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MEXICO OF TO-DAY

BY

SOLOMON BULKLEY GRIFFIN

ILLUSTRATED

NEW YORK C^ ^ ^ HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE

^ \^^ >o ^

^/ JAN \^ 25

1892

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Copyright, 1886, by Harper & Brothers.

All right i reserved.

PREFACE.

The writer of the following pages, whose contents ap- peared in a series of letters to The Springfield Republican^ lays no claim to having prepared a guide-book, a history, or aa exhaustive treatise. He has aimed to deal fairly, and in a representative way, with Mexico as she is ; to ex- hibit the country, the climate, the people, their politics, their life, and the national outlook, exactly as they all united to impress an unprejudiced observer from the United States. The deep human interests, the problems of society and government, the conditions that surround business, the possibilities for the railroads, the charms of scenery and phases of a romantic and ancient civilization — these are all treated from the standpoint of American citizenship. If the result shall happily be to give the reader a more in- telligent conception of our southern sister republic, and to invoke patience and charity in judging of the questions that must long vex the statesmanship of Mexico, the pur- pose of this little volume will have been abundantly ac- complished.

The author wishes to acknowledge his special obliga- tion to Frederic R. Guernsey, of the city of Mexico.

Springfield, Mass.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTEK rAQB

I. From New York to Mexico 1

II. Mexico, Past and Present 17

III. The Politics of the Country 27

IV. Agriculture and the Railroads 40

V. Taxation, Minekg, and ^Mills 58

VI. The City of Mexico 71

VII. Street Scenes and Suggestions 89

VIII. A Well-ordered Capital 105

IX. Journalism and Diplomacy 114

X. A Bull-fight at Toluca 122

XI. The Young Men in Politics . 135

XII. "The Italy op America" 14G

' XIII. A Run into the Hot Country 158

XIV. Mexico's Paintings and Statues 168

XV. Some Features of City Life 182

XVI. The Society of the Capital 192

XVII. Glimpses of Society at Hoj^ie 201

XVIII. Mexico's Religious Outlook 212

XIX. Chapultepec and its Memories 227

XX. Our Share in Mexico's Future 245

ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGB

Map of IMexico Frontispiece

]\Iexican Custom-house Guard 11

President Porfirio Diaz 83

Transcontinental Profile of Mexico 42

In Tierra Caliente 43

A Rural "Diligencia" 49

The Railroad System of Mexico 53

Popocatapetl 73

Environs of the City of ^Mexico 77

Interior Courtyard of Mexican Residence. ... 83 A Flotvter and Beauty Show in the Zocalo ... 87

A Glimpse of the Poor Quarter 93

Characteristic Shop-front 96

Mexican Soldier on Guard 101

Salvator Diaz Miron 140

Old Spanish Palace in the Calle de Jesus . . . 147

A Typical House-front 148

Porcelain House in San Francisco Street .... 149

Las Casas Protecting the Aztecs 173

The Monument to Columbus and Drh^ to Chapul-

tepec 179

A Mexican Courtship 207

Relation of the Lakes to the City 229

The Great Cathedral of Mexico 233

The Gigantic Spanish Drainage Cut 248

MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

CHAPTER I.

FROM NEW YORK TO MEXICO.

L

From Chicago to the city of Mexico

Continental Railroad r • -i i, i. xv xi,

^ ., ,. lies an iron roadway about three thou-

Buildmg. ^ •' _

sand miles long. Its existence illustrates something of what has been accomplished in developing the resources of the United States since Samuel Bowles made his trip "Across the Continent" with Schuyler Colfax in 1865. Then the Union Pacific road was just beginning to feel its pioneer way towards the setting sun and into the comparatively unknown West. It was a vast national enterprise, the great work of peace to follow the war, whose progress was a marvel ; and the undertaking chained the attention of the continent. But the longing with which the advance of quick transit was then looked for can never be paralleled in the United States, and the con- trast with to-day is most impressive.

Now railways net the country like the web of an indus- trious spider. The Northern Pacific, the Union and Cen- tral Pacific, the Southern Pacific, and the Atlantic and Pa- cific roads are in operation — each with connecting lines 1

2 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

that slash the country in all directions — and Canada, also, has her transcontinental railway. To all these must be added this link between the neighboring North American republics, an achievement "which contributes much to the glory of Boston as a financial centre.

The citizen of some less favored spot may on occasion indulge in good-humored raillery over that provincialism which is so characteristic of the Hub of the Universe ; but he will not foro:et at the same time that the conservatism of State Street has made it a reservoir of capital upon which the growing and often presumptuously intolerant West has made the most liberal drafts. And the new West has not yet worn out its welcome, or visibly lowered the supply of the wherewithal needed to build railroads and to found and develop cities and counties and states. The influence of Boston is something to be proud of on the material side, no less than are those literary and social features that will go without any new rehearsal here. Her capitalists pushed forward the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy, the Atchi- son, Topeka, and Santa Fe, and the Mexican Central rail- roads, which form the route over which the land tourist reaches Mexico. Our general observation is further illus- trated by the fact that Boston men are also leading spirits in the management of the Northern Pacific, the Union Pa- cific, and the Oregon Navigation Company. In fact, capital from the chief city of Massachusetts goes far afield now, as it used to cross the seas in the East Indian and China and South American trade, and it adventures still under trained and able pilots and captains.

FROM ^'EW YOHK TO MEXICO. 3

II.

For the Easterner the West includes

icago an 1 s - Q\^[Q^ffQ j^^g^ ^g [^ ygg(j ^q ^q ^^^ g^^^^]^ g^ mosphere. .

view only marks the "freshness" of him

who holds it. Illinois is the old AVest now, the seat of a comparatively ancient civilization, distant only a day and a night from New York ; and membership in the old set- tlers' association entitles one to the same veneration that young people paid to the survivors of the Revolution be- fore the civil war gave ns a new and greater generation of heroes.

But this largest city of the AVest impresses one still with more of promise than fulfilment, astonishing as her growth has been. It is the fashion among newspapers to cavil at Chicago, but the young giant of the prairies is only in the first flush of youth — the very dawn of mighty manhood. There will be method and solidity in the de- velopment of the city from this point, in proof of whicli one can look at the grouping of the magnificent public buildings that will, after a time, be nowhere surpassed in the Union. In her residences Chicaixo has come to lead all the American cities, with possibly the exception of Washington. Her rich men have built many palaces, some of them most offensively pretentious, but the pre- vailing architecture is not unattractive, and much of it is distinctly meritorious. The best houses are constructed for a future, though the descendants of the builders may not occupy them ; and granite, marble, brown, gray, and green stone, and brick are piled up in many splendid forms. The variety of architecture employed marks a satisfactory advance over New York conventionalism, and the prim brown-stone front that stands stiffly up to its neighbor

4 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

is going out of fashion. The new houses are set in the midst of grass plots, and each has been given a pleasing individuality and independence.

We begin to find in Chicago a change of air — that the young men are at the front. The leaders of fifty and sixty years old are accustomed to step aside and let younger hands bear the burden of the load. It is a division of labor that youth applauds, and by such withdrawals some- thing is conceded to the need for the conservation of hu- man life which is so universally ignored in American soci- ety. The thrill, the push, the resistless vigor of an intense first outpouring of energy mark every enterprise, and make up the very atmosphere of business. No need here to re- peat that weary Eastern plaint — Give the young man a chance ! Ilis is the power by right of public demand in the West.

III. In going to Mexico we cut across Illi- ^""^ZweT ""^ °^iS' Missouri, and Kansas, cross the

southeastern corner of Colorado, pass down throuo-h the centre of New Mexico, and touch the extreme western tip of Texas at El Paso. Then we run down over the table-lands of Mexico. With good connec- tions the city of Mexico is distant a week from New York.

From Chicago to Kansas City consumes from 12.30 P.M. until 9 A.M. of the following day. Journeying over the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad one is not overwhelmed with admiration for what is exhibited by the way. Even in Illinois the newness is cheap and even pain- ful— the churches and school-houses are all after the same ngly models — yet the villages and cities are entitled to full respect as pioneer work, and they are impressive as the sure evidences of an established prosperity that is rearing

FROM NEW YORK TO MEXICO. 6

its own enduring monuments. The best is crude enougli at present — Dickens told of it all not very untruly in bis "American Notes" — but, withal, the outlook is grand be- yond words when we look forward to the time when this heart of the continent shall beat with full life, and teem with the vitality of perfect maturity.

Down from Kansas City the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe road rolls out one thousand and fifty miles to the Texan border. An hour between trains admits of a trip in the cable cars up and down the abrupt bluffs that gully that most western city of Missouri, where one hundred thou- sand people have been packed into a spot adapted for ten thousand. The cable system appears to work perfectly, and the people are accommodated for the present ; but in time economy and convenience will harness electricity to this local problem. Already the Daft system is doing a work much like this in Baltimore, for the infancy of elec- trical development is about over.

The ride from Kansas City to El Paso, Texas, occu- pies from Wednesday at 10.40 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday. Through Kansas there is displayed a beautiful panorama of cultivated farms, and a community life that is unmis- takably from New England. It is worth while to notice the universal reign of the local newspaper through this re- gion that is attracting rather more than its share of set- tlers. The Lawrence Journal^ Topeka Capital^ Emporia Neivs, and Dodr/e City Globe — these are a few of the dai- lies that appear along the way, and each hamlet is proud of its weekly trumpet of fame. These sheets are full of the local color, for home-doings furnish their chief feature. The editor understands his mission so well that none need tell him in what the primary office of the home journal consists — he sees and fills it with intcllii^cnce and industrv.

G MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

The pretentious and bombastic period of frontier journal- ism is largely succeeded by something sensible and even strong. In the passing glimpses given of many towns the oflSce of the newspaper bore its conspicuous position and sign on the principal street. In one case the young editor might have been seen gazing down the street from the out- side stairs leading to his lofty sanctum. One fancied him the exiled graduate of an Eastern college, to whom the passing of these modern packages of outside life, that whizzed in and away over the shining rails, were a tanta- lizing mockery. On the chill winter landscape this strag- gling and slovenly yet most ambitious town seemed like a blot. It is possible that a depressing impression of this sort intrudes at times, unbidden, as the editor weekly pict- ures a glowing future for Blankville. A place like this readily yields the dull sadness which colored Mr. Howe's " Story of a Country Town."

There is little to vary the monotony of the journey ex- cept meal-time. At Kansas City we passed beyond the dining-car, and thereafter to Mexico lived on the country in the old-fashioned way — twenty -five minutes for break- fast, dinner, and supper, the charge being Yo cents or $1.00, the latter rate prevailing on the line of the Mexican Central. Timid and deliberate people are at a discount on such occasions, when the all-abounding com- mercial traveller is the one masterly spirit of the abbrevi- ated half-hour. It takes long practice to enable one to bolt food enough to sustain life in such a tumultuous ordeal. The soup, roast beef, ham, and chicken are brought on without delay or formality, and every passenger pitches in for number one.

Days rise and wane as we speed along, and night above the limitless prairie gives the solemn effect of an expanse

FROM NEW YORK TO MEXICO. 7

of ocean. The faithful cigar, abundant light literature, an occasional game of cards, and the views from the rear coach — these sum up the resources that lie outside of the chance human companionship that is best of all. The stiffness which makes the railroad car at the East a cave of decorous gloom falls off as prairies stretch to the clouds, and people embark for long journeys. Native kindliness finds a direct and pleasing expression ; fellow-travellers are more neighborly and friendly ; they act out the warm im- pulses of genuine natures. The whole current of life is fresher and more honest. Yet every individual right is recognized and scrupulously respected. One puts off an armor that has been forged to protect " society," and is apt to realize anew that social intercourse no longer implies a state of warfare; that the coat of iron is an absurd thing, and valuable only to masqueraders.

IV.

Most of the passengers down to the

Expert Views of the i i • , i. i • i.i xii 1 •

Cattle Business. ^^^^^^ ^^« interested m the cattle busi- ness, and the sum of their conclusions is that this industry has taken its place as a settled business in which success must depend on a large capital and care- ful management. There is money in it still, and good re- turns on investments, but the days of fabulous profits for green men are about over. Like mining, cattle-raising has been legitimized, and requires expert handling on a large scale. Cattle are very prolific in New Mexico, and great herds are driven from there to develop and fatten in Mon- tana. Occasionally a territorial magnate, a judge, a colonel, or governor, steps on board and enlivens the smoking-room for a few stations. He generally enters into the cattle-talk in a way to show where his treasure is, and that his heart

g MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

is there also. We hear about " a pretty bunch of cattle ;'* "my bulls are not pampered, sir; never fed 'em a bit of grain in the world ;" " they are all white-faced ;" " not all thorough-breds, but just as good, every bit;" and so on.

Interesting local information also leaks out. It appears that Santa Fe boasts "the best society of the whole region," but that Albuquerque " has the finest hotel in the territory of New Mexico, and is foremost in enterprise because her i.ewspapers are the best." This calls attention to the fact that a leading cattle-man has been laboring for a day to persuade a consumptive eastern bookseller to settle in " our town " and start a weekly newspaper. The inducements held out are a thousand-dollar plant, lots for a house and office, and $500 of guaranteed advertising; an extra touch includes the hirino; of the bookseller's wife as the local school-teacher. It looked at the moment as if another New Mexican town would have its newspaper.

Through New Mexico one sees low adobe buildings, and brio-ht - blanketed Zuni or Pueblo Indians, and catches other glimpses of that older life towards which we are speeding; that enlightenment which was ancient and pow- erful when Columbus discovered the new world ; and which is said to have possessed its cities, temples, and palaces for at least a thousand years when the Northmen touched the northern coast, eight hundred years ago.

V.

There is a wait of three hours at the A Theatncal Venture j^ ^^ , rj.^^^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^ -p ^ |^^g

in Texas. ' ^

which confidently expects to rank as the

Chicago of the Southwest, and is certain to be a great dis-

tributinof centre. Five railroad lines enter the town — the

Southern Pacific, Mexican Central, Galveston, Ilarrisburg,

FROM NEW YORK TO ilEXICO. 9

and San Antonio, the Texas and Pacific, and AtcLison, Topeka, and Santa Fe — and another is promised. Mr. Huntington engages to construct a road to the northeast which shall tap coal-fields said to be located near White Oak City — a most important project. Cheap coal is the great lack of Mexico, and here is one of the many schemes that promise to remedy the drawback. At present El Paso boasts only about 6000 inhabitants, but it does a great busi- ness. The chief public feature is a court-house in process of erection ; there is a public square, daily newspapers, sev- eral hotels, abundant saloons, and members of all the learned professions in profusion.

The inhabitants of El Paso were to see, on the evening of our flying visit, the " greatest American actress " appear in a play especially prepared to display her transcendent abilities. She was a blonde of considerable personal charms, whose name was lamentably unfamiliar. In visiting the local bookstore, a cowboy was discovered in the act of asking the amiable proprietor for " a bottle of your best perfumed hair-oil." This was proof positive that the act- ress had won an admirer in her walk from the depot to the Grand Central Hotel ; but the rude knight of the clanking spurs established this surmise by stating that " all the boys are going to-night." The golden star and her disconsolate looking attendants were evidently in for two lucky nights — a lift of which they obviously stood in the most cry- ing need.

The United States collector of customs at El Paso has lately been changed, and the democratic ofiBcial is conduct- ing a sharp war on smuggling. Some leading citizens are concerned in recent developments, and they are finding their irregularities expensive. About one hundred oflBcials guard the Mexican side of the Rio Grande River, and our 1*

10 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

border is patrolled by some twenty-live inspectors. The amount of illicit traffic between the two republics is said to be enormous, and it is likely to continue so, thoua'b the restraining hand of the United States government is, just now, pretty sharply felt.

VI.

Half a mile over the river is Paso del

First Impressions on vr i. xi, x i.* • i. n ^i TVf •

the Border iNorte, the starting-point of the Mexican

Central. Our train leaves from the Texas side, and on reacbing Mexican soil the custom-house official, in his gaudy sombrero, discbarges his duty most politely. The examination of handbags is formal and expeditious ; and when trunks are searched no unreasonable objections are raised. But some unfortunates buy a bit of experience in railroadino". Those who come on throuo-h tickets are allowed one hundred and fifty pounds of baggage, but such as have been unwise enough to purchase passage on the spot are restricted to thirty -five pounds, and one pilgrim stranger pays out $6.50 extra on a modest trunk that is checked for the city of Mexico. A money-changer in the depot stands ready to turn our greenbacks into the familiar silver dollars of the country, reckoned at eighty-five cents ; and pockets and bags bulge and grow heavy under the transfer.

Here, too, the old-world distinction among travellers ap- pears. The Pullman coach is more palatial beside its fel- lows here than up North ; then comes the first-class car, furnished with cane scats and much plainer in its interior "work than an ordinary car in the States; the second-class offers unrelieved hard-wood seats, and more severe plain- ness; while the third -class contains long benches that line its sides and run down the centre; conveyances to

>rEXTCAN CUSTOM-HOUSE GUARD.

FROM NEW YORK TO MEXICO. 13

which a Bowery horse-car in New York would seem soft luxury.

The entire chano'e of customs and of lano-uaire has a temporarily depressing effect on the traveller, though the train hands are Americans. The new order is rudely em- phasized when one is routed out at six o'clock the next morning to prepare for breakfast, and is informed that such is the custom of the country. 'Tis a dismal begin- ning, though the early start is an obvious necessity of this southern climate, where business must be transacted in the cool of the day. The railroad maintains eating-houses along the way where the food is abundant and wholesome, though attended with an inevitable lack of anything like dainty cooking or service.

We pass down through the states of Chihuahua, Duran- go, Zacatecas, Aguascalientes, Jalisco, Guanajuato, Qiiere- taro, and Hidalgo — eight states of the twenty-seven — and enter the federal district and the ancient capital, a distance of some 1250 miles out of the about 1500 that make up the length of Mexico.

This is the table-land, from 6000 to 8000 feet above sea- level, the highland walled between the spurs of the Cor- dillera— a broad, brown expanse stretching to the distant treeless and forbidding mountains. The landscape is prac- tically unrelieved for 750 miles to the city of Zacatecas, and lack of water is its most impressive feature ; a scat- tered growth of cactus, clumps of mesquit-bushes, knots of grass sprinkling the sand, cottonwood-trees at rare inter- vals by the watercourses, and occasionally a Mexican vil- lage— these are the wayside incidents.

14 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

VII.

FeatnreBoftheConn. "^^ ^^ ^ S^^^i^S region from Paso del try, and Notable Cit- Norte to Cluhuabua, With some silver- ^^^' mining districts lying distant ten to one

linndred miles from the railroad on either side. Below that point cactus shrubs soon become almost tropical trees, and the prickly pear and maguey plant — the latter used in making pulque, the national tipple — that begin to prevail are familiar to the eye, through the small editions that ap- pear in all collections of house-plants. Farther down the prickly pear is trained into a hedge that possesses some advantanjes over the Yankee barbed wire that is in nniver- sal use at the North, and ma}^ now be discovered on some well-kept Mexican ranches. Wherever water is available for agriculture these highlands yield great crops ; corn grows abundantly, as do all grains and cotton, and great fields of barley now line the earth with pleasant strips of green. In the neighborhood of Galera is a broad and sur- passingly rich valley irrigated from a never -failing lake supply.

Zacatecas is a famously rich mininof reo^ion. The curves and climbing qualities of the Mexican Central at this point are something remarkable, and trains pass just above the city of 75,000 people by winding around the hills that en- compass it. The road here was built with earth carried on the backs of the peons or native peasantry, who did not take kindly to American methods. A most richly adorned cathedral is the boast of the place, and it is a magnificent relic of the days of priest rule, when 12|- cents was levied on every $8 of ore taken from the mines ; there is an $800,000 cathedral back at Chihuahua, also built from this tax ; and in every considerable town the Church has reared

FROM NEW YORK TO MEXICO. 15

noble architecture that has been sequestered by the gov- ernment.

Qiieretaro (Ka-ret'-a-ro) appeals to the traveller whose preliminary knowledge of Mexico may have been largely gleaned in newspaper reading. He remembers that here Maximilian was shot. But the city makes other claims on the attention. It somewhat resembles Havana, with wind- ing, narrow streets, houses high and variegated in color, and little plazas filled with tropical plants; while the aque- duct, some of whose arches are ninety feet high, is the most splendid structure of the kind in the country, sur- passing even the massive masonry reared in the federal capital. Here, too, in 1848, the Mexican Congress ratified the treaty of peace with the United States. But it is thinking of Maximilian that the tourist will enter the city, and that sad fio:ure will lino-er in his mind as he leaves it. For as the train passes Queretaro, on the crest of the low and rocky "Hill of the Bells" will be noted the three black crosses that mark the spot where the emperor and his faithful generals, Mejia and Miramon, were shot. They looked out, on that June morning in 1867, over a lovely valley in which this city of 30,000 inhabitants is planted.

A hundred miles nearer to the city of Mexico, too, is the town of Tula, the ancient Toltec capital, rich in ruins and antiquities that establish the high civilization of a vanished people.

Still southward the horizon widens until only the dark- blue outlines of distant mountains confine the eye. Over all Mexico the patient ass plays liis most useful part in the antiquated methods that are still in vogue. As the trains roll up to all stations troops of peons, men, women, and children, bearing fruits or food, eagerly display their wares and press them upon the travellers. This civilization wears

16 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

an Eastern aspect, and beggars in force arc not wanting to fill in the picture. The feelings of compassionate repul- sion which the lame, the halt, and the blind, the deformed and aged in all stages of decay, inspire as they appear on undress parade, are a novel experience in American travel, but a callous familiarity with their wretchedness is speedily acquired. Yet one never gets away from the sad under- current of misery that always qualifies picturesque Mexico. These December evenings, nights, and early mornings are cool, but the heat of the noons and afternoons seems op- pressive and unseasonable to those who have just seen snow in Kansas. We are in the land of bright shawls and blank- ets, scrapes, and the natural fitness of these wraps is evi- dent where cotton is the garb of the lower classes, and coats are a discomfort during the heat of the day. They are worn at morning and night, and fit the men with natural grace and the ease of habit. Train time at the various stops draws heavily on the inhabitants, who gather in force in the afternoons about the large depots, dressed as for a festive event. The Mexican horses have been improved by the importation of foreign stock, and Barnum shows no sightlier animals than are grouped at every station ; and no Arab rides his steed with a daintier grace than does the average Mexican gentleman. All day long silver clouds lazily drift across a perfect sky, and not even the most har- ried and practical American can at first resist the indolent poetry of this strange life.

CHAPTER II.

MEXICO, PAST AND PRESENT.

I.

Mexico has a magnificent background

The Glory of its His- i-ii, i. i ui -.j

tory and Eomance. "P^^ ^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^7 ^^^^^^ ^^ painted,

but the attempt to tell her history in a

few paragraphs would be only less futile and elusive than the proposition to "interpret God in thirty-nine articles." Very interesting is Mexico to the lover of the romantic in nature and men, but far more attractive is she to the stu- dent of American life. Here the Spaniards landed in 1519, or a century before the Pilgrims reached that " stern and rock-bound coast " — which was not so in fact — about which we have all declaimed. But before that time Mexico had become the seat of a wonderful American civilization. Against the youthful memories of New England, over which historical societies inform themselves, and which reach back of that famous " Welcome, Englishmen !" only a little way into nomadic savagery, this hoary seat of empire offers her traditions, that have been said to extend into the past a thousand years before Christ appeared in that Asiatic coun- try of which this is the constant reminder.

But it is popular now to discount all this, and even to impeach the work of Prescott. From the sixth century Mexico presents her connected account of the tribes or races that rose and fell and mingled to produce the domi- nant Aztecs and their Montczumas, wliom Cortcz found

18 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

here, and first of them all are the Toltecs, who are sup- posed to have been the Mound-builders of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys. What a field for investigation, what an absorbing pursuit is here — to follow the Toltecs south- ward, to identify one's self with the orio-inal American civili- zation, to know the story of a continent!

So says the young and unspoiled Bohemian out of his unvexed soul, as he declares with scorn that rich men have no capacity for skimming the cream off from life. This boy, who never tasted gold or measured his aims with ac- cepted standards, believes that riches shrivel the soul and contract the life, and, with the enthusiasm of historical conquest fresh upon him, he actually despises men who re- tire from arduous acquisition in the market-place only to seek the Dead-Sea apples of politics, or to chase that fickle and unsatisfying thing called " society." To make what other men know of this ancient life one's own, to tread anew in old ways and catch therein the color of vanished things, to delve deeper than any have yet done, to unearth the hidden and the forgotten, to paint the romance, the poetry, the history, to renew on paper or canvas the very thins; that existed — this is calculated to strike the dullest imagination into a glow ! And truly men have yielded to more harmful master-passions than this would be. But one needs money and time wherewith to master the advan- tages with which this country dazzles and woos every ad- mirer of the picturesque.

II.

There could be no more fascinatino: nent

Civilization.

Hints of the Ancient „ i _ i. r j.i i • „ r ti

employment for the long evenings or the

New England winter than to study the characteristics and story of this sunny land as they have

MEXICO, PAST AND PRESENT. 19

been told by Humboldt, Prescott, and otber writers. These men are held in high honor by the people here. The work of the blind American historian, who of course never saw the country, is accepted as an authority by the Mexi- cans, and German residents have placed a tablet on the house which Humboldt occupied. The past is much bet- ter photographed in the books than the present ; but mod- ern Mexico the tourist can best see for himself.

To call the native Mexicans Indians misleads the New- Englander, who will straightway identify these people with those Indians in Buffalo Bill's "Wild West" show that shocked Boston by giving a Sunday exhibition. Whether Wendell Phillips gathered any material for his lecture on the " Lost Arts " from Mexico I do not remember, but it is certain to my mind that he might have done so. The orig-inal state of the Mexicans is said to have been " much superior to that of the Spaniards themselves when they were first known to the Phcenicians, that of the Gauls when first known to the Greeks, or that of the Germans and Britons when first known to the Romans;" and that is putting the case so far within the bounds of truth as to be ridiculous.

These people were well housed, decently and often splen- didly clothed. They enjoyed vapor baths, made cloth, had a pretty full equipment of household goods, maintained schools and even colleges, commemorated passing events in rude sculpture and picture-writings or paintings, farmed pretty intelligently, and did some mining ; they (or an an- terior and superior race) had reared palaces, temples, and pyramids, and constructed aqueducts and masonry that would not have discredited the best modern railroad ; and they even played foot and hand ball, with lawn-tennis, per- haps ! Their mortar far surpassed the modern article in enduring solidity.

20 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

Children were brought up in a pretty stiff way. The child who told a lie had its lips pricked with the thorn of an aloe, and persistence in that sort of thing led to a split- ting of the lip. The Mexican father talked to his son after this fashion :

" Never tell a falsehood, because a lie is a heinous sin ! Speak ill of nobody. Be not dissolute, for thereby thou wilt incense the gods, and they will cover thee with infamy. Steal not, nor give thyself up to gaming ; otherwise thou wilt be a disgrace to thy parents, whom thou oughtest rather to honor, for the education they have given thee. If thou wilt be virtuous thy example will put the wicked to shame."

Be it remembered that this was long, long before the days of the copy-book in New England, and quite anterior to the rule of Rev. Dr. Dorus Clark's catechism.

But even then there were professional teachers who re- garded morality and a religious belief as distinct things — with so great emphasis on the belief part that the altars of a great stone god of vague and formless appearance, but much possibility in the line of hideous suggestiveness, ■were made to run never-ending streams of blood. Think of a sacrificial stone that is now to be seen in the Museum of Mexico — an elaborately chiselled block of basalt, nine feet in diameter and three feet in height — which was ded- icated by the slaughter of twelve thousand persons ! But think, too, of the bigoted iniquity of the Spanish bishop, Zumarraga, who made a bonfire, at the time of the Con- quest, of all the picture-writings that portrayed the history of this people — surely the unpardonable sin, and one that looks black even by the side of human sacrifices !

MEXICO, PAST AND PRESENT. 21

III.

The Conquest, and ^ut enough. The SWOrd of the Span- Development of iards brought its sharp cliange. There is Independence. abundant material to be found in every good public library concerning the achievements of the Aztecs ; the advent of that adventurer, Cortez, who burned his ships and came to occupy the country ; the Conquest and the rule of the viceroys, sixty-four in 286 years; the curate Hidalgo and the ten years' war for independence ; the evolution and revolutions that followed ; the secession of Texas, and the war with the United States ; the remark- able career of President Juarez, and the sequestration of Charch property ; the intervention of England, France, and Spain in consequence of gross outrages on foreigners ; the arrival of the ill-fated Archduke Maximilian of Austria, who was tricked into the belief that Mexico was ready to welcome him, and went to his untimely end like a brave man ; the downfall of the Church party, whose final and desperately ventured card the doomed "emperor" was pur- suaded to play ; and, last of all, the establishment of some- thing like a constitutional government.

Thus much for the background. Our purpose is to deal with Mexico of to-day in a candid effort to understand her situation ; to portray the elements which make up the prob- lems that she is trying to solve with more or less of intel- ligence ; to consider the relations w^hich her mixed popu- lation sustain towards each other and to the State ; to exam- ine her social life on both the material and pictorial sides ; and, finally, to see what trade conditions exist here, and how all these interests affect the future of a sister republic. The American people are concerned in having a good neighbor on our southern border. The chaotic past lias seemed dark

22 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

enongb, but it is believed by impartial students of events that each upheaval has placed the people a little farther in advance ; and study confirms this view.

IV.

The Tremendous ^"^ ^^^^^ ^^/^ ^'^^^' ^0 say that the na-

Drawbacks of the tional outlook is brighter to-day than ever Present. before, yet just how much this means

will be understood only after a preliminary consideration of the country, of the people of to-day, and of the govern- ment which is allcGied to be theirs. In the effort to create a republic in spirit as well as in name, the statesmen of Mexico labor under tremendous disadvantages. The nat- ural features of the country, and the condition of the peo- ple who make up the population of probably 10,000,000, offer nothing like a fair opportunity for building up a government for the people and by the people, whose foun- dation must be prosperous and self-respecting citizenship. Three fourths of Mexico is table-land, lying from 6000 to 8000 feet above the sea-level, a great plateau hemmed in by lofty mountains that bar the rains from the coast to the east and west. This immense region, as we bave seen, is traversed at its least attractive point by the Mexican Central road to the city of Mexico, and the journey gives the visitor an unfavorable impression of the country. In the early winter the highland presents its best appearance, just after the rainy season of about three months. Still it is evident enough that the absence of water is a most serious detriment to Mexico. Agriculture must mainly depend on irrigation, and for this the streams are compar- atively few and small, reinforced now and then by a fresh- water lake. There are spots of surpassing richness, even in the northern half of the country, where streams are

MEXICO, PAST AJN'D PRESENT. 23

found, that show the native strength of the soil. It is claimed that somethino^ can be done bv usinc^ artesian wells, but this does not appear to be practicable. Some fruit-growers also insist that here, as has been demonstrated in California, irrigation is not a necessity. All these things, however, are still in the reahn of speculation. The most fertile re2:ions lie on either coast, where the luxuriant fields sink abruptly from the foot-hills to the sea. "While Mex- ico has many exceptionally fruitful agricultural districts, it does not compare, for grazing and growing wheat and corn, with the western United States.

The land is owned in great haciendas or estates, so that land kinfrs often ride an incredible number of miles with- out reaching the limit of their property. It is argued that these feudal lords retard the progress of the country, particularly as Mother Earth is untaxed, and straitened owners are not thereby forced to sell out. Under such circumstances the cultivation of their immense tracts is often but an indifferent matter. Some of the landlords live abroad and value their estates simply for the cash that can be squeezed out of them. Bat while the demand that great estates be subdivided is clearly right in intent, and practicable to some extent, the lack of an abundant water supply wherewith to make small holdings tillable will always limit the application of land reform. The right conditions do not exist in a large part of the country for attracting that immigration which is felt to be necessary for the best development of Mexico. Neither is the gov- ernment in a position to give away valuable land in any quantity. These are most serious drawbacks to all desira- ble schemes of colonization from the old world.

The special interests of Mexico — mining first of all, the growing of sugar, cotton, tobacco, coffee, and tropical

24 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

fruits — will always draw outside investments, and Ameri- cans are bound to put their money in here in one form or another. Eacli man will believe that his venture is to be the lucky one, and property interests are now pretty well protected.

Bat substantial social growth must, after all, depend upon the population as it now exists. In considering this the people may be first divided into the two great classes of the rich and poor; and poverty here, as in all trop- ical countries, is extreme. But this superficial line cuts through a thin top stratum, underneath which the body of the population live their peculiar life. In this docile and capable peasantry lies the reserve power of Mexico. The mass of the people are Indians who resemble in appear- ance and habits the Zuni, Pueblo, and Navajo tribes of New Mexico and Arizona. They offer first-class material in the rough, out of which it will be possible with time, patience, and education, to mould an honest citizenship. Their past shows this, though it is by no means literally true, as Charles A. Dana says, that their vices are all of European origin.

John Bige]'^'" sums up the native population in this way : " Of the ten millions of people, fully three quarters are Indians, two thirds of whom cannot read, nor ever had an ancestor who could, who never slept in a bed or wore a stocking, and who are accustomed to live at a less ex- pense per day than a farm horse would cost in any New England state." On the first count, the misfortune of the people can be remedied, and Congress has passed a liberal educational bill to this end. The schools now practically reach onl}^ the children of Spanish blood. The Methodist missionaries, who are pursuing sensible methods of work, begin with schools, and they find the natives surprisingly

MEXICO, PAST AND PRESENT. 25

apt at acquiring knowledge. This only confirms what is apparent in the daily bearing of a sober, industrious, ready, and generally honest people. The fact that the Indians do not wear stockings in this hot climate shows their good sense, especially as they all possess huaraches, or leather sandals ; that they should occupy beds is not essential ; and that, by the use of tortillas, or wafer-cakes made from corn that has been soaked in lime-water, and frijoles or brown beans, the Mexicans can live most economically, is a big point in their favor.

Popular education must do for Mexico what no other agency can accomplish, and foundation work among the native population will yield permanent results by the side of which the desirable but surface policy of subsidies and concessions will appear as tinsel statesmanship.

Until this sure basis has been laid the permanence of existina: Mexican institutions can never be insured. The victories of peace have not yet been organized, for the people are only now fully realizing the value of a stable government. The country needs an intelligent middle class to form the backbone of a public opinion such as is now conspicuously wanting, and this must be grown upon the native stock. Here, it will be seen, is a gigantic task, by the side of which the negro problem that confronts the United States looks small indeed.

It has always been said that the ruling class in Mexico arc of Spanish and mixed blood. This is still true, though the late President Juarez, the idol of the people, an able lawyer and a remarkable president, was a pure Indian. General Diaz, too, the present able head of the republic, is of native parentage. Juarez was an exception to the gen- eral rule, for the great men of this country have usually been soldiers. The educated classes nearly all show Span-

20 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

ish origin, but, as no census has ever been taken, it is im- possible to give any figures on this point. When popular education has taken root here the lingering domination of the Spaniards will be weakened, and, in time, mostly broken ; for there are great capacities lying dormant in this native population.

The railroads are here, messengers of enlightenment, whose presence stirs the sluggish currents of a life like that of Oriental peoples. They already inspire more pro- gressive methods in business, but they do not touch, in any broad sense, the deepest need of Mexico.

CHAPTER III.

THE POLITICS OF THE COUNTRY. I.

Mexico has a well-nigb perfect consti- The states and their ^^^-^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^ ^j government being

modelled after those of the United States. If this instrument could be applied with even approximate fidelity in the twenty-seven states, one territory, and the federal district — an area some sixteen times greater than the state of New York — the result would be a true repub- lic. But it is useless to plunge into a discussion of the politics of the country without some understanding of the local political divisions.

The table which is given below exhibits the states and their populations, with the capitals and their inhabitants. The federal district contains 461 square miles, and that most interesting city, the capital of the nation, boasts some 300,000 people. Upon the 61,562 square miles of the territory of Lower California are settled only about 30,000 inhabitants. The several states are subdivided into 48 de- partments, 170 districts, 48 cantons, 110 counties, 1411 municipalities, 146 cities, 378 towns, 4886 villages, 872 hamlets, 6 missions, 5869 haciendas, and 14,705 ranches. The use of a map will facilitate study of the following statistics : 2

28

MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

States.

Aguas Calicntes —

Campeche

Chiapas

Chihuahua

Coahiiila

Colima

Duianjro

Guauajnato

Guerrero

Hidalgo

Jalisco

Mexico

Michoacaii

^lorelos

Nuevo Leon . . ,

Oaxaca

Pnebla

Queretaro

Sau Luis Potosi —

Sinaloa

Sonora

Tamanlipas

Tlaxcala

Tabasco

Vera Cruz

Yucatan

Zacatecas

Square Miles.

2,S95 2.'5,832 1G,04S 83,74(3 50,S!!9

3,743 4'2,510 11,411 24,550

8,163 39,1CS

7,S3S 25,GS9

1,770 23,635 33,591 12,021

3,207 27,500 36, IDS 78,021 30,225

1,620 11,851 26,232 29,567 22,993

Population.

140,430 86,290 219,735 180,758 104,131 65,827 190,846 788,202 308,716 434,096 994,900 696,038 648,857 154,946 194,861 718,194 704, .372 179,915 506.799 167,093 139,140 144,747 133,493 93,387 504,970 285,384 413,603

Capital.

Inhabit- ants.

Aguas Calientes. ..

Campeche

San Christobel

Chihuahua

Saltillo

Colima

Dnrango

Guanajuato

Guerrero

Pachuca

Guadalajara

Toluca

INIorelia

Cuernavaca ,

Monterey

Oaxaca de Juarez. ,

Puebla

Queretaro

San Luis Potosi .. ,

Culiacan ,

Ures

Ciudad Victoria ...

Tiaxcala

San Juau Bautista

Jalapa

Merida

Zacatecas

31,872

15,190

8,.500

12,116

11,340

23,572

27,119

56,112

3,800

12,500

78,600

12,300

20,400

16,320

15,300

26,228

64, .558

27,560

34,300

7,878

9,700

7,800

4,800

6.800

12,400

32,000

32,000

II.

The present constitution bears date of

The Constitution and Y^^hyu^vY 5, 1857, with modifications doNYll Congress.

to, October 3, 1883 — and it is the great le^'acy of statesmanship whicli President Juarez (pronounce Iloo-arez) left to the people. He was of and for them, being a Zapotec Indian, of a race that were of the hills, and never had been fully conquered by the Spaniards. In the service of his country, in prison, and in exile, this Indian and lawyer had cherished his dream of a Mexican republic, and nursed implacable hostility to the domination of the Church. The constitution of the first national Con- gress, adopted in 1812, had declared that the Catholic re- ligion only should be allowed in the State, and that the press, while "free for all purposes of science and political economy, was not free for the discussion of religious mat-

THE POLITICS OF THE COUNTRY. 29

ters." AYlien Alvarez was proclaimed president of the re- public in 1855, he made Juarez bis minister of justice and ecclesiastical affairs. The latter submitted reform la^^'s that -were enacted by the Congress of 1856, \\'hich body, after deliberating a year, adopted the existing constitution. Juarez " abolished the whole system of class legislation, suppressed the military and ecclesiastical fueros — the privi- leged and special tribunals and charters of the army and the clergy — and established, for the first time in Mexico, equal- ity of the citizens before the law." The representatives of the people, through the constitutional law, declared not only the right of the citizen to hold any religious views which he chose to adopt, but insured full and free discus- sion at all points.

Juarez, the prophet and architect of the republic, the man who loosed the bonds of medievalism, and whose horizon took in a free government, looms up in magnifi- cent proportions. The country which produced him is not now barren of sons with whom patriotism and republi- canism are an unselfish passion. Still, a constitution does not make a republic as we know it, nor do patriotic leaders constitute a people who intelligently exercise the right of self-cfovernmcnt.

The habit of citizenship has yet to be cultivated by this people, and growth in the use of sovereign rights must rest back on the wider development of popular education. The student of politics in the United States knows that an uneducated people will not avail themselves of the right to vote as a matter of course — many southern states bear witness to this — and the fact is yet more strikingly shown in Mexico.

The Mexican states are independent to the same extent as are those of the United States, and the powers of the

30 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

federal governracnt are divided into three branches — the legislative, executive, and judicial. Congress consists of the Senate and House of Representatives; there are about 230 members of the latter body, elected for two years, and apportioned at the rate of one member for 40,000 inhabitants ; the Senate comprises 56 members, two from each state ; congressmen and senators are paid $3000 a year. A president of the Senate is elected each month, and that ofiScer, in case of a vacancy in the presi- dencv, succeeds temporarily to that supreme trust. The law-making body meets annually from April 1 to May 30, and from September 16 to December 16. In addition to this there is a permanent legislative attachment to this government. A fixed committee of both branches, having power to act in all emergencies, sits during the recess.

III.

The Grave Deficien- ^^^'^^^^ ^^ improving steadily, if slowly ; cies in Popular Gov- but thcse states after all form but a loose- ernment. j^..;j,j^.^ ^^^^ ^f national life, and Span-

ish usages in politics render this government essentially a monarchy under ideal republican forms. In theory the people elect the Congress, state legislatures, and the gov- ernors of the states. The president is chosen by electors, holds office for four years, and cannot remain in poAver for two successive terms. This last provision is operative, but that is about all.

Elections are in reality what we should deem a farce. The individual has little sense of personal responsibility, and republicanism exhibits scarcely a healthy infancy as yet. The last general election made barely a ripple of excitement — which was not in itself a bad thing, by the way. Nearly every sign that marks the time of voting in

THE POLITICS OF THE COUNTRY. 31

the United States was conspicuously wanting here. There were no public meetings, there was no popular discussion of principles, no weighing of men ; no parties exist, as we know them, and there was little voting. The forms are said to have been duly observed, and General Diaz was un- doubtedly the overwhelming popular choice for president; but a stranger in Mexico never would have suspected that the people were engaged in the serious business of electing a chief magistrate, who is, in fact, intrusted with the most extraordinary powers.

