GIFT OF
MICHAEL REE&E
1 V
THE REAL MEXICO
THE REAL MEXICO
A STUDY ON THE SPOT
BY
H. HAMILTON FYFE
AUTHOR OF
'THE NEW SPIRIT IN EGYPT," "SOUTH AFRICA TO-DAY'
NEW YORK
McBRIDE, NAST & COMPANY
L
Printed in England
CO
cj;
To the journals in which some parts of this work
appeared I am grateful for permission to include
them here.
285739
CONTENTS
CHAP. fAGE
I A CONVERSATION AT CHAPALA . . I
II THE CHIEF OF THE REVOLUTION . 7
III HOW PROPERTY SUFFERS 2O
IV ACROSS THE DESERT IN A MULE-COACH 29
V BOMBARDED IN MONTERREY . . 43
VI AFTER THE ATTACK .... 53
VII THE PITY OF IT ! . . . -63
VIII WHAT SALTILLO TALKS ABOUT . . 73
IX WHY TRAINS ARE LATE ... 85
X MEXICO CITY 96
XI THE NEMESIS OF PATERNALISM . . IO8
XII GENERAL HUERTA . . . . Il8
XIII PRESIDENT WILSON'S PRINCIPLE . .130
XIV WHERE DON PORFIRIO FAILED . -139
XV OVER THE EDGE 148
XVI AN OPERA BOUFFE ARMY . . .158
XVII CHAPALA AND GUADALAJARA . . l66
rii
viii CONTENTS
CHAP. PACK
XVIII THE CHURCH AND THE CATHOLIC PARTY 175
XIX EDUCATION 184
XX THE OIL RIVALRY MYTH . . .193
XXI THE ISTHMUS OF TEHUANTEPEC . . 204
xxn "MEXICAN RAILS" . . . .212
XXIII THE CHARACTER OF THE MEXICAN . 22$
XXIV THE MEXICAN AT HOME . . . 240
A CONVERSATION AT CHAPALA
ON the terrace of a garden looking over Lake Chapala
a group of people were talking in the warm glow of
a late November afternoon. Through a dip in the
mountains upon the opposite shore the snowy peak of
Colima's volcano glistened against the blue. Over the
shining water the boats of Indian villagers, their big
sails boomed out to catch light airs, trailed lazily home-
ward. The bushes below us were thick with roses.
The walls of the villa were blotched with the passionate
purple of bougainvillia. The prospect, the quiet, the
sunny golden atmosphere, should have tuned our minds
to thoughts of peace and beauty. Instead we were
talking of social disorders, the wreck and ruin of civil
war.
" I hope, when you get Home/' said one of the group,
addressing me, " that you will tell them about the Real
Mexico."
" I hope, for your own sake," sneered another, " that
you will not. No one would believe you."
This was a business man who has lived in Mexico
City for fifteen years.
" It's quite extraordinary/' he went on, " how little
is known about this country. The last time I was in
New York a big man in Wall Street admitted to me
that, until the revolution broke out, he had always
thought of Mexico as being in South America. The
B I
2 THE REAL MEXICO
other day in England a rather famous man of science
said he supposed it would be easy to put the rebellion
down. I asked him why. He said, ' It's quite a small
country, isn't it ? ' and was mildly incredulous when I
told him it was about as big as Europe."
" Well," chuckled the first speaker, " it isn't only
folks a long way off who are ignorant about Mexico. I
fancy I have heard you, and I have certainly heard any
number of others who live here, say that, if old President
Diaz could come back and restore his old ruthless
despotic methods, all would be well."
" I've said so, and I say so still," returned the other
defiantly. This brought a third speaker into the
dispute.
" Rubbish ! " he declared. " Utter and absolute
rubbish ! Can't you see that Mexico is in the throes
of a land crisis ? Exactly the same thing is happening
here as happens, at some time or other, in every
country. The land is first owned by village com-
munities. They are jockeyed out of it, and it becomes
the property of a few individuals. These live upon the
many, who now cannot make a living unless they work
for a master. At last the worms turn. They have
turned here. It is the desire of the people for land
which is at the bottom of the whole trouble. You have
lived in the City. I live in the country and I know."
" You know about your own State," said the coffee-
planter who had spoken first. " There, I admit, the
land question is acute. But you must not imagine it
is so all over the country. Certainly that was one of
the causes of the revolution against Don Porfirio. But
there was another, which in my opinion was stronger
and wider-spread. I mean the creation of a middle
class. Formerly in Mexico there were the high people
A CONVERSATION AT CHAPALA 3
and the low people : those who lived on their revenues
and did the head-work of the country and ran it as they
pleased; and those who lived by the sweat of their
brows, earning contentedly just enough to keep them-
selves alive. Now, between these classes there exists
one composed of men who have risen from the low
condition, who earn good wages as skilled artisans,
who read and have begun to think. It is they who have
made the old Porfirian system impossible. It is they
who inflame the low people against the high."
" Then they ought to be punished and put down,"
pleaded a pretty woman plaintively. " I suppose that
is what happened to the peons on our plantation.
They were all right until they suddenly threatened to
kill us all and set fire to the house. My husband
frightened them thoroughly with his Mauser pistol
I think he killed one or two. But of course I couldn't
stay there. I had to go to the City and I'm dreadfully
anxious about him."
" I expect he's just as anxious about you, my dear,"
put in another woman, elderly, grey-haired, swaying
herself energetically in a rocking-chair. " How can
any one be safe in the City ? The house I lived in was
shot all to pieces in February. My niece in Monterrey
had her dining-room wrecked by a shell in October.
One isn't safe anywhere."
" Yet you find the life of the City and of Monterrey,
and even of places that have been worse treated, going
on very much as usual," the coffee- planter observed.
" Bands play on the Plazas, people dine and dance as
in ordinary times. That is what misleads the casual
observer."
" The truth is," broke out the man from the City,
who had been awaiting his opportunity, "that the
4 THE REAL MEXICO
Mexicans regard civil war, not as a calamity, but as
a natural state of affairs. You have, no doubt, had
many of them confide in you," he continued, turning to
me, " their horror at this ' war between brothers.'
Don't believe them. They aren't horrified at all.
They do nothing to try a^S stop it. I tell you this is
a barbarous nation, and the only way to keep it in order
is to use an iron fist."
It was an interesting conversation and it lasted a
long time. I heard that the Indians -were brave,
industnou&^aad--iaithlul ; Ilia I tiicy woro cowarcQy,
" hrmp-ifUaJl flTu^Jknew no gratitude ; that they were
ki Tl f 1 Ty-^n r r K11 /j-]Tv^ r ~'f h a r J h ay nrprp. dp in I i s1\jj their
lust and cruelty. I heard from some that the Spaniards
were " tne worst grafters of the lot " ; from others, that
their honour could always be trusted. I was told that
Porfirio Diaz was a heaven-born statesman, a short-
sighted military despot, a brutal oppressor. One
assured me that if Madero " had been given a chance,"
he would have brought Mexico into line with " other
great countries." The rest united in denouncing him
as a crazy, incompetent dreamer. " He was known as
loco Franco (mad Frank) when he was young. He
never grew out of it." I was told that General Huerta
could have crushed the revolutionists " long ago " if
the United States had recognized him, and immediately
afterwards by the same people that his army was a
joke and his generals a public scandal. " They will
not end the war in a hundred years."
Dainty women talked unconcernedly about peons
hung on telegraph poles and the '^-funny way " in which
soldiers spun round when they were shot. Genial
Britons and Americans spoke of the execution of
prisoners as a regular practice and approved it, because
A CONVERSATION AT CHAPALA 5
" if the Mexicans would only exterminate one another,
the country would have a chance." I had impressed
upon me by a dozen tongues the contrast between the
high-sounding Constitution and the actual conditions
of government; between the pretensions of Mexico
to rank among civilized nations and the barbarities
she practised ; between the flimsy veneer of modernity
which imposed upon the world " while Porfirio was
consul " and the undeveloped, ill-regulated old Adam
beneath.
I came away with my mind awhirl. Was there any
rational explanation of Mexico's troubles, or were they
all due to an extra inheritance of original sin ? Must
I regard Carranza, the Chief of the Revolution, as a
strong-souled patriot, fighting for liberty and progress,
or as a narrow-minded egoist, swayed by ambition and
greed? Were the Mexicans ripe for self-government
on Anglo-Saxon lines, or did they still need an autocrat
to hold them down? Were they, in truth, a nation
at all, or merely a group of racial elements^not yet
fused into a coherent whole ?
The Real Mexico ! After such a conversation it
seemed impossible of discovery, and for a while after-
wards every talk I had whether with governing
Spaniards, or with peons in the fields, or with officers
in troop-trains, or with foreigners in their pleasant
houses, their hospitable clubs left me more puzzled,
more in doubt. Yet all the time an image was gradu-
ally forming. Out of mists and shadows something
real and solid began to come forth.
To pretend that I can give an exactly accurate
account of Mexico and her problems would be foolish
presumption. Those who know the country well may
find in my rapid survey many shortcomings, much to
6 THE REAL MEXICO
disagree with ; it is likely, some mistakes of fact. All
I can claim is that I have tried to do what my kind
friend at Chapala suggested, that is, to tell about the
Real Mexico, as opposed to the Mexico of those who
during the reign of President Diaz found everything
perfect, and to the Mexico of writers who, going to the
opposite extreme, would make the world's flesh creep
by relating stories of revolting savagery. I think that,
at this moment especially, such an attempt to describe
the Real Mexico may be useful. It may help towards
a better understanding of what has happened and what
is happening there. Possibly it will suggest a forecast
of what the future may bring.
II
THE CHIEF OF THE REVOLUTION
I MET a man shortly before I left England who
assured me that the troubles of Mexico were wildly
exaggerated. He had just returned from a visit to
Mexico City. He took boat from New York to Vera
Cruz, and train from Vera Cruz to the capital. He
saw no rebels nor any sign of their work no bodies
hanging from trees and telegraph poles, no ruins of
dynamited trains, no broken bridges. He found the
service of the Mexican Railway punctual and regular.
He received official assurances that the rebellion was
practically (much virtue in your " practically ") over.
Business men joined with officials in making light of
the disturbances, which were " caused by small bands of
brigands who were rapidly being exterminated." HQ
left by way of Vera Cruz again, and he honestly
believed that the stories of continual fighting in the
north were " a pack of lies."
Had I gone direct to Mexico City by the same route
I should no doubt have taken the same view. ..It
seemed to me to be wiser to go first to the districts
which were said to be disturbed. From Washington,
after seeing President Wilson and other men of autho-
rity, I took train to El Paso in Texas, a journey of
some four days. From El Paso I went on to Nogales
(Arizona), another frontier town, and as trains were
running three times a week to Hermosillo, the capital
7
8 THE REAL MEXICO
of the Revolutionists, I decided to go there first and
hear what General Carranza, the Chief of the Insur-
gents, had to say in explanation of his methods and his
aims.
From Hermosillo I hoped to pass through the lines
of both armies and reach Guaymas (Wymas), a port
on the Pacific, which for months past has been invested
by the Insurrectos. However, that suggestion was
not well received. I felt sure I could ride through
without any risk, but I was told it would not be safe.
Clearly the Carranzistas did not wish it, so I was obliged
to return by the way I had come. I went back along
the frontier to San Antonio, and started thence for
Monterrey. As will appear later, it took me a long time
to get there !
Already then I had travelled to and fro along some
1,200 miles of frontier between Mexico and the United
States. I had been across that frontier at several
points. I had visited all the United States military
posts along the border and seen something of their
excellent training and hard condition. I had talked
with scores of men who have lived in Mexico through the
past three years of revolution. The result had been
to show me that the troubles of this distracted country
had certainly not been exaggerated in Great Britain
or in Europe. Indeed, I learnt so much which was
entirely new to me that I was forced to the admission
that, outside Mexico, very few people knew what was
happening at all.
El Paso, a clean, bustling little city hemmed about
with mountains, is one of the chief sources of the
information about Mexico which is supplied to
readers of newspapers in the United States, and which
is copied from these into other newspapers all over the
THE CHIEF OF THE REVOLUTION 9
world. I am bound to say it is information in which
little confidence can be placed. An " el paso-gram "
has come to be used as a synonym for a sensational,
scare-headed exaggeration. This is due partly to the
natural talent of the Texan journalist for brilliantly
imaginative fiction, partly to the sympathy which is
felt in Texas for the rebels. In Texas there are
hundreds of thousands of Mexicans. El Paso is almost
a Mexican city. In many small towns and villages
Spanish is the language more in use than English.
These American Mexicans are almost all on the side of
the revolution, and have been for years past persuaded
by clever revolutionary agents to supply money for
the purchase of arms and ammunition.
Many Texans hold with them that el pueblo (the
People with a capital P) have been downtrodden and
oppressed in Mexico and that their turn has now come.
Many other Texans are eager to foment trouble in
Mexico, because they hope to see the northern States
annexed by the United States. The land in these is
of much the same character as the land in Texas, which,
until 1835, formed part of Mexico. Since its annexa-
tion by the United States in 1845, after a short existence
as an independent republic, the face of Texas has been
changed. Irrigation and industry have turned what
was desert into fertile country. Many cities bear
witness to the prosperity of the State. As one sees
what has been done in the valley of the Rio Grande,
or in the district between San Antonio and Laredo, and
as one contrasts this rapid development with the
stagnation across the border, one cannot be surprised
at the impatience of Texans to go over and possess
the land. One may doubt, however, whether
the Texas Rangers, fine force though they be, could
10 THE REAL MEXICO
conquer it all by themselves, as Texans frequently
claim !
It is. curious in El Paso to see street-cars marked
" Mexico." These run across the International Bridge
to the Mexican town of Juarez, where there has been
frequent fighting. The battles are treated by the
Texans as spectacles. The American bank of the
Rio Grande is black with sight-seers. Excursions are
run and points of vantage leased at high rates. In
Washington I had been solemnly warned about the
dangers of a journey into troubled Mexico. Here such
fears were smiled at. All the same I had not neglected
precautions. I had obtained in Washington, from a
pleasant Mexican gentleman officially connected with
the rebels, a safe conduct, which asked all officers of
the Constitutionalist forces to pass me safely along.
Now in El Paso I was given letters to General Carranza
and his secretary by another " agent " of his party,
who openly has an office there in spite of the United
States neutrality laws. I noticed in this office a very
old man, clearly of refinement, acting as typist. He
must have been seventy, and as I watched his stiff
fingers hitting the keys, I wondered how he had come
to such employment. I was still more astonished to
learn that under the previous Government of Mexico
he had been a judge in that country ! I could multiply
such cases indefinitely. I met on the United States
side of the border numbers of Americans who have been
forced to leave their Mexican businesses or properties
on account of the disturbed state of the northern
districts. I came across an oldish American, who had
been very well off in Mexico, acting as night clerk at a
small hotel in Arizona. A Mexican *' hacendado,"
proprietor of a " hacienda " (estate) in Sonora, had an
THE CHIEF OF THE REVOLUTION 11
unusually fine crop in 1913 after several poor ones.
The revolutionists seized the whole of it on the ground
that he was a supporter of the " illegal Government."
He is living in poverty at Los Angeles, a ruined man,
until his side is " top dog " again. Then he may be
rich once more.
The State of Sonora I found quiet. With the excep-
tion of the port of Guaymas, the whole of it is in the
hands of the Insurrectos. Next to Chihuahua (pro-
nounce Cheewahwah) it ranks as the largest in the
Republic of Mexico : its area is rather greater than
that of England; it is rich in minerals, especially
copper ; and wherever there is water its soil brings forth
every kind of produce.
In the north of the State there are many vast cattle
ranches, some of them belonging to English and
American rancher os. These have suffered little from
the revolutions, though an Englishman in Chihuahua
who brought some cattle up to the United States had
to pay in successive " contributions " $7^ (about 155.)
a head before he got them across the line. In Sonora
there have been some '" levies " of this kind, but I
heard no serious complaints from English or American
cattle-men. Mexican rancheros have been less for-
tunate. Many of them have fled into the United States
lest a worse thing should happen unto them. Both
upon them and upon mine-owners frequent demands
have been made for the support of the rebel cause.
