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 apologized for his ragged clothes saying they were all he 
 had. He had just visited Tampico to tell the chief of police 
 the name of the rebel chief and bandit who had robbed 
 him the week before. This chief had ridden with his bandit 
 band right through his garden, up to his front door and had 
 demanded a large sum of money for the cause of the revolu- 
 tion. He told him he didn't have it and they threatened to 
 take him out and hang him. He replied, "Go ahead, I can't 
 give j'ou v/hat I don't have." Finding that he had no money, 
 they looted his house for food, clothes and anything they 
 could lay their hands on and marched off. Poor fellow ! An 
 American, intelligent, gentlemanly and well to do. I sincerely 
 pitied him, and admired his courage. When he left me and 
 was joined by his drunken mozo, whom he had hired in Tam- 
 pico, I wished him well. He gave me his card. It is a good 
 name and he should make good. 
 
 Another American on the train, who left us a little later, 
 said the soldiers Carranza sent to guard the plantations from 
 bandits did more lawless damage than the bandits they were 
 sent to kill. He pointed to a Carranza officer behind me who 
 had stolen a girl from her home as his mistress. She was 
 about 14 years old and the poor thing sat crying there all 
 da}' with no redress nor rescue. When these soldier brutes 
 get tired of their female consorts, they hit them over the 
 head with the butt of their gun, or send a bullet through 
 them, cut their throats or drown them. 
 
 While he was talking the train was slowly moving 
 through tropic, green jungles. I remarked how beautiful and 
 he said yes, that it was one of the most dangerous parts of 
 the road for rebels, but if we reached Victoria in safety it 
 would be easy from there to Monterey. Imagine how com- 
 fortable and happy we felt when he got off at the next 
 station and we were left alone with a carload of Mexicans. I 
 felt no better when I saw a man in the seat opposite pulling 
 out his big revolver, looking at it and then gazing out of the 
 window. Then I noticed there were others, a dozen or more 
 Mexicans, with hands on guns, looking nervously out of the 
 windows. And I had nothing to shoot off but a kodak. Per. 
 haps the reader tliinks we were safe because the soldiers 
 were just behind us in the box car. He forgets that the ban- 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 145 
 
 dit hates the soldiers, and that where soldiers are gathered to- 
 gether bullets fly the thickest. 
 
 During these anxious moments I sat quietly with folded 
 hands, when suddenly "bang!" went a shot just back of me. 
 We were all startled and jumped. Some looked out of the win- 
 dows, and others "ducked." Whether the shot was from a 
 bandit, or from a soldier at a bandit, or just for fun, no one 
 knows, but I do know that I took no nap for the next hour. 
 I could not if I wanted to, for the bugler in the back car was 
 blowing bravely, to keep his courage up or to see how many 
 cries of torture he could wring from his instrument. I looked 
 out of the window at a square-topped mountain. It appeared 
 to be a sacrificial altar for someone, and who that one was no 
 one could tell. 
 
 Our solemn train of thought was stopped when the train 
 halted for lunch. It was a dismal station of wind-swept huts 
 and ragged natives. It was high noon, with no shade, and 
 although we were up from the sea level, the glare and heat 
 were hard to beat. Yet we were expected to get out and 
 sit in the sun at a little table not three feet square. 
 
 It was comfortable for one, but five passengers were 
 seated there waiting for the waiters to bring them soup, tor- 
 tillas, coffee and black beans. If I had any appetite I lost it, 
 so I sat watching the bags, and the soldiers asleep in the box 
 car behind me, while their women prepared their meals. It 
 was a hobo-looking outfit. They did not seem to be much 
 protection for us, for some of the soldiers were no taller than 
 their guns. They were mere boys of war, yet rather brave 
 boys, willing to shoot or to be shot at for a few cents a day. 
 
 BURNED BY BANDITS 
 
 ALL aboard and I passed the time looking at my watch 
 to know when we would arrive in safety at Victoria. 
 sQj^s^ When I concluded we were fortunate so far, and 
 ^^^»^J would get through all right, the train suddenly 
 slowed down. No station was near, only a lonely divide, an 
 ideal spot for bandits. Immediately the doors at each end 
 
146 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 of the coach were locked and guards were stationed there 
 with guns in hand and cartridge belts slung over their shoul- 
 ders. This was a new way to euiorce the old rule, "Pas- 
 sengers are requested to keep ot! the platforms." Outside the 
 door the soldiers stood on the steps all ready to fire. I poked 
 my head out of the window and saw a whole passenger train 
 which had been wrecked and burned up two days before. 
 Nothing was left of it but the skeleton. Our track had been 
 cleared and we barely managed to pass. No wood was left, 
 nothing but steel rods and trucks. 
 
 It was said that Carranza had executed a rebel leader in 
 the nearby town and the rebels were so incensed that they 
 blew up, robbed and burned the first train that came through, 
 to show Mr, Carranza how they hated him. "What a foolish, 
 fiendish way to get even by making so manj' suffer. This is 
 the Mexican method, however, with much madness in it. Had 
 it been two days earlier I might have given the reader a more 
 graphic description of this trip, if I had lived to tell the tale. 
 
 BETWEEN STATIONS 
 
 WE saw the sun set at Victoria, and the crowd 
 at the depot seemed surprised we were only five 
 hours late. Since the bandits had not held us up 
 they proceeded to hold us up for the food we ate. 
 Indian children hung around, watched us eat and fought like 
 dogs for the few scraps thrown from the windows. 
 
 Victoria is 80 miles west of the Gulf coast and situated 
 in a very fertile valley. Raising cane and refining it are the 
 leading industries. It requires nine hours to go eighty miles, 
 because the natives raise Cain as well as sugar and cattle. The 
 picturesque mountains afforded ideal hiding places for thieves 
 and murderers. Our coach was illuminated with one lantern. 
 We grew chilly with fear and mountain air and pulled our 
 coats over us. At 1 a. m. the train stopped and people pressed 
 in, forcing us to keep ourselves from being sat on. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 147 
 
 At Lenares we were able to buy hot coffee and chocolate, 
 a pleasant diversion. Recently I read that at Port Rillas, a 
 town near here on the Monterey and Gulf railway, the bandits 
 looted the place and publicly hung the mayor in the plaza. 
 Soon after we crossed the boundary line of Tamaulipas into 
 the state of Nuevo Leon, reaching Monterey at 3 :30 a. m. 
 
 We lifted our frozen, cramped legs into a hack and were 
 driven to the Hotel Iturbide. It was not far away but seemed 
 several miles. Were an invading army to make as much noise 
 as we did, it would be discovered, and the people aroused and 
 the invaders driven out. We knocked at the big heavy door 
 and an Indian finally came and took us and our bags to the 
 top floor. Out of breath and tired to death, v^^e glanced out 
 of the window on mountains glorious in the moonlight, then 
 were soon asleep and resting, till jocund day stood tip-toe on 
 their misty mountain tops. To keep warm it v^^as necessary 
 to spread our coats and baggage on the bed. With this extra 
 exertion we had an excellent rest from 4 to 6 a. m. "L's" 
 alarm watch aroused us then, for time was brief and there was 
 much to see. . After an unusually good breakfast of eggs, 
 wheat cakes, pan dulee and coffee, we were ready to see 
 some of the things we had read about. 
 
 Sincerely thankful for our spared lives, we went to the 
 cathedral and worshiped alone. The unusual thing there was 
 the Mexican flag on the altar. We threaded the little streets, 
 crossed several plazas and admired the big beginnings of a 
 hotel, noAv suspended on account of the revolution. In many 
 stores the Kaiser had his picture on photos and postcards. 
 
 KAISERISTAS IN MEXICO 
 
 MEXICO is unfriendly to the United States. She would 
 be glad to unite with a Latin-American country or 
 any other to fight against us. If our boys go to the 
 front they will find an enemy at the back door. It is 
 an open secret that rival bandits would pose as patriots, and 
 join with other warring factions and our disaffected German 
 friends in ]\Iexico to embarrass and attack the United States. 
 
148 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 Hundreds of German merchants in Mexico have for some 
 strange reason laid in stock enough to last for years to come. 
 About the only foreigners I traveled with on ship and train 
 were Germans. Their private plotting club meetings are well 
 attended in Vera Cruz, Tampico, Monterey, Mexico City, 
 Puebla and Orizaba. As a rule they will not employ an 
 American in their stores, plantations, or haciendas. To the 
 bands of Carranzistas, Villistas and Zapatistas has been 
 added another class, the Kaiseristas, who train their tropical 
 drooping mustachios into upright saber points. 
 
 In many cities the American and German clerks are not on 
 friendly terms with each other. German agents have been 
 using the Mexican wireless and press for their Anti-American 
 propaganda. Pro-German magazines and pamphlets abound. 
 
 German money has financed and paid the "Boletin de 
 Guerra" to stir up hate against the U. S. It is rumored 
 that German reservists near Monterey and Tampico have 
 factory and machinery to run a poison plant. They 
 take the Mexican weed "laccita," grind it into a liquor 
 and mix it with some oily substance that not only produces 
 a lubricating oil but gives off a deadly gas fume. 
 
 I was frequently addressed in German, either because I 
 looked like one, or it wasn't thought an American would be 
 fool enough to be down there. 
 
 Germans boasted they neither respected nor feared our 
 "dollar diplomacy," and that "one German could lick ten 
 Americans anywhere at any time." German agents are trying 
 to buy automobile motors for aeroplane use, and one big auto- 
 mobile owner told me they had come to him and asked for 
 estimates on his cars. 
 
 I was in Vera Cruz harbor the day of the publication of 
 the Zimmerraann note. An officious Immigration official re- 
 fused Americans on board permission to go on shore. He 
 gave no reason to them, to the captain or to the Ward Line 
 agent for his unusual action. This was the first time anything 
 like this had ever happened. 
 
 These are facts — draw your own conclusion, and your 
 sword for God, home and native land. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 149 
 
 A SILVER SMELTER 
 
 N THE W^^ to visit the big smelter we struck 
 another piece of good luck, an American seeking a 
 position as engineer there. He was glad to guide us 
 to the office where we were kindly offered the neces- 
 sary pass. There had been no real work here for three 
 years, as the revolution had killed all the industry. The wars 
 of revolution have interf erred with Monterey's machinery 
 wheels in her mills of lumber, wool, flour and steel, and 
 foundries of brass and iron. It was an immense plant and its 
 branches spread over many acres. In one place there was a 
 blast furnace and the workers were making railroad bolts and 
 spikes. The large T rail plant and others were silent and 
 shut down. 
 
 A two-mile walk brought us to the big American silver 
 smelter. As we trudged around the high guarding wall we 
 met a picturesque boy carrying a bundle of brush. I wanted 
 his picture but as soon as he saw me approaching with the 
 kodak he ran as if he were to be shot against the wall. I 
 never saw such terror in a human face. He thought the 
 kodak was a gun, but the piece of money I held out diverted 
 him just long enough for me to snap him. 
 
 The plant is run by an American, a gray-haired, jolly fel- 
 low who showed us everything from the ore brought in the 
 cars to the crushing, roasting, melting and final bar mold for 
 export. It was all interesting and he was more interesting 
 than all. He described not only the process but told of the 
 people who worked for him. Among them were some sons 
 of the good church "fathers" whom the government had 
 recently sent home. Our American friend said we needn't 
 be shocked at this, that the "fathers" had many accom- 
 plishments, among them the art of gambling. There was a 
 club where the "father" could beat any professional gambler. 
 He was always present, sat in the game and generally got 
 up and walked away with the stakes. We selected several 
 mineral souvenirs of near gold and silver and left feeling we 
 had been richly repaid for this visit. It was interesting to 
 know that Huerta once worked here. Perhaps this is where 
 he cultivated a like for precious metals. 
 
150 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 MONTEREY LANDMARKS 
 
 M^ ONTEREY is beautifully situated, has a well built 
 college, hospital, government buildings, plazas and 
 statues. It was founded in 1599 and has been one of 
 the most prospering manufacturing cities in Mexico. 
 There are iron foundries, cotton factories, smelters and its 
 leading industry is mining silver. 
 
 Under General Taylor, in the Mexican war, the city was 
 besieged and captured by American forces September 24, 1846. 
 "Monterey" is from El Monte Key, the king's mountain, and 
 is enthroned on a fertile plain surrounded by hills. "La 
 Silla," or Saddle Mountain, is back of the town and offers a 
 saddle where the storm-king may ride. It is very artistic and 
 shows to good advantage as a label on a beer bottle. "La 
 Mitra" mountain, the mitre, is the only one now seen in Mexico 
 since the hierarchy has fallen below the horizon. 
 
 The so-called "Bishop's Palace" is the most noted and 
 interesting thing. Taking a car we passed a big church school 
 of girls, entered a native house whose occupants were making 
 clay pots and jars, climbed a hill and finally stood amid the 
 ruins of the old historic building. We were met by a guard 
 and his revolver. The Spanish professor who accompanied us 
 fixed everything, and we harmless tourists were permitted to 
 look around since we were not present to spy on any one or 
 injure the nearby wireless. It is a picturesque ruin on the 
 most prominent hill overlooking the city which it com- 
 mands and controls when occupied by soldiers. Villa's and 
 Carranza's soldiers have used it as barracks. The church 
 walls within were covered with crude, charcoal sketches as 
 obscene as an idle Mexican soldier's imagination could make 
 them. There were ribald rhymes, lewd lines and filthy poems 
 that the professor kindly translated. There were also satir- 
 ical caricatures of Carranza, Villa and some Mexican generals. 
 The walls were bullet-riddled and the church had often been 
 a charnel house. One would think that the sublime view out- 
 side, of mountains, plain, city and buildings would have 
 inspired better verses and art than were pictured on its 
 walls. But a Mexican can't get away from himself. If by 
 mistake he ever reached heaven, he would look for a crowbar 
 
SOLDIER-GUARDED TRAIN ESPERANZA, MEXICO 
 
TOWN DESTROYED BY BANDITS— NEAR CORDOVA, 
 MEXICO 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 151 
 
 to loot the golden streets of the New Jerusalem; pull Peter's 
 beard; play "Paloma" on the first harp he could grab; and 
 flirt with every pretty angel that passed by. 
 
 This ''Palace" is an old and historic pile. Monterey is the 
 key of the north and this hill is the key to the city. Our 
 army came here in 1846. The Mexican General Ampudia had 
 ten thousand men, and although Zach Taylor had less than 
 seven thousand, he came, saw and conquered the Mexican. 
 *'Zaeh" was attacked from cellar, wall and home roof, but 
 pushed on through plaza and up towards hill until this Gi- 
 braltar of the Bishop was captured, as was General Ampudia 
 and his forces. All this happened after a ten day's siege, 
 three of hard fighting, and a loss of some hundred men. 
 
 Zachary Taylor was familiarly known and called "Old 
 Rough and Eeady, " a fitting title in accord with his life on 
 the plantation, when fighting the Seminole Indians, or the 
 Mexicans at Palo Alto, Vera Cruz or Buena Vista. The Whigs 
 nominated him for the U. S. presidency and he was elected, 
 although the genial old scout only lived sixteen months after 
 his inauguration. 
 
 Monterey has always been a strategic city. Soldiers have 
 camped and tramped all over it. Topo Chico is the name 
 of two hot springs just outside the city. One has hot -water 
 to scald you, and the other has a tepid solution of arsenic 
 to murder you in cold blood. This is proper and may be 
 needed for health, but what Monterey most needs is some 
 springs on her hacks. 
 
 The homes are embowered in flowers, fragrant and beau- 
 tiful. Were I a bee or a botanist I would make a beeline and 
 come here. The silver smelter is one thing, but the flowers 
 smelt here were worth more to me and cheaper than silver. 
 They proved a fond memory when we rode on the train 
 among the nasty natives. 
 
 Our train from Laredo to Monterey was two hours late, a 
 train that was to give me recollections that 200' years can 
 never efface. The depot waiting-room was foul and fetid. Beg- 
 gars came in endless procession, one-eyed, one-legged, one- 
 armed, walking hospitals, and all imploring God to melt our 
 hearts and let them run into their hands in centavo form. 
 Children, women and men paraded by and I gave to each and 
 
152 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 all until I couldn't afford to give them any more. This army 
 
 of beggars v^ith their eternal "un centavo senor," makes you 
 feel so profane that you vv^ish you had a graphophone record 
 to grind out some suitably fitting reply. 
 
 HATS 
 
 HILE waiting I made a study of the varieties of 
 sombreros that passed in review. A Mexican is 
 known by the hat he wears. Here the hat is the 
 thing, not a woman's Easter hat, but a man's every- 
 day hat. The straw hat season in Mexico lasts twelve months 
 and is always fashionable. A Mexican will get $42 for three 
 months' work, spend $35 for a hat and then go home and give 
 his wife $7 for the family. 
 
 The hat is a common thing and word with us. How often 
 at church and charity meetings we have heard the phrase, 
 "Pass the hat." Many hat bands are noisy and loud and 
 play in bad taste. Perhaps the angel halo has come down to 
 man in the form of a hat and crown. 
 
 I recall my first cap of wool and fur, then my straw, derby 
 and slouch. I can't forget the time when a cousin came from 
 London wearing an ugly derby and my mother gave him my 
 hat, compelling me to wear his. As it was winter time every 
 schoolmate made it a target for snowballs, often missing it and 
 pasting me in the ear. Then there was my first silk hat on 
 which a telegraph wire fell, cutting it in half but sparing my 
 bald crown. Abroad I have worn Oriental hats of straw and 
 cork, to say nothing of those in hotel racks which have been 
 exchanged for mine. 
 
 Fielding, in his "Jonathan "Wild," has a classic chapter on 
 hats. He speaks of several gangs who wanted to idly live 
 without labor. They wore different styles of hats, the Tories 
 fiercely cocked hats and others the nab or trencher hat with 
 the brim that flapped over their eyes. The former were 
 called "cavaliers" and the latter "wags." They were quar- 
 relsome, felt nothing in common between them, while in fact 
 they were as similar as a bushel of beans or potatoes. "In 
 truth the difference lay only in the fashion of their hats.'* 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 153 
 
 Jonathan Wild called them all to the ale house after 
 Fierce 's execution and gently but forcibly said: ''Gentle- 
 men, I am ashamed to see men embarked in so great and 
 glo^rious an undertaking as that of robbing the public, so 
 foolishly and weakly dissenting among themselves. Do you 
 think the first inventors of hats, or at least of the distinctions 
 between them, really conceived that one form of hat should 
 inspire a man with divinity, another with law, another with 
 learning or another with bravery? No, they meant no more 
 by these outward signs than to impose on the vulgar, and 
 instead of putting great men to the trouble of acquiring or 
 maintaining the substance, to make it sufficient that they eon- 
 descend to wear the type or shadow of it. When you know 
 you are all prigs, what difference can a broad or narrow brim 
 create? Is a prig less a prig in one hat than in another? 
 What can be more ridiculous than for gentlemen to quarrel 
 about hats when there is not one among you whose hat is 
 worth a farthing? What's the use of a hat farther than to 
 keep the head warm or to hide a bald crown from the 
 public?" 
 
 The Mexican's hat has a brim like a bushel basket, a top 
 like a volcano cone and enough straw in it to make a floor 
 mat. He seldom changes his hat and it is always a habitat 
 for dust and vermin. Some sombreros are not sombre but 
 very gay with decoration and silver embroidery. 
 
 The stores have large varieties in style and price and some 
 of the street sellers carry a stack of hats on their heads until 
 they are walking hat stores. The lower class in Mexico are 
 only fastidious about their hats, and many unfastidious 
 thoughts are hatched beneath them. They are used for sun 
 umbrellas, pillows, for style and often a "fence" for stolen goods. 
 Our cowboys sport leather breeches and "chaps." The Mexi- 
 cans on foot or horseback love their sombreros, and will spend 
 fifty dollars and more for them. A Mexican will spend all 
 for his hat on his head and little for the brain that is under 
 it. He prefers a good hat to a poor home and often pays 
 half as much for the former as the latter. The hat 's the thing 
 and together with his rainbow colored serape catches the heart 
 of the ladies. 
 
154 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 The only difference between the high and low class Mexi- 
 can is the hat. There is the same low, ignorant, scheming, 
 unoriginal, orthodox and lazy brain beneath. The only dif- 
 ference, often, between the statesman and the peon, is the 
 hat. The peon, next to pulque, loves his hat that is shaped 
 like a dunce hat and runs to a peak. The volcano style is 
 fit for these hot-headed people. Some of the hats are so big 
 that they crush out all the brains of the wearer. Their mental 
 light is hid under a bushel. The Mexican loves his hat as a 
 Fijian does his high bushy pompadour. "Without his hat he 
 is like a baldheaded woman without her crowning glory. The 
 slang is appropriate here, "Where did you get that hat?" 
 
 The milestones of history are but hats. Coming down the 
 centuries we pass the old Phrygian bonnet, ancestor of the 
 "old gray bonnet"; the petasus of the Greek with its wide 
 brim; the cardinal's hat of Pope Innocent IV; Chaucer's 
 Flanders beaver; the peaked, brigand style of the War of the 
 Roses; the significant low crown and feather of Henry VIII; 
 the stiff and dark hat of the Reformation ; the hig jinks head- 
 gear of Queen Elizabeth; the tall crown and stiff brim of the 
 formal and high-browed Puritan; the high silk hat brought 
 from Florence to France and England for Sunday church- 
 goers; the Quaker hat big enough to feed a horse with a 
 bushel of oats; and all the other family of hats, soft or stiff, 
 felt or silk, worn in December or May. 
 
 A DIRTY DEPOT 
 
 EXICAN boys shined shoes for five cents. We deter- 
 mined to be generous and gave ten cents for ours, 
 whereupon the boy resented it and demanded more. 
 I made a gesture with my hand which he feared 
 might be followed by one of my newly shined shoes, and he 
 disappeared. The newsies, too, had an eye for business, 
 attempting to charge us four times the regular amount for 
 papers we couldn't read. Apple skins and orange rinds, that 
 had been thrown on the foul floor and trampled on, were 
 eagerly picked up and greedily devoured by the half-famished 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 155 
 
 poor. The only way to escape was to go outside and leave 
 "L" to sit on and guard our bags, I noticed a group sitting 
 on the platform listening to a musical trio. The woman was 
 singing a smutty &tory and some love songs, while two men 
 played her accompaniment. The natives cheered and ap- 
 peared to be highly entertained. 
 
 The waiting room is used as a dormitory for the soldiers. 
 They lie there in their uniforms, for they must stay to guard 
 and meet all trains. At night they wrap up in a blanket and 
 sleep on the floors. At 6 p. m. they were sitting and lying 
 against the wall like so many bags of flour. An officer unex- 
 pectedly entered and the men stood up except one soldier, 
 who lay snoring by the door. The officer began at once to 
 kick him around the room like a rug. Before he could get 
 up he kicked him down again. 
 
 We were dead tired and learned that this line was the only 
 one that ran a sleeper, and only one at that. I inquired 
 about a section, but was unable to get it from the railroad 
 agent, who referred me to the hotel runner. In broken Eng- 
 lish the latter informed me I might have a section one night 
 for twenty dollars gold. That amount, he said, would include 
 tips. He made me tired but not enough to fall for that. 
 
 CATTLE CARS 
 
 HEN the train arrived there was a wild scramble to 
 get on in spite of a broken pipe near the platform 
 steps that squirted and soaked everyone. Our tickets 
 were first-class, but the first-class coach was full to 
 overflowing, to platforms and steps. To get on at all we 
 dragged ourselves into a second-class coach, dimly lighted and 
 jammed with wiggling, squirming humanity. I succeeded in 
 securing standing room by the lavatory door. This sanitary 
 institution seemed wholly unknown and unnecessary to many 
 of the Indian passengers on the car, who made the whole 
 coach a public comfort station. I was sitting on my valise 
 by two drunken natives, waiting and wondering what might 
 happen before morning, when I espied an American in my 
 
156 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 same, sad plight of being a first-class passenger in a second- 
 class coach. I haled him and his "Hello" was like a voice 
 from heaven. His name was McCord, and to my dying day 
 I'll think and say, "Blessed be the tie," cord or McCord that 
 bound me to him. He was going to Mexico City, had often 
 made the trip and knew how to adapt himself. 
 
 The car pulled out. As in Peru, the natives were afraid of 
 the night air and refused to open the windows. Angels and 
 ministers of grace defend us ! Soon our coach had the odor 
 of Limburger cheese, and it required little imagination in the 
 dark to believe the Indians were crawling maggots. As a 
 clergyman I have attended funeral services in charnel-houses, 
 but no corpse ever exhaled the perfume of this living carrion. 
 It would have been a great relief then if some stray bandit 
 had shot holes in the window panes for ventilation. Drunken 
 greasers, heavy snorers, guttural talk, squalling babies, the 
 smell of dirty clothes and filthy food, aisles piled high with 
 mountainous bundles, all led to the one hoped-for conclusion 
 that weeping might endure for the night, but joy would come 
 with the morning when we reached Saltillo and the passengers 
 who left there would leave room for us. 
 
 Our plan was one of Burns' "best laid schemes" that 
 slipped a cog, and gave us a rude jolt. The train hadn't been 
 under way an hour before it stopped in the midst of moonlit, 
 lonesome mountain scenery. I was glad to get an excuse to 
 get out of the car to see what was the matter. There was a 
 freight train just ahead, and after an hour's wait I went ahead 
 to investigate. The poor, over-worked, uncared-for engine 
 had broken down and the engineer was trying to patch it up. 
 But the most startling discovery was that there was another 
 first-class coach attached to our train. I found out why it had 
 not been opened to relieve the congestion and accommodate the 
 first-class passengers who had been forced into a second-class 
 coach. There was a Carranza officer in it with his harem. Was 
 it his private car? Had he chartered it? No. Like the soldiers 
 he was riding on a deadhead pass, only he had the whole 
 coach to himself and was locked in, that none might enter to 
 tell him and his lady friends to get up and get out. Another 
 shining illustration of Mexican morals. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 157 
 
 The freight train finally started, went up the grade a 
 short distance and stuck again. Meanwhile another train had 
 caught up with us. What to do was soon decided. We began 
 to push the freight train ahead of us and the train behind 
 shoved us. It was literal uphill work and difficult for the 
 engines to work together. As a result, instead of reaching 
 Saltillo that night, we arrived next morning after sunup. 
 
 SALTILLO 
 
 I HE word ''Saltillo" means "Get out, Uncle." On 
 this hint I hustled to the first-class coach and man- 
 aged to seize a seat before the others could get on. 
 This confounded place, Saltillo, was founded in 1575. 
 We covered the 37 miles from Monterey to Saltillo in ten 
 hours, very good time for this tropic schedule. 
 
 Saltillo is the capital of the state of Coahuila, is over five 
 thousand feet above sea level, lies on the slope of a hill, and it 
 was only seven miles from here that the famous battle of 
 Buena Vista was fought. It is the centre for the circumfer- 
 ence of state trade and is known for the manufacture of flour, 
 cotton blankets, and woolen scrapes. They try to pull the wool 
 over the eyes of the tourist in the price they charge for their 
 wool blankets or scrapes. They are world-famed for wear 
 and color. In addition there is the "robozo," the long narrow 
 shawl the women wear over their heads with a flirtatious 
 adjustment to attract the boys. There is an interesting his- 
 torical museum dedicated to Hidalgo, the pious, patriot priest 
 dauntless till death. Hidalgo was killed by the clergy and his 
 head was exhibited in the castle of Granditas Guanajuato. 
 The city boasts a Madero institute, college, cathedral and 
 Athenaeum. At one time it was the capital of Texas, then an 
 unwilling part of the Mexican federation. The state of 
 Coahuila means ** happy land" according to some, but no one 
 except a Hooligan or Mark Tapley could possibly enjoy these 
 surroundings of the dry desert and dreary, bandit-haunted 
 land we passed through. 
 
158 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 DESERT STATIONS 
 
 BUENA VISTA is seven miles from Saltillo and the 
 place of battle where General Zachary Taylor, with 
 five thousand Americans, whipped Santa Anna with 
 his force of twenty thousand, "Zaeh" losing but 700 
 and Santa Anna 2,000. This happened in IS^T. Angostura 
 was a narrow and bitter pass to Santa Anna. Buena Vista 
 was a good point from which to view and review all this, and 
 Agua Nueva in the lovely "Enchanted Valley," "La Encan- 
 tanda," where our American force was encamped. The mem- 
 ory of the manner in which the Mexicans were thrashed here 
 did much to compensate for the discomfort of the -previous 
 night. 
 
 "We slipped by Carneros, a danger point, where later, on 
 May 6, 1917, bandits blew up a train, killing 30 soldiers and 
 injuring 40 others. 
 
 At noon we reached Vanegas after a morning's ride 
 through a country dry as a prohibition speech, dusty as a 
 miller's overalls and deserted as a poker parlor during a 
 police raid. The desert was made dismal by clumps of cactus 
 bushes that lay in wait to stick you for all you are worth, 
 
 Vanegas is a town of vinegar aspect. Its houses are heaps 
 of flat stones, with low doors difficult to enter, and corru- 
 gated tin roofs. It has a population of outlaw-looking 
 paupers. In this desert station we were surrounded by bunches 
 of animated rags running around, bony beggars and venders 
 who had rosaries of sausages around their necks. They live 
 by selling eggs and tortillas to the train passengers, and on 
 the plunder taken from passengers and trains robbed there. 
 The bandits who overrun the country make this town one of 
 their headquarters and are fed and housed by the inhabitants. 
 After I left Mexico I received a letter from McCord dated 
 "Monterey, April 10th," in which he stated that he was 
 waiting for a train that had been held up and shot at Vanegas, 
 the place where we had all eaten dinner. 
 
 We were not sorry to leave this desert town of dirty 
 women, drunken men and diseased children, A little further 
 along the line we kept sharp watch to see the monument that 
 marks the Tropic of Cancer, "Tropic de Cancer Zona Torrida." 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 159 
 
 We passed it and knew it told the truth, for it was very- 
 hot. That there may be cancer here I had no doubt, for 
 there was every other kind of disease. On the monument 
 there were little hands, like finger signs, pointing in opposite 
 directions from the ridge of the small structure and doubtless 
 pointing to some warm surroundings. The monument was 
 coffin-shaped and I translated the inscription to mean that 
 Senorita Zona Torrida had died of a cancer. 
 
 HANGED I 
 
 OUT of the window we saw something dangling from a 
 telegraph pole. It couldn't be a scarecrow, for there 
 
 were no fields of corn and no crows in this desert. 
 
 It was a dead man dancing on the air. I shot him 
 with the kodak though he was already dead. We were face 
 to face and only fifteen feet apart. He wore a pair of pants, 
 coat and shoes. His sombrero had fallen off and was lying 
 on the ground five feet beneath him. His head was jerked to 
 one side as if his necktie didn't fit and choked him. This was 
 shocking, and turning to MeCord I said, "What's this?" 
 "Oh, just a bandit — you will see a lot more before you reach 
 Mexico City," he replied. The soldiers in the car laughed 
 at my surprise, and that I had taken a picture of what was 
 to them a common thing, a part of the still life features of the 
 scenery. 
 
 There is a reason for this posting on the road. When the 
 bandits attack the soldiers on the train and are defeated, they 
 are converted into an improvised target or hung up with 
 placarded warnings to other bandits. A few days before 
 fifteen fellows had been strung up on a clump of cacti near by. 
 A little further on we saw another bandit in a heap at the 
 foot of a telegraph pole. The rope had broken but he was 
 dead and looked "like a soldier taking his rest," with his 
 serape around him. 
 
 Cactus and other scrubby bush grow all around, but there 
 is another bush far more deadly and dangerous, the ambush 
 from blood-thirsty assassins. The soldiers told McCord it was 
 
160 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 quite, lively here two weeks before when the outlaws were 
 shooting up trains every day, but things were dead now. 
 Decidedly dead quiet, 1 thought, when I looked out of my 
 window and saw another bandit strung up to another tele- 
 graph pole. 
 
 The station Charcas may have received its name from the 
 carcass of a bandit swinging on a pole near the station. Buz- 
 zards had banqueted on it and the legs were half eaten 
 off. What an elevating spectacle it is to see these bandit 
 bodies, mutilated, festering and denuded, blackened by sun 
 and dirt, with legs and arms eaten off by vultures, swinging 
 from the telegraph poles, not only along the route but at all 
 the leading stations from ^Monterey to Queretaro. 
 
 Trains generally enter rough and forbidding parts of a 
 town, but this was the most uninviting route I had ever 
 taken. Please remember this was not France in the Middle 
 Ages, but Mexico in the Twentieth Century. Planging is a 
 final argument, for a dead man's lips make no reply. There 
 is no court trial or jail sentence with possible pardon as with 
 us. "When they get their man he is shot down or hung up 
 with no waste of words or weeks. This is done for an object 
 lesson. It is awful but that lesson is not learned and the out- 
 laws only become madder. 
 
 Of course these hanging bodies relieve the dreary monotony 
 of the desert scenery. These villains reminded me of Villon's 
 ballad which he wrote, expecting to be hanged : 
 
 "Here we are five or six strung up, you see. 
 And here the flesh that all too well we fed, 
 Bit by bit eaten and rotten, rent and shred, 
 And we the bones grow dust and ash withal; 
 
 For us, nor let Hell's thunder on us fall; 
 
 We are dead, lot no man harry or vex us dead, 
 
 But pray to God that he forgive us all. 
 
 The rain has washed and laundered us all five, 
 And the sun dried and blackened ; yea. perdie, 
 Ravens and pies with beaks that rend and rive 
 Have dug our eyes out, and plucked oil' for fee 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 161 
 
 Our beards and eyebrows ; never are vi^e free 
 Not once to rest ; but here and there still speed, 
 Drive at its wild will by the wind's change led, 
 More pecked of birds than fruits on garden wall; 
 Men, for God's love, let no gibe here be said, 
 But pray to God that he forgive us all." 
 
 HELLISH ATROCITIES 
 
 N MEXICO the bandits' life is one continual round 
 of ammunition — which they get from United States. 
 Outlaws ravage the country, rob towns, tear up 
 tracks, dynamite trains, insult women, plunder the 
 passengers, burn up stations, bridges, passenger and freight 
 trains, and throw the bodies of the wounded into the fire. 
 They not only maraud and murder but mutilate and commit 
 the most fiendish crimes imaginable on men and women. 
 
 "Atrocity" is too angelic and tame a word to describe 
 the diabolic acts of bandits and soldiers. I talked with and 
 photographed girls who had been dishonored by Zapatista 
 bandits. Their stories sounded like pages from the Devil's 
 Diary. Every few days trains are held up by bandits, and not 
 only are children kidnapped and men robbed, but women are 
 stripped of their clothing, taken out of the train and ravished 
 in sight of the passengers by bandit soldiers. 
 
 A man who had just escaped with the clothes on his back 
 told me that on his train a little five-year-old girl was being 
 outraged by a Mexican brute, and when her father tried to 
 rescue her the ruffian picked her up by the feet and beat her 
 brains out against the iron railing on the platform. 
 
 Recently a pack of these hell-hounds came to a planter's 
 house and asked the owner for $500. "When he told them 
 he did not have it, he was tied and tortured. The brutes then 
 outraged his daughter before his eyes until she was dead, 
 after which they killed him and subjected him and her to a 
 hellish mutilation and indignity so unthinkable and unutter- 
 
162 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 able that even Hell must have been put in a shame-faced 
 mood. Such crimes are common all over Mexico, 
 
 The bandit is not satisfied to murder a man, but loves to 
 torture and mutilate him before he is dead; to slice off the 
 soles of his feet and compel him to walk on cactus, or cut 
 off his ears, hands, nose and other parts of his body. They 
 burn, shoot, hang and commit fiendish atrocities that are un- 
 printable. For happy diversion they tie men up by their 
 fingers and slit their bodies open. Before the face of her 
 father they have sliced off a daughter's breasts and rubbed 
 them like a sponge over his face. They strip a man and hang 
 him to a tree by the tenderest part of his body. They rode 
 on horseback into a hospital over the wounded on the floor 
 and those who were not trampled on Avere taken out and 
 shot. At Torreon, because the Chinamen objected to having 
 their houses robbed, the bandits tied them to horses and tore 
 them limb from limb. One prefers to be blown up by dyna- 
 mite in his train than to fall in the hands of these fiends who 
 may torture him before he is killed. They are like boys who 
 catch a fly or beetle and tear off his legs. Their murderous 
 spirit was conceived and brought forth in iniquity and is 
 in harmony with the memory of the Christ-like Cortez and 
 the holy and most tender Inquisition, 
 
 They are sons of Belial, "than whom a spirit more lewd 
 fell not from heaven, or more gross to love Vice for itself." 
 Like the rape of the Sabines, bandits come to a town, burn, 
 steal and carry off all the women. A girl is doomed who 
 attracts the fancy of an officer, and her brother, father, hus- 
 band or lover is shot who objects and seeks to protect or 
 hide her. It is a fact that a father hid his daughter in a 
 haystack away from the soldiers who had raped every woman 
 they could lay their hands on, A young girl told me that on 
 returning from early mass she saw citizens being shot and 
 tortured, and when two bandits saw her they gave chase. 
 She escaped by running into a house. They set it on fire, 
 yet she managed to get away. 
 
 ^lexican soldiers are cowardly, come late on the scene of 
 action and are slow to follow the bandits in the hills. Men 
 become bandits for revenue only. Why should they work 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 163 
 
 for fifty cents a day when one can steal a horse and machete 
 and join a gang of bandits, loot a hacienda or village, get 
 food, liquor, the daughter or wife of a native, and clothes, 
 saddle, rifle and ammunition? The profession of banditry is 
 comparatively safe, few bandits are killed, and pay is big. 
 So small is the number of troops, and the garrisons so poorly 
 paid and underfed, that many of the soldiers would rather join 
 the bandits than kill them. 
 
 Like the bullet-riddled bandits we saw hung up along the 
 road, truth, honor, justice and virtue have been killed and 
 crucified in Mexico. 
 
 "MUCHO DISGUSTO" 
 
 WAS an amusing relief to have the train boy try and 
 sell us a time-table of the road that never is on time, 
 and that runs from two to five days late regularly, 
 and during revolutionary times at intervals of six 
 months. This time-table was the best satire that could be 
 written on the road. It deserves a place among Disraeli's 
 * ' Curiosities of Literature, ' ' and is a fine piece of irony on these 
 iron rails. It was the only table we saw on the road. There 
 is no diner and no station restaurant. When the train stops, 
 the natives come up to sell food. We dared not walk out, for 
 the etiquette of the Mexican train is that when you. leave 
 your seat someone else takes it and your baggage, too, if he 
 can get it. 
 
 Nearly famished, we welcomed any kind of food at any 
 price, whether it made peace or war with our stomach. Beg- 
 gars must not be choosers, yet the vegetables and meat these 
 beggars offered us beggars description. Charles Lamb would 
 never have offered grace before this feast. I fear his words 
 would have been a stammering oath. The only prayer I 
 offered was that I might live through the meal and long 
 enough afterwards to get ready to die. Natives sold us tor- 
 tillas that looked as if they had used them as a piece of 
 mattress to sleep on. They had poured over them a thick bean- 
 
164 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 mush or meat gravy in which floated peppers large and small. 
 It was a noisome, nauseating mess, a companion dish to the 
 witch 's cauldron or to a Paris sewer. 
 
 SAN LUIS POTOSI 
 
 OUR TICKETS were good as far as San Luis Potosi, 
 where we had expected to stop over, but the train 
 was losing so much time we feared we would not 
 reach Mexico City before Christmas. It had made 
 so many stops we decided to omit this one. Before reaching 
 the station we saw the now common sight of some more sus- 
 pended bandits. 
 
 At the depot I stepped out with McCord to get my ticket 
 for Mexico City. While the agent was waiting on a soldier, 
 who was strongly persuading the ticket-agent to make his pass 
 for one good for four, I saw two men attempt to pick Mac's 
 pockets, and warned him to beware. He stepped away and 
 said, "That's right, I felt their hands." 
 
 Here we were at San Luis after taking two long sides of 
 a triangle from Tampico, because the short line road was 
 shot up and was a mere imaginary distance between two 
 points. This town w^as founded in 1586 and in 1863 was the 
 Civil War seat of the Juarez government. It stands over six 
 thousand feet above sea level on the edge of the table-land. 
 It is well built and has broad, right-angled streets. There is 
 a fine cathedral called the church of San Pedro, a seminary, 
 railroad workshops, cotton factory and large smelting works. 
 It is famous for its silver mines. It has large trade in cattle, 
 hides and tallow. The climate is healthful. The Alameda 
 with the Hidalgo statute is an object of interest. In the cathe- 
 dral there is said to be a clock older, larger and more expen- 
 sive than grandfather's clock. It was sent here by the king 
 of Spain in exchange for a chunk of gold found in a nearby 
 mine, the biggest nugget of pure gold ever discovered in 
 America. Yet judged by the ragged pack of peons who 
 boarded our train, I am sure they had never once seen or 
 owned a piece of silver or gold big enough to plate a spoon 
 or fill a tooth. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 165 
 
 ROBBED 
 
 ^T^ HAT NIGHT the train was filled with music of snores 
 A and cries of children, yet our tired natures fell 
 asleep. Mac had warned me about having my bag 
 stolen, I cautioned him to look out for his own, and 
 he placed it in the aisle where all three of us could see it. 
 When we reached Gonzales a score of women venders surged 
 into the car. Some sneak-thief, hiding behind their skirts, 
 snatched the big suitcase and silently "stole" away. As soon 
 as the skirts left, Mac missed it and searched the car for it 
 with my flashlight. No use. When the train started he said 
 he would stay over and try and find it, for it contained 
 valuable memoranda and plans, besides a kodak, surveyor's 
 instruments, clothing and personal effects valued at several 
 hundreds of dollars. 
 
 ON THE ANXIOUS SEAT 
 
 THE train left the station and Mac, and we felt sadly 
 left. While "L" and I were talking it over, a small, 
 sallow, over-grown boy came into the car. Over- 
 hearing us, he came up and spoke English. It 
 sounded good but he had bad news. He was a telegraph oper- 
 ator and had jumped on the train a few stations before to 
 save his life. A despatcher's life is not an easy one here, and 
 it is no picnic to be left alone expecting to be strung up. 
 The first thing the bandits do is to cut the wires and hang the 
 operator, after which they proceed to burn the station and 
 town. AH that afternoon we had passed depots with black- 
 ened walls and roofless ruins. Every other station resembled 
 an earthquake and volcano district. This boy was at his 
 desk, conscious the bandits were after him, when a naked In- 
 dian whom he had befriended rushed in from the hills, telling 
 him to get up and out, for the bandits were coming that night 
 to shoot him and hold up our train between Gonzales and 
 Queretaro. Three times this week our train had been shot at 
 between these cities. It was not a pleasant thought that we 
 were sitting at the window as possible targets, or that if we 
 lay down on the car floor we might be blown up by dynamite. 
 
166 THE DEVTf. IN' MEXICO 
 
 Our "Night Thoughts" would have made the poet Young 
 grow old. It was no joke. The officere and soldiers in the 
 car took off their uniforms and hats, hid them under the seats 
 and masqueraded in black hats and suits as passengers. If 
 the bandits ever find an ofiicer aboard a train they shoot him 
 at once. Passengers walked over each other down the 
 jammed aisles to the washroom to find a place to hide their 
 money and valuables. They left a little loose change in their 
 pockets to give up, but hid the rest, hoping to make a safety 
 deposit vault of their shoes and underwear. Men leaned 
 back in their seats from the range of the window to avoid 
 shots and held their guns all ready to aim and fire. I made 
 memoranda of my express cheek numbers on my cuff and sat 
 still, keeping up a busy lot of thinking. I applied to myself 
 all the preaching advice, passages of Scripture and philosophy 
 of death I was accustomed to give others. 
 
 Though I could see our soldier guard train in the moon- 
 light a quarter of a mile ahead of us. there was little satis- 
 faction, for the operator told me the bandits often permitted 
 the guard train to pass in safety so they might blow up the 
 passenger train that followed. He encouraged me with the 
 advice that if I was shot and blood streamed down my face, I 
 was to lie down and pretend to be dead. Then the train 
 stopped, we were in the desert, there was no station and no 
 apparent reason and our breathing and hearts seemed to stop, 
 too. The train started and we breathed again. At times we 
 could see by the moonlight other railroad tracks, parallel with 
 ours, that hung like ropes over the blown-up bridges and cul- 
 verts. But the bandits never touched us. We were hours 
 late, perhaps they grew tired of wating for our train. 
 
 QUERETARO AND THE CONSTITUTION 
 
 REACHED Queretaro about 4 a, m., where our soldier 
 train left us, for the road from here to Mexico CMty 
 was safe. Queretaro was the then present capital of 
 ?iIexieo. As usual a group of bandits was hanging 
 up outside the station. The city was like an armed camp 
 and the soldiers were walking around. Why? Because Mr. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 167 
 
 Carranza was here. This was his headquarters. He had not 
 yet moved his capital to Mexico City. He wanted quiet and 
 was afraid to move. The city was guarded like a jail or 
 prison. Here the new Constitution was written and framed. 
 
 The Constitution of Queretaro is the latest and newest 
 word. Knowing the men who wrote it, it is as if an escaped 
 convict should climb in a pulpit and preach on the Ten Com- 
 mandments. This Constitution, after a trip through lawless 
 Mexico, seems like a satire. My translated copy of it says it 
 was to be effective after May 5, 1917. It isn't in good work- 
 ing order yet and we doubt whether it will ever make a 
 start. To write and to follow are two different things. 
 These laws will be shelved, for they don't fit the people. In 
 general the Constitution is anti-foreign, anti-clerical, anti- 
 capital and anti-American. In particular, it has to do with 
 society, labor, business, education, religion, the army, press, 
 freedom, property, debt, imprisonment, torture, slavery, cor- 
 respondence, child-labor, the right of the laborer to strike, the 
 care of a mother and her child, prohibition of liquor and 
 gambling in labor centres, the penalty for the discharge of 
 a laborer, civil marriage, land, gold, and oil laws, monopolies, 
 taxes, the preference for Mexicans above all others and their 
 duties in school, taxation, enlistment and military life. This 
 looks good in print, but like most Latin American constitu- 
 tions, is just on paper instead of in the lives of the people. 
 
 The new Mexican Constitution declares, "It is necessary to 
 be a Mexican by birth to be a minister of any religious creed 
 in Mexico. Ministers of religious creeds may not, either in 
 public or private meetings, or in acts of worship or religious 
 propaganda, criticize the fundamental laws of the country, 
 particularly authorities of the government in general; they 
 will have no vote ; will not be eligible to office and may not 
 assemble for political purposes." 
 
 This legislation was aimed intentionally against the 
 Spanish priesthood, which the Mexicans fear most and hate. 
 I talked with various Protestant missionaries and teachers 
 from the United States who said that under this ruling and 
 other drastic laws they would be compelled to give up their 
 work, but they hoped for a more liberal interpretation, as 
 their services had been most welcome and helpful in hospital 
 
168 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 and school work, as well as in religious instruction. The fact 
 that a man is unfortunate enough to be a Mexican does not 
 necessarily qualify him to be a mental or moral leader. 
 
 The New Constitution is fearfully and wonderfully made. 
 The government's motto is "justice," but the present govern- 
 ment has worked more injustice and misery on the people 
 than any preceding government. 
 
 Under the guise of freedom the revolutionists have become 
 more autocratic than the leaders they dethroned. The Consti- 
 tutionalists have practically abolished the Constitution. The 
 motto ''justice" is a sheepskin over a wolf's heart and body. 
 Madero was a God to the poor peon compared with this devil 
 hypocrite Carranza. The people were supposed to have freely 
 elected their representatives to this Constitutional convention 
 at Queretaro, to form a new Constitution. But that august 
 body was made up of army generals and leaders selected by 
 worse than Diaz' dirty political methods. Army leaders are in 
 power and intend to remain so. The people's candidate might 
 receive one hundred times the votes but it was the official can- 
 didate who received the office. That convention represents 
 Carranza 's citj' influence in the larger cities and not the coun- 
 try districts. Those states where Villa and Zapata were busy 
 at war could elect no representatives. Therefore the Conven- 
 tion was a farce and military men planned a military rule for 
 all Mexico according to their military wish. 
 
 It is a sad fact that these so-called revolutionary leaders 
 have little mental and less moral ability, that they stand on 
 the sand of whim and not on the rock of worth. They are 
 soaked and doped with everything but probity. It has been 
 suggested they need a strong injection of Puritan serum. 
 
 Queretaro is on a high plateau, has good buildings and a 
 Santa Clara church well known for some fine wood carvings. 
 The Spanish captured the town from the Chichiniec Indians 
 in 1531. It is a centre for manufacture. It manufactures 
 pottery and iron ware, woolens and cotton. One of the oldest 
 and largest cotton factories in Mexico is here, employing 2,000 
 hands. It maintains a small private military force for pro- 
 tection. It was built in the days of brigandage and has been 
 repeatedly used as a fort in the civil wars. The country 
 round about raises corn, fruit and cotton. There are nearby 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 169 
 
 rich mines of iron, lead, copper, silver and valuable opals. 
 The town is historic because the battle for independence was 
 begun here, though at present it is conservative and bigoted. 
 
 MARTYR BLOOD 
 
 N 1914, and not fifty years ago, clerical fanaticism 
 at Queretaro destroyed the Protestant school of Dr. 
 Velasco. With the cry of "Viva el general Villa," 
 *'Viva la religion," "Death to the Protestants," the 
 mob broke the college doors, tore down the pulpit, smashed 
 the organ and benches, piled up the library books and 
 burned them in the streets, destroyed the flowers in the patio, 
 broke the glass and stole bedding, clothing, linen and dishes. 
 
 Early Protestant missionaries in Mexico were starved and 
 killed, and their blood-stained Bibles placed under their 
 heads for pillows. Their congregations were massacred and 
 their churches set on fire. 
 
 The "Defensa Catolica," published in 1887 in Mexico, 
 declared that for the love of God one might impose, insult, 
 injury property, take life, offend, wound and kill. It con- 
 cluded, "such actions are virtuous and can be performed in 
 the name of Catholic charity." 
 
 The old man of the Tiber was anxious to hold the balance 
 of power in the New World, to fuse the Latin nations into 
 one and so Napoleon III and Pius IV sent Maximilian to 
 Mexico. We know what happened. They showed a poorly 
 balanced judgment, the balance spring of their watch and 
 wait plans failed, and today it is Protestant U. S. A. that holds 
 the power. 
 
 Maximilian, the archduke of Austria and emperor, was 
 besieged here by Juarez and shot after making a brave last 
 stand. The place is called the Hill of Bells and rises near 
 the city. 
 
 One day when I was in Vienna I drove out to the little 
 church of the Capuchins and crept down into the crypt where 
 the sceptre of death sways over all that remains of Maxi- 
 milian, that mistaken, misguided misfit. He was an exotic, 
 
170 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 transplanted from Austria, doomed to die. He was a martyr 
 sacriliced on the foreign altar of a people whose dictum was, 
 "No European dictator for us." Sic transit gloria mundi. 
 ]\Iaxixnilian's three years in Mexico illustrates the proverb, 
 "Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown." 
 
 As we pulled out of the city the historic aqueduct lay 
 before us, coiling and crawling by our tracks like a silver 
 snake in the moonlight. 
 
 THE AMERICAN CLUB 
 
 I 
 
 T WAS morning when we reached the edge of the 
 table-land. There below lay the beautiful green 
 valley of Mexico and we were as thankful as C'ortez 
 when he and his soldiers saw it. The rising sun 
 shot through the mist, and the volcanoes kept ghostly sentinel 
 watch. We rode through maguey fields, then by little towns, vil- 
 lages and suburbs until the last stop was Mexico City. This was 
 10:30 a. m. There were a few carriages lined outside the depot, 
 but the drivers refused to take us because they were all "en- 
 gaged." This was a new I\Iexican lie. It is necessary for 3''ou to 
 have a boy get the cab for you so he may get his commission. 
 Of course, I knew nothing of this and stood waiting idly for half 
 an hour. The other way is to jump in, give the driver a third to 
 a half more than he is entitled to, and he and his rig are yours. 
 We picked up our bags and went outside the railroad yard and 
 waited on the main street for auto and carriage which never 
 came. At length two plainly dressed natives appeared carry- 
 ing ropes, and my telegraph operator said they were "carga- 
 dores." He made a bargain with them to carry our bags to 
 the American Club and we started. It was a long, hard walk 
 for them for the bags were heavy, and for us in this high alti- 
 tude. All the while we were looking out for some conveyance, 
 but none appeared. This was the first time in all my travels 
 that in a city of 000,000 I was compelled to hoof it for more 
 than a mile to my hotel. 
 
 There was much of interest in the streets, parks and build- 
 ings and we thought that we were making an original entrance 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 171 
 
 into the capital of the Montezumas. MeCord was a member of 
 the American Club and had given us his card of introduction, 
 telling us we would find someone there who spoke English and 
 would take care of us until he came. He was right, every one 
 knew him, his friends were welcome and we were invited in to 
 register, given a card with full privileges and assigned a fine, 
 clean, airy room opening on a patio of sunshine and flowers. 
 Two black and tan Mexican maids made the room inviting and 
 set about to give us an "agua calientes," hot water bath. 
 What a rest from the purgatory of places, positions and passen- 
 gers we had been in and among for long days and nights. It 
 was a relief to get our shoes off, to wash and be clean, to be 
 clothed and in our right mind, and to be at last in Mexico City 
 in a club where we could meet Americans, eat and drink like 
 Americans, read all the recent papers and magazines, and have 
 a library at our hand as well as other American home com- 
 forts. Picture it and think of it, reader, a section of good old 
 U. S. A. right here, and we were asked to make ourselves at 
 home. It required no second invitation, and during our stay 
 the club was the oasis in the Mexican desert, our refreshment, 
 rest, refuge, place of recuperation and regal companionship 
 with a set of fine fellows and friends. They were some of the 
 most gentlemanly, genial and generous men I had met in any 
 part of the world. 
 
 A FARCICAL ELECTION 
 
 T WAS the day before election, and although Car- 
 ranza and his special representative friends were sure 
 of election before any votes were cast, it was neces- 
 sary to show some preelection enthusiasm. The 
 plaza, streets and avenues were like a carnival of Venice. Any 
 excuse will do for a Mexican to have a holiday or celebration. 
 This was done to generate some election sentiment and make 
 it appear like a popular election. Mexican flags fluttered 
 from building tops and windows, crowds thronged the walks, 
 listening to bands in the street which headed various political 
 
172 THE DE\TL IN MEXICO 
 
 cliques and parties. Even the rival candidates, with their 
 names on their banners, were all Carranza men. Their pictures 
 were posted and plastered on walls all over town and their 
 faces had the spiritual and intellectual look of a Villa and 
 Zapata. Groups of tattered, dirty peons who marched in the 
 Zocala looked as if they had walked out of a page of Carlyle's 
 "French Revolution." They shouted, cheered, waved banners, 
 zig-zagged around the plazas and up the streets. Labor organ- 
 izations appeared with banner mottoes, political orators ha- 
 rangued the crowds from cafe balconies above, and men and 
 women autocrats, in their fine autos and carriages, rode up and 
 down San Francisco streetdressedin their Sunday best, throw- 
 ing confetti at each other and on the sidewalks. Political 
 dodgers were flung into the air and came down covering the 
 streets like drifts of snow. A wild mob of street urchins fol- 
 lowed picking them up and tying them in bundles. To me 
 this all appeared hollow and superficial, a galvanism of jerks 
 with no natural life outburst. It was plain to see it was all 
 done by the money of Carranza, that slaughter soldier and 
 desperado dictator. 
 
 Next morning was Sunday and election day — the better the 
 day the worse the deed. We visited several of the election 
 booths and watched the voters, judges and ballots. They had 
 our system but none of our free spirit. ]\Ir. Carranza had 
 furnished all the ballot copy and corrected the proof. To 
 have issued another ballot, to have substituted another name 
 on the ballot, not to have voted, or not to vote Carranza 's way, 
 would have been an act of impiety and unpatriotism that 
 would have sent the offender to the wall with a Carranza bul- 
 let through his heart before next day's sun could rise. Car 
 ranza was elected because there was no other man to be 
 elected, because no other eandiate dared be nominated or run 
 in opposition to him. There was no room for any government 
 except the government of, by and for Carranza. While the 
 election was quiet in Mexico City, in other cities women and 
 children were ordered off the streets, and in Tampico there 
 were fights and fatalities. As I stood looking on an officer 
 asked me in English whether I was a press representative or 
 just curious. I echoed his word "curious" and was curious 
 no longer. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 173 
 
 CARRANZA THE CRIMINAL 
 
 CIN Carranza stands for carnage, cupidity, craftiness 
 and crookedness. Most Mexicans hate their govern- 
 ment on general principles, but have a special dislike 
 of the present head. They feel Huerta v^^as their 
 choice of a man who knew them and could rule them, and that 
 if Villa has slain his thousands Carranza, directly and indi- 
 rectly, has slain his tens of thousands. 
 
 Carranza is accused of lack of head and heart. They claim 
 his "Royal Biliousness" sailed to the presidency on a sea of 
 blood and by blood and boodle has been kept afloat. Soldiers 
 boast they put him where he is and will put him away unless 
 he lets them have their own way. 
 