It seems strange enough to find here little or no public opinion. The hacendado looks after his land with a vary- ing degree of care, and aims to shine in society ; the mer- chants and shopkeepers attend to business, and have their clubs, theatres, and restaurants for evening refuge ; and the working people are fully content with getting together enough to live on, if only they find plenty of recreation. Personally no responsibility for the conduct of affairs seems to rest on the voter, and that vigilance which is the price of liberty is not yet the heritage of all classes, and scarcely of any class. " The government " takes charge of all of that, and does its work well or ill according to the character of those who secure or are intrusted with power.

Since 1876 Mexico has had something like a stable gov- ernment, but in the past an ambitious leader thirsting for power, or a general who wished to lead the people against a too -selfish despotism, has acquired control of affairs through a pronunciamiento and revolution. In fact, now the president is the military head of affairs, and his author- ity must be maintained by the iron hand of the army. To this end the military establishment receives first consider- ation in the distribution of funds, and the generals arc

32 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

well housed and must be the trusted friends of the presi- dent.

It has been said tliat there is no free press in Mexico. This sweeping declaration needs to be qualified. The op- position papers indulge in wholesale denunciations rather than facts and arguments, and when they incite sedition the government steps in and sends the editors to jail. But intelligent criticism of public policy and men in office does not appear to be choked oS in any unreasonable way.

IV.

General Porfirio Diaz is the best-known

The President and his ii- rivr- j ^ • i. j.-

Cabiuei pubJic man or Mexico, and his reputation

abroad is justified by the confidence that is reposed in him at home. His character shines by con- trast with the record made by his immediate predecessor in the presidency, Manuel Gonzalez, whose administration leaves no pleasant odor in the retrospect. If any reliance can be placed on the statements of belief made by re- sponsible and respectable residents, the ex-president has accumulated from $3,000,000 to $10,000,000 during his public career, or gathered a fortune which is estimated at about a dollar per head of the people. Favorites of the administration are said to have profited by their oppor- tunities to a degree that could be tolerated only under a government whose lease of power approaches the despotic. It was a good day for Mexico when Diaz succeeded Gon- zalez. There has been bitter talk against the ex-president, and this would long ago have led to action of some kind in most countries.

In his private life, too, Diaz is a bright contrast to Gon- zalez. The young wife of the president is the daughter of Manuel Romero Rubio, and the alliance strengthened Diaz

PRESIDENT rORFIRIO DIAZ.

THE POLITICS OF THE COUNTRY. 35

with the Church party, while Mrs. Diaz certainly has a very devoted husband. Gonzalez, even when president, had no social position in the city of Mexico, but his reputation for standing by his friends — we have seen the same sort of men in American politics — gave him great political strength. He is now governor of Guanajuato.

President Diaz means well by his country, and is dis- posed to push a solid and progressive policy just as fast as the mixed conditions by which he is surrounded will per- mit of advance. He is assisted by a pretty strong cabinet. The minister of forei2;n relations is lo-nacio Mariscal, the most finished diplomat of the country. He is a man of great native ability, who has conducted this department under several administrations, and has also served as min- ister to England. Manuel Romero Rubio, the president's father-in-law and minister of the interior, is a great lawyer, a polished statesman, a patriot, and a dominant force in the government. Few public men of any country surpass him in tact. Manuel Dublan, secretary of the treasury, is an honest man, who used to be deemed too much of a theorist, but he has proved his capacity for practical work. General Carlos Pacheco, minister of public works, is a friend of Ai"<^erican enterprises. The secretary of w^ar is not an important person under a president who is himself a mili- tary man. General Pedro Hinojosa, an elderly soldier, now fills the position. Joaquin Baranda is the minister of justice and public instruction.

V.

Parties, as we know them in the United

A Summary of Politics. ..-.*•. mi

btatcs, do not exist m Mexico, ihe

postmaster delegate who sat in the Chicago republican

national convention of 188-4 and said, "I am for the gov-

36 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

ernment,'' expressed in five words the political situation of this country. When the Church party lost power it prac- tically ceased to exercise any influence in affairs. Though it has a silent existence, and its machinations are feared by the government, outwardly the minority make little sign. The real head of the Church party is the archbishop of Mexico, but he never appears on the surface. Outside of the priests it is not easy to name any very distinguished Church leaders. Many old Catholic families retired from politics when Juarez nationalized the property of the Church. They regard themselves as the aristocracy of the nation, and take comfort in looking down on Diaz, who has risen from the ranks of the people. The leadership of the Church party is, therefore, ecclesiastical and aristocratic, and its followinoj comes from the lower orders. The Church maintains its hold on the women to a great extent, but men are seldom seen attendino; the services.

CD

The tremendous revolution which Juarez carried throuo-h when he seized for the government all the monasteries and magnificent Moorish cathedral and church buildmgs strikes one with amazement. The Spaniards not only established Roman Catholicism, but that religion had come to super- sede the worship of the Aztecs in villages where the Spanish language was unknown. Yet the confiscation of all the rich holdings of a most powerful organization is now viewed as an indifferent matter.

It may be added that the party of the Church is not without organization. Smarting under the powerful hand of an antagonistic government, and declaring always the in- justice of their despoilment, the Roman Catholic forces in Mexico wait the opportunity to strike at the powers that be. The liberalizing tendencies of modern times have had little play in the Church as it exists here, and priests who

THE POLITICS OF THE COUNTRY. 37

come down from the United States do not find a wholly congenial atmosphere among their brethren of the holy orders.

The Liberals perpetuate themselves in power. This is done by the will of the people, despite the fact that the spirit of the constitution is constantly violated. When the public good is held to demand it, certain popular rights are put in suspension. Judged by the standard of a robust and sensitive public sentiment, such as exists in the United States, there can be no defence for many of the methods employed. It seems appalling not to feel at once the in- dignant protest of a living people interested in the conduct of their dearest concerns. But after a little the Yankee comes to accept the fact that he is abroad, and that it will not do to condemn the men at the head of affairs in Mexico on grounds that would eternally damn an administration at home.

Dealing with a heterogeneous population that is almost wholly uneducated in popular government, menaced by the Church influences, hampered by a State feeling in many quarters that is hostile to the central government, burdened with the extravagance and dishonesty of a previous admin- istration, oppressed by hard times, and knowing, too, that only by the use of the army can order be maintained — these are the conditions that surround President Diaz and his cabinet. The problem has been simplified a little by the presence of the railroads, which enable the central authority to project its troops with rapidity. For this reason ambi- tious governors are less likely to make trouble now than formerly. In tlie Congress composed of Liberals there is a demand for reform within the party. The parties in Con- gress are the Liberal opposition and the government Liber- als. The Church party does not appear as such. 2*

38 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

President Diaz has ret some time to serve, havin*]: as- siiraed office in the year that President Cleveland did, and he is likely to be his own successor, Congress having amend- ed the constitution so as to admit of his immediate re- election. The president is not consistent with himself in this position, but there can he doubt that the business sentiment of the country welcomes the prospect of an- other terra for Diaz. Between Diaz and Gonzalez there is the widest room for preference. Porfirio Diaz cannot be called the Gladstone of Mexico — he is a soldier rather than an all-equipped statesman ; he may not be the perfection of unselfishness ; but he is admitted to be a patriotic and honest man, loyal to the republic, and ambitious for her prosperity. His past bears no stain of ill-gotten wealth, and his present is full of indefatigable service to Mexico. In any clash be- tween the Gonzalez and Diaz interests the sympathies of Americans are due to the president of the republic and not to his predecessor. They represent types of men that are not unfamiliar to the people of the United States. The irreconcilable conflict that exists between the methods of these men may have to be fought out, but you may be sure that it will not be openly recognized until stern necessity makes no other course practicable. The Liberal party does not dare to divide against itself. Diplomacy is an art dear to the Mexican heart, and it avails much in public affairs.

YI.

The suggestion that the United States Idle Talk of Annexa- j^ ^-^ ^^ ■ -^ j^^^^.^ ^|^^^^

tion. •^

now and then. In the northern portion of the country this fancy most prevails. The priests see that Roman Catholicism would have a better chance under the toleration of religious opinion that prevails in the

THE POLITICS OF THE COUXTRY. 39

Union tlian under a government that does not permit a clergyman of that Church to appear on the streets in the garb of his order. The idea of annexation is also favored by a number of wealthy Mexicans who suppose that their property interests would be safer under the protection of the great northern republic.

But all such speculations are idle. There is nothing to tempt the cupidity of the United States, and all moral and public considerations make against adding new race prob- lems to those which now vex us. We attempted to govern the Southern States as military provinces, and failed. At present nothing else would be practicable for Mexico, in case any portion of her territory should be added to " God's country " — for so exiled x\mericans speak of their home.

CHAPTER lY.

AGRICULTURE AND THE RAILROADS.

I.

David A. Wells calls this " tlie poorest

Primitive Methods in , ^^ £ r\ i j i L^ e

Farmiu'' Country south or (jrreenlana and north of

the south pole." Mr. Briggs, ex-chief- engincer of the Mexican Central Railroad, now located in Peru, says that Mexico, T^'hich has a population of about 1 0,000,000, is capable of supporting in comfort 1 50,000,000 of people. There you have the extremes of opinion, and it is but fair to say that Mr. Briggs knows the country by intimate personal examination, and that he is armed with most interesting details enforcing his views. The truth, however, lies between. Mr. Wells looks at Mexico as she is, belated in the race of nations, and burdened with the worst possible system of taxation, national, state, and municipal ; while Mr. Briggs sees her natural possibilities, reckons what Yankee enterprise could accomplish here, and constructs a future on this basis. Both are too ardent, each in his way. On her picturesque side Mexico is unique and unequalled. The material possibilities here, too, are very great — ample, indeed, to pay for working, but ham- pered by methods not sufficiently advanced to insure a fortune or a good livelihood for every outside seeker. But intelligent efiort will tell in this country, as everywhere.

Agriculture has not had a fair chance, for these people usually plough with the sharpened stick, just as was done in

AGraCULTURE AXD THE RAILROADS. 41

Palestine in Christ's time, and is the practice to-day ; but an Illinois plough company have constructed an iron plough as nearly as possible after this local model, and it is creep- ing into circulation here. That plough strikes deeper, and better results will appear from its use. Perhaps it will be discovered on the high plateaus, where the bulk of the population live, that improved methods will not so wholly depend for results on irrigation. If so, the national out- look will be vastly bettered ; but in any event there is am- ple opportunity here to develop specialties in agriculture. As California has found out that she can gather more wealth in agricultural products than could be obtained b}' mining, so Mexico may be developed in time. Minister Romero believes that the state of Sonora can be made to produce more wheat than California.

11.

The greatest crop grown is Indian corn, Interesting Crop Sta- • ,1 ■, . ■, . , ,.ii

tisilcs. universally used in making tortillas or

cakes, the value of the yield being over $112,000,000, about four fifths of the total agricultural product, or in the neighborhood of one ninth the amount raised in the United States. Wheat is the next crop, valued at some $18,000,000; brown beans possibly come next, with a total of half the above sura : suo-ar and mo- lasses make nearly the same lump sum ; the latter crop is estimated in the neighborhood of $7,000,000 ; while pep- pers (made into chili, a prime favorite on all Mexican tables) are raised to the extent of $4,500,000. Coffee and tobacco open specially profitable avenues for investment; about $2,000,000 worth each of these necessities of life are now grown. Coffee was introduced into the West Indies about 1714, and it was transplanted to Mexico at the bcofinninor

42 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

of tlie present century. It is grown in eigLt states — Vera Cruz, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Tabasco, Guerrero, Colima, Miclioa- can, and Morelos ; the finest variety comes from Colima, and Vera Cruz produces the largest quantity. Every trav- eller will a^ree that Mexico serves an excellent article of coffee — the morning solace here as on the Continent.

It may not be generally tnown that tobacco is indige- nous, and derives its name from Tabaco in Yucatan. The weed, called pycietl, was a most comforting adjunct to the halls of the Montezuraas before the Conquest. To- bacco is at its best on this its native heath, and no finer cigars are brought from Cuba than can be bought here by an expert smoker. Even the common grades are excellent when compared with the plant produced in the Connecticut valley. Years ago the culture of tobacco was restricted to the vicinity of Orizaba, but now it is grown chiefly in the states of Vera Cruz, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatan, Oaxaca, Sinaloa, and Jalisco. There is profit in sugar, and more could be grown to advantage ; cotton, too, is culti- vated in about half the states, and the plant thrives up to an elevation of five thousand feet. Tropical fruits appear to perfection in many parts of this country, while the flowers are a marvel of beauty and cheapness.

Having defined the general lay of the land, it should be said that Mexico stretches away under three zones — the tierra caliente, or hot land ; the tierra templada, or temper- ate land ; and the tierra fria, or cold land. Over half of

TRANSCONTDxENTAL PROFILE OF MEXICO.

^^i.^*- ■"

m TIEKRA CALIENTE.

AGRICULTURE AND THE RAILROADS. 45

the country is highland, and comes under the last-named zone ; the remainder, usually given as half, but probably nearer a third of the land, is about equally divided between hot and temperate zones. It will be seen that every- thing can be grown somewhere in Mexico. Thus the hot region furnishes cotton, vanilla, rice, hemp, sarsaparilla, peppers, bene-seed, anise-seed, caoutchouc, cocoa, cassia, oranges, bananas, and all tropical fruits, including original local products — a sort of pumpkin-pie fruit among them. The temperate zone repays the tiller v.ith coffee, sugar, tobacco, cotton, and various vegetables. And in what is called " the cold country " the cereals, hardy vegetables, and the maguey or aloe — what we know as the century plant, of manifold uses, out of which the native liquor is made, together with paper, thread, and cord — are raised. Indian corn, brown beans, and pepper grow in all the states, and wheat in all but five of the twenty-seven states. The rainy season comes in summer, and to take advantage of that the farmer sows in May and reaps in October — gath- ering two annual crops of wheat and Indian corn in the temperate zone and on the central table-land, unless a too previous frost nips the second venture ; while in the states of Vera Cruz, Oaxaca, Guerrero, Tabasco, Mexico, and Ja- lisco the husbandman plucks his three crops of corn each year.

Many primitive agricultural methods prevail well-nigh universally, and there is little snug farming such as you know in New England. The climatic lassitude infects every process, and the peons or laborers often dawdle and putter in a way that would be wildly exasperating farther north. The first sight of rural life here, indeed, would prejudice some Yankee farmers forever against Mexico. But second thouGfhts are the best ones. Secino: a thriftless

46 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

Mexican thresh his crops upon bare, smooth ground by driving flocks of goats over them docs not prepossess tlie visitor, even though the grain is afterwards washed in the nearest stream. Bat the shadow of the threshiuir-machine already falls on the old earth floor, and reapers, mowers, and ploughs are to be found in many sections. Ancestral Iiabit is a tyrant in agriculture, but a new day is dawning upon the ranches in the northern and central part of the table-land. The march of improvement has crossed the border.

III.

Too much has been expected in Mexico KaHroads^" ^ ^^^ ^^'^ United States from the introduc- tion of railroads. The generous govern- ment concessions to the new lines were held to be a sort of patent plaster certain to draw Mexico into the front rank of progress. The result has been generally disappointing, but it is not in the least a surprise to any thoughtful per- son who is at all conversant with the local conditions. This country has made remarkable progress since the new roads entered her borders, and a very decided impetus in all directions has followed. There is more business done, quicker methods are accepted, and Mexicans take kindly to riding on a rail. General Palmer, formerly president of the National road, said that the introduction of the railroads increased the revenues of the government from $18,000,000 to $31,000,000 a year. It is clear that railroads are going to have a profitable career here, but it will have to be on a reasonable business basis. When the railroad people con- clude to reckon their subsidies as uncertain, for the present at least, and to count simply on the earning capacity of their property, they will be on a solid basis, and in time on a profitable one, too.

AGRICULTURE AND THE RAILROADS. 47

The Liberal party lias given most extravagant meaning to its name by granting $126,000,000 in railroad subsidies — a drain of about $7,000,000 a year. This is not only a sum beyond reason, but it is a burden quite out of the power of the government to carry in the present state of its revenues. The fact is that the treasury pays out its collections as speedily as they are acquired, and there are no overflowing coffers under the present abominable system of taxation. The administration feels heavily the burden of hard times. These are more apparent here than in the United States, and any brightening is yet a matter of pre- diction and not of evidence. One can but feel a stronsj sympathy with President Diaz in his effort to deal with the harassing problems by which he is surrounded. Gon- zalez left an empty treasury, so that the present adminis- tration came in under very embarrassing conditions. The new budget voted was largely in excess of the probable revenues, thus necessitating the sharpest kind of economy. The government met the situation by postponing the pay- ment of tlie subsidies, by cutting the big salaries sharply, and by reducing the general expenses — placing things on that " peace basis " to which Thomas Talbot brought Mas- sachusetts in 1879.

IIow soon matters can be adjusted so as to permit the complete resumption of subsidy payments is a matter for speculation. Not even the government ministers are able to speak with certainty on this point. The general busi- ness outlook warrants the expectation that more than the three per cent, to the Central, and two per cent, each to the National and Mexican roads will be paid during the new fiscal year. Of Mexico's obligation in the premises. President Diaz said in his message :

"The creditors of the nation had a just and indisputable right to

48 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

demand the payment of the debts owed them in the fdnhncut of the contracts concluded with them ; but tlie executive was, at the same time, under tlie not-to-be-evaded and imperative obligation to care for the preservation of the government, looking carefully to the main- tenance of the public power, when the revenues of the nation were not sufficient to meet both demands,"

It must be conceded that these words have the rins: of truth. However acute Boston's disappointment may be, this was the inevitable outcome of a complicated situation.

ly.

The railroads now in operation enable

A Review of the Rail- -1 i • 4. < ^i . •,! i-.i-i

• ad s -stem tourist to SCO the country with little per-

sonal inconvenience. What was a serious undertaking in the days of the stage-lines and diligences, when the highwayman was not unknown, is to-day com- paratively an easy matter. In fact it is no more difficult to visit Mexico than to traverse the western part of the United States, and the journey is in many ways more en- tertaining and profitable. No one who has crossed the continent should omit to see this civilization, and that speedily. Its distinctive features have not yet yielded much to those universal levelling processes that are mak- ins: all the world alike. It will be advisable, before ffoino: furtlier, to review the Mexican railroad system. All the roads end in the capital city, which is as much a local centre as was imperial Rome.

Down from Texas, riding the backbone of the country, comes the Mexican Central, the only complete trunk line. Its arms are yet to be stretched out, for, under the govern- ment concession, a branch must be built to the Pacific and another to the Atlantic. The managers are asking for more time in which to do this work. These branches are

AGRICULTURE AND THE RAILROADS. 51

to traverse a fertile and densely populated region that ought to supply a profitable business. AVe have seen that rail- roads arc an important assistance to the government in pro- viding quick transit for military purposes, and the authori- ties are naturally anxious to have these lines available as soon as may be. The year 1885 was a hard one for the Central all around. The road suffered severely from wash- outs, and it is estimated that $40,000 will be required to replace the track as it was before the rainy season brought disaster. This is certainly a moderate calculation.

The National road is also a trunk line — on paper ; but its northern and main division, running from the city of Mexico to the Texan frontier at Laredo, is yet to be com- pleted. The cost of this will be some $6,000,000, and the line is expected to bring the capital one day and a half nearer New York than it is by the Central. The Pacific division of the National, a splendidly built property, has advanced beyond the city of Morelia, and traverses a most attractive region into the hot country. The Pacific branch of the Central will go through the same territory tapped by the National, but it is doubtful if there will be busi- ness enouo-h for both roads. Both will reach Guadala- jara, a large city that is famous for its pottery and the manufacture of tiles, and whose people are of a pushing type.

The International road starts from Eao-le Pass in Texas and reaches to Monclova ; the projected line will go through the Sabinus coal-fields. They are represented as being very rich, and, if so, consumers wait anxiously for their product. It is said that Mr. Huntington, who controls the Inter- national, proposes to build southwest so as to strike the Central track at Durango. He could thus furnish Mexico cheap coal, and give a great lift to the iron interests.

The Vera Cruz road extends from the city of Mexico

62 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

to the old port after -wLicli it is named, a distance of 264 miles. This is known as the Mexican railroad, and is a wonder of eno-ineerinor. It is constructed like an Enfrlish road, and by the practice of sharp economies the managers of the property have paid their stockholders a four-per- cent, semi-annual dividend. It would be difficult to paral- lel in any other land the scenery sampled by this railway, rising as it does from the brilliant-hued vegetation of the hot country to the hardier growths and more moderate col- orino; found at a heio-ht of 8500 feet.

The fourth existing railroad is the Interoceanic, whose track was planned to follow straight across Mexico, from the Pacific to the Gulf, as nearly as is feasible, the old trail which was used by the Chinese trade. Before New Eng- land civilization had reached the Connecticut River, the old city of Acapulco, which is to be the western terminus of the Interoceanic, was a famous place. Thither came and thence went ships from and to the East, often bearing- cargoes valued at $2,000,000. Overland, eastward from Acapulco, the rich freightage was borne by a thousand mules and donkeys to the city of Mexico and the Atlantic port of ^^era Cruz, where ships were loaded for Spain. Silks, muslins, and spices, and other Eastern goods were in common use in Mexico two hundred and fifty years ago. The old galleons carried back from Acapulco silver, cochi- neal, cocoa, and other native products. Nothing more viv- idly depicts that time than Bret Harte's " Lost Galleon :"

*' In sixteen hundred and forty-one The regular yearly galleon, Laden with odorous gums and spice, India cotton and India rice, And the richest silks of far Cathay, "Was due at Acapulco Bay.

AGKICULTURE AND THE RAILROADS. 55

The trains were waiting outside the walls, The wives of the sailors thronged the town, The traders sat by their empty stalls, And the Viceroy himself came down; The bells in the town were all atrip, Te Deums were on each Father's lip. The limes were ripening in the sun For the sick of the coming galleon.

"All in vain. "Weeks passed away, And yet no galleon saw the bay ; India goods advanced in price ; The Governor missed his favorite spice ; The seSoritas mourned for sandal And the famous cottons of Coromandel ; And some for an absent lover lost, And one for a husband, — Donna Julia, "Wife of the captain tempest-tossed, In circumstances so pecuhar ; Even the Fathers, unawares, Grumbled a little at their prayers; And all along the coast that year Votive candles were scarce and dear."

The Mexican government lias been negotiating with the Flowery Kingdom, in the hope of reviving the glory of that ancient commerce.

V.

The railroads of Mexico are largely op- Noyei Features in ^ , Americans. The trains of the

Central and National lines arc manned wholly by men from the States. The Interoceanic is said to be exclusively in the hands of Mexicans, but the engineer on the train by which we passed over that road was un- mi.stakably a bean-fed Boston boy. He was big and good-

56 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

naturod, claimed to be very innch in love with this coun- try, and the leisurely progress of his train showed that he had fallen an easy victim to the national spirit.

The expenses of railroading in this hot climate are great. AYooden ties have but a short life, cracking in the dry sea- son and rotting during the rainy months; bridge timber and piles also wear out rapidly. Freight cars, must be painted frequently to prevent drying and cracking, and even the substantial Pullman cars shrivel under this ex- posure. Fuel constitutes a large item of outlay. Mesquit roots are burned on the Central road, pine cut along its route is used on the Interoceanic, and the Vera Cruz company feed their engines coal blocks that are brought from Wales as ballast. The decay of ties will in time ne- cessitate a serious outlay on the Central road, for wooden sleepers cost here $1 each. It is evident that iron ties are a necessity in Mexico, and they are just coming into use. The climate tends to preserve the rails and iron bridges, provided the latter escape the torrents of the rainy season.

Engineers command better wages here than they do in the United States, for only that inducement brin2:s them here. The general staffs of the roads are also well paid, but the section hands, who are peons, work for small wages. The natural and proper tendency on all the roads is to em- ploy Mexicans when the right men can be obtained. This policy helps to protect the property of outside corpora- tions doing business here. The grades on the railroads are something heroic, and the task of constructing road-beds in this mountainous region is often gigantic.

Tlie trains are generally and even generously patronized. V\'ealthy Mexicans are partial to the Pullman cars, and the pocond-class conveyances seem to be always filled. It has become the fashion for residents in the interior to visit the

AGRICULTURE AND THE RAILROADS. 57

capital, since what was before a hard journey is now the ■work of a day or less, and the hotels and restaurants of the city find their business greatly increased thereby. The freiffhtino- traffic with the interior cities is said to be verv good, and no place reached by the roads could be induced to give them up. In railroading, as in all other business enterprises here, the arts of diplomacy have a very prac- tical value, and social tact and pleasant and conciliatory methods are essential to the best success. In these lines the Yera Cruz road is handled with adroitness. The Cen- tral is also fortunate in having as its local head General- Manager Jackson. He is not only an accomplished rail- road man, who knows Mexico through a twenty years' resi- dence, but he is possessed of great tact and social address, and is said to be the finest Castiiian scholar in the capital. It may be said in conclusion of the railroads, that no passenger has ever been injured on either of the American lines, the Central or the National.

CHAPTER V.

TAXATION, MINING, AND MILLS. I.

Mexico's system of taxation gives point

How the Business of . o i. tt i ^ <• .1 -,• .

the couutry is Taxed. ^^ Senator Vance s story of the verdict

rendered by the Dutch justice in North Carolina. One man ^vas charged with having bitten off the nose of another, and the case was but too clear. Just before old Yanderhook was ready to give his verdict, the defendant called him one side. " Look here, old man," he whispered to the Court, '' you know I own a mortgage on your house, and the interest is due. You can't pay it. Now, this is business. If you find me guilty of biting that man's nose off, I foreclose to-morrow." Yanderhook re- sumed his judicial throne, and with imperturbable gravity announced : " De Coort haf found de prishoner nod geelty !" A hundred voices expostulated. "He and I were the only ones in the room, and could it have happened if he didn't do it?" angrily put in the plaintiff. '' Shendlemens, hold shust von minute," calmly put in this judicial authority. " De Coort baf decided f er de defendent. De plaintiff says he must*haf done it, fer dey wer de only two en de room. De Coort is of opinion that in de hurry of de fight de plaintiff might have bit off his own nose." The per- formance is one attended with difficulty, but Mexico has done it.

To run the gantlet of taxation — national, state, and mu-

TAXATION", MIXING, AND MILLS. 59

nicipal — is a very serious matter, and the result is well-nigli fatal to industrial and business enterprise. One or two illustrations ^vill tell the storj. The man who bought a stove in St. Louis and brouo-ht it into the heart of Mexico paid for just $90.99 worth of experience of the taxation system. The stove and its appurtenances cost $26.50 in St. Louis, and by the time it had reached its destination the fio-ures had ajrown to over four times the orio^inal value — $117.49 being the sum total of the outlay required to secure this article. The miller here has to pay thirty-two distinct taxes before he can get his wheat made up into flour and on the market. Here is a country rich in special- ties that could be developed, where the protection idea has run mad, and all hands labor under the impression that the higher the taxes the greater the revenue, and the result is stagnation and a series of oflScial robberies. Real estate practically escapes the tax-gatherer, whose name is legion, and he pounces on every move that can be made in traflBc.

IL

The federal budget for 1886-7— the

The National Finances. 1 • t 1

fiscal year begins July 1 — has been re- ported by President Diaz to the Chamber of Deputies. This is as follows :

Congress $1,052,144

Executive Department 49,251

Judiciary 434,892

Ministry of Foreign Affairs 419,828

" Interior 3,539,364

" Justice 1,333,690

" Public Worlcs 4,711,771

" Finance 12,004,270

" War and Navy 12,464,500

The above is a reduction of about $3,000,000 over last 3

60 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

year's budget; nearly a million dollars will be saved tlirougb the reduction in salaries made by this administration, so that about $4,000,000 expresses the economics projected. The total of this new budget is about $36,000,000, and the revenue is uncertain. If business revives the receipts may reach $33,000,000, and the government will aim to restrict the expenditure accordingly.

The custom-houses yield about half the total national revenue ; the stamp taxes foot up some $4,000,000, post- offices and telegraph lines $650,000, lotteries $800,000 ; while the receipts from the states amount to $7,500,000, or about half the sum received from the custom-houses.

The stamp tax is an onmipresent nuisance ; it includes stamps for documents and books, for merchandise, and for the internal revenue. Certificates of stock, contracts, titles, tickets of all description — railroad, theatre, and so on — all must bear a stamp ; .every page of the reports of meetings, each leaf of a merchant's ledger, day or cash-book, or pub- lic registers must bear its stamp; and every receipt must be stamped with a one-cent stamp for every $20 or frac- tion thereof represented. The cigar stores sell these stamps that are necessary to every transaction.

III.

Beneath the federal system every state state Levies, and the ^^^ .^^ ^^^^ ^^^ levy, which varies from

Combiued Burdeu. - '

year to year ; the federal tax takes about a quarter of the tax paid to the state, and a resident fed- eral deputy treasurer looks after the interests of the gov- ernment. In defiance of the federal constitution the pro- tection theory leads states to set up their own custom- house system, levying a state tax on all goods, domestic or foreign, passing their borders ; then in turn — and quite as

TAXATIOX, MIXIXG, AXD MILLS. 61

legitimately — tine towns assess all goods entering them. Every one doing business must respond to this triple de- mand, and the total burden amounts to almost a prohibi- tion of trade in the interior, and of course the people suf- fer for all this aggregated folly. The notion of protecting home industry is thus carried to exasperating absurdity.^ The merchant who brings in a stock of cloth pays a state tariff, and then the town levies again at the rate of nine per cent, of what the state has exacted. All industries pay the town a monthly fee ; each beef animal leaving town is taxed fifty cents, every pig twenty-five cents, and so on ; and on entering another town the same plundering process is repeated. All this has been going on for years without number, and is a legacy of Spanish domination.

Not the least of the many duties that confront the pro- gressive element in this country is the absolute necessity that exists for lifting this antiquated yoke of taxation off from the shoulders of the people. This cannot be done at once, for state anxl local interests are not readily fused into a sound and stronfj national life. The instinct of sclf-ojov- ernment is too generally rooted in ancient and unprogres- slvc customs that arc the legacy of mediaivalism, and fed- eral union as we practise it must be a growth dependent on the slow rallying of many fundamental modern forces. To slay the army of petty tax-gatherers who arc commis- sioned by the state and local authorities, and to assess as we do real estate and personal property, to reach the rich land owners, and to prevent this oppression of the poor, is a task as delicate as it is gigantic. Our attempt to reform the civil service of the United States is as nothino: beside it. AVe can confidently appeal to the good sense of an in- telligent, united body politic ; but to disturb with haste this universal inequity of Mexican taxation would be to

62 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

precipitate revolution and bloodshed, and those most to be benefited by the reform would be early in arms. The truth is that these people do not yet know the a, b, c of their wrongs.

ly.

The precious metals were mined and Miuiug in the Past aud lu- t • ^ j* -kt • ip

Preseut. ^^^^^ ^^ "'=^^ regard m Mexico before

Columbus set foot on the shores of the new continent. AYhen Cortez landed, and Montezuma looked on his coming with superstitious fear, the native monarch sent to meet the advancing adventurer gold and silver gifts of such richness and deftness of workmanship that the cupidity of the Spaniards was inflamed to brutal ardor. Bernal Diaz, one of the invaders who afterwards returned to Spain and wrote a history of the Conquest, tells of the various embassies : the first bore " a quantity of gold trinkets of beautiful and skilful workmanship ;" another deputation was accompanied by one hundred In- dian porters laden with presents. Diaz wrote of " a round plate, about the size of a wagon-wheel, representing the sun, the whole of finest gold, and of the most beautiful workmanship, a most extraordinary work of art," etc. ; also of " a round plate even larger than the former, of massive silver, representing the moon, with rays and other figures on it, being of great value ;" again of a " casque, completely filled with pure grains of gold, as they are found in the mines ;" and of " thirty golden ducks, ex- actly resembling the living bird, and of splendid workman- ship," and so on. Indeed, it has been said that Cortez sent back to the king of Spain some seven million dol- lars' worth of gold and silver prior to his battles with the Aztecs ; but these figures have been greatly reduced by the most careful writers.

TAXATION, MIXING, AXD MILLS. 63

The evidence is pretty conclusive tliat the native mining had been extensive, fairly scientific, and very profitable. Humboldt estimated that the gold and silver yield of Mexico from 1521 to 1804 amounted to $2,027,952,000; it is believed that from 1804 to 1848 the total product of the mines was at least $768,188,420; while from 1848 to 1885 the mines have yielded in the neighborhood of $1,250,000,000, or enough to make the total production of Mexico since the Conquest above $4,000,000,000 !

It is dazzling to play with lump sums like this, and in view of the inadequate methods that prevail in many min- ins: districts of this country it w^ould not be difficult to make glittering predictions about the money that is to be realized in mining. But such sort of writing is wildly de- lusive. There is undoubtedly mining property that can be worked to advantage, and some forty American compa- nies are developing their ventures at this time. Eacb hope- ful investor is confident of the result, and let us hope that success may crown all ; but the work is not prosecuted here under so favorable conditions as are found in the United States, and prizes are not abundant thus far. Many mines have been sunk until they filled with water, and then aban- doned— some of these notably rich ones ; but expensive ma- chinery, large capital, and time are required to work such enterprises to advantage. The supply of silver is now chiefly derived from the mines of Guanajuato, Zacatecas, Sombrereto, Catorce, and Pachuca. The mining laws are commended by those familiar with them, but I notice that most American owners take the precaution to retain as counsel the chief local, state, or municipal official, thus se- curing special privileges and ample protection. Foreign companies, indeed, are allowed advantages that native own- ers do not obtain. The mines are in the hands of indi-

G4 MEXICO OF TO-D.U'.

vidaals and not of the government, but neglect to operate a property for four months in the year forfeits it. The mine is then " denounced," escheats to the government, and is sold at auction. The Mexican Central Railroad passes throuoh the citv of Zacatecas, a famous miuino^ centre, and the tourist can advantageously begin his study of the min- ing interests at that point.

V.

Mexico's exports are $43,000,000 a

'"'^'tdrodfy' °' y^^^'' ^"^ 1^^^' ^"^P^^-ts are about $40,000,-

000. The government presents no table of imports, and this calls attention to a lack that constant- ly confronts one. The statistics are poor. There is noth- ing approaching our census system, and it is discouraging to discover that the same fio-ures have been on the boards for a suspiciously long period as stock actors. The state- ment that places the population at ten millions is not the result of a personal enumeration, and estimates of the size of the cities vary greatly ; in fact, the guess-work that en- ters into all these matters is so very considerable as to make definite writing next to impossible. Still, by picking such figures as the known facts and the probabilities favor, a pretty accurate general picture may be painted.

Those well informed with rco-ard to trade interests aofree that a great deal of smuggling exists, owing to the high tariff and the c-reat frontier stretch that invites law-break- inf^. It is said that millions more of American ijoods find their way into Mexico than show in the statistics prepared by either government.

No one can escape the feeling that the trade of Mexico belongs to the United States by right of propinquity, and the natural highway opened upon the table-lands between

TAXATION, MIXING, AND MILLS. Go

the two republics — whicli led Baron Humboldt to say early in this centurv, of the line now traversed bv the Central road, that " four-wheeled wagons can travel from Mexico to Santa Fe." Then, too, Mexico and the United States com- plement each other — the one furnishing tropical products of every variety, and the other standing in obvious need of a •^'ider market for her farming implements, mining machin- ery, wagons, paper, clocks and watches, and the thousand and one articles of invention that fill the American mills and warehouses. Something of what India is to England, Mexico could be and ou2;ht to be to the United States. It

CD

may be added that while Germany, England, and France have so long largely held the trade of Mexico, they all look with apprehension upon the proposed reciprocity treaty, and some of the laro-cst German merchants in the citv of Mexico admit that the advantages for the future are indis- putably with the United States. Indeed, to such men the delay of Congress in ratifying the treaty is simply unac- countable. They entertain hearty contempt for a House of Representatives that can dawdle over passing political legislation and neglect an opportunity to secure a national advantaii'e which is to be had for the takinij.

YI.

The business of the country centres in

General Features of ^, ., r at • Ti. • *• i i *! 4.

-, . the City of Mexico. It is noticeable that

the large houses are conducted by foreign- ers. The great wholesalers or merchant princes are Ger- mans, with a few Enfdish houses. It is interesting to note, also, that the Americans are beginning to press the Ger- mans on liardware and miscellaneous goods, and that our manufacturers are hurting the large and profita"ble English trade in agricultural implements. There is no reason why

66 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

the local prejudice against improved niacLinery should not fade away before the intelligent pushing of our goods.

It is a fact, however, that this trade must be specially and patiently catered to. Continental business methods prevail, necessitating a courtesy and diplomacy that are not always easily acquired by your brisk and impudently push- ing Yanhee of the commercial-traveller stripe. Thus, the German agent drops in at the office of the Mexican, chats about affairs and inquires with particularity after the wel- fare of the person addressed and that of his family, smokes a cigarette or cigar in pleasant unison with his victim — and departs without having broached the matter of business. The Mexican buver is entertained, and invites his caller to drop in again. Thus, by gradual approaches, is a sale con- summated, for time is no object here. The Yankee who brings his " samples," opens with blustering talk about business, and appears always in haste "to catch the next train," is a dead failure. He is regarded with suspicion, if not irritation.

The matter of freighting, too, is an important item. Mexicans are never in a hurrv for anvthino^, and slow transportation does not disconcert them in the least. For- eign houses also take special pains in putting up goods to add no unnecessary weight, while Americans pack in thick wooden boxes that are an unnecessary incubus when goods are shipped for the interior, and often have to be transported by mule-power. When the reciprocity treaty goes into effect the American merchants will have some things to learn before they can fully command here the market that is their natural right. The Mexican merchant wants a price given that will include freights and tariff — that is, what the goods will cost delivered. He puts off all possible personal bother. He is good pay, but is often

TAXATION, MINING, AND MILLS. 67

slow ia settling up. Bradst rectus has an agency in the city, and the standing of any customer can be readily as- certained in Xew York.

YII.

The important retail stores of the city Facts abont the Eetail ^ j - t ^

Trade — ^^y S^^^^) jewelry, and so on — are

kept by Frenchmen, and French names abound on the principal shopping avenue of the city. Americans do not go into retail business, but act as com- mission merchants. The large hotels and restaurants are conducted by Italians and Frenchmen. Banking institu- tions are managed by Spaniards, Germans, and a few arc in the hands of Enolishmen. There is said to be room here for a branch of some large New York or Boston banking establishment. The petty retail trade naturally falls into the hands of the Mexicans, but old-country Spaniards are also eno-ao-ed in it in a larofcr wav. Thev are thrifty and economical, and come over bent on moncv-makino;. Until the Central Railroad was opened all the better class of paper came from France and Belgium, while the coarser qualities were made here. There seems to be a particularly good opportunity for placing in the capital city fine Connecti- cut valley stationery and book-paper. At present the Ger- man fancy stationery takes the lead because it is so neatly put up. American firearms are bought at the border by those who want a reliable article, but it appears that Span- ish makers imitate American pistols and revolvers, even to the brand. This is true in particular of Colt's make. The finest of the new buildinccs are beino- finished with Ameri- can wall-papers, which are deemed better than those of French manufacture. I am assured, too, that American machinery is making its way, though much that is sold comes from France and England. 3*

68 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

It is a fact that some of the German wholesalers here are so discouraged over the prospect as to talk of retiring from the field, for they believe that the Americans are bound to come to the front. But they must occupy the field honestly. These merchants from the Continent bring with them an old-fashioned solidity, and shoddy is never tolerated among them. The shops of Mexico would not discredit Xew York or Boston, and the Mexicans know the best. To send dishonest or clumsy goods here is simple folly — and it has been indulged in by American houses that know less about Mexico than they do of the Sandwich IsU ands. In the shop-windows may be noted many articles of American make, even the German merchants displaying our lamps, which surpass their own in finish and artistic quaUty. The American commission merchants located here talk sensibly about the future. They have learned much, have camped out to do business, and are succeeding. The American sewing-machine is here, while our life-insurance companies have a monopoly of this field.

Stores and houses are only taxed when rented, each house^ holder thus paying to the municipal government a cer- tain percentage on his lease. This is another mesh in the abominable network of taxation that is directed with a view to oppressing the people at every possible point.

VIII.

Manufacturing is an old story, for the Spaniards found that cotton - cloth had been made long before their advent — per- haps it was produced in Mexico as early as in any country on the globe. Artistic bed-curtains, and cloth in figures and colors representing animals and flowers, were among the achievemcDts of that early civilization. The govern-

The ISIills and theii Operatives.

TAXATIOX, MIXING, AND MILLS. 69

raent makes every effort to nurse the mills of the country in the way of a bonus for starting and protectionary duties, but nature is the great opposing power. Manufacturing can never prosper naturally, because of the paucity of water and fuel ; and when it is stated that the wood used in firing the furnaces of mills costs $15 a cord, the situation explains itself. Not even the great cheapness of labor can over- come an obstacle like this. Steam is therefore little used in the factories, and the water-power is all too limited for any extensive development of manufacturing. This is to the direct advantage of the United States. The number of factories of all kinds in the republic is given at about one hundred; they are valued at nearly $10,000,000, em- ploy in the neighborhood of 13,000 hands, and contain 250,500 spindles and 9500 looms.

The rancie of manufacturino; covers cotton and woollen goods, the coarser paper, flour, hats of felt and straw, leather work of all kinds, palm -leaf work — matting, baskets, brooms, and brushes ; silk, furniture, glass, and rope ; be- sides sugar, chocolate, indigo, pottery, and tiles, which are peculiar to the country. The Hercules Cotton -mill at Queretaro — the capital of the state of that name, and one of the chief cities on the Mexican Central Kailroad — is the largest enterprise of the kind in the country. It cost $4,000,000, employs 1400 operatives, is the property of the Rubio family, and produces an immense quantity of manta, or the unbleached cotton which is universally worn by the Indians.