Most of the mines are idle, and have been so for months
past. Some had their stores raided and found it too
difficult to get fresh supplies. Others ran short of
labour. In the south the farmers have suffered heavy
loss. In the Yaqui Valley many of them saw their
crops rot. In the Mayo Valley, where a peculiar kind
12 THE REAL MEXICO
of pea called the guerbanza is cultivated, chiefly for
export to Spain, the interruption of the railway service
hit the growers very hard.
Nor is it only of the Mexicans that the American
farmers in this valley complain. They are even more
angry with the United States Government. Just after
President Wilson's message had suggested to American
subjects in Mexico that they should " clear out," an
American consul, accompanied by an American naval
officer from the Yorktown, then at Guaymas, went
round to about 125 of these farmers warning them that
they had better leave immediately. The message was
at once so urgent and so mysterious that they imagined
the United States to be on the point of declaring war.
They nearly all abandoned their property and made
haste into California. Some of them have since re-
turned ; others are without the means to do so. They
express their opinion of Mr. Bryan, who refuses to pay
their fares back, in the most lurid terms.
Beneath the surface there is in Sonora, among all
who have anything to lose, resentment either against
the Constitutionalists or against the Government of
General Huerta, or against both, and a longing for a
settlement which will bring peace. Yet the outward
appearance of the State is normal. The State authori-
ties and officials work as usual. Good order is kept.
State paper money and State postage stamps have been
issued. Mails from other parts of the country and
from abroad are irregular, but they mostly arrive.
Customs duties and taxes are collected in the ordinary
way.
The life of Hermosillo goes on quietly. The Plaza
is filled on Sunday evenings with promenaders enjoying
the balmy night air and the music of a good band, In
THE CHIEF OF THE REVOLUTION 13
the market, splashed with the vivid green and scarlet
of " chiles " dear to the Mexican palate the old women
chaffer over peaches and pomegranates, quinces and
melons, green oranges of delicious juiciness, which are
grown all round the town. They are especially grateful
in so thirsty a climate. All the sun-baked streets are
thick in dust, against which the low grey houses
shutter themselves all day, to open up when the cool
of evening comes and the palm-trees stand out black
and sharp against a crimson sky of unimaginable
ecstasy. The deep-toned bells of the cathedral tell
out the hours which pass in such deliciously deliberate
fashion, slow-footed like the pace at which every one
moves, yet never wearisome, for is there not always in
a hot country the spectacle of life to entertain one?
Some delightful young Mexican misses, all in white
frocks and dainty ribbons, are having a party almost in
the street, so wide are the windows open and so jutting
the balconies to the rooms. Picturesquely ragged
small boys and weary peons are buying red and green
drinks from the stall yonder. See this fine old fellow
coming along, erect and soldierly. He is a captain of
sixty-nine years. On the active list ? Yes, indeed, and
eager for battle. He was a carpenter and painter before
the revolution. Now he and his five sons are all in the
rebel army and his six daughters in the " Red Cross."
There seems to be enthusiasm among all classes for
the Constitutionalist cause. It is not until one talks
alone and in confidence with those who form the more
substantial element in the population that one under-
stands how thankful they would be for any kind of
Government in Mexico which could keep the peace and
which would really govern. When one tries, however,
to discover whether any such Government is possible
14 THE REAL MEXICO
one trips against several stumbling-blocks. Not only
is it very hard, on account of interrupted communica-
tions, to discover the truth for oneself to decide, for
example, how many of the " victories " and " cap-
tures " announced every few days by each side have
really happened. It is even harder to form any con-
clusions upon the statements of others. To begin with,
every one is violently prejudiced in favour of one side
or the other. In addition to that, almost every one
bolsters up his view with statements which are, on the
face of them, exaggerated and, from a practical com-
mon-sense standpoint, usually grotesque. Take one
example. All who believe that General Huerta is the
strong man of the situation and the man most likely to
give Mexico the firm yet kindly Government she needs,
describe General Carranza, in common with all the
insurgent leaders, as a " brigand." I have been
assured over and over again that he had no regular
organized forces, only bands of outlaws, living, as he
himself lived, by plunder, and spreading ruin wherever
they went. As soon as I talked with General Carranza
its full absurdity was plain.
A Spaniard of pure descent, he is a man of striking
personal dignity. If he had happened to become
Provisional President, every one would have said how
well he graced the position. It is true that many of
the bands which call themselves " Carranzistas "
practise the methods of bandits, extorting money,
driving off cattle, stealing horses, looting houses and
shops. Although Carranza may disapprove, he must
recognize that these are the usual methods of civil
warfare. Qui veut la fin veut les moyens. The General
has no choice. If his troops did not steal, they would
starve.
THE CHIEF OF THE REVOLUTION 15
That Carranza is ambitious I do not doubt. He
would probably have revolted against Madero, if
Madero had not been deposed. Those who knew and
watched him said that he thought his moment had
come when the little President lost his popularity.
Felix Diaz and General Reyes anticipated him, but the
inopportune murder of Madero by " Felixistas " gave
him a better pretext than he could have offered,
had Madero lived. He seized it without hesitation.
Clearly he is a man of resolution and enterprise. But
he does not look it.
Like Madero (whose own words I quote from his
famous pamphlet against President Diaz) Venustiano
Carranza lived until a few years ago " tranquilly occu-
pied, in common with the immense majority of Mexi-
cans, with private business and the thousand futilities
of social life." He belongs to the land-owning class
in the State of Coahuila, where he was Governor and
where he had spent most of his life. He is a great
reader; his serious studious face, with deep, vertical
lines between the brows, betrays " the pale cast of
thought." His eyes gleam patiently and kindly
through spectacles. His hair is dark still, but mouth
and chin are hidden by a heavy grey moustache and
beard, though the cheeks are shaved. His voice is
gentle and his movements are deliberate. He sits
perfectly still listening to questions, and answers them
without hesitation, in an even tone, his hands loosely
clasped, his eyes searching his interrogator's face to see
if his meaning is made clear.
It is hard to understand how a man of this pro-
fessorial student type can have gained such an ascend-
ency over the Revolutionists. When I saw him he
was suffering a little from the effects of bad water and
16 THE REAL MEXICO
short rations of food during his three months' journey
on horseback from Piedras Negras, in Coahuila (which
was formerly the insurgent capital), to Hermosillo.
But he can scarcely be a man of overflowing physical
vitality at any time. It must be by force of character
and intellect that he has reached his present dangerously
high position.
" I am the only leader recognized as supreme by all
the chiefs of the revolution," he told me in his quiet,
measured speech, not with pride, but as one upon whom
a heavy responsibility lay. " What we fight for is the
Constitution of our country and the development of
our people. Huerta outraged the Constitution when
he overthrew and murdered President Madero. He
continues to outrage it by attempting to govern
despotically as Diaz did, and refusing to administer
fairly the laws, which are equal for all. This revolution
cannot cease until either we, the Constitutionalists,
triumph, or until Huerta triumphs completely over us.
Even in the latter case it would only cease for the
moment. It has its roots in social causes. The land,
which was formerly divided among the mass of the
people, has been seized by a few. The owners of it
compel those who are working for them to buy the
necessities of life from them alone. They lay a burden
of debt upon the poor people and make them virtually
slaves, for as long as the poor people owe them money
they cannot go away. If they try to go away, they can
be brought back. They can be put in prison. Another
cause of the revolution is the growth of a middle class.
Formerly there were only the rich and the poor. Now
there is a class in between which does not like to see
the poor oppressed ; which knows what democracy and
social reforms mean in other countries, and which is
THE CHIEF OF THE REVOLUTION 17
resolved to take successive steps forward in the direction
of complete self-government."
" Have you any definite plans for land reform and
other reforms ? " I inquired.
He thought a moment. Then he replied : " The
first necessity is the fair and free election of a President.
The election which is proposed now will be a farce. In
the disturbed state of our country it is impossible to
hold a proper election. Large numbers of voters will
not know anything about it. We Constitutionalists
refuse to recognize any President who may be returned
at the fraudulent election. We shall execute anybody
who does recognize him."
" I beg your pardon," I said. " Would you kindly
repeat your last statement? "
I thought I must have misunderstood it.
" We shall," the General said calmly and as if he
were making a perfectly natural remark, " execute any
one who recognizes a President unconstitutionally
elected and directly or indirectly guilty of participation
in the murder of Madero."
Some two months after my visit, General Carranza
was interviewed by a Major Archer-Shee, a British
Member of Parliament, and being told that this remark
of his had had a bad effect, he denied having made it.
I bear him no malice for this. I expected that he would
deny it, if ever he were told how strangely it sounded
in English and American ears. When he made it, he
did not understand this. It seemed to him, no doubt,
a commonplace of civil warfare as conducted in
Mexico. My asking him to repeat it, and the inquiry
of his nephew, Captain Gustavo Salinas, who speaks
English perfectly, thanks to being educated in the
United States, whether I had understood it aright,
c
18 THE REAL MEXICO
might have warned him, but he did not offer to tone it
down in the least.
To hear this amiable, scholarly old gentleman define
so bloodthirsty and to us so utterly unreasonable a
line of action made me feel as if I were dreaming. It
threw a strange light upon his profession of belief in
democracy. I have no doubt that he sincerely imagines
himself a believer in that creed. I am sure that the
best of his followers are equally sincere, though many
fight simply because they prefer disorder and make a
profit out of looting. The very fact that the party
calls itself the " Constitutionalist as " and not the
"Carranzistas," proves that it follows a principle rather
than a man. But the discrepancy between their pro-
fessions and their avowed policy shows how far the
mentality of Mexico is distant from that of Europe and
the United States, and how impossible it is to apply to
it, as President Wilson persists in doing, the same tests
and the same standards which obtain in countries where
the idea of self-government is a plant of mature
growth.
It is the custom of the Constitutionalists and Federals
alike to execute all the general and field officers who
are captured ; sometimes other officers, and even men.
They justify this by reference to a law of 1862 against
fomenting treason. Each side calls the other side
" traitors," and the only course to take with a " traitor"
that is, a man who differs from your views is to
shoot him. Several Mexicans have quite seriously told
me that Madero failed simply because he tried to make
terms with those who fought and plotted against him,
instead of killing them. They are mistaken. Madero
failed chiefly because he was a bundle of nerves and
what Americans call a " crank," and because he
THE CHIEF OF THE REVOLUTION 19
promised what he could not possibly perform. He
made the poor peons think they would immediately be
given the equivalent of the English peasant's " three
acres and a cow," and they turned against him when
they awakened from the dream. But the blame cast
upon him for not " removing his enemies " is a sign-
post towards understanding the Mexican mind.
I thought of these sayings as I sat in the Palacio de
Gobierno listening to flowery speeches, such as all
Mexicans can make, about the beauty and justice of
popular rule, at a meeting upon regular European or
American lines held in honour of General Carranza. I
thought of them as I watched a working men's pro-
cession march through the streets of Hermosillo bearing
banners on which were inscribed " Club Liberal,"
" Club Democratico de Obreros y Artesanos " (labourers
and artisans), and so on. And I am bound to admit
that the meeting and the procession impressed me not
very greatly, now that I knew what, to the Mexican
Constitutionalist, Liberalism and Democracy mean.
Ill
HOW PROPERTY SUFFERS
MY hope of penetrating to the heart of Mexico by
way of Guaymas being gone, I had to seek some other
entrance. In ordinary times I should have had the
choice between three. Four lines run from the United
States frontier southwards. On the (i) Southern
Pacific of Mexico I had already travelled to Hermosillo,
but could get no further. The (2) Mexico North-
Western, which starts at Juarez and runs to the city of
Chihuahua, was blocked by burnt bridges and torn-up
rails. Across the line of the (3) Mexican National Rail-
roads, which begins at Eagle Pass, I found a battle in
progress, the battle which won back Piedras Negras
for the Federals and general rank, at the age of thirty-
three, for the victor, Colonel Maas. I went on, there-
fore, to (4) Laredo, whence the main line of the " Na-
tional " runs direct to Mexico City through Monterrey.
This had been closed for four months, but in the
autumn was re-opened, and at the beginning of October
was said to be free from rebels. Thither accordingly I
turned my face.
The south-western United States through which I
travelled, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, are monotonous
to the traveller's eye. For hundreds of miles nothing
but sand and scrub, with low hills in the distance on
either side. Wherever there is water there are rich
crops, but water is scarce. One night, after a gorgeous
20
HOW PROPERTY SUFFERS 21
sunset which turned the brown hills first rose, then
crimson, then a blue purple like the bloom on a dark
plum, we had a moon riding in the southern sky, while
to westward there were banks of heavy cloud ripped by
zigzag lightning, and presently torrents of rain. " Time
it came," said some one in the observation-car laconi-
cally. " Haven't had any for a year."
The towns are what one would expect dusty and
hot and dry. The smaller ones are of a dreariness and
squalor hardly imaginable by those who only know the
towns and villages of Europe. You wonder how people
of active mind and refined manners can bear to live in
such places, until you discover what delightful homes
they have big, airy rooms, furnished with taste,
provided with every convenience, full of books ; wide,
cool " porches," or, as we say, verandahs; balconies to
sleep out on ; every kind of bath.
In the " cities " there is more life and movement
than there would be in a European town of similar size.
El Paso has grown up since the railway came; out-
wardly it is, therefore, uninteresting; the usual huge
office blocks and banks and stores, and big, pretentious
hotels, seldom more than one-third full. San Antonio
is pleasanter ; it has roots in the past. In the middle
of the town is one of those old grey missions which
Spanish Franciscan friars built all over this country
in the early eighteenth century. There are others
among the cotton fields a few miles out of the town.
Their architecture is not thrilling, but their crumbling
towers and broken cloisters refresh one after the barrack-
like banality of American city streets.
It was pleasant after a very hot and very dusty
twenty-four hour run, to find in San Antonio a hotel T
(the Menger) with a cool, lovable charm of its own. It
22 THE REAL MEXICO
is built on the Spanish plan, round garden courtyards.
In one of these, after a bath and a change, I sat on a
sultry October night at dinner in the open air, listening
to a Texan view of the Mexican muddle. Along the
border I had begun to understand how much loss and
suffering have been caused to subjects of the United
States. The fact that some 60,000 Mexicans have been
killed concerns Mexico alone. ~~"3o long as the peons can
count upon four shillings a day for being soldiers
instead of one shilling a day, or less, for being labourers
(with frequent opportunities of loot thrown in), they
will fight willingly for either side and run the risk of
getting killed. If they lived on a barren island all by
themselves they might go on fighting until they were
all exterminated and no one would greatly care. But
when one learns that two hundred Americans have been
killed, not to mention the enormous losses suffered, one
is driven to ask with Mr. Roosevelt whether it is not the
duty of a Government to protect its subjects ?
In New York, in the Eastern States generally, in the
Middle West, they know next to nothing about events
in Mexico. The channels through which news flows
are untrustworthy, not so much because of the Yellow
tendency to exaggerate, which causes newspapers in
the United States to be read with cynical scepticism,
as on account of two forces that are operating against
any full unprejudiced statement of the truth. These
forces are
1. The disposition of the Mexican Government (and
of the Constitutionalists also) to expel any newspaper
correspondent who sends news which they would prefer
to suppress.
2. The widespread sympathy with the rebels (in
some cases paid for by them) which animates the
HOW PROPERTY SUFFERS 23
American Press, and causes it to ignore aspects of the
rebel campaign which might tell against it in the
American mind.
All founts of information must therefore be dis-
trusted. What is called " news " is frequently supplied
by Constitutionalist agents, and is of no more value
than official statements from the other side. How
much these are worth may be gathered by comparing
one made early in October by the Minister of the
Interior to the effect that " All Governors reported their
States free from disturbances " with the fact, verified
by myself, on the spot, that each of the four railways
running south from the United States frontier was
blocked by fighting.
Most people in the United States are, therefore,
densely ignorant about Mexico, although it lies next
door to them. They are flatly opposed to " inter-
vention," if it means losing lives and spending money.
They say, " If Americans go to these barbarous lands
they must take their chance." If they have any view
of the political situation at all it is that " President
Huerta is a bad man " and that a pious country (like
the United States) ought not to encourage him; or
that the best plan this I have heard hundreds say
would be to let each side buy arms and ammunition
freely (from the United States) and fight it out. But
in Texas, in New Mexico, in Arizona, especially in the
southern parts, which lie next to Mexico, feeling against
President Wilson and Mr. Secretary Bryan is bitter and
contemptuous.