 He has already swindled the nation three times with waste 
 paper money, and is now planning a change from a silver basis 
 to paper again. When he does, look out for another revolution 
 and the words "good night" written in blood on the back of 
 every peso. Mexico is notorious for the depreciation of its 
 currency and the repudiation of its debts. Official prayer is 
 limited to saying, "Forgive us our debts." 
 
 Venustiano Carranza is old and gray. No Venus in his 
 look if there is in his name. He is no more brilliant than 
 beautiful, but self-satisfied, wilful and far from being a fool. 
 
 Carranza has a cactus-like disposition. He is not "sim- 
 patico" or lovable, but " antipatico, " silent and sullen. He 
 is as interesting in conversation as a mud wall. 
 
 Carranza 's friends say that he is "more able and honest" 
 than any man in power since Madero — well, that isn't saying 
 very much. I saw a true cartoon of Carranza published in 
 Mexico. The picture right side up was the usual profile, but 
 turned upside down was a donkey's head. 
 
 Carranza is a despot who can't sympathize with U. S. 
 against Germany. He is accused of wearing a German silver- 
 plated crown. The Germans in Mexico have maintained a rule 
 or ruin policy. They have sowed dragon's teeth and had 
 much to do with the overthrow of P. Diaz, the downfall of 
 Madero, the insolence of Huerta and the corruption of Car- 
 ranza. Germany pushed her commerce to the very borders, 
 not simply or mainly for commercial reasons, but to get the 
 
174 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 upper hand where she could carry out some Ziminermann 
 threat. 
 
 Tlie constitutional party is divided into two factions, the 
 "civil" which is opposed to any German alliance against the 
 U. S., and the "military" which is strongly pro-German, 
 
 For criticizing Carranza two papers were suppressed in 
 Mexico City, "El Universal," the morning paper, and "El 
 National," the evening one. They had protested against the 
 misuse of authority by military men and the abuse of the civil- 
 ians by the officers. 
 
 Obligarchy and monarchy, not democracy, is Carranza 's 
 ideal. He simply dictates the kind and amount of money that 
 he wants and what wages, prices and taxes shall be paid. 
 
 Carranza 's de facto government is hard up and will de- 
 scend to any depths to get money. It has already swindled the 
 nation three times with paper money and promises. A mer- 
 chant in Vera Cruz showed me a box full of paper money that 
 wasn't worth ten cents. Silver is now used, but not in suffi- 
 cient quantities. Incomes are smaller than the natives need 
 and Carranza cries for a foreign loan. His blockhead of 
 ignorance and his inexperienced men, recently elected to 
 position, don't know what to do. 
 
 The qualifications for members of Carranza 's cabinet are 
 that they shall be ignorant, inexperienced and irreligious. 
 
 The I. W. "W.'s should make Carranza their leader, for his 
 motto is "I Will Wreck." He tears down without building 
 up and his plans are mostly without patriotism, sacrifice or 
 any enduring qualities. 
 
 So far the rich results of the Carranza regime have been a 
 loss of life, property, money, ambition, hope, free speech and 
 free press. Today there is little work and low wages because 
 Americans have been forced out with no U. S. protection. 
 
 In Mexico night has not yet given way to light. Instead 
 of the dawn of freedom the present government is liberty's 
 sunset. Carranza and his crowd have neither intelligence nor 
 integrity to lead the people out and up. The people are cry- 
 ing for a change and would catch at anything like a drowninf? 
 man at a straw. Even now they are crying "Viva Villa," 
 believing this bandit is better than Carranza. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 175 
 
 The following day the Carranza crowd boasted that the 
 election was quiet and that there had been no public disorder. 
 One of his lying, subsidized correspondents, George F. Weeks, 
 editor of "The Mexican Review," whom I called on, tried 
 very hard to impress this fact of a fair, "quiet and peaceful 
 election" on my mind. "Quiet" it was, the quiet of a dungeon, 
 the quiet of men to be shot if they opened their mouth to say 
 anything, the quiet of a sword over their head to fall on them 
 if they moved. 
 
 A MALODOROUS MARKET 
 
 A SUNDAY market here looks like one in La Paz, 
 Bolivia, for the streets are paved with Indians and 
 their truck. I have forgotten the name of this mar- 
 ket we visited, but think a good one would be "The 
 Unsanitary Market." The Mexican table-land is loaded down 
 with every variety of fruit and vegetable Adam dug in Eden's 
 garden. In addition to the big covered market and outside 
 stalls there were the native sellers who sat on mats, on gutter 
 curbs and sidewalks with their garden stuff, all surrounded 
 by such a big crop of babies and dogs that one thought they 
 were especially raised for sale. The reader may have a good 
 mental picture of a Mexican market, but the picture fails to 
 show the main thing — the smell. To vegetable life you must 
 add the animal one of chickens, donkeys, dogs, babies, and 
 natives in unwashed garments. The latter were eating grease- 
 fried meats that smelled to heaven. Much of the food for 
 sale in gutter and on sidewalk looked like white wing depos- 
 its. The smell was a rival to the deadly asphyxiating gases in 
 Europe. Here one finds a new field of industry, for if we 
 could pipe this smell like Mexican oil and ship it abroad. 
 Mars would soon be choked off. I marvel that the war experts 
 have not already thought of this. The odor made a sewer and 
 garbage heap smell like the attar of roses. 
 
 A respectable buzzard would be ashamed to eat what the 
 poor people are glad to get. Mexico has not only hundreds of 
 cripples and professional beggars, but thousands of half- 
 starved souls. They sleep on streets and sidewalks at night, 
 
176 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 huddled up with dogs and children. Their breakfast table is 
 the refuse heap. At railroad stations they swarm around the 
 trains. In the capital, many women formerly rich and well to 
 do have had their wealth and property confiscated and are 
 now houseless by night, selling their souls to death in order to 
 keep their bodies alive. 
 
 In India I saw the mongoos fight a snake, here the snakes 
 in the market were trade marks of a medicine used in adver- 
 tising. The man opened a box, gathered up a handful of 
 snakes, wrapped them around his neck like a collar or tie, 
 drew the crowd and sold his dirt-cleaner. The Indians were 
 charmed and he cleaned up a lot of money. 
 
 THE -'IMPOSING" CATHEDRAL 
 
 SOME the cathedral is the centre and circumfer- 
 ence of all interest in the capital. In and around 
 this building have raged religion, riot and revolution. 
 As the pyramids were built by slaves so this monu- 
 ment of a past dead religion was builded by slaves of super- 
 stition who "contributed" several millions and then some 
 more millions to furnish and decorate it. It is on the site of a 
 former Aztec pyramid of the Avar god, Huitzilopochtli. His 
 name was sufficient to kill anybody who tried to pronounce 
 it, and his hideous image struck stone dead or cross-eyed the 
 one who looked at it. Here the Aztecs sacrificed their war 
 victims. In 1530 the pagan pyramid was torn down and a 
 new style of sacrifice called "Christian" was instituted that 
 bled the pocketbook. 
 
 The present cathedral was not begun till 1573 and the next 
 year there was a holocaust by the Inquisition which burned 21 
 Lutherans. The church was completed in 1667 at a holy cost 
 of several millions. The building is of Spanish style, in the 
 shape of a cross, is 426 by 200 feet, and the height from base 
 to tower top is 200 feet. It is depressing outside and dismal 
 within. We frequently entered, but the air was always chill 
 and the church felt like a vast tomb. From the descriptions 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 177 
 
 read and the pictures seen, I expected to see and feel what I 
 had enjoyed in St. Peter's in Rome, the Giralda in Spain or 
 the mosque of St. Isaac's in Russia, but it was far different. 
 The reported fabulous wealth had been looted, the beauty- 
 faded, the statues strayed or stolen, the pictures retouched or 
 cut from their frames, the famous golden lamp has ''lit" out, 
 the precious gold and gemmed statue of the Assumption van- 
 ished, and the marble columned high altar, once a mass of 
 gold and silver, robbed to enrich private and government bank 
 account. The great organ was badly out of tune and the old 
 wood floor uneven and rough enough to sliver the souls and 
 knees of the few worshipers. The painted faces of the angels 
 and saints looked down at the changed condition of affairs, 
 all changed but the architecture with its two large naves, six 
 altars, three aisles and twenty or so side chapels, some of 
 which contain the bones or ashes of Mexico's great dead and 
 insignia of their office. Surely conditions have greatly changed 
 when we remember that at one time the church held two- 
 thirds of Mexico's wealth in one hand and a crucifix club in 
 the other. 
 
 The Tumbago balustrade encloses the fine wood-carved 
 choir and surrounds the high altar with many figures made of 
 this same rare metal. Tumbago is a combination of gold, sil- 
 ver and copper alloy. The weight and worth of these railings 
 is immense. The one around the choir is estimated to be 26 
 tons, and an offer is said to have been made and refused to 
 •replace it with one of solid silver. It was made in Macao, the 
 Portugese town of China, where I had seen the people make 
 opium, firecrackers and other accessories. 
 
 The arm akimbo position of these 60 or more Tumbago 
 statues on the balustrades suggested they had lumbago. I am 
 not inclined to doubt it, for they have remained for so many 
 years in this cold, clammy, cathedral atmosphere. There were 
 broad earthquake cracks in the walls of the cathedral and 
 gim-crack ornaments on them. The strong rock on which one 
 of the chapels was founded has been loosened and sunken by 
 earthquake. 
 
 The solid gold ornaments have been stolen and we saw but 
 little in the treasure vaults. Our guide said the priests had hid- 
 
178 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 den them, yet the glint of gilt was above and around us. 
 Great masses of stucco designs were covered over with gilt as 
 if a hose had played a stream of gold upon them, or as if cov- 
 ered by a gilt fungus. The artistic and religious verdict of 
 this big church is "gilty." "We attended Sunday services, 
 and while the speaker was preaching serenely to the faithful 
 some of the "fathers" behind the rails were talking and laugh- 
 ing, and many of the choir boys had gone to sleep. On this, 
 as on a funeral occasion during the week, I kept my hands in 
 my pockets to keep the money I had, not only from the char- 
 ity demands of beggars and collection boxes which were 
 planted everywhere for alms, but to avoid being robbed by 
 the faithful Artful Dodgers, who deftly abstract your hand- 
 kerchief and pocketbook when your attention is devoutly 
 abstracted from earth to heaven. 
 
 The Sagrario, as it is called, is an addition to the cathedral 
 and a subtraction from the etl'ect of the high and broad front 
 and of the two towers. The cathedral is for the rich, the 
 Sagrario for the poor. The facade is as bizarre and fantastic 
 as the dress and actions of the poor peons who enter into 
 service. The guide pointed out a canvas by a reputed old 
 master and explained several objects of interest as he had in 
 the big cathedral. Let me say right here, and very plainly, 
 that one of the good things I found in Mexico was my guide, 
 Duran, a native Mexican who had been to the U. S., could 
 think and speak in English, had been the guide of many cele- 
 brated Americans and of tourist parties, and knew all the 
 history of the country and City of Mexico. He was a living 
 guide-book, a friendly companion, always fair in judgment 
 and price. 
 
 Inside the church door there is the usual collection of 
 sacred curios for sale and on the outside you see beggars and 
 desperate looking men and women. When tired they sleep on 
 the stone steps of the church or rims of the dry fountains in 
 the plaza. When they awake they slowly pick themselves up, 
 and their three favorite pastimes are to pick people's pockets, 
 pick the lice from each other's heads and pick up the rags and 
 refuse from the streets. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 179 
 
 RUINED ZOCALA 
 
 THE Plaza Mayor on which the cathedral and palace 
 face was once a thing of beauty with its garden of 
 flowers, trees, fountains, statues and shaded walks — 
 a bower of delight, the beauty spot and breathing 
 place of the city. The photos of the Zocala show how beautiful 
 it all was. Today it is treeless and an eyesore. It is the start- 
 ing place of the street cars that circle and clang around the 
 squares. The fountains are waterless, the statues and pillars 
 are overturned. The cherubs stand with broken arms and 
 wings, the hands and legs of the Venus statue are full of 
 bullet holes, electric lamp posts are scarred with shot, and 
 wandering through these ruins are venders of cakes and ices. 
 Beggar boys and girls, cripples, thieves and the scum of the 
 city flow into this sink-hole. There are sweepers with long- 
 handled brooms stirring clouds of dust about them that rise 
 and cover everybody with a blanket pall. At night when the 
 sun and wind have gone down, the poorest peons come here to 
 promenade, though there are few lights or attractions. To 
 the question why is the plaza denuded of its former tree and 
 shade beauty, I found various answers. One, that the wood 
 was needed for fuel, another that too much shade was un- 
 healthy, and still another that the place was cleared to break 
 up the hiding of revolutionary mobs so guards could get a 
 clear shot at them. 
 
 PICKPOCKETS AND THIEVES' MARKET 
 
 ONE morning I saw many people gathered around a 
 street car. A poor, old, unfortunate Indian woman 
 had been ground to pieces and lay under the wheels. 
 This often happens for the cars are near the curb 
 and death and injury are of frequent occurrence. In three 
 days, two of the cars we were on injured some of the people 
 in the street. The way they are driven makes them little 
 better than Juggernauts. As I knelt down to look at tli? poor 
 victim, two men attempted to go through my pockets, but 
 
180 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 Duran eyed them and said, "Oh, no, you cannot steal from my 
 friend." Another time when we were on the street he over- 
 heard two men plotting to shake and jostle me as I turned the 
 corner and steal my watch and chain. In movie theatres 
 signs warn you to beware of pickpockets, and the pictures of 
 noted crooks are thrown on the screen that the audience may 
 avoid them. If you Avant to keep your watch, stickpin or 
 handkerchief, you must hide them or walk with your handa 
 in your pockets. Doodling and begging are the leading pro- 
 fessions. In Vera Cruz my coat was cut below the pocket by 
 someone after my watch. Mexico City is known to harbor the 
 most highly accomplished light-finger artists in Latin America. 
 You must sew up your vest and pants pockets if you wish to 
 keep your W'atch and money. I even kept my mouth shut, 
 not only for fear I might say or breathe something that could 
 be construed into treason, but because I feared the thieves 
 would take the gold crown out of my mouth. On the train a 
 friendly Mexican took pity on my ignorance of the thieving 
 tricks. He reached across the aisle, jerked my watch chain, 
 and motioned me to put it out of sight. 
 
 To live you must work or steal. The Mexican hates work. 
 If the minister asks him to work out his salvation he immedi- 
 ately objects, but he does love to steal anything on or around 
 you, in your home or office. Be it a dog, auto, bike or what- 
 ever you leave on the street you must watch it, or hire a boy 
 to watch it and then you must watch him. Even the newsboys 
 and peddlers are thieves in disguise. The majority of them 
 were begotten and born thieves and commit theft not only at 
 night but in broad daylight. 
 
 I wont to the well-known Thieves' Market and saw so 
 many things there that it resembled a large department store 
 capable of furnishing anj'thing one could think of or ask for. 
 It was merely a clearing-house for i^lunder, for anything not 
 nailed down or padlocked. Even the nails, chain and lock are 
 sometimes stolen. The merchants sat under their little awn- 
 ings, eyed my kodaks and smiled as if I were one of their 
 tribe who had come to unload, but when I took a picture of 
 them and their goods, they scowled and it wasn't so amusing. 
 These stands might truthfully bear signs like this: "Stolen 
 the Night Before" — "Fresh Stolen Goods" — "Warranted 
 Stolen "—"Nothing But Stolen Goods Sold Here." 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 181 
 
 GOVERNMENT FINANCE 
 
 HIS petty thief market is mentioned by every writer 
 and traveler, but the National Palace across the street 
 is a much bigger den of thieves and the First Chief 
 
 and Thief, Mr. Carranza, lives there. Tliis is where 
 
 officials do national and international stealing. This palace 
 has always been the headquarters for dishonest despots and 
 dictators where stealing is direct, or indirect, through sub- 
 offices or soldiers, by confiscation of property, taxes, bribes, 
 gold and oil mine concessions, banks, railroads, money-specu- 
 lation and change of currency. 
 
 Favorite Mexican mottoes are: "In Graft We Trust," "A 
 Public Office Is a Private Steal," "Dishonesty Is the Best 
 Policy," "Get In and Get Away With It," "Plunder the 
 Peons." Tammany Hall was a Y. M. C. A., and its members 
 saints compared with this palace of political plunderers. 
 "Thou Shalt Steal" is the self made commandment religiously 
 and rigorously obeyed, from the newsboy who picks your 
 pocket to the bandit who loots the train or town and the 
 president who robs the people. 
 
 This is the way they play the bunco game in Mexico City. 
 Ex-Governor Martinez's property had been held up by the 
 government, which informed him that if he dug up $25,000 
 his property would be returned. He raised the amount, gave 
 the money and in exchange the government gave him an order 
 restoring his property. Just as the old man began to feel 
 good over it, the government rescinded the order and kept 
 both money and property. 
 
 The government is financed by forced loans and bank rob- 
 ber looting. At Puebla recently the government forced a loan 
 or 1,275,000 pesos from the Bank Oriental. Two of the largest 
 banks in Mexico City have been looted and our kind-hearted 
 administration is coining in the Philadelphia mint the bullion 
 which Carranza stole from Mexican banks, placed there by 
 American citizens for safe keeping. 
 
 Many of Mexico's soldiers have not been paid. If there is 
 no money there are no soldiers, and no soldiers mean no gov- 
 
182 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 emment, so the loving un-Venus-like Venustiano Carranza 
 goes out like a bandit and takes money from banks or money 
 equivalents in whatever he can lay his hands on. There are 
 daily desertions among the soldiers to Villa, and other bandit 
 leaders, if they can pay the soldier's wage. 
 
 PALACE BLOODSHED 
 
 THE National Palace is nearly three thousand feet long 
 and is said to stand on the site of the halls of Monte- 
 zuma. It isn't a work of architectural art, but is 
 rather like a jail, yet it has many works of pictures, 
 statuary, marble and carved art within some of its scores of 
 rooms. Soldiers guard the gateway and doors. One cannot 
 go through the rooms without a written pass. We walked 
 through the vast open court. Here Porfirio Diaz had a feast 
 that rivaled Belshazzar's and that of Heliogabalus. There 
 were lights, entertainments, gold ornaments and lace, 500 cos- 
 tumed servants to wait on the guests and they licked up more 
 than 20 carloads of champagne. We were led through halls, 
 private living rooms furnished by ]\raximilian, who knew how 
 to spend the people's money, through public reception parlors 
 where diplomats and ambassadors stalked in full dress parade, 
 and in ballrooms where dark beauty had shone as at Windsor 
 or Versailles. Then we went out to a small balcony facing the 
 plaza where the president comes to flim-flam his subjects and 
 abjects with fair promises. 
 
 In the cabinet room I sat in the Porfiro Diaz chair which 
 no one has been able to fill since he left, and looked at the 
 superb table, chairs, carpets, chandeliers and furnishings. The 
 guide then showed me bullet marks on the tables, walls and 
 curtains, blood blots on the floor, and the door through which 
 Madero escaped only to be caught later and killed. These 
 cabinet members always carried weapons. Presidents and 
 high officials in this room never knew when they might be 
 assassinated. 
 
 To be president or dictator in Mexico is to have the sword 
 of Damocles hanging overhead all the time. Rulers sail here 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 183 
 
 on a sea of blood and go out of office on that same sea. Red- 
 handed revolution puts them in the chair and red-handed revo- 
 lution thrusts them out. 
 
 The garden is a quiet, pretty place w^ith fountains, flov^ers 
 and statues where Maximilian loved to w^alk, sit or dream. 
 The v^all v^as in shadow where life had stood and been shot. 
 
 "We entered a room where Madero was imprisoned and 
 then walked out to the stable where, according to one story, he 
 was tortured and killed. Madero 's slogan was "free land." 
 The poor fellow meant well but couldn't deliver the goods. 
 Though honest he had neither the education nor executive 
 ability to realize his ideal. He was surrounded by traitors, 
 intrigue and a people who cried "Hosanna" one day, "Cru- 
 cify Him" another day, and then applauded Huerta. Ma- 
 dero 's enemies said many mean things about him — that in 
 religion he was a spiritualist, in speech a wind-jammer, in 
 life a faddist, and worst of all, that his execution on the piano 
 entitled him to be executed. The stable stalls were filled with 
 many splendid, spirited steeds of Carranza and his generals. 
 Carranza keeps his horses well fed, housed and groomed in 
 almost immaculate stables, while his poor peon subjects starve 
 in squalor. Here a horse is more cared for than a human 
 being. 
 
 The rest of the pala^^e building is given over to ministerial 
 offices and soldier barracks. We were permitted to see the 
 vice-regal throne, with its covered and gilded rosewood chair, 
 and the crimson velvet canopy over head. It didn't look very 
 comfortable. Uneasy sits the seat that wears a crown. A 
 farmer sitting in his old hickory, rush-bottomed rocking chair, 
 on his front porch, after his barn chores are done, is more 
 comfortable and happy than any man who ever occupied a 
 throne. 
 
 The Mexican "liberty bell" hangs over the main gateway 
 of the palace. It is the one the patriot priest, Hidalgo, rang 
 on the night of September 16, 1810, to call the people of 
 Dolores to arms and strike for liberty. At each anniversary 
 the president comes out at midnight, rings it and goes to bed 
 to dream of how he can wring the necks of the people the 
 next day. 
 
184 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 LOVELY ALAMEDA 
 
 AFTER a pious pilgrimage to a half dozen churches, 
 with their very few worshipers, it was refreshing to 
 visit the Alameda. From gloomy aisles, pillars and 
 incense, we went to God's temple where the sky was 
 the roof, the trees the pillared aisles, the birds the choir, the 
 flowers the perfumed incense, the sparkling fountains the holy 
 water and the masses the throngs of happy boys, girls, men 
 and women who walked and rested, talked, read and played 
 games. This scene of beauty is where years ago heretics and 
 apostates, who would not obey the iron rule of the church, 
 were brought, tied to a stake and burned to make a Roman 
 Catholic Mexican holiday. Hell then and heaven now, yet 
 would you believe it — 'there are many alive who would repeat 
 the Inquisition infamy if they could. The motto "Dios y 
 libertad" — "God and Liberty," was formerly translated by 
 the church, "Your idea of God and liberty as I give it to you." 
 The Alameda is a sort of Versailles with fountains, trees, 
 gardens, walks, seats and statues of nymphs, warriors, gods 
 and goddesses all on a big and beautiful scale. How long will 
 it be before some profane general lifts his ax against these 
 trees and makes it another destroyed Zocala? High noon 
 brought out thousands who came to take auto joy rides down 
 the Paseo de Reforma to see and to be seen. 
 
 JOY RIDES 
 
 |lFE'S joy rides are many — Santa Glaus at Christmas 
 time with his reindeer and sleigh full of presents; 
 when we "hitched" onto wagons and carts with our 
 sleds; the "straw" rides we took with our school 
 mates; the first buggy ride with our sweetheart; the hack 
 that brought us from the church altar to our home fireside; 
 the time we trundled the baby buggy in the park ; the tour we 
 took by rail or ship to near or far away lands; the auto we 
 filled with orphan children or with holiday provisions for the 
 poor. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 185 
 
 There are rides that give grief and pain for promised joy 
 — when people return from the cemetery fighting over what 
 their dead uncle or aunt has left them; when boys and girls 
 steal an auto, smoke and drink, stop at a roadhouse, violate 
 the law of God and man, are finally brought in a patrol wagon 
 to the court and land in jail. Anthony and Cleopatra set a 
 bad example in their barge joy ride on the Nile for many weak 
 and wanton souls. 
 
 The demand today is for a new religion of having a good 
 time with the one commandment of "Eat, drink and be mer- 
 ry." H*uman nature proves that a life of pleasure is a life of 
 pains, that society life is one of the most unhappy in the world 
 and that we seldom get joy just when and where we look 
 for it. 
 
 Nature's world is full of joy and gladness. Waves ripple, 
 shadows play, plants and flowers waltz with the wind, birds 
 sing, kittens frolic, dogs jump and children shout and run. 
 Recreation is necessary for maturer years. Men and women 
 must be more than cogs in life 's grinding wheel. 
 
 True joy is good, not evil. Papist and Puritan made the 
 mistake of having no place for joy; to be happy was sin; to 
 starve, wear old and homely clothes, mope and drivel was 
 regarded a God-like grace. 
 
 Pleasure may be abused by making it essential and not 
 incidental. Many an Esau barters his life for a mess of pot- 
 tage. Even heathen Cicero said, **He is no man who spends a 
 whole day in pleasure." 
 
 No man may tell you what you must eat, drink, think or 
 wear. You are a distinct soul in the world making personal 
 history and to be individually judged at last. What helps you 
 may hinder another, one man's food is another man's poison, 
 the stylish clothes of another would make you look like a fool. 
 
 A simple test of joy is to avoid what the Bible condemns; 
 what weakens your body and mind ; what confirms you in the 
 empire of any evil habit or sin ; what you can 't afford to spend 
 the time or money for ; what makes you ashamed of yourself 
 next morning, or to look in th^ face of the friend whom you 
 were with the night before. Laugh at the old man and wom- 
 an, pass the church, and "pooh-hoo" the Bible and its Christ. 
 *'Let thy heart cheer thee in the day of thy youth, but know 
 
186 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 thou that for ail these things God will bring thee into judg- 
 ment." 
 
 Nehemiah said, "The joy of the Lord is your strength." 
 Man is animal, plus. This world's joy can't fill a human soul. 
 Conscience stings, death terrorizes and nothing but peace with 
 God, who is Father, not fate or force, brings joy. 
 
 Church members often mope around as if God were dead, 
 Satan supreme ruler and nothing but hell was beyond the 
 grave. It is a Christian's duty to be joyful no matter what 
 may happen in loss of wealth, health and friends. If the Bible 
 is true God is our Father, Christ our Elder Brother and heaven 
 our eternal home. Such joy brings strength to self and en- 
 couragement to others. Happy in what we are and do, earthly 
 temptations and trials have little power. Full of joy we are 
 not weakly dependent on the world. 
 
 Three enemies lie in wait to give us a "puncture" or 
 "blowout" on Life's highway and they are debt, worry and 
 hurry. 
 
 Debt — Pay as you go and don't go farther than you can 
 pay. In grabbing for the large we lose the little. There are 
 legitimate business risks and obligations but there are many 
 illustrations of men who mortgage the future with burdens of 
 debt that make them slaves to the present. 
 
 Worry — Too often we are anxious about what never was 
 and isn't to be. AYorry gives us weights instead of wings so 
 that we sink instead of soar. Worry is a poison that sickens 
 our body, a sword that stabs our brain, a millstone that 
 presses our heart, making us care little for food, exercise and 
 friends, and a blow that paralyzes our will. 
 
 Hurry — We all run in high gear. There is much money to 
 make and little time to make it. We must have a larger bank 
 account than our neighbor's, and our wife must wear the 
 finest dress and hat in the block. Rest, reading, family asso- 
 ciation and thought of spiritual things are left in the mad race 
 for power and pelf. Health, happiness and heaven are risked 
 as we rush along. It is time to remember that if we rest by 
 life's way we will not reach death's cemetery so soon. 
 
 Elijah took a joy ride to heaven in a chariot with horses of 
 fire. He had been walking and talking with Elisha, and 
 though knowing death was near, he had no sudden misgiv- 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 167 
 
 ings of fear. He had done his brave work against Jezebel and 
 the Baal priests of his age and calmly died as he lived, ready 
 and rejoicing when God took him up. 
 
 Let us "prepare" for in three days, more or less, we may 
 be called to cross Death's Jordan. Charon's boat still plies 
 its trade between time and eternity with no submarine or tor- 
 pedo to stop his ferrying. May this last ride be the most 
 joyous of all because of the hope of forgiveness and immor- 
 tality at God's right hand where there are pleasures forever- 
 more. 
 
 BRUTAL BULL FIGHTS 
 
 MIEXICANS have always liked to fight the bull, wheth- 
 I er it was a Papal or four-footed one. The billboards 
 advertised a bull fight for Sunday at 3 p. m. Next 
 to the pleasure of killing each other is the joy of bull 
 fight and cock fight. Bull fights are said to be prohibited now. 
 Imagine our surprise to find this one advertised in Mexico 
 City. People told us it would be a mock, amateurish one, but 
 we went to the big steel and concrete bull ring and saw the 
 real thing, for two bulls were killed in a bungling, brutal way. 
 
 Brutality has always characterized Spanish bull fights. 
 Years ago it was the Mexican's Sunday afternoon recreation 
 after his arduous church duties. Then crowds came, paid 
 large money and Porfirio Diaz took 15 per cent of the gate 
 receipts. Later the old, wooden ring gave way to the steel 
 and concrete amphitheatre that cost seven hundred thousand 
 dollars and seated 20,000 people. Tourists were accustomed 
 to call this the big treat of the week and the bull fight, her- 
 alded far and near, drew many visitors. Carranza, who sailed 
 to the Presidency on a sea of blood, threw out a sop to the 
 world by a press report that he was too tender hearted to 
 permit any further bull brutality and had prohibited the 
 game. But seeing is believing. We saw a bull fight on Sun- 
 day. Carranza was "elected," two bulls were killed and 
 
188 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 others tormented, yet on our return to the city, when we 
 spoke of it, we were disbelieved by those who said, "You must 
 be mistaken — there were bull fights in Mexico City, but not 
 now." This incredulity and public unbelief is true in many 
 other ways. Finally they admitted there might have been an 
 amateur bull fight but were sure no bull was killed. Cas- 
 sandra's prophecy was disbelieved, so in the United States 
 people are slow to believe what they don't want to believe, or 
 have not read or seen with their own eyes. Let me escape 
 from Mexico to the United States and tell of the robbery, 
 raping, maltreating, murdering conditions there and illus- 
 trate them with photos taken on the spot, and I will be laughed 
 at or called a liar. If I showed photos and gave ocular proof 
 I would be suspected of being a movie fiend and of having 
 arranged and set the scenes to get a fake picture. I was 
 repeatedly told that when I left Mexico I would not be be- 
 lieved by brainless politicians, bigoted clerics and mercenary 
 merchants, that they would put me in the Ananias Club, make 
 me a follower of Grulliver and Munchhausen and a son of the 
 devil, "The Father of Lies." "Well, that makes no difference. 
 The sun shines, though a blind man may not see it ; birds sing, 
 though ears of the deaf are stopped. When you can tell the 
 truth there's no use lying about it. Denial of fact does not 
 destroy it. 
 
 The bull ring loomed up like a Coliseum. We secured a 
 shady seat, not only to keep out of the sun and heat, but prin- 
 cipally to avoid the tough gringo-hating crowd on the sunny 
 side. The large amphitheatre had but a small attendance. 
 Behind the director's box sat one hundred soldiers with their 
 guns ready to "shoot the bull," that is, to throw terror into 
 the election day crowd if any riot started. The band played 
 "Toreador" and this was followed by an amateur perform- 
 ance that would make a Madrid matador smile. 
 
 The trumpet blew and from the main entrance a dozen men 
 marched into the ring — chulos with red cloaks, banderilleros, 
 a matador followed by a man driving three mules dragging a 
 chain, and last of all a man pushing a wheelbarrow. The 
 pomp and circumstance of what I had seen in Spain were 
 wanting. Instead of silver, velvet, gold and lace the per- 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 189 
 
 formers looked like Liverpool bums as they marched up to 
 the director's box and saluted him. Then the ring was cleared 
 of everyone but the matador and the chulos. Another gate 
 was opened and the matinee idol of the performance, Mr. 
 Bull, entered. Disappointed at the small audience, he insisted 
 on giving a very poor performance. He looked about, dis- 
 dained to notice the red handkerchief put to his nose, waved 
 his tail when the banderilla barbs were thrust into his shoul- 
 ders, and replied to the hissing crowd by turning towards the 
 gate. To use a stage term he got the hook and was pulled in. 
 
 The second bull act was worse than the first. This bull, 
 instead of directing all his attention and energy to the mata- 
 dor, spent it in trying to push through the gate or hurdle the 
 fence. Failing in this, he bellowed loud with disappointment. 
 The gay barbs were stuck into him like pins in a cushion. He 
 quivered and quailed, but fight he would not, and leaped 
 around the ring several times as if it were a Marathon. They 
 opened the gate and he made his ignominious exit. Thus 
 ended the second bout. So far the only mad thing was the 
 crowd, mad at the poor, tame bulls, mad at their poor 
 performance and mad at the director who refused to give per- 
 mission to the matador to kill the bull. A mad Mexican is 
 more dangerous than a Madrid bull. The crowd threw their 
 hats in the air, tore their hair, hooted, waved handkerchiefs 
 and canes, shook fists and hurled curses at the director, de- 
 manding their money back. To me this was very amusing and 
 suggestive of a ball game when the bleachers are mad at the 
 umpire. Then another of the bull family entered. After he 
 had been bombarded with banderillas, the matador walked 
 over to the director, made a bow and asked permission to 
 improvise a little slaughter-house so as to furnish free beef to 
 the poor for their Monday dinner. The stem features of the 
 director relaxed, and moved with pity for the suppliant and 
 to ward off the threatened riot, he consented. The crowd 
 cheered and the amateur matador went forward to do the 
 bloody deed. Ten minutes were spent to round up the bull 
 and when he looked his bullship in the face the latter seemed 
 to say, "What's the matter with you, I haven't bothered you, 
 can't you let me alone?" The answer was a sharp thrust of 
 
190 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 the sword through the bull's body, not his heart, and the dazed 
 bull started away. The butcher started after him, jerked the 
 sword out and ran it through him again and again, it was a 
 piece of clumsy, brutal, bungling business. The matador 
 jerked out a dagger and attempted to penetrate the suppliant 
 beast's brain. This brainless, heartless butcher could no more 
 locate the bull's brain than he could its heart. The bull leaned 
 forward in a dazed condition, almost kneeling as if in prayer 
 to be put out of his misery. While the crowd was jeering at 
 this mutt of a matador, a workman jumped over the wooden 
 fence and with a short dagger gave the stroke that put the 
 bull out of his misery and the matador out of his embarrass- 
 ment. 
 
 They do this. thing differently in Spain. One thrust of the 
 sword writes the death warrant of the bull in his heart's 
 blood. I have seen the bull pierced through the heart by a 
 single thrust after which he settled down and was dead when 
 he reached the ground. Spain's fight was skillful and cruel, 
 but this Mexican show was amateurish and beastly. The ani- 
 mal undertaker then came in with his mules, hitched the chain 
 around the dead bull's neck and dragged him out. Another 
 bull was brought in to be teased, tortured and killed in the 
 same ignorant manner. On the whole it was a tame perform- 
 ance except for a moment's real excitement when the bull 
 came within one horn of goring the matador to death. 
 
 From this tragedy we were treated to comedy. Some bull 
 fighters, dressed up like clowns, came into the ring, teased the 
 bulls, sat in chairs and permitted the bulls to upset them and 
 chase them around. The last act was a free for all. A little 
 Durham came in with crumpled horns. Immediately the 
 whole rabble on the sunny side jumped out of their scats, 
 leaped into the arena and began to chase him. As he neared 
 my side of the ring I saw why, there were coins of silver 
 twisted on wires to his head. It was a catch and catch as 
 you can game, to grab and hold him by the tail while others 
 held him by the horns and picked off the money. Round and 
 round the bull led the chase until the money was all gone, the 
 boys out of breath, and we went home feeling that, considering 
 it was a Sabbath afternoon, we had had a "bully time." 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 191 
 
 WORLD'S BEST BOULEVARD 
 
 THE next number of a capital Sunday program is to 
 drive along the Paseo de la Reforma to the Castle 
 
 of Chapultepec. Maximilian was a political failure. 
 
 It was beyond him to construct a permanent policy 
 or lay down and perfect a successful government plan, but he 
 did plan, construct and complete one thing that is his real 
 monument, the Paseo de la Reforma. It is the park pride of 
 this planet, the finest two-mile promenade drive in the world. 
 It puts Berlin's Unter den Linden, Paris' Bois de Bologne 
 and the Maximilian Platz of Vienna in the primer class. Old 
 Mexico was low down and Maximilian wanted this avenue 
 built up to be the centre of widening circles of humanity that 
 should beat way up to the base of rock-bound Chapultepec. 
 "With the Carlos IV statue as a hub, a statue that Humboldt 
 affirmed was scarcely inferior to that of Marcus Aurelius in 
 Rome, Maximilian planned to have radiating avenues with the 
 grand Paseo as the main spoke to the castle. It is a broad, 
 well-paved boulevard with double rows of shade trees on 
 either side, stone seats for tired walkers and enough statues 
 of heroes to fill a dozen museums or art galleries. Some of 
 these statues are placed at intervals in the six big circles m 
 the Paseo. Starting with the Juarez monument in the Ala- 
 meda we passed by equestrian and Indian statues to the great 
 Liberty Monument shaft. 
 
 In this avenue, new and old, there was one statue that our 
 guide paused before and described to us with deep feeling. 
 It was of Guatemozin, Montezuma's nephew, the Aztec chief 
 whom Cortez captured and tortured, accusing him of hiding 
 the city's vast treasures. Guatemozin would neither give in 
 nor up except to say the treasure had been thrown in the lake. 
 Cortez soaked the Indian's feet in oil and placed them over 
 red hot coals, but he bit his lips into silence and was still. 
 One of his companions, who was being tortured with him, 
 turned to his chief as if to have him confess and stop the tor- 
 ture, but Guatemozin is said to have replied, "Am I then 
 reposing on a bed of flowers?" Later in the Art Gallery we 
 saw a picture of this scene where the artist makes the red 
 glare of the fire heighten the glow of the brave Indian's 
 
192 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 determined faith. The cruel Cortez relented for a while and 
 spared this brave Aztec only to hang him later. This one act 
 puts Cortez in the damned class of Judas, and no DeQuinc^y 
 has ever risen to apologize for the deed or seek to whitewash 
 his blackened soul. 
 
 In the da^'s of Porfirio Diaz the rich flowed through this 
 Paseo artery of the blue blood in elegant equipages. Times have 
 changed, money is scarce and those who have it fear to parade 
 any style lest Carranza take it for the good of the govern- 
 ment. Instead of wealth and beauty we saw mule-drawn car- 
 riages filled with common people, and autos full of soldiers 
 and disreputable women. In the drive we passed many pala- 
 tial homes which the government had confiscated and turned 
 into barracks. 
 
 The sun was setting as we neared Chapultepec castle, the 
 broad plain on either side stretched towards the mountain 
 walls from which rise the two famous mountains, Popocatepetl 
 and Iztaccihuatl. Leaving our driver under the shade of the 
 old cypress trees we entered the brilliantly lighted cafe of 
 Chapultepec where there was eating, drinking and dancing. 
 It wasn't much to our taste and style but it is Mexico's swell 
 society resort. On reaching the city again we fell in line with 
 a surging crush of autos and carriage on Francisco ^Madero 
 street. It was a jam of vehicles and a jelly of humanity. 
 
 SERENADING A POET 
 
 THE press is suppressed if it refers to any vital matter 
 in ]\Iexico concerning the welfarci of the people. 
 I^p^' Daily loot, murder, graft and bad banditry get no 
 ^^Mt^^ reference, so the editors were glad to have a poet 
 arrive from Spain and thus be able to fill up their columns 
 with his picture and poems. His name was Salvador Rueda 
 and he ran a close second to Carranza, who must have been 
 filled with envy at the space the verse-rhymer received in the 
 papers. We saw the Andalusian bard by the merest chance 
 and not because we were invited. "Walking down the main 
 street one night at 10 o'clock we turned a comer and saw a 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 193 
 
 crowd filling the street and walk by a hotel. It was mostly 
 made up of girl and boy students, a troupe of modern trouba- 
 dors serenading the guest poet in the hotel with Mexican 
 national airs. Their leader passed out the sheet music, 
 mounted the steps, waved his hand for a baton and led the 
 voices. They sang low and loud, tragically and tremulously, 
 in tune and out of tune. When an auto or carriage came by 
 on this main thoroughfare the crowd refused to permit it to 
 pass, pursed its lips into one big mouth saying, ' ' Sh-h-h ! ' ' 
 Can you imagine such a scene in America unless the hero was 
 a football, prize fight or political celebrity ? Think of a crowd 
 blocking a street, singing songs at midnight in front of a 
 leading hotel, keeping everybody awake, just for a Spanish 
 poet. He came out and gave a balcony scene of his poetic pro- 
 file, bowed and smiled but said nothing. His admirers sang 
 again and he came out again, but would not break his silence 
 with poetry or prose. One look at him was enough for me and 
 when I left at midnight the crowd was still there. Perhaps 
 the only way he did get rid of them was to drop several 
 original stanzas of leaden verse on their heads. 
 
 WANTED— A NEWSPAPER 
 
 I HE progress of the centuries has been indicated by the 
 milestones of the press. From the iron, brass and 
 silver age we have reached the golden one of news- 
 paperdom, the grandest temporal gift of Providence. 
 One of the mightiest forces in our modern civilization is 
 our daily press, which has often directly and indirectly been 
 the pulpit's best ally. It has gone forth a Jason to slay the 
 threatening dragons and bring back the nation's golden fleece. 
 It has been a fist to strike illegal trusts, insurance dishonesty, 
 corporation steals, rate discriminations and a Samaritan hand 
 to clasp the panic-stricken, poor and disheartened of our own 
 and other lands, 
 
 A change has come over the spirit of this high ideal and 
 some editors have become mean, mercenary, mendacious and 
 muzzled. 
 
194 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 William Marion Reedy, the prominent newspaper man, 
 declares the average newspaper is the supreme eorruptor of 
 the age in which we live; that money is primary and truth 
 and right secondary ; that income comes from sale of advertis- 
 ing space ; that space is only valuable as the paper has circu- 
 lation and that in their anxiety to get the biggest circulation 
 editors and managers appeal to the ignorance, whim, preju- 
 dice and passion of the reader. In newspaper words this is 
 "hot stuff." To those who deny the charge and declare the 
 object of the press is to educate public taste and elevate public 
 morality let me refer to Mr. A. Maurice Low, one of America's 
 leading journalists, who has contributed several significant 
 articles in the Yale Eeview. To him the modem newspaper is 
 a business rather than a profession, a purely commercial insti- 
 tution like a drygoods store or hotel. No manufacturer sells 
 his output at loss except the newspaper publisher. For his 
 profit he depends not on the sale of the paper but on the 
 advertiser. The advertising depends upon the circulation. 
 The newspaper is no longer a free agent. It cannot print 
 matter that might offend or injure large advertisers. Its 
 hands are tied. "While posing as a missioner it groAvs rich on 
 the profits of the merchant." "The advertiser must be treated 
 with the same deference that an expectant nephew shows his 
 rich uncle." 
 
 Of course this isn't new to any of us but it is said by a man 
 who speaks with authority from within the ranks of journalism 
 itself, Mr. Low having been the Washington correspondent of 
 the Boston Globe since 1886. If Sunday newspaper syndicates 
 would print Mr. Low's articles or John D. furnish money 
 enough to have them appear as full page display ads in every 
 city and country newspaper it might do some good and so 
 offset an edition which many people regard as the Devil's 
 Bible where sin is printed in great primer and virtue in non- 
 pareil; where colored supplement cartoons are not only comic 
 but coarse, confusing and caricaturing art and nature in the 
 minds of the children who pore over its pages, and where 
 "news fitting to the night, black, fearful, comfortless and hor- 
 rible," creeps and crawls through its columns. 
 
 To the Sunday newspapers has been applied the Scripture^, 
 "They could not see Jesus because of the press," by those who 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 195 
 
 felt it was unnecessary, unlawful, disreputable, a thief of 
 needed rest, a breaker up of the family altar, an enfeebler of 
 conscience, and an unfitter for the sanctuary. Personally I 
 read its headlines to know what specially to pray for, and as 
 I think of the big sea of printer's ink in which the readers 
 are to be drowned, I pray for them and for the guilty editors, 
 whose small editorial reference to art, music, literature, relig- 
 ion, foreign and political news is buried under a blanket sheet 
 of assault, adultery, fiction, fashion, gossip, lies, murders, raids, 
 sensations, sporting and theatrical news, worldly want ads 
 and vicious advertisements. Christ was crowded out of the 
 Inn at Bethlehem and if He came to the big cities Sunday 
 morning he wouldn't get much space in their papers unless he 
 paid for it. 
 
 "Wanted: a Newspaper" would make a good full page ad 
 and I would be willing to pay for it if I could get one with 
 even one or two of the five following characteristics : 
 
 Newsy: Everybody's doing something all the time and it 
 is the business of the newspaper to report it even though its 
 rival may have a "scoop" and its editor doesn't like the relig- 
 ion or the race or the politics, the private or public life of the 
 one who did it. The world wants and has a right to news 
 which represents everything and everybody clerical, histori- 
 cal, political, scientific, literary and sporting. 
 
 Truthful: It's a proverb, "If you see it in the newspaper 
 it isn't so." Lies white, gray and black are as easy as in Ham- 
 let's time; lies of ads and editorials and politics and religion 
 dictated by a gold pen or pencil. We no longer read novels 
 for fiction but go to the daily papers. 
 
 Clean: As in the time of Henry IV, "there's villainous 
 news abroad," of gossip, slander, co-respondents, skeletons in 
 home closets, and confessions of salacious scoundrels in public 
 life. These are served with our meals in the Morning Stink- 
 Pot, the Evening Sewer, and the Sunday Cesspool. 
 
 What a home picture for a modern Hogarth to paint of 
 father and mother, with their children gathered around, 
 praying, "Angels and ministers of grace defend us from 
 the ghoulish garbage of the press." 
 
 Fearless: Napoleon said: "Four hostile newspapers are 
 more to be feared than a thousand bayonets." Under a Re- 
 
196 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 publican form of government, as nowhere else, editors are not 
 to show the white feather; not to echo public sentiment but 
 to mold and make public opinion; not to supply a demand 
 beneath but to demand a supply from above; to be in the 
 forefront of reform, to commend the good, censure the bad, 
 tell us what to fight against, or accept and make fellowship 
 with as friends. 
 
 Time was when the government censored the press; now 
 the tables are turned and we have censorship of the govern- 
 ment by the press for the people. Let the press fearlessly 
 declare for all creeds, conditions and classes ; flash danger sig- 
 nals to warn youth against sins of body and soul which sur- 
 round them in country homes and lie in wait to destroy them 
 in the city; inquire whether all the people are to have a 
 square deal or the majority to be put in a corner of graft 
 and special privilege by the minority; whether this govern- 
 ment is to be of, by and for the people or for, by and of a 
 set of elerico-politicians who disgrace the position they occupy, 
 giving credence to Dr. Johnson's statement that "Patriotism 
 is the last refuge of a scoundrel," or Walpole's, "Every man 
 has his price." 
 
 Free: Free press and free speech is America's motto. 
 Here Cavour's idea of free church and free state are to be 
 realized. The press must be free to speak according to the 
 dictates of its own pious and patriotic conscience and not be 
 bull-dozed or bought up, harassed or embarrassed as it is in 
 Mexico and monarchially mismanaged countries, A paper 
 should be free and not the slave of some fool, fanatical or 
 financial backer; free to give "a square deal" and not let "I 
 dare not wait upon I would." If the Devil were in town 
 Saturday I would have him preach for me Sunday and if I 
 had a newspaper I would report him Monday in order that 
 the people might know what he said and reply for or against 
 him Tuesday. 
 
 This twentieth century is the age of humanity, not theoret- 
 ically so much of Moses in Genesis as practically of men and 
 women in their every day life. It is the mission of the press 
 to touch life at every point; to ring out the false and ring 
 in the true; to help reform drunkenness, slum settlement and 
 social evils; give labor its due; right the wrongs of childhood 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 197 
 
 and make this world a better place to live in, where the beau- 
 tiful picture hung by the angel on the sky of John's beatific 
 vision is realized. 
 
 The aim, ambition and attainment of an ideal press will 
 never be called "yellow" so long as the people know their 
 editors have culture, backed by courage and consecration, for 
 the American ideas of religion, education, liberty and 
 patriotism. 
 
 GRASSHOPPER HILL 
 
 HAPULTEPEC is a rocky crag 150 feet high crowned 
 by a castle. It seemed much higher as we climbed 
 up, for the air was rare. There is an elevator 
 through the solid rock into the palace for illustrious 
 visitors or royalty to sneak in from a lark late at night. We 
 were not in that class. Visitors have always been chal- 
 lenged who have tried to reach the top of Chapultepec and 
 we were compelled to show our passes before we were 
 admitted. General Scott was forced to make one of his own 
 in 1847 by blowing up the old powder mill, Molino del Key, 
 in the rear, thereby commanding it from the two sides. He 
 literally blew into the town with his 7,500 U. S. troops, for 
 Chapultepec is the door and gateway of the city. 
 
 Neither he nor we were the first discoverers because its 
 name indicates that it was the summer-resort of the grasshop- 
 pers, Chapultepec meaning "Grasshopper hill." Some say 
 the Aztec chiefs walked with their many wives beneath the 
 big old cypress trees, using the hill as a summer residence. 
 The guide pointed out a sort of family burial lot and some 
 figures of the Aztec chiefs carved on the base of the rocks. 
 One large rock had the outline of Montezuma and it would 
 seem Cortez tried to efface it, for he was jealous of any face 
 but his own. 
 
 Later the Spanish Viceroys liked the viewpoint and put 
 up a palace befitting the glorious scenery. It remained for 
 the usurper Maximilian to put on the finishing touches. 
 Without doubt he had fine taste in respect to women, dress 
 and luxurious surroundings. From Montezuma to Porfirio 
 
198 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 Diaz the castle has been the official residence of Mexico's 
 
 rulers. 
 
 Gibraltar suggests war, so does this rock hill. A military- 
 school or college occupies the terrace of the palace and has 
 been called Mexico's West Point. It is always an exclama- 
 tion point to the visitor who looks out on the unrivalled 
 view. Around it there is a park splendid with cypress trees, 
 giants 175 feet high, many centuries old, with a waist line of 
 more than fifty feet and with grey, Florida-like moss wigs and 
 long whiskers. One grand, gloomy and peculiar cj^press is 
 called the "tree of Montezuma" under which human proces- 
 sions of the strong and weak, king and subject, lord and lady, 
 rich and poor, have passed on into the grave. 
 
 Nearby there is a spring known as Montezuma's bath that 
 sends pure water to Mexico City over an aqueduct of nearly 
 a thousand arches. It was here that Montezuma and his 
 men, tired from play, came and took a plunge. Of interest, 
 too, is the soldiers' monument erected to forty Mexican cadets, 
 brave boys who were among the 4,000 under General Nicolas 
 Bravo who surrendered to General Scott after a short but 
 stubborn struggle. There is an astronomical observatory, yet 
 no glass is necessary to see the glory of heaven above and 
 earth beneath. The pauper peon, as well as star-eyed pro- 
 fessor, may take in the beauty of the scenery. 
 
 There is a government wireless by the lake and it out- 
 towers the castle and trees. It is said to have been used in 
 the interests of the German spy system. The beautiful park 
 of Chapultepec has become a Daphne Grove since the revo- 
 lution. Filthy lucre blinds the eyes of the caretakers. Not 
 only men and women resort here at night, but any after- 
 noon one may see young girls and boys, who according to 
 Latin custom may not see each other at home except through 
 iron bars, coming out with books under their arms as if to 
 study poetry and nature, when their only object of contem- 
 plation is passional human nature. 
 
 We entered the castle throusrh a big arched gate with its 
 statues of soldiers standiner eruard on each pillar. A barracks 
 of Mexican soldiers is stationed here and two soldiers looked 
 at our passes. They had watched us coming up the winding 
 road just as they did when we returned by a steep stone 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 199 
 
 stairway. If the visitor is a woman, young and pretty, no 
 questions are asked. She is at once welcomed and will be 
 invited to take her time and make herself at home. The girl 
 who has a free and easy look gains easy admission to the 
 castle. I saw a number of gay Mexican seiioritas here in the 
 barracks, sitting in the windows playing cards with the sol- 
 diers and smoking cigarets. The soldier rules Mexico today 
 and La fille de regiment rules and ruins the soldier. Military 
 rules and commands are strictly enforced, those of the Ten 
 Commandments are ruled out. 
 
 A trip through the castle convinced us that rulers had a 
 high old time up here. There were mosaic floored corridors, 
 kingly and queenly apartments and roof gardens for presi- 
 dent and ambassador parties, where our diplomuts had their 
 eyes blinded with beauty, their ears filled with music and 
 their mouths shut with game dinners and champagne sup- 
 pers. This was the place where government officials spent 
 their time, energy and the people's money in royal revelry of 
 eating, drinking, gambling, dancing and sporting on a par 
 with the French court and courtesans. They came to the 
 same end when the people rose up in revolutionary might, 
 crushed these royal toys and threw them out. 
 
 Maximilian was a bon vivant. The nude art in canvas, 
 bronze and marble had no terror for him. His lady friends 
 were welcome. Mosaic floors echoed to their tread, gorgeous 
 mirrors reflected their fair forms, cut glass chandeliers and 
 gold ornaments reflected the light of their eyes and the 
 carvings and decoration suggested the form and color of 
 proud, profligate Pompeii. 
 
 The castle has a balcony corridor that overlooks the city. 
 You cannot see out of the enclosing glass panels because of 
 the leaded glass figures of men and women in them. The cus- 
 todian slipped up to the glass figure of a pretty girl, lifted 
 up her skirt, which was a little window pane, and gave us a 
 magnificent view of — Mexico City. Here was unrolled before 
 our bewildered eyes a panoramic paradise. Moses never saw 
 a finer sight from Pisgah. Below lay a level green valley, 
 golden fields, silver lakes, all stretching away fifty miles to 
 mountain walls and peaks that Nature's brush had painted 
 blue and purple. It was a heavenly view, unique and not to 
 
200 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 be compared to any -world beauty spots I had ever seen. In 
 this valley lay the City of Mexico, to which as to mountains, 
 distance lends enchantment. While it appeared like a New 
 Jerusalem it was a City of Destruction, and just beyond those 
 mountain walls of paradise were bands of bandits making 
 hell on earth. 'Twas ever thus, things are not always what 
 they seem, appearances of people and places are very deceit- 
 ful. Heber was right, "Every prospect pleases and only man 
 is vile." 
 
 The view of Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl from Chapul- 
 tepec is as grand and glorious as Kinchinjunga from Dar- 
 .ieeling. If you don't believe it, go to the dictionary or 
 India and look for yourself. In plain English the view from 
 the castle of city, valley and mountains is great. But to be 
 in the class of writers on Mexico I am compelled to say some- 
 thing like this: "What overpowering emotion must have 
 overwhelmed i\Iontezuma as he stood here on Chapultepec 
 gazing over the Aztec Tenochitlan to the amethyst vista of 
 Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl." Savy? 
 
 GODLESS, GRAFTING GUADALUPE 
 
 UADALUPE is the holy shrine and show of ^Mexico, 
 three miles from the capital. We were glad to make 
 a patriotic pilgrimage to this town of filth, fanatics 
 
 and fiction to find one true fact at least, to wit, 
 
 that in a small house here my Uncle Sam pulled off a big 
 deal February 2nd, 184,8, when he signed a treaty with 
 Mexico, thus settling the boundary line between Upper Cali- 
 fornia and New Mexico. Uncle drew the map of ]\Iexico 
 with the line of the Rio Grande on the east and Colorado on 
 the west. We greased tlie IMexican greaser's palm with 
 $1.5,000.000 and told him to go home and be quiet and we 
 would assume certain of his other crying claims. 
 
 Caudalupe was the Jerusalem, Mecca, Rome, and holy 
 what-not and so forth of the i\rexicans. The sacred road that 
 leads to it has been profaned by the hand of time and revo- 
 lution. Statues and shrines, that welcomed pilgrims along 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 201 
 
 this Via Sacra, are now fallen and crumbling. The modern 
 up-to-date pilgrim takes the railroad or tram-car to the city 
 of Gaudalupe. Years ago, on December 12th, there were 
 special railroad excursions from all over Mexico to this shrine, 
 bringing the faithful to pray and pay. Today the lid is on 
 and much prohibition is enforced. 
 
 A tram-car took us and two dozen dirty, devout Indians 
 to Guadalupe. Walking through the shady little plaza we 
 came to the church yard enclosure. Here was a row of stalls 
 with cloth shade or umbrellas overhead and Indian vendors 
 under them who were beckoning and calling us to buy their 
 sacred candles, images of saints and saviours, little cakes 
 which may only be had here, medals and talismans of the 
 patron saint, crosses, rosaries and tiny little legs and arms 
 symbolic of some suffering part of human anatomy. The 
 church of Guadalupe is situated at the foot of the Tepeyacae 
 hill, and this motley mob of money-makers makes your soul 
 and stomach sick as if you had taken a dose of ipecac. It was 
 like a country fair with its yelling and selling of religious 
 wares. 
 
 This big church was builded in the honor of the Virgin 
 of Guadalupe. "We doffed our hats and entered. The cus- 
 todian was polite and more so when we gave him a shiny 
 piece of metal. It worked miracles. He showed us every- 
 thing, the burial crypt beneath and the sacred little souvenirs 
 of gold and silver representing the parts of the body that 
 had been healed in answer to prayers to the patron Virgin. 
 In one of the side rooms there was a wall covered with rude 
 paintings and daubs made by the Indians. I saw one of a man 
 being run over by a street car. It showed how the Virgin 
 interposed and saved his life. Another of one drowning, and 
 still another of a man being injured by an infuriated bull. 
 Whatever the man escaped or recovered from — a sick bed, or 
 a bad storm at sea — he gratefully sketched, scrawled or 
 daubed and presented it to the church as a thank offering to 
 the Virgin, or as an occular proof of his cure. Most of the 
 pictures are from six to ten inches square and painted in all 
 colors of the rainbow. In Europe and elsewhere I have 
 visited art galleries with their thousands of religious sym- 
 bolic and superstitious pictures, but never saw anything like 
 
202 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 this. However poor the art it was a true picture of the 
 superstitious soul of the Indian and was painted with his 
 heart's sineerest blood belief. 
 