Mill hands average about $4.50 per week of sixty hours, while the bosses are paid from $9 to $25 a week. The average cost of living to the laborers in the cities is esti- mated at about 25 cents a day ; in the country these men live on from 12 J to 18 cents a day. The mill operatives

70 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

live more expensively, and many of the superintendents and bosses are Europeans, ^vho command what we should esteem reasonably good wages. The workers of all kinds, including those employed in the factories, display very lit- tle forehandedness ; present food and amusement serve to keep out the hope or desire for a better future. Still, the intelligence, orderly habits, and pleasant manners of the employees of the cotton-mills, sugar-houses, and even the mines, must favorably impress the visitor.

There are profound possibilities in this peasant class that will some day command recognition. This race, that can subsist decently on 25 cents a day, enters the industrial field with an equipment that must tell in time, and that on their native soil where no race antaijonisms can interfere with their progress.

CHAPTER YI.

THE CITY OF MEXICO. I.

Berkshire's Greylock Mountain in Mas- ^ at™eti °^'"' sacbusetts would make a baby foot-liill for old Popocatapetl, the volcano of our school-books, the highest peak of Mexico, the heroic, snow- crowned monarch of this northern continent — the one 3505 feet above the sea-level, and the other estimated by Hum- boldt at 17,7 16 feet, and reckoned by later authorities at 18,362! This city is itself some 3000 feet higher than Mount Washino:ton, on whose summit the sic^nal observers remain in winter at the risk of their lives. AVe are in the latitude of the desert of Sahara, but the elevation not only makes life endurable, but imparts its own delicious and novel zest. The valley of Mexico is encircled by a noble frame- work of mountains, of which the hills that are round about AVilliamstown, Mass., are a not dissimilar miniature. But this picture is extended, and seen in the rarefied atmosphere of the upper regions — a mighty canvas in worthy setting.

The valley and plain lies in the form of an ellipse, some 45 miles long by 30 broad, and is bounded by ir- regular mountain ridges and volcanic peaks that loom up to a lieight of from 12,000 to over 18,000 feet; the two dominant summits, Popocatapetl and Iztaccihuatl (the White Woman) are covered with perpetual snow. These two command the attention of the tourist on his entrance

72 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

into the city, and tliey chain it to the day of his departure. Rosv with the mornino; lio-ht, ofolden with the o-low of even- ing, or cool and restful under the hot, midday sun — the marvel of every chanoe the centre of each scene, the eternal inspiration of the landscape — one looks forever towards " the hills from whence cometli our streno-th." No acces- sible section of the United States yields impressions so grand or so lasting as they produce ; none of her mountains are comparable in kingly dignity with these.

II.

The alluring scene that opened before

Valley, Liikes, and ^i c< • i i J.^ •

Q-^^y the bpanish conquerors when, on their

march to the Aztec capital, they paused

on the summit between these two volcanic mountains, is

thus depicted by Prescott :

"Its picturesque assemblage of water, woodland, and cultivated plains, its shining cities and shadowy hills, was spread out like some gay and gorgeous panorama before them. In the highly rarefied air even remote objects have a brilliancy of coloring and a distinctness of outline that seem to annihilate distance. Stretching far away at their feet were seen noble forests of oak, sycamore, and cedar ; and beyond, vellow fields of maize, and towering maguev, interminjrled with or- chards and blooming gardens ; for flowers, in such demand for their religious festivals, were even more abundant in this populous valley than in other parts of Anahuac. In the centre of the great basin were beheld the lakes, occupying then a much larger portion of its surface than at present ; their borders thickly studded with towns and hamlets ; in the midst — like some Indian empress with her coronal of pearls — the fair city of Mexico, with her white towers and pyramidal temples reposing, as it were, on the bosom of the waters, the far-famed ' Venice of the Aztecs.' "

The outlines of the picture are the same now as then, but the details arc changed somewhat ; the invaders stripped the valley of its forests, until only the stately and magnifi-

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THE CITY OF MEXICO. 75

cent grove of Cbapultepec remains. The lakes number six, the largest being Texcoco, which has received the over- flow of the others. Its water is salt, the highest body of the kind in the world. Two of these lakes are of fresh water, and must be about as high as the great body of water in Yellowstone Park. In this level valley one sees little of the lakes, unless journeying out of the city, but ducks without number, visitors from the North, flutter over their surface at this season, and invite the sportsman to his work of de- struction.

The ancient capital was destroyed by that ruthless vandal, Cortez, and he was short-sighted enough to rear the modern city on the old site, when the rebuilding ought to have been done on higher ground. There was plenty of such available. The mistake was recognized in Spain, but too late, and it involved an expensive system of causeways and dikes that did not suffice their purpose, as five great inunda- tions, the last in 1634, attest.

That blunder is to-dav the chief drawback to this beau- tiful capital city, which has a population of over 300,000 and is about the size of St. Louis. The Aztec superstition that led them to build in a swamp may be pardoned, but the folly of Cortez admits of no palliation. To him must be primarily attributed a death-rate double that of Bos- ton, and mostly due to filth diseases. The people have been strangely slow on their part about introducing an adequate system of drainage, though Congress has at last passed the legislation necessary to carry out one of the many propositions to this end that have long been consid- ered. Thorough drainage will make this city one of the most attractive places in the world.

This is classic America, the home of the orii^inal Western civilization. Here are new places and new sights; an

76 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

equable and salubrious winter climate, above fogs and out of the range of storms; a state of society equal in pict- iiresqueness to any that the Old World can offer ; a scenery grand with mountains, gorgeous with luxuriant vegetation, and beautiful with a wealth of flowers so lavish that calla- lilies lie unplucked in the swamps — and all to be seen under a sky like that of Italy, and enjoyed from a city where one can be as well cared for as in Washington or Paris. This little Europe at our doors entails no sea voyage, and the journey thither is made with less discomfort than would be experienced on the Continent.

III.

All the Spanish-American cities are laid

The Plaza Maj'or and i. ii i rri -j j

Noble Cathedral. ^"^ ^^ ^^'^ ^^^^^ P^'^"' ^^'^ Wldc-paved

streets cross each other at riixht ano;les and terminate in a great square or plaza. This contains always the church or cathedral on the one side, and on the other the government building or palace. To command a bird's-eye view of the city of Mexico it is customary for the tourist to begin his observations at the Plaza Mayor, the great central square, by ascending the tower of the cathe- dral. We are but following the habit of long ago, for this was the site of the Aztec teocalli, or temple of sacrifice, up whose steps Montezuma led Cortez, and, taking him by the hand, pointed out the beauties of the city that the Spaniard was to make desolate. This is indeed historic ground, for the view that we are soon to enjoy will call up chapter after chapter from the past — local figures without number, and some that will touch us more nearly, for Scott and Worth, and Lieutenant U. S. Grant, and the ill-fated Maximilian played their parts here within easy sight from the tower; and on this great square, too, where once entered Cortez

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ENVIRONS OF THE CITY.

THE CITY OF MEXICO. 79

and his army, General Winfield Scott massed Lis victorious soldiers in 1847.

But no traveller ever ascends the tower, be his resolution ever so strong, without first examining with more or less care this largest cathedral of North America, and one of the grandest buildings to be seen anywhere. The edifice, begun in 1573, was nearly a hundred years in process of erection, being completed in 16G7 at a cost of little less than two millions of dollars. Its symmetrical and reposeful archi- tecture was after the best plans that Spain could offer ; it occupies the northern side of the square, is of the form of the cross, 426 feet long, 200 wide, and 175 feet high at the dome, and its massive twin towers rise to an altitude of 200 feet.

The vast interior effect is solemnizing, though its splendid ornamentation has suffered from a long scries of plunder- ings. The high altar, once the richest in the world, is yet a most imposing mass of dazzling gilding, though the can- dlestick of gold that one man could not lift, its golden chalices and pyxes studded with precious stones, and the golden censers, crosses, and statues have mostly fallen a prey to heretic and knavish hands. The decline of the Church is sadly evidenced here.

There are five naves, six altars, and fourteen chapels, and liere, too, are the bones of some of the departed viceroys and great men of Mexico, among them the remains of Emperor Iturbide. lie was Colonel Augustine Iturbide in 1 820, wlio joined with Guerrero to declare the independence of Mexico in 1821, and the next year had himself proclaimed emperor; Santa Anna led the people against this usurper, whose " reign " lasted nine months, and who was shot under sentence of the new government in 1823. The palace of the " emperor " is now a favorite hotel. But this has taken

80 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

us out of the cathedral and back over the years, for the temptation to digression lurks in every nook and cranny of this rare old town. There are paintings on these walls that invite to careful study, some of them credited to Murillo. This has been a treasure-house of costly art, for the Roman Catholic Church exacted the best that Mexico could pro- duce, and it was rich enough to command the choicest pro- ductions of Spain and of China. The missing statue of the Assumption was of gold, ornamented with diamonds, and is said to have been valued at $1,090,000. What is told of the ancient glory of this cathedral reads like a chapter from the "Arabian Nights," and what is still here sur- passes the decorations in any American cathedral or church. This is a superb memorial of that time when the power of the Church was expressed by the fact that she possessed two thirds of the entire wealth of Mexico. The great ca- thedral is always open and priestly ministrations continue; but it is no longer a national shrine, the kneeling worship- pers are women, with here and there a battered and tattered ancient male Indian figure. The men of the army and of affairs seldom or never come in hither. Outside of these doors the priest must doff all evidences of his calling, and even then he is not alwavs free from insult. To such extreme lengths has the national reaction proceeded that even this ancient cathedral — becfun about a century before the Pil- grims landed in New England — is occupied by the Roman Catholics only by the sufferance of the liberal government. It is against the law for the Church to hold property, and it can acquire it only through individual decoys and by stealth.

THE CITY OF MEXICO. 81

ly.

But let us to the tower view. A pull

A Bird's-eve View of . .i i •, . i

the Town ^^ ^^^'^ cloor causes it to open as by magic,

persuaded by a rope wielded from the tower, and we toil up the stone steps until they seem never-ending, like the ascent of Bunker Hill or Washing- ton monuments. Near the top a woman keeper, who is surrounded by the usual Mexican brood of children, ex- tracts a fee of one real (12-J- cents). The picture that lies at our feet as we pass under the ancient bell with its dim dedicatory inscription, and to the front of the tower balcony, is royal in extent and fascinating in detail. The environ- ment, that we already know, is without an equal that I ever read of ; and the city is here seen at its best. It stretches away all about us, its limits equidistant in every direction, for this is the very heart of the town.

This is no semi-savage city, but a splendid capital easily comparable with the finest cities of Europe ; it recalls many, but repeats none, and the Eastern color that charac- terizes the local life gives it a hint of all peoples and every land. For a mile away stretch the flat roofs, and the domes of churches are so frequent that one tires of counting them. The sun glares with blinding brilliance through the thin air, and each object within the range of the vision stands out with the sharp outline of the silhouette.

After sweeping the rampart of mountains the eye nar- rows the circle and surveys the homes of the people. The houses are built in squares or blocks six hundred feet in length, with solid walls and flat stone roofs, all apparently after the same pattern, and each dwelling around a patio or court that is open to the sky. Tims is each man's liouse in a peculiar sense his castle. The great doorway from

82 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

the street is always attended by a porter who lives per- petually on guard in the lower court. This is flagged with stone and surrounded by the stables and quarters of the servants. Above are usually two ranges of living and sleep- ing-rooms, fronted by corridors and ornamented by iron balustrades. Very often a fountain plashes in the court that the day fills with sunshine, flowers and vines trail in a hixuriant network up and down the balconies, and palms lend their deep green for a groundwork. Above the house the roof-top, or azotea, offers an evening retreat that is fanned by cool breezes and curtained by the far-away sky. So pleasant and attractive and individual is the home-life of Mexico, it is said that Mexican girls seldom care to wed foreigners who would take them away from this city of their adoration. Do you wonder at it? Sensible girls, indeed, are these !

V.

We are fronting to the south. Below, Features that ludi- • ,i . /• .i • .i ry i

vidualize the City. ^" ^^^^ ^^"^^'^ ^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^^f^' 1^ ^^'^ ^_*^C^^^' or pleasure-garden, glowing green in the

near landscape of stone ; in its centre is a music-stand,

where the military bands often play ; and disposed about

in artistic harmony are tall trees, flowers, and statues. Near

at hand is the city flower-market, a graceful iron structure,

where the spoils of this eternal summer are brought each

morning from all the region about — the plcasantest spot in

the city, for such blossoms are not known to your sordid

Northern soil, and they are as cheap as they are profuse.

A mass composed of all the flowers you know, such as would

cost at least $10 in the United States, may be had for half

a dollar, or for 25 cents if the buyer be anything of

an expert at dickering. The visitor can luxuriate in

THE CITY OF MEXICO. 85

flowers and yet not be extravagant, according to your standards.

But all this while the life of the citv has swirled and eddied below us. Across the square and fronting north is the municipal palace, or the building occupied by the local government. An arcade supports its first story and shel- ters within and without a long array of shops and traders that continue around the square to the west. The feminine beauty and fashion of the city is to be encountered there during these morning shopping-hours, and it is worth sce- inof. The ladies are in black, and the mantilla is much worn on shopping expeditions, that bewitching device for height- ening the effect of an olive, velvety skin and glorious eyes. It is not safe to presume that these visions of beauty do not understand English, for here as in the United States ac- quirement is more general among the young women than with the young men, and the tourist who involuntarily ex- claimed when the vision of the acknowledged beauty of the city burst on him around a corner detected an amused twinkle in her flashing eyes. To stare at a pretty girl here is to pay her a high compliment, which is one of the fortu- nate provisions of the country. It is a pity that Paris fashions are now the rage, for the Spanish costumes are being: crowded to the wall.

The eastern boundary of the square is occupied by the national palace, the largest building in Mexico, a low marble structure, said to be 700 feet long, with no pre- tensions to architectural grace, but possessing a solid dig- nity not always appreciated by those wonted to its outlines. The inside features are striking^ and various. Here is where the Senate meets, the cabinet officers have their quarters, and the adminislration is at home — the House of Representatives gather in a dingy theatre iu another part

86 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

of tlie city — and here is the great ambassadors' hall, 310 by 30 feet, with a throne at the southern end for the president and his cabinet; here are Maximilian's state coach, the meteorological observatory, a botanical garden, the national museum, the treasury of the nation and its archives, the soldiers, and so on. We have but space to bint at attractions that should be given more intimate at- tention. An important building on the west side of the square is the big government pawn-shop. This completes our swift circuit of the plaza.

In the western part of the city lies the Alameda, the forest garden of the capital, older than the Zocalo, which latter I believe unhappy Carlotta laid out in its present form. This larger spot of seductive green is but one of a hundred suo;Q;estions of interest that fix the attention and pique our Northern curiosity.

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CHAPTER VII.

STREET SCENES AND SUGGESTIONS.

I.

„^ ^ .^ . It seems strano-e enoiio-h to have the

The Weather, and = »

the Brilliant Na- weatbcr reG:arded as a " chestnut " that

tioual Costumes. ^^

must be discarded from conversation. Each day opens serene, cloudless, and abounding in that inspiriting quality that makes an October morning on the hills of western Massachusetts the perfection of living. The early morning and evening usually bring just enough sting to brace the system, while midday warms one to the marrow. Of course there are no fires anywhere, but this absence -is only felt on rare occasions, and then a heavy wrap brings solace.

Here one can appreciate that painful lack of color which is a chief want of our new, raw, and sombre life — in see- ing the bright thing that Oscar Wilde sought to transplant under the gray skies and into the nmddy streets and dingy buildinfjs of London. He had borrowed a thoiio-ht, thouirh the world forgot it in contemplating the individual.

It often seems as if the sense of color had been abso- lutely killed out by the conventionalism of English and American life ; but, as one sees it flash all over this coun- try, it is with keen regret that he discovers that European fashions are already effacing the picturesque old for the dull tints of the universal new. The native dress, in its most brilliant manifestation, is a thing of rare beauty.

90 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

After enjoying the spectacle "of a country gentleman ar- rayed in his best, the sight of government officials and business and professional men of this city in European dress is simply exasperating. The one pleases and satis- fies the eye ; the other is a pattern of commonplace ugli- ness.

The haciendado on horseback is a picture usually con- scious of itself, for these fellows are born dandies, and both man and animal are full of prancing life. The horses are noble creatures, whose chests have been magnificently developed by the rarefied air, and the rider is athletic and a born horseman. He wears a suit of black cloth ; a short, nattily-cut jacket with big silver buttons ; a low-cut waist- coat, or more often none, to hide his delicate, snow^y, and frilled shirts ; tight pantaloons that bear along the outer seams two rows of fancy silver buttons ; high-heeled and usually top boots that end in silver spurs ; and a faja, or sash, of red and other brilliant color to bind the waist. Over the shoulder, or across the saddle, which is. a most ornamental affair, is carried the bright serape that looks like an immense Roman scarf. The hat completes the picture, and the ample proportions of that put ridicule upon the meagre head-coverings of the North.

The only fault to be found with the felt sombrero is its ■weight ; but, for some occult reason, it never seems bur- densome in the wearino-. Buffalo Bill's hats are a libel on the genuine Mexican article. His wide brim is all right, but this crown rises to a dii>:nitv and comeliness much like that which characterized the liead-gear of the Puritans. But while the early settler of New England restricted him- self to sober black, the Mexican indulges in all colors, from a beautiful silver gray, through browns, to a gorgeous pur- ple. The crown is encircled by a silver or gold cord, often

STREET SCENES AND SUGGESTIONS. 91

in three or even four coils, and the brim is embroidered

with a wealtli of silver or jjold trimmino-. Straw hats are

of similar shape, and provided with puffed bands of the

same material.

11.

The Mexican dandy is one thing, and now the Indians ^j^^ ^^.^ U^^ ^f ^j^^ |^ -^ -^^^

Dress and Live. " i

another ; but the tendency to hang col- ored banners upon the outer walls of the national life is the same in all classes.

The Indians or peasantry wear white cotton shirts and trousers, that contrast well with their brown skins, and straw hats. They all carry the scrape or blanket that is a necessity for the early morning and evening, and this is always brilliant-hued. The costume of the women is equally simple — generally a white waist and skirt, with a shawl called a reboso. Gay colors are frequently affected in the petticoats and rebosos, and the passion for gewgaw^s and cheap jewelry betrays a universal feminine weakness. Both sexes wear sandals of rawhide, and while the women most frequently cover their heads with the shawl, they arc often hatted like the men.

These people live cheaply, and also very informally in many ways. The climate is on their side, as its mildness necessitates much less in the way of food, clothing, fuel, and shelter than with you. The scale of their life is Bomcthing between the luxuries of your civilization and the vicissitudes of Indian experience in the West; and far inferior to the comforts of the old slave-days of the South. The idea of home-life, as you know it, is wanting. The independent house is unknown to the laborer of the cities, uhose room or rooms are on the ground-floor, where there 13 little light and practically no ventilation. In the sub- 4

92 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

urbs of this city and in the country the Indians usually own their adobe and mud dwellinois or cabins.

It is a strange domestic life which every street stroller can contemplate in all its details. The common laborers nse neither chairs, tables, nor beds, the substitute for the latter being rolls of rush matting ; these rooms are very full of life, but they are bare of furaiture ; a variety of earthen vessels hold the family food and drink, and during the morning hours the women are universally occupied in grinding out corn on a metate, or flat stone. This is a labo- rious preliminary to the preparation of the tortilla, or Indian bread, that is eaten with frijoles, or boiled brown beans, and meat broiled or fried — when the latter can be afforded. A not unpalatable sauce, concocted out of lard, red pepper, onions, and cheese, is a prized accompaniment.

The Indians are not unhappy in their primitive and in- adequate accommodations, but they need better things. To live on an undrained dirt floor, in an unventilated room, above the swamp that underlies all this city, and amid tho sharp daily changes of even a mild climate, is to invite the grim destroyer. He comes very frequently in the form of pneumonia, as might be expected. It is pleasant to note that improved tenements arc now being built, which will bring the laborer nearer to the comforts possessed by those whom he serves so faithfullv. The new tenements have wooden floors raised several feet above the ground, are neat, light, and airy, and open npon courts that are paved, drained, and supplied with water.

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STREET SCENES AND SUGGESTIONS. 95

III.

Water-cairieip, Be"-- 1'^^^ street life of this city is cosmo- gars, and Lottery- politan, but essentially Eastern in many venders. ^^ j^^ features. The aguador, or water-

carrier, is a more familiar figure here than is the letter- carrier who flits about a Northern city, and he is also a more essential public servant. The aguador might have stepped out from a canvas scene of far-away Syria. He wears a kind of leather armor that encircles two great jars depending from the head, one before and the other behind, and is the source of the household water-supply. The water of the city is brought over the mammoth aqueducts into the public fountains, and thence it must be obtained for domestic use.

The aguador serves alike the just and the unjust, and he is too busy to be anything but an honest fellow, who speed- ily becomes a very accomplished and popular gossip. The Indian trait of feudal fidelity to places and the ancient customs appears in these water-carriers, who arc in love with their labor and never dream that they lag superfluous on the stage as a mighty poor makeshift for the all-per- vading modern water-pipe. They keep out the plumber, to be sure ; but that lord of the North would be a very liarmless individual in a country where Jack Frost never intrudes in any serious way.

Beggars are as plenty as fleas, and the foreigner is made the victim of both pests. The flea enforces liis claims with a pair of sharp nippers, and the mendicant would like to do likewise ; the former is principally felt, and the latter is always seen. Every corner, well-nigh each step, brings a pitiable applicant for alms, and one speedily observes that blindness is exceedingly common in this rarefied air

96

MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

CHARACTEEISTIC SHOP-FRONTS.

and blinding Jiglit, insomuch that extraordinary precau- tions are necessary to protect the eyes.

In going from brilliantly-hghted theatres into the night air pleasure-seekers cover their eyes for a season so as to make the readjustment less trying. Those having \yeak- ness of the eyes may well exercise great caution in coming to Mexico, and the least that tliey can do will be to fore- go reading in the cars.

It is noticeable that no law of the street prevails; pe- destrians do not turn to the ri^jht as with you, for this is a " go-as-you-please " place. Each person looks out for

STREET SCENES AND SUGGESTIONS. 97

himself or Lerself, dodging now this way and now that. All evidence of caste vanishes on the sidewalk, and no beggar or servant gives you any right of way ; in this much we are as sturdily democratic as an American caucus. The venders of lottery-tickets, men, women, and chil- dren, are scarcely less importunate than the beggars, and from their sales the government derives a yearly revenue that rises above $800,000. Here is another legacy from Spain ; and as the tickets are sold for a real, it is made easy for the tourist to temporarily pocket his scruples and invest. The resident forei^'ners seem to be alwavs buying lottery-tickets, but not one of them has told of drawing a prize. AYhen, therefore, a late arrival came within one of the lucky number at the current drawing, and had sternly refused to pay out one real for the prize that lay under his eyes — well, he piously professed to es- teem himself supremely fortunate in having so narrowly escaped the clutches of the devil !

IV.

It will have to be admitted, men and

The All-pervasive 1 .i ^i i ^i r v i. i i. j

Odors brethren, that the liveliest and most des-

potic impressions produced by this an- cient city appeal to the sense of smell. The odors run from colossal sizes of stench down to a minute but per- sistent unpleasantness — for the supply is most extensive, and some of these bad smells have been in stock for five hundred years. This is a demonstrable fact. The attempt to discharge the sewage of the city into the lake that lies nearly on a level with the streets is a failure, and nothing like a thorough flushing of the sewers has taken place for liundreds of years. Thus the filth of centuries has ac- cumulated under these pavements, and the evil spirits cm-

98 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

bodied in it make their escape when they can, a few at a time perhaps, so that some are always abroad.

The people who walk these streets owe their lives to the lofty location of the city. They have abundantly invited annihilation, but the upper classes appear to be as long lived here as in any well-drained city. The heavy weekly death-roll strikes the peons, who must most closely asso- ciate with the dank, stinking earth of the old portion of this city. The newer parts of the town are pleasant and apparently healthful.

The personality of these smells, by the way, is miost striking. Each street and corner produces its own odor, so that the old resident ou^'ht to be able to walk blindfolded over the ancient city, and know always just where he stands. But, like many equally plausible theories, this one fails in the test. Even the most scnsitiv^e New EnHand noses soon lose all power of discrimination, and, indeed, come to be rather partial to an antique smell. The enjoy- ment is acquired, like a love for Limburger cheese. It is a fortunate thino; that curios of this kind are not trans- plantable, else a five hundred-years-old smell would accom- pany each returning pilgrim — if he escaped the chills and fever, for when that strikes one it acts as an entire antidote to any fondness for old hric-a-hrac of this kind.

V.

After the morning roll and cup of cof-

Shoppers, and the e i i i r i. i i. •>.

Army and Navy, fcc— people breakfast here at noon— it pays one to loaf about the Plaza Mayor. The tide of shoppers is now at the full, and beautiful women who come on foot and in elegant carriages arc as abundant and intent on each passing purchase as if this were New York.

STEEET SCENES AND SUGGESTIONS. 99

Turning to the plaza, however, the scene is foreign. The dusky soldiers quartered over in the government palaco are out on parade, and there are novel things about thera. Some days they appear in uniforms of dark bkie, and on others they are arrayed in white apparel, even to the caps. The soldiers wear the leather sandal of the peasantry, for here the climate necessitates no protection for the ankle or instep, and this offers the most comfortable and convenient shoeing. They do not keep step in marching, and present a most disorderly line to an eye trained to the exact move- ments of armed men. It is a curious fact, too, that the military bands do not step to the time of their music — for no better musical organizations exist. When they pass, producing magnificent strains of melody, one is curious to know how they succeed in keeping out of step — but they do it, every time !

Latterly the government has employed the army some- what in public works, and these men of war carry gunny- bags of dirt as naturally as any peon. AVhilc the army as a unit is a mighty, yes, a controlling, factor in Mexican af- fairs, as an individual the soldier is a pretty poor stick. The ranks are largely recruited from the criminals of the country, and prisoners are sentenced to the army. Tho of- ficers are good men, trained in the national military school, and the soldiers are never stationed long in one place lest they form local alliances and foment disturbances. The wives of the soldiers go with them about the country as camp-followers, but arc obliged to live outside tho barracks.

The Mexican army is said to number about 50,000 men — this must be a large estimate — and in addition to the national forces each state has its militia. The latter more frequently figure in the local disturbances, that cause more excitement as a rule to the American newspapers than to

100 MEXICO OF TO-DAY. »

the people of this city. The regular cavalry numbers four- teen regiments, who muster about GOOO soldierly appear- ino- men, who ride like centaurs.

Attached to the army is a unique body of men, who have been called the finest mounted troop in the world. They are the Rurales, mounted patrols. " This is Mexico !" exclaimed the people on September 16, when these men swept by the palace, 3000 strong, the most attractive feature of the crvand review. Here is a fascinatino; relic of bri2:and- age — a sort of dashing display that calls to mind the Pirates of Penzance ; for these men have been drawn to the service of law and order much as frontier communities in the United States used to make an efficient sheriff out of a noted desperado. Energy once rcprchensibly misdirected is made to serve the public good. These men were, many of them, once highway freebooters, such as robbed stages, until the proprietors of lines were frequently compelled to compromise by paying heavy toll. They made travelling in this country a serious peril. General Diaz negotiated a new order of thino;s somethino- after this fashion : He sent for the leaders, inquired how much brigandage paid on the average, and then asked whether they would not prefer to receive that sum in a settled income. Diplomacy won the day. The interview closed with an offer of $40 a month, the men to find horses and equipments, and thus were the terrors of the country organized into guards to protect the rural districts. The new wav suits them and o-ratifies the public even more. Now for the picture. Imagine stalwart men, whose horsemanship is perfect, clad in leather suits profusely ornamented with silver, wearing gray sombreros; their saddles the most expensive and ornate; the horses of each band of a color, and matched to perfection ; over each horseman's back a carbine, and bound on the saddle behind

MEXICAN 80LDIEU ON GUARD.

STREET SCENES AND SUGGESTIONS. 103

liim a gay scrape — the animals in perfect line as they gal- lop by ; now black chargers, then chestnut, and next pie- bald— and even horses clothed in leather, as were the steeds of the ancient knights of Spain. This, indeed, is a raar- vellonsly characteristic thing — " this is Mexico !"

The naval force consists of fourteen gunboats, and while we of the interior see little of the navy, that chief-engineer comino; down the street — a Yankee who held a o-overnment clerkship when Andrew Johnson was in the White House — seems to justify this mention. He is np from Vera Cruz on leave, and will never leave this hot country to live again

in the United States.

YT.

The Indian dialect is frequently heard ^ ^f'i? '* -^ T^ i?f"°' in the streets, and those who speak it

and Electric Light. ' i

always seem busy about something. They are trained porters, wonted to carrying heavy burdens, and are as patient as the universal donkey, but far more lively and intelligent. They pour into the city from all the region about with fruits or chickens, sometimes coming from one hundred miles away to find a market for their petty wares. Yery often they take up a dog-trot, of which they never seem to tire, which enables them to cover long distances with surprising rapidity.

The wires that you have not vet succeeded in forcinix under ground arc stretched above this ancient square. The telegraph is in extensive use, including the government lines, those owned by the states of Zacatecas, Morclos, Hi- dalgo, and Michoacan, private lines in the states of Jalisco and Yera Cruz, and four railroad lines — the Central, Na- tional, Mexican, and Morelos. The electric light, too, sets up its feeble nightly substitute for the glory of the days.

What " Hello, Central !'' may be in Spanish, I do not 4*

104 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

know, but its equivalent is heard at all hours of the day. The Mexican Telephone Company is under the management of M. L. Guireaud, a native of New Orleans and a very push- ino* business man. Several of the small telephone companies have been put under his charge with improved results. The government makes extensive use of the telephone, and it is quite generally patronized, not only at the capital but in the chief towns of the interior. On this table-land tho telephone ^vorhs with remarkable clearness, and is easily available for long-distance talking. The capital invested in the telephone is United States money, and there seems to be a fair prospect that the investors will eventually get some dividends. At present it is evidence of the Avorld- wide over-expansion of such business ventures.

CHAPTER YIII.

A TVELL-ORDERED CAPITAL. I.

Vital as arc tlie deficiencies in real re- How the Puiqne Shops 11. . 1

r. 1 f ^ publican a;overnment, and unprocjressive

are Regulated. i ^ ' in

as the business methods employed appear to American eves, there are thino^s to be learned in Mexico. This capital city is governed sternly, "with more than a hint of despotic methods, but the result as a whole is good or- der, and there are points of efficiency that cities in the United States might profit by. Take the liquor question, of which the cities of the United States know something.

All over the city of Mexico, flaming out more gaudily than a tea store in your cities, and also far more artistically decorated, are the pulque (poolka) shops. Therein the na- tional tipple is dispensed in a never-ending stream, save that each night at six o'clock the flow is temporarily checked. No more pulque can be sold until the next morning. The law is as inexorable as were the enactments of the Medes and Persians, and none appear to be so bold as to evade it.

" The prevalent vices of Mexico " — says David II. Stro- ther, late consul-general, and Porte Crayon of long ago — " arc gambling, drunkenness, and fighting, the Indian pop- ulation being especially liasty with their knives." That last specification is graphically put, and the whole indict- ment establishes one great fact. These people arc true

106 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

Southrons — mercurial, musical, liglit-liearted, impulsive, and about as ready ^vitli the blade as are Italians or Span- iards of the same order of life. Give them pulque at night, as you feed liquor to the heterogeneous Old World peo- ples who make up so considerable a share in the population of your great cities, and these streets would be turbulent and to a large degree unsafe loitering-places for honest men. The government says no, and there are not two sides to its dictum. Hence the streets are quiet and un- disturbed to a remarkable degree, so that the tourist may wander about at will with none to molest or make him afraid.

Thus much for the Aztecs, or Indians. The upper classes are under a different regime, and gilded barrooms and restaurants do an unchecked evenino; business ; but want of money serves as an iron hand to debar the en- trance of the common people within such doors. The other class do not abuse their privileges, and the only noisy intoxication noted was traceable to some Americans.

This gives a peg on which to hang a general observation regarding international misconceptions. The Mexican who stravs up into the minino- regions of the United States and there exhibits some of the worst failino-s of the lowest side of life here is accepted as a standard by which cer- tain Americans pass a superficial estimate on this people. It is also true that coarse adventurers or irresponsible bummers amono; the some four hundred Americans who constitute our colony here offer an undesirable style of character that serves to misrepresent the people of the United States to refined residents of Mexico. Here, as in Europe, our swaggering, assertive, and carelessly discourte- ous element insists upon occupying a front seat upon many occasions.

A WELL-ORDERED CAPITAL. 107

II.

The Mexican had his pal que before

The Character rmd ^ ^

Manufacture of the tlie clavs of the Montezumas, and no National Beverage, j^-,^,.^ ^^.^^^-^ which it is absent satisfies his

soul. This national bevera<^e is the fermented juice of the maguey — known to American hothouses as the cen- tury-plant. Here it is not allowed to flower, for the natives know a trick worth two of that. They extract the heart of the plant at flowering time — it blooms much more frequently here than under your skies — the cavity fills with a precious sap, and this last is sucked two or three times a day into the body of a long gourd. This is emptied into a pig-skin and the juice is fermented. The result is a liquor that resembles koumiss, in milky appear- ance, contains water, gluten, and alcohol, and is said to taste something like beer; but the fermentation in fresh liides imparts such a putrid odor to the popular liquid that most visitors are willing to accept the opinion of others as to its qualities. In fact it does not do to ponder just about dinner-time over the statement that 250,000 pints of this highly-scented stuff are daily consumed in this city. Colonel Sellers calculated that the inhabitants of Asia were bound to buy his eye-water, but it is certain that Mexicans are always going to want puhjue, and one is not surprised to discover clever Yankees busily figuring on this fact. A single plant is said to produce about 125 quarts of juice, after which it dies; but the old roots send out new shoots, and the plants alternate in their yield. The maguey is hardy, and requires little cultivation, while some grounds devoted to it arc said to produce a revenue of $10,000 a year. Of all this one cannot speak very in- telliirentlv, but U. M. Tulsifcr, of tlie Boston Herald, is

108 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

president of a company that is to test tlie profitableness of pulque-making.

In the district of Tequila this plant has special virtues, and is more satisfactorily employed in the production of the agreeable liquor bearing the name of that region. Tequila is colorless, and has the strength and flavor of Scotch whiskey, being made after a recipe which was used before Cortez saw Mexico. Mescal is a liquor obtained from the fleshy and whiter part of the leaves of the maguey- plant, and resembles Holland gin. The medicinal proper- ties claimed for pulque are a good deal like those attached to koumiss, it being a great promoter of digestion and sleep, and of avail in nervous diseases. Its intoxicating properties, when freely indulged in, are of an ugly char- acter, resembling perhaps a rural, hard-cider drunk.

The sugar-growing states produce large quantities of aguardiente, an excellent brandy that is distilled from cane juice, the total annual product being valued at over $2,000,000. Where the American would gulp down whis- key the Mexican gentleman will call for brandy. The wine consumed in Mexico — and it is as universal in res- taurants and hotels as if this were a Continental country — is chiefly imported from France or Spain ; but much of this soil is admirably adapted to grape culture, and some good native wines are show^n. A very good article of beer is made at Toluca, but St. Louis lager, at fifty cents a bot- tle, is much used.

III.

From the discussion of liquor to an

Public Order and Law- •, -iiAi r • i. •

•era acquaintance with the police is not in

this case a strained transition. "The

force" appears to be an excellent one, and it is clothed

with arbitrary and apparently semi-judicial powers. " Se-

A WELL-ORDERED CAPITAL. 109

renos," the officers are called, in lien of our English appel- lation of " cops," " bobbies," or " peelers " — for a nickname the guardians of the public peace always will bear. These men are well drilled and affable, but firm — verv. Thev are stationed in the centre of the roadway, and wear effi- cient-looking revolvers in plain sight. If a domestic disa- greement occurs the policeman is ever ready to step in and settle it, and liis verdict is accepted with unquestioning docility. lie imparts information courteously, but if a malefactor seeks to escape him or disobeys a call to halt, the sereno shoots with marked ability. Such readiness leads the peons to respect and admire him. The police- man is furnished witli a lantern at night, which he places exactly in the centre of the street, and the hackmen are particular not to disturb it. To assure his activity and vigilance, he is made to blow a whistle at allotted periods durino- the nio-ht hours. The streets are illuminated with gas or the electric light, but the lantern is often useful in penetrating dark corners or houses.

It is said, by the wa}', that the lower courts of this city sustain an excellent reputation for dealing out even-handed justice, rich and poor faring alike at their hands. Police- court lawyers must be as abundant as in some Northern cities, for the chief ambition of the young Mexican seems to be to don a long coat and be a lawyer — a condition of things which does not conduce to prosperous and useful citizenship, and is much deprecated by the newspapers.

IV.

A\ hilc American life-insurance compa-

A Quaint Fire Depart- • ■, ■ ±\ ' • \ • • xi •

T,,o,.t "ics arc Qomii: a thrivmi? business m this

city, there is no opening for fire insur- ance. The capital is virtually fire-proof, the liouses being

110 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

constructed of stone, sun-dried brick, tiles, or other non- combustible materials. The stairways arc stone, and tlic roofs and- floors of brick or cement. But even where no fire is used for heating, curtains sometimes catch the flames from gas or lamp, or the goods in a store or warehouse are imperilled. On emergencies like these an antiquated fire department materializes. Its " machines" would make tlie chief engineer of an American fire department hold his sides for a week. The antique and petite fire-ens^ine was made in Brussels some forty years or so ago, but it shines like a Xew England andiron, and is the idol of the firemen. A grave compliment to its grandeur, tendered to the men grouped around it, won the hearts of the brown-faced fire- laddies, and they simultaneously poured out the gracious acknowledgment: "A thousand thanks!" Other para- phernalia of the department, which was of an equally prim- itive character, bore the mark of a London maker. It may be added that men o-row old and die without seeinc: this department in action.

V.

^^ „ ,. , A compensation of life in this city may

The Paradise where ^ _ ^ J J

liackmen are Reg- be found in its admirable cab svstem.

uiatcd. There is one place on this continent where

the hackman is ruled with a strong hand, and perhaps a semi-despotic government was necessary to achieve his over- throw. The same class lines that are recoo-nized in the railroad and horse-cars appear in the hack system. Coaches bearing a blue flag are of the first class, and cost 81 an hour on week days ; a red flag marks the second class, price 75 cents an hour; while the third-class carriages dis- play a white flag, and the drivers are entitled to 50 cents an hour, and on feast days these rates are doubled. The

A WELL-ORDERED CAPITAL. m

above prices per hour buy the coach, and you may fill it ^vith four people if so disposed. "When you liire a first- class coach you get one, for as the vehicles lose their gloss they are degraded to the class below, and after more wear they sink to the wliitc flag ; bat the fifty-cent class con- tains coaches that would command full price in New York City, and it is easy to economize in carriage-hire without loss of comfort. The tariff rates arc conspicuously posted in each carriage, and the drivers are numbered.

The sharp oversight that is exercised over these fellows was illustrated in an object lesson given by an American resident. The cabby who drove us to the Hotel San Carlos was not unlike his kind the world over, and insisted upon receiving an overcharge, lie had counted too confidently on the careless acquiescence that distinguishes American tourists, for a visit to the administration in the municipal palace, the supreme governor of hacks, brought swift re- dress. Our friend told his story, gave the number of the carriage, and the driver was speedily summoned and made to disirorire the amount taken above his legal fee. lie also received a vigorous reprimand, and doubtless rejoiced in not being deposed from his seat, which is the extreme pen- alty, not infrequently applied. At least one such case oc- curred duriuir our call on the courteous kinc^ of cabs. One little internal convenience of these carriages is worth not- in"". Passcnfrers are saved the unpleasant necessity of bawling at their driver by the presence of a cord which is attached to his arm ; a pull on this brings the conveyance to a halt, and enables those inside to make their wishes understood.

112 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

VI.

AHorse Railroad that ^hc liorsc-cai' system offers even more Carries Freight aud novel and suo^gcstivc features. The ra- Fuuerals. piclity of progress required from the

mules over tliesc flat streets is something phenomenal, and the frequent contests of speed in ^vhich the drivers delight to indulge adds a fillip to many a ride. They are required to blow a horn at the street crossings, and all day long the air is filled with not unmusical tootina:s. Cars of the first and second classes (yellow and green) leave the central square of the city every ten, fifteen, thirty, and sixty minutes for all parts of the city within a radius of ten miles. "Within the city limits the fare is a medio, or 6^ cents, equal to five cents of American money.

Smokin!X is universal in the street-cars as in railroad coaches, but the tobacco is good, and as the car-windows are always open the women are not incommoded. Uni- versal deference is paid to women, and the Mexican gen- tleman would be shocked at the boorishness shown in a New York horse-car.

The scope of these tramways, as they are called, is en- larged by the addition of freight cars, and goods of all sorts are hauled in every direction without visibly impair- ing the passenger service. The city is netted with nearly a hundred miles of tracks which are all under one manaQ-c- ment. A householder who contemplates moving engages a freio-ht car for the convevance of his ffoods and chattels. This convenient trucking system could not be transplanted amonir the hills of an Eastern citv, but the Mexican idea may not be without its value to some communities on the prairies. • •

The men who laid out this horse-railroad svstcm could

A WELL-ORDERED CAPITAL. 113

give tlie shrewdest Yankee points. They bought up tlie hearses of the city, built funeral-cars, and proposed to transport funerals with neatness and despatch. This they now do. The funeral-cars are draped in black for adults and white for children, the coffin being exposed under a canopy. The mourners occupy a special car following the body, and the impression produced by such corteges is a very peculiar one.

YII.

The postmaster of the city is a wide- awake oincial, who has visited the United States to study our system. His office is now equipped with Yale locks and boxes, and the service is admirable. The letter postage is ten cents, and business men on the line of the Mexican Central road are said to send their correspon- dence across the border to the Texas side for raailino- whence letters come for five cents. Lists of the letters received are posted by bulletins in all the post-offices, so that the traveller can look out for his own mail.

Mexico is ahead of us, it m.iy be added, in having adopted the metric system.