I travelled one day with an official of the United
States Immigration Department. In the course of
duty he had to go over from El Paso to Juarez to make
inquiries about a coloured man who had committed
24 THE REAL MEXICO
some offence in the United States. This man had in
the meantime joined the Mexican Army and been made
a lieutenant. He had the immigration agent arrested
by four soldiers without any warrant on a charge
of " being about to attempt to kidnap him." The
soldiers marched the agent off towards the hills ; being
convinced that they would shoot him if they got him
there, he ran away. They fired and shot him through
the stomach. He managed to get to the Civil Police
Post, but even there he lay for twenty-four hours with-
out proper treatment, and his release was only secured
by the resolute action of another immigration officer.
I asked him what his Government had done. " Done ?
Done nothing ! " he said savagely. " Holding some
sort of an inquiry ! I tell you the people of my
country, so long as they get enough to eat and can go
to the picture shows at night, don't care what happens."
I was reminded of what a fine old American soldier had
said to me a day or two before. " There isn't as much
red blood in this people as there used to be."
If there were, they would surely resent and demand
redress both for injuries inflicted and for property
destroyed. Out of a great number of cases related to
me by people who have suffered in pocket at the hands
of the Constitutionalists I pick a few. At Poquilla,
in Chihuahua, where a dam is being built for power and
irrigation, a demand was made upon the manager for
1000. His refusal to pay was followed immediately
by a threat to shoot him. He was thrown into a ditch
while the offices were seized and searched. After a
time he agreed to find the money in return for an under-
taking that he should not be molested again. That
undertaking was not kept. The owner of a flour mill
in Saltillo described to me the utter devastation of
HOW PROPERTY SUFFERS 25
his property. Everything was taken. Even the belts
of the machinery were cut up into accoutrements.
Fine grain was poured out in vast quantities for the
horses to trample as they fed. For two days this mill
was the hottest centre of a battle; as he put it, " the
place was shot all to pieces." Near Saltillo the Mazapil
Copper Company, of which the capital is held mainly in
the North of England, has done no work to speak of for
eight or nine months. The Federals are at one end of
its private line of railway from Saltillo to Concepcion ;
the rebels at the other, so they are between two fires.
Close to this is a big ranch upon which the rebels seized
all the animals and all the crops ; the loss is reckoned at
150,000. In another part of Coahuila the Cloete ranch
was pillaged to the extent of 10,000 while the Consti-
tutionalists were in control of the district.
The Mexico North- Western Railway in Chihuahua
has been at a standstill since June 1913, after suffering
losses for two years before that. Its 500 miles of track
are in a part of the country where fighting has been
pretty well continuous. Both sides have damaged it.
Mr. Crockett, the general manager, told me that up
to the beginning of October 856 bridges had been re-
built or repaired ; at that time seventy-eight were still
down. This railway links up a series of mines and
lumber properties, belonging to the S. F. Pearson
interest (which has nothing to do with Lord Cowdray's
firm). The mines are mostly idle. The railway is
doing nothing; miles of its track are torn up; its
rolling stock is scattered all over the country. The
loss is roughly calculated at 'half a million sterling, and
the end is not yet. While I was in El Paso the Gover-
nor of Chihuahua was urging Mr. Crockett to run trains
over a certain part of the line, assuring him that the
26 THE REAL MEXICO
line was clear of rebels. At the same time the rebels
threatened to destroy more bridges if any train should
start !
The Southern Pacific of Mexico has also lost the
greater part of its traffic. For a long time it has been
running at a loss, and to repair the damage done would
cost, so Colonel Randolph, the president, estimates,
800,000. Between the two parties the position of
any business is difficult and dangerous; that of a
railway in the heart of the rebel country is desperate
indeed.
In some cases the Constitutionalists have been
" bluffed " by a bold front. Colonel Randolph himself
was captured by Maderistas on his own line and ran-
som demanded. He refused it with so much spirit
and threatened reprisals so fiercely that he was allowed
to go on his way. That was during the rebellion
against President Diaz. Six months afterwards on the
same stretch of line he was warned of danger and he
asked for a Federal escort. The " brigand " who had
captured him before was now in command of the
district, appointed thereto by President Madero.
It is the Mexican nature to give way before even a
show of force. A rebel band about forty miles from
Nuevo Laredo carried off five Americans and put a
price (800) upon their release. The United States
Consul went out to look for them. He obtained per-
mission to use soldiers and took seven men with him
along the American bank of the Rio Grande. The
rebels were on the other side of this river, which was
almost dry. The Consul went across alone and asked
for his fellow-countrymen. " I will release them when
I receive $4000," replied the officer in charge. " You
will release them now," said the old Consul. " Even
HOW PROPERTY SUFFERS 27
if they wanted to pay, I would not let them. Look
across the river and see the army I have brought with
me." The captain saw the seven men lying about and
imagined the rest. He asked to be excused for a
moment, went into another room, then came back and
said cheerfully it was fortunate that he had just re-
ceived an order to release the prisoners. This was his
method of " saving his face."
If " bluff " is as effectual as that, the Big Stick would
be far more so. Had the United States Government
taken a firmer line and refused to permit its citizens
to be robbed and murdered, Mexico would be safe for
foreigners to-day. As things stand, neither Mexican
nor American considers himself or his property secure.
At Laredo there were, after the railway had been again
cut, a large number of people waiting to return to their
families or their business in Mexico. I could not under-
stand why they made no attempt to travel by road. I
soon found out. A few months ago a man started with
a party in a motor-car. A rebel patrol called on them
to stop. They did not stop and were fired on. That
made them pull up. For seven days they were kept
apart, scarcely speaking to any one. Then they were
taken up to the frontier of the State of Coahuila and
allowed to go. Six weeks later the motor-car was
returned by train with 10 to pay. It was in a ruined
condition ; the rebels had used it until they could use
it no more.
Yet for all these outrages there is no redress. The
American theory seems to be that foreigners have no
rights in Mexico and ought not to expect protection.
' We don't expect it," an American said to me, a
Southerner, too, who has been a Democrat all his life ;
" not from this schoolmaster at Washington. If
28 THE REAL MEXICO
Roosevelt had been President he'd have known what
to do." I heard that sentiment often expressed.
After my night's journey from San Antonio I jumped
out of the train at Laredo expecting to find another
waiting which would take me to Monterrey. My hopes
were dashed immediately. There had not been a train
south for three days. There might be one any day,
but nobody knew. The last out was supposed to have
been dynamited. A battle was known to be going on
about ten miles down the line. Reports of rebel
success flew about all day and by nightfall there was
every expectation that the Mexican town across the
river, Nuevo Laredo, would be shelled next morning.
But in Mexico the expected seldom happens.
IV
ACROSS THE DESERT IN A MULE-COACH
' THIS so-called twentieth century " is a phrase
which often occurs to one in Mexico without any
ironical significance.
At sunny, dusty Laredo, while I waited day after
day for a train to run south, I began by treating the
complete isolation of Mexico City, so far as railways
from the United States border are concerned, as a
joke. Before I left there I had ceased to see the funny
side of it. There are some places in which I might be
forced to spend a week without grumbling, but Laredo
is not one of them. Dozens of us were cooped up in
two arid, comfortless hotels, with nothing to do but
ask each other, " Is there no chance of a train ? "
Every morning a little party of us would cross the
bridge from United States Laredo to the Mexican town
across the river (the Rio Grande) in order to ask the
Mexican general if he had any comfort for us. He was
invariably polite, although depressed. An oldish man
with deeply furrowed forehead and lack-lustre eye, he
looked at us wearily and mechanically repeated his
formula, " Three or four days." At first he attributed
the broken line to floods. But we knew there was
fighting near at hand, for we saw troop trains going off,
saw wounded brought in, and heard from rebel sympa-
thizers of a plan to cut Laredo off from Monterrey.
So after a while the old general dropped pretence and
29
30 THE REAL MEXICO
admitted that before he could repair the bridges blown
up he had to clear the country of rebels.
That settled it. I gave up the railway as hopeless,
and looked around for some other means of making
my way south. With five others, who were very
anxious to get either to their homes or their businesses
in Mexico, I asked the general for a pass to go across
country. He gave it on condition that we provided
our own conveyance. We agreed cheerfully and he
almost smiled. I wondered why at the moment.
Afterwards I understood.
In high spirits we went to a motor garage on the
American side. Could we have a car? Possibly.
What would it cost? Fifty pounds. We gasped.
Fifty pounds to go a hundred and fifty miles ? Not a
cent less, and in addition we must deposit 250, the
value of the car, in case the Carranzistas seized it.
" Ridiculous ! " we said, and tramped off in a body to
another garage. Here we had an amusing experience
of the Mexican character. It was now nearing midday.
In the shed which we entered half-a-dozen black-haired,
olive-skinned chauffeurs and mechanics were lolling
in attitudes of utter and unashamed laziness. Not one
of them stirred. We asked for the proprietor. He
was at home. Could he be telephoned to ? A languid
arm waved us to the instrument. Then the twelve
eyes closed again and we were left to do the best we
could. We got no satisfaction. The same demand for
a deposit was made. We went sadly away.
However, we soon cheered up again. We must have
a wagon, then. It would take longer, but that we
must put up with. So back we went to the Mexican
side and set about finding some one who would take
us in a wheeled vehicle with a good span of mules.
ACROSS THE DESERT IN A MULE-COACH 81
We might as well have saved ourselves the trouble.
If the Americans were afraid for their money, the
Mexicans were afraid of their lives. Some of them
said so frankly. Others trumped up excuses. One
man " could have started yesterday/' but to-day did
not feel well. Another pleaded that his wife would be
nervous. A third was not sure of the way. We. left
the Mexican town to frizzle in its hot sunshine and
tried carriage-owners on the American side. Some
were ready to talk business if we would guarantee
the value of their horses or mules. Most of them refused
even to discuss terms. I explained that I had a pass
through the Constitutionalist lines in addition to our
Federal safe-conduct. No, no, they knew the danger
too well !
Exasperated, we asked one man, an American
Mexican, what he was afraid of. ' They would kill
me," he said. " Why? They are your own country-
men, aren't they?" "No, sefior," he responded.
" I am an American." (He could not speak a word of
English.) " But why should they kill you? " " Be-
cause, sefior," he said with magnificent simplicity, using
a vulgar Spanish phrase, which I translate into words
less terse then the original, " because they are all the
offspring of abandoned women."
Our ill-luck scared two of the party off. Now we
were four. One was a German, determined at all
hazards to get back to his wife and children in Mon-
terrey. The next, an Englishman, had important
business there. The third was an American, a mining
engineer bound for his mines near Saltillo. We talked
over all possibilities. We asked the general if we
could travel in a work-train. "Si," he said, " when
the next one is able to run." " And when will that be,
32 THE REAL MEXICO
general?" He shrugged his tired shoulders. "We
are at war, gentlemen. Who can say? " Next day
we had further proof of the state of warfare. The
Mexican end of the bridge was closed. Our safe-con-
duct gained us passage, but no one without a permit
was allowed through.
Another annoyance was the scarcity of silver.
Mexican currency is largely in notes. One of our
party tendered a five-peso note (a peso is in normal
times worth two shillings) to the conductor of the
rickety street-car. He declined to give change, so four
of us got our ride for nothing ! At half a dozen places
(including banks) he tried to get rid of it. Everywhere
change was refused. No one would part with real
money. Every one distrusted notes. And they had
some reason, for the silver peso contains very nearly
two shillingsworth of silver, whereas the exchange
value of paper money had dropped in some places to
one-and-fourpence. That is one result of civil war.
At last we made out plans. We decided to take
train from Laredo to Brownsville, Texas, which is
near the mouth of the Rio Grande. Thence we would
travel by rail on the American side as far as the line
along the valley goes. After that we would cross the
river into Mexico and drive. Of course, all heavy
luggage had to be left behind. We could only take a
suit-case each. But the prospect of escape was so
heartening that I believe we would gladly have started
without anything at all. The other people in the hotel
wagged their heads at us. " You're running a great
risk," they maundered. I quoted Kipling at them
" If there should follow a thousand swords to carry my bones
away,
Belike the price of a jackal's meal were more than a thief
could pay!"
ACROSS THE DESERT IN A MULE-COACH 33
Really there was no danger to speak of. But after a
week of Laredo we would have taken any risk.
It took us eighteen hours to go by train from Laredo
to Brownsville, and, when we arrived, we found that
we had left the frying-pan for the fire. Laredo was
hot, but dry. The heat of Brownsville wrapped itself
round us like steaming wet flannel. Thirst was
incessant. The slightest movement brought on prickly
heat. Meals were torture : exhausted though one felt,
there was nothing in the multitude of saucers slammed
down before one to spur the appetite and scarcely
anything one could eat at all.
This barbarian method of serving meals all at once
makes travelling in Texas a nightmare. The meat is
like leather. The messes which the saucers contain
are the production of Chinese cooks, and at their
best untempting. How any stomach can long endure
them, washed down by coffee or iced tea, the universal
dinner and supper drinks, I cannot understand.
However, we had no idea of staying longer than was
necessary to fit out our expedition and to get the
good word of General Lucio Blanco, the Constitu-
tionalist commander in Matamoros, a Mexican town a
mile or two across the border. Almost every one in
these Texan frontier towns is on the side of the Consti-
tutionalists, and many actively assist them, so we soon
found a prominent man who was in their counsels
and who agreed to be our friend. As the four of us
jogged with him in a filthy street-car drawn by one
wretched mule, through the long street of Matamoros,
the desolation of the once flourishing city lay upon our
spirits like lead. It was cynically curious to hear the
gentle young Insurrecto officers talk about the benefits
their party meant to heap upon the common folk,
D
34 THE REAL MEXICO
and to look out of window upon the deserted unkempt
Plaza. The Constitutionalists may be the friends of
the people ; but the people do not seem to have realized
it yet.
These young officers were clever fellows, one a doctor,
one an engineer, another an accountant, and so on.
They told us proudly how the division of land among
the peasants had already begun. They were clearly
in earnest about their Radical plans : their enthusiasm
for " the cause " was no pretence. One turned back
his coat and showed me pinned over his heart a little
button portrait of President Madero. " We most of
us wear it," he said reverently. Then General Blanco
came in, a big, dark, resolute-looking man of quite a
different type. I doubt whether he had the Madero
button on his shirt.
He was very civil to us, however, and issued through
his Chief of Staff a permit to pass safely through the
country held by the Carranza faction. This business
settled, we did our shopping. First, we bought tin
mugs and a tin can for boiling coffee in. For food
we took baked beans, cracker biscuits and a few tins
of jam. Then after a moving picture show, we went
early to bed.
The journey next morning to a place called Sam
Fordyce was tedious. We were to begin our two-
hundred-mile drive from there, and we were impatient
of the long drag in a slow and fusty train. Yet when
we saw the motor-car which was to take us our first
stage to a village called Roma, we heartily wished the
train went further. I have never seen a car plastered
so thickly with mud.
The driver said cheerfully he guessed there was a
quarter of a ton of it. That showed us what the
ACROSS THE DESERT IN A MULE-COACH 35
roads were like. I say " roads," but, to speak truly,
there are no roads in this part of Texas, any more than
there are in Mexico. There are " trails " : we should
call them cart-tracks, and bad cart-tracks at that.
If ever that driver wants a certificate of proficiency,
I should be glad to give it to him. The way he took
us through rivers and lakes and slush-ponds was
marvellous. He covered forty miles in less than four
hours and landed us in Roma just as dark fell with
the suddenness of a switched-off electric light. We
found we were in a queer place, an American village
where there was only one American inhabitant (he was
away) and scarcely any one who could speak English.
At the inn we were served by a Mexican waiter
(who seemed to me to have stepped out of Don Quixote
or Gil Bias) with a Mexican meal of tortillas (thin flat
maize cakes), goafs-flesh (uneatable), red sausage
meat (very palatable), " frijoles," the favourite Mexican
bean, and coffee. When you get over the smell of
tortillas (due, I believe, to the lime which is mixed
with them), and the strong flavour of the meat, and the
surprise of getting your mouth burnt by the red or
green peppers with which every dish is seasoned,
Mexican small-town cookery is pretty good certainly
better then American. On the other hand, I prefer
the American small-town hotel. In five days for a
reason which I leave to be imagined we only had our
clothes off once : that was when we slept in a hospitable
American house.