 This church has been a gold and silver mine to the clergy, 
 and millions have been coined from the peon's belief. It has 
 been estimated that the poor peons contributed fifty tons of 
 silver which make up the candelabra, altar-rails, vessels, etc. 
 The priest guide pointed out the gilt and gold vessels, silver 
 railing and led us up the altar steps to the most holy of 
 holies, the place of the miraculous picture of the Virgin, be- 
 lieved by all the faithful to have been miraculously stamped 
 on the scrape (blanket) of the Indian shepherd Juan Diego. 
 
 "We obtained a close view of it and critically studied it 
 this way and that, and very near as you might a Turner or 
 Rembrandt to see how thick and in what way the paint was 
 laid on, who the artist was and how he signed his name. But 
 we found little satisfaction. There was no miracle in paint 
 or skill. The real and only miracle being that any one could 
 believe it to be such. This million dollar mar^^el was simplv 
 a daub of thick paint on a piece of coarse, cheap canvas. It 
 is out of reach and behind a crystal case framed with rich, 
 gold border, yet it appears to have been touched and 
 retouched in places where the thick paint dried up and fpll 
 off. What fools these mortal Mexicans be. Let me give 
 you the true history of this picture which has brousrht fame 
 and fortune to this little city. No master Eanhael or modern 
 IMillais ever painted such a valuable canvas. The sale of their 
 divine pictures compared with this rough daub was glass to 
 diamonds. 
 
 A FAIRY STORY 
 
 O 
 
 \TE UPON A TIME— to be exact, December 9, 1531, 
 for it is strange that dates of fact are forgotten 
 and fancied things are definite — a poor Indiana re- 
 cently converted, who went by the name of Juan 
 Diego, was on his way to early mass in ]\Iexico City. Tired of 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 203 
 
 his long and early tramp, he paused at the foot of the hill Tepe- 
 yacac, where he heard a bird chorus, and looking up saw a rain- 
 bow. SLi'.ldenly a voice called him by name. He hurriedly climbed 
 the hill and was rewarded by seeing a most beautiful lady, whose 
 raiment was brighter than a spotlight, and was turning the 
 rocks and thorns into a glory of heaven. She modestly intro- 
 duced herself in Mexican speech as God's mother, told 
 him to go to Mexico City and tell Bishop Zumarraga to hurry 
 and make plans, raise money and build her a chapel here so 
 that those who were sick, tired or didn't care to walk three 
 miles to church might worship her. Juan Diego, like Joan of 
 Arc, believed in the voices and vision, and with a "Yes, mam, 
 I'll do as you say," hurried to the Bishop of Mexico. His rev- 
 erence had something to do besides wasting time on a poor 
 crazy Indian and he told him he would see him later about 
 it. Juan's tender heart was broken for he feared he might 
 see the good lady again on his return and be compelled to 
 tell her the bishop thought he was either a liar or lunatic. 
 Sure enough she was there to meet him and asked the Bishop 's 
 reply. Then as the sun set and a great shadow of fear fell on 
 his heart, he told her that he had been turned down. But 
 the bright lady comforted him, repeated her request and com- 
 manded him to return to the Bishop next day. Like Paul, 
 Juan was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. This time 
 Rev. Zumarraga acted as if he were born in Missouri and 
 wanted to be shown, and he sent his servant with Juan and 
 bade them bring back some proof or sign of the twice-told 
 tale interview with the good lady. Reaching the hill 
 they found her waiting for them and she repeated her former 
 command to hasten and build her a church. Juan went home 
 first to think about it and on his arrival found his uncle 
 very sick. He started at once to return to town, and to 
 avoid meeting his fair, good lady friend, he took a new route. 
 Imagine his consternation when, looking back, he found her 
 coming down the hill to meet him. Poor Juan, a sick uncle 
 and a persistent woman. This time she said she would give 
 him her credentials, a sign that the old Bishop would under- 
 stand and obey. Looking at Juan and pointing to a pile of 
 bare rocks she gently told him to go there and find some beau- 
 tiful dew-kissed Spanish roses. Thereupon she did the slight 
 
204 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 of hand magician act, for wlien Juan got there the wilderness 
 was blossoming like a rose. He hastily filled his blanket 
 with them and hurried to the Bishop, threw them on his study 
 floor with a "Now will you believe me," and as he picked up 
 his blanket, lo and behold, the image of the Virgin was im- 
 printed upon it. In some Avay not explained, the Bishop rec- 
 ognized her features, said it was a true sign, proving all that 
 Juan had told him so often. Then he proceeded to get a 
 move on himself and began to build a ciiurch on Cerre del 
 Tepeyacac, the hill where Juan swore the good lady had 
 appeared to him on four different occasions. Now this 
 blanket, tilma, or scrape of the shepherd Juan, on which the 
 good lady had miraculously imprinted her face, as a sort of 
 sacred trade-mark, is what they showed me so religiously 
 guarded and preserved in this Guadalupe cathedral. There 
 is no doubt about this being an "o'er true tale." Seeing is 
 believing. If you doubt me, go to Guadalupe, hunt up the 
 sexton, give him some money and you'll see something. 
 
 It is incredible tliat this fairy, fable story should ba 
 believed. The Roman Catholic historian Icazbolceta told the 
 Archbishop Labastida that it was pure fake, there was no 
 Juan Diego or Virgin apparition, and that the Virgin face 
 scrape was painted by some lying, get-rich-quick quack who 
 deliberately limned the face and lied about it to hold up the 
 peons and the people. No matter, there was millions in it 
 for the church. But in religion there is no "damned error" 
 but some sober brow blesses it with a text. This fake side- 
 show has run a many years' stand and the people stand and 
 fall for it today. While we were in the church we saw well- 
 dressed, apparently intelligent women and ignorant, filthy 
 peons creep on their knees towards this figured canvas. 
 
 Moses built all things according to the "pattern in the 
 mount" and this church was put up and finished in 1533 on 
 the fabulous foundation, of this story. Indians come for 
 miles on sore knees and feet, hungry and thirsty to visit this 
 shrine. Koyalty as well as rags does the same. In 1895, 
 with Papal consent, and with an archbi.shop from the U. S., 
 the .shrine of Guadalupe was advertised into greater popu- 
 larity and value as a money-getter by placing a large, new, 
 expensive crown over the canvas faced head. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 205 
 
 HOLY STEPS 
 
 HE NAME "Virgin of Guadalupe" has always been 
 a potent charm for wild inspiration. Under the 
 banner of Guadalupe the Indians fought fanatically 
 for their independence. At other times, dressed up 
 with all their paint, furs and feathers, they crowded this 
 altar and kicked up their heels in one of their sacred dances. 
 Then the town of Guadalupe was like a big circus, the church 
 the big show, and the holy well a side show. Bazaars sold 
 holy junk, booths were filled with a noisy eating, drinking 
 rabble. When night came the Indians, full of pulque, prac- 
 tised tricks and took advantage of feast day indulgences 
 that made it a divine debauch, a carnival of carnality. Pious 
 precepts gave way to brothel prostitution and the H'oly 
 Trinity took a back seat for Bacchus, Venus and Terpsichore. 
 Hon. W. Thompson, our U. S. minister to Mexico some years 
 ago, said that some one who had seen these awful orgies 
 declared the motto above the Guadalupe image, **Non fecit 
 toliter omni natione," should be translated, "She never made 
 such fools of any other nation." I am not so sure, I have 
 seen the same style of sensuous excitement and spirituality 
 at St. Anne de Beaupre out from Quebec, at Copocobana and 
 at Lourdes. 
 
 "With my heart filled witli disgust and no devotion I 
 started for the sacred stone stairway leading up the hill to the 
 chapel. On the way we passed through tortuous narrow 
 streets and alleys before we came to the base of the hill, 
 above which is perched the chapel of Guadalupe. I saw 
 people crawl on their calloused knees up these steps as if it 
 were the Sancta Seala in Rome. There were over 200 steps, 
 the sun was very warm, and not feeling as pious as the 
 natives, we walked up. As we paused at times to rest we 
 were importuned for alms by penitential beggars. Sellers of 
 holy stuff shouted their special, sacred, souvenir wares. On 
 and up we sailed, looking for the famous oft-photographed 
 monument of the stone mast and sail which many years ago 
 was erected here by the stairway, to show the gratitude of a 
 sea captain. He was caught in a storm and vowed he woul3 
 erect a ship to the Guadalupe Virgin if he escaped ship- 
 
206 THE DEVIL IN MEXJCO 
 
 Avreck. He reached shore but must have been a financial 
 sliipwreck, for only a part of his full-rigged promise was 
 carried out. Perhaps it was the thought that he himself 
 and not she had brought him to land, his works and not 
 faith in her, and that the mast and sail were enough of an 
 investment. We looked around for it in vain. It had not 
 been blown over or sunk by some dirigible or submarine. A 
 spanking breeze had slapped it and turned it over a few 
 months before. 
 
 The cemetery is back of the chapel. "We walked through 
 this populated city of the dead with its trees, tombs, flowers 
 and funeral urns. Santa Anna and other famous Mexicans 
 rest here after their life's fighting, fitful fever. The view 
 of the valley is glorious, and I trust these immortals view it 
 from a sublimer height. 
 
 SACRED SEWER WATER 
 
 THE chapel of the sacred well is the second great 
 attraction in Guadalupe. I have seen the legendary 
 footprint of Jesus on the Mount of Ascension in 
 Jerusalem, and of Peter in the Roman prison. They 
 were large dry prints, the print here is large and wet, for 
 you must remember that when the Virgin appeared to our 
 friend Juan Diego, at the base of the hill, she stamped her 
 foot, in emphasizing her order to the Bishop, and forthwith 
 a spring of mineral water — chalybeate — gushed forth. The 
 water has an iron taste from which it is a fair deduction that 
 she wore a shoe with iron nails in the heel. Here was another 
 golden opportunity to build another church bank called a 
 chapel. It is a cupola-shaped affair resembling the Baptistry 
 at Pisa. Labor was contributed by the natives as a religious 
 act. The devout women of the higher class and best families 
 united with the poor peon class, working side by side until 
 it was completed. 
 
 Here thronged thousands of souls, thirsty pilgrims, the 
 lame, blind, sore, sad, sick in muscle, nerve and bone, all heirs 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 207 
 
 to humanity's ills. Why? To drink the miraculous waters 
 of this holy Carlsbad, Saratoga, Blue Lick, and be cured. 
 Were they? They were according to the certificates and 
 written oaths of those who came and drank of the spring 
 water that coursed with life current from stomach to heart 
 and through the veins, purifying their blood and making them 
 feel healed from the heel of their foot to their crown of black 
 hair. But this is ancient history. This place in time grew 
 into a pesthouse, the spring was polluted and became a 
 "savor of death unto death" and not of "life unto life." It 
 was a sewer and no longer a spring. The blessed holy water 
 had become a curse, a cesspool and crime against public 
 health. The government stepped in, not the spring, but the 
 building, barred the spring inside and closed the door out- 
 side. I looked in through the bars, saw where literal mil- 
 lions had slaked their fevered thirst and noted the pavement 
 worn by weary feet that had traveled many blistered 
 miles. Prohibition is now in force. The health commis- 
 sion has put up the bars and they are closed. The stench 
 from this spring was fierce and the atmosphere was one of 
 squalor as well as superstition. They have a proverb, as the 
 Romans have of their Treves Fountain, that whoever drinks 
 of this water will be compelled to return to Mexico. I doubt 
 it. One good drink of this would be fatal and the man would 
 never have a chance to get away, to say nothing of returning. 
 Horatio, can such things be and not excite our special won- 
 der and disgust? 
 
 To think that this Guadalupe picture and spring were once 
 the most prominent things in Mexico and there was nothing 
 anywhere like them. It would be a spiritual and sanitary 
 blessing if the next earthquake that visits Mexico would come 
 out here on a pilgrimage, shake to pieces and bury this old 
 monument of idolatry more senseless than the old Indians 
 erected to their Toltec and Aztec deities. This ulcer sore 
 and cancer should be cut out of the body that pretends to 
 be religious. 
 
 Good-bye to thee, godless Guadalupe, and to thy Virgin, 
 about the only one there according to report. It is high 
 time this ehurehly superstitious cruelty to the Indians is 
 thrown on the scrap heap with the Inquisition. 
 
208 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 INQUISITION INFAMIES 
 
 HE INQUISITION, that branch of the tree of clerical 
 life, M-as planted by Tiber hands in ]\Iexican soil 
 and grew like a green bay tree from 1574 to 1820, 
 two and one-half centuries. What was once the old 
 Palace of the Inquisition in Mexico City is now a medical 
 college. Here the Christ-denying Jew and hierarchy-hating 
 heretic were tortured. Now this building is one of help, not 
 hurt, where life is saved and not destroyed. We entered 
 the light, arcaded patio and saw the noble statue of some hu- 
 manitarian. Students were lounging about and blackboards an- 
 nounced the classes. In another part of the building we 
 entered a door with the sign "Banos" over it, groped through 
 dark corridors and stepped into a court where women, who 
 live in the small cells, were mangling and hanging up clothes 
 on the rack. What a change from the time when prisoner 
 heretics were dragged out of these dungeons, mangled with 
 torture and placed on racks to get them in proper condition 
 for auto de fe burning — for that was the kind of auto they 
 had then. 
 
 I had seen the Inquisition buildings in Spain, Peru and 
 Colombia and was treated here to another chapter of this 
 religious amusement in Mexico City. Unbelievers were 
 rounded up, tortured, their money confiscated for the holy 
 office, they were publicly whipped and burned. The occasion 
 was a holiday. People came for many miles. There were 
 processions through the streets, throngs on the walks and in 
 the windows. The sport drew like a bullfight, horse race or 
 ball game. It was fashionable to ask, "Were you at the 
 Inquisition yesterday? It was fine sport!" A large plat- 
 form was built. Pious teachers, who denounced Aztec sacri- 
 fices and religion, whipped 124 penitents at a time through 
 these ]\Iexican streets and burned 19 effigies of those who 
 escaped. The records show that in 1574 "21 pestilent 
 Lutherans" were executed. From this year to 1600 there 
 were "879 processes in ]\Iexico alone and 1,402 in the follow- 
 ing century." The main articles of furniture in the Holy 
 Office were the thumb-screws, chains, whips, racks and 
 torches. What is done now by bandits was done then by 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 209 
 
 bigots. An eye-witness wrote: "May it please God, that all 
 be to his glory; the confusion of enemies, and the praise of 
 Jesus Christ, the blessed Virgin and all the heavenly court; 
 and may God prosper this holy and necessary office to the 
 extirpation of all heresies." 
 
 Wherever such Inquisition ideas prevailed humanity was 
 dwarfed and made dead. Its results are seen in the backward 
 condition today of Spain, Peru, Colombia and Mexico. God 
 grew tired of this. He declared this cup of iniquity was 
 full, and when the Mexican patriot Morelos was sacrificed, 
 the Inquisition blood flowed over and ceased in 1820. The 
 last year was spent fighting liberalism, and its death knell 
 was rung November 26th, 1815, when Jose Maria Morelos 
 was killed. This man, in honor of whom a Mexican state was 
 named, who was Hidalgo's successor, a brave and brilliant 
 soISier, a frank, firm and magnetic character, a thoroughly 
 innocent and pious soul, was accused and condemned in 
 advance. The Inquisition body gave the verdict that he was 
 "An unconquered heretic, an abettor of heretics and a dis- 
 turber of the ecclesiastical hierarchy; a profaner of the holy 
 sacraments; a traitor to God, to the king and to the Pope." 
 Turned over to the state he was executed. He placed his silk 
 handkerchief over his eyes, walked, dragging his chains, knelt 
 and calmly said, "Lord, thou knowest if I have done well; if 
 ill, I implore thy infinite mercy." The next minute he was 
 shot through the back and fell dead. Called a traitor, the 
 gate of envy was shut and the door of immortality was 
 opened to his patriot, martyr soul. His death was the death 
 of the Inquisition. When he fell and went to heaven, it fell 
 and went to hell whence it came. 
 
 When this Inquisition office was abolished some strange 
 things came to light, just as when the Bastile was overthrown 
 in Paris and the San Juan prison at Vera Cruz. There were 
 living skeletons, naked, filthy, bone bundles of humanity, men 
 unkept, unshaved and in driveling idiocy. A poor, old man 
 was found bound to a wooden cross, his hands and feet fas- 
 tened by iron rings — he had suffered this living hell of tor- 
 ment thirty years. In Puebla the old house of Inquisition 
 was made over and a number of wall cells were broken open, 
 revealing the skeletons of victims who had been buried alive. 
 
210 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 ^Yith such beginnings and education there is no surprise 
 at what Mexico is now. Its abolition was good riddance of 
 hell's master work, and it went down never to rise again 
 when Spain's power was broken in 1821. God said "Let 
 there be light," but no translation of that Hebrew phrase 
 means a light of the martyr burning at the stake. The rev- 
 erent student of Scripture does not wonder that God's 
 "slaughtered saints" have been avenged, that Spain has lost 
 her possessions, and the Roman church her power in Latin 
 America. 
 
 COFFIN-NAILS 
 
 TJHE BUEN TONO factory leads the world in the manu- 
 facture of coffin-nails. Everybody in ]\Iexico smokes, 
 pa, ma, brother and sister. I had seen the tobac- 
 co factories in Havana where, in addition to cigars, 
 8,000,000 nails were made a. day. The Buen Tono plant 
 here is wholly given over to cigarets and turns out 20,000.000 
 c'aily. Black-eyed girls and old women were feeding 
 endless strings of strong, black tobacco into hundreds 
 of machines. I watched in wonder and asked myself what 
 greater good might have been accomplished if these 
 brains had invented machines for greater ends. Carranza 
 finds difficulty in getting ammunition to fight the rebels, but 
 so long as this factory runs he need not despair, for hundreds 
 are slowly killed all over Mexico every year by these cigarets. 
 They are mainly made for Mexico and the demand is greater 
 than the supply. Thousands starve for food, but work, beg 
 or steal to get these smokes. A photo or statue, to be true 
 to Mexican life, should have the little roll in hand or mouth. 
 It would be as unusual to see a man without clothes as to 
 see him without his cigaret. The biggest thing here is the 
 little cigaret. The man who first made, sold and carried 
 them around has prospered until his factory is the largest in 
 the world. It occupies acres, employs tliousands and conducts 
 a church and hospital for its help. If one of tho girls wants 
 1o marry a fashionable wedding ceremony is given her. If 
 later she is ill she is cared for in their hospital and if she 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 211 
 
 dies she is buried by them. From cradle to coffin she is 
 robed in tobacco wrappers. Most people would not care if 
 the church, palace and museum were destroyed, but were this 
 plant to be reduced to ashes, life would lose its charm and 
 not be worth living. Cigaret smoking is a dirty, unhealthy, 
 expensive habit and a body, mind and character-killer. The 
 old volcano Popocatepetl has given up smoking and it would 
 be a blessed thing for his admirers to do the same. 
 
 ITURBIDE AND HIS HOTEL 
 
 THE ITURBIDE HOTEL, now used by the public, was 
 once the private palace of the Emperor Iturbide. If 
 after traveling through Mexico your depressed feel- 
 ings are in search of a fit abode be sure and come to 
 this hotel. Here you may meditate and muse on the melan- 
 choly fate of Mexico. It would make fine headquarters for 
 an undertaker's convention or assemblage of ghosts. The 
 freak facade, prison wall entrance, broad, dreary, deserted 
 patio and the patio arcades are full of fearful shadows. I 
 walked this chamber of horrors one night and was followed 
 all the way through to the other street by the dismal echo of 
 my own footsteps. Even the sunshine in these corridors 
 wears a sickly pallor like a poor prisoner within walls. I 
 never found friends smoking and chatting in this patio. Low 
 spirits prevailed and that may be the reason why an elevator 
 has been put in to bear them up. 
 
 Iturbide! I wonder what "It" would say if he came 
 back here to live? As a hotel it is like his reign — a dismal 
 failure. The army is the open door to the presidency. At 
 the first Mexican insurrection Iturbide led a force against the 
 revolutionists, gained a victory and became their leader. 
 Failing to make Mexico an independent monarchy, he became 
 emperor and declared the crown hereditary. Santa Anna 
 objected with his forces, proclaimed a Eepublic and told 
 "It," who wanted to be "it," to go to Italy for his health 
 and happiness with a pension large enough to pay his board 
 bill at any pension. He went and tried to come back, for 
 
212 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 he -was politieallj^ homesick, but was arrested on his arrival 
 and shot. Iturbide was an "If I were king" for a day. He 
 was emperor for only fifty-one weeks and was limited to 
 $25,000 yearly to pay his board bill. 
 
 COCKFIGHT GAMBLING 
 
 ^^ lOCKFIGHTS are more frequent and regularly 
 \iy I attended than church services in Mexico City, Not 
 satisfied, as in most Latin capitals with one a week, 
 the people have them every day. From the pursuit 
 of cockfights and "chickens" you might conclude they were 
 all brought up on the farm. When my Express friend, 
 Darnielle, learned I was a minister, he expressed surprise that 
 I had not seen a cockfight. He called a carriage, we went 
 and occupied front seats in the big pit. The place was elec- 
 tric-lighted and vv'heu tobacco, beer and drinks were brought 
 in, ladies from box seats above looked down on us as upon 
 the other game birds and made their bets ad libitum. It was 
 the same old game, only on a larger scale, with more money 
 exchanged and more excitement. Men with pulque faces, as 
 red as the fighting cocks' combs after they had pecked each 
 other, moved around us. Outside of the pit there was a large 
 training quarters, where the game cocks are carefull}'- cared 
 for. Weeks before they fight they have a special diet and 
 their bill of fare is studiously prepared. This is where they 
 learn to win and wear their gaffs or spurs. When booted 
 and spurred they fly at each other and one of them falls 
 dead. The birds are shipped from Texas and Georgia and 
 have better care and food than the city poor. A good rooster 
 is worth fifty dollars, much more than a poor peon. Thej' are 
 lined up like prize roosters at a poultry show and their coops 
 are comfortable and clean. They have feathered sparring 
 partners who try them out every day. 
 
 This cockfighting crowd has a pit and property furnished 
 up-to-date, though the Congress building stands a steel skele- 
 ton, and the theatre, with its big unplaced stones lying around, 
 
 looks like the ruined temple of Diana. Both these buildings 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 213 
 
 were started years ago and might have been finished, but they 
 stand today mute evidences of monumental graft. Viva the 
 bullring and cockpit is the Mexican cry. 
 
 A PERFUMED PARADISE 
 
 |OCHIMILCO is an ugly name for a pretty place. It 
 means "field of fiowers." To reach the famous 
 floating gardens of Mexico, that, unlike some soaps, 
 do not float, we didn't take the long route of the 
 Viga canal, but vv^ent by street car. Browning sings, " 'Twas 
 roses, roses all the way," and you feel this way about flowers. 
 Near the dusty plaza and dreary cathedral we found an oasis 
 of fragrance and beauty, the flower market, which flourishes 
 despite the deadly night shade of the cathedral. Cigaret- 
 smoking men blocked our way and urged us to buy bouquets 
 large as a barn door. They were not only big but beautiful 
 in design, color and odor, a garden of flowers in themselves. 
 I made signs to the man to inform him that I was married 
 and not dead yet, though this was a beautiful inducement to 
 enter either state. 
 
 A flower is the one bright spot in the Mexican's life. He 
 is crafty and cruel and a cigaret fiend, but a lover of flowers. 
 Strange that they should grow in the life of a Mexican where 
 the tobacco weed takes up so much room. In the iron-fenced 
 and roofed market there were varieties of every kind of 
 flower that ever grew. In some bouquets, ten feet high in the 
 shape of a cross, circle, spray or wreath, there were lilies, 
 roses, violets and pansies, flowers red, white, blue and purple, 
 a rainbow of color, a perfumed paradise, a profusion that 
 made my nose forget all the sad smells it had been assaulted 
 with. There were bouquets for church, cemetery, office, home, 
 buttonhole and all to be had for little money. The word 
 cheap was no name for such flower wealth. In California, 
 Honolulu and the Orient I have seen and smelled flowers, but 
 neither so many nor fragrant as here. The Indians love 
 flowers. They may have little money to offer their patron 
 saint but they always bring many sweet flowers to their 
 
214 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 favorite image. Of old they had a god of flowers and heaped 
 them over the beastly ugly face of their war God liuitzil- 
 opoehtli. 
 
 Inquiring whether this was the flower season, and where 
 they all grew, we learned the season was all the year round, 
 that much of what we had seen came from Xochimilco, and 
 that no visit to Mexico would be complete without going 
 there. We went by tram and en route passed through streets 
 that had been recent lines of battle-march, by buildings pep- 
 pered with bullets and windows shot out a year ago not yet 
 repaired. Geography says Mexico City is situated in a 
 valley. The tenderfoot tourist thinks it is situated on the 
 brink of a political volcano liable to erupt at any time. Just 
 outside of the city we saw ex-battle fields and cross-road 
 trenches. Sombreroed, barefooted boatmen, with dark skin, 
 hair and eyes boarded our car long before it reached town 
 and tried to persuade us to hire them and their boat. 
 
 FLOATING TRUCK GARDENS 
 
 WHEN we stepped into the town plaza we were 
 attacked by more boatmen more insistent than Niag- 
 ara hackmen or Venetian gondoliers. We passed 
 through the little town of Xochimilco, then crossed 
 the plaza by an old church, near curious houses and by more 
 curious Indians, until, following along a narrow street, we 
 ran into something that resembled a swamp on whose edges 
 some half-naked, old women and long-haired mud-nymph 
 Mexican girls were washing clothes. 
 
 We bargained with a brawny boatman who told the guide 
 in fluent Spanish how smoothly his gondola could glide. This 
 "gondola" of his was nothing but a flat-bottomed, little mud- 
 scow with a sun-shade top. True, there were several old 
 gas launches floating around but they looked too risky. It 
 might be the old story of the hare and tortoise so we pre- 
 ferred the human machine pilot to pole us rather than any 
 rusty patent power. 
 
 Stepping in we sat down in the three chairs on the side 
 of the boat, while he stood at the stern poling as they do in 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 215 
 
 Holland. The water is shallow and there were tall trees on 
 either bank. As we moved under the little bridge, we saw 
 the proverbial boy who always hangs around the water. Now 
 we drifted by little huts, and saw women washing their hair, 
 their clothes or their children, and further along met canoes 
 loaded with vegetables grown in the truck gardens. At last 
 we knew what "floating" gardens meant. The natives build 
 a sort of log-raft and drive piles or plant trees at the corners 
 to hold it from floating away. After this they cover the raft 
 with dirt and rich soil, plant and raise their flowers and 
 vegetables on it. These so-called "floating" gardens, or 
 islands, are man-made and so arranged that they look like 
 green-squares with liquid streets at right angles. The soil is 
 rich and men were fertilizing it by digging in the water 
 and bringing up the rich muck from the bottom which they 
 spread over the surface. Flowers, poppies, celery, cabbages 
 and other vegetables grow up like Jack Bean stalks in a 
 night and these industrious Indians always have something 
 to sell. The reflection of trees wiggled in the water like 
 water-snakes. Here water gives effects that whiskey does in 
 Kentucky. As we drifted along our "gondolier" stopped at 
 every cantina on the shores trying to induce us to get him 
 and ourselves drunk. There were other artistic shadows and 
 wrinkles in the water that would delight a Corot. I am 
 sorry these poor peons are artisans and not artists. This is 
 a vegetable Venice with many carrots and not one Corot. 
 
 VENICE OUT"RANKED" 
 
 ARGrES floated by shaped like giant bread troughs 
 and loaded to the edge with wood, hay and vege- 
 tables that were being poled to. Mexico City. It is a 
 long, hard trip, requiring much time but their pas- 
 time is to kill time when not killing each other. Pleasure 
 boats with picnic parties from the city, launched by, the 
 occupants singing, playing guitars, eating, drinking and 
 smoking. This is a kind of rural Coney Island to Mexico 
 City. Sunday is the great day when hundreds come and 
 rustic restaurants and picturesque dancing pavilions along 
 
216 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 the banks are filled with those who rest and rust. Pulque 
 and beer flow more rapidly than the sluggish current. There 
 were tattered banners stretched across the canal at wayside 
 inns and outs, advertising special attractions. They were 
 symbolic of the tattered and torn condition of the merry- 
 makers next day. The only resemblance I found to the 
 liquid streets of Venice was the smell. The vegetable growth 
 of the gardens, the dirty water and filth stirred up by my 
 gay gondolier, a "gloomy Gus," stirred up my feelings with 
 an overpowering odor. In this vile vegetable Venice there 
 was no Rialto, Delia Salute, Desdcmona's Palace, Campanile 
 or Lion of St. j\Iarks. Yet all this is romantic to a rough, 
 ragged, Romeo Mexican as he sails around in a mud-scow 
 on a moonlit swamp, twanging a guitar and singing love- 
 songs to his lousy lady love. The gondolier swears instead 
 of sings. Over all there is the fragrant breeze of muck and 
 dirty water. Now they are poled by some historic onion 
 patch or garden bed to the odor of which is added the strong 
 smell of the cigaret. How blissful and poetic is this to a 
 Xochimilcan. This is no place of inspiration for a Ruskin's 
 "Stones of Venice," a Liszt and Henselt gondola song, 
 Neven's Venetian melodies, Shelley, Rogers and Byron verses, 
 but only for a health report. 
 
 XOCHIMILCANS 
 
 I HE natives of Xochimileo are amphibious, work in 
 mud and water and go from island to island like 
 so many water bugs. They are as strange as any 
 ____ people met in the travels of Ulysses and Gulliver. 
 The men are short, stocky, strong, cleanly and have a light 
 complexion like the wrapper of a five-cent cigar. The chil- 
 dren are rather good looking. The women have a weary look 
 and are as expressionless as the walls of their houses. Some 
 of the old men look like naked Nestors. They are sad sons 
 of Adam. His work curse lines their faces and hardens their 
 hands and hearts. Theij- life is one unending truck garden. 
 However picturesque and novel it may be to the traveler, it 
 is dull and commonplace to them. It is much work and little 
 play that makes them dull. Their songs are sad and they 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 217 
 
 have a strange philosophy of life. We mourn a death, they 
 make merry. We laugh at birth, they cry. They drown their 
 sorrow in a Nepenthe of pulque. 
 
 ZAPATISTAS 
 
 T THE END of the liquid road we came to the 
 deep, clear spring that supplies Mexico City with 
 water. Across the railroad track there is a large 
 electric plant, with shot out windows, that pumps 
 the water up to a stone building where it in turn is pumped 
 out. The whole face of this reservoir wall was pock-marked 
 with bullet-holes. There was a guard present, and to the 
 mental question why, a bugle note suggested the answer. 
 Only a stone's throw away there was a Carranza camp of 
 soldiers. To another mental interrogation why, the reply 
 was, to protect this water supply from the Zapatistas who 
 were but five to fifteen miles distant in the surrounding hills. 
 It is one of the favorite little jokes of the bandits to raid 
 the reservoir, shoot it up and shut off the water supply. A 
 few months before this very thing had been done. At the 
 very border of the city limits soldiers are necessary to pro- 
 tect this life-giving water. While we were in Mexico City a 
 large railroad station was burned down, supposedly by bandit 
 sympathizers, or some other band of anti-Carranza people. 
 Our Charon brought us back to the little town in safety, and 
 as the tram was leaving for Mexico City, Indian girls 
 appeared with arms full of flowers for a few cents compared 
 with their size and scents. 
 
 FLY AND DIRT EATERS 
 
 TIhE lake-dwellers of Mexico have no snails or maggot 
 J cheese, but prepare a toothsome dish of water bug 
 
 eggs or larv£e. We use flies for fishing, they fish 
 for flies. The Indians plant bundles of reeds with 
 the tops just above the water surface and on these reeds the 
 flies come and lay millions of eggs. When they are all 
 
218 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 incrusted like an old log with, barnacles, the sprouts are 
 pulled up and shaken until the egg-like fish roe fall off. They 
 are gathered and mashed into a sort of paste, beaten up and 
 mixed with hen's eggs and are ready to eat, especially during 
 the Lenten season. 
 
 Another delicacy on their bill of fare is the fly itself. A 
 good American housewife swats the fly. Here they carefully 
 catch him, roll him up in a cornhusk, boil him, let him cool, 
 press him into cakes and sell him. In American restaurants 
 we often find flies on the menu, in the milk or on the food 
 and we fly into a rage, throw out the intruder or order a 
 new dish. But they are never brought in as an appe- 
 tizer or special course. We have a yearly crusade against 
 the fly. If the prices of food continue to soar it may be 
 necessary for fly society to have fly parties, to catch flies and 
 make them palatable according to Indian chef recipes, 
 serving hot or cold according to the preference of the epicure. 
 
 Like Israel, Mexico dines on locusts and wild honey. We 
 ate at Grasshopper hill, but not the grasshoppers themselves, 
 as the people do in the southern part of the republic. 
 
 The dirty natives who eat dirty food and find mashed 
 flies a delicacy should not be too severely censured when they 
 fall naturally into the habit of eating dirt itself. They do 
 not do this openly and unblushingly, as the clay eaters in 
 Florida, but secretly as a man who smokes and drinks on the 
 sly the day after his New Year's resolutions to quit. It may 
 be for the flavor or because one lacks sand. Apart from the 
 proverb, "There is no accounting for tastes," little boys 
 eat dirt, grow thin of face and their little stomachs belly 
 out like balloons. Boys and girls grow up with this dirty 
 diet and die before maturity. Imagine sneaking out into the 
 back yard and taking a lunch cheap as dirt, of smuggling 
 some of it into the house and placing it under your pillow 
 to munch during the night or of carrying it around in your 
 pocket by day as if it were a bag of salted peanuts. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 219 
 
 PERNICIOUS PULQUE 
 
 N this Mexican table-land we were served with pulque. 
 There are bad eases of pulqueritis but the beverage 
 never affected me seriously. This may be because my 
 pulque was fresh and taken in small quantities. We 
 saw the maguey plant which is raised on thousands of upland 
 acres. The natives worship at this pulque shrine. A Shriner is a 
 "noble" and the Greek word applied to this maguey plant is 
 * ' agava, ' ' meaning noble, though too much pulque makes a man 
 ignoble. Its sturdy green leaves are often ten feet long, a foot 
 wide and six to eight inches thick. Shortly before the plant ma- 
 tures, in a, tall, twenty-five foot stalk, it is covered with 
 green, yellow flowers that are its own furnished funeral 
 flowers, and it is worthless. When it is living and healthy the 
 owner cuts out the heart of the large central stem, leaving 
 a nice little well. It is several feet in depth and diameter 
 and full of the sap which comes up from beneath, ready to be 
 doctored and fermented into the drink that saps the vitality 
 of the people. Often the plant produces four to eight quarts 
 a day. You do not suck it through a straw at the bar, but 
 it is sucked out by an Indian who inserts the small end of a 
 gourd into the little well of sap and draws in his breath 
 through the other end of the gourd, where a small hole has 
 been cut. When the gourd is full he empties it into a sheep- 
 skin bag that he carries over his back like the water carriers 
 along the Nile. With his mouth to the gourd, and the full- 
 bellied sheepskin of pulque on his back, he resembles a 
 bagpiper. 
 
 Nature made ''Maguey" sweet but she is soon corrupted in 
 these bad lands of Mexico. The "aguamicel," or heavy 
 water as it is called, is taken to a little distillery where some 
 old and fermented maguey, called "mother of pulque," is 
 mixed with it. What you sucked the day before in the field 
 you may swill down the next night alone or with your 
 friends. The habitual pulque user wants something stronger 
 so the mild pulque is distilled into a mad devil drink called 
 mescal. This suits the Mexican taste and he tastes but little 
 of it before he gets fiercely, fighting drunk. Pulque has 
 
220 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 inspired a maudlin j\Iexican poet to sing its praise, as Horace 
 did the Falernian wine, 
 
 "Know ye not pulque — 
 That liquor divine? 
 Angels in heaven 
 Prefer it to wine." 
 
 To be plain, pulque smells like the swill I used to feed 
 the hogs on my uncle's farm when a boy. I saw barrel loads 
 of it carried to the city and piles of sheepskins on the market 
 walks. The heat and jolt, sour barrels and old skins produce 
 a smell that ought to be stopped whether the drink is pro- 
 hibited or not. 
 
 Pulque is Mexico's national drink, a white, sour, smelly, 
 yeastly juice of the maguey plant. The sign of a pulque 
 shop is a long sheet of scissored tissue paper of many colors 
 hung over the door. The real signs are the sodden, sleepy 
 men who lie on the plazas and walks. Sundays and saint 
 days are the time to get full, not of piety but pulque. It is a 
 common sight to see cart-loads of holiday merry-makers, 
 soused with pulque and beaming with "pulquetudinous" 
 smiles. The drink is not unhealthy, is often given children 
 but an overdose diseases the body and deadens the mind. 
 Pulque is another Carranza prohibition, yet you find it sold 
 everywhere. I entered a shop and asked for a drink. The 
 keeper filled a mug from a big barrel, told my guide I must 
 go outside the shop to drink it. It is right to drink pulque, 
 but not in the saloon. 
 
 In different parts of Mexico City dirty, ragged pulque 
 drunks lie around the streets until they sober up. There seem 
 to be no police to arrest and no place to put them if arrested 
 for the jails are already full of political prisoners. 
 
 National drinks of other countries usually look nice and 
 smell attractive, but this combination flavor of sour milk and 
 stale meat is very unattractive. This may be why the Mexi- 
 cans love it, and you couldn't hire them to wear a clothes- 
 pin on their noses. It looks like thin wall paper paste, smells 
 like swill and tastes like melted yeast cakes. I presume that 
 on Popocatepetl, the Mexican Olympus, the gods quaff many 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 221 
 
 bumpers of pulque. The clown town pulque shops are quite 
 decent but those on the outskirts are rendezvous for ruffians 
 and revolutionists. Some of the pulque shops have striking 
 names— ''Mecca of Delight," "Fountain of Angels," "The 
 Hang-Out of John the Baptist," "Delight of the Apostle," 
 "Heart's Desire," "Seventh Heaven," "The Retreat of the 
 Holy Ghost," "A Night of Delight" and "The Retreat of the 
 Holy Virgin." The peon without pulque is like the French 
 without wine, the German without beer, the Englishman with- 
 out ale and the Russian without vodka. 
 
 Perhaps the best thing about pulque is the story of its 
 origin, proving that wine and women are the two feet on 
 which many a man walks to ruin. A long time ago a Toltee 
 sent his pretty daughter to his king with the present of some 
 maguey sap. The king said thanks, I like the drink some but 
 the girl much more, and he detained her as his prisoner. She 
 made no objection, knowing that she could live in better style 
 than in her father's hut, with the result that the king became 
 the father of her illegitimate son. The king tried to do the 
 right thing by her and the boy and afterwards placed him on 
 the throne. The Toltecs had been at peace for many years, 
 but from this time everything v/as different. They grew 
 jealous, fought, were scattered and died of drunkenness and 
 disease. It is the same old story, the same old curses of 
 woman and drink. Either one will play the very devil of a 
 Delilah with any Samson who ever lived. 
 
 The maguey plant vies with henequen in Yucatan. I was 
 astonished at the many uses of the cocoanut palm I had seen 
 in the South Seas, but the maguey runs it a close rival. It is 
 useful, as well as ornamental for a front door plant or a back- 
 yard drink. It is related to the cactus family, the leaves 
 shingle your house, or may be used as pig troughs, funnels, 
 rain gutters and spouts. The fibre makes a rope to hang 
 3'our enemies or a hammock to swing in with your sweet- 
 heart. The thorny tips are needles, and it is needless to say 
 may be used with a thread of the fibre to sew on your 
 buttons or put a patch in your pants. The pulp makes paper 
 on which you may write to your wife, or someone else's, and 
 long ago it was a sort of papyrus or parchment for public 
 records, and artistic use. 
 
222 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 PROHIBITION 
 
 PULQUE prohibition laws do not prohibit any better 
 than prohibition liquor laws in the United States. 
 
 The only remedy for pulque and rum in the stom- 
 ach is religion in the heart. 
 
 You can no more guide a man by law than you can steer a 
 ship by pushing against the mast. 
 
 The best antidote for disease is health. Resist the devil 
 of sickness and he will flee from you. 
 
 The way to fight Satan and sin in this world is not by 
 trying to shut them out of your life but by having your heart 
 strong to fight against the attack. 
 
 The Puritans, in the time of the Stuarts, forcibly opposed 
 gaiety and games of every kind, but there was a reaction, the 
 devil was exchanged for a witch and her hell brood that 
 made the last years of Stuart England worse than the first. 
 
 Character means trial and temptation. 
 
 The free man is not the man who wants to sin and dares 
 not, but the man who could do wrong and won't. He is his 
 own policeman and prohibition law, his own Sinai law-giver. 
 
 The honest man is not he who finds it advantageous to lie 
 but insists on telling the truth although he suffers social, 
 political and financial loss. 
 
 The most worthy woman is not the old, homely one who 
 lives in the country with no company, but the beautiful one 
 who lives in the city with all its lures and remains pure. 
 
 The innocence of ignorance is not the innocence of infor- 
 mation, as many a boy or girl has learned who came from the 
 little village to the large city. 
 
 One may be moral because he is in jail, sick, worn-out or 
 lacks ability and opportunity. 
 
 I\Iuch as the Bible declares it wants a man saved, it says 
 he may go to heaven if he will or to hell if he wants to. 
 
 Adam was mushy, vrith no manhood of character, until 
 God made him choose for himself between right and wrong. 
 He was a free moral agent, just as we are, to do good or 
 evil. Better be sincerely wrong than hypocritically right. 
 
 Christ surrounds us with choice of evil and provides ways 
 of escape. His prayer was not that His disciples should be 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 223 
 
 taken out of the world but kept from evil in the v^orld. He 
 declares His grace is sufficient for us and that we can do all 
 things in His strength. 
 
 When it comes to salvation God draws and never drags, He 
 woos but does not wallop, 
 
 Jesus said men would not come unto Him that they might 
 have eternal life. When men won't, Christ can't. 
 
 Unclean David became pure and drunken Gough became 
 temperate, not because of any fence, club or law outside, but 
 because God gave them clean hearts inside. 
 
 The world was darkened, diseased, dwarfed and damned 
 with all its laws of art, philosophy, poetry and science when 
 Christ came to Bethlehem to make men free by heart, not 
 hand, and to make them live right and righteously more 
 easily and lastingly than any patriot or reformer. 
 
 Jesus found men slaves to Roman law, Jewish ceremony 
 and to their own vile passions and told them how to be free. 
 He freed them, not by force of sword or code of law, but by 
 knowledge of the truth, the truth that they were sinners and 
 He was the Saviour. 
 
 The man who abuses liquor, food or passion is a moral 
 slave and knows it. The sin of indulgence has control over 
 him, his weak will, better judgment and the advice of his 
 family and friends. Sin in his heart puts sin in his life. 
 Regeneration and not legislation can cure evil, for salvation 
 makes safe. , 
 
 Legislation, equal to Gladstone's ideal, which renders 
 wrong-doing difficult and right-doing easy, can at best facili- 
 tate and not dispose the heart to ways of purity and truth. 
 
 Education may stimulate and enlighten, but will stop short 
 of moral and radical transformation as it did with the Gre- 
 cian philosophers in their flower-wreathed Academy, 
 
 Music, painting and science can no more furnish moral 
 power, adequate to humanity's need, than the armless statue 
 of Venus de Milo could rescue a drowning child. 
 
 Reforms may be able to cope with one or more vices, but 
 ignoring the duty of free choice and self-government, give 
 no evidence of ability to promote the healthful growth of 
 other virtues. 
 
224 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 JAILED 
 
 WE rode on every kind of a street car in Mexico except a 
 funeral and penitentiary one. The latter is a small 
 bob-tailed trolley, closed and with small barred win- 
 dows. A guard with a gun is the conductor for safe 
 passage. We went of our own free will to jail, and when there I 
 never saw so many people before who wanted to go to jail. 
 Women crowded the keeper's office to get passes, not so much to 
 go in as to be permitted to pass out. The officer glanced at us 
 with an inquisitive and suspicious eye, inquired if we had ever 
 been there before, and feeling assured we were innocent and 
 harmless, called a guide and permitted us to enter. The pen is ar- 
 ranged with radiating corridors from the centre, in which is 
 stationed an observatory, a guard and gatling gun that can be 
 directed to sweep any disturbing quarter. The building was 
 immense and full. Prisoners in the shops were making shoes, 
 clothes and bread for themselves and furniture for outside sale. 
 Hundreds of men were walking in open courts and several pris- 
 oners were in single cells that faced the patio breathing space. 
 We passed big gates where men pressed against the bars like 
 animals against a cage — wild men with arms and hands 
 stretched out begging us to buy some little souvenir they had 
 made of carved wood, bone or ivory, into the form of a cross or 
 monkey. The gi^ard said we could buy these souvenirs but must 
 keep at a good distance, for they steal at long range. 
 
 In one department some new inmates were being shaved, 
 having a free hair cut and their faces and figures photoed and 
 Bertillonized. Suddenly a man rushed out, looked at me in a 
 disturbed way. He Avas furious at someone who had opened a 
 door and ruined all his negatives by exposure. ''Not guilty," I 
 looked and said. Then a man, big, broad and swarthy, stepped 
 up to me and said in perfect English, "Are you a press repre- 
 sentative or correspondent?" "No, indeed," I answered, "just 
 a visitor." Before he could say any more my guide had led me 
 away. All my literary aspirations vanished. The inquirer had 
 eyed and asked the question as if I were some criminal editor 
 or parjigrapher, who with him had been made an associate of 
 the prison press. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 225 
 
 The pen has a hospital and its convalescents were in the gar- 
 dens or under the shade trees, for there were many health and 
 beauty spots in this sad place. 
 
 There was one wall to be remembered, for standing against 
 it was a tin man, life-size, all battered with bullets. He was a 
 target for the guard to practice on, that there might be no waste 
 of ammunition on a live man. 
 
 In the women's quarters there was an open patio. Here 
 they bathe in a huge oblong stone tank, or sit around chatting, 
 sleeping and sewing. Their curious glances suggested more 
 fear than love. In the building there was a large sleeping room 
 in the corners of which were improvised altars with lighted 
 candles, shrines and sacred pictures. Before one of them, a 
 poor girl was kneeling and praying for deliverance. One cor- 
 ner had been fitted out in palace style with rugs, chairs, bric-a- 
 brac and table. Here sat a middle-aged woman, richly dressed, 
 and writing. She was a political prisoner and the wife of a 
 prominent man. 
 
 In another part of the prison there was a large court filled 
 with men and women ail fashionably dressed, who were talking, 
 walking and visiting as if they were present at some social 
 function. When we left the superintendent gave us a plan of 
 the place and grounds, showing the cells and locations, so that if 
 we came here to stay we could tell him our preference for an 
 east or west front. 
 
 There are some jails in Mexico City where visitors are never 
 allowed to enter or leave. We were permitted to do both here, 
 and as we passed out we saw scores of people in line waiting to 
 bring in luxuries to their imprisoned friends. Returning 
 through the town we concluded that the people we saw on the 
 streets were more dangerous and desperate looking than most 
 of the convicts in jail. It is sad to know that some of the bright- 
 est and best citizens of Mexico, on a mere suspicion or jealousy 
 in politics, are thrown in jail, while the big mitt men, the big 
 thieves who run the government, are free and in public ofQce 
 and place. In America you generally vote and talk as you please, 
 but here if your ideas are different from the big chief's you are 
 told to shut up or you are shut up in jail. 
 
226 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 "POPO" AND "IZTA" 
 
 POPOCATEPETL is the undisputed giant, the perpetual 
 president and monarch of Mexico's mountains. Orizaba 
 peak is a little higher bufPopo" looks more venerable. 
 Governments come and go, revolutions whirl and cease, 
 he remains. From the foot of the mountain to the top of the 
 head he is 17,738 feet. This old man was very active in his 
 youth but has made no outbreak since 1548. His head is always 
 covered with a snow-white wig. Unlike most old men, though 
 his nickname means "Smoking Mountain," he does not smoke. 
 This may be out of respect for the old mountain woman, Iztac- 
 cihuatl, who is taking a siesta near him. Yet he could smoke if 
 he wanted to, for he is free, although he is in a mountain chain. 
 
 The Mexican Indian is full of imagination and tells many 
 legends of "Popo" and his girl. Many centuries ago this giant 
 mountain couple said or did some indiscreet or foolish thing that 
 so provoked the deity that he struck them stone dead. "Izta" 
 lies stretched out in a white shroud of snow with no get-up to 
 her, and old papa "Popo" looks sadly towards her. At first he 
 shed lava tears, grew sulphurously mad, quaked and fumed 
 with rage so that the Indians called him "God of Storms" and 
 the "Hill That Smokes." He has settled down with years and 
 become reconciled to fate. He has a belt of pine and oak trees 
 around him and some bilious, yellow sulphur spots on his head. 
 
 Personally, I think that originally these two mountains were 
 one, that they fought and fell out and became separated so that 
 today there is some little distance between them. "Izta" lies 
 in a rocky bed with a look of "Please go way and let me 
 sleep," as she stretches out her cold, icy feet towards "Popo. " 
 
 Iztaccihuatl is called "La Mujer Blanca," "The White Wom- 
 an." Were I writing a treatise on genealogy, I should say she 
 was the first white woman on this continent, though she does 
 not belong to the Caucasian race or range. There may be 
 buried secrets in her flinty heart that furnished some prehistoric 
 Wilkie Collins with material for a novel, "The Woman in 
 White." When it comes to her form I am not "stuck" on her 
 shape. Whoever carved her out was a poor artist sculptor who 
 must have drawn on his imagination and not from a real model. 
 I am fairly familiar with the feminine form and it was some 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 227 
 
 days before I could get on to "Izta's" curves and angles. Evi- 
 dently her creator had cubist ideas. That I might recognize her 
 when I saw her, my guide drew a diagram of this mountain 
 damsel and poked the atmosphere here and there to outline her 
 figure. Her face is very pallid for one who has slept out of 
 doors so long, her hair is like silver threads in the rays of the 
 golden sun. It was undone and disheveled as if she had just 
 washed it and was unable to do anything with it. Her neck is 
 long enough for a young giraffe. The rest of her bust is busted. 
 Her knees are drawn up a little and her abdomen is too big and 
 disproportioned to be beautiful. Yet I must not be too critical. 
 Any one would lose shape who slept outdoors on a pile of rocks 
 for so long a time. At sunset these great mountain peaks 
 changed and my poetic figures too. "Izta" became a big frosted 
 cake, "Popo" a pyramid of strawberry ice-cream large enough 
 to fill every mouth in Mexico and we feasted our eyes on this 
 spread. 
 
 HERMITS AND HARLOTS 
 
 HESE observations were made from San Angel Inn. 
 My attention was diverted from this "Woman in 
 White" to two scarlet women. These angels are from 
 the lower world and make San Angel their haunt. 
 Once this Inn was a monastery with a chapel for worship and 
 a surrounding garden where the brothers raised fruit. Now it 
 is a rendezvous for roues, an aristocratic roadhouse where Cupid 
 pranks are played, high prices paid and hell's hilarity prevails. 
 The town of San Angel is now in the fallen angel class and 
 has the reputation as a resort of gamblers, thieves and murder- 
 ers. We saw barracks with their soldiers and women, men drill- 
 ing in the streets and many beautiful homes and large estates 
 that Carranza had confiscated. This town is the meeting place 
 for Zapatistas who roam through its narrow ways. One expects 
 this to be a ''hot town" when he looks around at the surround- 
 ing plain, a mass of stony lava. It is time San Angel changes 
 its name or ceases to be a country-seat of Satan, 
 
 Friar Tuck belongs to a large family. He may have little or 
 no salary, but so far from being famished he lives a Falstaff 
 life. Here at San Angel I mused on what splendid quarters and 
 
228 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 gardens the holy hermits once had. What a change from a mon- 
 astery to a roadhouse, from hermits to harlots. Yet not so 
 strange, for La Soledad, a few miles away, was the same two-in- 
 one affair. AVhether the San Angel monastery was a resort for 
 fallen angels, when the monks were here, is not recorded for 
 public reading, but it is well known that what went by the 
 name of El Desierto, or La Soledad, was very far from being a 
 desert or very solitary place. Though a Carmelite convent in 
 name, it had little of the austere nature of the prophets Elijah 
 and Elisha, who visited the Carmel region above the Esdraelon 
 plain many centuries ago. 
 
 This convent of Carmel is not far from San Angel. Many 
 years ago these dear men of God retired here to get away from 
 the sins and luxuries of the city, but they brought the devil of 
 evil with them in their own hearts. It was just a pleasure 
 ground and no severe retreat. Plere 'mid flowers and fountains 
 they fasted on the finest food and sweets which the ladies 
 brought them. Maiden meditations left their souls fancy free. 
 Friar Gage was not ignorant of their hypocrisy. He gaged and 
 sized them up in 1625 and wrote an engaging account, saying, 
 "To see those hypocrites whom they look upon as living saints, 
 and so think nothing too good for them to cherish them in their 
 desert conflicts with Satan. None goes to them but carries 
 some sweetmeats, or some other dainty dish to nourish them 
 withal; whose prayers they solicit, leaving them great alms of 
 money for their masses, and above all offering to a picture in 
 their church, called Our Lady of Carmel, treasures of diamonds, 
 pearls, golden chains and crowns and gowns of cloth and gold 
 and silver. Before this picture did hang in my time twenty 
 lamps of silver J the best of them being worth a hundred 
 pounds '* 
 
 A COLD RECEPTION 
 
 1 EXICO CITY was not the capital of Mexico until that 
 I capital joke of a president, Carranza, came to the city, 
 Sunday's election had been carried out and Wednesday 
 evening Carranza came to ]\Iexico City. The papers 
 said he would arrive early by train from Queretaro, to which 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 229 
 
 city a few months before he had gone by horse, fearing the 
 train would be dynamited by his devoted subjects. Hail to the 
 chief! By his orders a triumphal entry had been planned. 
 Editors were compelled to write complimentary lies about him. 
 His beatific, bewhiskered face filled the front page and was 
 posted on the walls. 
 
 A great din drove us from dinner, and going out to the 
 street we heard whistles and clang of bells that sounded like a 
 big New Year's celebration. But it was all done by his com- 
 mand and with no joyous free-will. The streets became tribu- 
 tary rivers through which the tide of humanity ran to the ocean 
 of the big plaza. "We were carried along on the stream of peon 
 enthusiasm, from the shouting peon in the plaza to the paean of 
 bells in the cathedral towers. Anciently a paean was a song of 
 rejoicing to Apollo, the healer of evil — this paean was a mur- 
 mur of curiosity to Carranza, the doer of evil. 
 
 The church bells, so long silenced by official order, were 
 pulled over on their rusty hinges and found their tongues again. 
 They rang like the Dickens, or I should say, like those Dickens 
 describes in his "Christmas Carols," I am sure Poe, if alive, 
 could have contributed another poetic stanza to his poem of 
 **The Bells." They swing, swang, swung, — ring, rang, rung, — 
 with a ding, dang, dung! 
 
 Carranza 's great public reception was limited to a few of 
 the peon class who received him. The idle and curious were 
 mostly attracted by the noise. The upper and the better class 
 cut him. Out of 600,000 people in the city there were less than 
 three thousand present. They gathered in front of the palace 
 gate and the soldiers hewed a pathway through them through 
 which Carranza and his courtiers were to come. But they never 
 came. "We waited two hours to see and hear him in vain. If he 
 entered the palace that night he went in the back way, afraid 
 to take the risk of being bombed. The tedium of the delay was 
 not only broken by the clanging bells, but by auto loads of 
 soldiers who tore in, up, down and through the crowded streets 
 at a thirty-mile clip, not caring who were maimed or killed. 
 Disgusted, we left the disgusted throng and were satisfied to 
 reach the Club without being run over or robbed. 
 
 That night we heard a story of Carranza and his cabinet. 
 It was at a banquet, one of his members missed his watch and 
 
230 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 told Carranza. Carrauza said he knew tlie man who had taken 
 it and -would get it. Shortly afterwards he brought it back. 
 The grateful owner thanked him and inquired how he man- 
 aged it. Carranza replied, "I got it the way he did from you." 
 Another day we witnessed another fake demonstration in 
 honor of labor. It was all planned to make our newly elected 
 ambassador, Henry Fletcher, who was then in the city, believe 
 the working men were all busy, happy and prosperous and were 
 parading of their own free will. It was some show but a puppet 
 one. Carranza pulled the strings and these men were compelled 
 to come out and show off. 
 