CHAPTER IX.

JOUR^;ALISM AND DIPLOMACY. I.

There is no "nigger squat on the safe-

T \'

Newspaper Work.

No Hijrh Pressure in . ^ 11 c ^r • • r /^ 4.

ty valve of Alexican journalism (to quote

from John llav's dialect versification of an episode in Mississippi River steamboating), insuring the liiglicst possible amount of pressure and the greatest at- tainable speed — but giving the public the fastest service with a total disregard for the lives of those concerned in the race. No one here sits up all night at the end of a telegraph-wire to catch the first information concerning the death of a national hero, the downfall of a ministry, the outbreak of a strike, or the result of an election across the sea. The late news and the timely editorial that must be born in the small hours are things yet afar off. The night- mare of a "beat" or "scoop," that rises indistinct yet most disturbing out of the scramble of a day never in- trudes upon the untroubled slumbers of the local news- paper man.

He rests still in that Sleepy Hollow wherein the Ameri- can editors were pleased to imagine that they toiled before the day of Bennett, Raymond, Greeley, and AVeed. It seems like going back over forty years to that formative period when electricity was first being enlisted in news- gathering, and ^Yllcn the modern newspaper was just be- ginning to organize its marvellous forces. The newspapers

JOURXALISM AND DIPLOMACY. 115

•

of Mexico yet offer a calm liavcn for the essayist and the poet, and above all they are sought by the inveterate and unruffled theorist. Most often he presides over their gen- tle and harmless destinies, issuing his dreams and his radi- cal manifestoes in the face of surrounding turbulence or revolution \vith a placidity of purpose that a general might envv.

The contrast of all this to the remorseless race that is now going on in the United States is, of course, the great- est possible. It is very interesting and restful, but there is nothing inspiring about it. We shall never go back to anything like this, and already the modern Minotaur that we call enterprise has begun to exact victims from Mexico. Several of the dailies in this city are taking half a column of telegraph each day by way of the Galveston cable.

II.

The morning papers are cried on the How the Papers are ^^^ .\^^ ^^^^^,^ ^^^^^j^. ^^jj .^^ ^,^^^

Handled. » '^

of publication, for they generally go to press at 5 p.m. The merciful Mexican editor is thus mer- ciful to himself, and no one blames him for his want of self-sacrifice. " Mafiana" (to-morrow) is a word in universal use, the very watchword of Mexico. It springs to the lips of the people in every business transaction as a sort of con- stitutional barrier and protest against rapid methods in any direction. The Yankee who would do business here must not only tolerate but learn to echo " manana," and he must angle to make to-morrow to-day with the inexhaustible pa- tience that distinguishes the successful fisherman.

The Saturday -night papers are sold Sunday, but there are none ready for Monday morning, excepting a special Monday weekly that has been planned to fill this gap.

116 MEXICO OF TO-DAY,

Here, therefore, is a place ^vbere no Sunday newspaper work is done, but those who deprecate such labor \Yill not be able to draw any moral that will avail them in criticis- ing the newspapers of the United States.

Newspapers seem to flourish in a phenomenal way, and the number is so great that one fails to see how most of them live. No criterions that we know are sufficient to justify, much less to account for, this mushroom growth. Not only in this capital city, but in the chief towns of all the states, are newspapers that possess little of those quali- ties that command success with you, and yet they live and thrive, and are boldlv critical of existino; thino;s.

III.

The Leading Journals, ^hc chief daily of the Capital is El their Characteristics Monitor Repuhlicano, a Liberal opposi- and Policy. ^-^^^ ^j^^^^^ having a circulation of 3500

copies. It is owned by Gracia Torres, and is a profitable establishment, for I am told that it clears an annual profit of $40,000. Printers here, by the way, earn $5 or $6 a week. The editor-in-chief, Senor Chavarri, is now serving out a sentence of seven months in Belem penitentiary. The charire airainst him was of incitinij sedition, and his savao;e criticisms were of sucb a character that I doubt whether thev would have been tolerated in the United States.

The weakness of opposition writing here lies in its in- temperance, the editors dealing in the most sweeping charges, going to the length of calling for actual revolt, and yet seldom presenting definite facts upon which their denunciations are shown to rest. With an excitable people, who are without any sound training in republicanism, this sort of thing could easily develop into an actual peril to the government. There are enough exhibitions of despot-

JOURNALISM AND DIPLOMACY. ll7

ism in Mexico, in all conscience, but in dealing "witli sncb a representative case as the above the forms of law are scrupulously observed. Quite likely the government is bound to win in a suit of the character of that brought against Senor Chavarri, but his trial Avas most ably con- ducted for the defence. lie was first sentenced by a lower court, and then the case was appealed to the snpreme tri- bunal, when the verdict was reaffirmed. The best le2;al talent of the country argued the editor's case.

Ul Mordtor RepuhUcano takes short Associated Press despatches via Galveston, and also lias a brief news service from El Paso, Texas. This necessitates going to press somewhat later than is the habit of the other dailies. It has ahvavs been identified with the Libei'al cause, and fouo'lit for existence against the domination of the priests.

There are five other Liberal dailies in this city. El Par- iido Liberal is the organ of General Porfirio Diaz, the presi- dent of the republic. La Repuhlica is the organ of the government, and there are probably times when its editor discovers that late official announcements occupy columns that he had otherwise provided for. A paper of growing importance is £1 ^^acional^ which opposes the government, and is especially devoted to advocating tariff reform and to discussing questions concerning taxation. La Frensa and La Patria are other Liberal dailies. El P ado Federal, which was the mouthpiece of ex-President Gonzales, has just died.

The chief daily paper of the Church party is El Tiemjw, which is fiercely Catholic, and is edited under clerical supervision. It circuhites 2500 copies, and is very bitter against Americans and the railroad system which they have introduced. La Voz de Mexico is also an earnest advocate of Roman Catholicism. Voz de Espana is noticeable be-

118 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

cause it has supported the claims of Guatemala against Mexico.

The penny press possesses considerable foothold here, the chief journal of that sort being El Monitor^ Avhich cir- culates among the common people. El Patriata also sells for a penny. There is in addition a Aveckly cheap paper, El Valedo)% that is conducted by an educated young edi- tor who writes in the street dialect of the lower classes. Such an enterprise might be made a great power for good — or for harm. The men who argue that projects of this kind must be both cheap and nasty will some day be taught that there is a better way, and one quite as short, to pecuniary success.

A novel and successful daily is El Foro, which circulates among the lawyers, and is most ably managed. The fact that this city swarms with members of the bar accounts for its special success.

There is one American daily here, the Two Republics^ and the French daily, Trait cV Union, is said to be very strongly edited.

IV.

The weekly iourn;ils probably number The \yc8kly Press. . .

above thirty, and they deal with every

imaginable interest, from bull-fighting up to science. It is characteristic of the slow and steady Germans that they support only a weekly paper. There are monthly period- icals, reviews, and so on, which help to illustrate the nation- al disposition to theorize over everything. If one were to judge alone from the constitution of the republic, and from the essays and editorials that appear in the press of Mexico, be would look to this as a model country.

There is one admirable weekly paper here in which out-

JOURXALISM AND DIPLOMACY. 119

siders Lave a particular interest. The Mexican Financier, printed in parallel columns of Spanish and English, is a specimen of choice American journalism planted and flour- ishing in this alien soil. It is controlled by the three men who own it — Simon Levy, the founder, who spends much of his time looking after the interests of the paper outside of Mexico; Charles L. Seeger, formerly of Springfield, Mass., publisher; and Fred. R. Guernsey, lately of the Bos- ton Herald, editor. The social and business standinix which these young men have achieved shows in what esteem their work is held by the best people of Mexico. Their unsub- sidized paper is indispensable to those who desire to keep posted on Mexican matters, from the fact that it discusses current affairs with intellia;ence and force from the Mexican side. Its sources of information are the best, and its sym- pathetic consideration for the best interests of this repub- lic does not make it disloyal to the most progressive pur- poses.

Thus the Financier has lately attacked the system by which the large land-owners keep their peons in essential slavery. The laborer who gets in debt to his master must free himself from this pecuniary obligation before going to work elsewhere. This gives a hard master a grip of iron on the improvident peon. Unless the servant is able to persuade some other employer to buy him off, a condition of slavery really exists. It is interesting to observe that this question was promptly taken up by the local papers of various states, and the subject is being thoroughly agitated. In ways like this the Financier is doing wholesome pioneer work, without going into politics. It is not too much to say that the administration cares more for what this inde- pendent and responsible journal — which is read in all parts of the United Slates, in ]*aris, London, and Berlin — may 5

120 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

say of its acts and policy than for many comments in the purely local newspapers. The Finoncier lias made a field for itself.

y.

One is impressed anew here with the v.iue of a Trained ^.^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^ Vx\\iG^ States lags behind Diplomatic Service. _ ^

the older nations of the world in the

efficiency of her diplomatic service. The work of building up a non-partisan civil service must be made to include the establishment of a permanent foreign service, with pro- motion for merit and a stable tenure. Diplomacy will have to be recognized as a profession, the mastery of which everywhere depends on long training, in which lin- guistic acquirement is one of the prime requisites.

The new American minister. General Jackson, who suc- ceeded Judge Morgan, is a very able gentleman of a poet- ical temperament and a poor memory for faces. lie served in a subordinate capacity at Vienna many years ago, and at his time of life it is too much to expect that he can at once do equal service with a professional diplomat like Lionel Garden, the exceptionally qualified British special agent long located here, who has just been promoted by his government. We shall some day recognize that a healthy foreign trade must be largely dependent upon alert, expert, and thorough diplomatic pushing.

The departure of Minister Morgan was accompanied by tho removal of Gonsul-General Strother, whose six years of service had made him a most useful representative of the United States. If Secretary Bayard has succeeded in rein- forcing General Jackson with a consul-general who speaks Spanish and knows even a little about Mexico and tho ways of her people, he has done something towards making good the place of an admirable public servant.

JOURXALISM AND DIPLOMACY. 12I

It may be said tliat Mr. Bayard's sharp work in sendinj^ the United States marines down South has given him a reputation in Mexico, and his prompt attention to all sug- gestions that the rights of American citizens are being in- terfered with anywhere on this continent is looked on with something like apprehension. The South American repre- sentatives at the Mexican capital agree that the new ad- ministration is regarded as a strong one all over the south- ern portion of the American continent, and it will pay the secretary to look well after our diplomatic agents.

Good ministers and consuls command respect for our government, and bad ones bring gross discredit on the United States. Some shameful past examples in South America are quoted everywhere. " As drunk as the Amer- ican minister" was once a common comparison in one of the republics. The policy of filling our consular service with worn-out political hacks, and making party service the sole ground for diplomatic appointment, should come to an end. Just how much the United States suffers from the lack of a permanent diplomatic corps only residents out of the country can fully apprecicite.

CHAPTER X.

A BULL-FIGHT AT TOLUCA. I

Amoxo other European resemblances Genesis of the Bull- ^^.-j^j^i^ ^|^^ ^^^^^.j^^ ^^^^^ j^^^.^ j^ ^1^^ (.^^_

Fight.

tinental Sunday, and the Sunday of Mex- ico shares Avitli that of Spain the shame of perpetuatiui; the bull-fight. The national government frowns upon this brutal relic of the Moors, and no bull-fio;htin2: exhibitions are permitted within the federal district; but the custom hangs upon the outskirts of the forbidden ground, and it thrives in all the states.

Truly the evil that men do lives after them, and it was easy to graft this Spanish usage so that it flourishes here as tenaciouslv as thouo-h native to the soil. The Toltecs offered flowers and fruits and ripe grain to propitiate their gods; that worship was succeeded by the stern and cruel forms of the Aztecs, whose sacrificial stones were ever wet with human blood before hideous graven imao-es; and then came the adroit diplomacies of the Iloman Catholic Church, and on the pagan feast days she supplanted forms that lonir had flourished with her own ceremonials and observ- ances. It was a kindlv exchano-e, enforced to be sure with an iron hand ; but done with the tact that conducted proselyting as a perfected art. As bull-fighting in the Old "World was an advance on, and compromise with, gladiatorial contests, so in Mexico it fed an appetite for blood that had

A BULLFIGHT AT TOLUCA. 123

Lecn awakened by the incredible atrocities committed by the priests of Iluitzilopochtli.

As an historical link the bull-fi<,Hit has its high interest, but as an exhibition seen in the refined \\<Ait of a Christian ao-e it is more than time that it became a memory and a tradition in North America. The faithful reporter, com- missioned to see and exhibit the country as it is, must do his duty ; but the average visitor, particularly he of Puri- tan antecedents, will be in straits of perplexity over this matter.

At this point the power of personal example usually ap- pears to win the day, clothed in the famous coat that par- tially wraps about the historic figure of Uncle Hannibal Hamlin of Maine. The venerable ex-vice-president, when adorning the court of Spain as minister of the United States, is reported to have witnessed a bull-fight, and also to have been accompanied by Mrs. Hamlin. If a sojourner from that city in Maine where the Rev. Dr. Pond for a lonsj lifetime was the Hercules of an antique theology could see this thing — the steps of the sophistic reasoning will be clear to every mind — why may not the debating tourist g:o ? And so it comes about that many a man follows the old claw-hammer, and his wife is shielded by the skirts of the wife of an American minister and patriot, as both put an end to cogitation by appearing in the Plaza de Toros.

Whatever may be thought of the argument that thus triumphs, one visit doubtless suffices for the average man, and is more than enough for the ordinary woman.

II.

Scenery nlon- the Imagine a morning such as licralds one Line of the National of thosc misplaccd Junc davs that occa- Kaiiroad. sionally stray into September in Massa-

124 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

cliusctts — cloudless and baliny, full of tlie mellow sunlio-ht, musical with the melody of birds, and fragrant with the rich odors of tropical vegetation — that is outside of the malodorous old city limits.

The capital is early astir with women who arc attired for church, and men who generally are not on piety bent. Perhaps a hundred Roman Catholic churches arc open to worshippers, chief of them all the noble cathedral, and the edifices devoted to Protestant uses are by no means neg- lected. The shops and stores are all open until noon, and business is brisk on this dav when customers are at leisure.

It takes no intimate acquaintance with the population to discover that a considerable portion of the festively ar- raved thronij are hurrvinu; towards the railroads that run to cities where the bull-ring will be opened in the after- noon. The Mexican National Railway, one of the Amer- ican lines, has been heralding for a week, on gay posters, the way to Toliica, a place of about 12,000 inhabitants, the capital of the state of that name, and some three hours and a half, and forty-five miles, from the city of Mexico.

The ride thither encompasses scenery of great variety, the region being rugged to a degree that makes railroading a notable achievement, even for this narrow-gauge track. Great mountains are encircled and crossed in a way to open vast stretches of valley views that reveal the agricultural richness of the intervals. Land not adapted to other pur- [)oses is utilized to grow extensive patches of the maguey- plant, from which the most desirable of the national bever- ages is extracted. At Rio Hondo the elevation is 7550 feet, and we arc about 200 feet above the city of Mexico ; then the track enters the foothills of the mountain ridge that forms the western boundary of the valley of Mexico ; some notable rock-cuts and difficult bridging are passed ; tlicn a

A BULL-FIGHT AT TOLUCA. 125

most attractive, sunlit valley opens, rich in cincolates or cribs of golden corn ; next a considerable tunnel and more abrupt climbing brings, through an opening in the hills, a view of the lordly city of Mexico and the mountains be- yond, such as could only come under a Southern sky and sun. The lakes shine as mirrors without a flaw. Stunted pines and spruces struggle along the ascending track as re- minders of the Rocky Mountain region, until the train halts at Cima. This is the summit or divide, 9974 feet above tide-water, the highest point of the National road, and the loftiest station in the country.

Thence we descend, and ere long the extinct volcano of Nevado de Toluca looms up twenty miles away. This most eloquent preacher appeals to the depths of human nature from his exalted pulpit and altar in the region of eternal snow, 15,156 feet above us. The distinctive feat- ures of Mexican life are all to be seen during the remainder of the journey to Toluca, but they must go unrecorded. The mountain overawes petty incident with easy majesty, and takes a supreme hold on the attention. And this is a morning sermon that cannot be reported.

This National line — the one road in Mexico that does not grant free passes — appears to be admirably managed. Its hands are all Americans, Western and Southern boys, kindly and most competent employees. They take a lively interest in tourists from the United States, love to gossip and hear about things at the North ; but to a man they profess loyal attachment to the National road and to Mex- ico. We are advised that a certain restaurant near the depot sets a famous turkey dinner, in which American dishes are reinforced by the choicest Mexican delicacies, and the grateful reality falls nothing short of the adver- tisement.

A State Capital and the Volcano.

126 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

iir.

Oar duty to the carnal man being thus well discharged, we make a decorous entry into the well-built and thrivino: town of Toluca, whose hot and dusty main street stretches away to end in the picturesque and shaded plaza or public square. One is pleasantly impressed by the fact that the place is clean and well drained. It boasts an inartistic but preten- tious statue to the patriot Hidalgo.

To leave Toluca without ascending the volcano, one of the many places which Baron von Humboldt made famous, is a sore trial, for 'tis said that from that height, on a clear day, one can see the Pacific Ocean, one hundred and sixty miles away. The journey is not a difficult one to make, though the tourist will need to provide a full camping outfit therefor.

The city is a miniature of the big capital, with its square and garden, its churches and governmental palace. The omnipresent soldiers loaf about the entrance of the latter, but it is impossible to gain admittance to the halls where- in the Legislature of a Mexican state holds sway. It speedily becomes apparent that the inhabitants of Toluca spend their off day in a way that brings to the surface few Cfross exhibitions of license. Thev flood the streets and square, but bear themselves sensibly and quietly, sitting by groups in the sun, strolling about, making neighborly calls, and, above all, doing something to make the day a bright spot in the child-life of the household. No little one seems to be abused by this people, and tenderness towards the young and veneration and care for the aged appear to be almost fixed rules of conduct with all classes.

The mo3t lovable side of Mexican character — barring a

A BULL-FIGHT AT TOLUCA. 127

good deal of irregular living — centres in their domestic virtues. Great students of the race tell us that man is the onlv animal that abuses the female. The observation that produced this melancholy truism was not supplied with its material by Mexicans, much as these people cherish bull- fiirhtino;, or indulo:c in cock-pits that are not unknown to New England. There is a gentle and chivalrous quality to be credited over against that cruel streak of savagery com- ing down from an Indian and a Castilian ancestry.

Since the Roman Catholic Church has so largely lost its hold here, the people do not mingle enough religion with their Sundays, but it must be said, also, that the day is one of outward order, an occasion for physical rest and outdoor recreation. The families are not divided on Sun- days, and the restraining influences that go with the home visibly exercise their power. The scene on the plaza of Toluca was a most interesting one. Husband and wife watched the fish that circled about the basin of the foun- tain with as mnch gusto as did their offspring, and parents shared the quiet, juvenile employments of the children. During many hours only one slightly tipsy man marred the scene, and he was quickly and quietly suppressed by the police, while the universal good-humor was never be- trayed into anything approaching a disagreement. Smiles were universal and politeness habitual. Could that much be said of a similar day in any city of the United States?

IV.

This combat of men with bulls is set

The Bull-Ring and c c i y ^ i • i x

, _ , " for four o clock, and is supposed to crown

the Spectators. ' * * ^

the pleasures of the day. Not knowing where the bull-fighting is to take place, wc drift with the crowd as it begins to move, animated by a common pur- 5*

128 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

pose. This carries us to the Plaza de Toros, a wooden anipLitlieatre, built about a circus-ring, around wLich tbe tiers of seats rise to a circle of boxes above them. Mr. Carter, \vho is in charge of the telegraph service of the National road, and has seen this sort of thing before, sniffs at the Avooden structure and tells of more splendid rings that are surrounded by walls of stone.

The entrance is already choked by men, women, and horses, who are kept in order by a file of soldiers, while inside a brass band has struck up an inspiriting air. An usher escorts the party to a box on the shady or aristocratic side of the circle. It seems that sittings on the sunny side are cheaper, and this is fortunate, for the tiers over against us fairly swarm with life. The Indians sit there as happy as lizards, more than content under a heat that would broil an American. There is massed color of a robust, kaleido- scopic splendor that makes the European dress a mean thing, and dulls the finer glory of the Mexican gentleman. The peons are clothed in cotton, against which the brown liands, faces, and necks gleam out richly under the broad liats, and each bears his scrape of red, bine, brown, gray, royal purple, or mixed coloring ; these wraps are disposed in numberless ways that combine to heighten the gorgeous- ness of the picture. The musicians are also Indians, who differ in no respect from their fellows as to dress, and they play divinely without a printed note. Probably they can- not read, for music seems to be a u!iiversal endowment. Men and women are grouped together, the latter wearing shawls with that mysterious certainty that prevents their fallinix from the head unless the wearer so wills it. These rebosos swell the wave of color. On one side of the half-circle the local magnates are on exhibition, and in the boxes arc some of the beauties of the city, who act

A BULL-FIGHT AT TOLUCA. 129

about as their sisters do at a horse-race in the United States.

Soon the whole throng are swayed by a spasm of impa- tience, and tlic hoarse cries of the peons rise like a com- plaint of the gallery-gods. Music has no power to soothe this clamorous demand for the day's spectacle, and the hubbub is only quieted by the opening of the first act.

V.

The grand procession, composed of all The reiformers and ^j^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^,^ ^|^^ |^^^|j ^^^ ^.^^crs. their Work.

Here is a trio of red-blanketed mules who will be called into service later to drag off the slaughtered bull. The picadorcs are the two horsemen, whose model should be the Spanish knights of old ; they are each armed with a lance, and bestride wretched specimens of horse- flesh that are deemed only fit for death. Then come the lialf-dozen chulos, men on foot, who are gayly decked with ribbons and wear highly-colored cloaks. Next, as chief actor, the star of the occasion and fully conscious of it, is the matador. His companion, of almost equal importance, bears the bandcrillos, whose character and uses will appear later.

The procession moves around the circle, the mules re- tire, and preparations for business arc in order. At con- venient distances about the circle, and close to the wooden wall, are erected barriers behind which the toreadores or bull-fi<rhters mav retire when hard pressed by their adver- sary. The chulos distribute themselves in the spaces be- tween the barriers, ready with brilliant cloths to tease the bull; the horsemen, who are protected with a sole-leather armor, as are the sorry steeds, raise their lances for the on- slanHit: and the matador, who is to kill the animal with

130 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

his long, slender sword, puts on an air of attention. All is ready ; enter bull number one.

It is a young, black creature, not of the first order of bravery, but he makes a fair fight for life. He catches sight of one of the horsemen and makes a vicious plunge for him ; the rider bears him off with the lance, pricking the skin of the bull, who darts for the other horseman ; the red, yellow, and purple cloths are "waved at him, and he is diverted into rushins^ agfain and aijain after the chu- los, who spring behind the barriers against which the bull's horns crash at very short intervals; the little circle is a very busy and exciting arena, for now the bull has run his horn into the belly of one of the horses, and its rider has been overthrown and has taken flio-ht to a barrier. The chulos rush forward and endeavor to attract the bull, while the other horseman shouts a defiance that calls the bull to his side. Then the prostrate horse is raised and proves to be little injured. The bull skirts the ring and sends all his tormentors flvinc: to cover; but he is becrinninor to lose pluck.

It is now in order for the horsemen to retire, and the chulos advance their insfenious torture another stao-e. One of them comes to the front bearinij the bandcrillos — barbed darts, about two feet long, ornamented with colored paper plumes — which he sticks into the neck of the animal, dex- terously jumping one side to avoid his attacks. The smart of this indignity rouses the bull to new fury. Now comes the final act of the traijedv. The matador advances alone and the bull dives at him, head down. This is an expert fellow, for he swerves to escape the attack, and with deadly precision plunges his sword " between the left shoulder and the blade " — the black bull falls, shudders, and is dead. It is liigh art of its kind, and the audience are delighted.

A BULLFIGHT AT TOLUCA. 131

The smootli-faced bull-sticker — clad in knee-breeches of blue, with his hair in a queue, and a coat of purple and gold — visibly swells with pride.

It is now possible to differentiate the characters and to understand the play. This is a tragedy in three acts, and its bloody properties vary, with always the certainty that tl'.e life of the bull will be taken. He can win the applause of the crowd that pen his agony about by selling life dear- Iv, for if he wounds or kills in return the delio;ht of the spectators is greatly enhanced, so much that on rare occa- sions he may win freedom again, but the dumb actor is not posted on all this. He acts out nature, and plays his part well or ill in ignorance of all remote possibilities.

VI.

But to our tragedv. First are the horse-

The LitUe Red Bull , " 1 r - i. i -n j

and the Picadoie. »^^" ^^'^^^ J"''^}' ^^P^^ ^ut not kill, and

whose risk is greater than would be com- fortable to a novice. Then the man who inserts the barbed darts, and who must be agile to escape harm. Last, the athletic butcher who undertakes to plant the long sword in the vital part. The lot of the chulos, who flirt the mad- dening cloths in all the acts and can retreat to cover at any time, is the happiest of all. Theirs is the most boyish and the least dignified share in the "sport."

But now another bull has rushed into the arena, an un- dersized red animal of great pluck. The people are all at- tention, for tliis combatant has a desperate quality that the merest tyro may discover. He flies like an arrow at the nearest picadorc and pierces the belly of the horse even while the rider parries him with the lance ; the entrails of the wounded creature protrude, but he is regarded as good for service yet ; the chulos distract tlic bull only for a

132 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

moment, and tLcn flv ^vLile he is bearino; down on tlie otlier horseman. The reddened horn gleams ^Yickedly, and its owner has learned that lances are not serious. The picadore wards off the attack well, but the onslaught is ir- resistible; that vicious head crashes through to its work, the horns are buried deep in the horse, and steed and rider fall to the earth.

Now see the crowd ! Every man, woman, and cliild is standing, and the din is deafening. Sombreros of every hue, from the straw of the peon to the brown and silver- banded felt, are shied into the rino;. The wretched horse has received his death-wound and is gasping in the throes of dissolution. How will the rider fare ? for there is no mercy in this little red bull. Truly it seems a desperate case. The picadore is pinned for an instant, and ere he can clear liimself or the chulos can rallv to his rescue, that o-orv head is again active. The bull plunges, the man is seen lying on the forehead and face between the w'ide horns, and to all ap- pearance impaled on one of them. Sickening sensations of unavailing sympathy and creeping shudders of disgust gallop over the beholder. But the man clings with a des- perate grip about the neck of the blinded and raging beast. There is blood on his clothing, yet his clasp is strong, and perhaps the horn-thrust will not prove fatal. The other inmates of the ring seem strangely slow, while in reality they have acted with marvellous rapidity, and the bull is overthrown at last. As he falls the unfortunate picadore is pulled awa}'. lie does not faint, there is no gush of blood, and in fact he bears but a scratch on his side, after all.

Moved by a characteristic Southern impulse the people cheer and throw big, round, Mexican dollars at the hero of tlie day, who hobbles about picking up the silver hail until

A BULLFIGHT AT TOLUCA. 133

lie carries off a hatful or more, the happiest man in the state of Mexico. lie has bought fame, and got it cheap.

Meanwhile the cochctero, another sticker, despatches the prostrate bull by thrusting a small dagger into the nape of the neck just above the spinal column. The work is clum- sily performed, and the little bull quivers and kicks and groans. At this one of his teasers twists the tail of the dying brute. That silly piece of cowardice is too much. Hot Southern curses from all about the circle pelt the author of this insult to a game actor, so lately master of the ring ; and a venerable and staid Mexican in one of the boxes breaks a chair to express the indignation that words will not convey. It is a wonder that his example does not prove contagious. Such exhibitions of prevailing and destructive rage are not infrequent.

Thus the little red bull receives hio-h honor in his death — but it is like plaudits sometimes given to men, late and un- appreciated glory.

Reaction follows such tension as this has been, and fortunately we can open our box-door to a balcony which commands a view of the sunlit volcano, whose great, white head sparkles with rosy radiance in the Avestern sun.

But shouts from within announce that another bull has entered. lie is a biij black fellow of onlv avcrao'c spirit. The conditions of the fin-ht have clianixed. The men who just now had more than they could manage on the defen- sive, act on the offensive ; but interest in this speedily Hags, and the bull is lassoed and stabbed in the spine. The mules drag off this bull, as they have taken away Lis two predecessors and the horse.

Another bull of good ability brings the matador into dis- credit by not permitting that dandy to stick him, the liorsc- men lasso him, and the butcher ends his torture.

134 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

One \vonders uliat is done Avitli the flesh of these creat- ures, but probably we shall eat steak to-morrow that has been killed in this way. Mexican beef, by the way, does not compare with ours in flavor ; none of it is grain fed, and the pasturage does not seem to make juicy fatness.

The exercises of the day end with the introduction of a bull with balls on his horns, and the ring is thrown open to the boys, who flirt their scrapes and practise to become bull-fio;hters.

The crowd disperse in good order, and the speci-al train to the city of Mexico discloses not a sign of rowdyism. "We get in town so as to dine most comfortably, after ten o'clock, in the French restaurant out of whose windows Maximilian's ofiicers used to stare at the senoritas.

CHAPTER XI.

THE YOUNG MEN IN POLITICS.

The year 1884 developed the mugwump Appearance of the .^ Mexico, as it did iu the United States,

Mexicau Mugwumps. ' _ '

and what was a natural and inevitable outgrowth of your politics was a phenomenon here. Never- theless, the bold, independent action of the young leaders in Congress, backed by the students of the republic, was not so surprising a thing, in fact, as it might seem on first thought. You will remember that the great middle class of sober, sensible, God-fearing citizenship is wanting here. Any pro- test against despotism and wanton extravagance or mis- government must come from the top or educated class.

The last two years of the administration of President Gonzales had been corrupt and extravagant to such a ruin- ous extent that the finances of tlie country were disordered to the point of bankruptcy, and the people turned instinct- ively towards General Diaz for relief. The prosperity which he had fostered during the four years that ended in 1880 had been wantonly dissipated. It is probably a fact that Diaz was besought to take forcible possession of the government, as had been so often done before ; but he said, in effect if not in words: "No. Let this man serve out his term. The maintenance of the orderly processes of law are worth more to Mexico than present succor." This gives emphasis to that passage in his message which says:

136 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

"For the second time since 1877 the transmission of the executive power of the republic has taken place at the close of the constitutional term, without any accident troubling the ceremony." To this the Mexican Financier appended : " lie might have added that the peaceful transmission of power now occurs for only the third time in the history of the republic ; and he might still further have added that it has occurred now because of the faith that the Mexican people have in his political and personal integrity."

In the closino- weeks of General Gonzales' term he sought to convert the English debt by an issue of new bonds to the amount of $86,000,000. The will of the gov- ernment in such matters had been law to Congress in the past, and this scheme was advanced as having the sanction of General Diaz. All the preliminaries had been concluded, and the matter was presented to the Chamber of Deputies for formal ratification. Objection there was, of course, un- looked for; the project was endorsed very generally by the business men of Mexico, and it had received the approval of a committee of the Chamber.

As studied in the light of the fate which overtook this measure, it is plain that the terms of the bill made possible great frauds and were not desirable in other ways. The de- tails in proof of this are not essential now. It was another adroit opening for public plunder, greater than the more covert schemes that had brought a vast fortune to the soldier-president, and enriched his satellites and henchmen. To act on such a proposition at such a time would have been expected nowhere save in Mexico, but there it was confidently discounted.

That the measure met challenge and defeat means that it provoked a momentous but peaceful revolution, such as this half-baked republic never before had experienced. For the

TUE YOUXG MEN IN POLITICS. 137

first time Congress asserted its constitutional prerogatives. It blocked and rebuked the executive, and refused to com- mit the country to a policy which was at least open to grave criticism. The story of those November debates has been told, but the historic scenes then enacted arc w^ell worth re- calling now as illustrative of the new day that is coming to this hitherto turbulent country.

II.

The Senate convenes in the national crress iu Session.

palace, but the Chamber or Deputies is

housed in the old theatre of Iturbide, over half a mile distant. Let us look in upon that body in session.

The old playhouse is dingy and smoke-clouded, for the honorable deputies puff cigarettes and cigars with tremen- dous assiduity. Even the veteran smoker who may sit among the spectators is moved to quote Daniel Pratt's fa- mous remark, when the college boys undertook to " smoke him out" — "Gentlemen, your speaker is not a ham."

The ample stage is occupied by the president and secre- taries, and above the desk and head of the presiding officer, who corresponds to our speaker, is a red -plush canopy which is surmounted with the gilded eagle of Mexico. Much of the floor of the house is left open, tiers of seats running around the semicircle. The members have no fixed abiding-places, but sit where they please. They arc not provided with desks, and, having no very active con- stituents, do not vote themselves stationery and postage- stamps wherewith to write letters to the dear people. The once resplendent boxes arc set apart for the reporters, who display nothing like the interest in the proceedings that would be shown by their brethren in any American Icgisla-

138 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

live body. Tlicir reports are usually confined to a very brief routine summary. Behind the dingy, gilded fronts of the three galleries spectators are at liberty to ^vatch the proceedings of the lawmakers. The desk of the president is an elaborate structure on which stand brass candelabra, and the secretaries sit at long, green-covered tables on either side. Over the centre of the floor hangs a huge, old-fash- ioned chand(;lier that is a relic from the days of sperm can- dles. AVe passed a file of armed police on our entrance, and these guardians of the peace are posted here and there in the galleries.

Barring the smoking, and that is attended to in a dainty ■way, the decorum is absolute ; no statesman ever tilts liis chair back or places his feet on the railings, sports a tooth- pick or toys with his penknife ; there is no tearing of papers, or clapping of the hands to summon pages. The personnel of the body is Ijigh. All arc well dressed and of gentlemanly demeanor. No member ■wears the national costume, but all are clad in dark, European garments, topped off with a silk hat or Derby. The Aztec tinge is scarcely discernible, most of the deputies being as Avhite as any body of American men. Among these picked representa- tives of the republic — lawyers, soldiers, scholars, and busi- ness men — are some striking faces, and inquiry shows that these belonir to men who have made their mark here or elsewhere.

The president is Signor Limantaur, of French descent, who owns a palace on Profesa Street. He calls the body to order by ringing a bell. Soon the clerk is reading a communication from the minister of finance scttinsj forth

CD

the state of the country, and he employs the same clear but

monotonous tone that is characteristic of all reading clerks.

The oratory of this people is said to be impetuous, fluent,

THE YOUNG ilEX IX POLITICS. 139

attractive, and somewhat wanting in solid qualities — more Celtic than Websterian.

III.

Dinz Mirou aud the The astonishing corruption that had Victory of the siu- flourished under President Gonzales was talked about everywhere in 1884, but de- nunciation of it was confined to private speech. All men knew that the orator who should assume to tell the truth about this evil in high places would risk liberty if not life in the undertaking. No political campaigns for the dis- cussion of men and measures and principles here precede a national election, and in a land habituated to military domination such free discussion will have to be a plant of slow growth under the best- auspices. AYith a military man in the presidency, the hardihood of Diaz Miron, of Vera Cruz, the youngest member of the Chamber, in assuming to defy the government, will be appreciated. Men who dared in this way might look to find themselves in private life, or languishing in prison, or banished to Yucatan. Pre- texts for such penalties are easy to find when an unscru- pulous central power seeks them.

Knowing all that, this pale young lawyer, only twenty- six years old, decided to tell the truth. He took coun- sel of his own patriotism, crossed the floor, mounted the tribune, and faced the deputies — a thin-faced, mustached, feeble-looking bov, whose hair rose in a black shock — and began his attack on Gonzales and the aijreement made in London for the conversion into new bonds of the old debt due English bondholders, in these words : " I rise to sacri- fice ambition to honor. I abandon all hopes of entering Congress again rather than approve what will be the ruin of my country." In a rapid, nervous way, but with a voice

140

MEXICO OF TO-DAY

SALVATOR DIAZ MIKON.

that was heard all over the buildinjx, he exhibited the weak- nesses of the pending agreement, and arraigned the presi- dent with unsparing severity for the misdeeds of the ad- ministration. It was a comprehensive indictment for which the bond question opened the way. lie closed by moving to postpone the whole subject until after the inauguration of Diaz. In manner, in matter, and in effect it was a re- markable performance.

THE YOUXG MEX IX POLITICS. 141

That speech gave Miron a backing- such as no one Avonld have looked for, and "Nvas the spark tliat fired the young life of Mexico \i\t]\ serious purpose, and woke it to instant action. "^Yithin twenty-four hours the students were or- ganized against the government so as to constitute a new force in politics. They cheered Miron to the echo, aroused the people, and filled the galleries. Their enthusiasm car- ried them to the length of extreme disrespect to the sup- porters of the government hill, and the police were unable to quell their ardor durino- the manv davs over which the debate was continued.

Popular support was freely given to the students in their defiance of a government which had forfeited the respect of the governed, and this solid opinion, thus voiced, final- ly carried the day. The city was in a turmoil, the mili- tary was abroad, doors and windows were bolted and barred ; but still the students paraded the streets and filled the galleries of the Chamber, and still the debate went on, the reformers fiofhtino- with brilliant courage. At the end of four days, by a vote of 94 to 58, the depu- ties refused to reject the report of their committee, and passed it to discussion, article by article. When the first article was broached the uproar became so great that the president lost all control of the Chamber. The rules pro- vide that when the galleries cannot be kept in order the body may go into secret session, but when the Chair or- dered this action the minority declared that they would break a quorum rather than submit, and so adjournment followed. The majority was steadily losing its streni^th under the power of public opinion, and at the end of the seventh day's debate the proposition urged at the opening of this remarkable conflict by young Miron was adopted, and the matter was postponed until the advent of Presi- dent Diaz, and that by acclamation !

142 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

From a merely passive instrument in the bands of the president and commander-in-cliief of tlie army, Congress Iiad passed to the exercise of its constitutional liberty. It bad for the first time appeared in the self-respecting role of a law-making body.

IV.

It was a famous victory. I find busi-

The Bloodless Revo- i ai i. x/ • • r

lutiou in Keview. "^^^ '"^" ^^ "^ ^^^ ^"''^^ ^"^ provisions of the bond agreement were pretty fair as a Avhole, and who sharply criticise the conduct of the stu- dents in literally crying down the opposition. Certainly no body of American lawmakers would have tolerated such a high-handed proceeding; but conditions always qualify actions. Perhaps the significance of the demonstration was fjcnerallv overrated, as it certainlv was in some re- spects ; but the impartial student of Mexican affairs may allow something of all this, and yet he will recognize in this outbreak of honest indignation and effective resistance a j)rofound meaning.

These mercurial Southerners illuminated their city, made heroes of the students, saw Gonzales depart with a univer- sal scowl, and welcomed Diaz almost as the saviour of his countrv. The Mexicans are stron2: in flashinc: out im- promptu celebrations, and quick to seize opportunities for imposing but fleeting demonstrations; but they arc pitia- bly weak in those stable and intelligent qualities that go to make up government by the people. The Indians sad- ly need schooling, and the educated classes lack training in tlie duties of citizenship.

There is said to be a movement under way to awaken more popular interest in the pending and future congres- sional elections. This rather tentative *' movement" illu-

THE YOUXG MEN IN POLITICS. 143

minates the vital deficiencies of republican government in Mexico. That really is little more than a sliell as yet. Certainly it is far from being a living, responsive organism of the people who

"... know their rights, and, knowing, dare maintain."

The work that confronts statesmen here dwarfs by com- parison similar problems now so well towards solution in the United States.

It is a cheering sign that the educated young Mexican has learned that misrule can be successfully thwarted with- out bloodshed, and that the power of public opinion is greater than an army. He should have discovered, too, that in patient organization and popular education lie the only sure hope for the perpetuation of a vitally free government. It was said that the young men proposed to band together all over the republic for future action ; but the work that ought to have followed this brilliant but temporary achieve- ment has probably not been systematically carried out. The Southern character would not be belied if the students failed to make the most of their opportunity for welding their influence into a permanent force. The union that is strength is not the growth of a week, however commanding the de- mands of that time may have been, and only organized vigilance is eternal enouQ:h to buy a first-class article of liberty.

V.

But the reform wing of the liberal Party" V^^'^Y ^^^'^ cxists and acts m the Cliamber

of Deputies as a powerful minority. One is intwested in tracing tlic resemblances to American poli- tics that exist here. The bucjaboo of the Liberals is the Church party, now practically unrepresented in affairs. 6

144 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

The too-ardent advocates of Liberal regeneration are warned lest tlicy imperil all by opening* tbe door to the Church party. Your old, practical politicians look on Miron as a poet and an enthusiast; consider him as impracticable, in Bhort, as old stao-ers in the United States declare the vouth- ful mugwumps to be. Yet down in Vera Cruz Miron is very much respected. That state is intelligent and pro- gressiva, occupying somewhat the position in this republic tliat Massachusetts does in the American Union. Other reform Liberal leaders are Duret and Yinez.

These men are supporters of Diaz, and they -would have Congress take measures looking towards a sharp and thor- ough investigation of the acts of the preceding adminis- tration ; but the majority, who fear to disrupt the party and imperil the stability of the government, will not go with them. The reformers also insist that the govern- ment must throw its contracts open to public competition, that honesty and economy may prevail. These men would draw the line between the legislative and executive depart- ments of the government, and thereby regain functions which have been usurped. They object to giving the president extraordinary powers, are opposed to militarism, believe in a republican form of government as a matter of practice, and strenuously hold that the time for a dic- tatorship has gone by. These young leaders of the op- position are idolized by the students. They were de- feated on all important measures at the recent session of Congress, as they no doubt expected to be, and could af- ford to be. They wait on the progress of Mexico.

It is only eight years ago that Congress refused to grant a railroad charter to the frontier of the United States, in response to the address of an eloquent member who de- clared it to be "a natural law of history that border na-

THE YOrXG MEX IX POLITICS. 145

tions are enemies," that "nations of the North generally invade nations of the South ;" hence " we should always fear the United States." He closed his speech in this way : " You, the deputies of the states, would you exchange your poor but beautiful liberty of the present for the rich subjection which the railroad could give you ? Go and propose to the lion of the desert to exchange his cave of rocks for a o-olden caofe, and the lion of the desert will an- swer you with a roar of liberty." Contrast that attitude with the position taken by the young Liberals of to-day, and you will understand the progress which Mexico has made.