In Roma, having unanimously decided not to undress,
we lay down disconsolate outside our dubious-looking
cots. We were sad for this reason. After long
negotiations with a pair of brothers, they had promised
36 THE REAL MEXICO
to find us a wagon and mules to carry us to a place
called Alamo, nine miles up the river. Here we could
cross the Rio Grande into Mexico, tramp to a town
called Mier, and there try to hire a coach. One brother
was to come and tell us as soon as the arrangement
was made, but all the evening we wearily waited and
he never came. Luckily about twenty minutes after
we had dropped off, we were awakened. Everything
was fixed for a start at four o'clock in the morning.
We slept again, our hearts full of thankful joy.
It was not so joyful to rouse up in the darkness, but
coffee put us right and we rumbled off in the moonlight
quite content. By the time we got to Alamo it was
day, and when, alter ferrying across, we had walked
the three miles into Mier (letting our bags follow in an
ox-cart), the sun was already hot. Another deserted
desolate place we found this, with scarcely any one
about but Insurrecto soldiers. Our first visit was to
the " jefe " or commander. He was a genial ruffian,
who told us, though he had no English, that he had been
one of Colonel Roosevelt's Cow Boys in Cuba. He
grinned and shook his head at the notion of finding a
coach in Mier. Happily one of his captains came to
the rescue. He had one. Our hearts leapt. It was
out on his ranch nine miles off. He would send for it
and get it into town by noon.
That day we spent in Mier was like an unpleasant
dream. We strolled round the abandoned houses,
many of which had been used as stables for the troopers'
horses. We played cards. We had a couple of meals,
made hideous by millions of flies. We sat outside the
guard-room with our captain, wondering miserably
whether he had really sent for his coach at all. At'
last about five o'clock it rattled into the Plaza behind
ACROSS THE DESERT IN A MULE-COACH 37
a couple of the poorest mules we had ever seen. Down
drooped our spirits once more. But the captain was
a man of action.
" Go," he said to a couple of soldiers. " Say to Don
Emilio that the ' jefe ' would be glad if he would lend
these gentlemen a pair of mules and if he won't
lend them, take them."
In a few minutes they came we did not inquire
whether lent or " taken " and then we set to work
to get our luggage strapped on. A small crowd
hindered us with well-meant advice, but in spite of
them we got everything stowed, and just as the last
of the daylight went, our driver cried " Oola moola "
to the animals, whipped them up briskly, and, swaying
like a small boat in a choppy sea, we started off.
When you hear of " driving through a country,"
you think no doubt of a good road like the roads of
Europe; of roadside inns; of villages at frequent
intervals ; of towns in which to pull up at nightfall.
If the drive continues through the dark hours, you
imagine a countryside dotted with friendly lights from
dwellings, single or in groups. Driving through
Northern Mexico is not like that at all.
In the hundred and fifty miles which we had still
to do when we left Mier in our mule-coach for Monterrey
we only passed through three little towns ; no villages.
We drove one day from five o'clock in the morning
until three in the afternoon without meeting a soul.
The country is a desert, in autumn brightly green with
low bush, and in places even made gay by grass and
flowers after heavy rains, but usually grey and sullen.
There is very little water, as we learnt sadly. It is hard
in a scorching noon to eat canned beans, with biscuits
and jam to follow, and have nothing whatever to drink.
38 THE REAL MEXICO
As for roads through this wilderness, well, to put
it plainly, there are none. There are merely
rough trails, sometimes quite difficult to find. They
run through marshes, through rivers, down steep
" arroyos " (ravines) and up the other side, your
coach-pole pointing to Heaven. They set you plough-
ing through deep sand, or floundering in mud up to
the axles of your wheels. They are so narrow that
you have to be perpetually on guard against thorny
switches tearing hands and face. As for their ruts,
I shall not describe them, for no one would believe me.
I will only say that for the first half -hour of our journey
I expected every minute that our coach would turn
over. I cannot even now understand why it did not.
Until that dark night (we started at sunset, and the
moon did not rise until after nine) I had never known
why some folks are fearful when ships rock at sea.
After being pitched and tossed in that coach, I can
enter into their feelings exactly. When you have
got accustomed to this kind of driving, you take every-
thing as it comes. Your vehicle may suddenly tilt
to an angle of forty-five degrees, one wheel in a rut
three feet deep, the other pursuing its course upon the
level, without alarming you in the least. It may toss
you violently by dropping into a hollow, and being
jerked out again with a wrench that seems bound to
burst it asunder; you pay no heed. But until the
conviction is acquired that the coach, flimsy as it
looks, will never turn over, the beginner has an anxious
time.
We made slow progress. It was hard to pick out
the track, and after we had passed a blazing camp-fire
of Constitutionalists, the change from glare to black-
ness blinded us altogether; so we took it in turns to
ACROSS THE DESERT IN A MULE-COACH 89
carry a lantern a little way ahead. We were challenged
of course by the campers, " Quien vive?" (Who
goes there ?) was shouted as we came near. " Gente
buena " (Honest folk) we cried in answer. Half-a-
dozen kindly rough fellows, with rifles in hand, clustered
round us, examined my pass, and gave us a hearty
" God-speed-you," as we crawled on our way. After
three hours' walking we saw the first light, and hoped
it was the " ranchito " (little farm) where we were to
beg shelter for a few hours' sleep. But that was still
a mile or so ahead.
When we got there our driver had to wake the
family up. Their dwelling consisted of two separate
huts, each about ten feet square and seven feet high.
In one was a fireplace ; a few pots and cups and dishes
on a shelf proclaimed it the living-room. The other
contained a large bed : in and around it at least five
people slept. From the living-room a man stretched
in a cattle-trough was turned out sulkily yawning ; and
an unsuccessful attempt made to arouse a little boy.
A calfskin was thrown upon the ground; a blanket
over that made us imagine the uneven brick floor a
shade softer ; and we lay down to slumber brokenly
for a few hours. At two I wished it were four. At
four we rose up, glad to leave our hard couch ; made
coffee in our pot over the fire ; ate some beans ; shook
hands all round with our hosts (this must never be
omitted) ; and drove off in the chilly darkness at a
quarter to five.
Do you ever think, you who are not out of bed till
long after daylight, how eagerly the sun may be
awaited by toilers or travellers before dawn ? Until
you have longed for him, watched the first red streaks
that tell of his coming, and then luxuriated in his
40 THE REAL MEXICO
light and warmth, you cannot fully, with Saint Francis
of Assisi, " praise the Lord for our brother, the Sun."
In the joy of a new day our spirits rose bravely. We
made up our minds we should reach our first stage, a
place called Trevino, about midday. But we had
not realized the laziness of our mules. They moved
like slugs. The driver worked far harder then they
did, shouting at them, and cracking his whip, and
tugging at the reins all the time.
We gave them a rest, sleeping ourselves the while
in the shade of a thorn-tree, and taking care not to
lie upon cactus plants. Still they went no better. At
last one of us saw a long stout stick lying near the trail.
He called to the driver, who stepped down and picked
it up. Its effect was marvellous. The mules broke
at once into a trot which they kept up, with an occa-
sional reminder of the stick's persuasive quality, until
we drove into Trevino between three and four
o'clock.
Here at the Insurrectos' headquarters we were
received with enthusiasm after my pass had been read.
The chiefs in this place were men of education and
intelligence. They found time hang heavy, and were
glad of any incident to while it away. We chatted ;
I took their photographs ; they gave us sugar-cane to
eat, all the hospitality they could offer, they said
ruefully. They got no letters or newspapers ; in this
part civil war has stopped the posts. In their wretched
village there were no distractions. What a life for
men of culture and active mind ! One, who had
been governor of a State, told me how he had luckily
escaped being killed in the Capital. " I was the man
they meant to burn," he said calmly. A spectacled
major had been before the revolution a bank manager.
ACROSS THE DESERT IN A MULE-COACH 41
A captain told me he was formerly superintendent of
a wax factory.
That night we slept at an American mine-owner's
house near Cerallvo, a town which he made by pouring
out 10,000 a month in wages. Now his smelter is
shut down, the population has dwindled, his enterprise
is rewarded by insult and robbery. He had been
obliged to provision his house against siege and famine,
and was afraid of a visit from the rebels while we
were there. They had threatened to search for
dynamite, of which he had none ; but he feared they
would seize his flour and tinned foods.
After Cerallvo the road was worse, rock instead of
sand, and loose stones. The jolting made one sore all
over. We had better mules now : they kept up a steady
trot. But there were times when I should have been
glad for them to walk like our first pair. However,
this was our last day but one, and in the evening at
the " fonda " of a little town called Merin, we eat
some excellent roast " caborrito " (young kid), our
first fresh meat for several days. So we were cheerful
in spite of our aching bones.
Off at half-past four next morning, we soon met
another enemy mud. We had to get out and push
the wheels out of deep thick mire. We ruined our
boots and trousers. We splashed through swamps,
and clambered along barbed-wire fences tearing hands
and clothes. But so long as we got through, we minded
nothing. Twelve miles out of Monterrey we met our
first Federals. They stopped us, but soon let us go.
In a suburb we raided a baker's : after living on
biscuits and tortillas (maize cakes), bread tastes really
good. Just before noon we passed the Federal post
on the edge of the City. Three men slumbered outside
42 THE REAL MEXICO
the guard-room, a fourth was apparently walking in
his sleep. A carriage from the enemy's country was
allowed to drive in without being challenged. No
effort made to get information from us ! No questions
asked as to how we had got through ! We had not
to wait twenty-four hours to mark the result of such
slackness. At eight o'clock next morning the rebels
were in the outskirts of the town.
BOMBARDED IN MONTERREY
Is there any pleasure equal to the joy of feeling
clean and fresh after a long, fatiguing, dirty ride ? If
there is I do not know it. In our five days' journey
across the wilderness from Matamoros to Monterrey
we only had our clothes off once. Imagine the delight
with which we bathed and shaved and put on our
" other clothes." Picture the effect of a dainty
luncheon-table upon men who had been eating canned
beans and crackers off the lids of tins, and eating
them three times a day ! There was a wondrous
contentment in our faces as we sat smoking after
lunch in a sunny patio full of roses, with a glorious
pink creeper smothering the walls.
Two of our party were at home now. The other
two of us had no idea of letting Monterrey be our
Capua, charming city though it is. Mountains on
three sides of it cut jagged patterns on the hot blue
sky. Its climate extolled by some of its inhabitants as
almost perfect, denounced by others as " the meanest
ever," is very hot in summer, but in autumn delicious
cold mornings and blue, cloudless days. The town is
attractively perched on a gentle slope overlooking a
wide plain. As yet it is in the growing stage, and like
a girl who is not yet quite a woman it is rather red
about the elbows. It will be a large and fine city.
Now it is going through a transition period.
43
44 THE REAL MEXICO
The streets still have a small-town air. One goes
about expecting always to find the busy thoroughfares
round the next corner, and never finding them. There
is one wide boulevard which ought to be impressive
but only succeeds in being dusty beyond belief. This
was laid out by General Reyes, a powerful man in
Mexico, the next in influence to Don Porfirio; who
plotted with Felix Diaz against Madero, and was killed.
General Reyes did a great deal for Monterrey. He had
large views and valuable connections. He helped it
into the way of becoming a busy industrial centre.
There are three big smelters, a steel- works and a cement-
works already; a brewery from which good beer goes
all over Mexico ; large lumber yards ; many smaller
concerns destined to grow beyond a doubt.
The enterprise of a Canadian company has given
Monterrey good water, electric light and power, gas,
drainage, and excellent street-cars. It has a large
foreign colony, chiefly Americans and Germans, the
most friendly, kindly folk imaginable. Life is lived
in a leisurely fashion, with plenty of quiet diversion
in the shape of lawn-tennis, bridge, picnics into the
mountains, tea-parties on verandahs looking on to
gardens filled with roses all the year round. Yet,
tempting as this rich, light-hearted city was, the mining
engineer was anxious to get to Saltillo and I equally
determined to press on to Mexico City. To Saltillo
there were no trains, but the Tampico service was
running, so I booked for the next morning but one,
and went to bed that night with the happy feeling
that my way seemed now to lie more plain.
But Mexico is a country where " you never can tell."
Early next morning I dreamed that I was beating
carpets. I awoke and sat up. The noise of the beating
BOMBARDED IN MONTERREY 45
went on. I hit my head against the wall to see if I
were not dreaming still. Then I jumped out and ran
to the window. What I heard was the sound of heavy
rifle fire, coming from the direction of the suburbs
which lie out on the plain, the suburbs through which
we had passed " less than twenty-four hours ago,"
we reminded one another. With the patter of rifle
shots there soon mingled the dull boom of artillery
and the smart tapping of machine guns. The Con-
stitutionalists were attacking the city, which had
hitherto been reckoned secure from their attentions,
and their main advance covered the very road by
which we had come.
On the evening before the city had been given a
warning. At half -past nine all the places of entertain-
ment and drinking bars were closed by the police. But
the general disposition was to make light of the danger.
Monterrey is a city full of foreign interests. " They
will never trouble us " was the common saying among
the big foreign colony. Further, it is a place difficult
to attack, or, rather, easy to defend. On three sides
it is closed in by mountains ; the fourth is an open
plain which could be swept by artillery fire, and where
a small body of troops strongly entrenched could hold
a large army unprovided with guns. But the Insur-
rectos caught the Federals unprepared. There were
no strong entrenchments, there was no heavy artillery
in position. Worse than that, there were few Federal
troops in the city. The headquarters of the district
were removed a short time ago to Nuevo Laredo,
and so far as I could learn the garrison of Monterrey
numbered, when the attack began, less than a thousand,
with a few hundred civic volunteers, many of whom had
never handled a rifle before.
46 THE REAL MEXICO
Yet another element was in the Insurrectos' favour.
They knew there were many Carranzistas in the city.
I believe they counted upon an armed rising of several
thousand men. This conspiracy was checked a few
days before the assault, by the arrest and dispatch to
Mexico City, via Tampico, of the most active disaffected
citizens, many of them prominent men. That step,
coupled with a forced loan of 40,000 which was de-
manded from twenty of the leading business houses,
suggested that the Government of General Huerta was
awake to possible trouble. At the same time it was
announced that troops were being hurried northward.
But on the morning when the attack was delivered by
General Gonsalez and General Jesus Carranza, brother
to the chief of the revolution, at the head of 4,500 men,
the situation of the city looked bad. Many prophesied
that it would be abandoned to the rebels, after the
fashion of Torreon.
As soon as the firing began I went out to look over
the positions of the two forces. Walking through the
streets, already empty, I was surprised to see so many
houses decorated, as if by magic, with foreign flags.
Numbers even of Mexicans tried to protect themselves
in this way. It was curious to pass a school and hear
children chanting their lessons while guns sent echoes
rattling through the mountains and rifle bullets made
their peculiar noise, like the drawing in of breath
between the lips, overhead. From the hill called
Obispado, which had been hastily fortified during the
night, I could see that the attacking force were already
in the outskirts of the city, pressing forward with
heavy rifle fire, but apparently without guns. They
had some later, but were not using them then. Every
BOMBARDED IN MONTERREY 47
now and then their advance would be checked by a
hail of lead from Maxims. Then there would be a
quick mounting of horses, a gallop to another position,
and a resumption of rifle fire from behind any shelter
that could be obtained.
If the Constitutionalists had known how small the
garrison was, and if Mexican troops ever fought in
any but their own way, the defences could have
been rushed. The loss would have been heavy, but
the city must have fallen. Mexicans, however, are
not in the habit of rushing. Their only method is to
get behind something and fire their rifles, seldom with
any particular aim. Many I saw did not raise them to
their shoulders. Of those who did this, few looked
along the barrel. As I passed the Hospital during the
fight a dozen men or so were letting off their rifles
on the roof, a strange place to choose, but typically
Mexican. I could not see one of them aiming. They
shot into the air. The same thing was noticed by many
others. I am speaking now of the Federals; the
Insurrectos' fire was rather more careful. I saw
twenty or thirty shots fired from a distance of eighty
yards or so at an old Carranzista who had somehow
got into the city and was riding, gloriously drunk, down
a main thoroughfare. Not one of them hit him. He
turned into a side street, where two officers rode up and
killed him with their revolvers.
During two days rifle fire was kept up with few
intervals. An enormous amount of ammunition must
have been used. Yet only a few hundred men in all
were hit. That also is typical of Mexican battles.
If either side could induce its soldiers to use the bayonet
or were enterprising enough to train a few regiments
48 THE REAL MEXICO
of Lancers, and if, further, they could break themselves
of the habit of sitting down after victories instead of
following them up, the civil war could soon be decided.