 THEATRES 
 
 HE capital boasts an immense, beautiful and half-com- 
 pleted opera house. It is necessary to get a permit 
 from the Public AVorks officer to visit it. The man 
 whose office it is to work the public gave us the card. 
 We thanked him, crossed the street, climbed over the unplaced, 
 uncut stones and entered. There were only two men working 
 on what is planned to be the finest theatre in the western hem- 
 isphere. We roamed through unfinished promenades and corri- 
 dors, rested in the boxes and dress circles for the few rich, and 
 noticed there was little accommodation for the many poor. The 
 seating capacity was ridiculously small for so great a theatre. 
 The nude stone carvings over the main entrance are attractive 
 and artistic. Above the stage there is an immense crystal glass 
 drop-curtain with a mosaic view of "Popo." It required years 
 to make it and is a glass rainbow dream of color, a landscape 
 with "Popo" done in colored glass. The uniqueness, originality 
 and striking lights and shades are marvelous. This will be well 
 worth the price of admission even if the show beauties are poor. 
 The stage is a marvel of mechanism. Electricity moves 
 heaven to earth and earth to heaven. Hills, valleys and moun- 
 tains can be put into position, and torrents of fire or water shot 
 up or down as the play or opera demands. The stage itself can 
 be instantly lowered or raised with tableaux settings. Electric 
 apparatus, colored light screens and the very latest of every- 
 thing made in Germany, that would have delighted Wagner for 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 231 
 
 hia heaviest dramatic and musical battini?, were all here, but 
 they were unused, rusting and covered with inches of dust. A 
 brilliant idea to have the curtain, stage and everything else 
 ready, but the theatre itself half built. It is feared that unless 
 it is completed within a few years nothing will remain but a pile 
 of junk, a tragedy, a building of "steal." This is the peculiar 
 Mexican way of doing things. It is as if one built a house, had 
 the walls papered and the cut glass and painted china placed on 
 the sideboard before he put the roof on the house. The new 
 Congress Building is in the same unfinished plight, a network 
 of rusty steel. It resembled a giant bird cage waiting for future 
 political buzzards to make their nests in it and hatch out plans. 
 The unfinished opera house, too, looks like a bird cage, but there 
 are no song-birds. 
 
 In Mexico City the good people attend the theatre in the 
 afternoon and the bad people at night, though we went at night 
 not knowing the difference. Gay plumaged birds and soiled 
 doves fluttered about or perched in the boxes by the soldiers. It 
 was a coarse Spanish comic opera troupe. The cigaret chorus 
 girls sang and threw coffin nails to the audience, fluttered their 
 fans and danced fancy steps. "What most pleased the crowd 
 was the caricature of a priest who flirted with the girls, took 
 them away from the soldiers and kept them for his own private 
 company. The house shrieked with laughter at the dialogues 
 and jokes. My Spanish friend translated them for me. They 
 were rank and broad, but would not be permitted in a Broad- 
 way house. The curtain was not decorated with artistic scenes 
 but with obscene ads for the cure of sex complaints. 
 
 RED LIGHTS 
 
 NIGHT is the time when social graveyards yawn and 
 street walking is the leading and misleading industry. 
 Former places of show to the tourist, infamously famous 
 houses of vice, are now mostly visited by the soldiers. 
 In these places are patios, flowers, lights, music, dancing, drink 
 and refreshments, as if the owner were giving a party or recep- 
 tion. When the officers call the privates get out, and when the 
 
232 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 soldiers arrive the civilian visitors leave. The madam of one 
 manse, an American, was sorry to tell us that Carranza's 
 officers had the apartments, and that on account of the hard 
 feeling toward the U. S. it wasn't advisable for us to come in or 
 even be seen watching them dance. They were liable to whip 
 out a gun and shoot at pleasure. The soldiers take over these 
 places and repay the entertainment with oaths, brutality and 
 bullets. 
 
 These heroes fill the cafes and eantinas and amuse them- 
 selves by taking over the house with the inmates and shooting 
 out the electric lights. Every noon one can see Don Juan 
 officers in Mexico City driving up in their cars to the entrances 
 of young girls' schools to watch the pretty seiioritas come out 
 and invite them to take a spin, but wise parents are there to 
 give their daughters safe escort home. In ]\Iexico some of Car- 
 ranza's choicest officers imported a pornographic film from 
 Havana which they showed at five pesos a person. 
 
 If this rough house existed in so-called "high-toned" places 
 we visited, it is not difficult for the reader to imagine what we 
 found elsewhere in tougher joints, those social sewers that drain. 
 Mexico's money and morals. It was a relief to come out from 
 these sepulchres of souls, charnel houses of living death, and 
 breathe the pure air of heaven; to exchange the look of basilisk 
 eyes for the calm, pure radiance of the stars ; to bid farewell to 
 black-haired, dark-eyed daughters of delight and welcome the 
 sober beauty of the night. 
 
 The general moral conditions of the capital are rotten. To 
 the soldiers' attack on virtue there has been added a general 
 immorality of the people. Even before the days of the revolu- 
 tion it was an established custom, and not considered improper, 
 for a man with money to pick up a pretty girl on the street or 
 in the store, go to her home, be introduced to her family and 
 with the smiling consent of her parents and brothers, share her 
 room that night. Of course street walkers take their exercise 
 at night, but you would be surprised to know of the many 
 money-mad husbands here who rent or sell their wives for so 
 many days or nights a week. The "good" hotels in Mexico 
 City are decidedly "bad," for they take out assignation-house 
 licenses. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 233 
 
 The Ten Commandments are little in evidence in the country 
 and free love prevails with the fruit of seventy-five per cent of 
 illegitimate births. A respectable bachelor is not qualified to 
 enter society until several children call him "papa." Few men 
 are without a separate establishment for affinities. 
 
 HOTEL HELLS 
 
 OD sets the solitary in families and homes, and the 
 devil tries to upset His plans by putting people in fiats 
 and hotels. The greatest danger to city life is from 
 men and women who live in flats, clubs, apartments 
 and hotels as lovers and mistresses instead of being husbands and 
 wives, fathers and mothers in their own homes. 
 
 Doctor Johnson said in his day that nothing had been in- 
 vented by man which brought "so much happiness as a good 
 tavern or inn." He might have added, "so much hell if a bad 
 one." Like a virtuous wife, a good hotel is of the Lord and a 
 bad one is of the devil. 
 
 The word "hotel" early meant a mansion of a rich or dis- 
 tinguished gentleman and later a place, where if there was room, 
 and you had the money, and were not infected or disorderly, the 
 innkeeper was legally bound to eat, drink, sleep and lodge you. 
 
 At best the hotel is a place that is run for money and not for 
 love; where you sometimes get what you pay for; where you 
 are just one of many guests, and where you come and go with- 
 out love or care of the proprietor. 
 
 A good hotel in a distant country or city is a place that 
 offers shelter, rest, light, warmth, food, cleanly comfort, booka 
 and papers, all of which fit you for work and send you home 
 decent, morally and physically. 
 
 A bad hotel means more than one with no bath, or with a 
 towel small as a mason's apron, soap like a chunk of marble, and 
 where a laundry in the hallway and the odor of yesterday's 
 dinner permeates the atmosphere. By bad hotel T mean an 
 "Inferno" of a place where smoke rooms are filled with vile 
 tobacco and viler stories, where there are solicitations to gam- 
 bling, temptations to drunkenness and invitations to debauchery. 
 
234 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 People come from the country to the city to strengthen clubs 
 and weaken homes, to furnish flats and freeze out Ihe family. 
 Bachelors, instead of marrying and perpetuating the race, a 
 duty that no healthy bodied man or woman should shirk, rent 
 apartments, associate with dissolute companions and make a 
 specialty of violating the Seventh Commandment. 
 
 The low saloon, crooked gambling joint and diseased brothel 
 have sent thousands to eternity, but we often find all three of 
 them combined under one hotel roof. What awful danger and 
 death of procurer and prostitute moving from place to place, 
 like pawns on a chess board, killing bodies, minds and souls! 
 
 To police supervision must be added clean home private life 
 and plain sense Scriptural preaching so long as hotels, like 
 panthers, spring out with strong, sudden leap to maim and mur- 
 der the innocent. 
 
 The history of a city's hotels is the history of its moral life. 
 The good or bad influences of hotel life are seen in one's greater 
 or less love for a quiet home, an honest business and a redeem- 
 ing religion. 
 
 Better in life and death to be surrounded by a family than 
 fools and flirts; to have a Bible in your hand than a pack of 
 dirty cards; to have your lips wet with communion wine than 
 the foam of champagne. 
 
 Man was a sensual, slaughtering savage until he had the 
 home idea. Holmes has well said, "The world has a million 
 roosts for a man but only one nest." To take home out of life 
 is to subtract the odor from the rose, the sun from the skj% the 
 soul from the body and God from His heaven. 
 
 Many clubs and hotels seek to ruin the home fireside. What 
 can you expect from people who sit on the radiator, camp 
 around a dark, hot hole in the floor with no cheerful fire or 
 human smile of children companionship ? People who claim 
 "this is the life" and profess to enjoy mere hotel existence are 
 undoubted idiots and qualified for a position in the nearest 
 insane asylum. 
 
 The history of the home is the history of civilization. The 
 common layman says, after a day of big care ajid little coin as 
 he slams the door shut, "World, flesh and devil, do your worst — 
 I have a happy home." The sweat of labor's brow is the per- 
 fumed oil for the lamp of affection that burns on the sacred 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 235 
 
 altar of the home. "There is no place like home" to fill our 
 souls with songs of hope and hearts with love of heaven, the 
 eternal home of us all. 
 
 DISORGANIZED 
 
 F I remember the name, it was the St. Ines that had the 
 reputation for having a new, large, expensive and 
 very sweet organ. I wanted to see and hear it. The 
 guide knew the father and we visited the church. It 
 was noon, there was no service and the organ with mute white 
 lips stood in the loft above us. Did the father play ? No ! Did 
 I? Yes, a little and would like to try. He kindly consented 
 and we climbed aloft. I sat at the keyboard and opened her up, 
 slowly and softly at first, until I could get the combination, then 
 I broke loose, coupled the keyboards, used the full organ, im- 
 provised, played patriotic and war melodies, marches and three 
 four-time pieces with heavy pedal to make it sound like Sunday 
 music. Some outsiders stepped in and looked up. The few 
 straggling worshippers who had entered wondered what all the 
 noise was about. The father was agitated at this hoAvling hurri- 
 cane of harmony and came to my guide and asked, "Can he not 
 play any soft, sacred church music?" Duran gave me the tip. 
 Really I didn't want to wreck the organ on the sea of sound, so 
 I shut her down, slowed up and brought her into port with 
 "Nearer, My God, to Thee," and the Doxology, which satisfied 
 the severer musical taste of the good father. 
 
 SUN AND MOON PYRAMIDS 
 
 HAVING been warned that it was not safe to visit the 
 ruins of San Juan Teotihuacan because of bandits, we 
 decided to go, thinking it was just as safe as to remain 
 in town where drunken soldiers fired at pedestrians 
 from their autos, with side-line pursuits of rape and robbery. 
 
 It is thirty miles from the capital and when we got off the 
 passengers wondered why we should stop at such a miserable 
 
236 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 place when trains were so few and far between. Teotihuaean 
 means "city of the gods." They were evidently off on a vaca- 
 tion, for I never saw a more God-forsaken set of people in any 
 town. We endeavored to get horses or wagons to ride to the 
 pyramids, wiiich are several miles away, but nothing was avail- 
 able. Horses were at a premium, for the bandits had stolen 
 nearly everything but the railroad tracks which were nailed 
 down. There was one horse hauling a wagon, but that was for 
 business and not for pleasure. So we started afoot. The dust 
 was blown into our faces like powder through a funnel, as we 
 walked through the narrow, dry streets. On we trudged by 
 pulque plants, broken walls, old shack houses, stacks of grain 
 and hay with crosses stuck in them for protection, by a ruined 
 church with old spires, left some of our clothes behind on a 
 barbwire fence, crossed the dry bed of a river and continued 
 our hot and hurried trip until we reached the Pyramid of the 
 Sun. 
 
 Whether it is of Toltec or Pre-Toltec origin I wave all 
 technicalities, since learned doctors so widely disagree and say 
 this city was called a holy place and that the pyramids of the 
 sun and moon were monumental loadstones, or magnetic moun- 
 tains, which drew the people from afar. For the present I was 
 one of the people, clambered up the fii-st and second terraces of 
 the Sun Pyramid until I was monarch of all I surveyed. Paus- 
 ing to sit and rest, I imagined the time when sad-eyed multitudes 
 came here and kings were crowned, when priests paraded and 
 choirs chanted. It was up these steps that a human victim was 
 dragged and sacrificed in a temple on top, his heart cut out and 
 his dead body tobogganed do\ni the steps. The guide further 
 said that Aztec girls once danced up and down these steps. 
 They must have been light-winged or footed like ]\Iercury, for 
 the steps are steep and dangerous and the traveler is kept busy 
 now in his attempt to get up and down without breaking his neck. 
 The Moon Pyramid resembles a grassy hill, as this one did be- 
 fore it was cleared of dirt, debris and vines. The Sun Pyramid 
 is a grand old pile and reminded me of the Stop Pyramid in 
 Egypt. Its base is about the size of Cheops, I h.ad walked round, 
 and is 216 feet high. The structure is made of rock and stone 
 cemented together and covered over with small pieces of rock 
 like thorns on a cactus, rocky pimples or rough ice in a glacier 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 237 
 
 moraine. It was built in terraces and according to tradition a 
 temple was erected on its broad, level summit, that contained a 
 large block of porphyry as a monument to the sun. Eminent 
 authorities, who have delved deep, affirm these pyramids con- 
 tain galleries like those of Cheops, and there is one gallery in 
 the Pyramid of the Moon that falls in exact lines with the mag- 
 netic meridian. A Chinese savant, who was minister to Mexico 
 in 1911, discovered an inscription on the Sun Pyramid which 
 he said was very common on the burial places of China. I 
 confess to ignorance of what it was, but it may have been a 
 laundry bill for priests' robes and vests that were spattered 
 with the victim's blood when his heart failed and he died. 
 Quien sabe? 
 
 The name of the Sun Pyramid is ''Tonatiuh Itzacuatl." 
 Sun-worshippers have always existed to a degree, except on 
 the part of the late rounder who loves darkness rather than 
 light. The sun-lit statue of Minerva was seen on the Acropolis 
 by sailors far out to sea. So, on this pyramid there were erected 
 great images of the sun and moon, all covered with gold, that 
 shone out their welcome and guided the worshipper to this 
 shrine. The guide said that at night fires were built on all 
 sides of the pyramid, that flambeaux were placed by the rocks 
 which projected from the sides, and that a grand illumination 
 was made. Always after the victim's painful sacrifice there was 
 a big celebration that rivaled Payne's fireworks. 
 
 'ROAD OF THE DEAD" 
 
 THE Pyramid of the Moon was resting under a cloud of 
 dust, vegetation and vines. Leading between the Sun 
 
 and Moon Pyramid is the "Road of the Dead," with. 
 
 excavated mounds on either side of it, where anti- 
 quarians have found obsidian knives used in sacrifice, small 
 clay effigies of buried kings and priests, and human bones. 
 Under a shed we discovered some Aztec picture-writings, most 
 of which had been covered over by an iron door to protect their 
 mutilation or robbery. A guard sat there with only a gun as a 
 companion, to shoot any Zapatista bandit who might attempt to 
 destroy them. It's sad there was no guard long ago all over 
 
238 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 Mexico, that Montezuma had no one to prevent that holy horde, 
 that bunch of bishop bigots, that mob of mutilators, who smashed 
 up the Aztec picture-writings, relics and art. The loss has made 
 the whole world inestimably and irreparably the poorer. Z is 
 the last letter in the alphabet and stands for the least respected 
 Spanish Bishop Zumarraga, who like a boar, roamed and rav- 
 aged around the Sun and Moon Pyramids. 
 
 Was this "Road of the Dead" so called from the number of 
 deadheads who came down this way to see the games and shows 
 pulled off in front of the pj'ramids, or is it from the number of 
 clay heads picked up along the way? I don't know. These 
 little image faces, large as a quarter or half-dollar, may have 
 been of people who came here and had them made when they 
 came to sacrificial celebrations, much as country lasses now do 
 who come to the circus and have their pictures taken. From 
 these clay expressions the impression grows that either the peo- 
 ple were a grotesque group, or the artist was a poor workman 
 or tried to caricature them. If the clay face is flattering, it is 
 sad to think how homely the originals were. Each face is dif- 
 ferent and leads to the theory that they are faithful images of 
 rulers, kings and priests. Leaving this to airy speculation, I 
 feel confident that they were souvenirs, manufactured by the 
 Toltec and Aztec Novelty Co., to please the curious crowds that 
 journeyed here from all over the surrounding country. 
 
 There may be other reasons for the name of this "R<?ad of 
 the Dead." Perchance it was on account of the cruel parade of 
 the victims before the main exhibition of the killing on the 
 pyramid top; perhaps a "ghost walk," where the souls of the 
 dead returned to visit with their friends. Perhaps all this, more 
 or less, yet all I am sure of is that I was dead tired and glad to 
 visit the museum and rest with the other dead ones. 
 
 It would take me a month to write a chapter on "A Day in 
 This IMuseum," and give a truthful account of all I saw. There 
 were barrels of bones and skulls, bushels of arrows and spear- 
 heads, show-cases of ancient Aztec cutlery — obsidian knives with 
 which the priest-doctors performed operations on their victims — 
 and mirrors, clay vases, images, pottery and masks of obsidian. 
 The Jjidian overseer was so overpowered witli the tip we gave 
 him that I could have easily secured the whole collection for-an 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 239 
 
 American museum for a nominal figure if I had been able to 
 get it through the customs. 
 
 A SUBTERRANEAN TOWN 
 
 j7^|N THE way to the station we ''dropped in" on a sub- 
 
 I ^/ J terrancan town and called at several houses. No one 
 E^^mll ^^^^ ^^ home except the janitor caretaker, who with the 
 llfmMiy aid of our flashlight showed us about. The houses 
 were like a Herculaneum home or Pompeiian palace. There 
 were odd Aztec picture-writings and designs on the walls as 
 amusing as wallpaper pictures in a modern nursery. One house 
 was the home of a wealthy Aztec. There was room and to spare 
 and many spare rooms. Judged by the number of bed and 
 bath-rooms, he may have been an early ancestor of Brigham 
 Young. We were in the dark, and I am in the dark when I try 
 to tell you about it, for it's a dark secret. We speak of the 
 "dark ages" but judged by some of the remains of early home 
 life, the people were light-hearted, light-handed and light-footed. 
 
 A small toy railroad once ran from the rail station to the 
 pyramids for the tourist, but that was in the good old Diaz 
 days that are no more. We retraced our dusty steps to the 
 station, tired, thirsty and hungry, and while waiting for the 
 train bought something. Instead of a glass of milk and a ham 
 sandwich, we ate some dirty tortillas smeared with a red-pepper 
 paste that started a conflagration in our throat only put out by 
 a pint of putrid pulque. The train was on time and we left 
 these monuments in the cemetery of the Aztec past. In Egypt 
 the pyramids loom up from a level desert — here the mounds and 
 pyramids are dwarfed by the mountain ones all around which 
 Nature has built. 
 
 It is unnecessary to come way here to find relics and dead 
 remains. The main streets of Mexico are built over buried pal- 
 aces and temples. In America we dig and strike a sev/er-pipe, 
 antiquated hoop-skirt, corset-cover or tomato can, but in the 
 street excavations back of the cathedral we saw the ruined 
 entrances to old temples. A card of introduction allowed us to 
 poke around in this newly dug ruin. Beneath the street, and 
 
240 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 flanked by modern stores that were selling the latest goods, we 
 discovered a temple, wall and entrance guarded by an immense, 
 liideous Trilobite. If it was ever alive and tried to bite you it 
 would be your finish. 
 
 DIG UP 
 
 DIG is the watchword of the ago and its symbol is shovel 
 or pick. Men dig for gold and silver to spend, coal to 
 fataittfc' burn and iron to melt; for oil for lights on land and 
 ^SJ fuel at sea ; for wells of water to drink. America dug 
 a Panama ditch to connect the Atlantic and Pacific. Railroads 
 dig tunnels through Alps, Andes and Rockies. Antiquarians 
 dig up old ruins in Italy, Greece, Egypt and ]\Iexico. The war- 
 ring nations of Europe dig trenches for military hiding and 
 attack. Good Americans dig up money for Liberty Loan to aid 
 Uncle Sam in sending an army and navy to defend liberty and 
 democracy at home and abroad. 
 
 As boys we dug for worms to fish, and caves in which to play 
 bandit and robber. Today we dig with plow, spade and hoe in 
 countr}^ field, schoolyard and home garden. This is the time of 
 year when true culture is agriculture. It is patriotic to plant 
 potatoes, benevolent to raise beans, worthy to grow wheat and 
 Christian to cultivate corn. There is real dignity in digging. 
 We should never be ashamed of what poets and prophets have 
 praised and the Redeemer referred to in illustrating spiritual 
 truth. 
 
 Life is a field where we are to dig, plant, and cultivate physi- 
 cal health, mental culture and spiritual graces. Dig up the 
 weeds of idleness, avarice, vanity and passion. Don't dig up 
 your past failures, but bury them and rise to future success. 
 Be repentant Peter and not remorseful Judas. Don't dig up 
 the skeletons in your neighbor's family closet, but let the dead 
 past of their sin and scandals bury its own dead. Don't be like 
 the muck-raker and dig for pennies in the slime and filth when 
 all the while an angel from heaven was holding a golden crown 
 over his head. 
 
 Remember that at the end of Life's road there is a Hamlet 
 grave-digger waiting for us all. So live towards man and God, 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 241 
 
 that although earth's small grave claims your body, heaven's 
 many mansions await your soul. 
 
 Scrambling back out of these dark ruins into the light of the 
 Twentieth Century, we strolled down the street and entered the 
 famous Museum — El Museo National. Here the antique arti- 
 cles, reaped in the Mexican archeological field, have been har- 
 vested. Mexico is said to be related to or descended from the 
 war god "Mexitl" — the short for the long "Huitzilopochtli," 
 who has always presided over Mexico's affairs. He looks like a 
 bloody beast. He is carved from a solid block of stone and 
 stands nine feet in his bare feet. He must have suggested Sher- 
 man's "War Is Hell," for to tell the truth he looks like the 
 devil. The artist who carved him, instead of indulging in any 
 fancy picture of a war-god, like the Mars of the Greeks, made 
 him look the fiend he really is — * ' fierce as ten furies and terrible 
 as hell." 
 
 A WAR GOD 
 
 WHEN Cortez dropped in to see Montezuma the old man 
 showed him the sights and in the absence of a bull or 
 a cockfight, they called at the Aztec temple to see the 
 god, "Huitz." He was dressed up in his Sunday best, 
 wearing his jewels and gold ornaments, and "was outdoing Bel- 
 shazzar's feast. He was being regaled with a dishpan full of 
 highly spiced human hearts which were being served up hot to 
 him. He was no vegetarian but a carnal carnivorean, a ''fee- 
 fo-fi-fum" god who loved to smell blood, drink blood, bathe in 
 blood and be in a perpetual state of sanguinary souse. The gan- 
 grene, jealous-eyed god mocked the meat he fed on and always 
 demanded more. His human butcher bill is said to have 
 mounted from 20,000 to 60,000 victims a year. However, this 
 was only a small bite compared with the millions sacrificed in 
 Europe to the heathen I\Ioloch of war by ' ' cultured, ' ' Christian 
 civilization. 
 
 No Phidias artist name is carved on this war-god, but Perfidi- 
 ous is engraved all over it. No date of make is given yet it 
 evidently belongs to the "earn age" period. It is a fact that he 
 was discovered buried in the big square here in 1700, dug up 
 
242 THE DE^^L in Mexico 
 
 and brought out to get a breath of fresh air. So great was the 
 fear that the Indians who had heard of him would try and 
 become orthodox, make up for heart wanderings and give him 
 their hearts as their former relatives had done, that he was put 
 under ground again and remained unworshipped until 1821, 
 when he was resurrected. Since that time he has lived a quiet, 
 abstemious life, satisfying himself with the gaze of the curious 
 and listening to uncomplimentary remarks made about him by 
 tender-hearted people who call him vile names and place him in 
 a new chapter of Heine's ** Exiled Gods." 
 
 A STONE CALENDAR 
 
 TjHE famous Calendar Stone resembles a big millstone. 
 I It is about 12 feet in diameter, 3 feet thick and weighs 
 26 tons. It must have been an awful package for the 
 Aztec postman to deliver New Year's morning, 1479, 
 in the year of the great and gory Axayacatl. But he was en- 
 couraged and his burden made light by thousands of joyous 
 Aztecs who followed and encouraged him to deliver the goods 
 with their songs and dancings ending with a feast. This pretty 
 little 26-ton calendar hangs on the museum wall. It was quar- 
 ried from a single piece of basalt or porphyry from Coyoacan. 
 This remarkable stone bears the inscription remark showing it 
 was quarried and brought to the Aztec capital more than four 
 hundred years ago. It was formerly cemented in the wall of 
 the cathedral, where it grew dizzy recording all the saints and 
 feast days, and to spare its days from confusion it was toted to 
 the museum sanitarium. 
 
 "Writers like Humboldt and Prescott have shown that the Tol- 
 tecs and Aztecs were somewhat civilized in some ways, knew how 
 to celebrate many things, and among them time. From the 
 hieroglyphs on the face of this stone the wise men of the East 
 read lines of a perpetual calendar, a kind of farmer's universal 
 almanac witli wliich to calculate early sunrise, late sunset, sol- 
 stices, cycles, and when it was time to milk or drive the cows to 
 pasture. Others say it merely records feast days and some 
 important dates up to the time it was made. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 243 
 
 The centre of the stone is the face of a man, a sun. Round 
 him radiate other faces representing the months and days of 
 the Aztec year. This year is supposed to have been "divided 
 into eighteen months of twenty days each, with five compli- 
 mentary days added so as to make three hundred and sixty-five • 
 and once in fifty years they are said to have allowed for the loss 
 of minutes in their reckonings." If one might judge by this 
 26-ton stone, time surely hung heavy on the Aztec hands. What 
 a long wait (weight) between eats and drinks — between the 
 nights when a fellow was to call on his best girl and then calcu- 
 late the proper length of his visit before her father spoiled his 
 good time and with his bare foot gave him a rapid transit home. 
 Bankers, bookkeepers, strolling plaj^ers and priests who had 
 dates to make must surely have had a fine time keeping their 
 appointments by this circular calendar stone. It was one joyous 
 round of pleasure. Perhaps Professors Digemup and Bunkum 
 unearthed some such stone ad: ''Mrs. Mezachualcayatl will 
 give a pulque party and dance at her house during the summer 
 solstice of fourteen cycles of the full moon. Please leave obsid- 
 ian razors at home." 
 
 PICTURE-WRITING 
 
 HE Aztecs did better without an alphabet than some 
 high-school graduates do with it. They gave facts in 
 history, made maps of places, wrote in colored pictures 
 and recorded other things by pictures on stone, and 
 parchment made of deer-skin or the maguey plant. Some things, 
 just enough for a clue, survive the destruction of the bigoted 
 Spanish bishop Zumarraga who wanted to destroy everything 
 that did not bear the sign of the cross. 
 
 The Aztec priests used pictures as an alphabet with which 
 to record legends, feasts, historic events and calendar years. 
 In picture form warriors fight with club and spear, women 
 weave and spin, men paddle in canoes, the Moon goddess appears 
 with shell and the Fire-god hurls his spear. Their attempt at 
 phonetic writing was obscure, but much clearer than the ex- 
 planation of it given by modern writers. 
 
244 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 A BUTCHER BLOCK 
 
 TIE sacrificial stone exhibited here once graced and dis- 
 graced the Aztec temple whose pyramidal top it 
 crowned. Like the war god, before whom it was placed, 
 it was made of quarried porphyry, a solid block three 
 feet high and nine feet in diameter. On its sides and top I saw 
 hundreds of curiously carved characters and kings, with no char- 
 acter, all easily understood as the Sphynx. I do know that it 
 was a sort of dissecting table or butcher's block where annually 
 as many as 60,000 were cut open. The trouble with this primi- 
 tive, sacrificial stone-table was that, like many other operating 
 tables, ancient and modern, no one got off alive. I placed my 
 warm hand in the hollow, skull-shaped centre of the block and 
 drew it along the little, connecting, scooped-out gutter through 
 which torrents and rivers of blood had run. It gave me the 
 shivers to think of the cold deliberation of the priest, the cry and 
 hot blood of the victim spurting and splashing his red libation 
 to the war god whose grin, like the grave, cried "]\Iore, more!" 
 It is said that at the temple's formal opening and dedication in 
 1510, 12,000 were sacrificed on this stone. 
 
 CRUELTY AND CANNIBALISM 
 
 HE spotlight of history, when thrown on the ancient 
 Aztec civilization, shows that some recent war bar- 
 barities of Christian nations may have been suggested 
 
 by Aztec methods. Turk and Prussian have shown 
 
 fine specimens of bloody brutality. If they want any more, if 
 their originality has run out and the devil refuses to furnish 
 them further hints, they will be sure to find many pleasant inno- 
 vations and new methods in the war calendar of the Aztec civili- 
 zation. When the price of vegetables, beef and game was too 
 high for sacrificial purposes, the priest could always fall back 
 on human life, which was always very cheap. Religious doctors 
 prescribed at certain seasons starvation by fasting, and blood-let- 
 ting by slicking thorns in the patient's legs and pushing a sharp 
 stick through the sufferer's tongue as if it were a skewer in beef. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 245 
 
 This dreadful devotion is like that of the fakirs one sees in 
 Benares, India. The Aztec rain god Tlaloc was a fastidious 
 epicure. Children were carried on litters v^ith faces daubed 
 with paint and arms gaudily dressed with paper wings. They 
 were sacrified on the mountain or in a whirlpool, while the priest 
 fluted a funeral march and friends and patients kept time with 
 beating hearts. Then there was a species of skin-game, maniac 
 god who was only delighted at a heartless sacrifice. After the 
 victims had been caught and their hearts cut out, the dead 
 bodies were skinned, the young men dressed up in the skins and 
 made the carnival party merry by dancing an Aztec can-can or 
 engaging in sham fights. 
 
 At their cycle festival they believed the world would end. 
 Then the priest in god-like robes used the victims like a hearth — 
 working a wooden drill on his chest until flame was produced. 
 When he had warmed up to his work he tore out the sufferer's 
 heart and threw the dead body on the bonfire the recent flame 
 had kindled. This was the signal for the people on the house 
 tops to sing and shout with joy, and not only pierce the air with 
 cries, but take sharp stone points and pierce their ears to get 
 drops of blood which they offered as thank offerings. 
 
 The biggest festival blowout was in honor of the god Tezcat- 
 lipoco, the soul of the world. This creator's sole object at tim.es 
 was to take back the souls he had given. He was an Apollo for 
 youth and beauty and demanded the best sacrifice the Aztec 
 market afforded. The victim was discarded if he was not abso- 
 lutely perfect without scratch or pimple. He was selected a 
 year in advance that he might perfectly represent this deity. 
 He was trained and tutored and his body exercised, massaged 
 and perfumed like a dandy. He had the most expensive tailor 
 suits and wore feathers and flowers, a crown on his head and a 
 bouquet in his buttonhole. He was fed and feted, traveled 
 around, was followed by a royal retinue, and when he sang, 
 "This is the life," or whistled the latest popular tune, the people 
 bowed and scraped before him as if he were a god. He had a 
 prodigal son of a time until within a month of the time when his 
 real troubles began. Four girls, ''Turkish delights," were se- 
 lected to be his company day and night, and with these goddesses 
 he ate, drank, was merry, was invited out, wined and dined by 
 all the leading members of society as if he were a celestial hero. 
 
246 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 Then the handwriting appeared on the wall. He said 
 "adios" to his fair harem of four, exchanged his Sunday suit 
 for his funeral clothes, and was given a free ferry ride across 
 the lake to the temple outside the city. His wives and servants 
 followed him to the temple to see his finish. Climbing up the 
 steps, he threw away his garments and smashed the clay flutes 
 he had been playing on to while away the happy hours. Re- 
 signed at last to the feeling of "vanity of vanities," he reaches 
 the summit of the temple where a half dozen priests — dressed 
 like circus clowns or hokus-pokus, long-haired astrologers in 
 dark go^\Tis figured over Avith hieroglyphic scrolls — grabbed 
 him, saying, "It's twenty-three for you." They hustle him to 
 the sacrificial stone, five priests lay hold of his head, arms and 
 legs and stretch and hold him on the stone while the sixth priest, 
 togged out in festive red, to indicate his bloody business, rips 
 open the breast of the victim with an obsidian razor with as 
 much ease and skill as if he were a negro at a Mississippi levee 
 dance. Thrusting his hand into the wound, he jerks out the 
 bleeding, palpitating heart, holds it up to show he has done a 
 good job, then throws it at the feet of the temple war god while 
 the crowds below bow and kneel in worship. His friends wait 
 to catch the body as it bounces dovm the steps, to take it home 
 to be cooked as a delicious ragout at the cannibal feast of vic- 
 tory, along with side dishes and drink. His head, which had 
 already been cut off and placed on a pole, is carried to a skull- 
 place where thousands of other skulls were impaled on cross- 
 sticks. 
 
 All this time fires were burning on the altars and the horrid 
 tom-tom of the snake-skin drums was heard for miles. As his 
 friends picked his bones at the cannibal feast and smacked their 
 lips over some choice morsel, they reflected on the vanity of 
 human wishes, and had food for thought that wealth, health and 
 pleasure are short-lived, a delusion and a snare that leave back, 
 head and heartache for promised joy. Ladies and gentlemen 
 were present. What a dainty feast! What merriment, flow of 
 wine and wit of soul ! What hard jokes were cracked and rapier 
 thrust sallies were given and met ! I wonder whether a society 
 reporter was present and gave a write-up of this in the morning 
 paper as an appetizer for breakfast, or if a Boswell wrote an 
 edifying editorial on the moral mot or striking philosophy of 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 247 
 
 the victim's friends who followed him to the last and cherished 
 every bit of him. 
 
 These festival pro£rrams were varied. To break the monot- 
 ony of bloody sacrifice the victim was tortured before his heart 
 was cut out, or smashed between two stones, or dressed up fan- 
 tastically and compelled to dance. All this fanaticism was in 
 the name of religion. The war god demanded victims, so the 
 Aztecs went out to fight, not for gold, revenge or territory, but 
 to bring men home alive and offer them for sacrifice, to feed the 
 hunger and satisfy the thirst of the insatiate "Huitz." Re- 
 ligion has dug the fiercest and deepest hells. When the Span- 
 iards came to Mexico they opposed this barbarity, smashed the 
 temples and idols, said the Aztecs were devils as they tortured 
 them, idolaters as they took their idols away and substituted 
 those of the saints, and for the Aztec bloody, brutal sacrifice 
 instituted the fires of the gentle Inquisition. 
 
 AZTEC LAWS AND GODS 
 
 I 
 
 N AMERICA we are maudlin over murderers, say a thief 
 is one because of his environment, put the criminal in 
 a palace instead of a prison, apologize for putting him 
 there and proceed to coddle him and send flowers. 
 With the Aztecs it was different. They had a criminal code 
 that makes interesting reading. If a fellow was caught stealing 
 you could make him your slave. To steal twenty ears of corn 
 or a tobacco pouch was death. If one was caught stealing in the 
 market he was clubbed to death. To steal gold or silver was to 
 insult Xipe, the special deity of the silversmith, and the thief 
 was skinned alive and sacrificed to the deity. Booze was allowed 
 the old folks for a nerve tonic and invalids could ''pulque" up 
 on a doctor's prescription, but young folks with cabaret ten- 
 dencies, if found drunk on the street, were severely reprimanded, 
 the man being clubbed to death and the woman stoned. 
 The man who slandered was sent to the barber shop to 
 have a free, pine-torch scalp singe. To jump a neighbor's lot 
 claim, to elope with his wife, or to be a grafter or defaulter, was 
 punished by having the offender's cunning head smashed be- 
 tween stones or his wicked heart cut out. 
 
248 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 If such laws were enacted and enforced in modern Mexico 
 for one day it would depopulate the whole country sooner than 
 plague or war. What would the poor Mexican do without his 
 pleasure and profession of graft, thieving and adultery? 
 
 The Museum offers a large variety of hideous gods for in- 
 spection. The Aztecs had thousands of gods and possibly among 
 them, the "unknown god," to whom the Athenians erected an 
 altar. They had an assortment of gods large enough to supply 
 the religious trade of several planets. "Shining Mirror" was 
 the greatest god and even now he is the leading deity of many 
 dandies and damsels whose creed is to seem and not to be, and 
 who worship themselves in the looking-glass. Thousands of 
 their gods were put out of commission by that iconoclast Zumar- 
 raga. What the Latins called "penates," the Aztecs called 
 Tepitoton. Each man of noble family was entitled to keep and 
 entertain six gods at a time in his home. There were gods who 
 were the patron deities of men who worshipped gold and silver, 
 who were drunkards or pleasure-seekers. Tlazolteotl was the 
 goddess of pleasure and worshipped by prostitutes. Tezcatzon- 
 catl was the god of strong drink for drunkards. Xipe was the 
 patron of gold and silversmiths. Today these same gods are 
 worshipped all over the world under different names. 
 
 In an obscure part of the Museum I found phallic stone 
 images, such as I saw in Java and India, suggesting their pecu- 
 liar sex worship. The supreme gods of all the gods was Teotl. 
 and on the various floors of the Museum there were classified 
 specimens of clay and stone images, cloths, grains, etc., peculiar 
 to ]\rexico. 
 
 William Niven, an archeolngist, who has a curio store in 
 ^lexico, gave me much valuable information about curios. He 
 invited me to go with him on his week-end hike to dig up basket 
 loads of gods, but I thanked him and said one was hard enough 
 to follow without having any more. There were thousands of 
 interesting curios and images in his store. It is the next most 
 interesting place to the IMuseura and he has sent many collec- 
 tions to America. He showed me a large, life-size, movable, 
 jointed image of the Saviour. It had come from some old 'Mex- 
 ican church and its arms could be jerked up and down at the 
 will of the priest, or the head made to nod a j'es, or turned to 
 say no, just like a mechanical doll. This image was worked for 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 249 
 
 the edification of the superstitious Indian. It was an ingenious 
 automaton, a Christ clown, and as horrible to me as any of the 
 heathen idols round about. I wondered what the stone gods 
 thought as they looked at it. This Christ image wore a reddish 
 wig, a dark purple silk robe, its hands were covered with red 
 paint blood, there was a ghastly gash on the face and the paint 
 blood bespattered the forehead. 
 
 CROCODILE TEARS 
 
 L ARBOR DE LA NOCHE TRISTE is the tree of 
 the mournful night, a cypress in the capital marking 
 the place where Cortez is said to have wept. I doubt 
 ^1 if the hard-hearted Cortez could weep, though there 
 is no doubt that he made millions of other eyes weep. We rode 
 out through the suburbs to a little town called Popotla. It has 
 a plaza and church and this venerable cypress tree stands within 
 an iron railing. Cortez and his Spanish, robber, assassin band 
 had been driven out from Mexico City by the enraged Aztecs, 
 who fiercely pursued and fought them. Believing he and his 
 forces might be captured, tortured or killed, or that his nicely laid 
 plans to pocket the Montezuma capital, wealth aand citizens, 
 might fail, he sat under this tree more despondent than Elijah 
 under the juniper tree when Jezebel was chasing him. C for 
 Cortez and C for crocodile tears which he wept, and C for 
 Christ whom Cortez corrupted into his own cupidity. This 
 "sad night" was almost "good-night" for the Spaniards. It 
 was too bad that Cortez was not utterly defeated at this time 
 instead of being merely driven out, for within a year he rein- 
 forced his forces, returned and recovered everything he had 
 lost. The tree is sixty feet in girth and its appearance is old 
 and rugged and looks as if it had been a special target for many 
 a storm and bolt. Tradition says he leaned against it — perhaps 
 this is what disfigured it. This tree is an eyesore to the Mexi- 
 can Indians, who hate everything connected with Cortez' name. 
 Accordingly you find no public statues or pictures to his mem- 
 ory. They have even tried to efface his memory by cutting 
 down or burning this tree, so a big iron fence has been placed 
 around it with iron pickets to guard it. 
 
250 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 The little chapel near the tree is a squatty, toad-like thing 
 and was built in memory of this Dies Ira, or Night of Wrath, 
 July 1, 1520. 
 
 Near the little town, Popotla, with a little name, is the little 
 town with a long name, Atzcapotzalco, where there was a slave 
 market in Aztec times — not a white slave but a brown slave 
 market — where pretty Aztec girls were publicly sold. They were 
 arrayed in their finest clothes and made to laugh, dance, sing and 
 do every bewitching thing that could bring the gold out of the 
 prospective buyer's pocket. This was done publicly then as the 
 sale of black slaves was in our South. We practice white slavery 
 privately now, and men became so ungallant that the Mann 
 act stepped in and said, "Nix on this, j'-ou brace up and be a 
 maji. If you will be good, woman will be pure. ' ' 
 
 GOOD AMERICANS 
 
 F YOU want to get over the ground and see Mexico 
 City, arrange with my auto Masonic friend, Mr. Moore, 
 whose stand is at the Alameda. He can give you an 
 auto and show you everything you ought to see. The 
 evening spent in his beautiful home with flowers, music and the 
 ladies, was one of the delightful things we remember. 
 
 If you are sick go to Dr. I\Ionday. We took dinner at the 
 American Club Friday with Dr. Monday, who is no blue Mon- 
 day, but a busy, red-corpuscled man every day in the week. 
 He can tell you more of real and recent Mexico in an hour than 
 I could write in a month. 
 
 ART AND ARTISAN 
 
 MEXICO'S art gallery contains pictures of various Euro- 
 pean schools, but the most interesting exhibit is her 
 own school, not the copies of saints and ^ladonnas, 
 but of original scenes of ]\Iexico's places and peoples. 
 The most notable picture to me is by the young Mexican artist, 
 Felix Parra, entitled, ''Las Casas Protecting the Indians." It 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 251 
 
 shows the bishop's love and the Spaniard's hate of the poor 
 Aztec portrayed in strong line and color. The figures murder- 
 ously move and piteously moan. It shows how, in the absence 
 of his master Cortez, Alvarado, who not only had the name but 
 the spirit of Alva in him, ruthlessly murdered Mexican nobles, 
 wives and children. 
 
 The Art School exists in name only, yet we found two or 
 three men and women working in clay. The teacher regretfully 
 said revolution had dealt art a fatal blow. The only art now is 
 the art of war, and people care only to destroy and not create. 
 
 The Jesuit church is a safe place to enter now and we went 
 in and heard the hum of Singer sewing machines instead of a 
 choir. Instead of kneeling the girls were making suits for Car- 
 ranza soldiers. In the pulpit there was a dummy soldier life- 
 size. This is not the only dummy 1 ever saw in a pulpit. 
 
 The Jockey Club is a striking corner building built of glazed 
 tiles, to deny the Mexican proverb, "You'll never build a house 
 of tiles." It was here that wealth and beauty were wont to 
 meet and "'jockey" on many things. Gone is the beauty. The 
 lovely court is a chicken-roost. The entire tile building now 
 looks like a tile bathroom after a plumber has been in it for two 
 days. Some of the rooms were being used as political head- 
 quarters for the distribution of election folders. Its jockey race 
 is run. 
 
 BEGGARS 
 
 MEXICO CITY once boasted a pawn shop, not a small, 
 three-ball Uncle Levi affair, but a national one known 
 and famous as ' ' Monte de Piedad. ' ' Today it is no more 
 and has gone bankrupt. Here the poor but proud 
 descendants of the rich, who had spent their money, were able 
 to hock their valuables, jewelry, curios and furniture and get 
 some money at a low interest rate. If they failed to make good 
 and redeemed the pawns the article was later sold at public 
 auction. The place was located on the former site of the Cortez 
 palace. The private pawn shops one finds now are little better 
 than "fences" for pickpocket and thieves' plunder. 
 
252 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 Beggars in Mexico City are many and varied and are in a 
 society class by themselves. The Mexican beggar is a close rival 
 to any I have ever seen in Jerusalem, Benares, Constantinople, 
 Cairo, Naples and Seville. He and his are an institution. One 
 day I started out to give, and long before I went from the 
 American Club to the railway station I had emptied my pocket- 
 ful of change. It was like pouring money into a rat hole. Of 
 course, there are many beggars in other cities, but not so many, 
 dirty, persistent or organized as found here. 
 
 Beggars are the living, walking debris of the streets. There 
 are beggars totally blind or with one eye ; beggars maimed, 
 armless, noseless and legless; beggars humble and bold; beg- 
 gars whining and servile ; beggars plastered with dust and dec- 
 orated with shreds and patches of clothes. Dirt is no name for 
 their filthiness. They have an hydrophobia dread of water. A 
 well-dressed and intelligent ]\rexican told me when I was 
 troubled with a cold that I must never touch water, not even to 
 wash my face. Their hair is heavy, tangled and thick with dirt 
 and is the home of vermin. Their faces and hands are scabbed 
 with disease and they possess a combination of smells they have 
 carefully gathered and retained all their life. 
 
 Taking the advice given the twelve disciples, "When you go 
 out from that city, shake off the very dust from your feet for 
 a testimony against them," we departed from Mexico City and 
 took the train at the station for Puebla. 
 
 A GOLD TRAIN 
 
 T was 2 P. j\I. and we were delayed to begin with by 
 waiting for a shipment of gold. Express companies 
 on this line are unwilling to be responsible for its safe 
 transit and delivery, so some mozos came to our first- 
 class car with the bags of gold on their shoulders and handed it 
 through the window to some men who wore traveling with and 
 guarding it. They hid it under the seats, threw their coats over it 
 and pulled out their guns, ready to protect it. There had been 
 no disturbance on this line for months and I hoped no spy was 
 around to see this deposit and then hurry away and wire a tip 
 to his bandit brothers along the road to hold up the train. This 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 253 
 
 treasure mine was under a seat opposite mine. In the event of 
 any attack through the window or aisles I wondered how many 
 bullets would enter ray anatomy. Still, there was no choice. All 
 the other seats were taken. 
 
 As we left the depot I said farewell to Mexico City, then to 
 idolatrous Guadalupe. Once again we saw the maguey fields, 
 glanced at our old Sun and Moon Pyramid friends, got a glimpse 
 at the peons who were listening to bands, and arrived at last at 
 the small railway town of Apizaco. Here we waited four hours 
 for the train from Orizaba to Mexico City to allow passengers to 
 change for Puebla. Our train could have taken us to Puebla and 
 return in that time, but it would not, neither to accommodate 
 nor to relieve the anxiety of the guard with the gold, who wired 
 repeatedly for the despatcher's permission to send the train out. 
 We became philosophical for one never knows in Mexico when he 
 will get anywhere, except possibly in the ditch. 
 
 It wasn't pleasant to sit in a chair-car, lit by two dim lan- 
 terns, with so much bright gold, knowing a bold bandit band 
 could get away with it by merely reaching in the window or 
 walking through the car. It grew chilly and we went out to 
 walk around and get warm by eating chile con carne sandwiches, 
 sardines, pan dulce, white bread and large fancy-shaped cakes. 
 It was all native baked though ornamented with German designs 
 made of sugar. Outside there were wrecks of engines and trains 
 piled up in the station-yard. For the last six months the ban- 
 dits had been dynamiting trains from here to Vera Cruz. The 
 station and railroad shop walls were bullet-marked and the win- 
 dows were shot out. We heard some loud gun reports, saw some 
 fire flashes, but learned it was innocent sport. The natives were 
 quietly celebrating a special day. 
 
 Apizaco is a great cane and curio town. The natives make 
 walking sticks that you can purchase anywhere from 5 cents to 
 $5. Many of the canes are decorated like Totem poles and 
 marked with the Mexican colors of green, white and red. We 
 bought canes bearing the designs of snakes, birds, trees and Aztec 
 Indians. The train our train was waiting for finally arrived, but 
 not until we had sent an engine to bring it in. The engines are 
 neglected and poorly run. A good American engineer is thrown 
 out to make place for a bad Mexican. Mexico for the Mexicans 
 is the motto. No American mechanic need apply, no matter how 
 
254 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 badly needed. Our car was instantly packed to stumbling and 
 suffocation with passengers and their bags. We sang a soft Te 
 Deum when Puebla was reached an hour later. 
 
 While we were on the train a card was given us recommend- 
 ing a certain hotel, but the train was so late that when we did 
 arrive there was no hackman for tliat hotel or any other. This 
 was the second time we had arrived in a large city, Puebla being 
 the third largest in ]\[exico, without bus accommodation. After 
 we had stood half an hour on the curb a man appeared and we 
 gave him the name of our hotel. He shook his head, stopped a 
 hack that providentially came around a corner, pushed us in and 
 took us to his hotel. The Terminus, which was not the one we 
 had asked for. But we were glad to get anything and when we 
 arrived at the Terminus, which seemed interminably far away, 
 we pulled up on a side street, went in, were registered, climbed 
 the stone stairs, wore assigned a spacious, private room by the 
 patio and soon journeyed into dreamland. 
 
 ANGEL ARCHITECTS 
 
 WE waked late Sunday morning because no church bells 
 rang, and that seemed strange since Puebla is a city 
 of churches. The cathedral is the next in size, import- 
 ance and beauty to the one in IMexico City. In this 
 "City of the Angels," we walked to see it in the public square. 
 It is a mammoth affair. It seems the angels were accustomed 
 to make this town a sort of resort and came so often for business 
 and plea-sure that it was called "Angel Town," "Puebla de los 
 Angeles." 
 
 The records of angel visits between Eden and Puebla are 
 few and far between. They liked the climate, and since the city 
 is 7,150 feet above sea level, it was a short run and aviation 
 down to earth. There is no doubt about this for the cathedral 
 is where the angels held their last convention on earth. The 
 faithful believer points out the very place where these heavenly 
 birds of paradise flew down and helped tlie workmen lift the big 
 stones and put them in position. When the towei-s were half 
 finished and the workmen were very tired, the angels came aud 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 255 
 
 finished the job, doing as much at night as the men had during 
 all the day. 
 
 The cathedral was begun in 1552 and finished in 1649. This 
 seems a long time^ — perhaps this heavenly building was a con- 
 tract job and the angels only worked on it eight hours a day. I 
 took several good photos of this earthly saint's rest, the first one 
 I ever saw built by angels, and I confess it is a pretty good job. 
 
 Entering the high iron gate I noticed several angel statues 
 roosting on every big iron post, and there were angel heads be- 
 tween on the fence pickets. All were on duty. While they were 
 very many and artistic my attention was centered on some pretty 
 well dressed human angels flitting in and out of the church door. 
 There were many bells above and more belles beneath. I ad- 
 mired the angelic towers, this labor of love, but was surprised 
 that these heavenly messengers sent in a big bill, a bill higher 
 than the towers, for there is an inscription that tells the igno- 
 rant wayfarer that the towers cost $100,000 — but towers are 
 expensive things when angels build them. 
 
 The back of the church was fine enough for the front and 
 the front was worth looking back at all the time. As a child 
 takes a rubber stamp and daubs a whole sheet of paper with the 
 design, so this cathedral is all covered with designs of marble 
 statues, saints, crosses, medallions and cherubim. In front of 
 the cathedral there is a place where the Zapatistas made havoc, 
 rebels were shot, and the church confessionals and furniture 
 were burned. 
 
 Within, the Puebla onyx has been worked into many alt-ars 
 and statutes, but there is much wood imitation of marble, fake 
 finery and stage stuff. The church was once a mine of fabulous 
 wealth. The government needed the money and its officials ,vere 
 playing hide and seek 'mid the columns of the cathedral, to learn 
 where the treasures were hidden by the priests. 
 
 We attended two services, one for the Indians in the morn- 
 ing and the other for the rich at noon. At noon it was more 
 attractive outside in the plaza where trees, flowers and a band 
 drew a larger crowd. Friends and families were out for a walk, 
 nurses were there with baby carriages, there were newsies and 
 bootblacks, cold ices and drinks. The plaza park was God's tem- 
 ple cathedral where you could sit undisturbed except for the 
 beggars whose sing-song whine was a regular "Beggars' Opera." 
 
256 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 PAY AND PRAY 
 
 FIFTY years ago things were different. Now no priests 
 are permitted on tlie streets; then there was little else, 
 for the P in Puebla stood for priestcraft. Now most 
 of the city churches have been closed by the govern- 
 ment, then they were open for business, but the town was not 
 wide awake in other business, for religion was the main busines.s. 
 The entire city was a great belfry with clang ajid clash, and 
 there was one unending procession of robed priests and their 
 retinue of robbing beggars. Service was servile. There were so 
 many churches, chapels, statues, crosses and bell calls that if 
 you were sincerelj'' devout in the holy city, from the time you 
 left home and went to work or returned, you were in a state of 
 perpetual motion, bowing, crossing yourself, kneeling and taking 
 off your hat. From descriptions of eye-witnesses it must have 
 been w^orse and more of it than all I saw in IMoscow. The clergy 
 made a big cleanup of the money and not of the immorality. 
 Bullfights were held for church benefits and the matador's 
 sword spilled the blood of bulls in honor of the feast of "The 
 Sacred blood of Jesus." It is estimated they once had $144,- 
 000,000 in property yielding an annual income of $12,000,000. 
 The inscription I.N.RI. over the cross really meant, "Pay or 
 pray." The cross was the badge of sacrifice for the laity but not 
 for the clergy. Both rich and poor gave up luxuries and neces- 
 sities. All the gold was for God, convents, monasteries and 
 churches. There was thought or room for little else. Priestcraft 
 was priest craftiness. 
 
 The city has outgro^vn this and is hustling for "the life that 
 is" instead of so much for the life that is to come. Once the 
 high church dignitaries were so anxious to make and keep Puebla 
 separate from the ungodly, commercial Avorld that they blocked 
 legislation, ajid the appropriation intended to permit the main 
 line of railway to pass through the town. 
 
 Although clericalism was curbed by Juarez it returned. 
 When Carranza saw that according to the old ]\Iexican consti- 
 tution it was an outlaw and not entitled to church property, he 
 drove the clerics out again and took over the church property'. 
 I learned that the present governor of Puebla was becoming leni- 
 ent, and to placate some of his personal friends, was relaxing 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 257 
 
 Carranza's vigilance and permitting the church the liberty that 
 had always meant popular slavery. 
 
 As we were passing through the streets on the cars we found 
 scores of buildings with images of saints stuck over the door- 
 waj^s, and small shrines, directing the passersby to turn their at- 
 tention from the poverty of their homes on earth to the wealth 
 df the church on earth and in heaven. The churches are as nu- 
 merous as lemonade stands around a circus tent. I thought I 
 was intoxicated with the high altitude, there were so many. 
 Before Carranza became president Puebla had 200 churches 
 open to the public. 
 
 But churchly love's labor is lost. The name ''Puebla of the 
 Angels" has fallen into disuse and is simply plain Puebla. The 
 city is not so much now for religion as a railroad centre and 
 place where straw hats, pottery, leather, soap, paper, glass, cot- 
 ton, woollen goods and iron hardware are manufactured. There 
 are some large foundries. 
 
 PUEBLA 
 
 ON 1900 Puebla 's population was 93,522. It was founded 
 in 1530. General Scott captured it in 1847 and the 
 m^^ French in 1863. The streets are broad, straight and 
 mJ^M g^^ right angles. There are many striking builds, such 
 as the library, museum of antiquities, hospital, art gallery, medi- 
 cal and theological school. 
 
 The aristocratic society church, where weddings and func- 
 tions for the rich were formerly celebrated, was closed air-tight 
 and a big iron fence with locked gates forbade our entrance. 
 Next door there is a mammoth ex-religious building with walls, 
 halls, corridors, courts and patios, now a modern school with 
 laboratories, library, gymnasium and all that makes up an up-to- 
 date university. We wandered around an hour with more delight 
 than we had experienced in all the churches, for this place 
 meant illumination and care of the body. With this comes 
 religious privilege, without it, spiritual slavery. This was a 
 real conversion, an ecclesiastic heap changed into a public edu- 
 cational institution. One such building is more for man's three- 
 fold nature than one hundred churches. One true scientific edu- 
 
258 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 cator is of more value than a thousand superstitious teacliers of 
 any religion. 
 
 It requires more than architecture, paintings and music to 
 make men pious and patriotic. Robbery, barbarity, ignorance, 
 superstition and the Inquisition have had their day. Hugo says, 
 * ' The tiara is fading away, the gag is breaking between the teeth 
 of the human race. The patient human race has had enough of 
 the path of sorrow and refuses to go further," 
 
 "We were pleased to visit another church which had been made 
 into a hospital. There were many patients. Jlen wounded in 
 the war with bandits were bandaged and sunning themselves in 
 the open court. The shadow over all was the number of children 
 with skin and scalp diseases, the result of dirt, vermin and ill- 
 care. The heads of these poor, little.innocent things were an 
 awful reflection on the heads of their families. If children are 
 "sweet, new blossoms of humanity," these children had come up 
 from a patch of weeds. The decrease of the Indian is due to 
 insanitation, peonage, tribal intermarriage and neglect of chil- 
 dren whose death rate is 50 per cent of all born. 
 