CHAPTER XII.

" THE ITALY OF AMERICA,"

1.

Frederick E. Church, who painted A Famous stamping- ,^j Heart of tlie Andes," savs that

Grouud for Tourists. '^

Mexico is the paradise of artists, "the It- aly of America." He made his third or fourth visit in the winter of 1885-86, and though ill-health has laid a restrain- ing hand on his \vork,the artistic sense remains full and strong and discriminating. It is pleasant to be reinforced by this expert opinion, for Mr. Church has pursued his studies in many lands, and the rich fruits of his travels have added to the art-wealth of the world ; but no person of average in- telligence can escape the conviction that on its picturesque side there is everything to be said in favor of this sunny country that is so prodigal in its coloring, so extravagant in riotous vegetation, and so unapproachable in its moun- tain scenery.

The life of the people takes on phases of character and of incident that must resemble Italy much, but Syria more. The similitude to Eastern life finds a curious recognition in the local tradition that Christ, returning again to the earth, wandered disconsolate over the unfamiliar countries of Eu- rope only to seek Mexico as the spot which most reminded liim of the scenes amid which he had before walked and suffered and died.

Every spot in the quaint old city of Mexico is made fas-

"THE ITALY OF AMERICA."

147

OLD SPANISH PALACE IN THE CALLE DE JESUS.

cinating by historic associations that run back to Cortez, tlie Montezumas, and beyond to a more exalted civilization than the Spaniards found; and can be made to illustrate all the successions of turmoil that have marked the vicissi- tudes of the way to this hour. AVith so much material lyinfy all about him. the passing tourist can only gather somethinix characteristic here and there that shall contrib- ute to a fair general impression. To the antiquarian, the painter, the poet, the novelist — the specialist in all litera- ture and art — Mexico is a treasure-house full of the richest chambers. The liigh human interest is not wanting — the

148

MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

antiquities, the history, and the legendary romance — but the kno\vlcdo;e that is to make the old and the new vital and living, to give them a fitting place in books and paint- ing, is largely to come. Something has been done, but much more remains to be accomplished.

The Great Influx of Tourists.

II.

More tourists will see Mexico the com- ing winter than during any previous sea- son, and this is but the bco-innins: of travel in this direction ; while this most brilliant city on the continent is more truly than ever the capital of Mex- ico. Thither come visitors from all the states, lured to the federal district bv the railroads, and making what was be- fore a tedious journey, beset often by brigands, with a com- fort not known in Europe. The rich men of Mexico used to be al- toofether more familiar with the Continent than with the United States, and your railroad enter- prises have not only been instruments of enlightenment, but they have greatly tended to unify this nation. Whereas most people in Mex- ico were fated to ive and die with- ^ out having seen any state but their own, now they seek the A TYPICAL HOUSE-FRONT. chicf city vcry read-

"THE ITALY OF AMERICA."

149

ily, and national pride is awak- ened or deepened.

This Rome of the New \Yorld tangles the visitor in its web of historic association at every step. The very names of the streets are landmarks of history ; the buildings are not only old and splendid in themselves and arch- itecturallv instructive, but they are often the work of the Spanish conquerors, while the relics of the people who antedated the Conquest appeal to us as something native to this continent. The flavor of this past be- longs to us, and in re- moter parts of the country it has lapped over into the present.

It will be well to see Mexico before modern ways shall have effaced much or all of this and qualified the romance with too much of modern invention. From the Indian street life to the grand mountains that gird about the mighty plain with its great lakes, this city is full of artis- tic surro-estion. The bcfijirar, the water-carrier, the univer-

CjO OCT ' '

sal ass, the baby-laden mothers, the peon carrying his bur- den of fruit or fowls, the market scenes, the ladies out shopping or on their balconies, the Mexican as he emerges from some timeworn doorway — all these, with a hundred

PORCELAIN HOUSE IN SAN FRAN- CISCO STREET.

Art among the Az tecs.

150 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

combinations of surrounding and color, tempt the brush as they dcligbt the eye.

III.

Art is at liome here, and liad found more than a rude expression hundreds of years before Puritan feet pressed the soil of New England. The Aztecs depicted events and record- ed history by means of picture-writing, and when the Span iards landed, in 1519, the accomplished painters of Monte- zuma transmitted to him the full and strano-e details of

CD

that event in a primitive IIarper''s Weekly. It is reasona- ble to suppose that their skill was greater than that which marks most of the pictures that now disfigure many daily newspapers, for the native ruler certainly gained from their work a very clear idea of what the artists intended to convev.

"While the first bishop of Mexico made himself infamous by burning the best and most valuable Aztec manuscripts and paintings, one of the viceroys was sensible enough to employ learned Indians in the production of others, and the best examples of this early work on deerskin or ma- guey-paper are to be fonnd in European libraries. Anti- quarians make out some most interesting chapters of history therefrom, showing that the arts of metal casting, the man- ufacture of jewelry, and so on, passed from the Toltecs to the Aztecs ; while the chief local events of the period from 1298 to the Conquest are said to be well defined.

The museum in the national palace would furnish abun- dant material for months of profitable study, its walls com- prehending the three departments of natural history, ar- chaeology, and bibliography. The native Americans were famous workers in silver and gold, the products of their

"THE ITALY OF AMERICA." 151

still commanding- the admiration of the goldsmiths of Eu- rope ; but nothing of this sort escaped the cupidity of the Europeans, \Yho turned all such plunder into the melting- pot.

ly.

Filigree-work, \Vax ^"^ distinctive legacy of native art Figures, and Straw that has been perpetuated from the most Pictures. ancient civilization is the famous Mexi-

can silver filigree-work. Nothing superior is made in the Avorld, and crosses as delicate as any fretwork done by Jack Frost, and almost at times rivalling the web of the spider, are common in all sizes. Ladies' pins of characteristic de- signs, such as the open fan, the guitar, or butterfly ; ear- drops of the most ingenious construction, scarf-pins, and hair ornaments, are familiar to jewellers everywhere.

Shopkeepers now cater to the tourist trade to such an extent that the bric-a-hrac of the country can be bought in El Paso or Santa Fe at about the same prices that must be paid here, and, when the custom-house charges are add- ed, the tourist will do quite as Avell to make most of his purchases on the American side of the border. The silver- smiths of the days of Cortez were apparently buried years and years ago, and the jewelry of the sliops lias been im- ported. In the government pawnshop the tourist wlio covets "a bargain" may now and then light on something to delight liis soul, but the gleaners in this field are many. Some of the scrapes sold in the shops are of exquisite dc- sicfns, the blendinic of colors bcinc^ as rich and satisfvinof as the combinations of the Iloman scarf. The lace man- tillas found in the hands of professional curiosity venders are as expensive here as they would be in New York, but now and then a prize of this kind may be picked up that is worth havinix. An American resident showed me one

c*

152 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

that he had secured in a native shop for $4 that would be worth $100 in Xcw York.

There are bookstores under the arcades scattered about town where the bibliomaniac may discover now and then tomes that are old enough to be almost priceless, and of whose value the vender has little conception. Finds of this kind are always regarded as fair prey by people with whom honesty is a principle to be rigidly practised in all other relations of life. The probability that the volume has been stolen helps to support their exception to the fixed rule of conduct.

The love of music and of art is born in these Indians, and the execution of both comes to them without training. The burst of song is as spontaneous, free, and delightful as in southern Italy, and the universality of the artistic sense seems a strange possession to find on American soil.

This is most characteristically exhibited in the wax fig- ures that represent every phase of street life with minute fidelity. Over the carefully moulded wax is fitted a spe- cially prepared cloth, the exact tint of the native complex- ion, and the fio;ures arc taken from life. The be<X2:''ii*» ^vith his scarce concealed nakedness and carefully reproduced deformity, is petrified into miniature reality ; the mother and her babe, suspended in the omnipresent reboso, are formed to perfection and clothed as in life ; the venders of fruits and flowers carry their wares so colored by the untutored artist as to resemble the full-grown product; and the Mexican gentleman on horseback is a very centaur, full of prancing vigor. Habits and costumes are repro- duced to perfection in these " rag-figures," as they are called.

Feather-work is another high Indian accomplishment, an heirloom from the Toltccs. The plumage of gorgeous

"THE ITALY OF AMERICA." 153

tropical birds is comLincd to make featber pictures tbat are artistically constructed, if too evideiitlv artificial to be pleasing according to a true standard of judgment.

More satisfactory are tbe straw pictures made by Indian women, wlio essay, witb success, to reproduce in colors such subjects as the cathedral, a street scene, or a land- scape. The perspective of these is often perfect, and the effect of distance is sometimes wonderfully reproduced.

V.

The rule of ancient priestcraft, whose

)n(r the i " no

Idols.

A Stroll amons: the i .• 1 r ^.11

despotism was cruel, malignant, and des

perately ingenious, is powerfully exhibited in the idols that have survived the change of creed and the fortunes of the years. A great variety of these appear in the national museum, hideous but interesting, and most of the little idols sold in the shops are of modern construc- tion— gods made useful in keeping the wolf away. The Aztecs had thirteen great gods, with little gods innumera- ble, and naturally enough the ruler of storms and the mas- ter of paradise had his earthly residence on old Popocata- petl. There is supreme art displayed in the chief of these graven images — supposed to be Huitzilopochtli, the god of war, though the question has long been debated whether this be not Tcoyaomiqui, the goddess of death, but the character of the idol seems to decide clearlv in favor of his being a male personage.

The art embodied here is that which commands fear from the beholder — and a c;rcat deal of strono: character went into the making of this idol. These early impres- sionists knew what they were about. The unresponsive, cold, stern creation is formless — neither man, beast, nor bird — carved here and there into a semblance of head,

154 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

hands, and feet, with now a dreadful eye and then a gigan- tic claw ; the suggestion or mere hint of devilish form everywhere, but none of these intimations of life come to anything. The beholder is baffled, oppressed with the sense of many possibilities and the realization of nothing. Put one back to a period when the idea of a supreme being took shape like this and it is easy to see how dread and lively fear might fill the breast before a creation so inde- finably commanding. "Believe or be damned" was the watchword of heathendom, as thus represented, the im- pelling motive that offered countless human lives and tore out the palpitating heart of the sacrificial victims to propi- tiate an offended deity.

This very image might have been perpetually drunk on Iniman blood — if the shedding of it would suffice. Bernal Diaz, comrade of Cortez, saw this idol when Montezuma exhibited his city to the man who was to conquer it. Writes. Diaz :

" Here were two altars liiglily adorned with richly-wrought timbers on the roof, and over the altars gigantic figures representing very fat men. The one on the right was Huitzilopoehtli, their war-god, with a great face and terrible eyes. The figure was entirely covered with gold and jewels, and his body bound with golden serpents ; in his right hand he held a bow and in his left a bundle of arrows. The great idol had round his neck figures of human heads and hearts made of pure gold and silver, ornamented with precious stones of a blue color. Before the idol was a pan of incense, with three hearts of human victims, which were then burning, mixed with copal. The whole of the apartment, both walls and floor, Avas stained with hu- man blood."

This ancient description does not quite tally with our al- leged war-god, who was found buried in the great square in IVOO; but perhaps Diaz did not spend much time in such a grewsome place. The war-god was buried again by

"THE ITALY OF AMERICA." 155

the Spaniards, avIio feared lest the Indians might backslide from their new picture-worship; but in 1821 Iluitzilo- pochtli was taken np for good.

Here, if anywhere, one can realize how despicable is the religion of fear, and by the side of this dead emblem of a dreadful past, and through the most natural association of ideas, one seemed to see Mark Hopkins twirling about on his classroom chair — benignant, clear, and masterful — expounding the new dispensation of "the Law of Love, and Love as a Law." Tenderness, affection, responsive human interest — the sunlight of intelligent action, of choice — and the dead shall live ao-ain ! The new faith is better adapted to human needs.

YL

It will surprise those who are familiar

Mexican Pottery and 'i.! ivf • ? * i i i. m x* x

,,. , . With Mexico s notable contributions to

AV ood-carviug.

ceramic art to learn that this industry is entirely unorganized, each Indian hut producing its own wares. The pottery comes chiefly from Guadalajara, L^rua- pan, and Zintzuntlan ; in the first-named city, which is on the line of the Mexican Central Railroad, and in size and commercial importance is second only to the national capi- tal, the beautiful glazed ware is made. This is ornamented in variegated colors that are as deftly applied as in any Japanese work.

Some of the mammoth vases are not only beautiful, but embody the local color in striking combinations. The na- tional emblems of red, green, and white are draped about the golden eagle, with guns and drums as accessories, amid a bewildering but pleasing splendor of gold, deep blue, and yellow ; the whole being harmonious and admirably char- acteristic. Then again flowers, deep-red roses, drawn and

156 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

colored to perfection, arc set against the deep-brown back- ground for the neck of the vase, while its body will be covered with an Oriental sea-view wherein red-sailed ships float on a silver sea; the combinations arc endless, but they are always highly decorative and artistic.

The real antique Aztec pottery, age-dimmed, and of fan- tastic shapes, is very scarce, though these clever Indians make an imitation that usually satisfies the tourist. It should be said that this ware possesses very small artistic merit.

The gayly-colored palm-leaf baskets are not unlike the handiwork of Indians nearer home, though the colors are richer, as this country abounds in dye-woods.

Choice embroidery, too, can be bougjit now and then, and the old needle-work is equal to any taught in the modern schools.

The independent Indian manufacturer of pottery packs his goods into a wicker crate about two feet square and six feet long, lifts this to his back, and departs on foot to sell liis wares. He will often travel hundreds of miles and re- turn happy in the proceeds of, say $15. Decorated water- coolers and bottles are included in his stock. The makers of clay images are entitled to much respect for artistic skill. It is said that, after a mere glance at a person, or even at a photograph, these born artists will make a bust which will be very lifelike in both form and feature.

Mexico possesses a wealth of native woods that is now almost wholly neglected. The Indians manufacture artistic table-tops that are a striking mosaic exhibit of these woods, but the furniture used in the cities is imported, and conse- quently commands most exorbitant prices. Wood-carvini^ is indigenous, and some of the Indians deserve to be called artists.

Carlos Zaremba describes one such in the city of Cuer-

"THE ITALY OF AMERICA." 157

navaca, working in a small room with implements of his own make, and " carving a crucifix in wood, so highly ar- tistic, "with the expression of suffering on our Saviour's face so realistic, that any foreign sculptor of the highest renown would be proud to call it a creation of his own." The man who will or^'anize this native facility, carve the abundant mahocfanv, rosewood, and ebonv, and manufacture the results into furniture, would seem to have an oppor- tunity for making money and at the same time rendering the world a service.

CHAPTER XIII.

A RUN INTO TPIE HOT COUNTRY. I.

Like a poultice for the tired nerves is

>f the

n

Climate.

Limitations of the ^ ^^^^^^^ .^^^ ^j^^ j^^^ country— tierra ca-

liente — from this city that is thousands of feet higher than Mount Washington. One does not get adapted to new conditions at once, but in Mexico the driving Yankee has reached a country where haste is phenomenal. If one be pliable, and owns to a somewhat lazy nature, he speedily accepts a delightful sense of somehow being a prodigal who has reached home at last. But whether will- ingly or otherwise, every visitor will be made to under- stand that nature is bound to rebuke Northern ways.

lie may pitch into sight-seeing, and labor to pack his all too brief days full of new thoughts and experiences; but the reactions are quick and sharp, and the over-ener- getic person pays the penalty of his imprudence. Nature is prodigal of her charms, but she is more ready as well with her penalties. The altitude is an intoxicant, and must be recognized as such. More sleep is necessary than with vou, and a wise conservatism of labor vields more even and lari^er returns than come from that haste which wantonly wastes the vitality. All this is learned by expe- rience, and hence the first glimpses of the capital may well be followed by idle repose down in the tropical regions. To " loaf and invite one's soul " under a coffee-tree, with

A RUN IXTO THE HOT COUXTRY, 159

the snowy summit of Popocatapctl piercing far np into the

everlasting blue, only a little way off, makes an episode fit

to color a lifetime.

II.

Mexican character may be studied to

larac er "" advantan-e on the Interoceanic Railroad,

over which we will pass a day's journey

down into the state of Morelos. It was built and is owned

and controlled by natives. They operate it on the mafiana

principle of going slow.

Interesting preliminaries have prefaced the departure, for the local journalist who conducts this expedition has secured the distino-uished consideration of a free passaixe. The methods by which this has been accomplished are those that belong to the Latin peoples. A letter was sent to the manager of the road, which scrupulously bestowed on him every title to which lie could possibly lay claim, expressed the ardent hope that he was enjoying the best of health, enlarged the same wish to cover the family, and by gradual approaches of the most complimentary nature reached the fact of an American visitor, and the request for "the usual courtesies." They came in the form of a written letter, "wliich secured every possible attention from the conductors, and nothing probably could induce this gentlemanly manager to commit the discourtesy of issuing a printed pass.

The horse-cars that run from the central square of the city to the depot are pretty well filled, nearly a dozen American tourists being amonix the passenirers. Some such display freshness by wondering whether they will reach the depot by eight o'clock, the time at which the train is advertised to start. As ample leeway is always allowed for the belated, one can observe things at leisure.

160 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

The good-natured peons who handle the freight that makes up the larger share of our load work with a pleasant list- lessness that would infuriate a Xew England railroad man. It is evident, too, that their honesty is a matter of oversight. One bearded peon, whose noble head would pass current in any circle as stamped with intellect and sanctit}', proves that thinafs are seldom what they seem. lie edoes cau- tiously but steadily to the rear, keeping a sharp eye the while on the boss. Now and then, when hooking over a bag of freight, he rips the sacking so as to abstract some of the contents, which he deftly conceals in the bosom of a shirt that is amply protected by a voluminous scrape. Even when knowino- to the facts it is difficult to acknowl- edo-e the thief behind the saintlv front of this imposino* pilferer, and the man who would charge him with stealing must needs have a hi2;h article of moral coura2:e.

III.

There is nothing luxurious about the Mountniu Views and ^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^.^^^ ^^^^^^ ^

Siijrcestions. ^ ' j j

'B=>

ago in "Wilmington, Del., and have since cracked and faded under the fervid sun. The wooden seats of the first and second-class compartments of the same car are alike in hardness, the division simply allowing a choice of company ; but the scenic compensations of the way are lavish to wantonness.

"NYc pass out by the lakes along the old roadway that Cortez and his Spanish troops traversed, that was worn by the huGfe mule trains which carried across country the rich Eastern carijoes of the old jjallcons, and is still crowded with troops of loaded mules and donkeys. The narrow- gauge railroad passes through the mountain barriers that encircle the valley of Mexico, and then our course is south-

A RUN INTO THE HOT COUNTRY. 161

west, or towards the proposed terminus of Acapulco, on the Pacific coast. No railroad ride in the United States, of course, equals this in the variety of climate and ve2;etation displayed, but it is also true that none opens grander out- looks of mountains, more varied cotnbinations of lordly heights and fertile depths, vaster stretches of lowland — and yet no part of Mexico seems more like home. These lesser mountains arc familiar. Here are the hia'h reorions of Vermont and Xew Hampshire intensified and produced on a grander scale. But the two snow-clad volcanoes — Popo- catapetl and the Woman in AVhite — awe with a sublimity that finds no equal east of your Pacific coast, and no coun- terpart there. They are the landmarks about whose bases the railroad appears to crawl on its studiously circuitous way. Their stern domination is increased by the intense whiteness of their summits, as seen in this high latitude.

Towns are scattered tlirouo-h this regjion of the hiohland, their chief attraction alwavs beinix the church that crowns a hill. Now and then a valley extends away below the foot-hills, with fields of corn and grain. Then trees hide the brown sides of the mountains, and pines appear in abundance. Occasionally the canons are eroded as in the bad lands seen on the line of the Union Pacific Railroad. The morning air had been brisk and bracing, like a Sep- tember day in New England, but at higli noon we are still winding in and out among the foot-hills, and the tempera- ture differs little from that of the city.

IV.

After a leisurely wait for dinner the

Plunpfing into the . • , r i ^ ii i • i

Tionics tram pushes on a few hours to the brmk

of the hills whence we shall plunge down

into the tropics. No other word will express the abrupt-

102 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

ness of the transition. Tlie ej^e sweeps the wide range of liills, and the traveller is reminded of New England ; he confronts the green valley that rolls in richness as far as the eye can see, and realizes that here is a new w^orld. The track appears like a great summer toboggan slide in every- thing save the speed which it imparts. The tender green of the suixar-cane marks (jreat estates, and testifies to the chief production of the region. Blue, pink, and purple- streaked morning-glories are made mad by this more than July heat, and they clamber wildly over the stone walls and luxuriant hedixes. A yellow flower that resem- bles your ox-eye daisy in everything but color is more at home alono; this track than it ever could be in a by-path of Berkshire. Unfamiliar palms tower loftily, orange-trees arc a commonplace, and coffee is to be seen as nature makes it. The houses of sun-dried bricks, Avith their thatched or tiled roofs, have lost their oddity, and any- thing else would be out of place ; and the universal cotton dress and straw hat belong to the scene, as burdensome woollen clothing plainly does not. Thus we approach the delightful winter resort of Cuautla (Kwow-tlah).

V.

The depot, is housed in a magnificent -j]]^^ ,1.*^^^" ° old church buildino", whose deserted clois- ters are profaned by freight and startled by the shriek of the locomotive. It should be said, by the way, that on this Mexican-built road occurred the only railroad accident in Mexico that has involved loss of life. In 1881, when the line was first opened, a washout pre- cipitated some two hundred soldiers into a ravine, the cars loaded with lime and rum caught fire, and the disaster was frightful cnou!>;h to suflice until this time. The one ne-

A RUX IXTO THE HOT COUXTRY. 163

cessity in railroad building here is to guard against the floods of the rainy seasons, as the Mexican Central people have been forced to discover.

Cuautla is a neat, thriving, well-kept town of about six thousand inhabitants, whose reliable charm is_ a model inn. The streets are well laid out and paved in cobble and blocks of stone. The one-story houses of the Oriental style are wholesomely kept and disclose no evidences of extreme poverty. The main street consists of shops and houses combined, but they contain no show-windows, and glass is conspicuous by its rarity. Thus it was in the city of Mexico before Paris fashions were introduced in trade and social life. The work done here seems like puttering to an x\merican, and the chief native manufacturino- indus- try is cigarette-making. Drug stores abound, for the Mex- icans are great dosers, and, to judge by the placards, they indulge freely in American patent medicines.

Strolling down towards the plaza — the heat permits no rapid movement — the most conspicuous object is an un- mistakable Yankee, who flits in and out of house after house. The spectacle is unique enough to be absurd. We wait and waylay this one live man, who proves to be a New York sewinoj-inachine ao-ent, who is sellino; his stock on the instalment plan ! lie has a carload of goods up at the depot, and is doing a thriving business. It is impossi- ble to regard him with the approval that he fairly de- mands.

The plaza is a sunny abode of picturesque idleness, with a music-stand, fountain, tropical trees, and many flowers. On the stone benches around its borders peons laze to and from their dailv tasks. The inevitable chui'ch and munici- pal palace confront each other across this garden, and from the balcony of his quarters the chief oflicial of the town

164 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

looks down ^^ith a bored air. Brown-faced soldiers in ^vhitc uniforms louno-e about the arcades that always pro- ject from these government buildings. Xo one appears disturbed or curious over the advent of strangers, Avho make themselves quite at home and seem to fit into the placid scene.

VI.

The approach of sundown brings

Glorious Si<jht.

A Model Inn and a,i -i. rj* j !*• •*.}

thoughts of dinner and speculations with

reirard to the local tavern, ^vhose merits have been freelv advertised bv Mr. Church, the artist. Hotel de San Diego fronts on a small and neglected park, a loner, one-story building. It is built around the usual patio, or courtyard, and into the surrounding porch open the ample guest-chambers. Landlord Victor Bouyer came over with the French army, but did not return with it. He married a Mexican Avife, and has since been growing up with the country. His hotel-keeping ability equals that of Mr. Plumb, of Stockbridire, and he has the advantaije of possessing a better house. The guest enters the com- bined office, barroom, billiard and reception room, that is some seventy -five feet long by forty broad, and cooled by the stone floor and ■walls. Beyond are the dining-rooms, and then the ample court. Our dinner is more Continental than Mexican — a delicious French soup, veal boiled with vegetables, roast beef, a delicate salad, frijoles or beans, sweetmeats, cheese, chocolate, and coffee — with excellent ■wine or beer, if the guest shall so elect.

To smoke, out in the moonlit court, with its fountain, one lordly palm, orange-trees and flowers, seemed bliss enouGfh ; but the landlord knew better. Submitting to his guidance we walk out into the night and leave the quiet

A RUX INTO THE HOT COUNTRY, 165

town. Passing rich estates, over wliose ^vliite avails the coffee-tree bends with its load of berries, one can pluck the green branches for a closer examination. Our guide pauses on a bridge that spans the stream \vhose "waters, used for irrigation, make the wealth of the sugar planta- tions. Xo need is there for words. Up beyond the ravine, in the clear moonlight, white, subdued, in glorious relief, and dignity inexpressible, tower the two volcanic sover- eigns of the continent.

VII.

The niglits are cool enough for refresh-

The Tropical Winter .1 t ^.^ • n

Moruiu<^ ing sleep, and the morning opens like

those rare June days that bless your bleak habitation, and yet our smiling landlord says that this is but the tame repetition of all days, save in the rainy sea- son. One wakes because nature is astir. Out in the court a mocking-bird jeers at all the feathered creation, and sweeter songsters carol out of the fulness of their enthusi- asm. The sun floods the court, and pours in warm and enticing through the open window above the barred door of one's chamber. A soft breeze is abroad that has passed over fragrant flowers.

The natives begin Avork almost with the sun, and the song of a busy cooper near at hand keeps time to his rliythmic taps. For an hour the Indian women have been sweeping about the patio with a noisy rush broom, or have occupied themselves about the preparations for that light breakfast of oa:(Xs, rolls, and coffee that is both Parisian and Mexican. All give us their cheery morning greeting, these true Southrons, whose universal courtesy is in delight- ful contrast to Northern frio-iditv. The breakfast-room is cool, fresh, and sweet; open to the air and the court. It

Sasar- making in a Conveut.

166 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

is a day begun as few can be anywhere in tbis w*orld of woe and work and tired folk.

yiii.

The morninof is devoted to visitino; tlie principal sugar-mill of the vicinage. In the yard of the stately old church, now- desecrated by railroad offices, we find a canvas-covered car with two mules attached in tandem fashion, and a smiling peon. He smokes, and a cigar coupled with the suggestion that we would like to ride home with him draws out a most cordial invitation to jump aboard. Soon the car is spin- ning up a narrow spur track, the mules galloping past miles of cane. Men are busy opening the irrigating ditches, and study of the cane makes it apparent that this cannot be the season for making sugar. The judgment is confirmed Avheu we reach the mill.

This is a 2:rand estate, with a noble old monasterv that is now equipped as the centre of a sugar plantation. Ilere is an independent community, the walls of which enclose some six acres, and cover a considerable portion of this space with buildings whose masonry will defy time. The man who bid in this property when the liberal government condemned and sold it got a prize — but it is safe to pre- sume that the government held the poor end of the bar- gain. It always did in such transactions. In one section of the great yard are blacksmith and wheelwright shops, and the sugar-making machinery invades the old arched cloisters. This is all of French make, and the manao-er is of that nationality. Now lie employs but forty men, ^Yho are engaged in shipping the cones of sweetness; but in January, the busy time, four hundred hands will be en- gaged in turning the ripe cane into the finished product.

A RUN INTO THE HOT COUNTRY. 167

The Church set these enduring buildings on liigh ground, and the spectacle of the long, green fields intersected by the sparkling irrigating ditches is worth coming to see. Great bunches of golden and blue flowers skirt the green, and trees ablow with white blossoms are a conspicuous ad- dition to the scene.

The silent factory does not detain one long, and when the car is filled with sugar we crown the load, the amiable peon swings his lash about the ears of the willing mules, and they gallop back to town. There a little toll to the charioteer makes him a lord among his fellows.

CHAPTEPw XIV.

Mexico's paintings and statues.

I.

The artistic sense as found in the In-

The Indian Leadership ,. . , . a* i i •

• n- y.^ A..f (lians IS so plcasino;, essential, and iini- lu Higber Art- i i^' '

versal — just as naturally a tropical blos- som as the mammoth roses — that one approaches the cul- tivated arts with some apprehension lest so much promise be not paralleled in the higher fields. It is better so, for this attitude of mind prevents any disappointment, and heightens the enjoyment of much that is worthy of recog- nition here or anvwhere.

The national development in painting is very consider- able, boasting both a past and a present. The future ought to be still better, as it will open the door to larger oppor- tunities. As the fortunes of Mexico improve, the market to which the artists can appeal will no doubt be increased; but it must be said that buyers of pictures are not many as yet. The pulque-shops take some "pot-boilers," but there is a much steadier demand in Mexican homes for plate-glass mirrors than for canvas, and the extent to which these glasses are used in private houses must make them resemble the interior of a Hudson River steamboat. In the government pawn-shop, by the way, there are very many mirrors in pledge, of broad expanse and the widest gilt bordering, while the paintings arc comparatively few and of a cheap and tawdry description.

MEXICO'S PAINTINGS AND STATUES. 169

The artists of Mexico were represented at the centennial exposition at Philadelphia, at the Boston exhibition of the New Eno-land Mechanics and Manufacturers' Institute in 1884, and ako very generously at the late exhibition in New Orleans. The Philadelphia display was full and rep- resentative of the old and new, giving those who studied it almost as good an idea as may be obtained from the national school of fine arts in this city, the Academy of San Carlos.

II.

This institution is housed close by the

'"''" "" Carlos' '^ ^''' ^'^^ti^"^-^^ Museum. It was founded in

1781, and, through a gift of $40,000 from King Charles III. of Spain, was equipped ten years later with a fine collection of antique casts. Of these Humboldt wrote: " We arc astonished at seeing here that the Apollo of Belvedere, the group of Laocoon, and still more colossal statues have been conveyed through mountain roads at least as narrow as those of St. Gothard." The first and second galleries contain the paintings of Mexican artists of the old school, specimens of the European schools appear in the third gallery, and the fourth and fifth rooms arc devoted to the modern painters of Mexico.

One naturally seeks first the pictures that have crossed the water, both from their intrinsic interest and a desire to trace the influence which they have exerted on local art. There are some great paintings in this academy. The " St. John of God," by Murillo, is a replica of that in the church of the Caridad in Seville. Two other undoubted Murillos are claimed by Mexico — "The Virgin of Bethlehem," in the cathedral here, and the " Puresima," in the cathedral of Guadalajara. Here is also a " Saint Sebastian," attrib-

\

170 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

uted to Van Dyck; a large "Descent from the Cross," by Rubens, is perhaps a copy ; there is a *' St. John the Bap- tist," by Ingres ; three paintings arc credited to Leonardo da Vinci ; there are two pictures by Guido Reni ; two are said to be by the ekier Teniers, and Charles Vernet contrib- uted "The Olympic Games."

The Church was the great patron of art in all the early days, and she has been since despoiled of such possessions in many ways. The American invaders carried off a good many paintings, though our soldiers were probably not very intelligent plunderers. Many of the so-claimed old masters that turn up in loan collections in various localities have come down from soldiers in the Mexican war, and are gen- erally old copies of great paintings. It is possible that an original may exist among them, but the probabilities are the other way. The internal revolutions and outside in- vasions helped to scatter the belongings of the churches, many of them going to Europe, and the liberal confiscation completed the job.

III.

When the Church was the chief buyer The Creditable Work .^ ^^ ^ ^^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^1^^

of Native Paiuters. ^ i

ancient Mexican masters followed Old

World models in treating of severely religious subjects —

and not afar off, cither. The most meritorious work was

done in the seventeenth century. Some of the subjects

will illustrate the drift of the period : " Apparition of the

Holy Virgin," by Nicholas Enriquez; "Assumption of the

Virgin Mary," by Vazquez; "Interior of the Convent of

Bcthlehemitcs," by Carlos de Villalpandi; and "Holy Spring

in Guadaloupc," by N. Caballcro. The early school was

ruaclicallv bounded by church and convent walls, but with-

MEXICO'S PAIXTINGS AXD STATUES. 171

in the range of subjects fitted to hang thereon its tenden- cy was highly decorative. Luis Juarez revels in rich ac- cessories.

The fourth and fifth galleries epitomize the present of art, and it is apparent that the strongest men of the period find their inspiration at home. Some of these specimens of modern work are genuine and strong, impressive and valuable in subject and treatment, and full of the best prom- ise. The landscapes of Jose Maria Velasco have more than a local reputation, and at Philadelphia he was "com- mended for merit as a landscape painter, as displayed in his picture entitled ' The Valley of Mexico.' " lie is ft master of distance, and reproduces with wonderful fidelity the great valley as it lies under the brilliant sun.

The painting most praised at the Boston exhibition, by the way, was "The Beggars," exhibited by A. Vargas, of Chihuahua, who thus dealt with a phase of life that is om- nipresent in Mexico.

We have seen enough of this country to understand that its history abounds in the most striking situations, and the old life offers a mine of artistic suo-Qfestions. This is beino; worked with some noble results. The chief ornament of the academy, one that has been praised in extravagant terms by competent art critics, is the painting by Felix Parra, en- titled " Las Casas Protecting the Aztecs." It is not only a most worthy monument to the good friar of Chiapas, famed for self-sacrificing championship of his oppressed people — the fit embalming of a strong and just character — but the painting embodies more than greatness in sen- timent, skill in drawing, and harmony of coloring. It proves beyond peradventure that the universal artistic sense that is the Indian birthright is capable of the highest development, and that it finds best expression in dealing

172 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

with its own proud ancestry. The same young Indian artist lias produced another wortliy painting — more ambi- tious in subject, and less effective in execution, but still great — that possesses historical interest. This is the "Massacre in the Temple."

When Cortez, inflamed by the misdirected and most costly tributes that Montezuma had forwarded to meet the Spaniard and turn his feet back to the coast and away from the Aztec capital, pushed on to the residence of the king, and there heard of the arrival of the ships and troops sent against him from Cuba, it will be remembered that he personally departed to meet the detachments despatched by Velasquez, the governor. In the capital, however, he left Alvarado at the head of the troops that remained. That impetuous person professed to believe that the Aztecs were plotting against the Spaniards, and therefore he di- rected the troops to fall upon and slay the assembled native nobles, their wives and children. This ruthless butchery is now depicted on canvas with power and feeling.

The scope and value of Parra's work justly earned him a scholarship from the local academy, and he has been given the advantage of foreign training. It is to be hoped that this will not wean him from the individual career so well begun before he had seen any country but his own. Other Indians who achieved success as painters were Jose and Luis Juarez and Cabera — the latter bringing in a new pe- riod of Mexican art at the end of the seventeenth centurv. Ibarra, Artcaga, Juan and Nicholas Rodriguez were painters of excellence. Indian blood certainly predominates among the artists of Mexico. Many paintings executed during the last twenty years show the effect of French teaching.

LAS CASAS PROTECTING THE AZTECS.

MEXICO'S PAINTINGS AND STATUES. 175

lY.

Over the bones of Juarez, president and The Eemarkabie j.^f^.j^g u ^^^ AYashino'ton of Mexico,"

Mouumeut to Juarez. ' * '

as he has been frequently termed, is a tomb the most exacting soul might envy. As a work of art it is fine indeed, but as the tribute of an Indian sculptor to the great Indian statesman it is magnificently impressive. Out beyond the Alameda, in the Panteon of San Fernando, is the resting-place of many of Mexico's illustrious dead, and the eternal fitness of things in God's acre is kept when the richest tribute that sculpture could bring rises above the grave of Juarez. This monument is the work of Manuel Islas, who has succeeded in the most diflacult of all fields. The unvarying testimony of those who visit the cemetery might be quoted in proof of this claim, and certainly no monumental effort in the United States tells such a story of heroic grief or so immortalizes the dignified emotion of a nation. A small but well-proportioned Grecian temple, surrounded by rows of columns, contains the commemora- tive group of spotless marble — the dead president lying at full length with his head supported on the knee of a female figure representing Mexico. It is the most simple and natural thmg in the world — after it is done; and yet the United States has scarcely a memorial of dead greatness that does not seem conventional, heterogeneous, and strained beside it, scarcely one in any degree so good in its technical qualities, or so satisfying as a work of art.

This Panteon is a walled and paved city of the dead, with courts and arcades, a place of tombs and not of graves and dreary " tombstones."

176 MEXICO or TO-DAY.

V.

The first heroic bronze statue cast in

America's First Bronze » • xi a r r^i i ttt .^ . j

c. . America — that or Charles Iv . that adorns

btatue.

the west end of this city — has not been surpassed since. This will be deemed an extravagant statement, but so far as the bronzes that are exhibited in the chief cities of the United States enter into competition, it seems to me that this Mexican work easily holds its own to-day. It was made in the davs of the viceroys. The royal deputy who was in power in 1795, the Marquis do Branciforte, requested the privilege of setting up an effigy of his sovereign, and the boon was granted on the last day of Xovcmber. The opportunity of celebrating a not very fine-looking king was given to Don Manuel Tolsa, who made the most of it, and the casting of his work was un- dertaken by Don Salvador de la Vega. Horse and mon- arch were executed in a single piece, about thirty tons of metal entering into their composition, and the result came out without defect August 4, 1802. It required fourteen months to finish the work, which was unveiled December, 1803, on the Plaza Mayor. "When the feeling against Spain ran high in 1822, the statue was boxed up to hide it from the wrath of the people ; two years later it was taken down and placed in the patio of the university, and in 1852 popular sentiment had so changed that the statue was reared again in its present position near the Alameda.

The horse and rider are fifteen feet nine inches high, and belong together. Those who deem the effect heavy may base their criticism on the great breast development of the animal, which is a noticeable peculiarity of all horses in this high land — and it might be argued that the Spanish king did not ride a Mexican horse ; but the composition is

MEXICO'S PAINTINGS AND STATUES. 177

admirable, and the action of the horse is to the life. The king is in classic dress, wearing a wreath of laurel, and holding in his right hand a raised sceptre, and the horse is at a slow walk, the left fore-foot and the right hind-foot being raised. The whole effect is natural and dignified, and gives the ideal of kingly progress. The solid certainty of the whole affair is the furthest possible remove from the crazy horsemanship and absurd posturings of certain notorious American statues. This statue deserves to rank with the tomb of Juarez as the best of their kind that Mexico can show. Humboldt, by the way, declared that this equestrian statue had but one superior, that of Marcus Aurelius.

VI.

The bronze sceptre of Charles IV. points A Grand Avenue and . .■< i. j i . i i. 'n

its Memorials. ^^ ^^^ westward along the most magnifi- cent avenue of the city, the Paseo de la Reforma, that ends at the hill and castle of Chapultepec. It represents Maximilian at his best, and is the enduring mark that he has left on the face of an inhospitable city. There is much to admire and respect in the character of tlie dead "emperor," a man of amiable nature whose pur- poses comprehended in a vain dream of power many bene- fits for Mexico. He lield the French idea of employing the people on public works. To liim wc owe the impetus that is developing the new part of the city on higher ground than the old. lie laid out a number of avenues hereabouts, the chief of which, described above, is about 4000 yards long, with a width of 170 feet. Six circular ppaccs on the Pasco dc la Reforma, each 400 feet in diameter, arc set apart for the occupation of monuments to eminent men. 7*

178 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

The first is filled by au elaborate tribute to Christopher Columbus that is primarily remarkable as having been reared at the expense of a resident of the city. Such a conspicuous instance of public spirit is i;iotable in a place ^vhere great ^vealth is accustomed to geek seclusion and shrink even from the hazards of legitimate business enterprises. Don Antonio Escardon is a name worth remembering, for he was a leading spirit in procuring the construction of the Vera Cruz railway. He commissioned the French sculptor, Cordier, to execute this monument, which is much com- mended, but by the side of the works already reviewed seems too elaborate to leave the one direct impression of power. Here is an historical pnzzlc rather than a great idea simply expressed. Still the work is artistically good, if puzzling in detail, and all-embracing in conception.

Crownin^" the whole is the heroic fio^ure of Columbus in the act of drawing aside the veil that hides the Xew AVorld. Let us study the memorial up to its admirable culmination. The base is a quinquangular platform of basalt surrounded by an ornamental iron balustrade from which rise five gas- posts with branching lanterns. Above the centre of this base rises a square mass of red marble ornamented with four basso-rilievos — the arms of Columbus, surrounded with garlands of laurels ; the rebuilding of the Spanish monastery of Santa Maria de la Rabida; the discovery of the island of San Salvador; and the fragment of a letter from Columbus to Ilaphadi Sauris. Above the basso- rilievos, surrounding the pedestals, are four priestly, life- size figures — two of Spain and two of men who came to America — Padre Marchcna, guardian of the monastery above mentioned, and Padre Fray Diego Dehesa, confessor of King Ferdinand, men who kept Columbus in royal favor; and Fray Pedro de Gante and Fray Bartolome de Las Casas

MEXICO'S PAIXTINGS AND STATUES. 181

— the latter of whom painter Parra has made immortal — the two missionaries who most earnestly befriended the Indians.

In the second space of the lordly avenue the foundation awaits the setting-up of a completed statue of Guatemotzin, the last of the Aztec emperors, a man of far more strength of character than his uncle, the last of the Montezumas. AYhen the latter proved a weak tool in the hands of the Spaniard, Guatemotzin rallied the Aztecs and fought with desperation until overpowered. When the city fell the emperor sought Hight in the royal barge, but he was over- hauled by the swifter vessels that Cortez had constructed. The conqueror received Guatemotzin on the terrace of a temple, and the latter said : " I have done, Malintzin, that which was my duty in defence of my kingdom and my people; my efforts have been of no avail, and now, being brought by force to you a prisoner, draw that poniard from your belt and stab me to the heart." lie bared his breast for the thrust Cortez would not give. The latter afterwards demanded of his prisoner to know where the imperial treas- ures were concealed, and, being met with a refusal, the feet of the emperor were soaked in oil and burned over a slow fire. A companion, the cacique of Tezcoco, who was sub- jected to the same torture until he died, groaned in his extremity, and it is related that the unhappy emperor re- proved him, saying: "Do you think I am on a bed of roses?" Guatemotzin survived that ordeal to be lianircd by Cortez.