But there is little hope of that.
After a while I went back into the city to see what
the outbreak of firing in a new direction might mean.
As soon as I got near the centre I was invited to go to
the house where I was living, and to stay there. The
enemy were in the city now and not far off its heart.
"We may be shooting along your street at any moment,"
it was explained with Mexican politeness. My petition
to be allowed to see all I could because I was a news-
paper correspondent was firmly denied.
So for a while the population were prisoners. The
sunny, empty streets had a Sunday look about them.
Not a foot fell. Now and again anxious faces would
peep out of partly-opened doors, and groups of scared
women would venture to the barred windows on the
level of the street. Except for a handful of soldiers
here and there the upper city was as a city of the dead.
The mountains dreaming in the haze of noon looked
down upon the native inhabitants, mostly shaking
with terror, sitting in darkened rooms and trying to
stop their ears against the perpetual din of war.
In the foreign houses away from the quarters where
the combatants came near together, it was different.
Much bridge was played to while away the tedious
hours. In cool, flowery patios men and women
chatted and laughed, with children playing round
them, as if there were no danger at all. When a bullet
rattled on the stones of our open-air courtyard there
was a rush to secure it as a trophy. During "Ifle
afternoon my host was lying down when a bullet
BOMBARDED IN MONTERREY 49
drilled through the woodwork of the door frame and
struck the wall a few feet above his head. Uncon-
cernedly he called to us to look at the hole it had made
and the litter of plaster on his bed. At times the
spatter of lead against the house wall would arouse
languid comment, or the sudden discharge of rifles
close at hand would provoke a feminine " Oh ! "
But for the most part the change from ordinary life
to this state of suspended animation was accepted
with humorous resignation by women as well as men.
One Irish lady, a Mrs. Peart (all honour to her),
defied regulations and risked her life by walking down
through both Federal and Constitutionalist lines to the
house of the British Vice-Consul, Mr. Sanford, which
was in the thick of the fight. She found the inhabit-
ants living in the cellar, and carried a note to the
American Consul-General asking him to send a carriage
to take the women and children away. But it was she
herself who next morning rescued them in a Red Cross
automobile. Another Irishwoman, a Mrs. Flannery,
who with her sister kept a hotel, saved it from destruc-
tion by going out on the steps and haranguing a mob
of drunken soldiers.
A good deal of looting was done, and each night the
sky was reddened by wantonly destructive fires. These
were not all the work of the attacking force. One
large house belonging to a Carranzista sympathizer
was deliberately burnt by the Federals, and I myself
saw Federal soldiers coming out of another house
owned by a suspect with their arms full of loot. After
the first few hours it was possible to get out, so long
as one did not go too near the centre of the city. Of
course one had to take chances, When a friend and I
E
50 THE REAL MEXICO
came back from a reconnoitring stroll we were greeted
by the news that a harmless non-combatant walking
along our street had been shot through the stomach.
But by listening for the direction of fire and keeping
close to the wall one could be fairly safe. The greatest
risk was not from the fire of the troops, but from the
bullets of cowardly " snipers " at windows or on house-
tops. There was so much of this contemptible treachery
that an order was issued for the immediate execution
of anybody seen on a roof. This was one of General
Iberri's measures; to him was due the saving of the
city. He held out obstinately until the reinforcements
arrived.
About three o'clock on the second afternoon a new
bugle note brought even the timid to their doors.
Towards the end of a long street a cloud of dust an-
nounced a column on the march. In they came, fresh
and cheery, for they had detrained only a few miles
away. Instantly the pavement was lined by men and
boys. Girls ran out, filled with sudden courage, and
gave the officers bunches of flowers. Food and
cigarettes were pressed upon the men, who responded
to the grateful cheers of the inhabitants by loud
' Vivas ! " for Mexico, General Huerta, and " El
Supremo Gobierno " (the Government). The mood of
the city veered instantly round from depression to joy.
Specially heartening was the^sight of the cavalry,
most of them members of tjiat fine old force, the
Rurales, instituted by President Diaz to be what the
Royal North-West Mounted Police are in Canada.
They had the look of seasoned troops. Their brown
Indian faces were resolute and grim. While the
infantry went at once into action, they were kept
BOMBARDED IN MONTERREY 51
back until the enemy had been dislodged from their
positions. Then, under cover of a tremendous fire,
they were sent off to complete the rout. For the time
being at any rate Monterrey was saved.
But it was not the same Monterrey as that which
we entered three days before. A cloud of gloom and
apprehension brooded over the city. High in the
sunny blue sky I saw obscene buzzards float, attracted
by the dead men and horses lying stiff and hideous in
the dusty streets. From numbers of the poles which
carry telegraph and telephone wires dangled limp
corpses of Carranzistas, hung there as a stern warning
to the disloyal. The lower part of the city, where the
battle raged, was a scene of piteous desolation. Here
the dead were scattered all about, and almost every
house had the mark of fire upon it.
Blackened shells of stores and residences stood
gaunt in the sunlight. Others which had escaped
destruction had been rifled, or damaged by shells.
One American had his dining-room wrecked; another
showed me a bedroom in ruins. I went with a party
from the United States Consulate to see how the
Americans living in the zone of greatest danger had
fared. White-faced women told us how during forty-
eight hours they had trembled for their children's
lives. Some begged to be taken into the Consulate in
case the attack should be resumed. Some implored
the Consul to ask the authorities for a refugee train to
Tampico as soon as possible.
For some days no business was done. Only the
provision shops re-opened, and not nearly all of them.
There was no fresh meat in the place, and no vegetables.
The city was under martial law. Every one out after
52 THE REAL MEXICO
dark was challenged and obliged to give an account
of himself. And all this happened in one of the
wealthiest and most progressive cities of the Republic
in a place which, owing to its large foreign colony,
was supposed to be immune from attack.
VI
AFTER THE ATTACK
HERE is a letter which I wrote from Monterrey on
October 31 :
A week has passed since the battle here. Gradually
the city has recovered from those two days of shot
and shell. Women are still pale and nervous. Men
still walk close to the houses as they go through the
streets. The tale of damage has mounted up to a
million pounds sterling, which does not include the
losses caused by the paralysing of business life and by
that feeling of doubt and danger which is so unhealthy
for trade. The National Railways alone have suffered
to the extent of some 200,000. Sixteen engines and
several hundred freight cars were set on fire. Many of
the cars were filled with valuable freight. Coal and
maize in vast quantities are still smouldering their
value away.
The city is full of troops now. They are camped in
public buildings, theatres, empty private houses, any-
where. If there had been a larger garrison a week ago
the attack might never have be_en made. In spite of
this belated display of force there are still no passenger
or freight trains running, neither on the direct line
north and south, nor to Tampico. Monterrey depends
for most of its foodstuffs and other necessaries upon
supplies from outside. These are all cut off. Coal has
run short, even for running military and repair trains
53
54 THE REAL MEXICO
on such portions of the line as remain unbroken. Last
night the Federal authorities seized without warning
120 tons of gas coal belonging to the Light and Power
Company. In a day or two the city will be without gas.
Up to yesterday the four of us who drove across
country were the only people who had arrived here
from Laredo since the line was cut three weeks ago.
Last night came the Rev. Edmund Neville, rector of
the Anglican Church in Mexico City. He was less
lucky than we were, for he joined two Federal generals
and took nine days over a journey of 150 miles.
During that time he never took his clothes off; slept
three nights in the open on the ground with his Prayer-
book for pillow and only a cassock to protect him from
the cold; and had very little to eat. He was most
anxious to get back to his congregation in the capital,
so he did not care how he made the journey. But
he had no idea how hard it would be. To add to his
misfortunes, a wagon turned over as he was crossing
a river, and he was thrown into the water. Even
then he managed to cling to the hat-box containing
his tall hat; but a " Lincoln and Bennett " is poor
protection against cold nights. 1
We have the telegraph line open now to the capital,
and a message comes through reporting that General
Huerta has once more assured the Diplomatic Corps
there that the revolution will soon be over. Fgr the
1 I am sorry to say that Mr. Neville died a few days after-
wards from the effects of exppsure and privation. He was
well enough to travel with me to Saltillo, and busied himself
there with preparations for a service. He held it on Sunday
afternoon, November 2, All Souls' Day. Twenty-four hours
later he lay dead. His loss was sincerely mourned in Mexico
City, where his energetic, cheerful temperament had made
every one his friend who knew him, and both widened and
deepened the influence of his Church.
AFTER THE ATTACK 55
sake of the country, and especially for the sake of the
many thousands of foreigners either living or possessing
interests here, that is a consummation devoutly to be
wished. The mass of Mexicans seem to accept civil
war as a perfectly natural condition. They would
not worry if it went on for ever ; they take to fighting
as ducks take to water. In the rebel forces I have
come across officers who have been engaged in all
kinds of civil and even professional employment-
engineers, doctors, lawyers, wholesale dealers, retail
traders, clerks, book-keepers, accountants, managers
of factories. Nobody sees anything incongruous in
their exchange of occupation.
Civil war is looked upon, not as a disaster and a
crime, but as an ordinary incident in the life of the
nation. That is what makes so many despair of
Mexico's being able to overcome her troubles by her
own unaided efforts. Here is a people of whom five-
sixths have no conception of any form of government
except personal government by force. Even those
who talk about the blessings of freedom, who profess
and call themselves ardent Democrats are for killing
all who disagree with them. I was speaking in a rebel
camp with a distinguished Insurrecto, a man who was
formerly Governor of his State. He has agreeable
manners, and is to all appearances a " modern "
that is to say, one who sees life from the angle at
which it is viewed in countries where civilization is
farthest advanced. He believes that the democratic
idea is making progress in Mexico, and he told me
why he believes so because a new kind of dynamite
bomb has been invented which enables the Constitu-
tionalists to blow up railways more easily and in
greater numbers.
56 THE REAL MEXICO
'Think of it," he said gleefully; "seven trains
destroyed in two weeks." The operation of the
ballot-box is far too tame and tedious for enthusiasts
like that.
It might be thought that a people which after thirty
years of peace rushes headlong into civil war must be
profoundly patriotic, deeply attached either to its
present institutions or to the cause of reform. In
truth very few Mexicans care for the one or the other.
For each " jefe " among the Insurrectos who believes
that he is fighting for a cause there must be twenty
who are simply " on the make."
As for the rank and file, few of them trouble their
heads about the motives of the war. They are fighting
because it pays them better to fight than to work, or
because they have been pressed into the Army on
one side or the other. Thousands of criminals have
been turned out of the gaols and forced into uniforms.
Tens of thousands of pelados (peasants or labourers,
literally, " the skinned ones ") prefer the roving,
loafing life of a Mexican soldier with pay ranging from
2s. lod. to 45. a day to slaving for a few shillings a
week in the fields. If they do not get their pay
regularly they can look forward to opportunities of
plunder.
At certain times and in certain places both sides
punish looting. A number of thieves have been shot
here by the Federals in these last few days, and also,
if report says true, a good many innocent poor folk
as well. A servant in the house of a friend of mine
tells me that he would be afraid to wear new shoes
or anything new, or to make any purchase just now.
" Every one is suspected," he says, " and there is no
AFTER THE ATTACK 57
fair trial. Under Porfirio Diaz we lived in security.
Now ..." He finished with an eloquent shrug.
Many officers of the Constitutionalist Army also
draw the reins of discipline tight in this respect. But
all the same looting and " commandeering," which is
little better, go on, and the former often has to
be winked at. In one case a town was actually
divided into seven districts for systematic sacking.
The greediest plunderers are usually non-combatants.
The lower orders never miss an opportunity of looting
or paying off old scores. A hacendado who employs
a large number of labourers told me that he had
difficulty in getting anything done while an attack
was being made upon a town near by. His men said
that they were " waiting to go into the city " as soon
as it fell.
That is one reason why the revolution is not un-
popular. It gives many chances of picking up unearned
gains. Further, the rebels make a regular practice of
accepting bribes not to injure property. A number
of people in Monterrey, both Mexicans and foreigners,
paid the attacking force for the safety of their buildings
and their goods. Some of them frankly told me so.
Even when the leaders order property to be respected,
they hold themselves free to take whatever they
themselves require. Thus, General Jesus Carranza
last week gave to a British farm near Monterrey a
certificate of protection. But he sent up to the
manager that same evening a demand for ten mules
to drag guns which he had captured.
Horses and mules the Insurrectos take wherever
they find them. They must have these; they pos-
sess no other means of transport. Their object in
58 THE REAL MEXICO
destroying railway bridges and tearing up lines is to
prevent the Federals from sending troops by train.
They have offered to leave the railways alone if the
Government would agree not to use them for military
purposes. Often they do allow a service to run un-
interrupted for some time. As soon as a train of
soldiers is sent over the line, it is cut. " Let the
Huertistas meet us on equal terms," the Constitution-
alists say; " let them move as we do, on horseback.
Then the trains shall run unhindered."
They assert also that they always challenge the
garrisons of towns to fight in the open, so that the
towns need not suffer. I know several instances in
which they have done this. The Federal reply is,
" If we did so, you would trick us by sending a force
to sneak in behind as soon as we moved out." Which
might indeed very likely happen. But at the same
time it would be hard for the Federals to get their
troops, with the exception of a few picked regiments,
to fight in the open. One general was extolled to me
as 'a great man. I asked what sign of greatness he
had shown. " Why," I was told ingenuously, " when
he found himself outnumbered, he did not run away."
General Pancho Villa, the most daring and skilful
of the Insurrecto leaders, has hit upon the only plan
by which Mexicans can be induced to make active
frontal attacks upon the enemy's position. He places
in the rear of his force a body of men whom he can
trust. They have orders to shoot any man who
tries to turn back. Realizing that they had better
take their chance of being killed by the enemy than
be certainly shot by their own side, the soldiers rush
desperately on, and their general's tactics often succeed.
AFTER THE ATTACK 59
The same leader, whenever he enters a town, puts
guards over the drinking shops. Thus he is able to
prevent unauthorized looting or destruction of pro-
perty. Then his requests for money are presented.
From Torreon, which is a rich place in the heart of a
cotton country, with many banks and business houses,
he demanded 300,000. The Monterrey banks took
the precaution of sending their securities and most of
their cash balances to Tampico. At one of them I
tried to change American " bills " for Mexican. The
banker said that he did not want American money.
He would either have to keep it, which was not very
safe, or to post it to the United States, which would
be more risky still.
Signs like that show how little confident feeling
there is that the Government can put down the
Insurrectos. It is handicapped in so many ways.
The sale of ammunition by Federal soldiers to agents
of the enemy is a regular traffic. Many officers, even
generals, are accused of " grafting " little more credit-
able. One is universally believed to be supplying
his men with beer and tobacco at a very handsome
profit. Of course such charges must not be readily
believed, though the absence of a Commissariat
Department, which throws upon officers the victualling
of their commands, gives great opportunities for fraud.
A very high personage told me that he knew of one
Army contractor who has supplied 200,000 worth of
goods, and who always makes out two bills, one for
the sum which he is to receive, the other for a much
larger amount. The latter is officially receipted; the
difference goes into somebody's pocket. That sort of
thing, said my informant, is going on all the time.
60 THE REAL MEXICO
Then, again, active generals, like Pena, a dashing
cavalry leader and the finest all-round soldier in the
Mexican Army, are often not allowed to act upon
their own initiative. Orders for movements of troops
are supposed to come from Mexico City, and, further,
local commanders, jealous of each other, squabble
among themselves.
Other generals are notoriously incapable and yet
retain their commands. The absence of organizing
capacity is noticeable on all sides. Even officers
reputed to be men of capacity do things in a haphazard,
get-there-or-stick style which seems to us like courting
disaster. General Teellez, for instance, knowing Mon-
terrey to be in danger, started from Nuevo Laredo
for this city on October 21. The distance is 150 miles.
He took nine days to cover it, travelling partly by
rail, partly across country.
There was no proper transport, no commissariat.
He and his staff slept several nights on the ground.
After the first day, when they fared sumptuously in
their train, they lived on biscuits, sardines, beans, and
weak coffee made with any water that could be found.
General Teellez is the officer commanding this district.
With him was General Maas, nephew of General
Huerta, victor at Piedras Negras, and the newly-
appointed Governor of the State of Coahuila. It is
impossible to imagine two European generals travelling
in such conditions, either so slowly or in such disarray.