 It was our good fortune to meet an Austrian "nobleman," 
 that is, one higher than I had ever met in his old Vienna home, 
 and his name was Eiuil Stransky. Without him I would have 
 been as lonesome as Dante in Hell without his Virgilian guide. 
 He was a cash register man and knew how to talk business to 
 the sleepy Mexicans and register their cash for the Dayton, 
 Ohio, office. He was a Hebrew but a true Christian compared 
 with many of these people. He was a great find and we found 
 him a great fellow. He could talk three languages, was at home 
 in all Latin America and familiar with their ways and means, 
 especially their mean ways. He led lis over to the market where 
 on Sunday morning one finds the mass of people and not the 
 people at the church mass. Like the Rialto the market was 
 where natives most did congregate and it was a raotfly congrega- 
 tion. There was everything for your appetite. If you had none 
 before you looked around you soon had one, for there was some- 
 thing nice and fresh in vegetables, meat, butter, cheese and eggs 
 to make your mouth water and your stomach refuse to be com- 
 forted until filled. 
 
 Opposite the plaza in the arcade we discovered a small res- 
 taurant. Wc waited long for our order. Liquor could be fum- 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 259 
 
 ished at once but hot milk or coffee required much time to bring 
 it to a boil, and to us in this altitude of 7,000 feet. Meantime 
 an Indian boy came in with a basket of curios, religious emblems, 
 apples and pears, all made out of onyx. The onyx quarries at 
 Tecalli are famous and six miles from the city. The stone is 
 of many colors, light gray, yellow, brown and of a fine texture. 
 The plaza arcades were full of these onyx vendors. I bought an 
 onyx pear and found it as soft as some of the hard dry bread 
 on the table. This onyx is used in Puebla's public buildings 
 and some of it is so transparent that it could be used for glass. 
 It would be a fitting punishment for those who say travelers 
 to Puebla should not fail to visit Cholula, if they were compelled 
 to go there themselves. We went, and if you like my account of 
 the trip, you may go as well, but remember what I told you and 
 don't tell me to go to . 
 
 ANCIENT CHOLULA 
 
 CIHOLULA is a small town about seven miles from Pu- 
 I ebia and famous for a gigantic Aztec pyramid crowned 
 with a Spanish church. Taking a Puebla street car we 
 passed a depot that had been recently gutted and 
 burned by Zapatistas. Arriving at the station we learned the 
 train that was to take us to Cholula was nothing but a little 
 bob-tailed mule car. There were five in our party, Stransky, 
 Gartsite, a whiskey-soaked doctor, "L" and myself. The car 
 was to leave in five minutes and there was not a vacant seat in 
 it. Natives with their bundles and produce had filled the seats 
 and even the running board. The company refused to run an 
 extra car, and since we were not permitted to sit on top of the 
 car or the mules, we sat in front on the fender rail by the driver, 
 trjnbig to avoid the whirl of the brake and the crack of the lash. 
 On the level or down grade it was easy for the four mules, 
 but when we came to the hill some of the natives had to get out 
 and push. We stopped on a side track on a hill top to permit 
 the returning car from Cholula to Puebla to pass. Half an hour 
 we waited and no car appeared. Then the driver, instead of 
 looking over the edge of the hill to see whether the car was com- 
 
 ing, went on ahead, and five minutes later when we started down 
 
260 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 the hill we saw the other car coming up. All we could do was 
 to change cars and mules. In the scramble our party managed 
 to grab the front bench on the other car. I saw a hill in the 
 misty distance and was told it was the pyramid. The more we 
 rode the further we seemed to go from it for the car takes a very 
 circuitous route. It was very warm and dusty and there was no 
 special scenery near to keep our minds off our discomfort. We 
 crossed an old bridge over the Atoyac river, met people on mule- 
 back, saw clouds in the sky and clouds of dust in the roads. 
 Finally we neared our desired goal, the so-called pyramid. It 
 resembles a big bush and tree-covered hill. It is nearly 377 feet 
 high and the eastern base is 425 feet. No one here could tell 
 me this but I learned it on my return home when I consulted 
 an encyclopaedia. This hill is thought to be the oldest and highest 
 teocalli, "god's house," in all Mexico. It was Mexico's Mount 
 Olympus erected to the god of the air, Quetzalcoatl, whose carved 
 picture preserved in museum relics looks like a bow-legged Dia- 
 butsu. His hands are clasped over his shins, and there is a fools- 
 cap on his head, a riveted collar over his shoulders, and he wears 
 wings by his cheeks. He was the happy god of art and agricul- 
 ture. Under his smile fruits, flowers and grain laughed into 
 fragrance and fertility and birds sang their sweetest songs. 
 
 The pyramid is made of sun-baked brick. Like the pyramids 
 of Teotihuacan, it is dwarfed by the pyramid mountains in the 
 distance. Though Ossa and Pelion were piled on it, it wouldn't 
 have been impressive. 
 
 The same, smashing, Spanish spirit that destroyed the beauti- 
 ful Moorish columns in Cordova to make an ugly Christian 
 chapel, came to Mexico and destroyed hundreds of temples, 
 sculptures, books of tradition, thousands of homes, and defaced 
 this pyramidal site by building a Spanish style church on top of 
 it. It looks like a bump on a log, a wart on a frog, a snail on a 
 stone, a tiara on a brow of a hill. It is as fitting and congrous 
 as a rustic beer garden would be on the top of Cheops, or a M. 
 E. chapel on a Ceylon dagoba. 
 
 This church was dedicated to the "Virgin de los Remedios," 
 but the ruin is remediless now. As a popular shine it was a re- 
 ligious rival of the Lady of Ouadalupe. A sort of Jacob's lad- 
 der steps is built in the rough side of the hill for the feet of 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 261 
 
 the faithful who climb up, with the sky above, the green of the 
 trees, vine and moss and glory of the flower round about them. 
 
 Some writers think this pyramid was built for religious use, 
 others as a place of refuge from attacking enemies, and still oth- 
 ers as a burial place for the kings. Legend says that it was 
 built by a race of giants, but the gods grew angry and destroyed 
 them. It may have been each, all or none of them. I wasn't 
 there and don't know and I don't recall any man who was alive 
 then or can tell me now. If there are any Aztecs in heaven I'll 
 be sure and ask them all about it. Those of my readers who 
 visit the other place may learn from Cortez and some of his sol- 
 diers down there, why it was built. I fear it was under a forced 
 contract with slaves; that it was an antique ant hill built by 
 busy people. 
 
 Cholula is the holy city of Mexico and is built at an elevation 
 of 7,500 feet. When Cortez came here 150,000 peaceful people 
 dwelt in and around. Now there are only 10,000 in town and 
 36,000 in the districts round about. What can you expect after 
 the blight of his bloody heel? Cortez pillaged and burned the 
 town for two days and six thousand of the inhabitants were mas- 
 sacred. Then he destroyed the idols and gods of the temples and 
 made it 0. K. with his God by erecting crosses and images of 
 the Virgin, and celebrating mass for the massacred. 
 
 Assuming that my reader may wish to know more of Cortez, 
 that churchly hero, that kind, angelic man of God, I offer the 
 following few choice and well-known facts. 
 
 CORTEZ, THE DEVIL CRUSADER 
 
 A HUMORIST once said that it would have been fifteen 
 cents in Mr. Judas' pocket if he never had been bom. 
 No mathematician can estimate how much Mexico 
 would have been worth if Cortez had never seen day- 
 light. 
 
 He was bom in Medellin, Spain, of a good family and soon 
 became a black sheep. He was early sent to Salamanca to study 
 law, and the little heathen became a law unto himself in two 
 years. The only things he learned were the arts of deviltry and 
 dissipation, the low degrees of D. D.'s. 
 
262 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 The next few years he developed into a rounder and rake. 
 One night before taking a vacation voyage, he climbed a wall 
 to see his lady love and fell with the wall on top of him. This 
 gave him a "mash" he wasn't looking for. It is sad to think 
 these stones were not his tombstones. He was carried away for 
 repairs and his ship sailed off, leaving him in pain and morti- 
 fication. 
 
 Then he packed his steamer trunk for another sailing trip 
 and took a West Indies Cruise for Santo Domingo. This was in 
 1504, and though he was but 19 years old, he had already gone 
 some. The next seven years of his life were as vigorous as the 
 tropical vegetation, and the vines of his warm affections were 
 luxuriantly trained around the trellis of young girls' hearts. 
 He spent seven years in idleness, fighting duels and Indians and 
 debauching country girls. 
 
 Sighing for more "conquests," he went to Cuba with Velas- 
 quez and received a political job there as alcade of St, lago, 
 but he was lago without the saint. The one position he always 
 filled was making love. As a warrior bold he besieged the heart 
 of one of four sisters whose old father came to Cuba to buy real 
 estate and for a little rest and recreation. Velasquez was in 
 love with one of the sisters and learned that Cortez was a wicked 
 trifler with one of the others. He reproached him and called 
 him a dirty dog, or words of equal effect. This made Cortez mad 
 and he plotted to put Velasquez out of the way. Be he was dis- 
 covered and thrown in jail. Cortez could break jails as easily 
 as hearts, and one dark night he got away and hid in a neigh- 
 boring church whose sanctuary and refuge privilege he claimed 
 as a "good" Christian. He remained several days, but if we may 
 judge from his after life he was not very much improved by 
 his religious surroundings. Attempting to escape from the 
 church he was caught, chained and put on a ship to be sent to 
 Santo Domingo for execution. With the skill of the vaudeville 
 artist, who escapes from straight-jackets, gyves and chains, Cor- 
 tez worked his feet from the irons, tip-toed to the deck, walked 
 over to the rail and safely slid down into the water with a little 
 splash, swam nshore, returned to the church sanctuary and occu- 
 pied his old pew. 
 
 Suffering more from pain of body than remorse of soul for 
 the young miss whom he had wronged, he consented to marry 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 263 
 
 her. Iler name was Miss Catalina Suarez. She was a good- 
 looker, had a good disposition and was a good girl, too good for 
 this man Cortez, who could have written a new chapter in Ovid's 
 "Art of Loving," and given Byron, Goethe and Burns some 
 pointers on Cupid's arrows. Catalina, her father and the gov- 
 ernor forgave him and told him to brace up and settle down. 
 
 Now the stage-hands of history shift the scene from Cuba to 
 Mexico whence glowing and golden reports had been brought 
 back by Grijalva, who has just discovered it. Because he hadn't 
 settled down on it or taken a claim and claimed it, Velasquez 
 was displeased and planned its conquest. Cortez wanted the po- 
 sition as leader, for he was in big debt and needed the money. 
 Tired of his father-in-law and hungering for new adventures, he 
 bribed his influential friends, as we do now, to move the governor 
 and get him the position. The pole was long enough and he 
 knocked down the political plum. 
 
 But when he sat sail Velasquez changed his mind, and jeal- 
 ous of the glory and gold Cortez might get from conquest, he or- 
 dered the fleet to stop and Cortez to be arrested at Trinidad. 
 However, Cortez ' crew, to whom he had promised much, stood by 
 him and Cortez told Velasquez he could go to Hispaniola, or 
 any other place that began with the letter "h." 
 
 His volunteer crew had been raised by great promises, but 
 on the high seas Cortez used conscription, became a pious pirate 
 and robbed ships of their goods, forcing their crews into his army 
 service. The words, "Follow the Cross," were emblazoned on 
 his black velvet banner, in reality a black flag of piracy. He 
 had set sail on a crusade of cruelty and crime. 
 
 The island of Cozumel, off Yucatan, was the first place 
 touched and he was so ** touchy" when he saw what he was 
 pleased to call heathen temples and idols that he made them a 
 rock and junk pile, erected an altar and cross, and having "estab- 
 lished" Christianity, started on his marauding, murdering, mis- 
 sionary tour. 
 
 At Tabasco, Mexico, he had a hot engagement with the na- 
 tives and gave a mass before he massacred them. Thirty thou- 
 sand of them were killed. When the poor Indians had seen his 
 ships, and the Spaniards on them, and had heard the guns, they 
 at first thought they were gods, but alas, too late, learned they 
 were devils. After the battle, instead of boiling the bodies for 
 
264 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 Boap fat, the Spaniards picked up the dead, fat Indians, and 
 sliced off pieces to dress their wounds, as mother did pork when 
 she put it on our stone-bruised feet. Then Cortez and his men 
 thanked God and with renewed strength smashed their idols and 
 changed the name from Tabasco to St. ^lary of Victory. 
 
 It was here that white slavery had its birth. T^wenty young 
 Indians girls were offered as captives. Cortez picked out the 
 daisy of the bunch, Donna Marina, for himself, and let his cap- 
 tains fight over the others. Like a pirate captain he had started 
 in to have a new girl in every port. He had left his girl wife 
 behind him in Cuba. He was no fool and knew it wasn't right 
 according to the laws of God and man, but he argued that he 
 was doing so much for God and his church that such little sins 
 as murder and adultery were too small to be noticed or repri- 
 manded. Donna didn't object, for she had been brought up in 
 polygamy and made to feel that the more wives one had the 
 better the husband would be. She soon became interpreter and 
 mother of a son. So they set off again, praising God and leav- 
 ing the poor heathen to think of the new Christianity bequeathed 
 them, what had struck them, and where in heaven or hell they 
 were at. 
 
 Dropping anchor at what is now Vera Cruz, Cortez saw the 
 Indians, told them Charles V had sent his regards and some pres- 
 ents to their king jMontezuma and that he, Cortez, was very anx- 
 ious to see him. This was some lie. Cortez represented himself 
 as a messenger from Spain and Charles V. But he came to this 
 Eden like a serpent with fangs to bite, with a crowbar and pick 
 to mine, with a whip to enslave, with torture chains for Inquisi- 
 tion, with a hammer to knock the Aztecs and a sword to kill. 
 Old "Monte" feared the Spaniards bearing gifts and sent his 
 messengers back to Cortez with costly gold presents, asking to 
 be excused, since it was his busy day. Cortez planned at once 
 to make the social call, overcame the mutiny of his men, made 
 friends of Montezuma's enemies, the Totonacs, and then, like 
 another Agathocles, sunk his ships so that his men could not re- 
 turn. He founded the city which he called "Villa Rica de la 
 Vera Cruz," "Rich City of the True Cross." As usual gold 
 came first with Cortez before God, and coin preceded Christ and 
 cross. Vera Cruz, then as today, was the headquarters for in- 
 trigue, lies and loot. All the time Cortez was here he sowed the 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 265 
 
 devil's seed of perfidy between the natives and Montezuma, As 
 he daily extended his tour of missions for the church he was 
 perfidy personified in all the elements of cruelty and treacher- 
 ous character that he was to use later in his conquest of Mexico. 
 
 En route to Montezuma he stopped in to see the Tlascalans 
 and whipped them without much difficulty, as easily as if a gat- 
 ling gun were aimed at school boys only armed with baseball 
 bats. When the Tlascalans wanted to sue for peace, and sent 
 fifty of their leading citizens loaded with presents to Cortez, he 
 took the gifts from their outstretched hands, cut off their hands 
 and sent them back to camp where they were not so handy. 
 Another proof of the divine tenderness of Christianity Cortez 
 vouchsafed to the abominable heathen. The Tlascalans became 
 his allies; they couldn't do anything else, and a little later Cortez 
 came to Cholula and killed over 6,000 people. 
 
 *'0n to Mexico" was the cry, and Montezuma was there wait- 
 ing for him. Cortez approached the city, viewed the sublime 
 scenery of mountain and valley and reached the town on the 
 never-to-be-forgotten date, Nov. 8, 1519. 
 
 The town of 300,000 was situated in the center of a great 
 marshy, salt lake and was approached by three solid causeways 
 of masonry, from three to six miles long, intersected with many 
 wooden drawbridges. The people bowed before Cortez for they 
 believed he was a descendant of the Sun, their patron God. He 
 accepted their devotion and proceeded at once to act in a lordly 
 manner. He selected a palace, as Carranza's soldiers do now, 
 and appropriated everything he wanted. "While receiving this 
 royal hospitality he was plotting against the city and king. 
 
 Then news came to Cortez that some of his soldiers had been 
 killed in an attack at Vera Cruz. The head of one of his men 
 was brought to the capital. This wag evidence to the Indians 
 that the Spaniards were mortal — the same argument that later 
 appealed to the Hawaiians when Capt. Cook was wounded. 
 Cortez' fertile brain now evolved a new plan of cruelty. He 
 accused Montezuma, had him brought to Spanish quarters and 
 placed him in chains and irons. The king declared himself to 
 be innocent and said he would have the guilty Indian officer and 
 son, together with the fifteen men who attacked the garrison, 
 brought to Mexico City. But when the officer was tortured he 
 swore that he had only acted under Montezuma's orders. Then 
 
266 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 Cortez ordered them all to be burned alive in the market place 
 as a bright warning to any others who might object to his policy 
 of benevolent assimilation. 
 
 These Indians were Stoics and with no outcry stood and 
 burned until they fell into ashes. The Soldiers stood around 
 with loaded guns to shoot anyone who might interfere. So the 
 deed was done. 
 
 Next Cortez secured $6,500,000 loot from ^lexico City and 
 passed another milestone in his progress as a Christian pilgrim. 
 From being a mere cold-blooded murderer he now proceeds to 
 mutilate and incinerate. 
 
 Cortez was a ring-master of a two-ringed cruel circus. "While 
 the captives were burning he went into the king's apartments, 
 loaded I\Iontezuma with irons and chains sufficient to crush his 
 back and spirit, and demanded that he should give up and swear 
 to be a follower of Charles V, after which he would be free. 
 Montezuma submitted, dug up heaps of jewels and $600,000 of 
 pure gold. But there was no peace where wicked Cortez was. 
 The Indians grew older and bolder. They drove the Spanish 
 from the city at the battle of "Dismal Night." Cortez besieged 
 the capital again, retook it and continued to splash with his 
 bloody boots through many pages of IMexico City history. 
 
 In addition to the blessings of the cross and a Christian 
 civilization, Spain introduced small-pox, disease, devastation and 
 death and ruled rampant over the country. Before this, Monte- 
 zuma had been killed by his own soldiers, with two arrows and 
 a stone, while he was making a speech to his people. His brother, 
 Guatemozin, took up the fight and thus from bad to worse things 
 went until there was a regular siege of 75 days when 50,000 
 Mexicans died from famine and disease. The Indians made a 
 brave stand and when the Spaniards entered the city they found 
 a grave, black iniins, rivers of blood, houses filled with dead and 
 the air rotten -uath decomposition. "When it was cleaned up they 
 had a victor's time, drinking, dancing, girls and gold, though not 
 so much booty as they expected. Guatemozin was put to torture 
 by Cortez, oil was poured on his feet, fire kindled underneath, but 
 he stubbornly refused to give in or give up, declaring the treaa- 
 ures they were after were in the lake. His companion died 
 from the torture. This one act of Cortez puts him in the Judas 
 class. He didn't even include this affair in a postscript when 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 267 
 
 he wrote home to his king, and not one of his saintly biographers 
 has been bold enough to add an additional halo to him for this 
 damned deed of torture. Guatemozin was later publicly exe- 
 cuted with great cruelty. 
 
 All the Indians in Mexico, not murdered, were enslaved and 
 set to cut down forests and build up Mexico City. The only pay 
 for any work was the lash. The Spaniards would not work, they 
 wanted money and so they made the natives work. They stood 
 over them with lash. There were revolts and counter revolts 
 that were always quelled with greater hardships to the Indians. 
 After killing and enslaving them the process of conversion to 
 Christianity was very easy, especially as the Spaniards merely 
 substituted their own Christians images for the heathen Aztec 
 idols. 
 
 While Cortez was thus publicly busy he endeavored to have 
 the comforts of a quiet home and settle down after a hard day's 
 work with his favorite Indian princess Marina. However, there 
 was another v/oman in the case, his former wife, whom he had 
 deserted in Cuba. She was tired of pining alone on a plantation 
 and came to Mexico to look up her long-absent husband. She 
 brought her big brother along to see that she received fair play. 
 Cortez was very much surprised and embarrassed, but provi- 
 dentially Catalina died of asthma within three months. This 
 was an easy way for Cortez to get out of the dilemma, yet many 
 of his biographers hint very strongly that he was another Dr. 
 Crippen or Nero, and responsible for the deep damnation of 
 her taking off. This hasn't been unquestionably proven, but 
 after his previous record it is no very great tax on our imagina- 
 tion to believe that he did it. 
 
 Cortez was official boss here for a while, for in 1522 
 Charles V had made him captain general and governor of 
 Mexico and New Spain. But jealous courtiers and enemies of 
 his in the Spanish court M^ere plotting against him. In 1522 
 Cortez led an expedition to Honduras and while he was absent 
 his enemies were busy and Estrada superseded him as governor. 
 He went back to Spain to headquarters to answer his acfcusers, 
 but was turned down, lost the title of governor, although he 
 was honored with the position and title of Marquis del Yalle 
 de Oaxaca. On his return to Mexico, his Spanish enemies again 
 
268 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 got the ear of Charles V, and he took ship once more to see his 
 sovereign. He was received Avith coldness and neglect. 
 
 His last days were like those of Cardinal Wolsey and he 
 must have felt the same, 
 
 "Had I but served my God with half the zeal 
 I served my king, he would not in mine age 
 Have left me naked to mine enemies." 
 
 The king he had served so faithfully scarce granted him 
 audience. One day Cortez forced himself through a crowd 
 about the king's carriage and mounted the door step. Charles 
 was furious at the bold caller and demanded to know who he 
 was. Cortez felt that he was forgetful, as well as ungrateful, 
 and handed him this verbal package, "I am a man who has 
 given ye more prisoners than your ancestors left ye cities." 
 This put Charles in a huff, widened the breach. Filled with 
 disgust and despair, Cortez left the court and went into solitude, 
 where, let us hope, he confessed his sins and found redeeming 
 mercy. He died near Seville, Dec. 2, 1554, at the age of 63. He 
 died, sending his love and gifts to his nine children, five of whom 
 were illegitimate. Yet the quiet of the grave was denied him, 
 for, like Columbus, his very bones were lugged from Spain to 
 ]\Iexico and finally placed in a monastery of Tezcuco, ^lexico, 
 in a family vault, in a crystal coffin \vith valuable relics. It 
 was securely barred and a beautiful and costly monument was 
 built over him. 
 
 Cortez went to Mexico as an apostle of the meek and pure 
 Jesus and convei-ted the heathen with fire and sword. His 
 life rivals all fiction. So passed this avaricious adventurer, 
 bloody bigot, pious pirate, fanatical fiend and crusader of cru- 
 elty. If there ever was a devil in jMexico, he was it. Cortez had 
 a fine combination of the subtlety of a snake, the virtues of a 
 vulture and the heart of a toad. His military genius, statesman- 
 like plans and devotion to his church cannot atone for all else. 
 Like Byron's Corsair, if he had one virtue, it was linked with a 
 thousand crimes. 
 
 The difference between the Protestant and Roman Catholic 
 religions in Mexico is this — that the former does not use the steel 
 sword of Pizarro and Cort€Z, but the "Sword of the Spirit," 
 which is the Word of God, guaranteeing life, liberty and pursuit 
 of happiness to all. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 269 
 
 CHOKED TO DEATH 
 
 AT CHOLULA we found the Indians frolicking and 
 happy. Natives and visitors were having a Sunday pic- 
 nic and the pulque shops were crowded in the shady 
 plaza. We took the last car back to town, since we 
 didn't care to stay over night. Indians crowded on top of us, and 
 when the car was full they sat in our laps, brushed our shoul- 
 ders and everything had the appearance of a football scrimmage. 
 Slowly we retraced our track. The sun set gloriously on the 
 volcanoes "Izta" and "Popo," and the fields, maguey and mud 
 huts we had seen on our way out, were hidden by this crowd 
 that sat on us. I wouldn't have objected so much if the girls 
 and women, sitting on my lap and standing on my feet, had 
 been young and pretty and had taken at least one bath in a 
 month. Instead, they were a lot of ragged, dirty, diseased, 
 smelly, vermin-infested market women. To make all this worse, 
 there was a man on my left who exhaled a rotten rum odor that 
 was asphyxiating. Stransky saved my life with his eigarets. 
 All five of us took them and raised a cloud of smoke to kill the 
 stench. Cigarets have doubtless been the death of many, but 
 these cigarets saved our lives. There was a young boy in front 
 of me who was stupid with pulque, and had a hard time to keep 
 his feet on the car. Cartloads of Indians passed, swaying, singing 
 and shouting; they were soaked with pulque and on a Sunday 
 spree. When it grew dark a sentimental beggar behind me 
 started some Mexican love songs and twanged his guitar while 
 the passengers joined in the chorus. Whether it was the up- 
 grade or music, the mules refused to go, and for half an hour 
 the voice of the driver was heard above the chorus, swearing 
 at the mules. Aft^r some Indians stepped off and helped push 
 the car we were under way and dragged into the Puebla station 
 at 8 p. m. 
 
 GOOD AND BAD 
 
 FTER supper we were glad to close this strenuous 
 
 day with some real religious thought and service. The 
 
 little Baptist church building was well filled, lighted, 
 
 airy, the music was good and an earnest sermon was 
 
 preached in Spanish by Dr. Brown. At its conclusion he came 
 
 A 
 
270 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 down the aisle and gave us the right hand of fellowship, urging 
 us to remain and see the baptism of some IMexican converts, by 
 immersion, a symbolism of the washing of regeneration — of death 
 to sin and resurrection to "newness of life." "We did. This 
 was the first time I had ever seen a I\rexican in water and, know- 
 ing their aversion to it, I fear it will be difficult to induce many 
 of them to enter the church by this door. "WTiat a difference 
 between the democracy of a Baptist church, that comes from an 
 open Bible, and the aristocracy of the Roman church, which 
 comes from enforced priestly mandates ! 
 
 DeFoe said, "Wherever God erects a house of prayer, the 
 devil always builds a chapel there." In this churchly town 
 Satan swings his red lamp of danger, but the multitude takes 
 no heed and rushes on the broad-gauge way to death. 
 
 In this "City of Angels" there were many fallen angels. 
 We watched them dance in a private house. I was surprised 
 to see a private soldier, who was dancing, remove his coat when 
 his superior officer entered. The madam gave him a civilian's 
 coat, which permitted him to continue his dance. This is a 
 military rule with no exception. It is all right to visit such a 
 place, but when the superior sinner enters the inferior sinner 
 must vacate the premises or stay there disguised. 
 
 Next morning we were up at 5 :30 after a shivering night 
 during which we piled our overcoats on the bed to keep warm. 
 On our way to the station we saw throngs of bare-footed Indians 
 who appeared to be comfortable as they trotted over the cold 
 stones. Warming up with hot coffee before entering the train, 
 we secured the first-class coach. The windows were cracked 
 with shot and the bullet marks on the sills were reminders of 
 former lively trips. Nevertheless, the agent assured Stransky 
 and us that the train would reach Orizaba in safety, but from 
 there on he did not Imow what might happen. 
 
 The country between Puebla and Apizaco is marked by 
 bandit-burned stations, but the scenery of field and mount-ain 
 was sublime. Within hailing distance was our old friend "Popo" 
 and his old girl, still asleep. 
 
 It was tliirty miles to Apizaco, where we waited for the 
 train from Mexico City to take us to Orizaba. The traveler 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 271 
 
 here may procure small bottles of cognac to brace up for perils 
 that are to come. The town was full of soldiers to guard us 
 down the mountains, and the station agent here said the train 
 would go to Vera Cruz that day. When we got on the train the 
 conductor laughed, saying, "No, indeed, only to Cordova," a 
 station just beyond Orizaba. 
 
 THE STAR MOUNTAIN 
 
 LOOKING from the window, as we journeyed along, we 
 saw a dance of sand and dusty whirlwinds that resem- 
 bled smoky chimneys or small waterspouts. We drank 
 in the sublime view of Orizaba, the "star mountain," 
 an extinct volcano 18,250 feet high, the next highest mountain 
 in North America, only surpassed by Mount McKinley. Its top 
 was white with eternal snow and ice. The crater is several hun- 
 dred feet in diameter and there are small glaciers on the side. 
 The last eruption was in the middle of the Sixteenth Century. 
 Two Americans made the first ascent of the mountain in 1848. 
 It is a sort of artificial ice plant to the Indians, in the surround- 
 ing towns, who come here, cut the ice and slide or ship it down 
 by native back or mule pack. When the God of the Quetzcoatl 
 grew weary of Cholula and said, "Never again," and shook off 
 the dust of his shoes, he journeyed to the coast of Goatzcoalcos, 
 where death got his goat and he was brought to the top of Mount 
 Orizaba and burned. Proud even in death, his liberated spirit 
 took the shape of a peacock and flew to heaven. Since that 
 time the mountain has been called " Citlaltapetl, " "Star Moun- 
 tain," which doesn't explain the name. It may be because it 
 was a companion of the stars which hover over it like flies over 
 a sugar-frosted cake. 
 
 Indians appeared at the small stations and offered us souve- 
 nirs. I bought a tortilla stone and roller made from lava, fear- 
 ing that before I reached Vera Cruz it might be necessary to 
 camp out and that it would come in handy. There is no bread 
 here without a stone to grind the corn. 
 
272 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 THE VALLEY AND SHADOW OF DEATH 
 
 ESPERANZA is a sUtion about eight thousand feet above 
 the sea. The word means "hope." When we left it 
 we were to leave hope behind, but hoped for the best. 
 Soldiers filled a flat ear coupled to ours, a train load 
 of "exploring" soldiers started out ahead of us, and we pulled 
 out with a two-headed or double-headed engine. Most of the 
 eight thou&md feet descent is made in 20 miles, 4 feet to every 
 100. In order to beat the law of gravitation this double- 
 headed engine can work in an opposite direction to that of the 
 moving train. 
 
 We darted from the light of the plateau to the dark of the 
 tunnel, and by "Boca del Monte," "Mounl^n's Mouth," which 
 seemed like the jaws of death. Suddenly there opened before us 
 a splendid panorama of pines and peaks and way beneath lay 
 the vast valleys. We shot through dark tunnels, hugged moun- 
 tain sides, crept across bottomless chasms, on spider-web-like 
 bridges, and most of the time could see our scouting soldier train 
 ahead looking for bandits. 
 
 What resembled scar marks on the face of the hillside, in 
 the distance, on near approach proved to be dynamited trains 
 which had fallen down the mountain. At best the road is dan- 
 gerous enough, but when every few minutes we saw a wrecked 
 freight or passenger train strewn along our tracks, so near that 
 we could touch it, and other trains thrown over the precipice 
 to the. dizzy depths of the valley beneath, it was thrillingly dis- 
 concerting. It is bad enough to be blown up or die on the level, 
 but the prospect of being somersaulted over a mountain precipice 
 2,000 feet below is not charming. This was March and the 
 Bandit Wrecking Company had been at work every few days 
 for the last two months. We were "looking out" in more ways 
 than one. Death might be sudden, but at any rate it would be 
 'mid sublime and beautiful surroundings — and the piled up 
 hills and monuments would be our monument. In the valleys 
 below, the trees were like lace, the fields like a checkerboard, 
 and the bottom looked like a green carpet on which children 
 had builded toy cities. The view of ]\raltrata town below was 
 glorious. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 273 
 
 Trains going down the mountain run faster and are there- 
 fore safer than those that come up slowly and give time for 
 bandits to rob ad libitum. In the valley below we saw an 
 engine with two flat cars. Was it waiting to have the track 
 cleared of some wreck? When we passed it, what had looked 
 like boxes and baggage on the flat cars were soldiers and a 
 gatling gun ready to shoot and command the valley. They were 
 waiting for us and if we had been attacked would have come to 
 our rescue. 
 
 La Joya is a "jewel" of a little tree-shaded station where 
 we paused, felt safe and drew a long and pious breath as we 
 looked back at our long, dangerous, serpentine trail down the 
 mountainside. Girls celebrated our safe arrival by offering 
 pulque to drink, bread and meat to eat and all sorts of fruit 
 for dessert. "El Infernillo," "Little Hell," is the name of 
 a dark gorge. Beyond is Mount Borrego, an historic spot 
 where 100 brave French Zouaves put to flight 50,000 Mexican 
 mollycoddle soldiers. 
 
 ORIZABA 
 
 WE REACHED Orizaba about 3 o'clock, 4,000 feet down 
 from Esperanza, having come from the "templada" 
 to the "tierra caliente" zone. Vera Cruz was only 
 four hours away, but there had been no train down 
 for two days and Orizaba was full of people waiting to get 
 do^vn and catch the boat. No train had even come up from 
 Vera Cruz. It seems that two days before, between Cordova 
 and Soledad, the bandits attempted to dynamite a freight 
 train, but set off the charge too soon and simply tore up a big 
 section of the track. Heaven be thanked, it was repaired. This 
 day the train came in from Vera Cruz and we knew it would 
 start back next morning at 6 o 'clock. 
 
 On the train en route for Orizaba a Mexican came over to 
 a pretty European girl sitting in front of me, told her the hotels 
 were full in Orizaba, that he had wired for a room and would 
 be glad to have her share it with him. He spoke so loudly that 
 
274 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 it was all that a Spanish-spcnkinc: friend, Avho sat next to me, 
 could do to keep himself from giving this ^Mexican libertine a 
 smash on the jaw that would have made the renewal of such a 
 proposal impossible. 
 
 Orizaba is 70 miles from Vera Cruz. It is a famous resort 
 for tourists, Mexicans and mos(|uitoes, and in the old yellow 
 fever days was a refuge for people fleeing from Vera Cruz. It 
 is a mountain-walled city, like Manitou, and has remarkably 
 beautiful scenery and climate. Although four thousand feet 
 above the sea level, it is very hot and tropic. Its population in 
 1900 was nearly 33,000. The Orizaba cotton factories are 
 among the largest in the republic and her forests are famous 
 for ferns and orchids. It is one of the oldest towns in America. 
 Montezuma captured its former site in 1457. Once it was the 
 capital, and the French occupied it in 1862. At the time of 
 the French intervention European interlopers made it a trysting 
 place, and when Maximilian was in the heyday of his brief 
 summer-day reign, he made it a pleasure resort for himself and 
 his elect friends. It was anciently called " Ahayualizapan," 
 which means "Joy of AA^ater." The name now is Orizaba, beer 
 has been substituted for water, and Orizaba is the Mexican 
 ]\Iilwaukee. All over Mexico we had seen this beer advertised 
 in newspapers and on signboards. It is, "The beer that made 
 Milwaukee jealous." People who are good judges of good beer 
 pronounce it excellent. This of itself would make the city a 
 famous resort. "We tried it repeatedly, since drinking water is 
 flirting with dysentery and death, two dangerous coquettes, and 
 I never flirt with anybody or anything when I am away from 
 home — if I can help it. 
 
 Labor conditions are now good in Orizaba, though ten years 
 ago, when workmen struck for better wages and conditions, they 
 were shot down by the score in cold blood. 
 
 The to^\Ti has one closed coach which meets all trains and it 
 rolled us over the cobblestone roads. It was as if royalty ap- 
 proached, for everyone walks or rides on the street car. The 
 Diligencias Hotel was overflowing and the outlook was that we 
 would camp out all night. But Stransky knew the proprietor 
 of a small commercial drummer's hotel and we were fortunate 
 to get the only two rooms left, dark and buggy as they were. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 275 
 
 FLEAS— FEATHERS— FLASHLIGHTS 
 
 WE NOT only found fleas in our beds, on the trains, in 
 the homes and hotels and on the people, but dead 
 
 g*5fr^ ones dressed up as men and women for sale in the 
 ^"•f^^M souvenir shops. Mr, T. N. Patten gave me two boxes, 
 each of which is scarcely one-half of an inch square. In one 
 box there are two fleas dressed up as man and woman. The 
 man wears a red serape, white shirt, sombrero and brown pants 
 and stands by a woman who is dressed in purple and green and 
 holds a black umbrella over her head. The other fleas are a 
 bride and bridegroom. She is dressed with flowers, a veil and 
 a white dress green embroidered. He is clad in a Prince Albert 
 with a stiff-bosomed shirt and holds her arm. There are other 
 designs such as a water carrier and his jug, a full-rigged bull- 
 fighter and Spanish dancers in gay costumes. 
 
 Captain Curtis gave me specimens of most beautiful feather- 
 work made out of the colored plumage of humming birds and 
 formed into the shape of various birds. The Mexicans love to 
 make little clay animals — dogs, mules and bulls, all perfect in 
 proportion, as well as people and tiny dolls, not half an inch 
 high, perfect in form and party society dress. This love for the 
 minute and marvelous further shows itself in beautiful drawn- 
 work, rare and delicate as the lace you find in Italy and Spain. 
 Mexican dyes are world-famed, and the fine, fast-colored serapes 
 and rugs are colored by cochineal insects. The catchy eurioa 
 are for the tourist trade. All this shows ingenuity more than 
 genius. It is really sad and too bad that Mexicans cannot do 
 big things equally well. 
 
 Some Mexican natives may not know what a flashlight is at 
 night, yet they have a natural one of their own. It is a green- 
 black beetle an inch long, and, judged by the amount of phos- 
 phoric matter he emits through his reflector eyes, he must be 
 a brainy bug. The natives catch a number of them, put them in 
 a little cage and have a good lantern. Instead of wrist watches, 
 the Indian watches his step in the woods, makes a torch of three 
 of these flies and fastens them to his ankle. If a girl wants to 
 attract attention, shine like a star or have her lover meet or 
 follow her, she wears these bugs in her hair covered with a trans- 
 parent veil. 
 
276 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 SEEING THINGS 
 
 ASQT'^ARE from our place we saw a small church now 
 used as a barracks. The women within were sitting 
 on the floor sewing clothes and patching pants for 
 soldiers. In the street there were piles of food and 
 fruit for sale. Climbing the hilly street to the main plaza we 
 found good stores well stocked with even-thing except the big, 
 high, Mexican sombreros. We had left them behind with the 
 volcanoes, the scrapes and hordes of beggars. The people were 
 clean, well dressed, laughing, social and civilized. The girls 
 are said to be prettier here than anywhere, except at Jalapa, 
 because the Spanish type has remained pure and unmixed. The 
 scenery is charming and these girls are more so. On the street, 
 indoors, from balconies and even in the street ears these sweet, 
 chocolate-brown Venuses gave evidence they were glad to see 
 us and trusted we would stay over a week or so to get acquainted 
 and have a good time. Orizaba has many cafes and coffee shops 
 where girls were singing and men playing piano and guitar. 
 With beer and beauties it was a bewitching Bohemia of a place, 
 and flower fragrance was everywhere. 
 
 Crossing the plaza we entered the cathedral. I think the 
 organ must have been sick, for it uttered fearful cries and 
 groans of distress, but it was heavenly harmony to the ignorant, 
 devout Indians on their knees in a two-abreast line. They were 
 holding a sort of Venetian lantern on a stick and mumbling 
 something I trust the good Lord and they understood, for I 
 couldn't. In every corner and angle of the church I found the 
 largest assortment of charity boxes I had ever seen. One 
 traveler here noted that in an Orizaba church he counted twelve 
 boxes for specific objects, eighteen objects for general contribu- 
 tions, making thirty in all. Among his enumeration were two 
 boxes "For the Work of the Parish" and others as follows: 
 "For Our Lady Carmen," "For the Blessed Virgin," "For the 
 Blessed Souls," "For St. Michael," "iMonthlv Mass of Jesus," 
 "For the Marble Cross," "For the Sick," "For the Sick of S. 
 Vincent and S. Paul," "For Our Father Jesus Carrying the 
 Cross," "For Mary Conceived Without Sin." 
 
 The strangest thing I ever saw in any heathen or Christian 
 temple was the statue of a ballet dancer in this church. Her 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 277 
 
 lifted skirt showed her legs and feet, she held one hand on her 
 hip and one above her head. The church door was open, but 
 how she ever blew in and found sanctuary among the images 
 of the blessed Madonna and saints is inexplicable. Of course 
 we know that a sinner like Augustine may become a saint, but 
 who or what this danseuse had been and why she was here I 
 could not learn. 
 
 The town is picturesque with its hills, fine-wooded park, 
 shrine-decorated bridges over mountain streams, streets climb- 
 ing up and sliding down and something new and fresh in nature 
 and human nature at every turn. 
 
 At our hotel we sat down with the family to a big supper, 
 then sauntered around the town to the plaza and by a theatre 
 where the movie, ''Purity," was being, exhibited. This was the 
 only purity I had found in Mexico. Although the audience was 
 a mixed one, the young men laughed, stamped and howled, 
 making loud, lewd and foul remarks about the chaste, nude 
 model on the screen, that would have disgraced a pack of 
 drunken sailors. The girls and women in the theatre didn't 
 seem to object to the remarks, but laughed. You must remem- 
 ber that in Mexico some ''nice" ladies use "nasty" words. 
 
 Our hotel room, like all the others, was on the ground floor 
 and opened on a patio full of tropical plants. All that night 
 Indians came and went, pattering by our door, making the hours 
 long and restless. Then, too, we had left an order to be called 
 at 4:30 for the early train. Foolish! There was no danger of 
 our oversleeping here. The air was stifling, the iron bed was 
 without sheets, and the mattress had terrifying stains on it, as 
 though someone had been murdered. It was like sleeping on 
 concrete and was as hilly and bumpy as the mountains round 
 the town. This mattress mountain range was infested with 
 many ferocious, wild and blood-thirsty animals — whether bug, 
 mosquito or flea matters little — whether having wings or not, 
 they got there just the same. We could feel them bite their 
 tattoo on us. After four hours of sleepless unrest we rose with 
 maps and pattern marks of Mexico covering our backs. Added 
 to this were the rank odors from the unsanitary kitchen and 
 lavatory across the patio that were gently wafted to our couch 
 of dreamless slumber. 
 
278 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 No one waked up to call us, so we dressed by flashlight 
 within and starlight without and stumbled over the sleeping 
 porter into the open street. The night before we had pai<i six 
 dollars gold for our one little pen and the proprietor was so 
 pleased that he gave us a rank Mexican cigar. 
 
 Stransky hailed a night prowler to get us a hack, and 
 another man to go down to the train and sit in a first-class 
 coach seat and hold it till we came. This is the only way you 
 can reserve your seat in a Mexican train. At the station the 
 waiting room was used as a dormitory at night for the soldiers 
 who run ahead and guard the trains. An hour before the train 
 started the bugler woke up, rubbed his eyes, rose, yawned, and 
 bugled his companions to wake up and get up. Tliey were 
 wrapped in scrapes and sleep. After a ten-minute solo they 
 rose one by one, got ready and prepared for the trip to Vera 
 Cruz. I met an Englishman here by the name of Edwards. He 
 was a hide dealer bound for Vera Cruz. He steered us into a 
 lunch counter where a Scotchman served us with hot coffee and 
 eggs at a fabulous price. But what was money to us ? The most 
 dangerous part of the road lay ahead of us and we wanted to 
 die with full stomachs. 
 
 A NERVOUS RIDE 
 
 OUR train had a carload of soldiers behind us and a 
 train of "explorers" before us — we took our seats and 
 were off. It was sunrise and the whole heavens were 
 on fire. Orizaba peak blushed like a bride, the green, 
 tropical foliage-clad hills round about were like flower girls in at- 
 tendance. The air was fresh, the trees and rocks were dripping 
 with dew and glistening like Oriental gems. Leaving the red- 
 tiled town and the big factories, we dashed by splendid fields 
 of corn, coffee, rice and tobacco, orchards and cattle ranches. 
 Down and down we went, crawling and curving, threading 
 tunnels, skirting deep ravines and crossed a big, curved bridge 
 100 feet above a white-foaming river below. This is the won- 
 derful valley, or barranca, of Metlac. Then appeared more 
 tunnels, more glimpses of grandeur and beauty, and of the 
 snoAv-crowned, sunlit crest of Orizaba. We stopped at Cor- 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 279 
 
 dova. In 1895 this town had a population of 8,000. Today 
 many of her citizens are bandits who rest between the blowing 
 up of the trains. Cordova's trade is sugar, coffee and tobacco, 
 and her manufactures cotton and woolen goods. 
 
 The town looks very unlike the city of the same name in 
 Spain with its river, bridge and mosque. This Mexican, over- 
 grown village was once a flourishing city, was founded in 1618 
 and is the center of the coffee and sugar country. It has a pic- 
 turesque market, church, plaza and a monument to the patriots 
 who fought against the Spanish. It is a dreamer's sleepy para- 
 dise; a heaven for idlers; a town where Summer stops all the 
 year long; where the poet, painter and naturalist love to dream 
 and study ; where lazy lovers worship the trinity of girls, drink 
 and cigarets ; where everybody swings in the hammock ; a drowsy 
 town whose rest is only broken by bandit raids. Here the In- 
 dian girls offei;ed us beautiful flowers held in bamboo cane 
 vases. 
 
 When we left the town we sat tight in our seats, for the 
 route from here to Soledad was a string of wrecked trains. 
 While the soldiers were loading their guns and making ready 
 for something "somewhere," we knew not what, "L" and I 
 were loading kodaks. The rolls of films stuck, Edwards and 
 Stransky tried to help and made it worse, so that for ten min- 
 utes four men were all thumbs and sat provoked at two kodaks 
 and at each other's clumsiness and forgot all about the danger- 
 ous country we were passing through. We lost a fine chance 
 to be nervous, but there is a great law of compensation. With 
 the camera loaded we found some fine shots of landscape to 
 right and left. 
 
 This country of rushing rivers, green hills and rapturous 
 ravines dense with tropical vegetation afforded easy escape for 
 the bandits. We slowed down to cross the Atoyac river, over a 
 famous bridge 330 feet long and guarded by soldiers at each 
 end. The train stopped at the town of the same name on the 
 other side. It was simply a heap of ashes, skeleton iron and 
 charred wood. Only a month before the whole town was burned 
 to the ground by bandits, raided and looted. A freight box- 
 car was being used as a station and warehouse, buildings and 
 native houses and huts stood in ruins. The people looked at 
 our train in a dazed, disappointed, surprised manner, as if they 
 
280 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 had expected us to be held up a few miles back, when they 
 might have been able to get some plunder. We crossed another 
 bridge, 220 feet long, at Chiquihuite, and another one 300 feet 
 before crossing to San Alego. Both of these towns were pic- 
 tures of desolation and despair, a mass of black ruins against 
 a background of green foliage. 
 
 Our track between these stations was lined on either side 
 with train wrecks of burnt wood and heaps of tangled steel. 
 So far, so good, for us, and so bad for our predecessors. Paso 
 del Macho was worse and more of it. "L's" photo of its station 
 shows a roofless, rock enclosure four feet high, with a soldier 
 standing guard over the telegraph. The rest of the station 
 was nothing but bare, upright steel poles. 
 
 TALES OF TRAVELERS 
 
 STRANSKY recalled the place vividly. He had Avalked 
 here with his wife on his back from a wrecked train 
 further down the road a month before, like Aeneas, 
 when he carried his father Anchises on his back at 
 the fall of Troy. His train, and the "explorer" one ahead of 
 it, had both been dynamited by 200 bandits. He had seen 
 soldiers shot down in front of him while he and the rest of the 
 passengers were robbed. Those passengers who tried to escape 
 before they were robbed were shot. They were lined up near 
 the track and politely relieved of their money "for the good of 
 the cause." In this encounter many of the soldiers were killed. 
 Mr. Edwards, the hide man, then related what had befallen 
 him at Torreon a few months before. After they were eighteen 
 miles out of town they were held up by Villistas, robbed of 
 everything but their underwear and compelled to walk back 
 eighteen miles in their bare feet. 
 
 A BRUSH WITH BANDITS 
 
 F 
 
 mnfi 
 
 9! 
 
 ROM Paso del Macho to Soledad there is a thicket of 
 
 low-lying, dead gray brush about six feet high on each 
 
 side of the track. The train slowed up when we passed 
 
 through a rocky defile whose sides were black with the 
 
 dynamite explosion of a recent train wreck. A few minutes later 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 281 
 
 we went through, a freight train wreck burning on both 
 sides of our track. It had been held up and set afire 
 three days before and was still smouldering. Further on 
 we rode by the grim, iron debris of Stransky's passenger train. 
 Such scenes were very depressing and while we prayerfully 
 hoped we might reach Soledad, the next station, in safety, the 
 engine suddenly put on the car brakes and came to a stand- 
 still. "L" looked out of the window — there was no station — • 
 nothing except brush on either side, but the train of soldiers 
 in front of us had stopped. Stransky and Edwards told "L" 
 to keep his head in unless he wanted to have it shot off. The 
 bandits had shot at the "explorer" guard ahead of us, who 
 returned the fire and waited till our train came up. 
 
 One of their buglers blew a call and the soldiers in the flat 
 car behind us trooped out, joined the "explorers" and rushed 
 with them pell-mell into the bush where the shots had come 
 from. "L" started to the other side of the car to take a picture 
 of the passing show, but Stransky held him back and told him 
 
 not to show the kodak in the window or some d , blank fool 
 
 of a bandit would think it was a new kind of gun and make 
 him a target. 
 
 A woman back of us prayed, counted her beads and crossed 
 herself. Others were pale and crying. One pulled her diamond 
 earrings off and hid them. A mother tried to quiet her crying 
 baby. Men were hiding their money, getting away from the 
 windows, ducking behind seats and baggage on the floor out of 
 bandit range, while one or two brave passengers cocked their 
 guns ready to shoot. Stransky sang "Nearer, My God, to Thee," 
 "L" and I were very still and spent our time in making small 
 change to give the bandits. 'Mid all this sudden excitement 
 and nervous fear there was one thing to smile at. A big Mexican, 
 who had one or two drinks too many, was sitting sound asleep 
 by a window, snoring, with his mouth open and his head 
 thrown back, making a perfect bandit target. He was alone on 
 that side of the car and blissfully unconscious of the rapid-fire 
 events. It was every man for himself. As he was a man we left 
 him alone. 
 
 This suspense lasted ten or fifteen minutes. We all breathed 
 hard and low, and I think I broke the world's record, for I held 
 my breath fifteen minutes — at least it seemed that long. You 
 
282 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 needn't laugh. "We didn't. I wasn't thinking of getting ray 
 ship at Vera Cruz, but how many more minutes it would be 
 before the train was blown up or we were robbed or shot. I 
 never was more solemn in my life, and couldn't be if a doctor 
 should suddenly appear and tell me to stop writing this minute 
 for I was to die in a quarter of an hour. 
 
 However thick the bullets may have been flying in the thicket, 
 none of them touched us. In this brush with the brush bandits 
 our soldier guard succeeded in driving them away and returned 
 to the train in groups. Some few lingered, the bugler grew 
 impatient and blew the calls. Finally three soldiers came bound- 
 ing through the thicket like rabbits, jabbering and gesticulating 
 with their guns. Whether the bandits were returning or not, 
 the engineer didn't care to know, for he pulled out from this 
 undesirable stopping-place as fast as possible. 
 
 It may interest the reader to know that two days later the 
 train from Vera Cruz to Orizaba was held up. Time and travel 
 here are uncertain and unsafe to say the least, and they say the 
 least about it. You know but little unless you chance to be in 
 the wreck. 
 
 SAVED 
 
 SOLEDAD was reached at last and we were safe, for 
 there were no bandits between there and Vera Cruz. 
 Thankful we surely were and made many good prom- 
 ises for the future, as we thought of "What might 
 have been." All the town was out to meet us, and from their 
 looks and actions they seemed to know more of our narrow 
 escape than we did. Some of their faces showed signs of in- 
 quisitive disappointment. It is well laiown that these attacks 
 are planned by the bandits who stay in these little towns and 
 are housed and fed by them for a promised protection. They, 
 too, pay tribute, as any private hacienda planter does to prevent 
 his place from being burned. The mere fact that Soledad was 
 not destroyed was plain proof that it had met all the demands 
 of the bandits. 
 
 A few more small villages, some farms and natives, and we 
 saw the sea and the weather-beaten palms of Vera Cruz. Before 
 
 I 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 283 
 
 the train stopped at the station a mob of beggars and baggage 
 boys boarded the train, and the guards had their hands full 
 preventing them from stealing our valises from under our eyes 
 and out of our hands. One boy hid in the wash room, came 
 out after the guard left and picked up a valise, but was relieved 
 of it and kicked out. 
 
 At the station young men outcried the hotel runners, in- 
 forming us that there were rooms at their homes for rent, and 
 that their pretty sisters would be thrown in free of charge. 
 
 Paul's experience in Macedonia was ours in Mexico. Substi- 
 tuting a word I said, "For when we were come into MEXICO, 
 our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side ; with- 
 out were fightings, within were fears. " As we rode to the hotel 
 I repeated with a sincerity and meaning never before felt the 
 words of the shepherd Psalmist, * ' God is our refuge and strength, 
 a very present help in trouble." 
 
 At Puebla there was a rumor that the boat we expected to 
 make at Vera Cruz had been canceled on account of the German 
 war scarce. I sent a telegram to the office at Vera Cruz making 
 inquiry. That was Sunday and I requested an answer at once. 
 I received no reply that day and when I reached Orizaba Monday 
 I sent another wire and again received no reply. Here I was 
 in Vera Cruz Tuesday and with sad misgivings went to the 
 office and asked about the boat. The agent replied it was due 
 to sail in three days. Then I asked him in no uncertain manner 
 why he had not answered my wires and saved me a lot of worry. 
 He laughed and replied that he had never heard of me since I 
 went away weeks before, and for aught he knew I was dead 
 somewhere in Mexico. I spoke of the two wires I had sent and 
 he smiled again, saying, "Why, they won't get here for several 
 days." I learned the telegraph wires were up and all right, but, 
 as was to be expected, the service was crooked. If you want a 
 message sent you must pay the regular rates and then a graft 
 of 25 to 50 cents in addition. Then the operator will agree to 
 put it through that day — if he doesn't forget it. Think of it! 
 Although our trains were help up we reached Vera Cruz three 
 days before our telegram. It required three days to send a 
 telegram sixty miles. 
 
 "L," Stransky and I agreed that if we ever reached Vera 
 Cruz alive we would visit the first place of worship in sight 
 
284 THE DEVn. IN MEXICO 
 
 and offer thanks for our deliverance, whether it was in a Chinese 
 Joss house, Je^vish synagogue or a Christian church. After a 
 good night's rest at the Diligencias and breakfast in the portales, 
 we walked over to the cathedral and paid our vows. 
 
 Next day I read a posted notice on the station board saying 
 there was through service between Vera Cruz and Mexico City, 
 although the authorities knew better, and that at best the train 
 could get no farther than Orizaba. 
 
 It was as difficult to get out of ]\Iexico as it had been to get 
 in. It was necessary for us to procure a passport from the 
 American consul showing we were American citizens. Not only 
 this, but one from the Mexican custom-house official and another 
 from the Immigration Office. In each of the last two cases we 
 slipped a little tariff tax as proof of our love for the ]\Iexican 
 government. Before we could put our baggage on the boat it 
 was thoroughly searched to see if we were carrying away any 
 gold, silver, Mexican idols, anti(iuities, suspicious-looking books, 
 papers and letters. As in a former Russia experience I had 
 nothing contraband. Even my notes for this book I kept in ray 
 head and my photographs hidden in my money belt. They 
 were not discovered. Ye gods of ]\Iontezuma ! If they had only 
 known who I was, what I had on them and was to put over in 
 this book, my Mexican lectures, and the press of the United 
 States, they would have put me against the wall and shot me, 
 or in chains in some dark dungeon, or confiscated everything 
 but the undershirt on my back. 
 
 SOME LETTERS 
 
 FROM Mexico City to Vera Cruz I wrote letters hom-e 
 to my wife expecting that each one would be my last, 
 and they were letters multum in parvo, for I knew 
 they might be opened by the censor, and if there was 
 anytliing suspicious, their authorship would be traced and I 
 would be punished. I merely spoke in general terms of the 
 fine time we were having. Apart from the terms of endear- 
 ment I used, they were as empty of the true condition of affairs 
 in Mexico as if they had been written by a diploraut or paid 
 newspaper correspondent. Many Americans at Vera Cruz and 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 285 
 
 Tampico, who wish to send some important message home, give 
 their letters to passengers or in care of the ship captain. 
 
 Recently I received the following letter and have deleted 
 the writer's name and towns mentioned, because if I were to 
 give them Mexico would compel him to give up his possessions 
 and his life if they caught him : 
 
 ''Our sugar season closed on May 4th, We were obliged to 
 leave thousands of tons of sugar-cane standing in the fields for 
 lack of sufficient labor and animals. On April 20th, 1917, the 
 rebels blew up a train on our place and more than 60 people 
 were killed by the explosion and the gun fire that followed. 
 This of course resulted in another suspension of train service. 
 However, by the liberal use of money we secured a special train 
 of locomotive and ten cars with cargadores, also a military 
 
 escort which went from -* — in the morning and returned 
 
 in the evening of the same day, so that we were able to get out 
 in this manner the greater part of the sugar on hand. The 
 balance we are trying to send out a few bags at a time, and in 
 due course I hope we may be fortunate enough to get out all 
 of this year's production. Our place is about 25 miles below 
 
 , on the railroad. I am informed that every 
 
 house on the railway from up to within a few miles of 
 
 has been destroyed by the rebels. We are still paying 
 
 them tribute weekly in order to avoid destruction of our factory 
 and other buildings. In former years they were content with 
 paper money, but now they demand, and receive, gold, and 
 we have to pay them thousands. 
 