The third monumental space on the avenue will be devoted to Cortez. The historical sequence of the series is most striking. First, the discoverer of America ; second, the last native emperor; third, the remorseless conqueror — men truly representative, widely diverse in character, the leaders of epochs !

CHAPTER XV.

SOME FEATURES OF CITY LIFE. I.

The Bohemian who could not spend A Bobemiau Para- ^^ pleasant months in this city would

dise -J I

not be much of a "rustler." That ex- pressive word lias been coined by Western ranchmen to describe cattle who can be relied upon to care for them- selves under all circumstances. They will "rustle" for feed under the snow, and drift before a storm to some natural shelter, when less enterprising stock would give up and die. Judging by much that is written about Mexico, rustling tourists are rather the exception.

The people who discover that life here is totally differ- ent from the Puritan civilization and Yankee ideas of com- fort argue all things from what they have been accustomed to. The march of improvement to them means the intro- duction of the American style of house in place of the stone casa built about a court. One sees a disturbing number of such — positive people, without sentiment or imagination or intelligent reasonableness, who are doubly exasperating because they never harbor a suspicion of being absurd. Even missionaries sometimes seem to have ex- pected to find here the virtues that bloom along the Con- necticut Ptiver, instead of the Ptoman Catholic laxities that mark the unprogressivc civilization of the St. Lawrence River. It is the Old World and not the best type of the

SOME FEATURES OF CITY LIFE. 183

New, to be sure, but not differing, in its essential condi- tions, from mucli that may be seen in the very heart of Europe.

The citizen of the worhl would be very much at home here, but there are a great many excellent people wlio could not be. Many such have come and gone and writ- ten down their doleful experiences ; others are now here, and more are coming — a melancholy procession of misfits. The intelligent Mexican accepts these rao-urners w'lih. a good deal of patience, but who shall blame him for look- ing on them as the plague of the locusts, an uninvited and unwelcome clement of desolation and injury.

II.

There is a charm about the hotels, an air of substantial respectability that be- longs to age, and has no affiliation with those gorgeous establishments in American cities wherein the " stunning " clerk is autocrat supreme. The venerable stone walls, that arc often adorned with dingy sculpture, have settled into a character that solicits confidence and re- pose of mind, and the general homelike unobtrusiveness of the inn soothes the restless soul.

The time-worn and rather shabby old party who pre- sides over the ofl[icc is amiably interested in you, but lie never becomes aggressive, and his attention is a passing affair. His liabit of mind is illustrated by the reply given to the agent of an American excursion party, who applied for quarters at the hotel kept in what was the palace of the evanescent Emperor Iturbide. "How much are your rooms a day ?" asked the brisk American. "Four dollars," returned the clerk. " But I shall bring you eighty people,'* said tlie advance agent, with confidence. " Four dollars

An Eighteenth-Cen- tury Landlord.

184 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

and a half, in that case," returned the serene old party of the second part ; " that makes more trouble I"

The affectionate interest Avith which the philosopliic mind must regard the eighteenth-century poise of a land- lord who aro-ues like that was not shared bv the wholesale applicant for rooms. The incident only intensified his re- lentless Americanism.

But we have kept our old hotel clerk waiting quite too long — not that he minds it, for he has not turned a hair, and is countino; the flies that come and n'o in an unbusi- ness-like but truly Mexican fashion. He sees the traveller register and calmly despatches him, by the hand of a mozo, up the flight of stone steps to where the guardian of the keys and letter-boxes reduces his trust by one; and then we toil up two more flights of stairs to a fine old room on the topmost of the circumscribing galleries. It is sunny and cheerful, and opens to a balcony over the interior court that is bridged by the blue sky. The view is pleasant, offering beneath a summer-bouse, tropical vegetation, and a fountain basin that is covered with green slime and suggests malaria.

Thereafter, as one passes in and out of the hotel, the custodian of the key will smile an'd be unintelligibly cour- teous in Spanish; but to the antique clerk below the guest became an established fact when he chalked the name on a blackboard for public inspection.

One feels like a marked man. The jrovernment ao-ent has taken your name on the cars, the newspapers have an- nounced you to the city, and the local servant of Cook's agency, who is also a vender of hric-a-hrac, has sent you a cordial invitation to make his store your headquarters. lie angles well, and, in the enthusiasm aroused by first glimpses of the quaint city, the mexperienced traveller is likely to make purchases that are not well considered.

SOME FEATURES OF CITY LIFE. 135

Lilt before leavino; the hotel let us not forojet one of its most indispensable features. The chamberroaids are mozos, or male Indians. Onr particular mozo, ever hope- ful of fees, as deft and knowing a valet as ever served the most pampered scion of the effete monarchies, is quick to establish friendly relations. These fellows can be hired in the city for 83 a week to give you undivided service, and they are a feature of Mexican life that fit like a glove to the necessities of a lazy man's vacation.

III.

To and from such agreeable hotel sur-

A Torn* of the Res- t„ j. ^ a.' ^ *.• ^ cs-i n

roundmo^ — our contract stinulatinof 610 a ■taurauts. =• ^ -^

week for room-rent — the Bohemian can move to ever-varying fields of investigation. Hotel prices, by the way, are very high as a rule. The restaurants first claim attention, and they will delight the knowing palate. Indeed, they merit almost unqualified praise for number, variety of resources, and service. French, Italian, German, Mexican, and even American cooking may be obtained for the seeking — if any one has the poor taste to desire the latter. The well-trained waiters everywhere expect the fee of a medio. If one desires meat for breakfast that will be an extra and a difiicult one to get ; and the most inveter- ate Xew-Englandcr soon learns to thrive on his coffee, roll, and egg.

Tourists naturally seek to combine sight-seeing with dining by sitting at the street window, and squeamish peo- ple will thus suffer a disappointment. The Indian beggar outside, whose deformity is his capital, and who never means to diminish that by removing any dirt, will, ten chances to one, press his nose against the glass and eye your meal with attention that must prove somewhat revolt-

186 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

in"" to the most reliable stomach. lie may also occasionally depopulate bis bead. If tbe restaurant discipline prevents bis pressing- inside witb personal appeals or proffers of lot- tery-tickets, you will suffer only through the eyes. The fruit-peddler holds an invisible free pass to all restaurants, and if one desires to top off \vitb oranges, bananas, or some of Mexico's unique fruits, be buys of the Indian bawker.

The forager in the restaurants will range among types of character that enable clever students of human nature to sample all phases of male society in a cosmopolitan city.

IV.

Every town has its great market-place, The Markets. Old ^^^^^j, ^ j buildinrr filled with Indian

and New. j r> ^ ^

sellers — men, women, children, and babies — of all the local products of the earth, and those varieties of merchandise that appeal to the people. Up at Toluca, for example, the market building is better than that in the capital of the United States, besides being more neatly kept and generally more attractive. Between the ragged and shiftless nefrroes of Washino-ton and the Indians of Mexico, the latter make the best appearance ; their wants are more simple, and the artistic sense that governs their costume gives them an individual standing. ^Yhen they begin to adopt cast-off garments of European style some critics of Mexico will feel better, but the charm of a picturesque civilization will be broken.

The greatest market of the capital, and therefore of all Mexico (there are several others in the city), is the Yola- dor, south of the national palace that occupies one side of the great central square of the city. It covers historic ground that once lay near Montezuma's " new home," and thereby was part of the plunder that fell to the share of

SOME FEATURES OF CITY LIFE. 187

Cortez. Thitber, by decree of the Ayiintamiento in 1649,

the bakers, fruit-sellers, and pork-dealers were ordered from

the Plaza Mayor. For some two hundred years the city

paid rent for the use of this market-place to the heirs of

Cortez, but in 1837 the property was bought for $70,000.

As a spectacle the market will be found a very fascinating

place in itself, and because the utmost of historical interest

hangs about it. Bernal Diaz, the companion of Cortez,

who writes so graphically of ancient Mexico, assures ns

that the market-place of the original city did not greatly

differ from what we see to-day — the chief change being

that now no male and female slaves are on sale. The

fruits of the soil and the results of individual labor have

been repeating themselves for hundreds of years. Men

have died, but others do the same things from generation

to generation.

V.

Here, as impressively as anywhere in

Indian Character II- -xr • ^.^ i-- ^ j i

, , , -, Mexico, appears the tu'ciess and mcchan-

liistrated. _ . .

ical iteration that marks the Indian as an unprogrcssive human animal, and shows him to be, in lower life, the same child of nature as the uneducated negro of the Southern States of the United States. The Aztec sold fowls, game, vegetables, fruits, articles of food ready dressed, bread, honey, and sweet pastry when Diaz saw him — and lie does the same to-dav. There is no more orjxanization about it now than there was three hundred years ago. Each Indian works for himself and sells when he wants money. Up from the hot country he passes to the city, traversing fifty or sixty miles a day, with a back load of chickens, baskets, poultry, wooden bowls, or other salable stuff. Often the whole family make the trip and camp out on the flags of the Plaza or the market-house, guarding little piles

18S MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

of fruits or vegetables — beans, carrots, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, radishes, beets, potatoes, or squashes — until the load has been disposed of.

It will be seen that the city is thus dependent on the caprices of the Indian venders. If the people who raise potatoes or carrots do not happen to be in crying need of funds, it sometimes happens that there is a raging scarcity of those or other articles. There is no thrift or forehand- edness about these Indians, and the half-dollar more or less that represents the sum total of a venture of this kind is squandered with reckless rapidity. The prospector of min- ing days wanted few provisions and much whiskey, and the peon adopts the same thoughtless and wanton policy — a little cloth and much pulque. The results are seen even in the very articles he barters. The stock has not been culti- vated, and his vegetables arc often withered and small and "run out."

A first-class market-o-arden in the hot country would be a boon to this city, but when it comes the peons will prob- ably assert " the riirhts of labor" a2:ainst such a wholesale aggression of greedy capital, and they are not likely to do it any more brutally than have the strikers of countries that boast their hii.'her civilization.

YI.

„ . ^ .. ^ After studyino; the markets it is natural

Rents, Domestic Econ- . .

omy, and the Servant to investigate somewhat the perplexities Question. ^^^ problems of domestic life, and house-

keeping is discovered to be both difficult and expensive for those who bring to it the standards of the States.

This is revealed in the first step. Rents are high, prices being apparently about double those paid in New England cities. Wc arc assured that this is one result of the com-

SOME FEATURES OF CITY LIFE. 189

ing of the railroads. Ilonse-owncrs Avillingly accepted ex- treme representations concerning the benefits that were to follow the advent of the iron horse, and doubled their prices accordingly. The result is a good many vacant houses, but the landlords show no disposition to lower rents ; their property is untaxed when vacant, and they wait. This policy results in an indirect benefit by driving people to cheap and comfortable quarters in the suburbs, where life and property arc safe now that the bandit has become a tradition. The selfishness of the old-quarter landlords, too, will assist the development of the west end, where improved dwellino;s are beinfj built.

The servant question is a complicated one, though not from the same causes that operate in the United States. The market is full to overflowing with " help," such as it is ; but the Yankee housewife does not tackle to it kindly. She can never find a maid-of-all-work. The lines that divide servants are as stiff and ineradicable as those that exist amono; the stateliest aristocracy.

First in point of necessity comes the porter. He is the guardian of the great front door, keeps the patio or court in order, sweeps out the saloon, trims the lamps, buys your pulque, acts as general errand boy, and waters half of the street in front of the casa. He is paid $3 a week or more, "keeps" himself, and sleeps on a mat laid upon the stones under the stairway. Promptly at six o'clock he closes and locks the house, puts up the chains, and seems to sleep with one car open. lie is always good-natured about letting you in, however. Some families permit him to lodge a wife and family under the stairs.

The cook is the autocrat of the establishment the world over, but here her position is unquestioned. She is paid $1 a week, with an allowance of 12 cents for food, and bosses

190 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

everybody. The servants are not supposed to eat food prepared for the family, and they prefer native fodder to American dishes. Washing is an extra, done at public tanks in cold water, the clothes being beaten on stones and naturally wearing out quickly. It is not good form for the mistress of the house to go to market, and the cook buys all the household supplies. This gives her an abun- dant opportunity for cheating, which she improves with a dexterity that makes detection next to impossible. One miglit listen to her bargains and yet be certain that she had arranged a private " divy " with the huckster. A recent change of cooks in an American family revealed the fact that a former " treasure " had been charo-inG; exactlv double on most of her purchases, and she is now living on her easily-earned wealth. All cooking is done over charcoal fanned to a glow. The Indian cooks lieartily despise Amer- ican dishes, but learn to prepare them in very good shape. Some of them excel with traininix.

The bread consumed in the city is all bought at the public bakeshops and made in the French way. Each day opens a new chapter in domestic affairs, only provisions cnoui2;h beins: bouo:ht to last throuixh, so that at niijht the larder is as bare as the cupboard of Mother Hubbard. There is no "trust" in Mexico, and the head of the house who neglects to leave a pile of silver dollars with his wife produces a famine in short order. The grocer, meatman, charcoal-vender, and fruit-dealers all do a cash business, and no money no food.

A few rich men have a practical monopoly of the meat business. The beef of the city is brought from Vera Cruz and Guanajuata, about two hundred head a day being killed, cattle being worth from $24 to $45 a head. Mutton is in universal use, and is better than the beef. Some choice car-

SOME FEATURES OF CITY LIFE. 191

loads of mutton have lately been shipped through from New Mexico at a good profit. One rich man controls the pork market, and the extent of his monopoly is shown by the fact that he hires seventy-five telephones, which place him in com- munication with dealers who act as his agents. This monop- olist also makes the tallow-dips that are in universal use among the poorer people. The better class of candles, by the way, are imported from France and Germany ; and the enterprising American wlio Avill take a bright Mexican partner and go into scientific candle-making ought to be in the way of making money.

There are no good fish in the market ; but the game is excellent. The necessaries of life are much hio-her than in the eastern cities of the United States, with o-ood butter selling at 81 a pound, milk 20 cents a quart, tea $2.50 a pound, chocolate 40 cents, lump sugar 14 cents, potatoes 6^ cents a pound, and kerosene 87 cents a gallon. An en- terprising American Avidow and her daughter, by the way, are making good butter and selling it readily at a generous profit.

But to return to the servant question. The most modest family must add a chambermaid at the same wages and al- lowance given the cook, and the second girl can be per- suaded to wait on the table ; but this would be a very small allowance. Each child of the better families has its own nurse, there is a maid whose onlv work is dustinof, and so on — until the grand total of the retinue is very large. Servants here call their mistress "the child" behind her back — and there is a grim appropriateness in the designa- tion ; but to her face she is always " the senorita," no mat- ter how ancient may be her days.

CHAPTER XYL

THE SOCIETY OF THE CAPITAL. I.

It will have to be at once admitted that

A Stroiifrbold of the a • i. i? ii i. i i i. a- • i

r^u uT.,,.f, societv, that close, almost mystic Circle

Churca Party. - ' ' -J ^

whose claims to precedence vary with lo- cality, hut are always rigidly insisted upon, is anti-Liberal, and loyally allied to the Roman Catholic Church. This is so because women dominate in strictly social affairs, and the Church keeps its hold on them here as it does in all Catholic countries ; and true also because " society," which always boasts a past whether it has one or not, runs back to a period when Romanism was the chief power in Mexico.

The "best circles" — you know the sounding phrases used to denote that sort of thing everywhere — are appar- ently mainly composed of those who lay claim to the titles of nobility that existed before the triumph of independence, DOW fallen into disuse, the people who would have been counts, marquises, and so on, had the old order of things re- tained its hold on Mexico ; the Church notables, and per- sons of wealth and ancient lineage allied to Spain, whose money is not traceable to profitable investments in Church property at the time of the liberal sequestration.

It was this element in the population of Mexico that welcomed Maximilian and his plans for a brilliant court with ardor, and indeed were responsible for his coming.

THE SOCIETY OF THE CAPITAL. 193

It is easy to see how they argued and plotted and fought. Their plans were captivatingly plausible, with the United States divided in a death-grapple for national life, and the downfall of the great Northern republic predicted on every hand — it seemed possible, aye and probable, that the United States would be split in twain. AYith the failure of the greatest experiment in free government that the world had seen, why might not Mexico, long in travail, be im- perially governed with profit to the people and glory to the old noblesse, and take her place with some show of credit among the nations of the earth, sure of sympathy from, and close alliance with, the great powers of Europe? This was no fool's enterprise in its inception, save as it left unrecognized that mysterious spirit of liberty that has had more grotesque manifestations here than in any other spot on the globe. A people unfitted even now to proper- ly exercise the intelligent functions of a free government, have vet been always blindly reachino; out for them. Here is a singular yet impressive manifestation of the universal law of evolution.

II.

" Society " is not progressive here ; it

Its Natural Ilistory i • • 4.1 1 i. i Xi.

, „ . ,. ■' rarely is, in the best sense, anywhere. It

aud Prejudices. J f » -

staked its all on the coming of Maximilian, and lost. It witnessed his downfall with despair, drew its sympathies and associations within the shell of its own con- ceit, and followed the Koman Catholic Church into un- availing and sullen disapproval of the new order of things. Only now has it begun to accept the rude inevitable of liberalism in the person of the president of this republic that has come to stay. Don Sebastian Lerdo, the president whom Diaz brushed aside with scant civility, was allied to

194 MEXICO OF TODAY.

the old order of things, and select circles opened to him considerably ; but an inexorable taboo has greeted chief magistrates since his day.

The old social leaders of Mexico have sat amid the ashes of their discontent longer than the "chivalry" of the South, and are more implacable to-day than the vanished slave- holdino- aristocracv, less reconciled to the new order of things and less willing to accept the solemn must-be of progress. It is from this class, priests and citizens, that the undercurrent of opposition to railroads find its chief stimukis. The schemes of Diaz and his government for popular education and the introduction of Northern capital and ways meet from many of the aristocracy the same dis- countenancing arguments that used to be advanced by the slave-holding autocrats of the United States. They ex- hibit similar fear of free competition and an untrammelled race in which low and high must be admitted as equals.

Society displays an undisguised and often galling con- tempt for the Liberal powers that be, the men at the front ■who have come up out of the ranks of common life, emerg- ing through revolutions and much bloodshed. This is par- ticularlv true of those rich absentee landlords, who look on Mexico with refined disfavor from the distance of Paris or Madrid.

The Liberals have political power to their hearts' content, but when they aspire to social recognition they must enter by a straight gate and may not climb up some other way. Gonzales, whose personal tastes were far from fine, was satisfied with the opportunities opened by his oflncial position, and dwelt in them with seeming content. Not so with Diaz, but even the president of the republic can command social standing only by a marital alliance with the family of a leader of the Church party, a Lcrdist, and

THE SOCIETY OF THE CAPITAL. 195

then he must rise by curiously imposed stages of accept- ance. Diaz is not quite in society yet, it appears, though he is in a fair way to be.

One is impressed by this man liere as in the other stages of his career. He has been playing a large game, he handles his cards with immense foresight, and is ani- mated with an iron determination to win. Ambition and patriotism were curiously blended in his composition. The army and the government succumbed to his advance, and the stronfjhold of an aristocracv that is intrenched in breast- works of tenacious if petty prejudices yields to his new methods of attack. And society docs well to accept Diaz, the man on horseback, the best and most capable friend, take him all in all, that Mexico can now count on. lie has forced conservatism and blood, yes, and religious opposi- tion, to at least a partial capitulation.

III.

As has been intimated, the cafes and

Society at Ihe Opera. , , ,, . 1 1 • i.i

the theatre occupy a large place in the

life of this capital. AVitli a Latin population the Anglo- Saxon phases of home-visiting and entertaining are, of course, not reproduced, but family feeling is very strongly manifested. But we will approach our study of society from the outside, and by slow advances.

The opera is an advantageous point to stiirt from. There society is on parade. Yet the despotism of the senses first brings to the attention two commonplace facts — that we must occupy straight-backed chairs, and that fleas attend the opera. The men, who sit with their hats on until the curtain rises, are divided between dress and Prince Albert coats. The two balconies are devoted to boxes, and these also border each side of the floor of the house. The truly 8

19G MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

brilliant array of ladies are in full dress, and tbej are fairly dazzling with Sontliern charms and that elation that resides in the " best bib and tucker."

As the drop rises all pay appreciative attention to the Italian opera; but it is at once apparent that the stranger ^vithout opera-glasses is but half-equipped for the evening. The universal interest does not rivet itself on the sino-ers. This is a charming beauty show, and it is expected that the men will display their frank appreciation of it. To eye those caged seiioritas for five minutes on a stretch is to pay a well-merited compliment, one that is openly appre- ciated and even expected. It is all as natural and genuine and pleasing as yielding to that impulse of delight which fills one at a display of flowers — for liere are the rarest of exotics, the ardent bloomino; of the hi^'hest form of life. Between the acts the men behave as they do the world over — break for the lobby, and smoke and eat cloves ; but there are local variations. Those fortunate enough to have favored feminine acquaintances in the house buy dulce — sweetmeats — which they despatch to the boxes. There seems to be a limit placed now on the national habit of smoking, for it has been abolished from its last stronghold, the pit. "Wlien the male audience files back the men stand and level their glasses at the boxes. In this way the prize of beauty is awarded, and joy or heart-burning is thereby created. Happily the average of fascination is so high that few are omitted in this informal award. The girls are keenly alive to the situation, and individual flowers in the bouquet of a box nod to each other as this, that, and the other man pay it attention.

THE SOCIETY OF THE CAPITAL. 197

IV.

The decaying!; old social leaders, by the ce and Growth.

Social Decadence and i i. r 11 • 4. \ j.

way, do not fully appreciate liow great

are the inroads made by the progression- ists, as the Liberals are most often called. The court lan- guage was French, and that tongue is an almost universal possession in good families, but young Mexico is learning with pride to speak English as it takes up American ways and Northern ambitions.

Like some aristocratic streets in New Enfjland cities, where "old families" brooded in select seclusion and mu- tually agreeable pride, society must experience a disagree- able resentment as it wakes up to the fact that the tide of affairs has left the once powerful stranded. Here, as there, a new life has established its leadership, and there must be compromise, a readjustment of old lines, or an unhappy and too-evident decadence w^ill have to be endured. More Mex- ican officials than is generally known have married Ameri- can wives, Washington or Baltimore women, bright and capa- ble helpmates.

V.

But now let us see society in another Sunday Morning on 1 r , •. • it o i

the Alameda Public aspect, as it appears in the bunday

morning promenade on the Alameda, or Boston Common of the city. Three bands discourse de- lightful music from ten to twelve o'clock. These organiza- tions never appear with less than forty members, who dis- pense with the harsher instruments. They play standard music, such as would dcliglit Theodore Thomas. Some of this music is native, and apparently unwritten. They never offend with the light, passing operas, and they execute the raost difficult scores with the native fidelity of apprehension

198 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

that marks the true musician. The programme opens with a march, and " the best people " are not expected before eleven o'clock, when they come on foot, the supposition being that they have just been released from church.

The decorum of the promenade is absolute, for the high- breeding of Spain has ordained the laws of social usages. Noufjht of the boisterous freedom of American city life mars the polite repose of the occasion. The senoritas walk with their brothers, their mothers, and fathers, and not with "a fellow." lie is shorn of his confidence — one had almost said of his impudence — and is merely an envious and deferential spectactor. The gilded youth of the town line the mall like lizards in the sun, each with his black hat, frock-coat, tall colhir, bright cravat, and tight, patent- leather shoes, as discontented as the urchin who only gets his chin over the high wall of a peach-orchard. The beau- ties stand the test of this clear morning light marvellously well, and appear to the best advantage in black dresses and mantilla that falls from the raven head over the shoulders and meets under the chin to frame bewitching faces. The young men may look to their hearts' content, and there is abundant flirting: with the eves, but that is all ; the seilorita would never think of giving a backward glance, and whist- lino- or aheminir is recog-nized for the rude offence that it always should be. At high noon the people betake them- selves to breakfast, and so society disappears from the public gaze until five o'clock.

VI.

, ^ , , o. . 1 This brino-s us to what is a unique

A Solemn and Stately => _ ^

Airing onthe Grand daily performance, the congregation of

^^^®°' the wealth and fashion of the city on the

Paseo de la Reforma, the grand avenue of the capital. A

THE SOCIETY OF THE CAPITAL. 199

carriage is obviously one of the necessities of social stand- ing, and a requisite that is said to beget much economizing in families of moderate means. Such will scrimp in all directions save this, down to the very necessities of life. But outsiders can charter a hack, and that will do just as well for a passing share in this panorama. According to the popular agreement we are out for a drive, and yet from force of association one quickly fancies himself part of some great funeral procession, and the spirits instinctively fall to a solemnity befitting such an occasion. The car- riages are reined into a long line, and move along one side of the avenue and then back on the other side, the centre of the drive being reserved for equestrians. Bergh never would find cause to interfere here, unless he should think that the members of the jockey club on horseback cantered too brisklv. Down and back for an hour roll the carria^'es at slow pace, most of them being closed, to show that the occupants are out for an airing.

One can see little and enjoy not much beyond the con- sciousness that this is " the proper thing." The young men cut in now and then next a carriage which carries lovely freight, and why not we ? That is a little better, but not much. An occasional tricycle is met, adding an incon- gruity to an old custom that two or three bicycles enhance. Now and then, too, a brisk horseman, flashing in the pleas- ing native dress, gallops past with a free and rakish life that puts ridicule on the carriage procession ; but if one would see horsemanship, and particularly if he can ride himself, let him come out here for an hour before the morninj]: roll and coffee. No such ridinix can be seen in any American city, and this horsemanship is only equalled on the plains.

But as the sun sinks behind the historic hill and castle

200 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

of Cbapultepec, and the night of the tropics falls quick like the drop of a purple curtain, the lamps on all these carriages are lighted, the horses' heads are turned towards the Plaza Mayor, and society goes home at a brisk pace, for all the world like hacks after a funeral.

The ludicrous relief from sadness of such a departure prompts one to wild and mocking laughter, but if society ever saw any humor in its stately and chilling daily parade, the fact that this funereal affair lono; since became hardened into an imperative habit kills all outward expression of fun. There are none so brave as to ask whv, or so irreverent as to advocate any deviation from the deadly dull routine.

CHAPTER XVir.

GLIMPSES OF SOCIETY AT HOME.

I.

Let us follow the society of this capital,

Its Coutinental Cus- i j • j • £ •. ri-

toms already reviewed in some of its public as-

pects, into the home life of its members, and photograph things that make this Spanish-American civilization distinctive. " In so far as they perpetuate the flavor of Castilian days, these people arc thoroughbreds," says my friend whose knowledge of old Spain and Spain in the New World is both thorough and friendly.

The foreign ccremoniousncss of social life is restful by contrast with Northern lacks in the direction of finish and well-bred repression; and a carefully -shaken mixture of the two civilizations would produce about the right thing. People here do not bolt life as Americans would lunch at a railroad station ; they slowly masticate, digest, and enjoy it accordinn: to rational methods that come from their Old World inheritances, and are assisted by the leisurely influ- ences of the climate, which is an amelioratinoj factor even when brought to bear on the most nervously vivacious sub- jects.

In discussing the usages of society as represented in the capital we shall cover the domestic life of perhaps one sixth of the population of Mexico. The home spirit is very strong, being cultivated and exalted, possibly at the expense of adventurous qualities in the average young man ; but a

202 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

rational cnjoj'mcnt is certainly imposed by the restrictions tliat arc placed over the youth.

The girls are educated in the excellent Catholic schools, one of them to Avhich my attention was particularly called being presided over by an intelligent, retined, and deeply conscientious woman from New York. The pupils wear a simple uniform that did not commend itself to an Ameri- can miss who had been wonted to the rivalry of dress that so early makes your schoolgirls foolishly old ; but there is everything to be said in favor of the plain dress that is required in similar schools on the Continent.

Why should children be tricked out like dolls, and misses at school or "college" be permitted to masquerade as women of fashion ? To be sure it is a part of the American habit of exhausting with all possible speed the good things of this world — bat surely this is a wise, a fore- knowing, and seasoned philosophy, that makes the pleasant flavor of life last long, bidding each stage of development follow the other in its due time by slow and orderly ad- vancement such as Nature ordains in her supreme domain ; constant progress, but no hurry, no satiety — not the quick, fiery gulp of the Western drinker, but the compassing of our delicious mint-julep through a straw — lengthening the draught, distributing its qualities over the tasting surface, and giving the palate time to take leisurely and fully ap- preciative cognizance of the passing event. By compari- son American child-life is crude, raw, and savage yet — more barbaric than civilized in this want of sensible oversight.

II.

Not to linger unprofitably with socie-

Thc Scnoritasaud their . . ■, ■, , ^ - ^i r n

Charms ^^ ^" embryo. Jet us advance to the rull-

fledged senoritas, a subject of the most

GLIMPSES OF SOCIETY AT HOME. 203

fascinating nature, which, unfortunately, must be mainly studied by proxy.

Certain newspapers of the United States have a habit of projecting their local environment to the uttermost parts of the earth and arojuincr from the known to the unknown with a confidence that angels might envy. No eminent citizen of the United States crosses the border and tarries for a day or two in this city that is vastly more imperial than they have yet appreciated, but some witling straight- way paragraphs him as flirting with a bewitching senorita under the cypress-trees that arched the pathway of the last of the Montezumas. The fancy is delightfully radiant with Southern color, but the reality, on the other hand, is cold and distant as a Christmas sky in New England. This idea of the average American in freshness is as the waters of our sizable lakes beside the saline properties of Tezcoco.

As the genuine Spanish courtship practised in Mexico is a matter requiring at least six months of industrious diplomacy to bring about an engagement of the most approved form, my remarks on this delicate and interesting subject must needs be vicariously obtained. True, as Ilosca Biglow says,

" Caleb hain't no monopoly to court the secnorcctas,"

but if Caleb be a resident, his monopoly is one that the passing tourist cannot successfully attempt to break.

The scnoritas are charming to look upon, and filled with abounding health, for this high air seems most gracious to women, and their eyes are very full of passionate clo(iucnce. One further learns that these Mexican girls of tlie best type arc intellectually remarkable, especially apt at acquiring lan- guage, proficient musicians, skilled in embroidery and the present popular surface accomplishments in art, and often keeping abreast of their brothers in tliat broad yet imprac- 8*

204 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

ticable theorizing that is a national characteristic. In cult- urc they "will compare with the choicest Xew England product, though their background may not have brought forth so despotic an article of conscience. Still they are inflexible sticklers in all the forms of the Church, and therein do not differ from their sisters in the same walks of life at the Xorth. the variance being solely that of the creed by which the feminine soul is surrounded.

AYomen of the South mature early, and when a learned old lawyer talks of the rare intellectual companionship which he enjoys with his daughter of sixteen years, the confirmed bachelor of the party is attentive and decorously silent, but quite too obviously sceptical. But this paternal judgment is afterwards confirmed by a sensible and disin- terested feminine advocate, who asserts some of the gener- alizations embodied above. When women grow enthusi- astic over women one is very safe in believing in the pos- session of unusual qualities, on the one side or the other.

III.

To one fresh from the happy-go-lucky

The Castiliau Court- ■, i ^ i r ^ J.^ j.

, . and rou2;b-and-readv reatures that so con-

snip. =>

siderably characterize American social life, the customs of Spain — ordained when woman's one un- disputed aim in life was to marry — make a rare study in the antique.

We have in this country of remarkable contrasts the ex- tremes of action in regard to women. The Indians, on the one hand, welcome her to rather more than a just share of rights in opportunities to labor, and entertain for her a rude comradeship that has never admitted the idea of a pedestal for her especial occupation. This rough equality among the Aztecs is not without its essential chivalry.

GLIMPSES OF SOCIETY AT HOME. 205

though the surface outlook is depressing \vith a dull mo- notony of coarse relation, lacking in the finer graces that come with a rise in the scale of living.

The other extreme of society accepts her as the rare flow- er of life, to he guarded with every hothouse precaution. Her domain is the home, and the youth who would trans- plant the maiden of his choice from that tender care must ahundantly prove his fitness for such a charge. Marriage is weis^hed here in all its seriousness — from the feminine side. He will have to woo with publicity and patience, for his intentions are treated from the start as a family matter.

Being smitten with the charms of the supposed one and only woman for him, he is permitted to communicate to her the wish to pay his addresses. If agreeable, she refers liim to " mamma," and then the campaign may be opened. The first move is to "play the bear" — that is, the lover begins at a certain hour each day to pace the sidewalk in front of the casa where the fair one lives, gazing with his heart in his eyes at the window, behind which the maiden sits surrounded by her mother, sisters, cousins, and aunts. Under such a battery of critical eyes he marches back and forth, day after day — " to show his paces," as the horse re- porter would have it. He may pass notes into this family party, if so be his courage is sufficient, but all love passages are sternly reviewed by the maternal eye ; and the senorita in return can write to him — mother first editing the copy.

Etiquette docs not appear to prescribe the length of time that love must continue on this parade, but after due pro- bation the father docs his duty. The matter now enters on a very practical stage, for the head of the house makes searching inquiry into the material prospects of the suitor, his property, his salary and chances in business, and above all his personal character, surroundings, and habits. If these

20G MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

be not satisfactory the wooing is brought to an abrupt conclusion. Otherwise the daily parade goes on until the suitor is permitted to talk with his inamorata between the bars of the low balcony ; then he begs the privilege of calling, and " sees his girl," always in the presence of the family or some discreet member thereof.

Here appears the essential lack of the courtship that proceeds on the supposition that all women are angels, for the suitor is bound hand and foot before he is given a real opportunity to study the character of one whom he seeks as a partner for life.

IV.

„ . The dark-eyed beauties of Spain are

Marriage aud after. , ,. ^ , . , ., . , • i .i

duplicated m a strikmg way here in both

the blonde and brunette types. You see the light hair and

complexion of the Goths, the liquid eyes of the Moor, and

the Roman nose, or the dark hair and tinge, of the Iberians ;

the same modifications of races that bloom in "the old

country." The Indian women are often nobly planned and

in the highest degree statuesque, the delight of painters.

The youns: inrh of the hi2:her circles are retiring* until after marriage, which gives them the freedom of Continental usage, that of smoking cigarettes before company included. In callincc on a Mexican familv the visitor will not find the senoritas talkative, with the exception of those who have been abroad, and all of them stand aloof from male callers. But all this docs not make them the less interesting, and the enchantment of distance is not the smallest of their at- tractions, at least to American eyes. We have a weakness for taking gambling chances. They are very clever and appre- hensive, these senoritas, having a keen sense of fun and a dash of frank jealousy where the young men are concerned.

Only the civil marriage is legal under this Liberal govern-

;. I-

.h.

">>

'x^- ^

A MKxicAN coruTsmp.

GLIMPSES OF SOCIETY AT HOME. 209

ment, but society insists upon the ecclesiastical ceremony as well, and not infrequently this follows some little time after the civil formalities have been attended to, but the groom does not get his bride until the Church shall have sanctioned the union. These church weddings are elabo- rate and expensive affairs, and in the country a band of music often accompanies the many carriages in which both parties are attended by troops of friends.

A singular custom in this city seems to require the high contracting parties to go from the church to the photog- rapher, who " takes " the pair and makes an exorbitant charge in honor of so happy an event. In general, by the way, it may be stated that the heaviest special expenses of life attend on births, marriages, and deaths — after a schedule of charges fixed by iron custom, and which it will not be necessary to fully explain in detail ; but the large tax placed on entering life and leaving it by the doctors and undertakers must be part of the abominable system pre- vailing in Mexico which levies on all goods going and com- ing. But let us pick up our dropped thread. By visiting the leading photographic galleries one can see the brides back for a dozen years, and the Mexican who has been ab- sent from the country might thus " book up " on the so- cial history of his set, and no questions asked.

The husband literally marries his wife's family, going to her house, where he comes under the wing of the old folks. Presents are given at weddings, but the young people do not have a subsequent house-warming, and would seem to be thereafter socially dependent on the mother-in-law.

V.

In considering society it must be said Society and the People. -.r • i-i " i

tiiat Mexico, like the otlier nations of tlic

210 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

earth, suffers much from her unemployed rich — the ab- sentee landlords, Avho are Mexican for revenue only, and the gilded youth, just now afflicted with Anglomania, who have time and means to be foolish up to the top of their violent bent in that direction. It is difficult to eradicate from this portion of society the idea impressed by centu- ries of Spanish domination, that this is a country to be milked, and not a trust to be developed. The spectacle of idle capital, of an obstructive Bourbonism, of money drained to feed the pleasures of those who accept none of the responsibilities of their surroundings, is very depress- ing. There is so much to be done here that one is impa- tient for a universal recognition of the serious problems that wait for slow solution at the best, and are great and pressing enough to command the sympathetic attention of those who arc in a position to be concerned about them. Of course all these conditions are not peculiar to Mexico, but they seem very startling here. And one needs no gift of prophecy to see that help is coming from another quarter. Thus much for " society," and the condition of the peo- ple of wealth and those who have inherited the blood of the conquerors, i What of the Aztecs? We have looked in on the homes of the poor, with their appalling limita- tions, when viewed in comparison with American homes and Northern standards of comfort. Let us see whether any horizon of hope stretches away from a Mexican home of the middle class. Such as there is lies along the path- wny that the children follow to school. The attention which this Liberal government gives to the promotion of education is wise building for the present and future. The 10,000 public schools, the industrial schools, the national schools of agriculture, medicine, law, and engineering — these show that the authorities are doing perhaps the best that can be done to educate the people.

GLIMPSES OF SOCIETY AT HOME. 211

The father may be a clerk in the government palace, but his family live in one or, at the most, two rooms located in the old, unhealthy quarter of this venerable city. These contracted surroundings are scrupulously clean and scrubbed like an old-fashioned New England kitchen, but lifelong familiarity has deadened all sense of the danger that larks beneath the household in the unflushed sewers, and grimly mocks the pale and always busy women. The son will do better by his family than this, lie will have a better and more ample home in the newer section of the city. There is genuine democracy enough here to make his sure ad- vance easily possible to the energetic climber.

Encompassed by an aristocracy that tolerates them, Diaz and his associates wait on the growth of a popular sup- port which shall be animated by substantial loyalty, grow- ing out of benefits conferred by a broad and settled public policy which has regard for all classes. Present lust of power does not blot out a large patriotism in all this. One of the most brilliant and successful young lawyers of the city came here from the country, a friendless Aztec bo}', and has made his way to the front. Such cases are com- mon, and they are bound to be increasingly multiplied. There is nothing constant but change, here as everywhere, and the change is to be a levelling up, the advance of the Indian in public life and in social recognition. He already, in some of the states, occupies the post of governor, and is the large part of the nation in numbers. The traditional superiority of the Spanish heirs to bloody inheritance is fading faster than those who are a part of this national life apprehend at present ; and the Aztec will have his own again as fast as he deserves to receive it. This liberal government must in time be essentially a government by the people.

CHAPTER XVIII. Mexico's religious outlook.

I.

In order to appreciate the magnitude The Aucient Uuion of r xi, r • i a- i • i

Church and State. ^^ ^^^ religious revolution ^YLlch awes

the student of Mexican historv, one must remember that Spain and the Church were one. The hand of Rome was in the iron glove of Cortez, for the standard which the Spanish adventurer set up bore the motto in Latin: "Let us follow the Cross, and in that sign we shall conquer;'' and so it was. Mexico was overrun in the name of Spain and Rome, and she was governed for three centuries for the profit of both with relentless selfishness that has left its deep and wide impress on the material and religious life of this nation, to the infinite injury of both. Church and State were apparently indissolubly and profitably united for plunder, with a very incidental regard for the interests of the Indians. AYhat the Conquest achieved the missionaries of the Spanish Catholic Church held fast. The religion of the cross was enforced by arms, and the walls of the new faith were cemented with the blood of those slain under its banner. The creed of force and not of love won these new triumphs for the Church.

The most careful students of this civilization seem to airrce that there was nothinsj radical in the transformation which gave the Aztecs pictures of the Madonna and the saints in place of their idols and heathen forms. It was, in

MEXICO'S RELIGIOUS OUTLOOK. 213

the main, a change of externals in which the shadow sup- plied the place of the substance. ^\lth scarcely an excep- tion the priests endorsed and inspired the cruelties by which the power of the Spaniards was extended over the native races of America. The story of the brutalities of fire, of torture, of bloodhounds, and of the pitiless sword, by which the tribes were conquered, marked the advent of the gospel of peace. The old Spanish writers record all this with sat- isfaction, as fitting work done for the glory of the Church.

In all this dark chapter of history one man stands out as a lonely apostle of mercy. It was fitting that the greatest modern Aztec painter should embalm the fragrant memory of the good friar. Las Casas, the one prominent representative of the faith who unceasingly urged a policy of clemency upon the Spanish rulers. His record of the atrocities he was powerless to stay forms the black inside chapter that tells of the Gospel as first expounded in Mex- ico. " With mine own eyes," he writes, " I saw kingdoms as full of people as hives are of bees, and now where are they ? . . . Almost all have perished. The innocent blood whicli they had shed cried out for vengeance ; the sighs, the tears of so many victims went up to God." The never- ending stream of blood that poured from the sacrificial stone before Iluitzilopochtli was not stayed by these Chris- tian hands. It was removed from before the god of stone and continued to flow for the glory of the only true God. The conception of the Supreme Being in Mexico and in Spain was not so very different, and the transition from the one form of worship to the other was not unduly vio- lent, it will be seen.