Furthermore, the present regime has to be on the
watch against plots other than those of its avowed
enemies, such as the conspiracy of General Felix Diaz
and General Mondragon, the men who conspired also
against Madero. All these elements of weakness, in
AFTER THE ATTACK 61
addition to the perpetual need of money, make General
Huerta's task a very hard one.
Yet in the triumph of a stable Government lies the
only hope of any prolonged peace. I have received
much kindness from the Constitutionalist leaders.
For many of them I feel sympathy as well as respect.
But I cannot see how their victory would give the
country rest from disorder. They have no clear idea
as to what they would do if they came into power.
They have not even decided whom they would " run
for President," in the American phrase. There would
be an outbreak of feverish plotting for that position,
and for others, unless they settled beforehand upon
some man whom all would agree to serve.
At the same time all whom they have made objects
of attack would be waiting for the chance to destroy
them. In a poster on a wall in Sonora I read bitter
denunciation of " los malditos cientificos, los malvados
clericales, y los corrompidos militares " (the accursed
cientificos, the wicked clergy, the corrupt soldiers).
No doubt the " cientificos " (a nickname for the
Ministers who made Porfirio Diaz unpopular) were a
curse to the country. Though they did much to
enrich it by encouraging foreign capital, and much to
beautify the capital, they were the immediate cause
of the first civil war. No doubt there are sinners
among the priests. Certainly there is much talk, as
I have pointed out, of " grafting " officers. But to
rule in spite of politicians, Church, and Army would
be hard in any country. In Mexico it is impossible.
The standard of defiance would quickly be unfurled
again. Revolution would succeed revolution, each
one bleeding the land more white.
62 THE REAL MEXICO
One looks in imagination along a vista of endless
short triumphs and long-drawn-out disorders. That
can only be prevented by a strong and just Govern-
ment. If Mexico fails to evolve such a Government,
it cannot hope to settle its own troubles. They will
have to be dealt with by some other hand.
VII
THE PITY OF IT !
As I walked the streets of Monterrey and saw the
dead lie stark and pitiful after the fight, the same
thought came to me which had been provoked in
rebel camps, among men of refinement and education
who have given up their usual occupations for the
savage joy of civil war : " What a waste ! What a
meaningless folly ! "
To give one's life for one's country in a good cause,
is the best end that can befall.
" For how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers
And the temples of his gods ? "
Wars there will be so long as there are wrongs, real
or imaginary, to be righted; so long as some people
have what other people want. Also, while men have
red blood in them, enough will be found ready to die
in war, and the world will rightly honour them, saying
they died well. But this civil war in Mexico is so
futile. There are no principles at stake, no national
objects to fight for. No cause can be advanced, no
problem finally settled by the victory of either side.
It is true that the Constitutionalist leaders say that
they are defending the Republican idea, the demo-
63
64 THE REAL MEXICO
cratic, as opposed to the despotic, form of government.
But they have no real faith in democracy. The
United States officer in command of the frontier
detachment at Laredo was visited by a deputation of
Insurrectos from across the border. He listened to
them politely, then he asked, " But if, as you say,
you have an overwhelming majority of the people
with you, why do not you take part in the Presidential
election, return your candidate, and have him recog-
nized by the United States? " They looked at one
another doubtfully. " Ah, Senor," they answered,
" we never thought of that."
Some of their leaders have thought of it, but have
refused to recognize President Huerta in any way,
declaring his Government to be unconstitutional.
They will not even try to defeat it by constitutional
means. The truth is that they realize, even the most
Radical among them, that Mexico cannot govern
herself as the United Kingdom and the United States
do for a very long time to come. I was talking to
a very clever, enthusiastic young captain (by pro-
fession an electrical engineer) in one of the towns
held by the rebels. He had just been telling me how
the division of land among the poor peasantry had
been begun in the State of Tamaulipas. A property
belonging to General Felix Diaz was seized and par-
celled out, and a ceremony was held to celebrate the
occasion. It reminded me of similar incidents in the
French Revolution.
Yet this young captain, when we discussed possible
candidates whom the Constitutionalists might put
forward for the Presidency, clenched his fist and
bringing it down upon his knee said, " We must have
an energetic man. That is what Mexico needs." An
THE PITY OF IT! 65
energetic man ! And that eloquent gesture with the
clenched fist ! Democracy was all right in theory,
but he knew as well as anybody that in practice it
would not work.
Mexico in one respect resembles France before the
Revolution. Almost all the land is held by rich men
who manage to escape taxes. Porfirio Diaz was called
a strong man, yet he was afraid to reform this abuse.
He failed lamentably also in permitting the landowners
to practise criminal extortion and fraud. The ' ' peons ' '
(peasants) have in many parts been deprived of their
holdings, either by being cheated out of them, or by
being loaded with chains of debt. Here is an example
of the tricks played upon the unlettered Indian. An
edict was issued that land in certain parts must be
registered by a certain date. Many Indians were
kept in ignorance of that order. Unregistered land
was put up for sale, and in some cases bought at
ridiculously low prices. Protesting, but unable to
resist the injustice, the' wretched owners were dis-
possessed. Nor was] that all. After losing their
property, they often became slaves.
Thousands of peasants are in bondage to their em-
ployers the great " Hacendados." They are obliged
to buy at the " Hacienda " store. Credit is easy.
In time, the employers have an account against
them which they can never hope to pay. Or else
they borrow in order to be married. Church fees
are heavy, but the Mexican peasant feels " more
married " if the knot is tied by a priest, and the
women are good Catholics. Or it may be that funds
are wanted for a funeral and " wake." Somehow or
other the thoughtless peon gives his employer a
hold over him. His mortgaged land is taken, and
F
66 THE REAL MEXICO
so long as he owes money he cannot go away. Worse
still, the debt descends to his children.
The condition of these peons is practically that of
slaves. Yet slavery is a word which sounds worse
than the condition for which it stands. There are
harsh " Hacendados," just as there were some Simon
Legrees, but as a rule the peasants are decently treated.
If they were not, they would not go back at regular
intervals to their " haciendas " when they are working
in mines. It is said that " if you want to catch a
peon and pay off a score, all you need do is to go
and sit on his ' tierra ' ' (that is, the district where
he was born). He is certain, sooner or later, to go
back to it. This love of the land on which they were
raised is one of the strongest passions in Mexican
hearts.
The Indians usually cultivate their patches on a
profit-sharing basis. Half goes to the owner, half to
them. Or else the peasant is given a patch to cultivate
for himself while he works on his master's land. The
owners put under tillage only a very small part of their
enormous properties, which in some cases, as in that
of the Terrazas family in Chihuahua, extend over
hundreds qj: miles. The methods of the peasants are
shiftless and lazy. They only grow for their immediate
needs. I have seen Mexican cotton fields which
gave one bale of cotton for three or four acres.
If the land were kept clean and water brought to
it from a river near by, the yield might be at least
double.
Most Mexicans still use the same kind of plough
that Abraham ploughed with. With such a climate
and such a soil they could grow anything. Yet they
often- have to import quantities of " frijoles," the
THE PITY OF IT! 67
beans which, with maize " tortillas/' form the staple
of their diet.
The peasant's wants are few. He seldom tastes
meat. Coffee is his usual drink. A cigarette is often
preferred to food when he is hungry. All that he
needs is a few acres with horse, mule, or donkey;
perhaps a pig, or a few goats. It was by promising
these to all that Madero won his popularity. It was
for failing to redeem his rash promise that he lost it.
Land reform is, therefore, a necessity in Mexico.
But it is not advocated by the Constitutionalists only.
Men of good will and foresight on the other side are
equally convinced that it must come. Even Sefior
Limantour, one of the Ministers who brought about
the downfall of Porfirio Diaz, admitted that the huge
estates had to be broken up, and also that judicial
and municipal abuses must be swept away.
One of the hardships which the poor are beginning
to resent is forced labour on public works. In a
certain town a new building was required for the
local archives. Money was voted for its erection,
but the money was not all devoted to that purpose.
" Peon " labourers were arrested upon some trifling or
trumped-up charge and compelled to dig the founda-
tions. Bricklayers and masons were obliged to build
it. Carpenters were pressed into service for the work
inside. This system, similar to the corvee in Egypt
before British rule, was possible only so long as the
" peons " knew nothing about other countries. When
they heard that in the United States a Mexican with
a trade could earn (instead of iSd.) 8s. or los. a day,
while even labourers were paid 55. or 6s., they grew
discontented.
They saw their brothers and friends return from
68 THE REAL MEXICO
the United States wearing shoes and good suits of
clothes. From the country near the border, where
the revolution is strongest, large numbers went across
and became familiar with American ideas. They
would no longer submit to being treated as they were
before. The rich had been hard upon them ; now their
turn was coming. The spirit of revenge, of conflict
between " the barefoot and the shod," was nursed
by the new middle-class, consisting largely of artisans
who had taken advantage of President Diaz's schemes.
Thus the soil was prepared for the seed which Madero
dropped upon it. There were many accounts to be
settled up ; such as that of the man in the rebel ranks
who told me that he took up arms because some
agent of General Terrazas callously ran cattle over
his little farm and ruined the labour of years.
There are other abuses which make reform necessary ;
such as the keeping of accused persons in prison for
months, and sometimes years, before they are tried;
the unequal incidence of taxation ; the greed of corrupt
officials. But, as I have said, all Mexicans who think
are agreed that reforms must come after peace has
been restored.
The way to hasten reform is to make gradually
increasing use of the political means which exist.
Fighting does not bring it any nearer. The Consti-
tutionalists say that the former course is useless, for
the reason that the results of the elections are always
decided by the President in power. Up to the present
they have been. It is said that no President has
ever been legally elected. The most laughable means
are adopted to " cook " the result. In Mexico City
a " mozo " of a friend of mine went into a polling-place
to vote for Felix Diaz.
THE PITY OF IT! 69
" We are sorry," said the officials in charge politely;
" this is not one of Felix Diaz's places, you cannot
vote for him here."
"Where can I find one? "
" We are sorry : we cannot tell you."
" For whom can I vote here? "
" For Huerta and Blanquet."
It sounds like an invention, but such incidents are
common enough in Mexico.
Here is another anomaly. The Constitution requires
the successful candidate to receive a certain proportion
of possible votes. Nothing like this proportion has
ever been polled. Madero himself only received some
20,000 from an electorate running into millions. In
the October Presidential Election only 7,157 electoral
stations sent in returns, out of 14,425.
But illegalities are only tolerated because there is
no public opinion in Mexico. The mass of the people
think of the Government as a power above them, out-
side their ken ; a power with which they have nothing
to do. Even the educated prefer to be lookers-on.
They criticize severely, but they will take no part in
handling the problems of government.
I had some interesting talk with a very intelligent
young Mexican of good family. He was at Harvard
University and might pass for an American, whether
judged by his appearance or by his ideas. He is well
off, but has taken up a profession to keep him occupied.
" You ought to be in politics," I said ; " your country
needs men like you."
" Some day," he replied vaguely.
It is this refusal of responsibility by the better
class of Mexicans which makes revolution appear to
be the natural and only method of political protest.
70 THE REAL MEXICO
" Educate, educate, educate," should be the Constitu-
tionalists' motto. It will take generations to bring
Mexico up to the level of France, England, or the
United States. Hasty measures of reform are doomed
to failure. The only way to get rid of abuses is for all
the better class in the country to work together, and,
little by little, alter a system which has fallen behind
the country's needs.
All that civil war has done is to make the country
poorer, both by raising prices and by diminishing the
demand for labour by reason of the many industries
which are shut down. Concepcion del Oro may serve
as an example of numberless other cases. The closing
of the mines has brought a well-to-do settlement to
the verge of starvation. The people have literally
not enough to eat. In most parts of the Republic
the pinch of war is felt by everybody. The shops
have been compelled to raise their prices, and the 50
per cent, increase in import duties makes living twice
as dear as it used to be. But the Radical-Socialist-
Constitutionalist reformer does not stop to think the
situation out. He claims that he and his party are
the children of light : yet their one impulse is to follow
the bad, old backward barbarism of civil war. Their
sounding phrases neither influence their conduct nor
apply with any truth to the actual situation.
I have compared one aspect of Mexico to-day with
that of eighteenth-century France. From another
point of view, the country is in much the same stage
of development as Russia at the present time. In
each there is (i) an absolute government ; (2) a popu-
lation unfit as yet for anything but absolutism. Unfit
in Mexico, not only because the vast majority are
illiterate, but also because even the educated who take
THE PITY OF IT! 71
part in politics regard politics as a means to get some-
thing for themselves. Then there is a small class
drunk with the heady wine of progress which fancies
that the work of centuries can be accomplished in a
few years. Francisco Madero was of this fanatical
idealist type, and like all fanatics he drew around
him ardent disciples. His memory is honoured by
numbers of the younger Constitutionalist leaders as
that of a saint and martyr. They wear his picture
over their hearts. They speak of him with reverent
affection, though some of them admit that, as President,
he was woefully disappointing.
Like most demagogues, he lacked capacity either
for business or politics. He could neither administer
the country's affairs, nor could he keep the people
quiet by showing them that he meant to redeem his
election pledges. He had no idea how to begin.
Personally an honest man, with no need or inclina-
tion to be otherwise, he allowed his brothers and other
relations to plunder as they pleased. Crowds of them
swooped down upon public offices. His own sup-
porters were disgusted by his nepotism and weakness.
The feeling of those who had cheered him turned to
coldness, and the anxiety of all Mexicans to be on
the winning side hastened his downfall. He fell with
bewildering rapidity. If he had not been assassinated,
he would have left behind the reputation of a man
who promised much, performed little, and served his
country ill. It was the unfortunate incident of his
assassination which provoked, or at all events gave
pretext for, the present war.
To such an extent as it is a war of vengeance it is a
pitiful futility. To such an extent as it is a war of
personal ambition it is a crime. Neither side has
72 THE REAL MEXICO
anything to gain by victory. The country has every-
thing to lose by the continuance of unrest. It will
take years to put down the lawless spirit which has
been reawakened after being put to sleep for so many
years under President Diaz and his " Rurales." It
will be long before confidence revives. And all this
waste, all this barbarism, for no real cause, to no
sane end ! The pity of it ! The pity of it !
VIII
WHAT SALTILLO TALKS ABOUT
FOR ten days no train ran from Monterrey in any
direction. I began to ask about another mule-coach.
Then suddenly late one afternoon it was announced
that there would be a train south next morning at
four o'clock to Saltillo, San Luis Potosi, and Mexico
City. After so many disappointments I was delighted
by the prospect of getting on.
Monterrey is a pleasant city. It had provided me
with excellent entertainment in the shape of a two
days' battle. I had made many friendships and
enjoyed the bright autumn weather. There were cer-
tainly sad and gruesome memories mixed with the
others. I shall not easily forget the wailing of a
woman over the body of a Federal officer killed in
the fight. It had been carried into a poor house,
and I suppose his wife had been sent for. The un-
happy lady was almost mad with grief. The door of
the house was open and the old couple to whom it
belonged sat looking on bewildered while, with her
arms about the cold clay, she asked in frantic tones
why Heaven had brought this misery upon her, and
what would become of her, left without support.
In the Mexican Army there is no regular system of
pensions for the widows of those who are killed in
action. To the pain of their bereavement is added
fear for the future. Still ringing in my ears is her
73
74 THE REAL MEXICO
pitiful lamentation. Still I can see the wretched
Carranzistas dangling from the telegraph poles and
electric light standards. But my dominant recollec-
tions of Monterrey are happy and delightful. Never-
theless I was anxious to press on.
It was a miserable morning when I started just
after three for the railway station. A " norte " (north
wind) had begun to blow two days before. Thick
overcoats had made their appearance (mine was un-
fortunately left behind with the bulk of my luggage
at Laredo). Then rain had set in. But I did not
mind it. I was getting on. In the chilly dark we
were challenged by a picket, " Quien vive ? " " Mehico "
replied my cabman, adding " Paisano " (fellow-
countryman), and we drove on.
The station was full of sleeping soldiers and " solda-
deras," the wives who follow the army, cooking and
washing and mending for their men. They lay so
close together that in the dim light one had to step
carefully so as not to tread upon them. There was
plenty of time, before we started, to look at the train.