 ** Knowing the conditions prevailing in Mexico, you can 
 imagine my feelings when, on arriving in New York, I read 
 in the evening 'Post' a letter on the editorial page from a gen- 
 tleman who claimed to have just returned from Mexico City. In 
 this letter the writer congratulated the 'Post' on its editorials, 
 which had apparently ridiculed statements made by people who 
 knew that a state of anarchy prevailed in Mexico, and in the 
 course of the letter he stated that Villa was confined to a small 
 mountainous section, that Zapata had been entirely overcome, 
 that Felix Diaz had never been anything more than a 'joke' 
 in Mexico, and that practically the only unrest in the country 
 was occasioned by the now liberated people trying ' to find them- 
 selves' politically, and he referred to the formation of different 
 
286 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 political parties. He even had the nerve to refer to the sup- 
 pression of the Blexieo City newspaper, "El Universal," and 
 the arrest of its publisher as being quite proper. Certainly I 
 hold no brief for said publisher, who was notoriously a "gringo- 
 hater," but I know that his downfall came about through a 
 certain editorial w^ith a caption, "Carranza Solo," that appeared 
 in "El Universal" the day before the suppression of the paper, 
 whereas government sources tried to make it appear that the 
 publisher was arrested through due process of law on the charge 
 of treason on account of certain references to the army. 
 
 "In another newspaper I was amused to see a writer specu- 
 lating on the probability of Carranza, on account of German 
 influence, confiscating the oil fields. As you doubtless learned 
 in Mexico that every producing oil concern has to pay tribute 
 to the bandit or rebel leader in his section, just as the sugar 
 companies have to pay tribute to the rebel ' jefe' in their section, 
 you can easily see the joke. 
 
 "Just before I left , the official announcement was 
 
 made that export taxes on oil, etc., and many of the stamp taxes 
 ■were to be increased 100 per cent from that date and that the 
 additional 100 per cent was to be paid in the paper currency 
 known as 'infalsificables.' 
 
 "You perhaps know that the original issue of paper money 
 
 by the Carranza government, stated by his organ in to 
 
 amount to some 430,000,000 pesos, was taken out of circulation 
 about May 1, 1916. The decree which annulled this money 
 stated that holders might deposit same Avith the government 
 and that eventually they would receive 10 per cent of its par 
 value and gold. Carranza then announced that the government 
 was issuing a new kind of paper money, to be known as 'infalsi- 
 ficables,' 'uncounterfitables,' and that this new money would 
 be worth ten times the value of the old money. For a few days 
 these 'infalsificables' kept up a fair exchange value, but then hit 
 the toboggan. In October, 1916, their value was so low that it 
 required a bale of it to pay for rolls and coffee. A new decree 
 was then issued, taking effect November 1, to the effect that all 
 payments must be in coin. No provision whatever was made 
 for the ultimate redemption of 'infalsificables,' which arc called 
 in Vera Cruz 'infallibles, or 'submarinos' — the latter name be- 
 cause they went down so rapidly. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 287 
 
 "I know some speculators who bought up immense sums of 
 this paper money, paying perhaps at the rate of 1,000 to 1, 
 down to 1,500 to 1 for it, in real money, with the idea that some 
 day it might be redeemed. I do not know what the move of 
 the government in making the extra 100 per cent tax payable 
 in 'infalsificables' was for, but it is possible that in this manner 
 they expect to retire the issue, and it is the idea of some people 
 that it was to enable speculators to unload at a big profit. 
 Naturally this paper money took a big leap upward the moment 
 this decree became known, for people doing business who have 
 none on hand must acquire it in order to pay export taxes, 
 stamp tax and so forth. 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 From another man I received a letter that ended by saying: 
 
 "Everything here is going up in value till I do not see how 
 the poor are going to live. It is a great deal higher here than in 
 the United States or any other country so far as I can learn. 
 Taxes, rents and the actual necessities of life are the main things 
 affected. ' ' 
 
 THE REVOLUTION HABIT 
 
 REVOLUTION is the Mexican's pastime and profession. 
 He believes in blood and bullets and not ballots and 
 brains. It is a bad habit and needs the sword 's surgical 
 treatment to be eradicated. Life to him is a melo- 
 drama with stage settings of mountains, volcanoes, forests, 
 fruits and flowers. Its a real tragedy, though to us it look^ 
 like opera bouffe. 
 
 Patriotism, what crimes are committed in thy name! In 
 Mexico, more than anywhere else, are realized Dr. Johnson's 
 words, "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel," and the 
 remark of Horace Walpole that "Every man has his price." 
 With the idea of self and not service, of pelf and not patriotism, 
 of gold and not good government, men plot instead of plant 
 
288 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 and raise more revolutions than crops. I\Ian'B chief ambition is 
 to be a revolutionist, and like a child, to play bandit. 
 
 The recipe for making a Mexican revolutSonist is little 
 money, much discontent, a mouthful of lies and big words, a 
 brain with few ideas, ears full of rumor, two hands full of 
 cruelty, two pockets full of graft, one heart of hate, plenty of 
 gold braid, lace and brass buttons, a rifle that shoots and a 
 machete that cuts, and boots and spurs to walk over law and 
 ride everyone who can be bridled and saddled. 
 
 The revolutionist needs no uniform and no uniform plan of 
 attack. He aims to get his own clothing, food and guns. The 
 freedom he fights for is the liberty to fill his pocket. He is an 
 artist in intrigue and assassination. The government is a ques- 
 tion of "ins" and "outs," a new party to get in and send the 
 other out to jail and torture. Revolutions are easy to start but 
 hard to stop. The people get the habit. There are so many 
 revolutions here to a minute and simply indicate the movement 
 of the wheels in the natives' heads and hearts. Revolution is a 
 sudden, ^^olent and fatal change in the health of the body 
 politic brought about by internal causes. It is estimated that in 
 106 3'ears there have been only 41 years of peace. Revolutions 
 have risen from three causes, not from popular but personal 
 impulse, because the people were always irresolute in principle, 
 and because they were fickle in conduct. The IMexicans are for 
 themselves and not the nation. They are constitutionally lawless 
 and hate any constitution. Revolution is the ideal of the idle. 
 As a rule Latin nations are "machi "nations. 
 
 The revolutionist is a son of a gun, always shooting off his 
 mouth or pistol. Presidents and leaders are elevated thieves 
 and cutthroats whose high office is built on the bones of the 
 dead and the destitute. Thieving is a profession, there is more 
 in foraging than farming. The sport here is to hunt bandits, as 
 lions and tigers are hunted in Africa and India. These revolu- 
 tionary scraps are so numerous that Clio's history clerks work 
 overtime trying to record them. ]\Iany of them are so small 
 that they are not worth a big type headline or even a footnote 
 on the page of history. 
 
 The Mexican revolutionary enfant terrible should be set up 
 in a high-chair or shut up in a nursery or kindergarten. A good 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 289 
 
 cure would be to make him go to school, teach him the Ten Com- 
 mandments and give him a periodic diplomatic spanking^. 
 
 MEXICAN BEATITUDES 
 
 THE Mexican version and perversion of our Lord's 
 Beatitudes is as follows: 
 
 Blessed are the rich for theirs are the haciendas 
 and mines. 
 
 Blessed are they that revel, for they shall be full of pluque 
 and mescal. 
 
 Blessed are the proud, for they shall inherit the envy of the 
 poor. 
 
 Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after wickedness, for 
 they shall be kept busy. 
 
 Blessed are the merciless, for they shall obtain power. 
 Blessed are the impure in heart, for they shall wrong virtue. 
 Blessed are the war-makers, for they shall be called political 
 heroes. 
 
 Blessed are they which do persecute and torture, for theirs 
 is the kingdom or republic of Mexico. 
 
 Blessed are they who revile, persecute and say all manner of 
 evil falsely against the gringo American, for great is their re- 
 ward in the Mexican press and government. 
 
 "DAMN THE GRINGO" 
 
 MEXICANS love to hate us. The sight of a gringo is 
 the occasion for derision and profanity. In Mexico City 
 I saw the George Washington statue which was las- 
 soed, pulled from its base and dragged in the street. 
 George had his arm broken in the scuffle. Our flag has often 
 been torn down, trampled on and subjected to unspeakable filth 
 and outrage. Papers publish insulting cartoons and ribald 
 rhymes against Uncle Sam, the American government and citi- 
 zens. 
 
290 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 Mexicans have seen Americans killed, abused and worse. 
 They have no respect for a government which permits such 
 things. They think such a government must be weak. Hun- 
 dreds of our citizens have been killed in Mexico, soldiers am- 
 bushed, women dishonored, children mutilated and starved, prop- 
 erty stolen, our government cursed and citizens forced to go to 
 British consuls and ships for protection. What have we done? 
 Looked on, walked in and walked out again without insisting on 
 the treaty rights that American life and property should be 
 respected and protected. 
 
 Lord, how long will this continue? Until after the Euro- 
 pean war, when, if there is anything left of England and Ger- 
 many, they will go down into Mexico and demand reparation 
 for loss of life and property inflicted on them under cover of 
 the ]\Ionroe Doctrine. If directly or indirectly in the future 
 America cannot bring law, order, peace and justice to Mexico, 
 let some other country go in and protect their citizens and 
 interests there or anywhere else in Latin America. 
 
 To show how Mexico likes us, here is a love-letter I recently 
 received from Miss Sofia G of ]\Iexico City : 
 
 "Enclosed find the first page of a Mexican paper in which 
 appear some paragraphs reprinted written by you. Your article 
 has roused my indignation to such a pitch that I do not hesitate 
 to send you these lines, though I am a woman, with my most 
 deep execration. There may be dirt, degeneracy, etc., here — 
 but are we asking for anything? All of you Yankees in your 
 heart despise us and we as fervently hate you all." 
 
 Mexicans have hated us since 1847 and if they pretend to 
 love us it is for financial and political reasons. Their favorite 
 cries are, ** Mexico for the Mexicans" and "Down with the 
 Gringoes. " The greaser despises the gringo because he will not 
 think, say and do as the j\Iexican wishes ; because of our Mexican 
 policy ; on account of our intriguing diplomats ; and because we 
 won't be Mexicanized. 
 
 The greasers hate us and call us the "Colossus of the 
 North," with an emphasis of revenge that is historical, religious, 
 racial and economic. A poetic ^Mexican once expressed his hate 
 of us as follows: "It would put joy into the supreme passion of 
 
 1 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 291 
 
 rape, fire into the flames of arson, virtue in robbery, a crown of 
 glory on death and defeat at war with you." 
 
 "What the Greaser government thinks of the Gringo govern- 
 ment is easily learned from the daily press. I saw a cartoon of 
 President Wilson saddled on Uncle Sam's back. He was holding 
 a whip in his hand and driving him on hands and knees over 
 cactus beds. Underneath was this inscription, "Tio Sam — God- 
 dem yo creia que eran rosas." 
 
 The following expression of Mexican love for Uncle Sam, 
 voiced in a Mexican newspaper, is thus literally translated : 
 
 "Libidinous old man, with Judas-like goat whiskers, 
 Thou of the wrinkled face, mottled with age ! 
 Stinking satyr, a bastard and vile fruit 
 Of the insane genesis (offspring) of a thief and harpy! 
 
 Thou hast, of world-thieving, the leadership, 
 
 Because thy reptile stomach swalloweth nations, 
 
 And thou, who useth a frock coat, robbest even the stars! 
 
 Of the shameless of mythology, thou art the god! 
 
 Devour thou my apostrophes, '"'O my loathsome Uncle," 
 
 Offshoot of a d b and a he- goat, 
 
 A phenomenon which affronts nature! 
 
 In all terrestrial space, "0 unlearned lout," 
 
 Thy dishonorable avarice will set back the centuries ! 
 
 Flinty-hearted with dollars, incubus of metal money!" 
 
 WHY NOT? 
 
 I INGE Mexico has been so "friendly" to the United 
 States the last three years, and merely murdered, raped 
 and robbed Americans, I am not surprised that the 
 present "uplift" administration is disposed to "lift" 
 the embargo on ammunition and in gratitude grant Mexico a 
 large loan of money. Recently 2,700,000 rounds of ammunition 
 
292 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 Were sent Carranza after they liad been kept in a Texas ware- 
 house for two years. Perhaps the First Chief may not receive 
 it, as the wily Villa may hold up the train and intercept it. 
 Possibly, as on other occasions, Carranza 's own generals may 
 hold it up for themselves and trade it for foodstuffs to the very 
 rebels they pretend to be hunting. But of course, while it is 
 wrong to give American citizens passports and protection in 
 Mexico, it is all right to send Mexicans ammunition vv^ith which 
 to kill our citizens down there. Let us send all the powder and 
 bullets we possibly can for then ]\Iexico may accomplish her tw'o 
 long cherished dreams — to invade, conquer and include within 
 her fold Texas, Arizona and New IMexico ; and to go South and 
 grab little Guatemala whom she has always had a grudge against 
 and has been trying to kidnap. 
 
 MUZZLED 
 
 EM. Newman, my lecture friend and globe-trotter, told 
 me that when he was in Santiago, Chile, the officials 
 said if they caught me there again they would hang me 
 to the first telegraph pole between the depot and the 
 hotel. He asked them whether I had burned the town, robbed 
 the bank, murdered a citizen or eloped with a man's wife or 
 daughter, to which they answered no, as far as they knew, none 
 of these things. Pressed further for a reason, for this charac- 
 teristic Chilean threat, they replied that he had said something 
 in his book *'To Hell and Back," they didn't like. Newman 
 asked them whether it was true or false and they replied that it 
 
 was true, but he had no d business to say it. "While I am 
 
 sorr}'- to have offended my South American friends, I can only 
 reply that I did what any other minister must do if he is a min- 
 ister — tell the truth. 
 
 An American, who saw on© of my illustrated articles on 
 Mexico, wrote to me as follows: "I know something of the con- 
 ditions in ^Mexico. I want to commend you for this article. I 
 have thought of having it framed and sent to our representatives 
 in Washington. IvOt them hang it up in the Capitol. Surely the 
 "humanitarian" impulse so often referred to by the admini- 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 293 
 
 stration, the "higher vision," and our "plain duty to preserve 
 sacredly the rights of our citizens" should appeal to the Presi- 
 dent and even the politicians in Congress. ' ' 
 
 The newspaper interviews I gave, and illustrated articles I 
 wrote for some leading American newspapers, on my impressions 
 of Mexico, were reproduced in the principal Mexican papers. 
 Readers of these papers have written me personal letters calling 
 me as many bad names as there are letters in the alphabet, and 
 saying they would kill me if I entered their country again. 
 Mexican editorials and articles have heaped vitriolic vitupera- 
 tion and vilification on my head. Neither class of writers de- 
 nied that I told the truth, but said it was "awful" (malo) for 
 a minister of the Gospel to say such things and un-Christ-like. I 
 wonder if they ever read the Saviour's words, "Woe unto you, 
 scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! — ^Ye serpents, ye generation of 
 vipers ! — How can ye escape the damnation of hell ? ' ' 
 
 My accusers remind me of people who think it's worse for 
 the clergyman to refer to wrong than it is for them to commit it 
 
 Today we have doctors of divinity whose divinity should be 
 doctored, and dudes, dubs and doctrinaires in the pulpit, who, 
 instead of startling and shaming their sinful congregation, put 
 them to sleep with lullaby hymns and soporific sermons. 
 
 The Bible words, "foolishness of preaching," do not mean 
 fool preachers. The preacher is a light to brighten, a trumpet 
 to sound, and a sword to smite. The place for low brows, weak 
 wills, small lungs, shrivelled souls and cowardice is not the 
 church but the cemetery and Congressional Halls at Washington, 
 
 According to polite Washington officials and Mexican stand- 
 ards some of the Bible heroes were reverend rowdies and shock- 
 ingly unmannered. Moses looked Pharaoh in the eye, demanded 
 Israel's freedom and got it. Nathan poked his finger in David's 
 face, called him an adulterer and murderer. Elijah hurled hig 
 words of sarcasm and scorn until the priests of Baal were burned 
 to a cinder. Peter, on the Day of Pentecost, cut the Jews to 
 the heart, charging them with Christ's crucifixion. On Mars 
 Hill Paul grilled the cultured, Christless Greeks. Isn't it 
 shameful ! 
 
 The minister is to pay no attention to the squatter claims of 
 any press, preacher or politician who would muzzle him on any 
 of the Ten Commandments, in the light of the Mountain Ser- 
 
294 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 mon. To the demand, "^lind your own business," let the min- 
 ister reply, "I do, for Ilim who said, 'Wist ye not that I must be 
 about my father 's business ? ' " 
 
 Let clerical, autocratic Europe and her mouthpieces in Latin 
 America wear muzzles, but it is the glory of Americanism to take 
 orders direct from God and his Word and express them in free 
 thought and speech, according to the dictates of conscience. 
 
 MORRILLISMS ON MEXICO 
 
 HE following are some of the writer's detached thoughts 
 on Mexico, which he hopes may be attached to the read- 
 er's mind. 
 
 No one believes the truth about Mexico. If Gabriel himself 
 made a tour of the country some people would doubt his in- 
 telligence or veracity. 
 
 Dynamite is the bandit's expression of civilization, and the 
 expert who can handle it is more venerated than a college pro- 
 fessor. 
 
 Killing is so common that it is as much a topic of polite con- 
 versation as the weather. 
 
 It would be sad, yet not so bad, if ]\Iexicans devoted their 
 time, ammunition and aim in killing each other and not Ameri- 
 cans. 
 
 The stories of horrible bandit savagery make your hair stand 
 on end and your flesh creep. 
 
 The illiterate Mexican is not able to appreciate diplomatic 
 letters from Washington. The only thing he can understand is 
 a doubled fist and a big boot. 
 
 The real gulf between the U. S. and Mexico is not an expanse 
 of water but of mentality. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 295 
 
 The lazy Mexican would make an admirable model to rival 
 Leighton 's * ' Sluggard. ' ' 
 
 The heat prickles you like a Nessus shirt and sweats you 
 worse than a Turkish bath-towel. 
 
 No matter what the bribe is, it will not hurt or injure the 
 receiver unless it is too small. 
 
 The Mexican Trinity consists of an army, church and poli- 
 ticians. 
 
 The most ravenous Indian appetite can be satisfied with cof- 
 fee, peppers and cigarets. 
 
 The natives are willing to drink anything but the stimulat- 
 ing wine of progress. 
 
 Mexico trains creep along and make you feel very creepy. 
 
 A plaza pleasure is to have a bootblack shine your shoes and 
 sit in the sunshine. 
 
 Exaggeration? No amount of words in any language can 
 describe the wreck and ruin prevailing. 
 
 Mexicans hate the Chinese or any one else who wants to work. 
 
 Our government accused Huerta of Madero's murder and then 
 acknowledged a man who killed as many more as Saul did than 
 David. 
 
 The "pop" one finds on the train is not so much booze "fizz'* 
 as bullet "whizz." 
 
 Rebellion in Mexico stands for profit and not for patriotism. 
 
 In printer's parlance the dirty Mexican is bold, black-face 
 type. He knows little of printer's type but more of the re- 
 version of type to barbarism. 
 
296 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 The scenery is as savage as the people. 
 
 The train time-table makes no allowance for broken down en- 
 gines or bandit skirmishes. 
 
 The ^Mexican's ideal is to look, loaf, lounge, gad, guzzle and 
 gossip. 
 
 In Mexico you will always find bad rumors on the street and 
 bad roomers in the hotels. 
 
 The streets here give evidence of having been swept more 
 by bullets than by brooms. 
 
 . In the chilly night the Cinco de May, Fifth of May Street, 
 felt like the first of December. 
 
 In this dogmatic, churchly country the agnostic answer to 
 most questions is, Quien sabe? Who knows? 
 
 Many of the virgins in Mexico are plaster, and they have 
 fallen. 
 
 Spanish salvation meant Aztec damnation. 
 
 The Spaniards who overran Mexico were worse than the ten 
 plagues of Egypt. 
 
 Mexico has always! been a "promised" land to the peon, but 
 up to date he hasn't received much of it. 
 
 When Mexico has more of instruction she will have less of 
 destruction. 
 
 A liar doesn't recognize the truth when he sees or hears it. 
 
 The Devil in Mexico never takes a vacation. 
 
 I went to Mexico, not as a gold-seeker, but as a truth-seeker. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 297 
 
 To write and tell the truth about Mexico is to be put in the 
 Munchausen class. 
 
 Many Mexicans are descended from the Spaniards and have 
 been descending ever since. 
 
 The Mexican Indian home is a dirty, dismal den of discom- 
 fort, 
 
 Yucatan rivers flow underground. Maybe to find refuge from 
 the heat. 
 
 The loud dresser in Merida is called "poisonous." 
 
 The remains of the dead cities of Yucatan cause more specu- 
 lation than the bones of a mastodon. 
 
 There is much monumental ignorance displayed about the 
 ancient monuments of Yucatan. 
 
 Yucatan is as green and flat as a billiard table, but the Mayas 
 built a high civilization on it. 
 
 If you play on the ''organ" cactus you will hear loud, shrill 
 tones. 
 
 Miners in Mexico are like Moses and view the landscape 
 "ore." 
 
 The pulque plant looks as if it were drunk on its own juice. 
 
 Mexico is near us in boundary, we are bound to be her big 
 brother and protect her against home and foreisrn enemies if 
 we have to fight for it. "We are willing to see that she gets a 
 square deal of rule through some Diaz or Juarez, who can do 
 and dictate discreetly if not divinely, and do the best he can 
 as sooQ as he can for all the Mexican people and for Americans 
 who are in Mexico. 
 
 Liberty is a plant that can only thrive in the light of edu- 
 cation and not in the night of ignorance. 
 
298 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 Mexico always has an open season for vaudeville villains. 
 
 In his last days Porfirio Diaz worried more over his toothache 
 than the headache, heartache and backache of his subjects. 
 
 It was the rain drops from heaven that dispersed a mob of 
 75,000 from the plaza, and not the iron rain from the cannon on 
 the cathedral and palace. 
 
 Mexico is the land of freedom and privilege for the few and 
 not the multitude. 
 
 Bigotry is a bloodhound that the church always lets loose on 
 the heterodox. 
 
 Yucatan is no longer a black hole of slavery and superstition. 
 
 Eorresco refer ens. Carranza's Constitutional troops were a 
 horde of Hyena Huns who turned Mexico City into a hell of po- 
 litical, economical and moral horror. 
 
 The bandit is not the only danger along the railroad. When 
 the passenger gets off at a station and walks along by the car, 
 he is liable to be hit with slops, bones, orange peels, corn and ta- 
 male wrappers, heedless expectorations and — so forth. 
 
 However uncertain mail is to an American resident in Mexi- 
 co, he is sure of blackmail. 
 
 The serpent of the Inquisition has been driven out ; its fangs 
 are no longer in the heart* of the people. 
 
 Some churches are neither necessary nor useful. 
 
 In many ways the Aztecs were cultured, peaceful and humane 
 compared with their Spanish conquerors. 
 
 The church in Mexico has been a parasite that sucked the 
 blood and money of her worshippers. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 299 
 
 Mexicans would rather steal than study. 
 
 To millions Mexico has been an open door to hell. 
 
 You don't have to go to the Public Library to find the "Mid- 
 dle Ages ; * ' just take a trip to Mexico. 
 
 The Spaniards are graduates in graft. 
 
 General Demoralization has led most of the Mexican forces. 
 
 Men may come and men may go, but the church plots go on 
 forever. It oils its wheels with the flesh and blood of the people. 
 
 Mexico's political tyranny has been sharper than the spines 
 of her cactus. 
 
 The average character of the Mexican is weak, wanton and 
 wicked. 
 
 It is past Spanish "rule" that measures present Mexico's 
 bloody bigotry. 
 
 Mexico's ship of state has been steered by pirates and 
 wrecked. 
 
 Selfish, private interest has always thrown a monkey-wrench 
 into the machinery of public progress. 
 
 What I saw in Mexico proves it to be rotten in body, mind 
 and soul. If she does not confess and forsake her sins of bigotry, 
 beastliness, booze, bullfighting, brutality and bandit warfare, 
 Uncle Sam ought to unite with England and Germany after the 
 war and wipe her off the map, or do it alone, although all Mexi- 
 co was, is and has isn't worth the life of one good American citi- 
 zen. 
 
 A misplaced crucifix always gets the people in a fix. 
 
 The iron hand of P. Diaz grew rusty with age. 
 
300 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 Mexico is a land of golden opportunities — especially for the 
 bandit, boodler, beggar and exploiter. 
 
 The Spanish missionaries deformed the Aztecs more than they 
 reformed them. 
 
 Americans are transported with rage at the way their goods 
 are transported from coast to interior. 
 
 So many Mexicans are cross-eyed that it may account for their 
 crooked course of conduct in life. 
 
 Mexico is the wliite elephant of the Western Continent. 
 
 Church catechism in ]\rexico has produced governmental 
 cataclysm. 
 
 The picture of Mexico has more dark shadow than high light. 
 
 Alack! I\Iexico has a lack of legitimacy, literacy and honesty. 
 
 The word Spanish is a synonym for exploration and exploi- 
 tation. 
 
 The resources of Mexico include almost everything but civi- 
 lization. 
 
 Mexico's fires of freedom are usually put out with blood. 
 
 Mexican beggars smell as if they had accompanied Valjean 
 through the Paris sewer. 
 
 The imaginative and inventive faculties of most Mexicans are 
 spent in fabricating falsehoods. 
 
 Mexico is not the Promised Land, flowing with milk and 
 honey, but with blood and poison. 
 
 Our policy in ;^^exico would furnish plenty of copy for a new 
 "Comedy of Errors." 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 301 
 
 The Yucatecan would rather raise hemp than be raised by it. 
 
 Adam was made in the divine image out of moist clay. The 
 average Mexican looks like the devil, and as if made out of dirt 
 with no water in it. 
 
 The starving natives want "pan" (bread) and not panics. 
 
 Cortez gave the Aztecs groans in exchange for their gold. 
 
 In Mexico City it is more than the altitude that puts the 
 American under a nervous strain and a "high" tension. 
 
 The setiorita's pastime is to look in the mirror, out of the win- 
 dow and count her beads and her love-affairs. 
 
 The sun-loving lizard Mexican sits in the plaza, sips chocolate 
 or coffee, and gossips of girls, revolution, bandits and hangings. 
 
 Much Mexican food is more mysterious than a magazine 
 "cereal," and more dangers lurk mthin it than are found on a 
 battlefield. 
 
 The poor Mexican is a spendthrift in words, and wealth, if 
 he has any. 
 
 Revolutions are a loss to the people and a gain to the war- 
 chiefs. 
 
 Corruption here is a compliment and not a censure. A man 
 feels flattered when called a thief, liar and adulterer. 
 
 The cash register is the only invention that enables the mer- 
 chant to register any cash in his bank. 
 
 Porfirio Diaz was Mexico's biggest and best policeman. 
 
 Robbery is the custom of the country. 
 
 Mexico is in its infancy. Childhood always needs spanking. 
 
302 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 It's an unproved and open question to some that Huerta 
 killed i\Iadero. 
 
 To read Mexican history makes one mad, crazy or cynicaL 
 
 lyrexieans began to hate the U. S. in 1847 and have continued 
 to ever since. 
 
 The spirit of Nero, Attila, Judas and Caligula have entered 
 the soul and dictated to most of Mexico's dictators. 
 
 Even in theft the people are polite, and with a "con per- 
 misso" relieve you of what they want whether you want them 
 to or not. 
 
 The sufferings of our Americans in Mexico did but harden 
 the heart of our Washington Pharaohs. 
 
 Today Mexico has piffling, pilfering politicians instead of 
 heroic patriots like Hidalgo, Morelos, Guerero and Diaz. 
 
 It is a question whether the divine injunction, "love your 
 enemies" refers to Carranza in his treatment of Americans. When 
 Mexico robs America of life and money and then begs for a mil- 
 lion dollar loan, I recall another Scripture, "Cast not your pearls 
 before swine." What Mexico needs is not a loan, but a licking. 
 
 Mexico needs no "boom" of cannon, but an industrial 
 "boom" and one of education and honesty. 
 
 All Mexico needs is a square deal, good work and wages, fair 
 
 and honest rulers, religious freedom, just taxation, honest courts, 
 sincere and sympathetic advisers. 
 
 It is all right to do wrong but criminal to be caught. 
 
 Famine and disease are the camp-followers of the bandit 
 bands. 
 
 There is no safety first or last for Americans or foreigners. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 303 
 
 The half-castes have the whole vices and not the virtues of 
 the Spanish or Indians. They are physical and moral cowards. 
 
 The poor peon has been priest-juggled and pulque-jagged. 
 
 The high standard of orthodoxy has been to be able to neither 
 read nor write. 
 
 Mexico's history is in two volumes — Clerical and Military 
 despotism. It is printed in blood red letters and bound in 
 boards of bigotry. 
 
 Church decorations are more tawdry than ten-cent movie 
 houses. 
 
 The Mexican question is a poser. The nation loves to pose, 
 impose and depose, and at the present rate will soon decompose. 
 
 Mexican government is in name and not nature ; m show and 
 not substance ; is a trapping and not a thing. 
 
 To some, the best thing in Orizaba was the beer, and the best 
 thing about it was the scenery. 
 
 The human animals in Mexico need another Seton Thompson 
 to classify them. 
 
 Street markets are unsanitary. One look at the meat makes 
 you a vegetarian; a look at the vegetables makes you wish you 
 could live on air plants. 
 
 The press is mare depressing than impressing. 
 
 Mexican soldiers soldier. They love dress parade, to carry 
 a gun and show off. 
 
 The Mexican resists everything but temptation. 
 
 The outlaw politely begs your pardon as he proceeds to tor- 
 ture and kill you. Many of the natives and their animals look 
 
B04 THE DEML IN MEXICO 
 
 as if their Hoover diet were sage-brush, cactus, tin-cans and vol- 
 canic rocii. 
 
 The native is a helpless idiot who doesn't know enough to 
 steal. They would rather steal ten cents than earn a dollar. 
 
 Latins like more pay for less work. 
 
 Many natives are naturally good and would be very much 
 better if outsiders left their laud and their women alone. 
 
 What's the matter with Mexico? Everything. 
 
 The ^Mexican army can't keep order within or on the border. 
 
 Three hard nuts to crack : Shall we annex Mexico : sliall we 
 send a police force to maintain order ; shall we grab the customs 
 and make her pay damages? 
 
 Many Mexican patriots oppose nothing but Progress. 
 
 Mexico's gallery of celebrities is a Rogues' Gallery of statu- 
 esque and picturesque assassins and desperadoes. 
 
 Shams and shambles are Mexican shibboleths. 
 
 Beware of the frijole-eating orator and his gas-bombs of 
 speech. 
 
 Chief Carranza is editor-in-chief of all the papers. 
 
 ^lexican natives have no views but those of the scenery, and 
 no convictions but jail ones. 
 
 ^lake the Mexican who insults the Stars and Stripes wear 
 stripes and "see stars." 
 
 Mexican characteristics include neither cleanliness nor god- 
 liness. The people are dirty, cruel, treacherous, brutal and low- 
 lived. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 305 
 
 Schools are shallow. Blind teachers lead the blind. 
 
 Many Mexican hotels give you a cell for a bedroom and you 
 feel sold when you pay for it. 
 
 Mexicans think more of the word "gory" than glory, and 
 of treason than truth. 
 
 Nothing but a divine alchemy can change a clay-mud Mexi- 
 can into a beatific angel, 
 
 Mexico is the worst country I have visited South of Alaska 
 and North of Patagonia. 
 
 Pulque softens the brain and hardens the heart; paralyzes 
 the nerves and upsets the stomach. 
 
 ''Cinco de Moya," May 5th, was ''anti-foreigiier's day," be- 
 cause Zaragossa whipped the French in Puebla May 5th, 1862. 
 Now every day in Mexico is anti-American and pro-German day. 
 
 Mexican education is not of the modem " U " or college type. 
 
 Carranza's army is mainly made up of political scum and 
 revolutionary riff-raff. 
 
 It is better to enforce peace than to go to pieces. 
 
 It is time for our government to put up this sign on the bor- 
 der: "Don't dump and pipe Mexican refuse and swill on our 
 lot," 
 
 In the Spanish language there is no such word as home. 
 "Casa," house, is the substitute. 
 
 Mexico is a land of love, lace and lice, flowers, fights and fleas. 
 
 The thief is familiar with pulque bar and prison bolt. 
 
 Don't hurry — no one expects you to keep your appointment. 
 
306 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 "Six days shalt thou raise the devil and on the seventh con- 
 fess and consecrate thyself that thou mayest do worse than 
 ever," is Mexico's only commandment that isn't broken. 
 
 At Easter time it has been a Mexican practice to explode a 
 firecracker effigy of Judas. Alas, 'twas ever thus ! A prophet is 
 without honor in his own country. Judas, the archetype of 
 treachery, lying and theft, is their patron saint. 
 
 The peon isn't a deep thinker but he thinks he knows when 
 he's wronged. 
 
 If we should build a bridge of Justice and Honesty between 
 U. S. and Mexico the bandits would blow it up. 
 
 Yucatan is a stony desert where the enterprising native has 
 built a Bethel bridge and sisal rope ladder to prosperity. 
 
 Mexican women are Amazons. They are always in the fight 
 and go before and after the soldiers. 
 
 The bandit with his dynamite is a sort of land submarine 
 every Mexican train must look out for. 
 
 The Mexican government is a house divided against itself 
 and waiting for another revolution. 
 
 Carranza soldiers are afraid to fight the bandits, but come 
 down to a town after the bandits have left and hang up inno- 
 cent citizens. 
 
 Carranza is a bluffer, a buffer, a juggler and a go-between. 
 
 The end of a bandit is generally the end of a rope. 
 
 Villa may be bloody and brutal but that is why he is the 
 people's choice and national hero. To the ^foxican mind there is 
 DO fiin without blond. The hull kills the horse, the man kills 
 the bull, and the bandit kills the man. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 307 
 
 The East St. Louis atrocity was infamous and Mexico de- 
 lights in our shame, but that one bloody thing is what she does 
 all the time. 
 
 The same party policy that leaves the lives and property 
 of American citizens in Mexico unprotected and unavenged, 
 permits lawless whites in East St. Louis to murder innocent 
 negroes and burn their homes, with no official reprimand from 
 "Washington or suggestion of sincere regret or reparation. 
 Some day in God's providence right shall make might and 
 justice shall prevail. 
 
 Mexico consists politically of 27 states, most of which are in a 
 state of revolution. 
 
 Quintana Roo is Yucatan's woodshed near British Honduras. 
 Here wild Indian tribes are said to cut wood and chop off visi- 
 tors' heads. 
 
 Yucatan was discovered in 1517 by the slave-hunter, Cordova, 
 and there has been slavery there ever since. 
 
 Mexico has been a slave-pen, a torture-chamber, a treasure- 
 house and a slaughter-house. 
 
 An open Bible always means an open door to any country. In 
 Mexico the ''entrance of thy word giveth light." 
 
 The power of the church in the Colonial period, 1644, may be 
 learned from the petition of Ayuntamiento of Mexico to Philip 
 IV, to put a stop to the founding of religious houses that held 
 half the property of the country, to suspend ordination because 
 there were 6,000 unemployed priests and to suspend feast days, 
 for there were two a week. 
 
 The ''Benefit of Clergy" was all for them and nothing for 
 the congregation. The clergy could only be tried by ecclesiastical 
 courts where judge and jury were all "brothers, hale fellows well 
 met." 
 
308 TDE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 I found ^rexican cities crowded with people who had sought 
 refuge from bandits in the country. 
 
 ^rexico's religious forces in 1900 were thus arranged: About 
 13,000,000 Roman Catholics, against 51,700 Protestants. Many 
 of the Indians called Christian are Pagan. 
 
 Earthquake revolutions overthrow the government and de- 
 stroy the people. 
 
 Mexican insects and people are noxious and obnoxious. 
 
 I said on my way to Vera Cruz, when I expected to be 
 killed and was making my peace with God, that I would never 
 have to pray, God forgive me for Christ's sake for having 
 voted the Democratic ticket, for I never committed that sin. 
 
 For three years our government denied the Devil was in 
 Mexico, and then Secretary Lansing wrote a note to the IMexi- 
 can minister enumerating three years of unhindered, unavenged 
 strife, outrage, murder and robbery of Am.erican citizens, which 
 made the Devil smile to think that if he was the "father of lies," 
 he had many children in Washington. 
 
 The "Boche" and "Greaser" are twin-brothers in crime and 
 cruelty. 
 
 Carranza is an absolute autocrat with no limitations except 
 to his mental and moral ability. 
 
 We need a world-wide desire of helping humanity and not 
 neglecting Americans in nearby Mexico. 
 
 Carranza 's officers bought up our R«d Cross food supplies, 
 robbed the poor peons of their crops, sold them and spent the 
 money to buy bullets to make dead Americans. 
 
 The Jesuit policy, "The end justifies the means," was used 
 as a lever to pry Huerta out of a job, a policy well known to the 
 President's secretary, who is a graduate of the Georgetown 
 Jesuit College at Washington. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 309 
 
 On this pa^e is accurately and vividly described all that our 
 government did for her outraged American citizens in Mexico— 
 
310 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 Because Madcro was good, generous, fair and forgiving, hii 
 enemies hated, hounded and killed him. 
 
 Under the plea for "public good," which means his private 
 gain and grudge, Carranza kills any one who is distasteful to him. 
 
 In the orchestra of nations Mexico plays the "base vile," 
 "loot," "liar," "religious svmbols," "devil's horn" and 
 "hobo." 
 
 The senorita's life is divided into three parts — love, idleness 
 and religion. 
 
 "Wilson doubled up his moral and military fist, hit Huerta an 
 uppercut and knocked him down and out. 
 
 Carranza is a Jekyll and Hyde. As Governer of Coahuila 
 he did nothing for the uplift of the people — now he leads Mexico 
 as a preacher of righteous well-doing. 
 
 The present Washington administration is a "ringer," but 
 doesn't wear the jewel of consistency. It recognized the de facto 
 government in Peru and threw the de facto government of 
 Huerta into the scrap-heap. 
 
 After sleeping in IMexican beds I knew why they called the 
 country the land of "unrest." 
 
 i\Iexico is cornucopia-shaped, but the poor peon has never 
 yet had a full merry Christmas or corn enough to make his tor- 
 tillas. 
 
 Billy Sunday was outdone by the Spanish friars who picked 
 up a cross and a bucket of water and converted as many as 20,000 
 a day. 
 
 I am not surprised that the favorite operas in ]\rexico are 
 founded on murder and adultery, which are the popular pas- 
 times. 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 J 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 311 
 
 Porfirio Diaz said, "I should like to live fifty years to see the 
 result of the seed I have planted." Poor P. D. ! Some seed was 
 good and some was bad, and there has been a large crop of 
 weeds and poisonous plants. 
 
 Mexico needs money, morals, education, freedom, soap, in- 
 dustry and peace. 
 
 The devout found religious reminders between his home and 
 his church. Even the streets in Mexico citv bore such names as, 
 ''Holy Ghost Street," "Street of the Love of God," "Blood of 
 Christ Street," "Heart of Jesus Street," "Crown of Thorns 
 Street." 
 
 Mexico has many hospitals and she needs them, for there is 
 always killing and disease. Hospitals and prisons are ever full. 
 
 In religious times a miner at Guanajuato paved a street for 
 sixty yards with silver ingots that the procession might pass over 
 on its way to the church where his son was to be christened. 
 
 It is painfully significant that in countries where you find 
 more than fifty per cent of illiteracy and illegitimacy the people 
 are of good standing in the Roman Catholic church. There are 
 over 75 per cent illiterates and illegitimates in Mexico. 
 
 When it comes to facing germs and bacilli, the Mexicans are 
 among the bravest in the world. 
 
 Mexico has 500 species of cactus. Pretty much of a bad thing. 
 
 Mexican children are filthy, ignorant and happy. 
 
 Mexicans have a hot time with their sun, wars, peppers, chile 
 con carne, etc. 
 
 Many of the peons are half starved and get less to eat than 
 a pig. A first-class ox would refuse to be called "brother" to a 
 peon. 
 
312 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 If U. S. kitchens were like the insanitary ones of Mexico 
 there would be a million more fatalities yearly. 
 
 Like most everything else in Mexico, the roads are bad. 
 
 The Indian's illiteracy is as great now as when Cortez came 
 with Spanish culture four centuries ago. 
 
 "Woe and despair are written on the face of the land and the 
 people. 
 
 The altitude is often unjustly blamed for Mexican debt, dis- 
 ease and deviltry. 
 
 A bullfight is a game between two-legged brutes and four- 
 legged animals. 
 
 The Mexican has a volcanic vocabulary at times. His pro- 
 fanity flows fast and foul like a sewer. No matter who is present 
 he is obscene, vile and blasphemous as a drunken sailor. Ilis or- 
 dinary talk is bad and when he is mad it is awful. 
 
 Mexico's population consists of four-fifths of Indians and 
 mixed-blood descendants. Twelve millions of them are starved 
 in war times and they are only half-fed in times of peace. They 
 are unfit for citizenship. 
 
 The peon is cruel. The same wrath shown him he shows his 
 donkey. 
 
 Two-thirds of the population live in adobe huts and the 
 only opening is a door. 
 
 Mexico isn't anxious to have her war game cease, for when 
 it does, she will be like Othello with "occupation gone." There 
 are alwaj's enough bullets and bandits held over to "keep the 
 home fires burning." 
 
 Mexico's war cry is not God and home, but "native land." 
 The Indians want to farm, but the agrarian question is not the 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 313 
 
 main issue and is simply taken up by a few leaders to incite the 
 crowd, foment strife and raise an army. 
 
 Mexicans drink enough pulque to float a battleship. 
 
 The distance from the United States to Mexico City is only 
 three days, but several centuries many other ways. 
 
 Many of the Indians are ignorant and idolatrous but hardy, 
 hard-working and moral. Indian blood flowed through the veins 
 of Juarez the statesman, Morelos the soldier, Altimirano the lit- 
 erateur and P. Diaz, the dictator. 
 
 Mexico is a rotten republic, a putrid mass, a stench in the nos- 
 tril of nations. Uncle Sam 's sanitary corps at Washington should 
 clean up this garbage heap of Mexico at his back door. 
 
 One good thing Carranza did was to send five hundred school 
 teachers to the U. S. to study pedagogy. It is claimed there are 
 as many schools now as in the time of Diaz and that Yucatan has 
 2,400 as against 200 two years ago. 
 
 "Woman in Mexico has no rights, can 't vote, teaches in but few 
 schools, is clerk in few offices and her main opportunity is nurs- 
 ing at home or in religious orders. 
 
 The greatest sufferers in Mexico are not the begging poor, 
 but the middle class who lost their money when metal was sub- 
 stituted for paper. 
 
 A neutral Mexico is a German ally. One must be either for 
 or against autocracy or democracy, 
 
 Mexico and Germany use similar methods. Their brute force 
 philosophy is ''Might makes right." 
 
 Carranza 's Castilian phrases are deceptive. 
 
 Mexico can only be ruled by a "benevolent dictator." 
 
314 TUE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 Mexico will learn that we can and will fight when we are 
 forced to, and that we will win. 
 
 After the European war is over we will want to fight, or have 
 to fight Mexico unless our flag is saluted and our government re- 
 spected. 
 
 Mexico regarded our heart-felt patience as mental imbecil- 
 ity, and our president as an illustration of Mark's Twain's 
 hero. "Puddin'head AVilson. " 
 
 America is diplomatically dead and buried in IMexico. Ameri- 
 can citizens and flag are insulted and spit on. 
 
 Mexico needs strong men, men strong mentally, physically 
 and morally. She needs some money, more character and less 
 gambling and drinking. 
 
 The serpent tongue of the church has slandered Masonry, in- 
 jured, persecuted and killed it members. Its charges have al- 
 ways been made by the Devil, wlio is its prosecuting attorney. 
 
 Mr. H. C. L and his big family have come to ^lexico and the 
 question of the hour is how to get money enough to entertain 
 him. 
 
 The church in IMexico has made a mess of religion since 1524. 
 
 Mexico's highways are the haunts of the highwayman. 
 
 There is a sad divorce between morality and religion. 
 
 No wonder ^lexico is the enfant terrible of nations when her 
 nurses are Superstition and Ferocity. 
 
 The Mexican face is an open book where low appetite is 
 written in big, black letters. 
 
 The Diazpotism of Porfirio is better than the carnage of Car- 
 ranza. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 315 
 
 Castelar said, "We know that a democratic state cannot bear 
 in its bosom a privileged church. Democracy was born under 
 the curse of the church." 
 
 Spain had zeal, energy and consecration, but most of all 
 cruelty. She always preferred to sacrifice the spiritual for the 
 material, and it was this sordid spirit that fought Holland and 
 ruined twelve million of her own best blood. 
 
 Mexico City was founded on a rock island, in a shallow lake, 
 because it was easy to defend. It was located by the medicine 
 men of the tribe when they found a small eagle sitting on a 
 cactus eating a snake. 
 
 Mexico has been feudalistic. Baron land owners have had 
 everything and the vassal peons nothing. There were two 
 classes, the lords and the slaves. There are million-acre estates 
 for which less than 10 cents an acre has been paid. 
 
 It is estimated that nearly 70 per cent of Mexico's natural 
 wealth was corralled by international capital, with the govern- 
 mental help of Diaz, Huerta and the clericals. 
 
 More than half of the Yucatecans can't speak the Spanish 
 language. 
 
 The present evil in Mexico is the church, lack of land, and 
 education, and revolution. 
 
 The Gospel is not free in Mexico. The way to heaven is very 
 expensive. There is no free press, speech, action or religion. 
 
 A Mexican's action is not the desire to accomplish much but 
 to ruin everything. 
 
 The Inquisition was elastic enough to stretch over every case 
 of heresy. 
 
316 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 Mexico's history is founded on layers of rotten policies and 
 the garbage cans of religious rubbish. 
 
 Our Yankee word "hurry" is translated in ^Mexico to "poco 
 a poco," little by little slowly, and "manana," tomorrow. 
 
 Here is a new Mexican maxim I offer — "Dirty as a Mexican." 
 
 A ]\Iexican's rest and relaxation are taken in murdering one 
 another. 
 
 A Mexican can talk for hours and say nothing, rivaling any 
 
 Washington diploinut. He is a brother to Gratiano, who could 
 speak an "infinite deal of nothing" and give you a grain of 
 wheat in a bushel of chaff. 
 
 i\Iexicans all talk, none listen and there is no great strain on 
 the tongue and ear of the participants. The skirmish of polite- 
 ness is followed by a forty-two centimetre of bombast. 
 
 The priest carries the collection box in one hand and dam- 
 nation in the other. 
 
 Mexican clay is not so much a beautiful vase for the flowers 
 of virtue, or statue of character, but a pipe for smoke and a slop- 
 jar for refuse. 
 
 Mexican meals do not satisfy but kill your appetite. On the 
 menu the names of the food look better than the food itself. 
 
 Polite writers of Mexican history have such a dread of giv- 
 ing hard impressions that they make none at all. 
 
 No one yet has written a "good" book on Mexico. It is im- 
 possible, the subject is so bad. 
 
 Mexico can't stand without the support of the U. S. 
 
 We want the good vdW of ]\rexico but not at the price of de- 
 stroyed American lives and property. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 317 
 
 At Puebla the bishop was a real Friar Tuck. He preached 
 sacrifice to his congregation and had the best to eat and drink. 
 The common people got tired of his hypocrisy, invaded his ha- 
 cienda, stole his hogs and told him they would no longer tolerate 
 him as a land-owner — if he wanted to be a pastor of souls, that 
 was different. 
 
 The Indians had land once, they want it now and they won't 
 be happy until they get some of it. There will be no peace until 
 the land which was stolen by the church is returned to the peon. 
 
 "We know what we think of Carranza ; this is what he and his 
 generals think of us. Carranza says, "Wilson has not kept faith 
 with Mexico." Obregon, "Wilson makes too many declarations 
 which have no facts behind them." Gonzales, "Wilson's policy 
 is not clear, not frank, not clean. ' ' 
 
 To the question, "Are things as bad in Mexico as painted?" 
 I answer, "No — worse." 
 
 Disorder is Mexico's first law and there has been so much of 
 it in seven years that there are no statistics which can estimate it. 
 
 The bright side of Mexico is dark compared with other coun- 
 tries. 
 
 Mexico is financially bankrupt, needs a loan, but capital will 
 not lend without good security. 
 
 Turkey is the sick man of Europe and Mexico is the sick 
 man of America. He has a low pulse and needs a Bible heart 
 tonic. 
 
 Mexico needs intervention and an American protectorate. 
 
 "Semana Santa," Holy Week, has always been an unholy 
 week in Mexico. Formerly in the Alameda there were market 
 booths where bloody and ugly images were for sale. Not so now. 
 
 Humboldt called Mexico the "treasure-house of the world," 
 and like other vaults it has been broken into and looted. There 
 
318 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 are millions of acres of fertile soil untouched and only a small 
 fraction of the oil deposits have been developed. 
 
 Churches are now robbed of their art and jevrels by men who 
 pretend to worship and kneel but steal. It has been recently re- 
 ported that in I\Iexico City churches, diamonds and pearls have 
 been taken from the neck of the Virgin. 
 
 For years Yucatan has been held in the clutches of a three- 
 headed monster — an established church, a landed aristocracy and 
 a U. S. industrial trust. Alvarado came with his little sword and 
 chopped off all three heads at a blow. 
 
 Mexico does not want to persecute the church but insists 
 on driving out the politicians. 
 
 The spirit of the Inquisition showed itself as late as 1914 
 when it hunted and arrested those who threw off clerical rule, 
 put them in stocks and whipped them, and threatened the peons 
 with hell torments hereafter if they left their masters. 
 
 Mexico will never be free until reactionary clericals are cut 
 out root and branch from its political system. 
 
 Here-to-fore priests were immune in INIexico and they could 
 rob, murder, slander and seduce, and were protected by the 
 church from civil prosecution. 
 
 The Jesuits came to Mexico from Europe and united with the 
 rich against the poor. 
 
 The lasting grudge of I\rexico against the church is that it 
 always opposed education and progress. 
 
 People are starving in ]\rexico and literally crying, "Give us 
 this day our daily bread." 
 
 God is too big to be held in any cathedral of brick and mor- 
 tar. His spirit is everywhere and by anybody anywhere may be 
 worshipped. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 319 
 
 The "cientificos" were the parasites and grafters who grew 
 up under Diaz, living on thievings from the people, and who, 
 under the guise of patriotism, picked the pockets of the natives. 
 Finally they were the means of Porfirio 's downfall. 
 
 The administration swallowed everything the Mexican gov- 
 ernment told it and then decided to "Fletcherize" by sending 
 Kenry Fletcher as an ambassador to Mexico. 
 
 Mexico has more than four seasons of change. I am telling 
 what I saw in Mexico and not what happened there before or 
 since I returned. It is quite possible that before this book is 
 printed Carranza may be killed, another revolution be in full 
 blast and Mexico become a seething cauldron of plot and counter- 
 plot. 
 
 Intervention eventually, why not now? 
 
 In Mexico we dared not use the word "intervention," but 
 always spoke of it as the ''big I." To the question, who wants 
 it, with its sympathy, ability and consistency, the reply is, the 
 greater per cent of the down-trodden Indians. 
 
 P. Diaz liked the foreigner ; Carranza hates him. 
 
 There are no Diaz ' ' cientificos, ' ' but there are many Carranza 
 grafters. 
 
 "We can't deal with Mexico on the basis of honor, for she is 
 the most dishonorable of nations. 
 
 "We couldn't give Huerta our "moral support," how then 
 can we give it to Carranza ? 
 
 The hypocrisy of Mexican diplomacy is enough to make a 
 corpse get up and smile. 
 
 The Pilgrim fathers brought a cargo of implements of toil 
 to till the soil. The Spaniards went to Mexico with implements 
 of torture to kill. 
 
320 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 Rosaries and crosses were piled on the Indians like so many 
 spiritual chains and weights. 
 
 Until recently the clergy o^vned 10 per cent of the area of 
 the country, the principal tenements and robbed the peons for 
 rent. 
 
 A revolutionist thinks he is consistent when he pins the imago 
 of the saint and virgin to his hat and enters the church to loot it 
 and drive out its priests. 
 
 Ninety years ago the clergy owned 80 per cent of ^lexico's 
 wealth and territory. It was banker and the peons couldn't even 
 get a candle unless they paid the church for it. 
 
 To tell the truth about Mexico is to sign your death warrant, 
 hire the undertaker, buy a gun and pick out your tombstone — 
 if you ever go back to Mexico. 
 
 The Mexican race has 125 tribes and speaks 50 dialects. 
 There are three classes: first, the educated robbers, second, the 
 poor and proud Mestizos, and third, the ignorant, enslaved In- 
 dians. 
 
 In 1910 it was estimated that there were 60 per cent Indians, 
 30 of the mixed class and 10 Spanish. 
 
 It isn't so much the image of God as the hoof of Satan that 
 is stamped in Mexican human clay. 
 
 Mexicans are easily led and misled to love or laugh, to hate 
 or to steal. It is a short step from flowers, music and love of chil- 
 dren to the awful Decena tragedy in 1913, when they made 
 sport of the burning bodies in the plaza and streets of Mexico 
 City. 
 
 Huerta and his press, traitors and grafters, declared the 
 Americans were killing and outraging women and carrying ba- 
 bies around the streets on the point of the sword. 
 
 D stands for Diaz, the de.«pot and his Draconian laws, but 
 also for deliverance of debt, distrust and disorder. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 321 
 
 Diaz failed in many ways. There was no fairness of election 
 and he provided no land for the poor, yet he gave Mexico a place 
 in the sun and made law, industry and commerce possible. He 
 got stuck on the "land" bar and his ship could go no further. 
 
 Deliverance at Vera Cruz meant ''deliver up" or I'll shoot 
 yon, and that is always the motto of Carranza's looting gang. 
 The big chief never knew, or has forgotten, Juarez' motto, "Re- 
 spect for the rights of others is peace." 
 
 We sent our soldiers to Mexico and millions of munitions 
 to Vera Cruz to kill them. Though we knew Mexico's feeling 
 of hostility and Carranza's hate, we gave them powder to blow 
 us up and, doing this, were guilty of the shame and sin of adding 
 oil to the flames. 
 
 Mexico needs books more than bayonets and a better acquaint- 
 ance with geography than generals. "Intervention," with a 
 non-sectarian school, such as the Roberts College, which I visited 
 in Constantinople, and conducted in a way to disarm religious 
 and political suspicion, would be of great and lasting help, like 
 that of our teachers in Cuba, Philippines and Porto Rico. 
 
 Americans know next to nothing of Mexico's real condition. 
 I was invited to call on General Pablo Gonzales at Tacubaya, but 
 feared if he ever cornered "L" and me in his "concentration" 
 camp, with the natives of the rural districts of certain states, we 
 would be in a Cuban Weyler condition, for in these camps hun- 
 dreds die of negligence, hunger and typhus fever. 
 
 Warnings of Mexican outlawrj' sent our government are dis- 
 credited, are called "prejudiced," "commercial jealousy," 
 and "wholly without foundation and fact." High government 
 officials act like an ostrich and close their eyes to unpleasant facts. 
 
 Mexicans'think more of the Germans since they are willing to 
 fall in with their customs and practices, while we Americans re- 
 fuse to be Mexicanized. 
 
322 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 From Cortez to Carranza, Mexico has always been under & 
 blood and iron rule. 
 
 Carranza is no better than any of his predecessor murderers. 
 This human cuttlefish hides under the word "Constitutionalism," 
 which he has secreted. 
 
 "We had no right to eradicate a so-called bad government 
 under Huerta, unless we were able to substitute a good one under 
 Carranza, who of the two evils is the greater. 
 
 No civilized nation but America has ever refused to protect 
 its citizens. 
 
 We don't want to annex or Americanize I\Iexico, but simply 
 to have and hold a military protectorate there for their and our 
 mutual good. 
 
 America must conquer Mexican hate, compromise is impos- 
 sible. 
 
 "We have been insulted enough in Mexico to clean her up froni 
 the Rio Grande to Guatemala. 
 
 From the very beginning Carranza has been a rubber stamp 
 as senator and governor. Now he puts on his war boots and 
 stamps his iron heel on wealth, honor and the weak. 
 
 Carranza is a godless, ghoulish Goth. Unlike "^^illa, he de- 
 stroyed everything he couldn't use or carry along with him. 
 Towns, factories, houses and possessions were ruined, not for loot 
 or revenge, but simply to impoverish the peons and enforce them 
 to enlist under his banner. 
 
 Carranza 's officers bought up all the cattle, com, barley, beans 
 and food of the country, sold and shipped it out, leaving the poor 
 peons to starve or eat roots and grass. 
 
 A few years ago there were 15.000,000 poor but peaceful 
 hard-working, happy peons laboring on their farms. The govern- 
 
 1 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 323 
 
 ment took everything away from them and has driven the men, 
 women and children to the city to beg and starve. 
 
 Every Mexican who has wronged an American should be 
 pursued, captured and punished. 
 
 America could not be half-slave and free, and no democracy 
 can be built or maintained in Mexico so long as half the country 
 is anarchistic. 
 
 An American citizen has the same right to claim protection 
 in Mexico as in the United States, and the government that will 
 not guarantee it is not a good government and should be voted 
 out of office. 
 
 It is easy to say "I am an American," at home, but hard 
 to feel it unprotected abroad. 
 
 The measure of our duty to Mexico is the golden rule of 
 sincere helpfulness. 
 