AVith the words of Las Casas sounding in his cars, one approaches the portraits in tlic national museum with pe- culiar feclinc^s. Here are the men who did these deeds —

214 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

from Cortez down througli the some fifty Spanish viceroj's who successive! V governed the country, with occasional bishops or archbishops among them. The face fullest, on the whole, of intellectual character is that of Cortez, and the picture is vouched for as the best extant. It masks rather than reveals character. The others seem like infe- rior men, the ready agents of more powerful wills, occa- sionally rising from mediocrity into a stern malevolence of purpose. The contrast between these faces and the glori- fied serenity and power of the countenance of the good bishop, as depicted by Felix Parra, is most impressive.

The agents who executed the will of Spain with regard to this distant possession were, as a rule, willingly obedient to the policy which wrung all the wealth it was possible to exact from an enslaved people, and shipped it to the cen- tral government. Every industry that could conflict with the sale here of Spanish goods was strangled in its infancy by any means up to the penalty of death. Never was any land more put upon than was New Spain by the " mother country" — that misnomer the most empty.

It is a satisfaction to read that some of the treasure- laden galleons that made annual voyages in fleets to Cadiz became the prizes of freebooters of the sea, whose title to what was lost to Mexico was as good as that enforced by the Spaniards. The wars of Europe now and again were beard of in the New AVorld, as when England's Admiral Anson, in 1743, captured near Acapulco an East Indian galleon whose cargo was valued at $2,000,000. In time, too, this war stopped the exports of bullion to Spain, and threw Mexico on her own resources, so that the business of this country was developed to a degree that made ap- parent the possibility of independence, and awoke the causes that led to the dawn of liberty.

MEXICO'S RELIGIOUS OUTLOOK. 215

IL

By almost these same steps did the

Ri.e and Fall of the g^ifi.hn^gg ^f the Chiirch work its own Inquisitiou.

remedy. A superstitious people had been first coerced and then diplomatically led into the fullest outward obedience to Rome. The visit of Cortez to Spain and the pope, in 1527, had been fruitful in yielding a crop of bulls of indulixence that made the leader and his soldiers assured heirs of heaven, and local saints had been raised up to satisfy the appetite of the Indians for signs and won- ders. Special holy privileges were also constantly on prof- itable sale. In time, too, the Mexican Church welcomed the Inquisition, and indeed demanded it.

About 1529 the leading men of the province — religious, military, and civil — among them Zumarraga, the first bish- op, the same bigot who burned the historical records of the Aztecs, met in council and resolved as follows :

" It is most necessary that the Holy Office of the Inquisition shall be extended to this land, because of the commerce with strangers here carried on, and because of the many corsairs abounding on our coasts, which strangers may bring their evil customs among both natives and Castilians, who, by the grace of God, should be kept free from heresy."

Thereafter the holy office had ample head(|uartcrs and the fullest sway, and condemned to roasting heretics and sorcerers with the utmost zeal and method. One public burning-place has since been included in the Alameda, the great palace of the Inquisition is now a medical college, while in the city of Pucbla the Baptist missionaries control for their gentle uses a similar establishment.

The first inquisitorial auto-da-fe resulted in the death of " twenty-one pestilent Lutherans," and about the last one

216 ■ MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

condemned to be shot, in 1815, the patriot Morelos, com- panion of Hidalgo and his snccessor in leadership, both parish priests, who inangurated the war of independence in 1810. For declaring against Spain the court pronounced Jose Maria Morelos " an unconfessed heretic, an abettor of heretics, and a disturber of the ecclesiastical hierarchy; a profaner of sacraments ; a traitor to God, to the king, and to the pope." That was the beginning of the end for the Inquisition and the Church. From 1824 to 1867 it stood straight across the path of liberty, and spared no means to stay progress towards a distinct national life. Holding one half or two thirds of the wealth of the country, it had de- clined in 1846 to contribute anything to help repel the American invasion. Tliis helped to prepare popular senti- ment for what followed.

III.

It would be difficult to overdraw the e on sea ion o j^-jr^j-^^j-jj^i splendor of the Church, to whose

Church Property. _ ^ '

princely revenues all contributed. A tithe of everything produced in Mexico or imported hither went to the clergy. A century of toil had been expended to rear for her occupation in this city the noblest cathedral on the continent, a century and a half had gone to make an edifice only less grand in Guadahijara, and at Pucbla and elsewhere were cathedrals of note — all magnificently adorned with gold and jewels and splendid things. The conventual es- tablishments of the Franciscans and Dominicans were on the largest scale, and were most elaborately appointed. But while the Church absorbed so great a proportion of the wealth of the country, it early rendered back much of it in schools, asylums, and other public institutions. Thomas A. Janvier, who has made a study of these relig-

MEXICO'S RELIGIOUS OUTLOOK. 2X7

ious foundations, says : " Broadly speaking, the influence of the religious orders upon the colony was beneficial dur- ing its first century ; neutral during its second ; harmful during its third."

AYith such a hold upon the wealth of the country, and with its practices so deeply rooted in the life of the nation, how is it that without the introduction of any new form of faith the people of Mexico have overturned the old order of things? The revolution was a clear economic necessity, but it involved more than the laws of trade. It exhibits the superficial character of the hold possessed by the Church on this population. AVhen ccclesiasticism came in conflict with the vital spirit of liberty, the weaker went to the wall ; freedom and absolutism were incompatible. The practi- cal enslavement of the native population had been accom- plished by Spain and the Church, and both logically fell. When the people were groping towards freedom this se- quence was little appreciated ; the first guarantees of Mexi- can Independence were " Religion, Union, and Liberty."

Juarez was the apostle of liberty in its broad sense. He drew up the laws of reform proclaimed in 1857 by Comon- fort, and ho executed them in 1867 upon the downfall of the empire. This was the most radical transformation undertaken by any government of modern times. It con- fiscated property estimated at $300,000,000, and devoted it to the purposes of the government of independence. The Church was stripped at a blow of all its possessions, its convents and religious houses were closed, its religious societies were abolished, and to-day the Church exists in Mexico only by the sufferance of the government. The clergy were forbidden to wear the garb of their order, relig- ious parades and processions were prohibited, and the civil marriage was declared to be the only legal one. The

218 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

retribution wliicli overtook the Chnrcli was terrible, how- ever much it liad been provoked, and it was carried out with a sternness which was vindictive in its sweeping char- acter. The harvest which came out of the dead past was abundant after its kind.

AVhen the Church favored a foreign mission and sup- ported Maximilian it tried the long-suffering people beyond endurance, and their joy in the humiliation of a great relig- ious system was savage in its final manifestions. Noth- ing is more impressive In the study of Mexico than the fantastical fanaticism of liberty which has wrought such great and often seemingly untoward results, but which all, as seen in review, fit into a remarkable scheme of progress. No human intelligence foresaw the end from the beginning — unless Juarez be made the possible exception.

ly.

It was inevitable that a revolution so

Seques- '■ sw traliou.

Resiiltsof the Seques- • ••, ,, ^ ii-j--^

sweeping in its extent and so bund in its

details should have profited the govern- ment very little. These hundreds of millions of dollars which nominally accrued to the government have not suf- ficed to keep the present administration from a condition of things nearly approaching to bankruptcy. Stunned and indignant at the character and extent of the retribution which had fallen upon them, the authorities of the Church forbade good Catholics, under penalty of excommunication, from investing in *' God's property." It was deemed pos- sible to prevent the Liberal government from realizing on its seizures. This was an obvious error of policy from the standpoint of expediency. P'aithful sons of Rome kept their hands off the rich holdings, for the Church, composed of some 7000 ecclesiastics, owned literally the best prop-

MEXICO'S RELIGIOUS OUTLOOK. 219

erty of the republic in both city and country. These comprised, it has been stated, about 900 rural estates and some 25,000 blocks of city property. Had friends of the Church been permitted, or rather covertly directed, to buy in all this, the Church might have gained her own in an underhand way. But, in fact, the prohibition ^Yas so far effectual that what the Church had owned passed into the hands of those who had small regard for her favor. The adventurous and heretical elements of society profited by the sale at the expense of both Church and government. Many of the wealthy men of Mexico made their fortunes at this time, and their sons have in a measure outlived the odium attached to such an investment.

It is very plain that clerical politicians now realize their mistake, and some of the property formerly owned by the Church is controlled by those who have acted in her interest and are virtually her trustees. But no such arrangement is legal, and, so far as the public is informed, the Church has regained nothing of her lost possessions. The some 4000 churches and cathedrals in which Catholic worship is per- mitted are held only by the courtesy of the government, the property being at any time liable to be denounced and

sold.

V.

But the power of the Church, while thus seemingly broken, is by no means at an end. AVith more sweep of vision and a more enlightened moral purpose her misfortune might have been converted into an clement of strength ; but, weighted with such a past, she failed to recognize her op- portunity and to use it. She had no toleration for the new while she lias idly mourned over the downfall of the old. I*crhaps she lias gained moral strength from such pitiless

The Chnrch Power To-day.

220 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

persecution, but tins supposition does not appear to be borne out in any large way by the known facts. With the down- fall of her temporal power fell most of the scandals attach- ing to those who served the interests of the Church, but the evidences of any widespread elevation of purpose must be inferential. The Church has yet failed to readjust her lines to the existino- conditions. The relations between the clergy and the Liberal government naturally continue to be of a strained character. Each regards the other with apprehension and dislike, and the most deep-seated opposi- tion to the existino- condition of affairs exists among the priest-led Church party. To its representatives the friends of the government have offered no quarter, and with them they have sought no alliances. Perhaps the time has come when a more conciliatory spirit may be safely exercised. Such appears to be the tendency of President Diaz's policy, in that the head of his cabinet is an influential politician whose sympathies have been with the Church party. If the Church, which retains its hold upon the women of the country, is ready to bury the past, it can make for itself a useful future within legitimate channels. This, Indeed, is its only hope. There are in its ranks those who recognize the rightfulness of a division of the powers of Church and State. These prelate reformers have gone so far as to ofEcI- ally advise the observance of the civil laws in regard to marriages and other points wherein the Church holds that its province has been invaded. Such would recognize the fact of established peaceful popular government, and rec- ommend that the Church accept the inevitable and find new work apart from further participation in civil affairs. This is the hopeful spot in the outlook between the ecclesiastical and civil powers. But such liberality is spo- radic rather than prevalent, and must be so in the nature of

MEXICO'S RELIGIOUS OUTLOOK. 221

things. The Roman Catholic Church of Mexico is vastly different from the Church as you know it when modified by the atmosphere of free and intelligent America. The body of its priesthood are greatly inferior to yours, largely made up of men whose learning is theological, whose views are implacably narrowed by sect, and whose sympathies are in- tensely provincial. God dwells in Rome, and the devil takes all the rest of creation not bound thereto. Convic- tions like these being understood, and injected by the men who aggressively hold them, often of mixed blood, among a population whose ancestors slew the supposed enemies of cherished stone images, and one can see why Protestantism earlv had its martvrs on this soil.

VI.

Religions prejudices are slow to decay, le pemug 01 i is- 1^^^^ ^|^^^ ^^^ surely fadino- out here in a

siouary Work. - .

remarkable way. Time, education, rail- roads, business enterprise, liberty — these are the forces at work. The first fruits of some of them are materialistic rather than spiritual, and beget a cutting-away from all re- ligious associations. So be it, for the present. All at least combine to open the field for the labor of every re- ligious denomination, and there is need for all.

Missionary effort in Mexico must be fundamental, as it usually is everywhere. It must plant schools and exalt the influences of the home, civilize and humanize, play its large part in working out a national future that is worth having. A somewhat unhealthy sentimentalism often considerably obscures the high quality of statesmanship that enters into missionary work, and young men miss an inspiration that they ought to get from this point of view.

I met a most intelligent, frank, attractive man during 9

222 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

two days of a railroad ride, wboso knowledge of this coun- try and its people was accurate and suggestive. He was sympathetic, charitable, broad, and wholly free from cant. Casually I learned that he w^as an American missionary. Full of human interest, sensible, practical, and a worker, he is exertino; an influence here that will tell in a larcce way. He had no word of the hardships, the isolation, the infin- ite annoyances that some might find, and which most trav- ellers do report as they flit ; but had taken a grip on the whole situation, past, present, and to come, and was doing a man's work like a man. Think of the opportunity that confronts such a one and compare it with the pastorate of a fashionable city church in the United States ! New Eng- land never exalted the ministerial office beyond what it may become in the hands of one who will fill up the meas- ure of its legitimate possibilities here, but the man who tries to do this must be full-grown and come to stay. The life work of Dr. Simeon Calhoun, the Cedar of Lebanon, was done in Syria, and it matured late ; but it was grandly worth doing. And yet he early cherished the vague ambi- tion that he would like to be a lawyer and perhaps a con- gressman !

YH.

The pioneer Protestant work done in A Keyiew of Protes- ^^^^j^^ ^^,^^ undertaken by the American tant Labors. ^ , •'

Bible and Tract societies, who sent col- porteurs in the wake of the American army — a mingling of the sword and the cross that seems almost as inconcjru- ous in the retrospect as do the performances of Cortcz and his attendant priests. But the first settled missionary work was undertaken by the Baptists in 1863. About 1872 the Presbyterians, Methodists (North and South), and Congre- gationalists began vigorous operations, and all are actively

MEXICO'S RELIGIOUS OUTLOOK. 223

in the field, "working \vitli a substantial harmony of effort that has produced remarkable results.

AYhat these are Avill be best shown by some comparative statements "which I draw from statistics furnished by liev. Dr. Butler. The laro^est share of this work is beings done by the Methodist Church. Eight years ago there were 130 Protestant congregations; now there are 264. Then 12 church edifices were occupied, and now there are 45. The value of this church property was then estimated at $139,000, and now the sum of such property is placed at $412,850. Eight years ago 100 places of worship aside from the church edifices were reported, and now they number 219. In 1877 there were 28 day-schools, three orphanages, and two theological seminaries ; now there are 82 day-schools with 3086 scholars, 130 Sunday-schools with 4650 pupils, and five theological seminaries with 36 stu- dents. Thus this field of Protestant effort is producing its own workers, who will not be new to its conditions. Against 125 agents employed in 1877, there are now 291, or more than double that force — 69 foreio-n missionaries and their wives, 40 ordained native ministers, 163 unor- dained native helpers, and 19 women sent by the women's societies. What are the results produced by this array of workers? The communicants are placed at 13,096, and the probable adherents of Protestantism at 27,300. This is but tlic infancy of the work. There are 11 presses cm- ployed, and these issue 13 periodicals whose united circu- lation is put at 11,400 — which illustrates the fact that this is not a reading population ; but nearly 4,000,000 pages of religious literature are annually published.

It will be seen from the above that in eight years the hold of Protestantism has been more than doubled. The worst is past, so far as persecution is concerned, but such

224 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

fanaticism as comes out of the dark national background is liable to break into violence at any time. Still each year gives greater scope to the liberalizing forces that make for domestic peace and national development. The gov- ernment welcomes any rival to its old antagonist, the Ro- man Catholic Church. The temper of those in authority is illustrated in an incident related by Mr. Strother in one of his reports. A Protestant clergyman, who applied to the governor of an important state for a guard to protect his church against a threatened mob, received this reply :

'* I willingly give you the desired protection, as it is my duty to see that the laws are respected ; and while I feel no interest whatever in your religious forms or opinions, we are all interested in encour- aging the organization of a body of clergy strong enough to keep the old Church in check."

There is true bravery in the missionary spirit as exhibited in Mexico. Thus writes Rev. John W. Bntler, the head of the Methodist forces here :

" We well remember, soon after we came into this country, that an English gentleman called upon our superintendent to protest against his sending one of our missionaries to the city of Guanajuato. He tried to make us believe it would cost his life and the life of his family. Dr. Butler quietly replied that our missionaries knew in whom they had believed, and were willing to trust their lives in His hands. In a few days both superintendent and missionary, accom- panied by their wives, started for Guanajuato. At times it looked as though it might cost some lives before the work was established ; but God was with his faithful missionaries, and to-day we have be- tween three and four hundred adherents in the very city of Guana- juato, besides all those who have died in the faith and those who have removed to other places. Some of these latter have been the means of establishing other congregations in different parts of the state, so that we feel sure that upward of one thousand souls have been led " from darkness to light," as the result of seven years of missionary work in that one state !"

MEXICO'S RELIGIOUS OUTLOOK. 225

Yin.

The story of the first American mis-

The Martyr Stephens. . , . ,

sionary martyr is sad enough. Kev. J. L. Stephens was graduated from the Pacific Theological Sem- inary in 1872, and with his classmate, Rev. David F.Wat- kins, came, under Congregational auspices, from San Fran- cisco to the city of Guadalajara in the fall of that year. At first the Romanist opposition was so bitter that Mr. and Mrs. AYatkins were stoned in the streets, but the governor of the state and the commander of the Mexican forces lo- cated there countenanced the mission work, and in August of the following year things had so far adjusted themselves that the Protestants were well treated. Then, in Novem- ber, Mr. Stephens moved to Ahualuco, a town of five thou- sand inhabitants, ninety miles away. His success was so great as to stir the animosity of the cura, who, March 1, preached an exciting sermon to the Indians, in which he is quoted as saying : " It is necessary to cut down, even to the roots, the tree that bears bad fruit. You may inter- pret these words as you please." Of the events of the next day, thus directly incited, a Mexican newspaper re- ports: "At 2 A.M. on the 2d of March the house of Mr. Stephens was assaulted by a mob, crying, * Long live the cura ! death to the Protestants !' They forced the doors and entered, destroying and stealing all they found. Mr. Stephens was brutally assassinated, his head severed into several parts, and his body was much mutilated." The " tree " was cut and chopped. One of the dead man's converts was killed, others were violently assaulted, while attempts were made to poison some.

There have been native martyrs to the Protestant faith not a few, the cases of persecution were many in those

226 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

earlier years, and tliey are occurring to-day; but in 1873 President Lerdo declared his purpose to do all he could for the protection of the missionaries and of religious liberty, and the same determination exists far more powerfully in the person of President Diaz to-day. He is better able to preserve the peace, and each year adds to the strength and the ready resources of the tolerant national government.

CHxVPTER XIX.

CHAPULTEPEC AND ITS MEMORIES.

I.

The most interestino- spot in Mexico to

The Aucient Aztec ^^^^ ^^^^.j^^ whatever may be his "fad" Associations. ' _ ^

in the matter of sight-seeing, must be the

castle of Chapultepec. Attractive in itself, this spot is fuller than any other of the national history. The stndent of its site, the rocks, trees, and walls, might write the com- plete and graphic story of this people — for about this spot all the notable events and the famous men of the genera- tions that make Mexico's history have gathered and lived. Here is a ixi'^^nd sta^-e that has been the scene of excitino' acts in many a play of love and death, comedy and tragedy ; it has sampled passing life to illustrate all its phases at some characteristic point in the turbulent life of a nation. Truly the associations of this hill and castle are unap- proached by anything to be found in the United States. Let us glance at some of them in rapid review.

About two miles southwest of the city is Chapultepec, and leading to that rocky eminence is Maximilian's grand boulevard, Pasco de la Reforma. One can drive to it thus fittingly in the state of a carriage, or steal more humbly up to the gates of the park behind the galloping mules of the liorse-car line that leaves the west side of the Plaza Mayor, and passes along old streets that reveal the liomes of tlic people in all their sturdy frankness. Better still is the com- promise that goes by carriage and returns by car, allowing a long day's visit, such as will leave firm impressions on the memory, and lead to other days of profitable reconnoitre.

228 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

The liill is an immense, isolated, rocky protuberance tbat rises boldly out of the swampy soil of the valley ; and from under the shadow of this great rock gushes a magnificent spring of water. These characteristics made Chapul tepee a vantage-point early recognized and seized upon, and thev have never permitted it to sink in importance since. Men have come and gone in the valley ; but they have all cov- eted and distinguished Chapultepcc until it is clothed with legend and romance as with creepers, giant trees, mosses, and all the multiplied devices of tropical nature.

Here one can con history that runs back about six hun- dred and fifty years, for we are told that the Aztecs made their appearance in 1245 at this " Hill of the Grasshopper," then surrounded bv a marsh. Eio;htv vears after thev founded their famous city of Tenochtitlan on Lake Tez- coco, halting there at the sign of an eagle perched on a prickly pear that grew out of the crevice of a rock on a little island. This legend became immortal common prop- erty when the Spaniards placed it on their money. The dollar is an epitome of the Aztec past — on the one side the rude representation of the blazing sun, the Indian deity ; and on the other an eao;le sittino* on a cactus and eatino- a snake. In this solitary instance the conquerors recognized, though by an empty sign, the claims of the people who gave them wealth.

XL

But more of the old city. Ditches and Tenochtitlan and the i -, . i ^i

Floating Gardens. ^^^^^^ ^^^^'^ ^"^^ ^^ ^'^^^^^ ^^^^ neCCSSary

land, and so the wonder of an adobe Venice grew with years to amaze the Spaniards and make controversy to-day over the real extent and importance of the place which the Spaniards razed at the time of the

CHAPULTEPEC AND ITS MEMORIES. 229

o

o

s

■■■. EV EL OF THE CITY C

" l^HETEiCOCQ

RELATION OF THE LAKES TO THE CITY.

Conquest. It was obviously not built in any such massive fashion as the pyramids of the Toltecs, else Cortez and his less than five hundred soldiers could not have destroyed in seventeen days three fourths of the city which Prescott be- lieved to have contained 60,000 houses and a population of 300,000. The ancient city of Mexico Avas no doubt filled with light structures such as the Indians rear with little pains to-day, and it may be questioned whether adobe did not figure most largely in its more pretentious buildings.

One can now see the gardens that do not float, and re- call those that doubtless did, by embarking with Indian boatmen who will propel with poles their roofed and cur- tained scows along the canal that runs from the city, be- tween willows and poplars, to Lake Xochimilco. At Santa Anita and elsewhere are tlie little patches of garden ground, separated by narrow canals, where flowers and vegetables are grown for the city markets. The spring flower festivals — when the banks of the great canal and boats manned by bare-leirired, brown boatmen are buried in blossoms — con- stitute most brilliant and characteristic fetes, wliich are celebrated with an irrepressible enthusiasm wholly foreign to Yankceland. The beauty and fashion of the capital fill the carriages that line the banks of the canal, and view the simple Indians as they literally revel in roses or poppies. These oldest inhabitants sing out of overflowing joy, to the 9*

230 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

accompaniment of guitar, harp, or viol, and are royally con- tent with the happiness of a day — bat, alas, they also re- main eternally careless for to-morrow !

The original floating islands, conceived in the Aztec poverty of land, were ingenious and satisfactory devices. Reeds, rushes, and bushes were bound into a raft on which was placed sediment from the lake bottom, constituting a rich soil. The sun beat on it from above, and the water was always at the roots of these ideal gardens. No one familiar with tropical growths will question that astonish- ing results must have been secured.

Chapultepec was always important to Tenochtitlan, whose inhabitants had connected the hill with their lake city by a causeway, and over this extended an aqueduct — on exactly the line occupied by the existing aqueduct.

III.

In visiting Chapultepec one is delighted The Great Park and j i u ai r \

the Castle. ^^^ awcd by the groves of cypress-trees

that have been spared amid the otherwise complete and wanton destruction of forests throughout the vallc}". The entire base of the hill is encompassed by woodland that on the west broadens into a kingly park. These trees — ahuehuetes — are monarchs not only of all they survey, but of their kind on the continent. Their chief, "the Cypress of Montezuma," is forty-six feet in circum- ference, a noble fellow, full of stately cheer which he has generously shared with the noted men of each generation for years untold — receiving, no doubt, many a spontaneous confidence in return for his rare companionship. Yet this Methuselah of the forest bears his years with lusty vigor — in appearance, like his fellows, he is venerable with grace- fully pendent gray mosses ; but no more stricken with gar-

CHAPULTEPEC AXD ITS MEMORIES. 031

ralous moods than 367 years ago, when Ills acquaintance was enlarged to take in tbe Spaniards. Very likely some poet has abused tbis old party by attempting to rehearse liis experiences — for verse-making is a violent disease here, and this would be a " catching " phase of the obvious such as poetasters are partial to.

A broad road, bordered by the most impulsive foliage, circles this fortified hill of porphyry that is crowned by a very satisfactory palace. The height is occupied by the national military academy, the West Point of Mexico, and as the residence of the president of the republic. It is not an uncommon thinor for visitors to discover President and Mrs. Diaz out for a morning stroll, and parties of horsemen and fair equestriennes are more frequently seen than carriages. On all days, but especially Sundays and feast days, this is the people's park.

In 1783 royal permission was granted the then Spanish viceroy, whose name is of no consequence, " to repair and put in order the palace of Chapultepec " — a structure whose origin does not seem to be satisfactorily traced; but the viceroy died, leaving a son who took up his father's robes of office, extended his plans, and reconstructed the palace at an outlay of $300,000. Additions were subsequently made by about every government this troubled country has Iiad — so that a good deal must have been done up here.

The palace is a very imposing structure, commanding the landscape two hundred feet above the valley. On reaching the height we enter the great stone buildings of the lower terrace that are devoted to the military academy, where hun- dreds of bright-lookinn; lads in uniform mav be seen pacing- about, text-book in hand. Few of them will ever live so near a palace again, and not many of them were accustomed to luxurious surroundings at home. The government has

232 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

a policy with regard to tliera, as it has in most things. This school is intended to be democratic, and it reaches poor boys whose advance makes not only loyal individual supporters for the Liberal party, but insures strong parti- sans in every family distinguished by the elevation of one of its members.

Above these buildings, on a still higher terrace, is the Mexican AYhite House, where Maximilian sought to do- mesticate royalty — a marble palace, indeed, with richly decorated halls and galleries opening into rare gardens. Each terrace is a nest of flowers; and at the eastern base of the hill a winding and terraced drive leads to a larger garden with an artificial lake.

The views that stretch away below in this great basin of the Cordilleras are admitted to be comparable with nothing in America, and probably nothing like their duplicate exists in the world. We look back on the landscape made fa- miliar from the tower of the cathedral, seeing the city in the distance with that building as its centre-piece, and the plain with encompassing mountains, the towering volca- noes and nestling lakes, all standing out with pre-Raphael- ite distinctness.

" What," inquires the Princess Salm-Salm, " are Central Park in New York, Regent's Park in London, the Bois de Boulogne in Paris, the Bieberich Park on the Pthine, the Prater in Vienna — nay, even the pride of Berlin, the Thiergarten — what are they all in comparison with this venerable and delightful spot?" That conundrum, so far as we know, declines to be seated !

>

CHAPULTEPEC AXD ITS MEMORIES. 235

IV.

Uowever captivating natural scenery

Theories about Az- v. ii t. i. • t. -i. r.

. -o ,, may be, there must enter into it human

tec Eoyalty. •' '

heroism and the association ^vith personal fame, in order to make any spot permanently attractive in the largest sense. Tins test of human interest Chapultepec meets with a line of names that must always possess ro- mantic attraction for the tourist.

The Aztec sovereigns undoubtedly walked beneath these hoary trees, though the authorities most learned in local an- tiquity do not sanction the fancies of those writers who de- clare that Chapultepec was occupied as " a ' summer resort' for the chiefs, or ' a royal villa.' " A. F. Bandelier positive- ly controverts this assumption. The hill appears to have been used to some extent as a royal burial-place, however. If, then, instead of supposing with a woman writer that here " the last of the xVztec emperors wandered with his dark-eyed harem" — something that could not be, for Gua- temotzin was too busy fighting the Spaniards to have any time for such foolishness — we observe in fancy the Aztecs interring dead royalty, the solemn ceremony will be in keeping with these impressive surroundings. A partially obliterated effigy of one of these old emperors, which can be found on a ledge of natural rock at the eastern base of the hill, will help to give reality to our imaginings.

V.

Lieutenant Grant ^^'^"^ this spot the Mexican war rises nnd the American out of the misty distance into a vivid and Invasion. easily followed panorama. Over there to

the west, about a mile away and in full view, is the battle- field of Molino del Key (the Mill of the King), and Ulysses

236 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

S. Grant was in the figlit, September 8, 1847, a modest and trusty lieutenant, who exhibited some soldier)}^ re- sources, but was by no means a star figure. He had been with "the army of occupation" under General Zachary Taylor in Texas and down to Monterey at the north ; and then sailed from the Rio Grande around to Vera Cruz with General Winfield Scott's "army of invasion," which had accomplished its yictorious march of two hun- dred and sixty miles from the coast to the suburbs of the capital city. General Grant's comments in his "Memoirs" touching this war are doubly interesting to one who has seen " the lay of the land," and can thus better appreciate that clear sense which shines through all his judgments. Though speaking in high praise of Scott's generalship, the great commander characterizes the battle of Molino del Rey and the storming of Chapultcpec as unnecessary. He says :

"In years later, if not at the time, the battles of Molino del Rey and Chapultepec have seemed to me to have been wholly unnecessa- ry. AVhen the assaults upon the garitas of San Cosme and Belen were determined upon, the road running east to the former gate could have been reached easily, without an engagement, by moving along south of the mills until west of them sufficientlv far to be out of ranjre, thence north to the road above mentioned ; or, if desirable to keep the two attacking columns nearer together, the troops could have been turned east so as to come on the aqueduct road, out of range of the guns from Chapultepec. In like manner the troops designated to act against Belen could have kept east of Chapultepec, out of range, and come on to the aqueduct, also out of range of Chapulte- pec. Molino del Rey and Chapultepec would both have been neces- sarily evacuated if this course had been pursued, for they would have been turned."

The Americans retired from ^lolino del Rey, and not until the 13th was Chapultepec assaulted at close quarters.

CHAPULTEPEC AND ITS MEMORIES. 237

Our artillery labored for a day against the devoted garri- son on this hill, and then came the storming by troops un- der command of General Pillow. How far this assault was removed from a holiday parade will be realized only as one looks up and down the precipitous and seemingly insurmountable crags at the south of the castle, where the Americans placed their scaling-ladders, while the rest of the troops kept the attention of the Mexicans at the north side, where there is an easy slope. Thus we took Chapul- tepec, and captured the gallant defender of the position. General Nicholas Bravo. Soon after, the Americans effect- ed an easy entrance into the capital of Mexico, where the politicians had been characteristically exalting their selfish interests at the expense of the nation.

VI.

The Dead Cadets, "^^'^^ height was occupied as a military and our Captured academy then, as at present, and we killed Caunon. many of the brave lads enrolled as stu-

dents, who fought gallantly in literal defence of their home. Now let us stroll down to the garden at the eastern base of the hill, and there we shall find a monument, reared in 1880, in memory of the courage and patriotism of the ca- dets of 1847 — "Who fell in the North American inva- sion." The simple pathos of that shaft shames all visitors from the greater republic, and it is significant tliat Joaquin Miller, David A. AVells, and nearly every other American writing about this spot demand that the United States shall give back to Mexico the old cannon that arc consid- ered "objects of interest" on the plains at West l*oint, together with every Mexican banner or other trophy that may be treasured in our national museums.

" If it is peace and amity, and political influence and ex-

238 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

tended trade and markets, and a maintenance of the Mon- roe doctrine on the American continent that we are after," v.rites Mr. Wells, " such an act would do more to win the hearts and dispel the fears and suspicions of the people of Mexico, and of all the states of Central and South Ameri- ca, than reams of diplomatic correspondence, and endless travelling trade commissions, and formal international reso- lutions."

"How much are these old pot-metal cannon worth?" queries Mr. Miller. " How much would they melt down ? Thev should be rolled down the bank into the river rather than lie there forever remindino- us of an event that ouoht to be forgotten. Send them every one back to Mexico, where they belong. And in return for them, my word for it, you will get their weight in gold before another century rolls by. But we don't want gold. AYe want the good- will of Mexico."

Mr. Miller's observations are not without point.

AVe won from Mexico a territory of a million square miles, and out of the mines in that area we have extracted in noble metals alone, it is said, treasure amounting to $3,500,000,000 — a sum equivalent to every man's weight in gold who was in our army ! This is tremendous spoil, indeed, to say nothing of the other riclies of Texas, Cali- fornia, Colorado, and the territories of New Mexico, Ari- zona, Nevada, and Utah.

Perhaps we can afford such a belated and sentimental reparation — if such it can be called — as these gentlemen propose.

" For myself," declares General Grant, " I was bitterly opposed to the [annexation] measure, and to this day re- gard the war which resulted as one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation. It was an

CHAPULTEPEC AND ITS MEMORIES. 239

instance of a republic following the bad example of Euro- pean monarchies, in not considering justice in their desire to acquire additional territory.'

,. "

YII.

„ . . , Iklaximilian and Carlotta, emperor and

Reminiscences of .

Maximilian and empress of shortlived greatness, are best Carlotta. recalled by Chapultepec. Here -was to

have been the centre of their sumptuous court, and this is the royal residence which they beautified, and for ^vhich they had planned elaborate improvements. AVhat a heter- oo-eneous collection of shades mio-ht be called in review under the gloom of these towering cypresses, with their festoons of Spanish moss, from the Toltecs down to this Austrian archduke!

Maximilian's career in Mexico was the product of the French invasion, and of a woman's ambition for power and place. Louis Napoleon, in 1861, no doubt moved thereto by the outbreak of the American Rebellion, which made the future of this continent a matter for kings to speculate on, and finding a pretext in the suspension by Mexico of payment on her debt held in Europe, formed the famous tripartite alliance of France, England, and Spain.

After a period of forty years of internal feuds, during which Mexico liad passed through thirty-six changes of government and experienced seventy -three rulers, the Lib- eral forces had routed the army of the Church party, and Juarez assumed the presidency. He was confronted by an impoverished country and an empty treasury, and proposed to suspend all payments on foreign loans. "This act," wrote Mr. Corwin to Secretary Seward, " may, perhaps, have been imprudent. Mexico could not pay her debts, however, and maintain her government; and perhaps it

240 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

was as well to say she would not pay for two years as to promise to pay and submit herself to the mortification of constantly asking- further time." Our diplomatic repre- sentative further declared, "I cannot find in this republic any men of any party better qualified, in my judgment, for the task than those in power."

The allied powers sent over a military force which took possession of Vera Cruz. England and Spain speedily compromised their interests and withdrew, but the French remained, bent on conquering the country. The Church was helping its own. The national forces fought bravely to stay the invaders, who entered the capital in triumph in June, 1863. A month later these allies of the Church party had called together a picked " assembly of notables," which body thus decreed, in one, two, three order :

" The Mexican nation adopts for its form of government a limited, hereditary monarchy, with a Catholic prince ; the sovereign shall take the title of Emperor of Mexico ; the imperial crown of Mexico is of- fered to His Imperial Highness, Prince Ferdinand Maximilian, arch- duke of Austria, for him and his descendants."

Two years before, Mexicans resident in Paris had in- vited Maximilian to rule over the country from which they derived their revenues. He naturally asked for a more general endorsement of the flattering proposition, and the above formal call was transmitted in August, 1863, and re- inforced in March, 1864, by still another Mexican deputa- tion. The crown was accepted April 10, at the Castle of Miramar, and Napoleon III. pledged his army and money to establish Maximilian on his tropical throne. Thus came the emperor and empress, with the blessing of the pope newly laid on their heads.

CHAPULTEPEC AXD ITS MEMORIES. 241

yiii.

The Quick Ending ^^^'"^ jouthful sovereigns— he thirty-two of a Dream of and she twcntj-four — were welcomed with Power. honors at Vera Cruz, May 28, and their

progress to the capital was heralded by popular demon- strations. The outlook was rosy for a time. The streets were improved ; flowers, trees, and fountains were placed in the Plaza Mayor; the avenue to Chapultepec was laid out, and the castle decorated and occupied. Large loans were contracted in London to pay these bills and maintain the emperor's hireling troops — obligations which burden the people of Mexico to-day.

The emperor appears to have been a man of mild nat- ure, elegant presence, accomplished mind, and winning manners ; a stanch imperialist and extreme Catholic. His fanatical religious devotion was exhibited, by the w\ay, when he walked barefoot, on a day of pilgrimage, some two miles out on yonder dusty road to the shrine of the Virgin at Guadalupe — a most interesting spot, rich in rel- ics dear to native Roman Catholics.

In Maximilian's court the forms of state were punctil- iously observed, with orders of nobility, decorations, and minute ceremonials; he maintained a state carriage mod- elled after the style of Louis XV., and used a pretentious service of silver that is now exhibited, and proves to be plated. The empress, whose charming qualities are much dwelt upon, was more intense and brilliant than her hus- band. In the great crisis of their lives she was the leader. Thenceforward the scenes were rapidly shifted in our brief tragedy. The Liberals yielded not an inch in tlio face of this show of imperial power, though Juarez and his cabinet had been pushed to tlic extreme northern frontier.

242 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

The beginning of the end came when Maximilian, in Octo- ber, 1865, signed the "black decree" which ordered that all republican officers taken prisoners in battle by the im- perialists should be summarily shot as bandits. There was disaffection among the local leaders of the Church party, and the empire really rested on the hired Austrian, French, and Belgian legions. When the war for the pres- ervation of the Union was ended in the United States our government intimated to Napoleon that the French troops must be withdrawn from Mexico. He yielded to this pressure. Carlotta left her country-seat at Caernavaca to plead with the French sovereign for continued aid. He was obdurate ; she w^ent to Rome ; her reason failed, and the desperate mission ended in her confinement in a castle of her native Belgium, near Brussels.

The emperor resolved to abdicate, and started for the coast; but this left the leaders of the Church party in straits, and they persuaded him to return to the capital. The army of Miramon had been driven south to Qucre- taro by the avenging Liberal uprising, and thither Maxi- milian went with remforcements. The Liberals swarmed about the town, which the emperor called " a mouse-trap," gained entrance through the treachery of one of Miramon's officers — and the dream of an empire was over.

IX

The Three Graves "^^^^ widow of General Miramou writes on the "Hill of graphically of the last hours her husband, Maximilian, and General Mejia spent in the convent of the Capuchinos. She was with them three days before the execution, and records that her husband said, in the course of a conversation with his adopted sovereign : " Oh, sire, if I had listened to my wife's advice I should

CHAPULTEPEC AND ITS MEMORIES. 243

not be here now." " I am here because I listened to mine," rejoined the emperor — not reproaclifully, but as if moved to state the exact fact.

The wife went to San Luis Potosi to intercede with Juarez for her husband. She represents the president as wavering, when his minister of foreign affairs interposed with the stern words, "It is to-day or never that you will consoUdate the peace of the republic." So the scale fell against the imprisoned imperialists.

The emperor's confessor, the priest Soria, has left his record of the rest. Here it is :

"The night before bis death the emperor wrote two letters, one to tbe pope and the other to bis mother. He confided both to me, to- gether with a handkerchief for his mother.

*' On tbe following morning I accompanied him to the place of exe- cution. The cortege was composed of three wretched coaches. I got into the first with the emperor, while Miramon and Mejia occu- pied, with their confessors, the other two.

" Hardly bad we left tbe convent when I was surprised to see Maxi- milian strike bis breast, saying : ' I have put eight handkerchiefs here to keep the blood from staining my uniform.'

" All the rest of the way the emperor busied himself with praying and recommending bis soul to God. But on seeing tbe Hill of tbe Bells be exclaimed : ' There is where I bad thought to hoist tbe standard of victory, and there is where I am going to die ! Life is a play !'

"And, after some moments of silence, be added: '"What a beauti- ful view ! And what a beautiful day to die !'

" When we bad arrived at tbe place of execution it was found difii- cult to open the door of the coach. Then Maximilian, being impa- tient, leaped out of the window, knocking off bis bat. He handed me tbe crucifix, embracing me. He also embraced Miramon and Me- jia, distributed some gold coins among the soldiers who were to shoot him, and then, in a strong voice, pronounced in Spanish these words : ' I forgive everybody, and I ask that all may forgive me, and I desire that my blood, which is goiug to be shed, may be for

244 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

the good of Mexico. Long live Mexico! Long live her indepen- dence !'

"Immediately he placed his hand on his breast, indicating the spot for the soldiers to take aim at. Then the drums sounded, and in the presence of the four thousand soldiers assembled it was proclaimed that whoever should raise his voice in behalf of the condemned man would be made to suffer the same penalty. Not a murmur was heard among the immense crowd standing behind the troops.

"At a given signal the three platoons fired. Miramon and Mejia fell dead at once, but Maximilian did not die at the first discharge and uttered three groans. Then they gave him the conp de graced

That this extreme penalty was exacted with regret, there is no room for doubt. Bloodshed had been prolonged after the capture of the emperor until the exultant joy of the people was turned into a stern demand for revenge. Among those who pleaded for the life of Maximilian was the Princess Salm-Salm. She writes, "I saw the president was moved ; he had tears in his eyes, hut he assured me in a low, sad voice, * I am grieved, madame, to see you thus on your hnees before me, but if all the kings and queens of Europe were in your place, I could not spare that life. It is not I who take it, it is the people and the law ; and if I should not do its will, the people would take it, and mine also.' "

The last words of Maximilian, the pathos of his death so bravely met, the sad fate of Carlotta, and the memory of the natural amiability of the dead prince, all unite to save his memory from execration.

The Liberal government did not molest the partisans of the empire, and thus the way was opened for the peace of the republic.

CHAPTER XX.

OUR SHARE IN MEXICO's FUTURE. I.

No tliorongb student of the actual

Perils in the National i-,- r \r • r^ a* ai i

Outlook condition of Mexico — atter patiently and

exhaustively weighing her environment and her population through personal investigation, and by means of all the information which he may have been able to gather from well-informed Mexicans, from American residents, from books, from published statistics, from news- paper letters, and out of the reports of the consular repre- sentatives of the United States — will regard that country as likely to at once, or soon, take her place among the rich, powerful, homogeneous, and progressive nations of the earth.

lie will look upon her future with hope, and to the powers that be he will cheerfully yield a ready sympathy and a general approval that must often be qualified with much dissent as to the methods employed in attaining de- sirable ends ; but he cannot accept the outlook as settled beyond the possibility of turmoil, or rest secure in the faith that republican institutions and liberal ideas are rooted so deep in intelligent and incorruptible citizenship as to be beyond the reach of disturbance, or even of a general over- turning such as Mexico has so often experienced.