It was arranged in view of the possibility that it might
be (a) attacked, or (b) blown up. Before the engine
came two empty vans. After the engine and express
car was a carriage full of soldiers, about seventy men,
with a machine gun. Then followed the passenger
cars, crowded with people who had been waiting for
days to get away.
We did not leave at four, as announced. We left
at 5.20. Still, considering the conditions, that was
not so bad. Seeing that the train was already close
upon a fortnight late, another hour or so made little
difference. As we slowly pulled out through the
railway yards we saw long lines of burnt-out goods
WHAT SALTILLO TALKS ABOUT 75
cars and a huge pile of coal still burning. No attempt
had been made to save it, although coal was very
scarce in Monterrey.
An hour after our start we could see, in the livid
light of dawn, the arid mountain scenery through
which we were passing. We could see burned stations
and the charred timbers of wooden bridges that had
been fired. The steel bridges had been left, showing
that the rebel leaders set a limit to destruction. Our
pace can only be described as a creep, with frequent
and long stops. It was a wretched morning still. On
the brow of a descent we stayed for half-an-hour before
plunging into a dense white mist, which might hide
all kinds of rebel ambushes.
Saltillo (pronounced Solteeyo) owes a delightful
climate, crisp and bracing, to its five thousand feet
altitude. In sunshine it is gay and picturesque, with
its open white cathedral tower; its shady, flowery
Alameda ; its vista of light-brown one-storeyed houses
built of " adobe " (mud brick) straggling up the fort-
crowned hill and reminding one of a town in Palestine.
But nothing can be more dreary than a sunny country
without the sun. I was comforted to find stoves and
open fires in the hospitable houses of the foreign colony,
which here is mainly British. We agreed, as we sat
cosily round them, that it was just such a first of
November as one might get at home.
The luxury of the sun next morning was delicious.
After marketing with my hostess (who bought her
vegetables from a lady with long black shiny hair
hanging down her back and a cigarette sticking out
at the corner of her mouth), I sat on the Plaza to
have my boots cleaned, the invariable practice in
Mexico, and let the golden warmth soak into my
76 THE REAL MEXICO
bones. A band was playing, all the seats were full,
dashing officers and dainty senoritas were promenading
under the trees, the boot-blacks, like Murillo's brown
urchins with angelic faces, chaffed and squabbled as
they blacked.
The only fly in my ointment was being sold a
week-old newspaper by a cherub most appropriately
named Seraphito, a common fraud in these disturbed
times, when often no newspapers arrive for weeks at
a time. It was then over a month since the last mail
from England had reached Saltillo; in a fortnight
they had only had one train in from Mexico City. I
expected to continue my journey either at once or in
twenty-four hours, but on the notice-board at the
station there were chalked against each train the
depressing words, " No corre " or "No hay " (Not
running. There is none). Fighting was the cause,
a sharp little battle down the line. So I was held
up again. However, my time was by no means
wasted. In a series of very interesting conversations
I learnt a great deal about the civil war in Coahuila
State.
On board the Lusitania as I went out I met a man
who manages some oil properties in the Tampico
district. I asked him about the revolutionary move-
ment. He compared it /airily to the Afridi raids on
our Indian frontier. " It is up in the north, you know "
(he spoke as if the north were of small consequence) ;
" the bandits do a certain amount of damage now and
then ; frighten people, and so on ; drive oft a few cattle ;
rob villages; all very much exaggerated."
I wish that man could have had my experiences.
I wish he could have been with me in Monterrey and
in this once-contented, prosperous town of Saltillo.
WHAT SALTILLO TALKS ABOUT 77
His eyes would have been opened. What he said to
me he said in all sincerity. In his district there was
then no trouble to speak of. The people there had
small knowledge of what had been going on to the
north and west of them. Instead of being exaggerated,
the wreck and ruin of Mexico's civil war have not had
the tenth part told about them.
Here in Saltillo the rebellion of General Carranza
against the provisional Presidency of General Huerta
began in February 1913, after the enforced resignation
of Madero, followed by the removal of himself and
his Vice-President. Carranza was Governor of the
State of Coahuila, which in normal times is one of the
richest in gold, silver, lead, copper, iron, and coal
mines ; in cattle, in cotton, in wheat, maize, and other
kindly fruits of the soil. All the foreign colony here
and many Mexicans are convinced that Carranza was
preparing to rebel against Madero. He had supported
the Maderista movement, but is said to have been
dissatisfied and restless after its success.
I have reported faithfully what General Carranza
said to me in Hermosillo. The impression made by his
words and his personality was favourable. What I have
seen since of his followers, their pillage and destruction,
has persuaded me that the best hope for the country
lies in their subjugation ; but I still believe him to be
sincerely anxious for reform. If the charge of vaulting
ambition were made against him by irresponsible
tongues, I should ignore it. But seeing that men of
the highest character and the most prominent position
repeat it, it cannot be passed over.
They allege that for months Carranza had been
drawing large sums of money from the National
Treasury for the purpose of paying troops. It might
78 THE REAL MEXICO
be that he foresaw the anti-Madero outbreak and was
preparing to support his chief. That view obtains
no credence in Saltillo. The belief there is, among
the people who knew and watched him, that he would
have declared war against Madero, just as General
Orosco, another Maderista leader, had done. That
no Mexican can be disinterested is the conviction,
not only of the foreigners in Mexico, but of the native-
born as well. It is a conviction which one is inclined
to discount. There must be exceptions. Human
nature cannot be so different here from human nature
in other countries. But the exceptions are, it seems,
discouragingly few in number.
The State of Coahuila, being the birthplace of the
Carranza rebellion (the third since 1910), has suffered
severely from the operations of war. It has been
overrun by both armies, which meant the crippling
of agriculture, the disorganization of railways, the loss
of an enormous amount of cattle ; and which may
mean the ruin of an unusually fine crop of cotton.
Its chief towns, Saltillo, Torreon, Monclova, and
Ciudad Porfirio Diaz, have all been alternately in rebel
and in Federal hands.
Torreon fell in October without street fighting; the
Federal garrison evacuated the city after rebel victories
in its neighbourhood. There were other Federal
troops near at hand, and the general who led them
will, it is said, be tried for failing to march to the
rescue. He is suspected of Carranzista sympathies.
But that is " only shutting the stable door," a practice
even commoner in Mexico than elsewhere.
The Constitutionalist forces marched into Torreon,
then, without opposition. It is a rich city, situated
in the fertile cotton-growing district known as the
WHAT SALTILLO TALKS ABOUT 79
Laguna. It has good shops ; at once these were looted.
But as soon as General Villa arrived he put a stop to
this unauthorized and irregular pillage. He is a
stickler for plundering decently and in order. In
polite but peremptory form he presented to the banks
and business houses a demand for three million pesos
(300,000), and I am assured on good authority that
what he received came very near this sum. Having
received it, he soon afterwards left the city, taking
the bulk of the money with him, to the discontent of
the other rebel leaders. Villa, however, is not a man
to be argued with. To Carranza, who claimed part
of his booty, he is reported to have replied : " Take
your chance of a bullet as I do and you will get your
share."
Several Spaniards living in Torreon were murdered,
but there was happily nothing to compare with the
horrible massacre of the Chinese, to the number of
300, which disgraced the Madero rebellion. The
Chinese are disliked because they are mostly employed
in cooking and washing. It is said that poor Indian
women started the massacre by crying out, " Kill
those who take away our work." Further, the Chinese
in Torreon are said to have " waxed fat and kicked."
They were a prosperous community and had become
proud.
Spaniards are also unpopular in Mexico, although
some newspapers of a Catholic complexion print news
from Spain under the heading, " The Mother Country."
They and the Arabs are the small shop-keepers of the
country. Their ability in this line is bitterly resented.
The Insurrectos executed as well some members of
the local volunteer force known as the " Defensa
Social"; others escaped by taking refuge in the
80 THE REAL MEXICO
houses of foreigners. There are defence societies in
many towns. The bloody vengeance meted out to
their members, wherever they are captured, illustrates
the savage folly of the revolutionaries. If they were
indeed actuated by patriotic motive, they would try
to sow as little heritage of hate as possible. By their
barbarous acts of revenge and destruction, deplored
by their more civilized chiefs, they have revealed the
true measure of their minds.
Saltillo has not as yet been so harshly treated as
Torreon, but it has had its hours of anxiety and it
lives in fear of further attack. At every moment,
almost, the visitor is reminded of the lamentable
condition to which this flourishing city has been
reduced by civil war. Conversation turns upon nothing
but dangers and losses past, and upon the apprehension
of others to come. Bullet -holes in walls and woodwork
are shown to prove the risks to life endured by peaceable
inhabitants, British and Americans among the rest,
during the severe attack delivered last Easter. Valu-
ables are packed away and furniture arranged so that
at a moment's notice upper rooms can be abandoned
and quarters taken up on the ground floor. Even
baths are filled at night in case the rebels' threat to
poison or cut the water supply should be carried out
before morning.
Most of the foreigners living here, as elsewhere in
Mexico, have broken up their homes and sent their
families to England or the United States. I was
eagerly asked for news. No letters or newspapers
had reached the British residents for several weeks.
I heard from one business man of a cotton factory
which cost 70,000 being burned because the manager
in charge had no money to give the rebels. Another
WHAT SALTILLO TALKS ABOUT 81
gloomily spoke of a cotton crop in the Laguna worth
200,000, about which he could get no news since
Torreon was still occupied by the Insurrectos and
communications were completely cut. A third related
how his company had to pay 2,500 to a rebel leader
for permission to run, on their own line, a train taking
out the women and children from their little mining
town. They outwitted him, however, by making up
all their engines and rolling stock, and sending them
out at night, so that the line was useless to the rebels,
the other end of it being under Federal control.
A fourth man, a German this time, who had been
manager of coal mines in the northern part of the
State, gave me photographs showing how these had
been wantonly wrecked. They belonged, by the way,
to members of the " Cientifico " Party which destroyed
the popularity of President Diaz. This explained the
furious attack upon their buildings and machinery.
At every turn of conversation, the war came up.
My hostess deplored the scarcity of fresh vegetables.
The Chinese who used to grow them had fled, fearing
to be murdered like their fellow-countrymen in Torreon.
The rainy season was talked about. " Ah ! what a
year this would have been for crops, if only. . . ."
I inquired about the education given in the large and
imposing Normal School of Saltillo. " It used to be
good, but in these disturbed times, you know. ..."
I was told about an effort to form a society for pre-
venting the cruelty to animals which is so distressing
in Mexico, although it is due mainly to dullness of
imagination. " Nothing has been done lately. Im-
possible in such times as these ! "
Business stands still. To loss and anxiety is added
the burden of enforced idleness. Sometimes the
82 THE REAL MEXICO
foreigners wish that the rebels' threat of another
attack might be carried out, if only to vary the mono-
tony. Up to now foreign property in the town has
not been intentionally damaged; nor were the British
and Americans made contributors to the " loan " of
10,000 which was forcibly levied upon the city while
the Carranzistas controlled it. This was a daring act
of brigandage. Two chiefs of humble origin, but
determined character, summoned the leading Mexican
inhabitants one night and demanded that this sum
should immediately be paid over to them. It was
pointed out that the banks were shut. " They must
be opened." A time limit was set; the trembling
Mexicans, several of them old men, were kept in the
" Palacio " with a guard over them; and they were
told in true brigand style that, if the money were not
found, they would be carried off.
A house-to-house collection of coin was hastily made,
for the rebel leaders would not accept paper money.
At one o'clock in the morning all but 400 of the 10,000
had been raised. This the robbers accepted, and one
of them made a graceful speech of thanks, promising
that when the revolution triumphed the money should
be returned. His irony was little appreciated.
The Insurrectos now profess to stand astonished at
their own moderation. They say that should they
take Saltillo again they will treat it as they treated
Torreon. For some time past the inhabitants have
felt fairly secure, because General Pena, the only
Federal leader whom the rebels fear, has been there
with his command. Now he has been sent further
north. There is still a strong garrison, but it is
complained of the Federals, officers and men alike,
that they prosecute the campaign with little heart.
WHAT SALTILLO TALKS ABOUT 88
Their organization is often lamentably at fault.
One night there was a piteous scene at the railway
station. On the line south (which has been blocked
ever since) a train carrying soldiers was dynamited.
It was the fourth atrocity of this kind within a few
weeks. All had been the work of a force which for
many months had been left unattacked in Concepcion
del Oro, where the principal mines and smelters of
the Mazapil Copper Company are situated.
The method of the fiends in human form who carry
on this devilish warfare is to bury a dynamite bomb
under the line. At a little distance they have a battery
connected up by wire. All they have to do is to hide
behind a bush and touch a button.
More than 100 men were killed by this explosion,
most of them Federal " Irregulars/' poor wretches
forced to take up arms. The wounded survivors were
brought back to Saltillo by a relief train late at night.
No preparation whatever had been made to receive
them and attend to their appalling injuries. The
excuse offered afterwards was that they were not ex-
pected so soon ! The only comfort to the dying was
the last Sacrament, administered by a brave little
French priest, who knelt on a car floor slippery with
blood and could scarcely hold his post for nausea.
Doctors were sent for. Two refused to answer to the
call. Some say they were afraid they would not be
paid for their services. Others say they are " Constitu-
tionalists." It was not until three hours had passed
that the poor wretches in agony reached the hospital.
Even those who are most bitter against the "bandits "
admit that the Government cannot expect its soldiers
to fight well if they are so cruelly neglected. The lack
of medical attention in the field throws many lives
84 THE REAL MEXICO
away which might easily be saved. A poor woman
living in Saltillo lost her son simply because there was
no one to tie a severed artery. The wound was simple,
but he bled to death. That is only one case out of
hundreds.
The reply of the Government is that they are very
hard pressed even for money with which to pay their
soldiers. That is certainly true. If they could have
borrowed the millions they hoped for, they would
have made more rapid progress against the revolution,
and they would be able to treat the men who are fighting
their battles more humanely. The demand of the
United States for President Huerta's disappearance
is based, not upon his inability to prevent impoverish-
ment of Americans and risk to their lives, but upon
his supposed complicity (of which no evidence is
offered) in the killing of Madero. A sober Englishman,
whose name is widely known in Mexico, said to me,
" Mr. Wilson and Mr. Bryan accuse the President of
being responsible for one death. They are responsible
for thousands. But for them the civil war would have
ended long ago." Most foreigners in Mexico share that
Englishman's view.
IX
WHY TRAINS ARE LATE
LORD TENNYSON wrote a poem which was suggested
to him by " waiting for a train at Coventry." I
wonder what he would have written if he had had to
wait for a train at Saltillo more than half a week.
Something vigorous, I make no doubt. Yet even
more violent would have been his language if he had
been sent on without delay and been obliged to spend
four days on the road, not in Pullman coaches but in
freight wagons. That is what would have happened
to me if the train which brought me from Monterrey
had gone on at once from Saltillo to San Luis and
Mexico City. The passengers who arrived in Saltillo
on the night of November 4 left the capital on October
31. Three nights they spent in box-cars, that is to
say, goods vans, without bedding, dependent for what
food they could get upon the meagre supplies of a
regiment encamped close by.
Still, that was better than being blown up, which
would have been their misfortune if they had gone
on. Their train was stopped because a Federal
scouting party saw rebels near the line. Naturally
they suspected dynamite, nor were they wrong. They
found altogether about fifty bombs on or under the
rails. The train I hoped to take on November i
would have struck these just after they had been
laid, and would have been blown into the air. So,
85
86 THE REAL MEXICO
after all, instead of grumbling at the suspended service,
I ought to have been thanking the authorities for
saving me from a sudden and probably painful death.
Which I do most fervently now.
Even on November 5, when the general in command
permitted a train to start, the danger was not quite
over. We had, of course, a " tren explorador " ;
that is to say, a number of cars filled with soldiers and
fitted with Maxims, ran about a quarter of a mile
ahead. For a good many miles all was quiet. In the
hot sunshine of a brilliant autumn morning the bare
mountains sparkled as if their riches of gold, silver
and copper had been drawn to the surface. We passed
a goatherd standing motionless, an idyllic figure
(from a distance) ; his goats stood out perfectly white
against the grey-green ground. In the fields the
peasants stopped working to look at the train, an
unusual sight. Around Saltillo is rich country, or
country which was rich before the civil war. But for
the troubles, 1913 would have been for Mexico a year
of marvellous prosperity. Such crops as could be
gathered were of unusual quality. The rains were
specially good. Prices of metals were high too. But
seed-time and harvest were interfered with and the
mines were idle. Every one suffered save those who
were fighting. The Insurrectos are " having the time
of their lives."