 The government recognized Carranza and looked to him for 
 the protection of Americans. Carranza says he can't do it and 
 threatens the United States if we punish the murderer of our 
 citizens on his soil. 
 
 We pray Fate will soon write the word "finis" to Mexico's 
 murderous history. 
 
 Mexico needs a constructive and not destructive armed inter- 
 vention, such as we helpfully instituted at Vera Cruz. 
 
 Mexico has been crucified between the two thieves of priestly 
 plotter and political plunderer. 
 
 Mexicans know and feel their helpless misery, but are too 
 proud to admit that no one but America can help them. 
 
 It has been estimated that there are 12,000,000 peaceable 
 Mexicans, 2,000,000 partly educated and well-meaning, 150,000 
 
324 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 murderous bandits, 250,000 strong friends of the fighting fac- 
 tions, and that the refugees in the U. S., Cuba and Europe rep- 
 resent the mind, money and backbone of the nation, 
 
 ^lexico needs a president who will be fair and friendly to 
 Mexicans and to our American investors. 
 
 Mexico has been hunted to death by bloodhound government. 
 
 Our relations to Mexico would be helped by appointing am- 
 bassadors with brains and character, instead of mere makeshifts 
 in payment of political debts. 
 
 -It is said that European investments in Mexico are a billion 
 dollars in addition to Spanish estate holdings, and the amount of 
 U. S. capital invested there equals all of Europe. 
 
 The biggest, hardest yoke ever placed on the Mexican's neck 
 was put there by Carranza. 
 
 IMore fuss was made over the death of the Englishman, Mr. 
 Benton, in Mexico, than over all our murdered Americans. 
 
 Old Uncle Tom was a millionaire plantation owner compared 
 with the Mexican peon slave. 
 
 Mexico took our Red Cross supplies of food and clothes and 
 sold them for corrupt official graft. 
 
 Neglect of Americans in Mexico has cost over two hundred 
 lives and the ruined property and livelihood of over 30,000. 
 
 The bandit omits the prohibition "not" from the Ten Com- 
 mandments, forgets the spirit of the Sermon on the ]\Iount, and 
 instead of the love of the Peacemaker, says, "Kill, rob and out- 
 rage the inhabitants of yonder city, then set it on fire and make 
 it a heap of ashes." 
 
 Self-government is efficient government. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 325 
 
 Travel in Mexico is painful travail. 
 
 The Aztecs were the original gum-chewers, chewing the 
 chicle or sap, from the sapodilla tree. 
 
 Mexico is mangled, but not through any cleaning process. 
 
 The man who does not provide for his own household has 
 "denied the faith and is worse than an infidel." Charity be- 
 gins at home. Don't preach to your neighbor's family until 
 your own children practice your precepts. 
 
 Forbearance sometimes ceases to be a virtue. 
 
 We have forgiven Mexico more than seventy times seven. The 
 next thing is to fight. 
 
 The Mexican problem is as hard to solve as a Chinese puzzle. 
 
 Dictatorship is Mexico 's ship of state. 
 
 Mexico's filibusters are trying to bust her. 
 
 Villa is one of Mexico's best vaudevillains. 
 
 In the family of nations Mexico's foreign relations are "poor" 
 relations. 
 
 Mexico needs fair public spirit and not foul private stealing. 
 
 Mexicans have been slaves for so long they have lost the 
 faculty for self-government. 
 
 Lind's mission was mostly omission. 
 
 Mexico's ark has a hard time to float on the insurgent waves 
 of rebellion. 
 
 Mutiny is a menace of Mexico. 
 
326 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 Mexico's government is a political maelstronu 
 
 Mexico needs a big stick of hickory, not of candy. 
 
 Mexico's political volcanoes are only quiet that they may 
 erupt with greater violence. 
 
 God made Porfirio Diaz and that soldier-statesman made 
 ilexico. 
 
 Mexico's ignorance and jealousy are two factions that will 
 never produce satisfaction. 
 
 Diplomatic prescriptions of pills and plasters made Mex- 
 ico's bad condition worse. 
 
 A "laissez faire" policy is generally lazy and unfair. 
 
 A weathercock of vacillation is a poor ornament for the White 
 House. 
 
 I\Iany Washington diplomats are adepts in the policy of doing j 
 nothing — that should be done. 
 
 Invasion is better than evasion of Mexico. 
 
 Type is no sooner set up announcing a new state of affairs Idi 
 Mexico than the type of government is upset. 
 
 Party politics' policy could be fittingly portrayed as 
 Patience sitting on a AVashington monument smiling at the 
 grief of Americans in Mexico. 
 
 It looks as if IMexico is traveling from Despotism to Dem- 
 ocracy by ox-cart and not automobile. 
 
 It is love's labor lost to send notes and proclamations toj 
 Mexico where 80 per cent of the people can't read. 
 
 The White House of Mexico is a blood shed. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 327 
 
 Fine words butter no parsnips, and the words "idealism" 
 and "altruism" will not excuse administration indifference to 
 wronged Americans in Mexico. 
 
 The Mexican government sold the products of the country 
 and starved the natives. 
 
 We need deeds not words, swords not speeches. 
 
 It is often better to punch than to pacify. 
 
 "We don't want to fight the Mexican people, but the bandits, 
 and Carranza whom 90 per cent of the Mexicans don't like. 
 
 No one can help Mexico as the United States can and should. 
 
 Our recognition of Carranza made Hell roar, and the spirits 
 of Washington and Lincoln weep in Heaven. 
 
 Americans pray for the day when they can carry Old Glory 
 to Mexico and have it stand for protection to Americans, square 
 deal to Mexicans} and Europeans, and freedom and justice 
 for all. 
 
 The church and state have been the Priest and Levite who 
 have passed the poor Mexican peon by, leaving him robbed, 
 wounded and half dead. Uncle Sam should be the good Sam- 
 aritan. 
 
 Mexico can't help herself and we must help her. 
 
 The American spectators of our "Tragedy of Errors" 
 applaud the London "Spectator" which said of our Mexican 
 policy: "it intervenes and pretends not to be intervening; 
 it deprecates anarchy and bloodshed but neither stops them 
 itself nor allows anybody else to stop them." 
 
 " Peace-at-any-price " policy is not only against sense but 
 the Scripture which says, "Peace, peace, when there is no peace," 
 and, "I came not to bring peace but a sword." 
 
328 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 Uncle Sam is the moral policeman of Latin America. He 
 should make a raid on i\Iexico's disorderly house, pinch the bad 
 tenants and put the place in order. 
 
 Pillage is the bitter pill which Americans in Mexico have 
 been forced to take. 
 
 We can't influence Washington but we can influence the 
 American people to vote to send the right officials to Wash- 
 ington. 
 
 "What shall we do in Mexico?" has various answers. Do 
 nothing, let dog eat dog — this is the policy of non-interference ; 
 invade with armed force and conquer ; and occupy with the force 
 of military police, as our soldiers did at Vera Cruz, making 
 friends with the natives. 
 
 To the question, "What right have we in Mexico?" the 
 answer is, the right of the strong to help the weak, the right to 
 protect American and foreign life and property, and the right 
 to stamp out the plague of anarchy which kills all it infects. 
 
 MEXICO 
 
 HE colors of Mexico's flag should be black and red for [ 
 medievalism and murder. Mexico is a state of anarchy, 
 flatteringly miscalled a republic, and is bounded North, 
 South, East and West by bandits. 
 
 Topography. Mexico has mountains of debt, volcanoes of _ 
 hate, rivers of blood, deserts of despair, gulfs and oceans of ■ 
 tears. 
 
 Climate. The three zones are hot, hotter and hottest for 
 Americans who go there. War-clouds prevail at all seasons and 
 a "reign" of lawlessness. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 329 
 
 Flora. The national flowers are the am" bush," "peon "age 
 and dis" aster," found everywhere in the republic. Monopoly 
 plants, beggar "palms" and deflowered virtue are on every side. 
 One sees every tree but the tree of knowledge. 
 
 Fauna. The principal fauna are mosquitoes, fleas, jail- 
 birds, political vultures, vermin, wolf of hunger, "dear" prices, 
 " ant "i- Americanism, snakes (related to the Old Serpent), and 
 "gorilla" warfare. 
 
 Geology and Mining. Mexico's mining consists in under- 
 mining the government. Gold and silver are found in the pock- 
 ets of the president and his staff; copper in the hands of wire- 
 pulling trusts ; lead in the heads of the people and the bodies of 
 the bandits; iron in the rule of the dictators and in the chains 
 and manacles on the hands and feet of Liberty. 
 
 Agriculture. The main agriculture is raising Cain and wild 
 oats, hemp for hanging people, maguey pulque to get drunk 
 on, and weeds of idleness and tobacco. 
 
 Stock-raising. Stock-raising is generally confined to breed- 
 ing herds of human and Indian cattle. 
 
 Commerce. Mexico exports good citizens and Americans and 
 imports prohibited ammunition. She buys and sells public office, 
 honesty and woman's virtue, the three cheapest commodities. 
 
 Industries. Mexico manufactures false cable news, lying 
 press reports and Yankeephobia. 
 
 Government. The country is ruled by a Triumvirate of 
 graft, revolution and despotism ; courts of injustice ; congress of 
 crooks; cabinet of wooden heads; and a "liberal" constitution 
 spread over many reams of paper. 
 
 Finance. Mexico's finance rests on waste paper, forced loans, 
 depreciated currency, commandeering a railroad or bank, impos- 
 ing robbing and ruinous rates of taxation on oil, gold and silver 
 mines, squeezing Mr. Common People dry and pickpocketing 
 legitimate business ventures. 
 
330 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 Education. There is little or none except in school of experi- 
 ence and hard knocks. Its graduates of illiteracy learn to shoot, 
 and are well educated in the three R's of robbery, rape and 
 revolution. 
 
 Religion. Mexico has little religion except to hate a neigh- 
 bor and love his wife ; to rob the poor peon ; to give a continuous 
 performance of crucifixes, carnivals and carnality; to Christian- 
 ize paganism; to veil idolatry and sanctify superstition; to fol- 
 low ritualism in the morning and robbery at night. 
 
 Army. Mexico's army is a lot of licentious, legalized loot- 
 ers who fight for plunder, not principle. 
 
 Navy. The navy is a slow fleet — a few floating scrap-iron 
 wash-tubs called gun-boats, cruisei-s and despatch boats. 
 
 Amusement. Mexico's chief amusements consist in killing 
 one another, throwing the bull, cock fighting, plaza promenades, 
 pulque drinking, cigaret smoking, public flirting and private 
 liasons, damning Uncle Sam, insulting our flag and robbing and 
 shooting the gringo. 
 
 History. Her history is a volume of vice and violence; a 
 book of blood and bigotry; a path of perfidy and plunder; a 
 story of sin, slavery and shame; a calendar of cupidity and 
 crime; an inventory of intrigue and infamy; a blot on the 
 escutcheon of nations. 
 
 Population. Mexico's population is sixteen million Indians, 
 mixed and whites — three-fourths of whom would be in jail if the 
 laws were enforced. The divine image is defaced and the ma- 
 jority act more like animals than human beings. They are a 
 race of slaves, mostly fools. 
 
 Bihliography. Books on Mexico fill a LIEbrary. Among the 
 most prominent authors are the following: ]\liss Information; 
 Mary Enthusiast ; The Right Reverend Foolem ; Hon. Ready 
 Liar; Frank Scoreem ; Useless Information; Charles Landsharkj 
 Will Oilgrusher; Levi Goldbrick; Skinner Syndicate. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 331 
 
 HELL IN MEXICO 
 
 T it useless to deny the personality of the devil. There 
 may as well be an actual devil as a literal hell in 
 Mexico. Scripture describes his Satanic majesty's 
 character and conduct as ''full of all subtlety, and all 
 mischief, the enemy of all righteousness, perverting the right 
 ways of the Lord. ' ' 
 
 Lucifer made war in heaven but was defeated and driven to 
 earth where he has been writing the word "hell" in blood-red 
 letters. He made trouble in Eden for Adam and Eve and has 
 since traveled all over the world leaving his slimy trail in 
 religion, politics, business and society. Later he came over with 
 the Spaniards to Mexico, a paradise of climate, scenery and 
 marvelous wealth of wood and mine, and made it a desolation. 
 
 Cortez was a personification of Satan. He came to Mexico 
 in 1519 with the sword in hisi right hand and the crucifix in the 
 left, and went after "mazuma" and Montezuma. According to 
 impartial history he Avielded them both in oppression, robbery, 
 violence and bloodshed, backed by a corrupt laity and an un- 
 principled clergy. The Mexican emperor, Maximilian, declared, 
 "Confess, my well-esteemed prelates, that the Mexican church 
 by a lamentable fatality has mingled too much in politics and 
 in aifairs of temporal possessions, neglecting in consequence the 
 Catholic instruction of its flocks." W. E. Curtis writes, "All the 
 weight of Eomish influence, intellectual, financial and spiritual, 
 has been employed to destroy the Republic and restore the 
 Monarchy while the Liberal party has strangled the church and 
 stripped it of every possession." 
 
 There were better conditions in Mexico among the Toltees 
 and the Aztecs, with their simple arts and agriculture in the 
 8th and 12th centuries, than after 300 years of misrule under 
 Spain, who regarded the country simply as a gold mine to be 
 worked, and her natives to be abject slaves. 
 
 After three centuries of restless submission the Gospel of 
 freedom was preached by the priest, Hidalgo, "the father of 
 Mexican independence." He was a real religious crusader and 
 pleaded and fought for the rights of his wronged countrymen. 
 The result was that the 57 varieties of Spanish viceroys ceased, 
 though the turbulent road of Mexico's history is marked by the 
 
332 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 names of Iturbide, Santa Anna, Juarez, Maximilian, Tejada, 
 Diaz, Madero, Huerta and Carranza. Up to 1876 poor Mexico 
 had been ruled by 52 dictators, an emperor and a regent. Before 
 the Diaz regime of thirty years of peace there was constant 
 war and no middle class, only the rich and poor. The people 
 rose and demanded their rights, Diaz was overthrown and Ma- 
 dero followed, who though not a Protestant, called on the people 
 to assert their religious, social and political rights. 
 
 Though ]\Iexico is large and fertile, the people for 400 years 
 have had little ground to call their own, not even their graves. 
 A few rich land owners own the country. Of its 16 million 
 population it is estimated that 7,000 wealthy families own 500,- 
 000 square miles of territory which they claim by titles from 
 the Spanish crown and confirm by corrupt courts. A leading 
 cause of discontent today is that the poor peon wants to live 
 under his own vine and fig tree and make more than 18 cents 
 wages a day. 
 
 Mexico, rich in room and resources, has been impoverished 
 by a form of government and religion which has robbed her of 
 civil reform and freedom of worship. The common people have 
 grown restless under civic and clerical powers, which denied 
 human equality and constitutional liberty, and have risen up in 
 revolutionary might. The City of IMexico tries to rule the 
 whole countr}^, and a proud, profligate and political aristocracy 
 rules the city. Time and money are not spent for education, 
 scientific schools or art galleries, but on ammunition, cock and 
 bullfights, schemes of colossal graft, drinking pulque, gambling 
 and debauchery. 
 
 A sad state of affairs ! The people enslaved to a burden- 
 some, feudal land system, 90 per cent of them unable to read or 
 write, most of them illegitimate, all of them practically starv- 
 ing, no high ideals of Christian or civilized peoples! If this 
 isn't hell, what is, and if it isn't here in Mexico, where is it? 
 
 We have played fast and loose between the deviltry of 
 Villa and the defiance of Carranza. Criticizing the dictatorship 
 our position has been ignorantly or wilfully misunderstood. 
 Today from his present eminence, like ]\Iilton's devil, Carranza 's 
 "horrid hair shakes pestilence and war." He is accused of 
 standing on the backs of the poor, illiterate peons; to be with 
 the rich against the poor, with the strong against the weak. 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 333 
 
 Foolish man tO' now plough the soil with shot and shell and sow 
 dragon's teeth in furrows, from which will rise more bandits 
 who will undo him as he has undone others. 
 
 In Mexico, as in Central and South America, citizens of 
 the U. S. are always suspected, and never respected or protected, 
 because our diplomats are "diplomuts." Hundreds of our citi- 
 zens have been killed in Mexico, our soldiers ambushed, women 
 dishonored, children mutilated and starved, property stolen, our 
 government cursed, our flag insulted and our citizens forced to 
 go to the British consuls for protection. There has been no 
 redress in life or reparation after death. Too long these gringo- 
 haters have derisively placed their hands to their nose to Old 
 Glory — they may now put them to the seat of their pants, 
 because Uncle Sam is preparing to give them a good, wholesome 
 kick. There can be no law and order without fear of penalty 
 and punishment. God offers a loving heaven and terrifies with 
 fear of hell. It 's all right to offer a stick of candy, but all wrong 
 to forget the big stick. 
 
 The trouble with Mexico and Latin- America is that they have 
 been ungrateful for the kindness and protection we have shown 
 them with our Monroe Doctrine, which declares that further 
 acquisition of U. S. territory by Europe will be regarded as an 
 unfriendly act, and we will not countenance any interference in 
 the international affairs of any of the independent states in 
 either the North or South American continents. Latin-America 
 reminds us of the fable of the frozen snake. The farmer kindly 
 brought him in his house, kindled a fire and warmed him. He 
 revived and thanked his benefactor by trying to bite him. 
 
 We must make good in Mexico or grow bad — we can't play 
 the dog in the manger and must eat grass or give the ox a chance. 
 We are under moral obligation to bring law and order, peace 
 and justice in Mexico, as in Cuba, or give up the Monroe idea 
 and permit other nations to come in and protect their citizens 
 and interests in Mexico or anywhere else in Latin-America. 
 
 A refugee told me that 90 per cent of the natives would 
 gladly vote to have their lives and property protected by our 
 flag. France helped us in our early struggle for freedom, why 
 shouldn't we help Mexico? Our duty is not to fight against 
 Mexico but for her. 
 
334 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 Uncle Sam is the moral policeman of North and South Amer- 
 ica and the U, S. cannot evade its responsibility. We are our 
 brother's keeper by the creation, discovery, providence and his- 
 tory of this western continent. We are to vindicate the rights 
 of humanity, of Americans in Mexico, of Mexicans in America 
 and of Mexicans in Mexico. 
 
 MY MEXICAN ALPHABET 
 
 NTI-AMERICANIS]\I, Anarchy 
 
 Bandits, Beggars, Bullfights 
 
 Churches, Carnivals, Cigarets, Cockfights 
 
 Debt, Disease, Degeneracy 
 Egotism, Earthquakes, Election Farces 
 Filth, Fraud, Finance 
 Graft, Gringoes, Greasers, Germans 
 Hats, Hemp, Hammocks, Hell 
 Idleness, Illiteracy, Illegitimacy 
 Jealousy, Jingos 
 Knaves, Killing 
 hying, Licentiousness 
 Misrule, Mestizos, Llanana 
 Nefariousness, "Northers" (hurricanes) 
 Oil, Ore, Outrage 
 Peons, Pulque, Plazas 
 Quick-temper, Quarrels, Quarantine 
 Ruins, Red-tape, Revolutions 
 Soldiers, Socialism, Superstition 
 Thieves, Treachery, Tortillas 
 Uprisings, Usurpers 
 Vice, Volcanoes, Vermin 
 Wrecks, Wretchedness 
 'Xecutions, 'Xactions, 'Xploitation 
 Yahoos, Yaquis, Yucatecans 
 Zones, Zapatistas 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 335 
 
 A "FAST" BOAT 
 
 S we left Vera Craz on the "Esperanza" late Friday 
 night we could see, beyond the lights of the city, and 
 the Malecon, a great red glare of conflagration. But 
 it was nothing — the bandits were simply warming up 
 things by burning some town or train. Many passengers missed 
 the boat because the passenger train couldn't get through. We 
 had learned from our consul that two Englishmen had just been 
 wantonly murdered on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec road, and 
 that the railroad from Vera Cruz to Alvarado, with the little 
 towns along it, had been destroyed by the rebels. 
 
 After just missing ramming a boat within the breakwater, 
 that was sailing dark, we were out again on the wide, friendly 
 Gulf. A day's sail brought us early Sunday morning to Pro- 
 greso. A clear sky and emerald sea belied the dark war cloud 
 that hung over the country. 
 
 As usual, progress was slow at Progreso. We had no cargo 
 to unload, nothing to do but let some passengers off and take 
 some others on. This would have required but one or two hours 
 in a civilized port, but according to Latin-American custom it 
 was a day's delay. At last we left and learned there were many 
 left over at Progreso for there was no room for them on our 
 ship. I was truly sorry and wondered what awful crime they 
 had committed that Providence should punish them by compell- 
 ing them to remain in Yucatan till the next boat. 
 
 Our boat was packed and the passengers who attracted the 
 most attention were gamblers and ladies of pleasure who had 
 found rough sailing under Alvarado in Yucatan. He had closed 
 up the red light districts and the dames were on their way to 
 Havana. Gamblers played a big game day and night. The 
 green cloth tables were always full, for gambling goes on Latin 
 American boats so long as the players observe formal pro- 
 prieties and refrain from shooting each other. One sport's lady 
 friend, who would not be left behind, followed her lover aboard 
 and tagged him all over the ship after he had won $300. She 
 cried and begged him to let her take care of the money so they 
 might have something when they arrived at New York. He 
 answered her with rough talk and bratal blows. 
 
336 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 Passengers were not only accosted on the deck by young 
 Merida Magdalens, but one of them took up her quarters in the 
 smoke room as a manicurist for men only and managed to make 
 some professional engagements. No matter how vigilant and 
 virtuous the officers on these boats may be these moral harpies 
 ply their trade on ship in cabin quarters. 
 
 MANICURES 
 
 OLDING hands is dangerous business. The hand is the 
 lightning conductor of love and lust. The manicurist, 
 like Othello, would find "occupatiou gone" if hand- 
 holding were practiced by men or old women. It is 
 the sex element that usually attracts and holds. 
 
 Many modest and decent manicurists go regularly and pro- 
 fessionally to the homes of their patients or are found in office, 
 parlor or barber annex position. Anywhere and everywhere 
 they are pure and true womanly. 
 
 Too often the manicure profession wears the livery of heaven 
 to serve the devil in. The time, the place and girl are often 
 occupied in meeting the husbands, brothers and lovers of others. 
 
 People who won't work with their hands are known by the 
 manicures they keep. Nails are peeled, pared, polished and 
 painted while the owner's rough mind lives in the cellar and 
 garret of mental and moral poverty. 
 
 Manicuring is a society luxury for men and women who 
 form the polished horde of bores and bored. The world is still 
 deceived with fuss and feathers and people who hide grossness 
 with fair ornament. 
 
 The manicure is a necessity for musicians, doctors, dudes and 
 darlings in society who, beyond the actual care of their body, 
 in food, dress and drink, think their hands were made only to 
 wear gloves, rings, be manicured, held or united in a ''good 
 catch" marriage. 
 
THE DEVIIj in MEXICO 337 
 
 The rich are manicured who have money to bum. The idle 
 are manicured who have time to waste. The idiots are mani- 
 cured who have no idea of the value of time or money. Liber- 
 tines are manicured who play guilty Fausts to pure and inno- 
 cent Margarets. Hotel lechers and loafers are manicured who 
 forget mother, sister, wife or sweetheart. 
 
 They have no time or money for church or charity, but sit 
 by the hour holding a girl's hand, looking into her face, trying 
 to fan a spark of passion into their burnt-out cinder body while 
 with hand, foot, eye and tongue they try ''to make a date." 
 
 The word ' ' hand ' ' means to hold or seize and is to man what 
 the claw is to the bird, fin to fish and hoof to horse. The hand 
 is marvelously made with twenty-seven bones, eight of which 
 are in the wrist, five form the palms, and fourteen the bones or 
 phalanges, or fingers. The hand was made for work, as proved 
 by anatomy, and Scripture — ''Go work," "Work earnestly with 
 both hands." 
 
 "Handsome is that handsome does," and black or white 
 hands are fine which do good work. Angelo carving marble, 
 Eaphael painting Madonnas, Shakespeare writing immortal 
 dramas, Beethoven copying heavenly symphonies, Washington 
 drawing his sword for liberty and Lincoln penning the Eman- 
 cipation Proclamation spent little time and money in manicure 
 parlors. 
 
 Beautiful are the hands of wife, sister, man or friend which 
 have directed, led and lifted us by pitfall, through marsh and 
 despair, to mount the height on which we stand — hands per- 
 fumed with prayer, baptized with tears, clasped with affection 
 and generous with charity. 
 
 The man ought to be horse-whipped who uses the words 
 "hard," "homely," " unmanicured, " of the hands of a father, 
 calloused that they might give daily bread ; hands of a mother, 
 blistered and aching for work never done until they are crossed 
 white in the coffin and God gives them rest; baby hands which 
 twine around the treUis of our hearts and are unclasped by 
 death. 
 
338 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 STOPOVERS 
 
 WE reached Havana Tuesday morning, and from the 
 papers that were brought on board we learned the 
 rebels were still at it and had burned some sugar mills 
 and plantations. The passengers from Yucatan who 
 disembarked here were put in quarantine for several days. Cuba 
 has experienced several house cleanings and is careful of new 
 boarders. 
 
 Because we had remained on the boat at Progreso we were 
 permitted to go ashore with ample time to buy some souvenirs 
 of hats and cigars, and take some photos of rural rebels being 
 marched to prison. 
 
 At sunset we said "Good-night" to Havana and reached 
 Nassau the next afternoon. The ship was not permitted to 
 unload or take on cargo for Nassau was a dark house at night. 
 From wdiite governor to black negro every one was afraid of the 
 German submarine. As if this were any hindrance. As if to 
 put out a light was to put the compass out of commission. This 
 "sub" scare had driven and kept away all the tourists who 
 were promised nothing after supper but early to bed. As a 
 result all the season's killing was confined to killing the tourist 
 trade. Everyone felt put out on shore but the lightning bugs, 
 and every light wvis out but the moon and stars overhead. 
 
 "We had to sail ten miles up to Cocoanut Island where we 
 unloaded and took on a cargo of sisal and fruit. After supper 
 we received word from the shore that neither our lower nor 
 upper lights could be kept burning. They were distinctly seen 
 and must be turned off at once. Every light but the cargo light 
 on the land side was extinguished and we were all in the dark. 
 The stars were beautiful and bright, especially a movie star who 
 came aboard and dined with us at the captain's table. Love's 
 flame was lighted when the ship's light went out and our Latin 
 passengers embraced the opportunity and each other. They 
 talked, walked, sat, spooned or danced over the moonlit decks 
 to the music of the phonograph. One American got full of 
 liquor and love. I was on deck and saw him grab a young lady 
 by the arm and make an insulting remark. He was hustled to 
 his room, locked in by the purser and deck hand and made night 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 339 
 
 hideous with his drunken, ribald songs. The lady was escorted 
 to her room by the stewardess who shut her up. 
 
 In the morning we launched ashore, hired a black man with 
 a white horse to show up what we had seen here several times 
 before — the stores, sponges, ceiba tree, library, Queen's Stair- 
 case, the forts, hotels, bird-cage houses, happy natives and the 
 various churches. He ended the drive by taking us to Alex- 
 ander's Fruit Fann, where I ate at one standing six, large, 
 delicious grapefruits. 
 
 Returning to the boat we stopped at the Marine Gardens, 
 buried our heads in an old oaken bucket with a glass bottom, 
 and saw the many colored sands, coral, fish and plant life. The 
 scenery of shore, island, palm and ship is beautiful. But you 
 need not come here to see it, for within the last few years Nassau 
 has become a moving picture studio for scenes and scenarios. 
 Every tree and shell on Cocoanut Island and around has been 
 flashed on all the screens from 'Frisco to New York. I wonder 
 what our staid, English friends think of our jolly American 
 actors and actresses who come here and often set up a movie 
 pace hard to follow. 
 
 Before we could reach our ship the wind came up and we 
 bumped into some big waves that drenched us. At times we 
 slowed down and stopped, or the sea, large for our little launch, 
 would have overwhelmed us. It required dexterous skill of 
 hands and feet to get aboard and to climb the pilot's rope ladder 
 which the ship's motion made into a pendulum. At last all 
 were on, we raised anchor, the whistle blew and we were on the 
 last stretch headed for home. 
 
 PATRIOTISM 
 
 \ Y^ |ALM Sunday, April first, we neared New York. The 
 y Jl J "Hosanna" of war was in the air. We passed muni- 
 [^^^^ tion boats, war cruisers, submarine destroyers, forts 
 Utmml and flying flags. Aeroplanes flew and swooped above 
 the skyscrapers like eagles over craggy mountain peaks. The 
 steel harbor nets were open and we entered. Liberty was the 
 first one we saw to greet us and she was more beautiful than all 
 the seiioritas we had seen in Mexico or Yucatan. 
 
340 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 P for Palm Sunday and patriotism whose waves swept all 
 over the city. Flags, bands, crowds, church bells, ministers and 
 choirs were moved by the spirit of America, and of Ilim who 
 declared his divine mission was to set the captive free. 
 
 This flame of liberty-loving Americanism Hashed along the 
 historic road to Washington. Our boys were on guard at bridge 
 and tunnel. The spirit of John Brown and our soldier dead 
 was abroad in the laud. We reached Washington the night of 
 April second when a state of war was declared against Germany, 
 In the distance the illuminated dome of the Capitol looked like 
 a bell whose tongue was then declaring liberty to all the world. 
 I mixed with the crowds thronging the streets, which moved as 
 one man, breathed one sentiment, offered one prayer, "Thy king- 
 dom of freedom come, thy will be done in Europe as it is in 
 America." 
 
 All that night the train wheels whirred the word "Liberty." 
 In Chicago the Avind whispered it and the waves of Lake Mich- 
 igan shouted, "Liberty." When I entered Minneapolis the Mis- 
 sissippi, Father of Waters, was waiting to welcome his prodigal 
 son home and repeated the same word, "Liberty." 
 
 WAR 
 
 THANK God, our ship of state has been converted from 
 a pleasure yacht into a torpedo destroyer to hunt down 
 the pirate Kaiser in his infernal submarine. 
 
 Uncle Sam is the captain. Liberty is at the helm, 
 American citizens are the gunners, the searchlight is Truth, and 
 the ship papers are the Constitution and Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence. 
 
 No longer does the pacifist passenger sit on the deck in a 
 steamer chair, wrapped up in a blanket, asking the steward for 
 beef-tea and sandwiches. The decks are cleared for action. 
 There are no more games of political shuflle board ; we have can- 
 non balls instead of fancy dress balls, and the seductive strains 
 of Strauss have given wav to the spirit-stirring music of "Amer- 
 ica" and "The Star Spangled Banner." 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 341 
 
 "Were the Psalmist David living today I am sure he would 
 say, "If I forget thee, America, let my right hand forget her 
 cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to 
 the roof of my mouth ; if I prefer not America above my chief 
 joy." 
 
 The Bible inculcates the loftiest patriotism more than any 
 ancient or modern book, for service to God includes sacrifice for 
 man. 
 
 Our national inheritance of liberty is God's gi-eat gift. We 
 only thank Him for it, and are worthy of our fathers who trans- 
 mitted it to us, when we are willing to fight to maintain it for 
 ourselves and the whole human family. To betray this trust now 
 would be the unpardonable sin against God and man, and send 
 our souls and nation to hell. 
 
 The Gospel has only a forced alliance with war, but that 
 alliance is the history of the human race showing what it is, 
 when it comes and whither it is tending. 
 
 The journey of white-robed Peace is along the smoke-cur- 
 tained road of Strife. Wars of conquest and revenge are wrong, 
 wars of righteous principle have been pillars of fire to human- 
 ity's Israel indicating and vindicating the divinely ordained 
 path of the race. 
 
 The wars of Alexander spread Greek civilization into Egypt 
 and Asia ; of Rome, resolved the known world to law and order ; 
 of Charlemagne, suppressed barbaric invasion; of the Refor- 
 mation, brought religious liberty; of England, in India, intro- 
 duced the civilization of a Christian nation ; of the Colonies with 
 Great Britain, effected liberty; of the North with the South, 
 made unity; and of America with Spain, brought Cuban inde- 
 pendence. 
 
 The war of our nation today is for democracy against aris- 
 tocracy. The kingibusiness is growing bankrupt. It is high 
 time to split up the thrones into kindling for the shivering poor 
 and to melt gold crowns into money to buy bread for the 
 starving. 
 
 No government can last which is not founded upon the solid 
 rock of every man's right to life, liberty and pursuit of happi- 
 ness. 
 
342 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 
 
 LIBERTY 
 
 A AMERICA means physical, political, mental and moral 
 freedom. Mexico means slavery and poverty of body, 
 mind and soul. 
 
 The American idea recognizes the spiritual worth 
 of every man and declares that man does not exist for the 
 state but the state exists for man. Our Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence is the new gospel that Mexico needs to make her 
 wealth, aristocracy and ritualism shake on their thrones. Free- 
 dom isn't primarily free constitutions or free declarations but 
 free men. Give the Mexican right freedom and right results 
 will follow. 
 
 The imposing structure of our national union rests upon the 
 granite foundation stones of free speech, religious liberty, trial 
 by jury, equity before law, right of petition and representation. 
 Inheritors of such a blessing, we should be grateful to God and 
 our forefathers and show love and loyalty for our nation. 
 
 The War of the Revolution was for liberty, the War of the 
 Rebellion for union and our third great war is for the preserva- 
 tion of American life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. 
 
 The Declaration of Independence and the spirit of the 
 Fourth of July draw their inspiration from that old book neg- 
 lected in Mexico, the Bible, that declares that man made in the 
 image of God, with a heart to love, a will to decide and a brain 
 to think, be he black, red, yellow or white, rich or poor, wise 
 or ignorant, Jew, Gentile, Protestant or Roman Catholic, or of 
 any other creed or class, has a right to live; the right to make 
 his living; the right to adequate compensation for the labor of 
 his head or hand, and the right to have some leisure left in which 
 to pursue happiness in his home by society and study, or in 
 nature by travel and contemplation. 
 
 When Mexico starts with our premise she will come to our 
 conclusion; when she seeks peace and justice, loves mercy and 
 truth and banishes illiteracy, illegitimacy, selfishness and slaugh- 
 ter, she will have a July 4th and her mineral and agricultural 
 resources will no longer be a hell of desolation and poverty. 
 
 Today the world is fighting for a government of, by and 
 for the people. We spend our blood, brains and bonds for dem- 
 ocracy as against aristocracy, for individualism against abso- 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 343 
 
 lutism in political and religious life. Church and state exist for 
 man and not man for church and state. True Americanism is 
 as much opposed to Vaticanism as Imperialism. The difference 
 between United States and Mexico is our religion which guar- 
 antees to every man the God-given rights of a free body, mind 
 and soul, and our self-government through individual choice so 
 long as that choice does not wrong another. When America 
 surrenders to any prelatical or political power on the Tiber or 
 on the Rhine she is a slave in the abject and subject condition 
 of Mexico. 
 
 OLD GLORY 
 
 LET no flag ever float over Old Glory. Church and 
 state are separate in the United States. As our gov- 
 ernment would not permit a political banner, with 
 ensign of Republican elephant or Democratic donkey, 
 to be placed over Old Glory during a political meeting, so it 
 should insist that no religious church flag, Protestant or Roman 
 Catholic, Jewish or Gentile, should be raised above Old Glory 
 during any religious service on any warship, as is now done. If 
 any special sectarian flag is hoisted over the Stars and Stripes 
 for an hour on Sunday, why may it not remain there all day, a 
 whole week or a year? Patriots of the George Washington and 
 Abraham Lincoln type recognize but one flag, and any church 
 that recognizes any other, pulls the political ropes so that it runs 
 up its denominational flag above Old Glory, or even puts it be- 
 neath it on the same flag staff, is un-American, un-Constitu- 
 tional, unpatriotic, unfair and un-Christian, and is an enemy 
 and not a friend of the United States, no matter what its pious 
 palaver and perfidious protestations may be. 
 
 Now is the time for Old Glory to achieve new glory. 
 
 The letter F in our flag stands for faith in God; L for lib- 
 erty of body, mind and soul ; A for army on land and sea ; and 
 G for the good of every class, creed and condition which it 
 M^elcomes to our shores. 
 
 Old Glory is the sj^mbol of the America it represents. It 
 floats over the cradles of the living and the graves of the dead; 
 it is the most beautiful banner the winds of heaven ever kissed ; 
 
344 THE DEVIL IN ilEXICO 
 
 on its ample folds are emblazoned the words of Webster's heart, 
 "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable." 
 
 It was prophetic that our flag's design was found in the Stars 
 and Stripes on the Coat of Arms of Washington's family. Betsy 
 Ross of Philadelphia has the proud honor of making the first 
 American flag. Gallant Paul Jones raised the glorious ensign 
 over his vessel ; August 6, 1777, the Stars and Stripes were un- 
 furled over the captured British colors of Fort Stanwix. 
 
 The flag is immortal in story and in song. At the Revolu- 
 tion it was the swaddling clothes of the infant nation when it 
 lay cradled in the lap of liberty. During the Rebellion it was a 
 rainbow spanning North and South declaring Liberty, Equality 
 and Fraternity. In the Spanish War it was the cherubim with 
 outstretched wings of protection. Today it is the eagle which 
 plumes its wings and soars through cloud and above storm. 
 
 God made and breathed his blessings on our flag as it floats 
 on sea and land, for home, church and country. It stands for 
 liberty, honor, bravery and duty. Compared with the flags of 
 despotism, in other lands, it is like a flower in the wilderness, 
 a star in the night and life in death. 
 
 Our youth do well to observe flag day. The foundation and 
 defense of our nation is the Public School. Its insignia is not 
 a cross or crescent but a flag. There is no sweeter school exer- 
 cise than that which says, "I give my head, heart and hand to 
 God and my country. One countr}', one language and one flag." 
 Amen, shouts the sea, roar the rocks, shines the sun and echoes 
 the earth. 
 
 Old Glory realizes Cavour's idea of a "free state and a free 
 church." Its stars and stripes claim protection for all be they 
 rich or poor, wise or ignorant, young or old, black, yellow, red 
 or white, or whether they worship Christ, Confucius, Jehovah 
 or Buddha, 
 
 The test of American citizenship is loyalty to the flag which 
 now, as in Washington's time, represents a religion which gave 
 us a Christian nation ; education which gave us the public school 
 system; liberty which grew into the Declaration of Independ- 
 ence; and patriotism which fought for American institutions. 
 
 America is founded on granite, domed by the sky. lit l\v the 
 stnrs and bounded by the sea. God planned the discovery of 
 this land with its room and resources and protected our fathers 
 
THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 345 
 
 in their institutions of civil and religious liberty that we might 
 be the refuge for the world's oppressed. The blood of all the 
 world is with us. We are ''heirs of all the ages in the foremost 
 files of time." 
 
 Castelar said, "America is the continent of all the future 
 K^here mankind may essay and resolve all social problems. ' ' His 
 belief is shared by millions who have come from shores where 
 misgovernment has killed energy and virtue and who are now 
 lere praying God to bless our land and teaching their children 
 to love the flag, lisp the name of America with pleasure and 
 shout with joy, "Hail, Columbia, happy land." Marching to 
 the music of "America" and under the aegis of Old Glory we 
 say with Winthrop at Faneuil Hall, "Our country to be cher- 
 ished in all our hearts, to be defended by all our hands. " It is 
 our delight and duty to give our voice and vote for the defense 
 of this flag and what it represents and to swear with Choate, 
 "We join ourselves to no party that does not carry the flag and 
 keep step to the music of United States." The prayer of age 
 and childhood, ' ' Thy kingdom come, ' ' will yet be answered, and 
 as America goes the world will go in all that is vital to moral 
 welfare. 
 
 Our real defense is army and navy, bullets and bayonets, 
 brains and ballots. To protect our constitution and flag there 
 are thousands of patriots who will willingly climb the Calvary 
 of Death in the spirit of Washington and Lincoln. 
 
 The God of Liberty has given a banner of liberty to the sons 
 and daughters of liberty that it may be "displayed" because of 
 the truth of liberty at home and abroad. President McKinley, 
 in the name of humanity, civilization and endangered American 
 interests, said the shame and slaughter should stop in Cuba, and 
 it did. In that same spirit and not for revenge, gold or glory. 
 Uncle Sam must send an ultimatum to Mexico that our flag be 
 respected. True, it was once cut by sabre-stroke, but it has been 
 cemented by the blood of the North and South who are rallying 
 to its defense. 
 
 Our flag's red stripe was born of bravery at the cannon's 
 mouth ; its white is emblematic of the purity of our women ; the 
 blue suggests the heaven whence comes undying hope ; the stars 
 are the footprints of the angels which lead to victory. 
 
346 THE DEVDj in MEXICO 
 
 I love the flag ; my father fought for it in '64 ; it floats over 
 my house every day in the year; I have belted the globe with 
 Old Glory stick-pins from Boston to Bombay and North Cape 
 to Cape Horn. If I were President I would make Mexico get 
 down on her knees and kiss the fla^ for insulting it, insist that 
 the flag should protect every American citizen, and demand 
 reparation for all the Americans already insulted, robbed, tor- 
 tured and butchered. 
 
 God bless America in any fight between Anglo-Saxonism and 
 Latinism, intelligence and ignorance, freedom and slavery, Chris- 
 tianity and superstition. 
 
 God help every American to feel the Monroe Doctrine is not 
 worth the paper it is written on unless it stands for the prin- 
 ciple of supporting the rights of God's children everywhere. 
 
 God save our flag which cost more and means more than any 
 flag in the world, and make us swear that whoever strikes, slights 
 or insults it must reckon with the God of Liberty and the Amer- 
 ican people. 
 
 Civilization marches to America's time. "We hold the dial of 
 social, political and moral standard. "We are our brother's 
 keeper, and if the time ever comes when the humblest citizen 
 beneath Old Glory's folds is not heard in his cry for justice, our 
 glorious flag will become a dirty rag despised of God and man. 
 
 I 
 
"ROHEN REPUBUCS" 
 
 A TROPICAL TRAMP IN 
 
 CENTRAL AMERICA 
 By Rev. ''Golightly'' Morrill 
 
 LITERARY LAVA 
 
 A Witty, Racy, Epigrammatic Book, Right Up-to-Date, 
 
 On British Honduras, Guatemala, Salvador, 
 
 Spanish Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa 
 
 Rica, Panama, Colombia, Cuba, 
 
 Jamaica and Nassau. 
 
 FOREWORD 
 
 302 
 
 Punchy 
 
 PAGES 
 
 53 
 
 ncen 
 sored 
 
 PHOTOS 
 
 Unceii' 
 sored 
 
 HAMLET found something "rotten 
 in the state of Denmarli," but it 
 was sweet compared with what I 
 discovered in Central America^ 
 the land of dirt, disease, destitution, 
 darkness, dilapidation, despots, delay, 
 debt, deviltry and degeneracy, where a 
 conservative estimate makes 90 per 
 cent of the women immoral, 95 per 
 cent of the men thieves and 100 per 
 cent of the population liars. 
 
 A FEW OF THE CHAPTERS 
 
 Naughty New Orleans, Hell in Mexico, Hookworms and Cock- 
 roaches, Gum-Chewers, A Carib Village, Petrified People, At- 
 lantis, In the Jungle, Hotel Dives, Gambling and Girls. Coffee 
 Plantation, Sunday Cockfights. Skulls and Cross-Bones, Movies 
 and Marimba, A Pig-Driver President, Pillory and Peon. Alli- 
 gator Hunt, Loose Morals, Bombast and Bombs, Custom House 
 Grafters, Our New Naval Base, A Crew of Crooks, Liars, Steal- 
 ing — A Fine Art, Patriotic Piffle, Manana, Hammocks, Vol- 
 canoes, Few Clothes, Filibusters, Intervention, Profanity, An 
 Arch Fiend. Our Flag and Baseball. Nicaragua Canal Route, 
 Quarantined, Prostitution in Pai:ama, In an Earthquake, Down 
 in a Submarine. An Incestuou.s Union, Bananas. A Ni.<jht in 
 Cartagena, Poor Schools, A Saintly Stiff, Wliere Bolivar Died, 
 Bastards, A Garbage Market. A "Colombia" Record, A Tropical 
 Court, Passion and Fashion. Fan Flirts, Santiago Memories, The 
 Lottery Game, Our Lady Nicotine, "Pan" America, Diplomuts, 
 Spanish Devils, Sodom Surpassed. 
 
 $1.00 POSTPAID 
 
 Address G. L. Morrill, Pastor People's Church 
 
 3356 10th Ave., So., Minneapolis, Minn., U. S. A. 
 
PRESS COMMENTS ON G. L. MORRILL'S BOOK— 
 "ROTTEN REPUBLICS— A TROPICAL TRAMP 
 IN CENTRAL AMERICA" 
 
 •'Tufiity years of my life wero spent in l^atin America, where I 
 went as a phvsician. I know the i)OMiile ami speak their lanyuaKe. 1 
 hold the chair of Foreij^rn Tiade at the New York University, where 
 we have a ver.v larj^e ttucient body, and have recommended your work 
 to my pupils in order to Kive 'lu-m a li'ue view of the Latin repub- 
 lics."— \V. K. Al'ClllXHArcH, Foreign and Export Editor of Leslie's 
 Weekly and Author of "Selling Latin America." 
 
 "The next best thint; to traveling: around the world is to hear 
 G. L. Morrill tell about it in his pithy, punchy, rapid-fire way." — E. -M. 
 -XEW.MAN, noted globe-trotter and lecturer 
 
 "You have a wonderfully interesting^ way of telling things. How- 
 ever, after having written this book, I just wonder if you will feel 
 safe in inakiim another trip through Central America. I notice you 
 sort of talk in mighty plain English." — BERT HUBBARD, son of El- 
 bert Hubbard. 
 
 "Knowing, as I do, the countries which vou describe, your original, 
 terse style is doubly interesting." — CHARLES E. EBERHARDT, U. S. 
 Consul General to Latin America. 
 
 "I have lived in Xicarajrua for twenty years. It would be a for- 
 tunate thing if the gulUble investors in the tropics were able to get 
 and read your book on Central America before investing." — M. J. 
 CLANCY, Bluefields, Nicaragua. 
 
 "'Rotten Republics' is one of the best l)ook.« \ ever read. It is 
 interesting, instructive and entertaining. If you have ever taken a 
 trip through Central America, you should read this book. If you have 
 not, you should read it. It is epigrammatic and right up to date, and 
 by a Globe-Trotter who sees things and has the rare faculty of telling 
 you about them so that you can see them for yourself." — WILLIAM 
 SULZER, ex-Governor of New York. 
 
 "Colightlv, vour books ore great. They've got a sure enough 
 'punch' in them.'"' — BOB FITZSIMMONS, World-Famous Pugilist. 
 
 "'Rotten Republics' is a book that pleases and startles, but all the 
 while teaches the great moral lessons intended. Doctor Morrill's vivid 
 pictures are given in crisp chapters that entertain and bring us to 
 the conclusion that spiritual regeneration is the immediate need of 
 Latin America." — CLIFTON D. GRAY, in the Chicago Standard. 
 
 "G. L. Morrill is a sort of ministerial Irvin Cobb. His book is real 
 life shown up on the printed page as clearly as though .Tack London 
 himself were behind the pen. Good and bad are inii)art ially shown. 
 To the student of social conditions it is a valuable nuidern reference 
 book. To the casual reader it is the best and wittiest thing he can 
 take on a vacation or a railroad journey. He tells the truth without 
 fear or favor. Some of the stories will never appear in the n.-wspapers. 
 United States ought to be pretty well posted by a Morrill before it ties 
 up with Pan-American Congresses."— LIGHT. Louisville, Ky, 
 
"South Sea 
 Silhouettes" 
 
 60 
 
 RARE 
 
 PHOTOS 
 
 BY 
 REV;C0LICHTLY" MORRILL 
 
 A SKY-PILOT'S TRAVEL "LOG' 
 
 ON 
 
 HAWAII, SAMOA, FIJI, TONGA, TAHITI, 
 
 RARO TONGA, NEW ZEALAND, AUSTRALIA 
 
 AND TASMANIA 
 
 Golightly was introduced to a hurricane in the Tongan Islands 
 and saw a whole town demolished before his eyes; traveled in Ger- 
 man Samoa at the time of the English occupation by New Zealand 
 troops; went through waterspouts, tidal wave and drought un- 
 touched; interviewed Fijian ex-cannibals and an Australian abo- 
 riginal princess: photographed volcanoes and geysers, South Sea 
 island dances and carnivals, and the war ruins of Papeete, Tahiti, 
 made by the "Emden." His descriptions of the native life, manners 
 and morals, and the effect of our so-called civilization on them, 
 are racy and original. 
 
 SOME OF THE 60 UNUSUAL PHOTOS 
 
 Kilauea Volcano, Hula-hula Dancers, Fijian Black Beauties, 
 Ex-cannibal Chief, Meke-meke Dance, A Kava Party, Pounding 
 Tapa, Tongan Belles, In the Hurricane, The Tin Can Mail, R. L. 
 Stevenson's Grave, Samoan Siva Dancers, Lime-haired Native, Rub- 
 bing Noses, Haka Dancers, N. Z. Geyser, Women Voting, Blue 
 Mountains, Aborigine with Boomerang, Native Wedding, Shelled 
 bv Warships, Maid in Tahiti. 
 
 PARTIAL CONTENTS 
 
 Sydney After Dark 
 A Black Angel 
 Tasmaniacs 
 A Deck-A-Log 
 A Pajama Party 
 Pearl Divers 
 Strange Marriages 
 
 A-tldre.ss G, 
 
 Cannibals 
 
 A Dead-Beat King 
 
 Mid-Pacific Carnival 
 
 Women's Morals 
 
 Wrecked 
 
 Swimming Ashore 
 
 Horrible Deaths 
 
 R. L. Stevenson's Grave Lepers 
 
 Loving Hands Dope 
 
 Tattooing Smugglers 
 
 Easter Gambling Civilized Savages 
 
 Prizefights Hell's INlasterpiece 
 
 Heavy Gold Paper — $100 Postpaid. 
 L,. Morrill, 1'a.stor I'eople's Church, :i3r>(> 10th Ave. 
 Minneapolis, Minn,, V. S. A. 
 
SOMI;: PUESS CO>IMEXT OX "SOUTH SEA SILHOUETTES" 
 
 llllllllllllllilllllllllilllllillllilllll 
 "The healthy man does not live who will fail to open it to 
 road. Because — sh-sh! — the front cover is a cut-out and peering' 
 through the aperture is a winsome maiden of Tahiti, clad in two 
 \ards of Sears-Koebuck muslin and a string of beads. Inside you 
 lind the swellest lot of hula-hula models that ever put Lucille, 
 Hortense oi- Marie to shame. Of course they all "point a moral and 
 adorn a tale." But such outlines! The wonder to me is Uolightly 
 «'ver came back, liis book reads like the letters your traveled 
 friends should send you — but forget. He danced native dances, he 
 drank native drinks, he rubbed noses, called "Aloha," and he met 
 a black girl three limes at midnight on a dark island road. Three 
 timesl Though the girl never moved from the spot at all, and 
 he came back to us unscathed, CJod bless himl Too, he attended 
 prizelights, the races, called on Governors-general, participated in 
 a wedding, and visited t-tevenson's tomb and Samoa home." — 
 FELIX SHAY in the FRA ^LA.GAZ1^■E. 
 
 "South Sea Silhouettes tells the story in a classic and graphic 
 way of Ilev. ''Golightly" Morrill's trip to the South Sea Islands, and 
 tells it in such a way that you see the scenery, and talk to the 
 people, and >ou become, as it were, unconsciously the traveler. 
 The book is certain to have a large circulation. Everyone should 
 read it. It is history, geography and literature combined. It is 
 one of the most uniciue, one of the most interesting, and one of 
 the most instructive books I have ever read — a masterpiece in its 
 way."— WILLIAM SULZEli, EX-GOVERNOK of N. Y. 
 
 "Y'our descriptions of the various places you went to, the 
 people you met, their customs, etc., are truly wonderful. So often 
 t-ubiects of this nature are made so trite that one cannot actually 
 wade through them. Your book is positivelv the one exception 
 I have found on the subject of travel." — BERT HUBBARD, SOX of 
 ELBERT HUBBARD. 
 
 "I want to tell you how much I have enjoyed your two books. 
 "To Hell and Back," and the one on the South Seas. The.v are so 
 full of life and written so entertainingly that one feels he is go- 
 ing along with you." — REV. WALTER E. BENTLEY, National Sec- 
 retary of Actors' Church Alliance. 
 
 "Your books should be suppressed by the Federation of La- 
 bor. As an antidote for work they are unequalled. My wife and 
 daughters have let me eat cold lunches ever since your books fell 
 into their hands — another count against you." — J. C. STIERS, 
 County Supt. of Schools, Harrison County. Cadiz, Ohio. 
 
 "Y'our books are like some of the styles one sees on Michigan 
 Avenue. Thev certainlv are not troubled with Mow visibility.' " — 
 CLIFTON D. GRAY, Editor of CHICAGO STANDARD. 
 
 "South Sea Silhouettes was so interesting that I sat up all 
 night to read it." — D WIGHT ELMENDORF, World-traveler and 
 Lecturer. 
 
 "Your books should be on every train and news-stand. They 
 are 'punchv.' full of keen wit and make mighty fine and easy 
 reading.'— 1:i:rT LEVY, Arti.st and Writer. 
 
"To Hell and Back'' 
 
 My Trip to South America 
 
 By REV. GOLIGHTLY MORRILL 
 
 One of the Funniest and Most Fearless Books of 
 Travel Ever Written 
 
 PANORAMA OF 
 PANAMA TO 
 
 PERDITION 
 PA T AGO N I A 
 
 from 
 
 Unusual Photos — Drawings — 200 Pages 
 
 QUOTED BY PRESS AND MAGAZINES 
 
 SOME OF THE THINGS DESCRIBED: 
 The desert cities, high railways and Inca ruins of PERU; the devil dances, 
 degradation of Andean Indians and ruins of world's oldest city of BOLIVIA; 
 CHILE'S volcanoes, borax lakes, carnage and cruelty; the Straits of Magellan and 
 Falkland Islands; the races, gambling and profligacy of Buenos Aires and Monte- 
 vidio, the Sodom and Gomorrah of South America; the rubber atrocities and white 
 slave markets of BRAZIL; VENEZUELA'S bull fights, revolutions and Pitch Lake; 
 the head-hunters, bigotry and backwardness of ECUADOR and COLOMBIA. 
 
 THE FOREWORD 
 
 "Truth wears no fig-leaf. I intend to tell the naked truth about South Amer- 
 ica, "^he diplomat dare not, the guest cannot, the business boomer will not, the 
 subsidized press and steamship companies do not, but the preacher who pays his 
 own bills can afford to tell nothing else." 
 
 A FEW OF THE CHAPTERS: 
 An English Eden, Pizarro's Town, A Real Devil, Lima Beans, Bully Sport, 
 Curious Cuzco, Religious Rackets, on Lake Titicaca, Pious Orgies, a Door of Hell, A 
 Preliistoric Man, A Live Martyr, Flirting in Santiago, Chile Con Carnage, The End 
 of the World, Wrecks and Whales, Kissers, Buenos Aires Betting, Scene and Obscene, 
 Tango Times, Hell's Queen, On the Amazon, Ballet Beauties, Art Nude and Lewd 
 Church Advertising, Dives, White Slaves, Egret Fiends, "Caramba," The Lady and 
 the Bull, Hell Colombia! Smugglers, Ship on Fire, Held Up. 
 
 COVER WITH DESIGN IN RED AND BLACK 
 
 A Bargain — $1.00 Postpaid 
 Address G. L. MORRILL 
 
 3356 Tenth Avenue South, MinneapoHs, Minnesota 
 
THE NEW YORK WORLD, one of the 
 
 ^\•orlc^s greatest nc\\siTai')crs, devoted a wliolc 
 jKi^e to a review and \\rite-up of G. L, 
 Morrill's book, "TO HELL AND BACK — 
 MY TRIP TO SOUTH AMERICA." It 
 
 said ill jiart: 
 
 "Rev. Golightl^ Morrill is an author of repute, whose 
 previous works include "Golightl^ 'Round the Globe" and 
 "Upper Cuts." His latest volume, "To Hell and Back,^' 
 bound appropriately in black and flaming red, is a VIVA- 
 CIOUS disapproval of South America. It is dedicated point- 
 blank to the Devil. There is nothing cut and dried, and nothing 
 meal})- mouthed about it. Theodore Roosevelt and Elihu Root 
 are among the notables who have recently; looked over and 
 variously reported upon our sister continent. South America. 
 But evidently these distinguished tourists missed their opportunities. 
 The Rev. Golightl)) Morrill has now been over the ground. 
 Like another Dante he returns to tell the tale — etc., etc." 
 
 This article Mas illustrated uith colored cartoons by 
 Gordon R;)ss, i)icturiiiji; Mr. Morrill's adventures and 
 experiences in Peru, Chile, Falkland Islands, etc. The 
 re\ie\v ende<l l)y ([uoting one hundreil lines from diftVi- 
 cnt chapters of the book to show their spice, wit and 
 wisdom. 
 