The probabilities fortunately and strongly favor a steady improvement along all desirable avenues of national growth.

246 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

The country is blessed at present in the men who guide her destinies, but on the succession of equally honest and competent administrations will depend the perpetuation of present advantages. The requisites for insuring this are not yet fully developed, and the wielding of an undesirably centralized power by selfish and designing men might pro- duce disastrous results.

n.

The reasons for sucli a general judg-

ral

in

Disadvantasres.

The Serious Natural , jirrxj' j. x-

ment and belief, tendmg more to opti-

mism than to a gloomy view of the situa- tion, have been carefully and, we hope, clearly presented in the pages that have preceded this closing cliaptcr.

Mexico cannot keep pace with the United States for various reasons. First must be reckoned her geographical character. The immense table-land or plateau, two thirds of the country, is not readily available for farming opera- tions, owing to the apparently almost universal need for irrigation, the scarcity of water, the uncertainty that ar- tificial substitutes will ever suffice to remedy the lack of great water-courses that would be available both for stimu- lating harvests and transporting merchandise — for the coun- try can boast not a single navigable river. The profitable agricultural specialties of the hot lands will not make up for these serious deficiencies, v/hose existence all admit. It must not be forgotten, too, that while the coast lands are desirable for their productiveness, they are hot, and to a greater or less degree unhealthy, and that outsiders who may embark in enterprises in tierra calicntc will do so at some personal risk.

The greater portion of Mexico is deficient, also, in forests and in coal deposits. No want could bear more heavily

OUR SHARE IX MEXICO'S FUTURE. 247

and depressino-ly on the future tlian this last, which is the fundamental requirement of manufacturing as it is of railroading. Cheap coal, too, would be of decided as- sistance to the great mining interests that still remain the chief advantage of the country. Fuel for household use is not a necessity in Mexico, to be sure ; but that is a lesser issue. The essential need remains, and it is a crying one. It is claimed now and again that coal-fields exist here and there, but all such alleged mines remain to be developed and worked and proved. They seem as yet to be merely speculative possibilities.

An immediate problem that confronts tlie capital, but no less concerns the national future, is the drainage of the city of Mexico. Tlie expenditure of perhaps eight millions of dollars to this end is a necessity that cannot be mucli longer put off. It will be a work less gigantic, but it is to be hoped more efficacious, than the old Spanish drain- age cut — a ditch 200 feet deep and 300 wide, that extends twelve miles, and can be seen to advantau'e from the cars of the Mexican Central Railroad.

Such are the i^i'eat natural disadvantaofcs from which the future may open a way of escape.

Mexico is still a comparatively undeveloped country, as well as only a partially explored one. Of the regions along the Pacific coast much remains to be learned, and great ex- panses of territory in the southern portion of the republic arc yet unfamiliar, the uninvaded home of Indians over whom the government exercises only the slenderest control.

III.

In a country where the mule trail or Ncceseities in Business .■, i i ri -'i i • i i i .i

and Politics, ^"^ ^'^ bpanish highway have been the

path of commerce, traversed in about 10

248

MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

,<^

1.'.- r. 1 ^*~». ;•'

GIGANTIC SPANISH DKAFNAGE CUT.

equal proportions by the dull ass and the indefati- gable Indian burden -bearer, . the advent of the railroad is a boon great beyond ex- pression. The ability of the iron horse to facilitate busi- ness will be readily appreciated, but he cannot do every- thing for this people.

Mexico does not have a fair start in the race of the na- tions either in business or in her governmental life. This bit of old Spain, placed side by side with the prosperous

OUR SHARE IX MEXICO'S FUTURE. 249

Western republic, suffers from tbe comparison. Of course she does ! Her inheritances of customs, methods, beliefs, and prejudices that belonged to the Middle Ages arc not easily shaken off. The people of the United States started without weio'hts of this kind, while Mexico was fettered liands, feet, and conscience with Spanish selfishness and superstition. Remember that these people only achieved their full freedom from foreign political domination when Maximilian was shot in 1867. Surely since then remark- able advancement may be discerned.

But the task that remains to be accomplished before the will of the people can be supreme in wise and stable gov- ernment, easily amenable to the orderly processes of the ballot, is great and difficult — nothing less than the educa- tion of many millions of Indians in books, in the habit of thinking, and in independent citizenship. Under the most favorable circumstances, time must be the ponderous chief factor in such an undertaking. Nothing can hasten, be- yond a certain point, the solution of this problem.

Then, again, the land of the country will have to be at least measurably released from the hands of about 10,000 rich landlords, who now hold it practically untaxed. It must be opened for the occupation of the coming middle class, for the riglits of the millions will have to be better respected.

Spain not only stripped the country of its wealth, but she crushed out every agricultural and other undertaking that might interfere with the sale here of any Spanish prod- uct. Mexico lias not fully recovered her dwarfed growth since she achieved her independence from old country " protection."

An abominable tax system, imposed by Spain, and cher- ished by the people who know no better way, which liter- ally suffocates the business of the nation, will have to be

250 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

modified before very -wholesome trade conditions can be made to exist. Tliis whole question is being earnestly and widely discussed by the newspapers and public men.

The fact that the new generation are learning to speak English, and are more ambitious for that accomplishment than in the mastery of French, is a sign of the times. It would not be reasonable to expect that Spanish, now uni- versally spoten, will be superseded by our language ; but it is safe to say that the business man of the future will be able to conduct his negotiations in English, while that tongue may supplant in society what was " the court lan- ffuasfe" of other days. Youno* Mexico is Qjoins: to make great changes in life here, and the most marked advance will be in the direction of Americanizino* affairs. One readily falls into the universal habit, by the way, of habit- ually referring to the people of the United States as "Americans," notwithstanding the fact that these Aztecs are, after all, the real original product of this continent.

IV.

The Delicate Task im- ^ ^^^^^^' ^^'^^^ ""'^ to reform these human posed on the Liberal influences and lift off these burdens that

'^'^'^" depress the country ; to attack and solve

imperative questions of government, graver and more full of peril than any to which the United States can point at this time? The gigantic labor falls directly on the Liberal leaders and the Liberal party, and their advance along the road of progress must be so regulated that no ill-advised disturbance of the existino; order of thino-s shall cost them their lease of power.

No outside investigator can give these men a single point concerning the needs of Mexico that they have not carefully considered in all its bearintjs, if not already at-

OUR SUARE IX MEXICO'S FUTURE. 251

tacked in the hope of some day reaching something like a remedy.

Weigh the Liberal position for a moment. The opposi- tion, which is variously called the Church, Clerical, or Con- servative party, entertains not one fundamental doctrine in common with the men who control affairs. The Clericals do not even acknowledge the validity of the reform con- stitution of 1857, for its existence is the bar against any resuscitation of the ecclesiastical power. Here is, in fact, a passive rebellion against the federal power, whose leaders only await the oppc rtunity to become an active and most disoro-anizinix force. It is, indeed, as if the Southern States of the United States declined to renew their allegiance to the government, and still hoped for an occasion which would enable them to revive the days of slavery, now for- ever prohibited in the redeemed Union.

This is why the Church press of Mexico was a stirrer-up of strife, a fomenter of bitterness towards the United States during the passing of the Cutting episode. The Church party have not forgotten or forgiven our conduct during the Maximilian period. It is to the everlasting credit of the United States that, when invited to join the allied powers in 18C1 in enforcing money claims against Mexico — and our interest was a large one — we replied as follows:

" It is true, as the high contracting parties assume, that the United States have, on their part, chiims to urge against Mexico. Upon due consideration, however, the President is of opinion that it would be inexpedient to seek satisfaction of their claims at this time through an act of accession to the convention. Among the reasons for this decision arc: First, that the United States, so far as k is practicable, prefer to adhere to a traditional policy, recommended to them by the father of their country and confirmed by a liappy experience, which forbids them from making alliances with foreign nations ; second, Mexico being a neighbor of the United States on this continent, and

252 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

possessing a system of government similar to our own in many of its important features, the United States habitually cherish a decided good-will towards that republic, and a lively interest in its security, prosperity, and welfare. Animated by these sentiments, the United States do not feel inclined to resort to forcible remedies for their claims at the present moment, when the government of Mexico is deeply disturbed by factions within and war with foreign nations. And, of course, the same sentiments render them still more disinclined to allied war against Mexico, than to war to be urged against her by themselves alone.

" The undersigned is further authorized to state to the plenipoten- tiaries, for the information of Spain, France, and Great Britain, that the United States are so earnestly anxious for the safety and welfare of the republic of Mexico that they have already empowered their minister residing there to enter into a treaty with the Mexican repub- lic, conceding to it some material aid and advantages, which it is to be hoped may enable that republic to satisfy the just claims and de- mands of the said sovereigns, and so avert the war which these sov- ereigns have agreed among each other to levy against Mexico."

V.

AVe loved our neighbor in 1861, at the Oar Public Et'lations t i • j i a* i •

With Mexico "^ period when our own national exis- tence was imperilled, and shall we do less now that we are knit aa:ain in an indissoluble brotherhood of states? The writer is profoundly moved to believe that every possible existing consideration, human and divine, calls on us to extend the hand of sympathy across the southern border, to be long-suffering, considerate, neighborly, and just towards these people whose cause so nearly resembles our own, and whose peace and prosperity will be vastly to our profit.

It cannot be possible that sucli war talk as has recently drawn attention to Texas should ever awaken any serious disposition among the masses of the people of the United States to acquire control over this neighbor republic. Any

OUR SHARE IX MEXICO'S FUTURE. 253

sucb absorption would give almost the death-blow to repub- licanism in the Spanish-American countries, and it would forever belie and shame the professions of a great power. We shall maintain all our own rights, and sec that the weaker sister has all of hers; we shall protect our citizens, and insist on the recognition of all proper international courtesy ; but we shall not enact the bully, or play into the hands of the reactionists and the imperialists, to whom war would give an opportunity that peace denies. Their success in overthrowing the Diaz government would go far towards undoing the advance which the nation has made, and every moral and material interest in which Americans have a part would sufiFcr thereby.

We shall do well to bear in mind the conditions that exist on the other side of the border. The federal govern- ment of Mexico will do all that it can with self-respect to remedy abuses and remove just cause for complaint in the treatment of any citizen of the United States. It has too much at stake not to do this. But it is always likely to be seriously hampered, perhaps at critical times. The fed- eral union is not cemented there as here. The predomi- nating and uneducated Indian population are mere children in affairs, readily moved by prejudice, passion, and foolish- ness. It would be an easy matter for isolated and fanatical priestly influence to incite sporadic violence against Amer- ican business men or missionaries, and then the press of this nation would blaze with fervid appeals for instant war. Let one such case occur, and the first loud, unthinking, j)opular cry would demand that Mexico be "wiped out." It is the possibility of such an episode that gives to reck- less speech the dangerous (juality of gunpowder, and may well cause anxiety to the friends of both countries. As a nation we cannot look back with pride on our former in-

The Likelihood of Bor der Troubles.

254 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

vasion of Mexico, and we may well cultivate moderation and good sense in the future. Certainly we are amply big cnondi to afford the diofnitv of such an attitude.

yi.

The possibility of temporary irritation such as may lead to ill feeling between the adjoining countries will always exist at the border. It is a necessity of the situation that the boundary-lines, over which there is already some disagree- ment, shall be speedily marked anew and clearly, and that the frontier policing arrangements of the two countries be made thorough, efficient, and friendly, with as much leeway in the exchange of rascals as a due regard for the full pro- tection of every individual right will permit.

The prevailing conditions are at least peculiar. On both sides of the Rio Grande River are men whose occupation is chieflv smuiiijlino; and whose character partakes of that restless, adventurous, if not deeply criminal type which is common to frontier communities. Such persons are ever active and lawless in illegitimate enterprises. They have regard neither to the public good nor for the national fame, and it is very evident that many of them are "just spoil- ing for a fight." Both governments need to pay strict at- tention to such irresponsible characters, and they can do this with entire j2;ood feelinix.

Durincc the first term of General Diaz in the Mexican presidency a local agreement was made to surrender notori- ous criminals without regard to the question of citizenship, and the then governor of Texas issued a proclamation threatening to remove any county judge who should fail to comply with the understanding. This agreement, says a prominent Texan stock-raiser of the region concerned,

OUR SHARE IX MEXICO'S FUTURE. 255

" made property and person as secure on this frontier as anywhere, and the best of feeling prevailed between the people on the opposite sides of the liio Grande."

Since then, however, the United States government has interfered in conspicuous instances with this free trading of criminals, to insist that all the formalities set up to pro- tect our citizens in their rights and persons shall be ob- served. The Texan authority quoted above thus further illuminates the local situation :

" The Rio Grande at Laredo and Eagle Pass is not deeper or wider than the Connecticut River at Springfield, Mass., and you can imagine how difficult it must be to maintain friendly relations between the people on the two banks, when men by merely fording the river are protected while they brag of their crimes with impunity. That this frontier has been inhabitable at all during the past two years has been due in a great measure to the peace officers in the two countries trading criminals with each other svb rosa, so that an evil-doer has not felt sure of the immunity to which he is legally entitled according to the rulings of the last administration at Washington (see Senate Ex. Doc. Xo. 98, Forty-eighth Congress, First Session), and insisted on by the present Secretary of State. The result of such trading has generally been substantial justice."

Of course, even "substantial justice," achieved at the expense of the forms of law, will not be long permitted, and the time has fully arrived when the public interest demands that our government shall regulate its border re- lations in a more thorouirh way, to the end that justice shall be fitly administered and the peace of the nation prop- erly cared for.

VIT.

AVlicn the United States asserts the

Our Trade Relations. ,, ,, i i • i» i i. i •

Monroe uoctrmc, and to a certain ex- tent assumes to direct the future of the American continent, 10*

256 MEXICO OF TO-DIY.

we ou"'bt to mean more than a warniiiG: to the weaker re- publics against the formation of European alliances. The chief value of such an attitude lies in the fact that this nation thereby morally binds itself to helpfulness in all those material interests which pertain to the mutual well- being of the countries concerned. Let us perform our duty towards au immediate neighbor, and find profit in it. Care for American interests — the eighty million dollars of capital that has been planted in Mexican railroads, as well as the money invested in mines and other business enter- prises, to say nothing of our direct trade relations — would dictate such a policy as the only desirable one.

The stability of liberal institutions in Mexico will be greatly dependent on the national prosperity, and this we can do much to assure by reinforcing, through just com- mercial legislation, those private investors whose railroad lines are a leading factor in the more hopeful outlook. One may wonder at the courage that has projected the iron liiii'hwavs, but the fact of their existence should be utilized to open a wider market for our business men whose agents — from houses in the Texas cities of Galveston, Houston, Austin, San Antonio, Waco, El Paso, and Fort Worth, and firms in New York, St. Louis, Chicago, and San Fran- cisco— are already actively employed in the Mexican field.

The preliminaries to more intimate commercial inter- course were perfected through the good offices of General Grant, who died without seeing the reciprocity treaty — a creditable act of constructive statesmanship — accepted by our House of Representatives. For over three years this instrument has pended action on our part, and from time to time, at the request of this government, the period for promulgation of the laws necessary to carry the treaty into effect has been extended on the part of Mexico. The

OUR SHARE IX ^lEXICO'S FUTURE. 257

United States Senate, at the late session of the Forty-ninth Congress, refused to accept Senator Sherman's resohition extending the time for consideration of the treaty, with a view to having it called up at the next session. The House, at the same session, accepted a report adverse to the treaty. The conclusions of that document, whose remarkable state- ments have been answered by all the preceding pages, need not be here repeated.

By this treaty the United States agrees to admit from Mexico free of duty twenty-eight articles, all but seven of which arc now free under the existing tariff — chief among them leaf tobacco, sugar, fruit, and molasses — a total re- mission of duties amounting to $575,863 ; while in return for this Mexico is to admit duty free seventy-three articles.

The principal objectors to the above provisions have as- sumed that injury would be entailed to our sugar and to- bacco interests. Yet the fact remains that with all her feared natural advantages, sugar costs a higher price in Mexico than in the United States, the unrefined article sell- ino; for 14 cents and above, while the hio;her o-rades are largely imported. It is said also that her tobacco cannot be raised and offered here so cheaply as the same crop pro- duced in the United States ; but, however that may be, it appears plain that her product is of a quality that would advantageously supplement our tobacco, and not rival it.

vStill, were the facts less favorable to the treaty at these disputed points, it would yet be true that the advantages likely to come to sixty millions of people through the open- in2C of our doors southward must constitute its sufficient claim to endorsement. The greatest good to the greatest number must bring about the modification of what is, in practice, a demoralizing system of out-door relief to favored interests and classes. Eacli step in the growth of Mexico

258 MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

\vill be to our direct advantao-e — if we can have her trade. The development of agriculture means the purchase of mill- ions of dollars' worth of implements, machiner}', and fer- tilizers ; and a rise in the scale of living means demand for those manufactured articles that fill our factories and ware- houses to overflowing. Under such a regime it could not he lonof before the foreiixn merchants settled in Mexico would be compelled to buy goods in St. Louis, Chicago, and New York. All the tendencies of such a commercial intimacv would be towards a better understandino; and closer fellowship between the countries that are geographi- cally united, for good or ill.

INDEX.

Academy of San Carlos, IG9. Acapulco, 52, 53. Accident, railroad, 1G2. Agenr, a confident, 183. Agricultnre dependent npon irriga- tion, 22; primitive methods of,

40, 45, 4(3. Agiiador, or water-carrier, 95. Aguardiente, 108. Airing, a solemn and statelv, 198,

191). Alameda, the, 8G; Sunday morning

on the, 197. Albuquerque hotel, 8. Altars, sacrificial, 20. Altitude an intoxicant, 158. Alvarez, 29. Ambition, the young Mexican's

chief, 109. American colony, the, lOfi. American minister, tlic, 120. America's first bronze statue, 170. Amphitheatre of the Tlaza del To-

roii, 128. Annexation, idle talk of, 39. Annihilation, inviting, 98. A|)()ll(i of Ik'lvcdere, 1G9. Army employed in public works,

99; ranks largely recruited from

criminals, 99. Art among tlie Aztecs, 150; iu idols,

153,154 ; Indian leadership in,lG8. Artist, Indian, 157. Artists, paintings of, 1G9; reprc-

senieil at Centennial, IGO; the

paradise of, 146.

Associations, the ancient Aztec. 227, 228.

Assumption, statue of the, 79.

Avenue, a grand, 177.

Aztecs, art among the, 150; cruel religion of the, 122; elevation of, 211; homes of the, 211; manu- scripts and painting.s burned, 150 ; royalty, theories about, 235; the friend of the, 213 ; thirteen great gods of the, 153.

B.

Bamls. military, 99.

Banking institutinns managed by Spaniards and Germans. 67.

Baranda, Joaquin, 35.

Bargains in the government pawn- shop, 151.

Barrooms for the upper classes, 106.

Raskets, palm-leaf, 150.

Bayard, Secretary, 120, 121.

Bear, playing the, 205.

Beauties of Spain, du|)lication of, 200.

Beggars 95; the Indian, 185.

•' best circles," 192,193.

Beverage, character and mainifac- ture of national, 107.

"Bl.ack decree," the, 242.

Blindness exceedingly common, 95.

liohemian paradise, 182.

Books, old, 152.

H<j<)kstores, 152.

Border, (ir.-^t impressions on the, 10; troubles, likelihood of, 254.

Boston as a financial centre, 2; in- fluence of, 2.

260

INDEX.

Bottles, 15G.

Boulevard, the grand, 227.

Bourbonism, an obstructive, 210.

Brand}' the fashionable tipple, 108.

Bravo, General Nicholas, 237.

Bread, 190.

Breakfast, a, 185,

Breakfast at six, 13.

Bric-a-brac, 151.

Brigandage, relic of, 100.

Bull-fight, genesis of the, 122, 123;

the performers at the, 129-134:. Bull-ring and the spectators, 127-

129. Business, cash, 190 ; general features

of, 65 ; how taxed, 58, 59 ; method

of doing, G6, 67 ; necessities, 2i7-

2-19 ; opportunities, 07.

Cabinet of President Diaz, 35; ob- stacles surrounding, 37.

Cadets, the dead, 237.

Cane -juice, aguardiente distilled from, 108.

Cannon, captured, 238,

Canons, eroded, 101.

Capital, a state, 120; virtually fire- proof, 109,

Capitals, 27.

Car-seats, uncomfortable, ICO.

Carlotta, the empress, 241.

Caste, none on sidewalks, 97.

Cathedrals, tax on ore for building, 14.

Catholic religion allowed, 28.

Cattle business, expert view of the, 7.

Centurv-plant, pulque made from, 107.*

Chamber of Deputies, 137, 138.

Chambermaids, male Indian, 185.

Chapultepec, 227, 230, 233, 235, 237, 239 ; grove of, 75 ; palace of, 231 ; storming of, 236, 237 ; views from, 232.

Character, iUumination of native, 159; illustration of Indian, 187.

Charles IV., bronze statue of, 176.

Cheering signs, 143.

Chicago and its atmosphere, 3.

Child-life in Toluca, 126, 127.

Children, training of, 20.

Church, adroit diplomacies of the, 123 ; confiscation of property of the, 217; condition of, 219-221; opposition of, to liberty, 210; party, a stronghold of the, 192; party, downfall of, 21; party, head of, 30; party, leadership of, 36 ; power to-day, 219, 220 ; press, bitterness of, 251 ; the great pa- tron of art, 170.

Church building, a railroad depot, 102.

Chulos, the, 129.

Cima, 125.

Cities, notable, 14.

Citizenship, habit of, to be cultivat- ed, 29.

City of Mexico, a bird's-eye view of the, 81-80 ; a treasure-house, 147 ; ancient, 229; cathedral, 76, 80; courts, the lower, 109; destruc- tion and rebuilding, 75; drainage, 247 ; historic associations, 76, 147 ; horse-cars, 159; lighting of streets, 109; names of streets landmarks of history, 149; national palace, 85; scenes in the streets, 149; visitors from the states, 148; Volador market, 186, 187 ; Zocalo, or pleasure-garden, 82.

Civilization, ancient, 17, 18.

Class, a middle, needed. 25; ruling, of Spanish or mixed blood, 25.

Class legislation, abolishment of, 29.

Classic America, 75.

Clericals, the, 251.

Climate, limitations of the, 158.

Coal, lack of, 246.

Coal-fields, the Sabinus, 51.

Coffee, 41.

Color, sense of, 89.

Columbus, tribute to, 178.

Compliment, a strange, 85.

Congress, 30 ; in session, 137, 138.

Conquest, the, 20, 21.

INDEX.

261

Constitution and Congress, 28. Consuls and ministers, good and

bad, 121. Continental railroad building, 1. Convent, sugar-making in, IGG. Cook, the, 189, 190. Cooking, 185; how done, 190. Corn, Indian, 41. Cortez, 21, G2, 172, 214 ; statue of,

181. Costume, artistic, 18G; brilliant na- tional, 89. Cotton-cloth, earlv manufacture of,

G8. Cotton-mill, the Hercules, G9. Cotton-raising, 42. Country, features of the, 14 ; Mexico

an undeveloped, 247. Courts, the lower of the City of

Mexico, 109. Ct)urtship, the Castilian, 205, 20G. Cowboy, a love-struck, 9. Criminals, extradition of, 254, 255;

put in ranks of army, 99. Crop statistics, 41. Crops, two annual, 45. Cruelties, the Spanish, 213, 214. Cuautla, typical town of, 1G2, 1G3. Custom - house systems, individual

states set up, GO. Custom-liouses, revenue from, GO. Customs, Continental, 201. Customs and language, change of,

13. " Cypress of Jlontezuma," 230.

D.

Dandy, the, 91.

Dead, walled city of the, 175.

Deatli-roII, heavy, 98.

Del)t, atlemjjt to convert the Kng-

lish, 13G-141. December weailicr, IG. Departments, subdivision of states

into, 27. Depot, a church building a railroad,

1G2. DiaJLTt, ludian, 103. Diaz, Lcrnal, G2.

Diaz, Torfirio, 25, 37, 135, 195, 226, 254; elected president, 31 ; his character, 32, 35, 38 ; waiting for popular support, 211.

Dinner, a good, 1G4; a turkey, 125.

Diplomatic service, value of a trained, 120.

Disadvantages, serious, 24G.

Dishonestv of peon freight-handlers, IGO.

"Divy," a private, 190.

Dog-trot of the Indian, 193.

Domestic economy, 188.

Domestic virtues, 127.

Drainage, bad, 98; of city of Mexi- co, 247.

Drawbacks to combining sight-see- ing and eating, 185; of the pres- ent time, 22.

Drug-stores, abundance of, 1G3.

Dublan, Manuel, 35.

Duret and Yinez. reform leaders, 144.

Dutch justice, 58.

Dwelling-places of the Indians, 92.

E.

Eastern life, similitude to, 146.

Ecclesiasticism and liberty, 217.

Economy, domestic, 188.

Editor, tlie young, G.

Education, govermcntal promotion

of, 210; popidar, 25. Educational bill, 24. Eighteenth-century landlord, 183. I'.l Monitor RcpuJdicano, 117. El Paso, from Kansas City to, 5. Elections a farce, 30. Electric light, hV,. I'mbroiikry, 15G. 11m pi re, dream ol^ 212. Engineers' wages, 5G. ICnglish, priile in speaking, 197, luiualiiv of citizens established,

29. Estate, visit to a grand, IGG. Estates, demand that great, be sub-

divitlcd, 23. • Eliiiucttc of the promenade, 198.

262

IXDEX.

Example, a good, 202. Exotics, the rarest of, 196. Experience, buying, 10. Exports, 04. Extradition of criminals, 254, 255.

F.

Factories, number and value of, G9.

Fancy and reality, 203.

Fares, hackmen's, 110, 111.

Farming, primitive methods in, 40.

Feather-v.-ork, 152,

Federal government hampered, 253.

Festivals, the spring flower, 229.

Fertility of country, 22, 23.

Filigree-work, 151.

Finances, national, 59.

Financier, the, 119, 135.

Fire department, a quaint, 109, 110.

Firemen, idol of the, 110.

Flowers, cost of, 82; profusion of, 162.

Food of the Indians. 92; prices of, 191.

Foreigners the victims of beggars and fleas, 95.

Forests, want of, 246.

Franciscans and Dominicans, con- vents of, 216.

Free pass, how obtained, 159.

Freebooters utilized, 100.

Freedom of press, 28, 32.

Freight carried bv a horse railroad, 112.

Freighting, 66.

French teaching shown in paint- ings, 172.

Fruit-peddler, the, 186.

Fuel for liousehold use not a neces- sity, 247.

Fueros, military and ecclesiastical, suppressed, 29.

Funerals carried bv a horse railroad, 113.

Future, a hopeful, 245.

G.

Galera, valley of, 14. Garden:;, the floating, 228.

Germans the merchant princes, 65. Girls, education of, 202; of the best

type intellectual, 203. Glazed ware, 155. Gold and silver, famous workers in,

150. Goods must be honest, 68 ; selling

and freighting, 66. Gossip, the aguador a, 95. Government and clergy, relations

between. 220; friendly to United

States, 253 ; grave deficiencies in

popular, 30. Grant and the American invasion,

235-280. Graves, the three, 243. Guadalajara, 51. Guardian of the great front door,

109. Guatemotzin, statue of, 181; tor- tured, 181. Guerrero, 79. Gonzales, Manuel, his wealth, 32 ;

his last two vears as president,

135, 136.

H.

Haciendado, the, 31 ; on horseback,

90. Hackman, object-lesson given to a,

111. Hackmen, paradise where they are

regulated, 110; sharp supervision

of.'lll. Ilamlin. Hannibal, Avitnesscs a bull- fight,' 123. Hedges, prickly-pear, 14. Hides, fermentation of pulque in

fresh, 107. " Hill of the Grasshopper," 228. Hinojosa, General Pedro, 35. Home spirit, 201. Hooking two wavs at the same time,

100. Horse railroad that carries freight

and funerals, 112, 113, Horsemanship, 199. Hotel de San Diego, 164. Hotel ckrk. Icisurelv habits of. 184.

IXDEX.

263

Hotel prices, 185.

Hotels, ancient, 184; Frenchmen

and Italians conduct the large, G7. House of liepresentatives, 30. Housekeeping, 188. Houses, improvement of Mexican,

16; sun-dried brick, 1G2; vacant,

189. Huitzilopochtli, the war- god, 153-

155. Husband marries his wife's family,

209.

I.

Idols, art in the, 153, 154; strolls

among, 153. Illinois, newness of, 4. Independence, development of, 21;

of Mexican states, 29 ; ten years'

war for, 21. Indian beggar, 1S5 ; chambermaids,

185; character illustrated, 187;

dress and life, 91, 92 ; family trips,

187; leadership in higher art,

168; venders, 187. Indians, clotliing and food of, 25. Industrial and agricultural interests,

23. Iiui, a model, 1G4.

Inquisition, rise and fall of, 215, 21G. Interoceanic liailroad, study of life

on, 159. Invasion, drant and the American,

235-237. Irrigation, agricidture dependent

upon, 22. Iturbide, Colonel Augustine, 79. Iztaccihuatl, 71.

J.

Juarez, President, 21, 25, 241 ; his dream of a jNlexican republic, 28; minister of justice and ecclesias- tical alTairs, 29; remarkable mon- ument to, 170; the apostle of liberty, 217.

Journalism, frontier, G ; Mexican, 114.

Journalist, local, 159.

Journals, the leading, 116 ; the weekly, 118.

K.

Kansas City to El Paso, 5-8. Kleptomania, an example of, 160.

Labor, cheapness of, 69.

Laborers, laz}- ways of, 45.

Lace mantillas, 151.

Lager, 108.

Lake Xochimiico, 229.

Lakes and city, 72.

Land owned iu great haciendas or

estates, 23. Landlord, an eighteenth -ccnturA-,

183. Landlords, non-resident, 23, 210;

selfishness of the old quarter, 189. Land-owners and peons, 119. Laocoon, 1G9. Las Casas, 213. '• Las Casas protecting the Aztecs,"

171. Lawyers, 109. Leaders, the old social, 193. Leisurely ways, 159. Lerdo, Don Sebastian, 193. Lesson for cities in the United

States, 105. Liberal part v. task imposed on, 250,

251. Liberals, 37 ; and social recognition,

194; bugaboo of the, 144. Life, Indian domestic, 92; railroad

study of, 159, Lighting of streets in City of ^Icxi-

co, 1()9. Limantaur, Signor, 138. Liquor question, 105. Loaliug under a coffee-trcc, 158. Lotteries a legacy from Spain, 97. Lottery-venders, 95. Love-making, peculiar, 205.

II.

Maguey, ptdcpic made from, 107. Mailing, sharp practice in, 113.

264

IXDEX.

Mafiana principle, 159.

Manufactures, ancient, G8 ; range of, 69.

Manufacturing, want of water and fuel for, 09.

INIariscal, Ignacio, 35.

jNlarket-garden, need of, 188.

Markets, old and new, 186.

Marriage allows the bride to snnoke, 206 ; and after, 296 ; legal, 206.

Martyrs, native, 225.

Masters, ancient Mexican, 170, 171, 172.

Matador, the, 129.

Maximilian, 15 ; abdication of, 242 ; career in IMexico, 239-214 ; down- fall of, 193; execution of, 244; his enduring work, 177 ; record of last hours of, 243, 244 ; signs the "black decree," 242; the last words of, 243, 244.

Meat business, monopoly of the, 190.

Memorials, a grand avenue and its, 177.

Merchant princes, Germans the, 65.

Mescal 108.

Methodist missionaries, 24.

Mexican railroad, scenery on line of, 52.

Mexicans, arts and industries of ancient, 19; original state of, 19 ; vapor baths of ancient, 19.

Mexico, an undeveloped country, 247; ancient civilization of, 17; glory of its history and romance, 17; landing of Spaniards in, 17; material possibiUties, 40 ; support- ing power of, 40 ; vices of, 105.

IVIilitia, 99.

Military academ.v, 231,232.

Mills and their operatives, 68 ; gov- ernment bonus to, 69.

Mines, forfeiture of, 64.

Mining, past and present, 62-64; companies, foreign, 63 ; laws, 63.

Miraraon, the widow of General. 242.

Miron, Diaz, 139-141,144.

Mirrors, demand for, 168.

Misconceptions, international, 106.

jMisfits, a melancholv procession of, 183.

Missionary, an Araerican^222 ; mur- der of a, 225.

Missionary statistics, 223 ; work, opening for, 221.

Missionaries, disappointed, 182.

]Money-changer,-]Mexican, 10.

Montezuma's present to Cortez, 62.

Monument, remarkable, 175.

Monuments. 178, 179.

Morelos, a dav's journey into, 159, 160.

Morelos, the patriot, 216.

Morgan, departure of Minister, 120.

Morning, tropical winter, 165.

Mound-builders, 18.

Mountain views, 161.

Mozos, 185.

^Mugwumps, appearance of the, 135.

Murillos, 169.

Museum, national, 85, 150.

Music and art, love of, 152.

N.

National outlook, perils in, 245-247.

Native character illuminated, 159.

Natural liistorj^ and prejudices of " society," 193.

Necessities in business, 247-249 ; in politics, 249-251.

Negroes and Indians compared, 186.

Nevado de Toluca, volcano of, 125, 126.

New England, reminder of, 162.

Newspapers, American daily, 118 ; how handled, 115; great number of, 116; liberal dailies, 117; local, 5; no high-pressure in work on, 114; of the Church partv, 117.

"No trust," 190.

Northern ways, Nature's rebuke to,

150.

O.

Observer, a slightlv unpleasant, 185,

186. Odors, all-pervasive, 97. Opera, between the acts at the, 196;

society at the, 195, 196.

IXDEX.

265

Operatives in mills, G9.

Opinion, public, 31.

Opposition, voung leaders of the, 14-t.

Oratory, 138.

Order,'piiblic, 108.

Organization, need of, among In- dians, 187.

P.

Pace, a funereal, 199. Pacheco, General Carlos, 35. Painters, creditable work of native,

170. Paintings by the masters, 1G9, 170;

French teaching shown in, 172;

national development in, 108. Palace of city of Mexico, 85, 86. Panteon of San Fernando, 175. Paradise, a Bohemian, 182; where

hackmen are regulated, 110. Park, the great, 230, 231. Paseo de la Reforma, grand airing

on the, 198, 199; spaces for mon- uments on, 177-179. Pass, how a free, was obtained, 159. Pawn-shop, government, 85; mir- rors in, 1G8. Peasant class, possibilities of, 70. Peasantry', native, or peons, 14; the

reserve power, 24. Peculations revealed, 190. Penny press, 118. Peons, 14; dishonesty of, ICO. People, homes of the common, 211;

life of the, 140; mostlv Indians,

24. Perils in national outlook, 245-247. I'icadores, the, 12'.>. Picture-writing of the Aztecs, 150. I'ilforer, a saintly-looking, 160. Pillcnv, (icnoral, 237. Plan to erect an empire, 193. Plaza Mayor, the, 76, 98, 99; of

Cnautl.i, 103; of Toluca, scene

on, 127. Plough, Illinois company's, 41. Plougiiing with a shar[)ened stick,

40.

Police force, 108.

Policy of leading journals, 116.

Political progress, 144, 145.

Politics, necessities in, 249-251 ; summary of, 35.

Popocatapetl, 161 ; charm of, 71, 72.

Population and area of states, 27, 28.

Pork market, control of, 191.

Porter, the, 189.

Porters, Indians trained, 103.

Positive people, 182.

Post-office, the, 113.

Postage, letter, 113.

" Pot-boilers," 168.

Pottery, 155, 156.

Present time, drawbacks of the, 22.

President, how chosen, 30 ; the mili- tary head of affairs, 31.

Press, an unhurried, 114; freedom of, 28; the weekly, 118.

Prices of food, 191.

Principle, the mafiana, 159.

Printers' wages, 116.

Procession of misfits, 183.

Products of the country, 45.

Progress, 46.

Protestant missions, 222.

Pulque, character and manufacture of, 107; shops, how regulated, 105-106; the national tipple, 14.

Q.

Quaretoro resembles Havana, 15; Maximilian shot there, 15.

R.

Rainy season, 45.

Railroad accident, 162; building,

continental, 1 ; cars, classes of, 10;

grades, cost of constructing, 56;

system, review of, 48-57. Railroading, expenses of, 56 ; novel

features in, 55. Railroads, development of, 46; gov- ernment concessions to, 4(5. 47;

messengers of enliglitenment, 26;

pay of employees, 56. Reasoning, extraordinary, 183. Reciprocity, advantages of, 64, 65.

260

IXDEX.

Reform leaders Buret and Yinez, 144.

'•Reform within the party," 143.

Relations ■svith Mexico, our public, 252.

Religious liberty, advance in. 224.

Religious orders, influence of, 217.

Rents, 188.

Republicanism, 30.

Restaurants, a tour of the, 185, ISO.

Revenue from custom-houses, GO.

Revolution a necessity, 217 ; relig- ious, 211, 212 ; review of the bloodless, 142-143.

Ride in a canvas-covered car, 1G6.

Rio Honde, elevation of, 124.

Road, the old, IGO.

Rome of tlie New World, 149.

Room -rent, 185.

Royalty, theories about Aztec, 235.

Rubio, Manuel Romero, 35.

Rurales, or mounted patrols, 100, 101 ; relic of brigandage, 100.

S.

San Carlos, academy of, ICO.

San Fernando, Pantcon of, 175.

Santa Anna, 79.

Scene, a beautiful, 1G2.

Scenery along the line of the Na- tional railroad, 123.

Schools, agricultural, 210; indus- trial, 210; of Methodist mission- aries, 24; ten thousand public, 210.

Sculpture of ancient Mexicans, 19.

Senate, 30.

Scnoritas and tlieir charms, 202, 203; fancy and reality, 203.

Sequestration of Church property, results of, 218,219.

Serapes, 151.

"Serenos," 108,100.

Servant question, 180, 190.

Servants, accumulation of, 101; di- viding lines among, 180, 100.

Sewing-machine agent, a Yankee, 1G3.

Shoppers, 98.

Shops, G8.

Sight, a glorious, 169.

Silver, supply of, G3.

Slavery, system of essential. 119.

Smells, acquired taste for bad, 98; five-hundred-years-old, 98.

Smugglers on the Rio (irande. 254.

Smuggling, 9; great froiuier in- vites, 64.

Social decadence and growth, 197.

Social growth, 24.

" Society " a stronghold of the Church party, 192; and the peo- ple, 210; its Continental customs, 201; natural history and preju- dices, 193.

Soldiers, uniforms of, 99.

Sombrero, the felt, 90.

Spaniards, landing of, 17.

Spectators at the bull-tiglit, 128.

Stamp tax, GO.

Stare, a general, 19G.

State levies and the combined bur- den, GO.

States and their capitals, 27.

Statesmen, disadvantages of, 22 ; the work that confronts, 143.

Statistics, guess-work in, G4.

Statue, America's first bronze, 176.

Stepliens, the martyr, 225.

Stores, Frenchmen keep the import- ant retail, 67.

Straw |)icturcs, 152.

Street, no law of, 96.

Stronghold of the Church party, 102.

Students, victory of the, 139-141.

Sugar-growing, 42.

Sugar-making in a convent, 166.

Sugar-mill, a, 1G6.

Suggestions, IGO.

Sunday a day of rest and recreation, 127.'

Sunday morning in the Alameda, 197.

Supervision of hackmen, sharp, 111.

T.

Table-land, 22.

IXDEX.

267

Table-tops, artistic, 156.

Tax, the ledera', GO.

Taxation, necessity for lifting yoke of, Gl ; of stores and houses, C8; system of, 58, 59.

Taxes, state, 60; town. G I.

Telegraphs, 103.

Telephones, 103, 101.

Tenements, im[)rove(l, 92.

Tenochtitlan and the floating gar- dens, 228, 230.

Tooyaomiqui, 153.

Tequila made from the maguey plant, 108.

Texcoco, cacique of, tortured, 181.

Texcoco, Lake, 75.

"The proper thing," 199.

Tlieatrical venture in Texas, 8.

Threshing, 46.

Tobacco, 11 ; indigenous, 42.

Toltecs, 18; religious worship of the, 122.

Toluca, city of, 126; market build- ing, 186;' ride to, 124, 125.

Tortillas, 41.

Tourists, a stamping-ground for, 146; great influx of, 148.

Trade belongs to United States, Gi, G5; prohibition of, 61; relations •with United States, 256-258 ; re- tail, facts about, 67.

Travellers, distinction among, 10.

Treasure- himse, the citv of 3Iexico a, 147.

Treaty, advantages of, 256-258; ob- jectors to, 257.

Troj)ical winter morning, 16.5.

Tro|iics, pliniging into tlio, IfW.

Tula, ancient Toltec ca[)ital, 15.

U.

Union of Church and State, ancient,

212.

V.

Valley of Mexico, 71, 72.

Vapor baths of ancient Mexicans, 19. Vases, mammotli, 155, 156. Venders, Indian, 187, 188. Viceroys, rule of the, 21. Vices, 105.

Virgin, shrine of, at Guadalupe, 241. Volcano of Xevado de Toluca, 125, 126.

W.

Wages of operatives and laborers, G9.

Waiters, 185.

War, the Mexican, 235-237.

Watchword of heathendom, 154.

Water-carriers, 95.

Water-coolers, 156.

Wax-flgures, 152.

Wa^'s, leisurely, 159.

Weather, the, *89.

Wedding parties, a custom to pho- tograph, 209.

Weddings, church, 209.

West, random notes of the, 4.

Wheat crop, 41.

White House, the, 232.

Widow, an enterprising, 191.

Wives, American, 197.

Woman in White, 161.

Women, early maturity of, 204; ex- tremes of action in regard to, 204, 205; hold of the Church on, 36; Indian, 204.

Wood-carving, 156.

Wood, great cost of, 69.

Wooils, native, 156, 157.

Y.

Yankee sowing-machine agent, 163. Youth, the gilded, 198, 210.

Z.

Zacatccas. a mining region, 14. Zones, the three, 42. Zumarniga, bishop, 20.

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