Golightly *Round the Globe 
 
 By REV. GOLIGHTLY MORRILL 
 
 SPICY BREEZES 
 
 Prom 
 
 Hawaii, Japan, China, Philippines, Java, Burma, 
 India, Ceylon, EgyjDt, Italy, Switzerland, Germany 
 
 200 Pages — Photos — Cartoons 
 
 A Good Book for Bad People 
 
 PRESS COMMENT 
 
 'Easy and Good-Humored." — Americmi Review of Reviews. 
 ■'A Kind of Uncensored Movie." — Chicago Standard. 
 'I Am Reading It With Chuckles of Delight."— i?/&eri Hubbard. 
 'A Compound of Snuff and Cayenne Pepper." 
 
 — Benjamin Fay Mills. 
 
 SOME OF THE CHAPTERS; 
 
 A Prize Fight. Noah's Ark, Rag Dances, Ship-Bored, Sleepy 
 Religion, Geisha Girls, The Yoshiivara, Altogether Baths, 
 Making Opium, In Jail, Beastly Benares, My Native Bath, 
 Carnal Caves, Captain Cupid, Naughty Naples, Camera Curse, 
 Noisome Cologne, The Tipping Habit. 
 
 CLOTH-BOUND, BLUE AND GOLD, $1.00 POSTPAID. 
 G. L. MoRitiLL, 3356 10th Ave. S., Minneapolis, Minn. 
 
ivf n n 
 
 1 
 
 s 
 
 1? f T T 
 
 IRAVELOGUE 
 
 H 1 Id 1^ 
 
 and LECTURES 
 
 WITH OR WITHOUT SLIDES 
 
 AND MOVING PICTURES 
 
 ' ' The next best thing to Iraoehng aroun 
 
 d t^ 
 
 e world is to bear G. L. Morrill tell 
 
 about it in his pithy, punchy, rapid-fire 
 
 way. " 
 
 — E. M 
 
 NEWMAN. Noted Globe-Trotter and Lecturer 
 
 — Some Subjects 
 
 to 
 
 Choose From — 
 
 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 
 Diplomuts 
 
 America's Uncrowned Queen 
 
 
 Decoration Day 
 
 Art and Christianity 
 
 
 Down the Rhine 
 
 Alaska 
 
 Argentina 
 
 Australia 
 
 
 Egypt 
 
 Elbert Hubbard and the Roycroft 
 
 Alhambra and Spanish Bull Fight 
 
 
 Flying Dutchman 
 
 Along the Mediterranean 
 
 
 Fakes and Fakirs 
 
 Banff— Laggan — Field — Glacier 
 
 
 Ferrer, the Masonic Martyr 
 
 Brother Jonathan 
 
 
 Fiji and Cannibalism 
 
 Belgium and \\'aterloo 
 
 
 Falkland Islands 
 
 British Honduras 
 
 
 Florida 
 
 Brazil 
 
 
 George Washington 
 
 Burma 
 
 
 Greece 
 
 Bolivia 
 
 
 Girl Graduates 
 
 Battle of the Books 
 
 
 Golden Fleece 
 
 Buried Cities 
 
 
 Germany, Her Music 
 
 Churches of Asia Minor 
 
 
 Guatemala 
 
 Constantinople 
 
 
 Hamlet's Home 
 
 Cranks 
 
 
 Hobbies 
 
 Colorado, Pike's Peak or Bust 
 
 
 Holv Land on Horseback 
 
 Camping in the Yellowstone 
 
 
 Holland 
 
 Cuba and Her Future 
 
 
 Hungarv and Her Heroes 
 
 China 
 
 
 Hawaii 
 
 Costa Rica 
 
 
 Hotels Around the \^'orld 
 
 Colombia 
 
 
 Italy and Her Art 
 
 Chile 
 
 
 India 
 
 Ceylon 
 
 
 Immigration 
 
 Cruising with Columbus 
 
 
 Jerusalem 
 
 Dances Far and Near 
 
 
 Japan 
 
 Does Death End All ? 
 
 
 Java 
 
 CON TIN LED ON 
 
 NEXT PAGE 
 
 1 
 
!■! U li H 1 JL 1^ 
 
 TRAVELOGUES and LECTURES 
 
 WITH OR WITHOUT SLIDES 
 
 AND MOVING PICTURES 
 
 
 (CONTINUED) 1 
 
 Land of the Midnight Sun 
 
 
 Staging Thru England 
 
 Lite Among the Russians 
 
 
 Scottish Scenery 
 
 Life's Music Lesson 
 
 
 Slum Society 
 
 Life's School 
 
 
 Sweden the Beautiful 
 
 Lisbon, Old and New 
 
 
 Spanish Honduras 
 
 Murderous Mexico 
 
 
 Samoa and Stevenson's Home 
 
 Masonic Shrines 
 
 
 Salvador 
 
 Morrill in the Alps 
 
 
 School and Church Bells 
 
 Musical Minister 
 
 
 Tracks of a Tenderfoot 
 
 My Old Kentuclcy Home 
 
 
 Temperance 
 
 Marriage 
 
 
 The Theatre and Her Critics 
 
 New Woman 
 
 
 The Rockies 
 
 New Zealand 
 
 
 The Bug Family 
 
 Nicaragua 
 
 
 Thanksgiving and Living 
 
 Nassau and the Bahamas 
 
 
 The Lady Nicotine 
 
 Notes of a Pianist— L. M. 
 
 Gott- 
 
 Tasm nia 
 
 schalk (illustrated) 
 
 
 Tahiti and Tongan Islands 
 
 On the Mississippi 
 
 
 The God of Books 
 
 Ould Ireland 
 
 
 The Ten Commandments 
 
 Old World Castles and Cathedrals 
 
 Up-To-Date 
 
 Our Canadian Cousin 
 
 
 The Melting Pot 
 
 Peru 
 
 
 The Grand Canyon of Arizona 
 
 Philippines 
 
 
 Trip to Chinatown 
 
 Paris and La Belle France 
 
 
 The Scotland of Scott and Burns 
 
 Panama Canal 
 
 
 Vienna and the Blue Danube 
 
 Porto Rico and the West I 
 
 ndies 
 
 Venezuela 
 
 Pig-Headed People 
 
 
 War 
 
 Patriotism 
 
 
 Wales 
 
 Quacks 
 
 
 What They Did to Mary 
 
 Yellow Journalism 
 
 Yosemite 
 
 Yucatan and Her Ruins 
 
 For I3£ites eLnd Terms, Address | 
 
 O. L. 
 
 yVV O R R I L L 
 
 PASTOR PEOPLE'S CHURCH | 
 
 33S<5 lOth f\\y&. S 
 
 outh, JWi 
 
 nneapoHs, yviJnn. CJ.S.Pl. 1 
 
o^i'l^'^ 
 
 
 
 TEL 
 
 MINNEAPOLIS 
 
 One of the Great Hotels 
 of the World 
 
■^Smi&Rammmmmm 
 
 ^PERFECTION IN MUNSINGWEAK 
 
 MUNSING UNION SUITS 
 fine in quality, non-rrritating, 
 long wearing, perfect fitting, 
 in every way satisfactory 
 
 LUHSiNG 
 
 SUITS EVERYBODY 
 
 those who are hard to please 
 those who are hard to fit 
 those who like fine quality 
 those who seek real economy. 
 
 Offered in seventy'five dif .| 
 erent light, medium, and 
 heavy weight fabrics, in 
 every required style and size, 
 for men, women, children.- 
 
 More Than 9.000.000 Perfect Fitting Munsingwear Garments Sold Annually 
 DON'T SAY UNDERWEAR - ALWAYS SAY- MUNSINGWEAK 
 
 For !.amples of fabrics, style, illustrations, and name of Munsingwear dealer in your town; address 
 THE NORTHWESTERN KNITTING COMPANY. MINNEAPOLIS. MINNESOTA, 
 
// is a matter of 
 Service — 
 
 — it does make a 
 difference where you 
 buy your 
 
 VICTROLA 
 
 The purchasing of your Victrola at Powers is 
 but the first step of Powers Victor Service. 
 Convenient terms of payment — the perfect ad- 
 justment and regulation of Victrola motors— - 
 sealed Victor Records, guaranteed to be new, 
 perfect and unused — ^intelligent suggestions and 
 information in the matter of selecting records 
 — these are but a few of the features of Powers 
 Victor Service. 
 
 The Victrola Section, Fourth Floor 
 
 POWERS 
 
RAPID TRANSIT 
 
 AMAPALA, SPANISH HONDURAS 
 
COMPLIMENTS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ANDREWS HOTEL 
 
 MINNEAPOLIS 
 
 F. E. ZONNE, Manager. 
 
NO HOT 
 WATER 
 
 "Why, you can't take a bath, 
 John — this is wash day" 
 
 A Gas Water Heater 
 
 Solves the Problem 
 
 The Minneapolis Gas Light Co. 
 
'II?', ■ L 
 
 
 The 
 
 NEW EDISON 
 
 "The Phonograph with a Soul" 
 
 ^ More than three hundred thousand music lovers have 
 heard this wonderful new invention in diretft compari- 
 son with living artists, and they, as well as the music 
 critics of more than three hundred of America's prin- 
 cipal newspapers, admit that the keenei^ ear cannot 
 distinguish an artisVs voice or instrumental performance 
 from the new Edison's Re-Creation thereof. 
 
 ^ Let us submit the proof. 
 
 ^ Visit our flore and hear a demon^ration of the New 
 Eldison. There is no obligation to buy. We juA 
 want you to hear and know the difference between 
 ordinary talking machine sounds and Re-Created music. 
 
 Edisons from $30 to $6000. 
 
 Write for Catalog 
 
 Minnesota Phonograph Co. 
 
 612 Nicollet Ave., MINNEAPOLIS 
 
SIVA SIVA DANCERS 
 
 SAMOA 
 
Witt's Msat Marl(et 
 
 At Powers 
 
 ''Vri/ Our TTfeats/ 
 there is a difference' 
 
 Minneapolis, Minnesota 
 
'CLOTHES" QUARTERS 
 
 ACAJUTLA, SALVADOR 
 
^Ml^M 
 
 SOFTENS^^^^^ --^^^^- -.- -^ SAVES 
 
 THE COMPOUND ^""^ 
 
 WATER ^^^' ■■^^^^■^■^ HANDS 
 
 Q Harmless alike on hands or delicate fabrics. R. L. is 
 wonderful for Chiffon and Georgette Crepe Waists, 
 Laces and Silks, Woolens and Flannels, as it leaves 
 them Dainty, Fresh and Clean. 
 
 ^ R. L. Does Not Shrink Anything. 
 
 fl R. L. Rinses freely. Very effective in Kitchen and 
 Laundry. Contains the Essence of the Lemon, the 
 Oil of the Cocoanut, and other active cleansing 
 agents combined in a soft white powder. 
 
 <r Full directions on package at your grocers. 
 
 ROYAL LEMON PRODUCTS COMPANY 
 
 Minneapolis, St. Paul, - Minnesota 
 
PILLSBURY'S 
 
 llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllilllllillllllllllllllllllllilllllllllllllll^ 
 
 BEST 
 
 lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllillllllllllllllllll 
 
 COMPLIMENTS 
 
 WHITE & McNAUGHT 
 
 JEWELERS 
 
 Diamonds, Watches, Wedding and 
 other Gifts. 
 
 506 Nicollet Avenue, Minneapolis 
 
HOTEL DYCKMAN 
 
 Minneapolis' Finest Hotel 
 
 6th St., Near Nicollet 
 325 Rooms All With Private Bath 
 
 Hawaiian and Elizabethan Dining 
 
 Rooms Where Over 1200 Dine 
 
 Every Day 
 
 Home of the Wonderful Electric Pipe Organ 
 
 Rates $1.50 to $5.00 Per Day 
 
 H. J. Tremain 
 
 Chandler's Steamship Office 
 
 501 Marquette Ave., Minneapolis 
 
 STEAMSHIP TICKETS VIA ALL LINES 
 TO ALL PARTS OF THE WORLD 
 
 When Planning a Trip by Water, 'Phone 
 
 CHANDLER 
 
 N. W. NICOLLET 1548 T. S. 37784 
 
iULA-HULA DANCERS. MID-PACIFIC CARNIVAL, HONOLULU 
 
Everything Worn 
 
 BY THE 
 
 LONDON 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 DETROIT 
 
 Ml LWAU KEe 
 
 MINNEAPOLIS 
 
 RADISSON HOTEL BUILDING 
 
 Well-dressed Man 
 
 EXCEPT HIS SHOES 
 
 PRODUCTIONS OF 
 
 WELCH, MARGET50N & CO., 
 VIRQOE, MIDDLETON & CO., 
 ALLEN, SOLLY & CO., 
 
 LLOYD, SMITH & ATREE, 
 
 LONDON, ENG. 
 LONDON REPRESENTATIVES, EST. 1779 
 
 CAPPER, SON & CO., Ltd. 
 
 29 REGENT STREET PICCADILLY CIRCUS. W. 
 
 63-64 GRACE CHURCH STREET, E. C. 
 
 EXCLUSIVE AGENTS IN MINNESOTA FOR 
 
 DUNLAP HATS 
 
 "THE NECKWEAR HOUSE OF AMERICA" 
 
 TRI- STATE TELEGRAPH CO. 
 
 "I am glad my globe-trotting friend, Mr. Auto Matic, has come to Minneapolis to 
 stay. I met him in Europe, Latin America and the South Seas where he made friends 
 and was always popular. 
 
 He understood all languages, was always reliable, made direct connections for ship, 
 train and hotel, and introduced me to everyone I wanted to meet. 
 
 In all my conversations he never betrayed a secret, never became contradictory or 
 angry, but wasjhandy', quick, and had all his information at his 'ringer tips.' Mr. 
 Auto Matic has a round, open face, a bright smile and a plain figure. I am pleased to 
 welcome him to the homes of Minneapolis. The family will find him a satisfactory 
 companion every day and every way." 
 
 — G. L. MORRILL, Pastor People's Church. 
 
83 SOUTH TENTH ST. 
 The Best of Everything in Flo^vers and Plants 
 
 Prompt attention to phone orders 
 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA 
 
 "A THING OF BEAUTY IS A JOY FOREVER" 
 
 JOHN S. BRADSTREET 
 = =& CO.= 
 
 ' INTERIOR FURNISHINGS 
 AND DECORATIONS 
 
 ESTABLISHED 1876 
 
 327 SOUTH SEVENTH STREET 
 Minneapolis, Minnesota : U. S. A. 
 
The Leamington 
 
 Minneapolis 
 
 The Largest and Most 
 Attractive Apartment 
 Hotel in the World 
 
 DAVID P. JONES, Pres. 
 
 WALLACE H. DAVIS. Vice-Pres. 
 
 WALLACE C. McWHINNEY, Sec'y & Treas. 
 
 FIRST MORTGAGE LOANS, REAL ESTATE, 
 RENTALS AND INSURANCE 
 
 234-238 Mcknight building 
 
A "WALL" STREET FAMILY 
 
 CARTAGENA, COLOMBIA 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 PEARCE'S 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 When 
 you gc 
 same rr 
 
 $4. 
 
 are re 
 
 Where Fashion Reign 
 
 516 Nicollet 
 
 5 
 
 earce's, 
 for the 
 :>uscs at 
 
 .86 
 Value. 
 
 OC^OMEN'S OUTFITTERJ 
 
 you want a Blouse go to P 
 t more style and value 
 loney. Our Georgette BK 
 
 86, $6.86 and $9 
 markable for Style and 
 
 The next Dress or Coat that you want 
 think of Pearce's 
 
 
 
 
 National Candy Co, 
 
 Incorporated 
 
 The Paris Factory 
 
 MANUFACTURING CONFECTIONERS 
 A. W. PARIS, Mgr. H. C. PARIS, Asst. Mgr. 
 
 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA 
 
IN THE HURRICANE 
 
 VAUVAU, TONGA 
 
A. E. PAEGEL 
 
 Illlilllilllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll 
 
 Jeweler and Optician 
 
 l^Pearl Biiyers^^ 
 
 Minneapolis, Minnesota 
 
 STIESS-OLSON 
 TIRE CO. 
 
 Kelly-Springfield Tires 
 3f VULCANIZING * 
 
 1027 HENNEPIN AVENUE 
 Minneapolis, Minn. 
 
CHICACO AVENUE 
 
 LAUNDRY 
 
 ^ 
 ^ 
 
 GEORGE B. ESTERMAN, PROPR. 
 
 2901-2903 Chicago Ave. 
 
 Minneapolis SQ Minnesota 
 
 St. James Hotel 
 
 FI'RBT'ROOF 
 
 Minneapolis, Minnesota 
 
 Offers Rooms with Hot and Cold 
 Water, Telephone & Shower Baths 
 for 50c., 75c. and $1.00 per Day. 
 
 Absolutely Fireproof — Nothing to burn but 
 
 the Doors. Strictly a temperance Hotel. 
 
 E. J. COLLICK. Mgr. 
 
William Weisman Company 
 
 Manufacturing Furriers 
 
 F 
 
 INE 
 
 ASHIONABLE 
 
 URS 
 
 ^ There is an air of refinement and luxury about our Furs, 
 which m^antly attrads the admiration of those who know 
 Quahty. 
 
 "He's a wise man who bu^s his Furs from Weisman" 
 
 508 NICOLLET AVENUE 
 Minneapolis, Minnesota 
 
 I^ot^l iElgin 
 
 The Home of 
 
 THE THESPIAN 
 
 EIGHTH STREET AND HENNEPIN AVENUE 
 MIN\E.A['OLIS. :-: MINNESOTA 
 
WOMEN VOTING 
 
 WELLINGTON, N. Z. 
 
WHAT IS HEALTH? 
 
 BY DR. CHARLES LOFFLER 
 
 Minneapolis, Minn., U. S. A. 
 
 If I am not Healthy, Why am I not Healthy? 
 How May I Become Healthy? 
 
 These Questions are asked by every civ- 
 ilized people, and are becoming more general, 
 because ill health is more common every day, 
 and the hope of recovery less. 
 The Answer was given many years ago by 
 Hippocrates, the father of medicine, when he 
 said, " As the Blood, so is The Man ; He is 
 Just as Weak, Just as Strong." 
 Success is measured by the power of endur- 
 ance plus proper application. The normal 
 individual has normal endurance and normal 
 ability to apply his talents. 
 Failure is far more common among those who 
 are not physically competent, than among the 
 healthy, since it takes a strong body to support 
 a strong mind. 
 
 Good Health is natural ill health is un- 
 natural. Health is the very foundation of suc- 
 cess, no matter what the undertaking. He who 
 hopes for success, if healthy, should live so as 
 to maintain that normal condition, and if not 
 in normal health, should first try to re-establish 8th Floor Andrus BIdg., Minneapolis 
 a good health standard. 
 
 The Blood is the life of every individual. It gives us every power. Every normal 
 man and woman has normal blood One must have a one hundred per cent blood 
 standard to expect to be a cr.t hundied pc: cenr individual. Blood examinations, in 
 thousands of cases, show that ill health is commonly caused and contiuues by reason of 
 blood impairment. 
 
 Scientists recognize the fact that the cure of chronic and progressive disease can only 
 be brought about through blood icpa'.r, but have never been able to re-establish a chem- 
 ically normal blood, and therefore most such diseases have been classed as incurable. 
 My Intravenous Treatment, given directly into the blood stream, brings about the 
 necessary chemical changes to establish a normal blood, and theref)y gives the blood its 
 normal power of fjuilding, sustaining, of repair and icslstance. The positive beneficial 
 results obtained in thousands of cases of chronic and progressive diseases, give incontro- 
 vertible evidence that the hope of prevention and cure, of many of the supposed incur- 
 able diseases and conditions, is in a chemically normal blood. 
 
 DR. CHARLES LOFFLER, 
 
BLACK BEAUTIES 
 
 FIJI 
 
American Tent and Awning Company 
 
 C. M. RAWITZER, Prop. 
 
 Tents and Awnings, 
 Paulins, Wagon Covers, 
 Horse Covers and Blankets, 
 Auto Covers, Water Bags, 
 Canvas Aprons, and Bags, 
 Sleeping Porch Curtains, 
 Canoe and Auto Tents. 
 
 Cotton and Roll Duck, 
 Lawn Folding Furniture, 
 Cow Covers and Blankets. 
 Feed Bags, Oiled Clothing, 
 Sails, Flags, Umbrellas, 
 Waterproof Covers, 
 Lambing Tents. 
 
 TENTS FOR RENT 
 
 18-20 W. 3rd St. 
 St. Paul, Minn. 
 
 307-309-311 Wash. 
 
 Ave. N. 
 Minneapolis, Minn. 
 
 HERE'S OUR STORY 
 
 We aim to make ours a very superior store. Our name 
 is a guarantee of quality and service. Any article bought 
 of us must prove satisfactory. If faulty or unsatisfactory 
 in any way Ave replace it or refund your money. 
 
 CIRKLER'S DRUG STORE, At Nicollet £^ 6th 
 
 Prescriptions, Toilet Articles. Perfumca and Candies 
 MINNEAPOLIS 
 
''A Man's House is his Castle 
 
 ?y 
 
 "confer ■WITH CONFBB." 
 
 HOME SPECIALIST 
 
 TEllEPHONES 
 
 JIC 90 91 92 93 
 T. S. 3S36I 
 
 offices: 
 
 50i-z-3- ■<* andrus 
 
 building. 
 
 (idREAL ESTATE. RENTALS, LOANS AND INSURANCEL .._,_, ^^_.,„„ 
 06DEN A CONFER MINNEAPOLIS, MINN SAMUELCCDNFER 
 
 ''There Is No Place LiJ^e Home 
 IF ITS ALL YOUR OWN 
 
 yj 
 
 a 
 
 Confer with Confer'' 
 
 And Cease to Roam 
 
 Rarebit Specialties 
 
 FRESH LOBSTER AND OTHER FOOD DELICACIES 
 
 45-47 South Third Street 
 
 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA 
 
FUNERAL PARLORS 
 
 THE EARL UNDERTAKING CO. 
 
 Minneapolis, 
 
 Minnesota 
 
 HEGENER 
 
 Barbers' Supplies 
 
 A Full Line of Carvers, Table Cut- 
 lery, Pocket Cutlery and Toilet Arti- 
 cles, Manicure Scissors and Tools. 
 
 207 Nicollet Avenue, 
 MINNEAPOLIS 
 
CHURCH ADVERTISING IN RIO 
 
 BRAZIL 
 
AMOR & CO. 
 
 FUNERAL DIRECTORS 
 
 %- 
 
 Our new home for the conducting of funerals is the culmination 
 of yecirs of experience, and the demand of the public for ein estab- 
 lishment fitted and furnished for the proper conducting of funerals. 
 Our parlors are spacious and embody everything that is superb and 
 homelike. The conducting of funercJs from apartment houses is no 
 longer necesscuy, as here is to be had all the conveniences of a mod- 
 em home and all the additional features for the proper fvandling of 
 the last rites over the departed. Our casket salesroom is located on 
 the second floor, where we carry a full line of caskets in eJl the latest 
 designs. Our prices will be found satisfactory to all classes. 
 
 AUTO HEARSES AND LIMOUSINES. OR HORSE-DRAWN 
 HEARSES AND CARRIAGES FURNISHED WHEN DESIRED 
 
 829 2nd Avenue South, -::- Minneapolis, Minn. 
 
 Telephones: T. S. 37-755 N. W. Main 755 
 
 FRANK W. PETERSON 
 
 ,^4^ DRUGGIST ^*^ 
 
 MANUFACTURING PHARMACIST 
 
 Wholesale- and Retail 
 
 Locodyne, Citrosal, Glycodyne, Digestonique 
 
 PHONES: T. S. 51240. N. W. SO. 5270 
 
 Cor. Lake St. and Chicago Ave. 
 MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. 
 

 THOEN^S 
 
 QUALITY CLOTHES 
 
 FOR 
 
 Men and Young Men ! 
 
 SUITS and QYEBCOATS 
 
 $15 to $35 
 
 FINE FURNISHINGS 
 
 Thoen's Bench Made Shoes 
 
 STETSON HATS 
 
 iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiji^^ 
 
 THOEN BROTHERS 
 
 32-34-36 So. Sixth St. 
 
 Between 
 Nicollet and Hennepin 
 
 Minneapolis, Minn. 
 
 WILLIAM LORENZ 
 
 Xrunlc /Wan u fact ure^r 
 
 Phones; Nic. 3775; T. S. 32471 
 
 212 Alarquette Avenue 
 MINNEAPOLIS, : MINNESOTA 
 
If you want 
 
 Hi^h Grade work and 
 Right Prices always 
 
 Send Your Clothes Cleaning to 
 
 Master Cleaner and Dyer since 1895 
 
 1028-30 Mary Place 
 
 Minneapolis, 
 
 Minnesota 
 

 NATIVE WEDDING 
 
 TAHITI 
 
WARREN & COMPANY 
 
 SPECIALTY P^^ "* v^v^rri:.iLi ^^^^ 
 
 116-20 North Seventh Street 
 
 Minneapolis, ^^^jv\? Minnesota 
 
 WE CAN WRITE, COMPILE AND PRINT YOUR 
 
 CATALOG, BOOKLET OR ADVERTISING 
 
 MATTER OF ANY DESCRIPTION 
 
 IN A MANNER THAT 
 
 WILL BRING RESULTS 
 
 ih£ Pioneer Printers 
 
 CATALOG, CALENDAR. AND 
 COMMERCIAL PRINTERS 
 WHO KNOW HOW 
 
 420-422 Sixth Street South 
 MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. 
 
iati«0 Inb^rtaktttg do. 
 
 No. 10 #null? Stgl|tlj ^trwt 
 
 Minneapolis, 
 
 Minnesota 
 
 PAPER BOXES, ENVELOPES AND 
 
 PRINTING 
 
 a 
 
 HEYWOOD 
 
 Manufacturing Co. 
 
 mo fo mS Third Street North 
 MINNEAPOLIS, |> <| MINNESOTA 
 
The 
 
 Roycroft 
 
 ELBERT HUBBARD II, Editor-in-Chief FELIX SHAY, Editor 
 
 This Magazine for 1 2 months and your 
 choice of one of these four books $ 1 .00 
 
 The ROYCROFT is a little whippersnapper that speaks 
 right out in Meeting and sa'^gs things, some of them believable; 
 some decidedly critical; some pleasantly insidious; some subtly 
 intelligent; some errors in judgment^ — all of them interesting 
 
 THE BOOKS ARE: 
 ONE DAY (an earl^ novel) ij; Elbert Hubbard 
 
 THE DESERTED VILLAGE— O/Zuer Goldsmith 
 THE STORY OF A PASSION— /rwn^ Bachelor 
 MOTTO BOOK —Elbert Hubbard 
 
 ^ Printed on white deckle-edge book paper, special hand- 
 drawn cover, title pages and initials. Printed in two colors. 
 
 ^ Select from this List of four the one Book that attracts 
 you. Send us your Choice with $1.00. We'll forward the 
 Book immediately and The ROYCROFT once a month 
 for a year. 
 
 THE ROYCROFTERS, East Aurora, N. Y. 
 
/'AuT Smvia „ 
 tor ADvrRTisms 
 
 Drawings of any subject, 
 and for all purposes, made 
 by speciali^s. :: Printing 
 Plates of every description 
 made by experts. :: Photo- 
 graphs for all commercial 
 purposes made by the most 
 able operators in the West. 
 
 BUREAUollNGMVING^ 
 
 MINNEAPOnS •• MINNESOTA 
 
 Omaha- Des MoinesDovenportMilwaukee 
 
 m 
 
 i 
 
The J. H. Johnson Undertaking Co. 
 
 Formerly of the Johnson -Landis Co. and Vail & Johnson 
 
 E.STABLISIIED 1S07 
 
 1900 HENNEPIN AVENUE, MINNEAPOLIS 
 
 ^gggSSE^SES^JSSMaB 
 
 Our New Home was formerly a private residence and this idea will be main- 
 tained. WE ARE FULLY EQUIPPED to give greatly Improved Service for 
 Public or Private Funerals. Auto Service. 
 
 Telephones: Office, N. W. Kenwood 104 Residence. N. W. Ken. 73 
 We are not connected with any other firm of similar name. 
 
 HUSSE Y S^ HATTER 
 
 Makes Old Hats Look New 
 
 16!4 North 7th Street 
 Minneapolis, Minnesota 
 
AN OLD SETTLER 
 
 BOLIVIA 
 
Bank With a Growing Bank 
 
 Ample capital and surplus, tufit'lht'i' ^vith cflicit'iit 
 officers and directors, place this institution in a 
 position t(j handle accounts of individuals, firms 
 and corporations on a most satisfactory basis. 
 
 You are cordially invited to take up your business 
 affairs ^nth the officers of this bank and join the 
 constantly increasing nnml)er of depositors who 
 are sharing in its personal and efficient service. 
 
 Officers 
 
 W. B. TSCHARNER, President 
 
 L. S. SWENSOX, Vice-Pr(>sident 
 M. C. TIFFT, Mce-Prcsident 
 
 WILLIA^I F. OI.SEN, Cashier 
 
 THE BANK OF PERSONAL SERVICE 
 
 Located in the traffic center 
 HENNEPIN AVENUE AT SIXTH STREET 
 
 MERCANTILE STATE BANK 
 
 MASONIC TEMPLE PHARMACY 
 
 JACOB JACOBSON, Proprietor 
 
 PRESCRIPTIONS PROMPTLY FILLED 
 
 A full line of Druggist's Sundries, Candies, etc., 
 always on hand 
 
 526 Hennepin Avenue (•) Minneapolis, Minnesota 
 
THE 
 
 DOWNHAM & CAMMETT 
 
 CO. 
 
 Designers and Builders 
 
 Automobile Bodies and Tops 
 
 ****»*■ »---W«IW°*S-,5»vl*!*«,,««st^ 
 
 Manufacturers of 
 
 Detachable Winter Tops, 
 
 Repairing, Painting 
 
 and Upholstering 
 
 616-618 Fifth Ave. So. 
 
 Minneapolis, Minnesota 
 
T. S. 53628 N. W. South 1 793 N. W. Kenwood 550 
 
 
 Burd P. Johnston & Co. 
 
 FUNERAL DIRECTORS 
 and EMBALMERS 
 
 MRS. JOHNSTO.V, LADY ASSISTANT 
 
 PARLORS 
 
 12 WEST LAKE ST. Minneapolis, Minn. 
 
 3020 HENNEPIN AVE. ^ 
 
 Drink Pure 
 
 Glen wood- Ingle wood 
 
 Spring Water 
 
 913 Hennepin Ave., MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. 
 
U. S. MARINES IN NICARAGUA 
 
COMPLIMENTS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 MttxopttlxUn 
 National lank 
 
 OFFICERS: 
 
 Mr. V. H. Van Sly'.ce President 
 
 Mr. George B. Norris Vice-President 
 
 Mr. J. W. Barton Vice-President 
 
 Mf. C. F. Wyant Cashier 
 
 Mr. J. D. Husbands Assistant Cashier 
 
 Mr. Fred S. Johnson Assistant Cashier 
 
 Mr. M. D. Chandler _ Assistant Cashier 
 
 IHtnnrapnliB, iHtnnrsnta 
 
 MASSOLT BOTTLING CO. 
 
 SOFT DRINKS 
 
 •'Whale Brand" Ginger Ale Mineral Waters 
 
 128 Plymouth Ave., North 
 MINNEAPOLIS, :: MINNESOTA 
 
If Sick, Go To The 
 
 Lawrence Sanatorium 
 
 // is one of the largest and finest private 
 Sanatoriums in the Northwest. Occupies 
 half-hlock in fine residejtce section of the 
 city — has four buildings. Staff and equip- 
 ment complete for the best Medical and 
 Surgical Service. W. D. LAWRENCE, 
 M. D., Proprietor. 
 
 Tel Main 1399 Auto 38 289 
 Address 820 E. 17th St„ Minneapolis, Minn. 
 
N. O. Welander & Co. 
 
 
 UNDERTAKERS 
 
 .#: 
 
 W 
 
 1530 East Franklin 
 
 Minneapolis, "^^ Minnesota 
 
 
 
 
 
 CEDAR LAKE ICE 
 COMPANY 
 
 WHOLESALE & RETAIL 
 
 
 1224 Plymouth Building 
 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA 
 
 
 
 
E. N. YOUNG & CO. 
 
 Fashionable 
 Tailors 
 
 416 NICOLLET AVENUE 
 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA 
 
 Going to California 
 'I'his Winter? 
 
 Nearly everybody from the Twin Cities going to California 
 goes via the through car service of the Chicago GREAT 
 Western. 
 
 Why? Because the Chicago GREAT Western's route is 
 straight through a country still as interesting and romantic in 
 many ways as when first seen by Spanish explorers hundreds 
 of years ago. 
 
 Don't forget through sleepers from the Twin Cities direct 
 to California and only three days on the way. Call on me for 
 information. Our office is very convenient if you're do^\^l- 
 town, and when you are at home. 
 
 YOUR TELEPHONE IS HANDY 
 
 CHAS. D, FISHER, A. G. P. A. C. C. JOHNSON, C. P. & T. A. 
 
 MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. 
 
 
 .,— =i\ ^^=^5-^ 
 
 Chicago i 
 
 ^^TTT"?^^/! 
 
 
 
 !^1laaiMHHHaisrtar|^ 
 
 ^^^L 
 
 
 
 Great Western 
 
 
 
 
 
Philadelphia & Readin: 
 
 Coal & Iron 
 
 Co. 
 
 READING 
 
 ANTHRACITE 
 
 COAL 
 
 108 LUMBER EXCHANGE 
 
 MINNEAPOLIS, -:- MINNESOTA 
 
COASTING DOWN THE ANDES 
 
 PERU 
 

 
 UNDER PERSONAL DIRECTION OF 
 
 James V. Bryson, Inc. 
 
 Minneapolis 
 _for 
 
 Minnesota 
 Wisconsin 
 N. Dakota 
 S. Dakota 
 Montana 
 
 Write for Special Terms for 
 
 School and Church 
 
 Entertainments 
 
~ , . \ N. W. East 67 ^j. . , r 11 ^ T. S. 41442 or 41703 
 
 Telephones ^ j 5. 41 1 12 ^*^^^ *^*"' 1 N. W. East 797 
 
 Washburn Undertaking Co. 
 
 LADY ASSISTANT 
 
 W. P. WASHBURN J. A. DONALDSON 
 
 P. THORHAUG 
 
 19 Fifth St. N. E., Minneapolis, Minn. 
 
 Taylor & Watson 
 
 Wall Paper, Painting and Decorating 
 45 EIGHTH STREET SOUTH 
 
 Established 1879 
 
 Minneapolis, Minnesota 
 
15 he 
 New Garden Theatre 
 
 THE MINNEAPOLIS MOTION PICTURE PALACE 
 
 Hennepin, Near 7th 
 
 Complete Change of Vrogram 
 Tti^i'ce XSJeeKlv 
 
 Showing Variety Photo Plays 
 
 Admission 10c Continuous, 1 1 A.M. to 1 1 P. M. 
 BILLY B. WATSON, Manager 
 
 When you go to Movies, attend Theatres 
 displa3'ing the 
 
 MOVING 
 
 UNIVERSAL 
 
 PICTURES 
 
 Banners. Watch the trade marks on the 
 posters before entering the theatres. :-: 
 If 3'ou wish to know more about Uni- 
 versal films, call or phone 
 
 The Laemmle Film Service 
 
 717-719 HENNEPIN AVENUE, MINNEAPOLIS 
 
E. M. Dauphine Company 
 
 FUNERAL DIRECTORS 
 ^ and EMBALMERS ^ 
 
 MRS. E. M. DAUPHINE, Mgr. 
 
 I N. W. Nic. 1440 
 Telephones , Tri-State 32970 
 
 / Res. N. W. S. 1146 
 
 613 Eighth Avenue South 
 
 Minneapolis, '^"^S^^ Minnesota 
 
 A. M, Smith 
 
 DELICATESSEN 
 
 Finest Imported Olive Oil, 
 Cheese, Meat and Fish 
 
 249 Hennepin Avenue 
 MINNEAPOLIS 
 
V E RX A 
 
 iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiy 
 
 MASTER 
 GROCERS 
 
 TWinneapolis 
 
 yWinnesota 
 
THE MILKMAN 
 
 SAN JOSe:, COSTA RICA 
 
WE SELL 
 
 VELIE BILTWEL SIXES 
 
 9 Models— $1265.00 to $2400.00 
 
 F. O. B. Factory 
 " The Name Insures the Quality " 
 
 DIXIE FLYER MOTOR CARS 
 
 A Sturdy car that cannot be beaten 
 for the price— $895. F. O. B. Factory 
 
 R. C. Smith Auto Co., Inc. 
 
 1601-3 Hennepin Avenue 
 
 Phone MINNEAPOLIS Phone 
 
 Auto 33969 MINN. N. W. Nic. 603 
 
 J. I. BESSLER 
 
 Locksmithing and 
 Umbrella Repairing 
 
 Main 5034 
 
 628 Marquette Minneapolis, Minnesota 
 
IF YOU ARE A SINNER GO TO YOUR BIBLE 
 IF YOU ARE SICK GO TO A DOCTOR 
 IF YOUR AUTO ACTS "BAD," OR YOU 
 WANT A GOOD MACHINE, GO TO 
 
 PENCE AUTOMOBILE CO 
 
 800-804 HENN. AVE. 
 MINNEAPOLIS 
 
Everett Pianos 
 
 — are to be found in hundreds of our 
 Best Minneapolis Homes. 
 
 WHEN \t^ ANTING A PIANO SEE 
 
 ELMER BROOKS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 THE BROOKS PIANO CO. 
 
 Ill So. nth St., 
 
 Minneapolis Minnesota 
 
SEEING SANTIAGO 
 
 CHILE 
 
CH. ELLIOTT & CO. 
 
 Funeral Directors and Embalmers 
 
 LADY ASSISTANT 
 PHONES: T. S. 6/-/ 65. N. W. DREXEL 3955 
 
 1839 East Lake St., Minneapolis, Minn. 
 
 WM. WELLS & COMPANY 
 
 Manufacturers of : 
 
 Automobile Tops and Slip Linings 
 
 323 Sixth Street South 
 
 MINNEAPOLIS, :: MINNESOTA 
 
 AMERICAN CAFE 
 
 Max Ziemer, Prop. 
 
 242-244 Nicollet Ave. 
 MINNEAPOLIS, -:- MINNESOTA 
 
Hill's 
 
 Dining & Lunch 
 Room 
 
 WALDUM & MYERS 
 
 PROPRIETORS 
 
 252-254 Marquette Avenue 
 Minneapolis, Minnesota 
 
The Moorish Room 
 
 WEST HOTEL 
 
 Popular for its Lunches and Table d'Hote Dinners 
 
 Service Excellent — Prices Moderate 
 MINNEAPOLIS 
 
 HENNEPIN COUNTY SAVINGS BANK 
 
 Marquette Ave. and Fourth St. 
 Resources Over $7,000,000.00 
 
 INVITES BUSINESS AND PERSONAL CHECKING ACCOUNTS 
 4% Interest Paid on Savings, Compounded Quarterly 
 
 OFFICERS 
 
 W. H. LEE, President W. F. McLANE, Cashier 
 
 David l'. JONES, Vice-President H. H. B A R BER., Assistant Cashier 
 
 ROGER I. LEE, Assistant Cashier 
 
 OLDEST SAVINGS BANK IN MINNESOTA 
 
 lohe BIJOU 
 
 Minneapolis* Largest Movie Theatre 
 ^Producing all the best _features 
 
 Special Music ProgroLm for Each 
 Production 
 
 Admission 5 Cents — /^o Higher 
 
MISTRESS OF THE MANSE 
 
 BRITISH HONDURAS 
 
FRED W. HEINRICHS 
 
 Funeral Director and Embalmer 
 
 LADY ASSISTANT 
 
 Parlors for Funerals Free of Charge 
 
 N. W. Hyland 664— PHONES— Automatic 45 304 
 
 317 Plymouth Avenue, Minneapolis, Minn. 
 
 A. \A/. SCOTT" 
 
 Sanitary Plumbing 
 
 and 
 
 GAS FITTING 
 
 2, 1 :2 SoutH SixtH Stroet 
 
 /Winne-a polls, AAinne-sota 
 
YEMRS "K.lNO\A/IING HOW/" 
 
 X. V. yVVOREAU oo. 
 
 optical Specialists 
 
 616 Nicollet Avenue, ^ Minneapolis, Minn. 
 
 '''iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiy^^ 
 
 Portrait Photographers 
 
 622 Nicollet Avenue 
 MINNEAPOLIS :: MINNESOTA 
 
Drs. STRAND & STRAND 
 
 ♦ ♦ 
 
 CHIROPRACTORS 
 
 ♦ ♦ 
 
 Graduates of the Famous Palmer School of Chiropractic 
 
 AFFECTIONS of any of the following |^ 
 parfs may be caused by nervos Im- 1' 
 /^';j^ pinged at the spine by ■ subluxated ■ 
 ' 4Vj l___ >nR,Ms vertebra. B 
 
 LAK 
 i05E 
 
 tmkoat 
 
 ARMS 
 "» HEART 
 
 ^LUNCS 
 
 •livcr 
 
 " STOMACH 
 
 •PANCPtAS 
 
 'sPLCtN 
 KIONCYS 
 SMALL BOWCL 
 LAI^Ct bOWLL 
 gLHITAL ORGANS 
 TtUCnS & LXC3 
 
 Chiropractic 
 
 iSPINAL) 
 
 Adjustments 
 
 Will 
 
 Remove the 
 
 Cause of 
 
 S 
 E 
 A 
 
 S 
 E 
 
 PHONES: 
 MAIN 5540 
 
 AUTOMATIC 38960 
 
 LADY 
 CHIROPRACTOR 
 
 Suite 333-34 Loeb Arcade Bldg. 
 MINNEAPOLIS -:-:- MINNESOTA 
 
 Established 1884- 
 
 H. J. SAUNDERS 
 
 MAKER OF 
 
 AWNINGS, HORSE & WAGON COVERS 
 
 FLAGS, WAGON TOPS AND UMBRELLAS 
 
 f 
 
 TENTS 
 
 ^ 
 
 Camp Furniture and Wedding Canopies for Rent 
 CIRCUS &, SHOW TENTS 
 
 Phones N. W. Main 1277 
 
 T S. 33 178 
 
 908-910 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis, Minn. 
 
IN HARD STRAITS 
 
 STRAITS OF MAGELLAN 
 
JOHN S. ALLEN 
 
 :J E VA/ E L E R: 
 
 Watches, Diamonds, Jewelry, Silverware, Etc. 
 
 Watches Cleaned, $1.25 Main Springs, $1.25 
 
 No. 110 METROPOLITAN BUILDING 
 
 Ground Floor 
 Telephone Main 3150 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA 
 
 Gruenewald Buffet 
 
 B. TUCHMAN CO. 
 
 24 and 26 S. 6th St., Minneapolis, Minn. 
 
 GAMBLE & LUDWIG 
 
 The Largest and Most Complete Drug 
 and Paint House in the Northwest 
 
 9th and Hennepin, 
 
 Minneapolis, Minn. 
 
MULTl^ TYPED LETTERS 
 
 LETTER COMPANY 
 
 \»K^irsn-j^APOiTl gfc\ 
 
 Ad, Writing- - -Addressing and Mailing- - - 
 Stationery Printed- - -Lithographed- --En- 
 graved. Neatly— - Quickly-- -Reasonably 
 
 116 - SO. 4TH ST. - MINNEAPOLIS 
 
 m^ 
 
 F. BUCHSTEIN ^ CO, 
 
 TRUSSES AND BRACES 
 
 113 SOUTH SIXTH STREET 
 MINNEAPOLIS, .> MINNESOTA 
 
Robt. J. Seiberlich 
 
 State Agent 
 
 The Fidelity Mutual 
 Life Insurance Co. 
 
 OF PHILADELPHIA 
 
 Phones: T. S. 38 064 N. W. Nic. 1 108 
 704-706 Andrus Building, Minneapolis, Minn. 
 
 Compliments of 
 
 IN. L. EPMGER 
 
 UNDERTAKER 
 
 N. W. Main 486 PHONES Aulomatic 37030 
 
 412 Cedar Avenue, 
 
 Minneapolis, Minn. 
 
N 'MENTAL HOLDQP 
 
 QUIRIGUA, GUATEMALA 
 
Bhe PALMER 
 
 School of Chiropractic 
 
 '• Chiropractic FOUNTAIN HEAD ■■ DR. B. J. PALMER 
 
 DAVENPORT, IOWA, U. S. A. 
 
 IN ORDER to get an understanding of the very 
 remarkable cures he saw effected through 
 CHIROPRACTIC, the new science of health. 
 Elberl Hubbard investigated the science and took the 
 adjustments personally. As a result of his investigation 
 he said : " Chiropractic never brings an adverse result- 
 its tendency is to make a sick man well, and a well 
 man better." 
 
 Mr. Hubbard's opinions are very valuable, inas- 
 much as he was the son of a physician and had 
 studied seven years with the exp)ectation of following 
 in his father's footsteps as an honored, capable 
 practitioner of medicine. In a recent book entitled, 
 " The New Science," Mr. Hubbard made these in- 
 teresting comments about CHIROPRACTIC : 
 
 "The Chiropractor does not pin his faith to any 
 single panacea. He simply knows the physical fact that a pressure of bone on nerve brings 
 about a condition where the telegraph system fails to act properly. He sees the results 
 and his business is to go after the cause. With skillful manipulation of the hand, he 
 brings about a right relationship and proper adjustment. He finds the cause and fixes it_ 
 The "Chiropractors are not DOCTORS OF MEDICINE, but DOCTORS 
 OF HEALTH, and master mechanics of the CentraJ Nervous System of the human 
 body; from them we get a science of healing which is adding greatly to the welfare, 
 the happiness and the well-being of the world." 
 
 If You are Sick — If You are Worn 
 
 Out or Racked With Disease 
 
 Try CHIROPRACTIC 
 
SWANSON'S 
 ''The House of Flowers 
 
 OF MINNEAPOLIS 
 
 • AT • 
 
 Nicollet 
 
 618 
 
 Ave. 618 
 
 Gives unexcelled Flower service to Minne. 
 apolis and the Northwest through its unsur. 
 passed facilities. Accessible — 
 
 Dal; and Night, Suncla})s and Holi- 
 days jor Funeral, Wedding and Social f 
 Flowers. Write for free literature. 
 
 ■ a ■ a o ■ ■■ anoanooooDonaaa 
 
 KAYSER 
 
 & CO. 
 
 WALL PAPER 
 
 **We Knotty 
 
 Hotef" 
 
 822-24 Hennepin Ave., 
 
 Minneapolis 
 
" When we Sa\) it's OAK, it's OAK " 
 
 Knaeble & Scherer 
 
 COMPLETE HOME FURNISHERS 
 DIRECTORS OF FUNERALS 
 
 Terms to Suit You 
 
 AUTO 45 1 96= PHONES - N. W. HYLAND 196 
 
 511-513-515 Plymouth Avenue 
 MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. 
 
 Union Dentins 
 
 McKENNEY DENTAL CO. 
 
 243 NICOLLET AVENUE 
 17 Years at This Location 
 
 Oi/er lOO.OOO i=>atlents 
 
 iiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!iiiiiiiiiiiiiy^ 
 
 Best Work at the Lowest Prices 
 
 Satisfaction Guaranteed 
 
 Dentistry in all its Branches 
 
 Force, System and Equipment Up-to-date. 
 
 MINNRAPOLIS, MINNESOTA 
 
DANCING ABORIGINE WITH BOOMERANG 
 
 LA PEROUSE, AUSTRALIA 
 
Harry B. Cramer Co. 
 
 ♦ ♦ WALLPAPER ♦ ♦ 
 
 Decorating Painting 
 
 89 S. Ninth St. Minneapolis 
 
 EVERY THING ELECTRICAL 
 FOR THE HOME 
 
 A FEW SUGGESTIONS 
 
 Washing Machines, Vacuum Cleaners, Ironing 
 
 Machines, Toasters, Perculators, Irons, 
 
 Stoves, Grills, Etc., Etc. 
 
 IF IT IS ELECTRICAL AND NEEDS 
 REPAIR WE CAN DO IT RIGHT 
 
 ELECTRIC WIRING 
 
 STERLING ELECTRIC CO 
 
 29-31-33 SOUTH FIFTH STREET 
 MINNEAPOLIS 
 
 "Service and Satisfaction with every Transaction" 
 
 Compliments of . . . 
 
 J.Warren Roberts 
 
 FUNERAL DIRECTOR 
 
 913 Marquette Avenue 
 
 Minneapolis, Minn. 
 
William StrobecJ^ 
 
 Undertaker & Embalmer 
 
 1825 RIVERSIDE AVENUE 
 
 Successor to Fred. E. Lindquist 
 
 Dial 33826 MINNEAPOLIS 
 
 LOUIS NATHANSON CO. 
 
 e) RETAIL CIGARS ^ 
 
 SIX EXCLUSIVE CIGAR STORES 
 
 NICOLLET AT FIFTH 315 S. E. FOURTH ST. 
 
 MARQUETTE & WASHINGTON 501 SECOND AVENUE SOUTH 
 
 LOBBY, PALACE BUILDING 326 HENNEPIN AVENUE 
 
 PIPE REPAIR SHOP ■ Minn^^anrtlw 
 
 IN CONNECTION ivimneapoiis 
 
 Dr. Shegetaro Morikubo 
 
 Representative Chiropractor 
 
 Suite 326 620 Nicollet Avenue 
 
 Minneapolis, Minnesota 
 
Unexcelled Service N. W. Drex. 1274 
 
 Open Day and Night T. S. 62 074 
 
 LICENSED EMBALMER 
 
 Graduate U. of M. Embalmers Course 
 
 J. E. Bostrom & Company 
 
 FUNERAL DIRECTORS 
 
 Lady Assistant 
 
 Office and Parlors n/f f ■»*• 
 
 3008 27th Ave. So. Minneapolis, Minn. 
 
 C. GERDES 
 
 Groceries & Meats 
 
 1818-1820 Lyndale Avenue So. 
 
 MINNEAPOLIS ^^ MINNESOTA 
 
 Automatic 51144 N. W. Kenwood 1421 
 
BOX FOR ABANDONED BABIES 
 
 HAVANA, CUBA 
 
" Burningham's Better Books/^ 
 
 Having succeeded to the General Book Business of Mr. E. 
 D. Brooks, I shall endeavor to be true to the traditions of the 
 same, both in the quality of service and desirability of the 
 books offered. 
 
 Patrons will find besides a Selected Stock of the New Books, 
 Imported Books both New and Old, Standard Sets and Single 
 Volumes, many of which are quite unusual, in attractive bind- 
 ings suitable for the Library and for Presentation. 
 
 H. P. BURNINGHAM. BOOKSELLER & IMPORTER 
 
 93 South Tenth Street, Minneapolis 
 
 St. Marie's Cigar & News Store 
 
 Joseph C. St. Marie, Manager 
 
 NEWSPAPERS AND MAGAZINES 
 Newspapers from all Principal Cities in U. S. 
 
 T. S. 32 453 28 S. Fourth Street 
 
 N. W. Nicollet 4376 Near Nicollet 
 
 MINNEAPOLIS, .: MINNESOTA 
 
 THE LEE MORTUARY 
 
 (Funeral Directors) 
 
 Place at your disposal Ideal S/ioic rooms, 
 
 Motor Equipment, A BEAUTIFUL 
 
 CHAPEL, Conscientious Service 
 
 Office Phones: Rea. Phones: 
 
 N.VV. Ken. 4600 NICOLLET AVE. AT N.W. Ken,<724 
 
 Auto3.?707 WEST 15th STREET '^"'o •''■*'*" 
 
 MINNEAPOLIS, :: MINNESOTA 
 
GERDE AUTO CL 
 "MAXWELL" 
 
 AGENCY 
 
 llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllliy^ 
 
 New Garage 
 Shop and Storage 
 
 iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiy 
 
 Satisfactory Service Given All 
 Customers at All Times 
 
 ^"®*lAufomafic52 676 
 
 912-914 East Lake 
 Minneapolis, Minnesota 
 
Above Them All! 
 
 Energy Gasoline 
 
 and 
 
 Puritan Motor Oils 
 
 BOTH REFINED FROM PURE OIL 
 
 By the 
 
 Pure Oil Company 
 
 Your Home Concern 
 
 Emphatically Independent 
 Minneapolis H^ St Paul 
 
 You Can't Lose If You Use 
 Energy Gasoline 
 
CLIMBING CHEOPS 
 
 EGYPT 
 
R A I N V I L LE 
 
 FURNITURE AND UNDERTAKING CO, 
 
 216 E. HENNEPIN AVENUE 
 
 l^^ll?2S\ 'Sf^^/Tff' Minneapolis 
 
 BOOK SECTION j Booksdlefs 
 
 L. H. WELLS. Manager S ^^^^.^^^^^^ 
 
 powER^s Bookhunters 
 BOOK IMPORTERS Bookbindcrs 
 
 Bookfinders 
 
 Minneapolis, Minnesota 
 
 COMPLIMENTS 
 
 BROWNING, KING & CO. 
 
 APPAREL FOR MEN AND BOYS 
 
 NICOLLF.T AT FIFTH MINNEAPOLIS 
 
Compliments 
 
 HOME TRADE SHOE STORE 
 
 221 Nicollet Ave., Minneapolis 
 
 EDWARD C. BATES, Pres. 
 
 Compliments of 
 
 JOSIAH H. CHASE 
 
 RENTZ BROS. 
 
 Manufacturing Jewelers 
 
 Engravers -Medalists -Gold & Silversmiths 
 Cutters of Agates and Precious Stones 
 
 29 So. Fifth Street, Minneapolis 
 
O MINNEAPOLIS NOW HAS AN OPTICAL ESTABLISHMENT O 
 
 KINDY-KNAPP, inc. 
 
 719 Nicollet Ave., Opposite Dayton's 
 
 Where tlie liighest standards of prac- 
 tice arc combined with a perfection 
 of service and appointment. This 
 concern is under the direct manage- 
 ment of Mr. K.J. Knapp, for many 
 years associated with one of the lead- 
 ing optical establishments on Nico- 
 Ictt Avenue. And whose expert 
 knowledge and careful attention to 
 the minor details has built for him 
 an enviable reputation. 
 
 KINDY-KNAPP, Inc. 
 
 optometrists and Opticians 
 a KODAKS. FILMS AND SUPPLIES O 
 
 Daily Photo Service! Let Us Develop and Print Your Films 
 
 N. W. Nicollet 7038 
 
 Tri-State 33 929 
 
 A. J. WEISMAN 
 
 JEWELER 
 
 Watches, Diamonds, Solid Gold Jewelry, Cut 
 Glass and Silverware 
 
 LOANS ON DIAMONDS. WATCHES. ETC. 
 
 Tel. N. W. Main 3823 
 
 2.ii Niooilet Avenue 
 
 Minneapolis. Minn. 
 
Nicollet at Seventh 
 
 LUXURIOUS 
 FUR COATS 
 
 Fur Sets 
 Fur Coatees 
 Fur Capes 
 Fur Muffs 
 Stoles and 
 Throws 
 
 Women of Fashion will delight in our elabor- 
 ate showing of the new Winter Fur Modes 
 
 Individuality of design and richness of quality are 
 the keynotes of our display 
 
 Special prices, typical of the remarkable values 
 prevailing throughout the splendid Fur assort- 
 ments gathered here 
 
HOME LIGHTING 
 
 The Effect of Good 
 lUumination m the Home 
 
 Have you ever noticed in which home there b the greateac 
 cheerfulness? In the home poorly iighied, or in the home 
 well lighted? If you have not, let u» tell you. 
 
 Cheerfulness Gomes 
 
 Only to the Home Well Lighted 
 
 la it not worth your careful consideration when we realize 
 that a little extra light will bring about the difference 
 between gloominess and cheerfulness? And, too, when it 
 costs no more to bring about cheerfulness, ii it not worth 
 your careful consideration? 
 Electric Service has made possible such results. 
 
 THE MINNEAPOLIS GENERAL 
 ELECTRIC COMPANY 
 
SCIJOOL 
 
 ss 
 
 ESTABLISHED 
 IN 1877 
 
 627 1st Ave. N, 
 
 Minneapc^Sy 
 
 Minnesota 
 
 We train both young and 
 mature men and women for 
 excellent business positions. 
 
 Our Catalog will in- 
 terest ^ou. AsfiJoriL 
 
 Mard&Gmnian ^ 
 
I 
 
 ■ ^ Your Credit is Good at the New England I p — 
 What Our Homefumishing Service Means 
 
 "The new England" Hm always striven to deserve its dU- 
 tinctioii as the Largest and Most Progressive Househimisking Elstablish. 
 ment in the Nordtwest — a reputation which it is constantly striving to 
 strengthen. 
 
 DUT more than (or its size and progressiveness are we jealous of its 
 reputation (or accomodating service to its customers — a service of con- 
 tinuous helpfulness — helpfulness as to economy in expenditures; helpful- 
 ness m general suggestions and advice; helpfulness in encouraging the use 
 of Qyality Housefumishings and helpfulness in the extension of the most 
 accomodating terms of payment ever inaugurated by any Housefumishing 
 Elstabbahment in the United States — all of which is freely at the disposal 
 of every "New Elngland" Customer. 
 
 Marquette Avenue, from 5th to 6th Streets 
 
 J 
 
F 
 
^ 
 
 J 
 
i 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 II II 
 
 017 505 275 6 
 
 ;'}! ,;. 
 
 /:> , ;, 5C 
 
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