After a couple of hours' continuous running we pull
up at a small station. Here there is another troop
train. This is to " explore " for us too. War-stained
officers, their uniforms patched and grimy, hold an
animated conference. The passengers there are very
few; most people have a superstitious objection to
the first train after an interruption watch and listen.
WHY TRAINS ARE LATE 87
Are we to be turned back ? No, in time the discussion
falters. Then the officers disperse the captain in
dirty white trousers tucked into brown leather gaiters
which come down over black buttoned boots ; the
major wearing a blue jersey with " jemimas " on his
feet and puttees ; the lieutenant, smartest of the three
until he turns round and shows that he has been sitting
apparently on an ash-heap. They climb into their
trains and off we go. Purring hard, we climb a range
of hills. Then we plod through a wide, flat, fertile
valley. Suddenly with a jerk we stop. We are near
Lulu, the station where less than a fortnight ago a
train was dynamited and over a hundred killed.
This is a favourite haunt of rebels, anxious to " hold
up " trains.
Way over in the bush is a moving cloud of dust.
It moves quickly. A troop of horsemen, a big troop.
Already two or three score of little Federals have
dropped off the train ahead, and made their way into
the scrub. Still the horsemen hold their way. Now
we can see some of them as they come out into an
open patch of grass-land. The sun glitters on their
gun-barrels.
Pop, pop, pop ! go the Federal rifles, and pip, pip,
pip ! from further off comes the rebel reply. I feel
the affair is unreal. It is hard to keep in mind that
any one of those little Federals may be changed
suddenly from activity to stillness, may be left lying
there with lead in him when we go on. To the Mexicans
in the train, though, the fight is real enough. There
is a scramble for " safe " places one man hides
behind the drinking-water tank ! As if any place in
a railway carriage could be safe from Mauser bullets !
Still, there are plenty of bullets that do not hit
88 THE REAL MEXICO
anything or anybody, especially in Mexico, so some of
us stand at the window watching to see if the skirmish
is going to develop. It does not. It ends most un-
satisfactorily. The rebels are off their horses taking
cover among the bushes. The firing slackens and stops.
Evidently the sides are too equally matched for the
" scrap " to continue. That is so often the way.
Each party prefers to fight with an advantage in its
favour. By twos and threes the little men come
trotting back, hot and dusty. Their engine has to
hoot several times for them before the tale is complete.
Then we slide on again.
It is because there are so many of these inconclusive
engagements, mere reconnoitring skirmishes, that the
war continues ; and bids fair to continue, if there be
no interference, for years to come. The only way
for the Federals to gain ground against the rebels
is to hunt these small bodies of them down, and either
capture or kill them. Wherever they are sighted,
they should be pursued. It is Federal slackness
which sends up the numbers of the disaffected.
Rebellion is seen to be a profitable and not at all
a dangerous occupation.
It is the increasing numbers of rebel bands, such as
this one between Saltillo and Vanegas, which is making
the country unsafe to live in, and which will in a
short time (unless they are suppressed) ruin by far the
greater number of foreigners who depend for their
living upon Mexican property, whether it be mines,
ranches, oil-wells, wholesale or retail trading houses,
no matter what. Already the opportunities of em-
ployment have been reduced to such an extent that
many a peon has to choose between joining a band
of " Revoltosos " and starving. Once he has joined,
WHY TRAINS ARE LATE 89
he has no desire to go back to work. He earns more
and has a far more exciting life. Brigandage is still
in the Mexican blood, and possesses an irresistible
attraction for the " enterprising," not only among
peons, but among the new artisan middle class, more
particularly so since the latter can pretend to them-
selves and others that they are fighting for the cause
of democratic liberty.
A carpenter or an electrician who has upset his
mental digestion by a diet of crude Socialism gathers
a few followers, who steal rifles and horses and ride
off to some small village where they terrorize the
inhabitants and take up their quarters. They declare,
if they are asked, that they are " Revolucionarios " ;
in reality they are bandits. They go round to every
one of substance in the neighbourhood. They take
whatever they can find in the way of money, clothes,
provisions, and liquor, especially liquor. If they are
thwarted, they kill.
How many Mexicans have been murdered, how
many women have been outraged by these ruffians,
there are no means of telling. Such horrors are
happening daily. Even the armies of Francisco Villa
and Jesus Carranza, which may be called regular
armies, have laid to their charge the most barbarous
excesses. Isolated commandoes exist for the sole
purpose of committing them.
The outlook would be dark enough if they confined
themselves to terrorizing their own country people.
But from the European point of view the situation
is far worse. For a time foreign property was re-
spected; the lives of foreigners were in little danger.
Now the larger Insurrecto bodies declare their in-
tention of " taxing " (that is, blackmailing) foreign
90 THE REAL MEXICO
concerns. Small, irresponsible bands maltreat and
plunder individuals. Many outrages are also per-
petrated by peons who do not trouble to shelter under
the rebel standard. The prestige of the white people,
which kept them safe among a population always
ready to revert to barbarism, has sadly declined.
The arm of the law has weakened, savage assaults,
insolent robberies are committed and go unpunished
every week.
Even in a state like Jalisco, which is supposed to
have been very little disturbed, this sort of thing is
liable to occur : An Englishman and his wife named
Bering have a ranch only a mile or so beyond the
Guadalajara street-car terminus, quite near the city.
One night at dinner their dogs began to growl, and
immediately an attack was made by men armed with
machetes, the short, sharp knives which are used for
cutting sugar-cane and all sorts of other purposes.
One of the servants rushed off to the street-car and
summoned help. A troop of horse galloped to the
house. Fortunately the brave pair had managed to
drive their assailants off, but Mr. Holmes, the helpful,
energetic British Consul at Guadalajara, described
the scene when he got there as a " shambles." Both
Mr. and Mrs. Bering had been cut in many places.
Eight deep wounds had to be sewn up.
In the neighbouring state of Michoacan a Canadian
named Swayne had his house attacked and burned
over his head. He died in the flames, unless a shot
had taken effect before. At Coohuyma an Englishman
named Laughton and another man, von Thaden,
were both shot dead. At the Buena vista Mine one
Boris Gorow, an American citizen, was the victim of
an unusually horrible outrage. A body of rebels
WHY TRAINS ARE LATE 91
rode up and demanded arms. These were refused.
They fired ; their fire was returned. A boy was killed,
and the rebels accused Gorow of killing him. Three
men who were also at the mine, two called Budd and
Bromley, the third a Spaniard, managed to escape.
The Spaniard rolled down a gully and hid in a cave.
The other two got up a hill and thence saw Gorow
done to death on a plateau below, after which the
ruffians tore the gold-filled teeth out of his mouth to
sell for what they would fetch.
Not far from the town of Aguascalientes a pecu-
liarly atrocious affray illustrated the dangerous spirit
which is growing among the labourer class. A Scots-
man named Walker, the owner of a quicksilver mine,
did not receive, as usual, at the end of one week the
pay for his men. The rebels had interrupted the
train service ; the bank in Mexico City could not
send the money. But the pelados would not hear
reason. They attacked Mr. and Mrs. Walker with
machetes. They were replied to with revolver-shots.
Both husband and wife fired, and fired with good aim.
They killed between them seven of their assailants,
but not, of course, without suffering badly themselves.
As Mrs. Walker lay on the ground, almost exhausted
by pain and loss of blood, a man went towards the
kitchen door, where her daughter of fifteen and two
smaller children were. She called to him to turn
back. When he refused she shot him through the
head. He fell across the doorway, and she had to
crawl over his body to get into the kitchen. Here she
stood up, and on the wall against which she leaned
a print of her body was left in blood. At this moment
the chief of police arrived. His only idea was to
shoot at Mrs. Walker as she stood. Fortunately the
92 THE REAL MEXICO
bullet struck between her feet. The one redeeming
feature of the story, so far as Mexicans are concerned,
is that when the family were taken into town, the
people of Aguascalientes cheered them for their pluck.
It must not, however, be supposed that such out-
rages are being committed every day or in every part
of the country. Now that we are approaching
Vanegas, we shall soon be in a district which for the
moment is undisturbed. Yet in Vanegas itself, a
junction and a little town half-way towards San Luis,
there are signs enough of disturbance not far away.
The lines here are all cluttered up with troop-trains.
This is what they call a " meal station." The train
usually reaches here in the middle of the day and stops
for the passengers to take their " comida " in the
restaurant. We arrive towards six o'clock and there
is no food to be had. The hungry troops have eaten
the place bare. Luckily I had a lunch-packet with
me and saved half for dinner. Otherwise I should
go hungry till late at night, as many must do. We
wait interminably. The sun lights up the mountains
with a barren beauty. They are not friendly, like
the mountains of Switzerland and Tyrol. There are
no pastures up there, no farmhouses; no warm,
human interest softens the savagery of Nature. Dark
has come before enough troop-trains are pushed aside
to let us pass. Then we run quickly and the train-
men put their official caps on, for we are out of the
danger zone. If the rebels had caught them with
their caps on they would have been shot for helping
to run trains. So they were prepared to pretend that
they were merely passengers.
Eleven o'clock before we are in San Luis Potosi.
WHY TRAINS ARE LATE 93
We have been thirteen hours on the road instead of
eight. But the time-table does not allow for skirmishes
by the way. Now the last obstacle between me and
Mexico City is surmounted. From this handsome
city, with its well-paved streets, its fine buildings,
old and new, its pretty gardens, and streets of good
shops from here to the capital the line has not been
disturbed. So, after strife without ceasing for a
month all but a day, I am within twelve hours of my
goal. I have got back into a region where one does
not have to ask humbly, " Please will there be a train
to-day? "
After San Luis the country is richer and better-
watered. The sun glints on numberless irrigation
" dams " or lakes. The glare from a long one running
beside the railway blinds the eyes. Cultivation is
extensive, but not intensive. The barley and the
oats are poor in ear ; many crops look not worth cut-
ting, only good to be ploughed in. The maize might
be far finer if it were intelligently raised. No fault
to find with the cattle, however, except that there
might be more herds. Although there is so much
fine ranching and dairying country in Mexico, the milk
one buys is very often goat's milk. That to many
palates is unwelcome, even disgusting. Two amusing
stories are told of tourists who tried to avoid it.
Neither could speak Spanish. One drew as well as
he could a picture of a cow on the breakfast menu and
showed it to the waiter, saying " Milk." The waiter
looked at it, a smile of understanding lit up his face.
He returned five minutes afterwards with a ticket
for the next Sunday's bull-fight. The other tourist
knew that the Spanish for milk was " leche," but he
94 THE REAL MEXICO
couldn't think of the right expression for cow's milk,
" leche de vacca." " Traigame leche de de senora
de toro," he plunged. (" Bring me milk of the lady
bull.") He was perfectly understood.
It is evident that we are penetrating further south.
No longer do we see the blackened shells of burnt-out
railway stations, but stations gay with flowers growing
in sunny profusion wherever they can find a root-hold.
The walls are covered with nasturtium. The red
blossoms of the castor-bean plant make the white
flowers of a bush something like a rhododendren look
virgin-pale by comparison; the pale lilac of clusters
from a small tree reminds one of an English early May.
Alternating with the flat, fertile valleys, are stretches
of rugged mountain scenery. Soon after Quer6taro
is passed, an old city with history oozing from it and
picturesqueness crying out for a painter's brush and
palette at every turn, we are in a rocky region of deep
gorges, of narrow passes, of streams leaping and
foaming beside the line. Then down again into the
level country lying outside the barrier of mountains
which guards the Valley of Mexico. Through this
barrier in a tunnel and we are almost at the capital.
For some time the names of the stations have been
Aztec, not Spanish. Instead of La Llave, Carrasco,
San Nicolas, we have Huehuetoca, Tlalnepantla,
Cuauhtitlan. Outside the Valley of Mexico north-
wards, the Spaniards found only small tribes of Indians,
mostly nomads. They named places as they pleased,
did not trouble to learn local dialects. The Aztec
names, on the other hand, they kept, impressed by
Aztec civilization. Here is Azcapotzalco, for another,
showing that we are close to our journey's end. Hotel
WHY TRAINS ARE LATE 95
touts invade the train, distributing cards and pressing
the advantages and the cheapness of the houses they
represent. Then Chapultepec, towering quite near us,
and a few minutes later the Colonia Station with the
usual bustle of arrival at an important point.
MEXICO CITY
MEXICO CITY (the Mexicans call it simply " Mehico ")
is like a pretty woman dressed with charm and taste,
but having no conversation, nothing save her looks
to recommend her. At first I was delighted. To
begin with, the climate is marvellous, and the climate
affects the city in many ways.
In general I dislike cities. Their pavements tire
my feet. Their smokiness chokes me. Their noise
and bustle chafe my nerves. In Mexico I experienced
none of these sensations. First, and best of all, there
is no smoke pall ! Under a clear sky and with perpetual
sunshine, it is impossible to feel oppressed. The
air remember the city stands well over 7000 feet
high higher, if I recollect rightly, than St. Moritz
is light, invigorating. The weakly suffer from the
altitude; but if your lungs and heart are sound, and
if you are reasonably careful about what you eat,
drink and avoid, you thoroughly enjoy it.
Next, it is a city with the most beautiful setting
imaginable. At a distance of a few miles it is sur-
rounded by mountains, not high enough to be op-
pressive, as they are in Innsbruck; near enough to
give one a perpetually changing kaleidoscope of
delight as one watches the effect of sun and cloud upon
them from dawn till night. Further, the bounty of
Nature has been seconded by the efforts of man.
96
MEXICO CITY 97
Under President Diaz, and chiefly by the skill of
French-descended Sefior Limantour, the Mexican
capital was laid out so that it already takes rank,
although much remains still unfinished, as one of the
finest in the world.
I think, myself, that the Paseo de la Reforma is,
without qualification, the finest avenue that can be
seen anywhere. It dwarfs Unter den Linden. It
makes even the Champs-Elys6es seem uninspired.
As one drives along it towards the Castle of Chapultepec,
which rises at one end on a green hill dripping with
flowers, one feels in the thin clear air of nearly eight
thousand feet an uplift of the soul. Against the
mountain beyond the Castle are silhouetted the fine
sculptured figures raised on lofty columns to mark
stages in Mexican history. No capital is richer in
splendid monuments. The semicircle of white marble
columns backing the statue of Juarez and backed in
turn by the green shady Alameda (park) is perfect in
nobility and grace. There are many buildings, too,
of a beauty that can never be forgotten the Jockey
Club, an ancient palace, entirely covered with blue
and white tiles; the Venetian Gothic Post Office,
wonderful in its way; the National Library with its
tiled dome. Architects and sculptors have been in-
spired by the spaciousness of the landscape, and espe-
cially by the two volcanoes, Popocatepetl and Ixtac-
cihuatl, whose white summits shine with unearthly
majesty against the brilliantly blue sky.
All down the Paseo are fine houses, and on either
side stretch the Colonias (suburbs), which sprang up
when the city itself became full of business houses.
In these Colonias every style of architecture runs riot.
A grey stone battlemented castle shoulders a modern
98 THE REAL MEXICO
villa; a row of neat little "residences" leads to a
closely shuttered Spanish " casa," next to which may
stand a French chateau, with pink geranium climbing
up its walls, or a rambling bungalow almost hidden
by purple bougainvillia.
On Sunday evening every one who owns a car or
carriage, every one who can afford to take a " coche "
for two hours, drives on the Paseo and then in San
Francisco Street, where there is a tight jam, only
allowing the procession to move on a few steps every
now and then. I cannot quite understand the enjoy-
ment of this, but it happens in every town of any
pretensions ; it is ingrained in the habits of all Mexicans.
Afterwards at the garish, noisy restaurants of second-
class character they dine, or rather sup, for their
habit is to eat a large meal in the middle of the day
and light ones both in the morning and at night.
You may often see the President in one of these
cafe's, drowning the cares of office and entertaining
himself with his friends. He certainly has courage,
this old general with the alert manner and the bright
bird-like eyes. The Presidential Guards are a fine
regiment. In their grey undress uniform they look
very smart ; in their parade kit they are magnificent.
But, excepting State occasions, they are very seldom
seen with the President. He prefers to pass unnoticed,
a citizen-President indeed.
Seeing him in a glittering " pasteleria," or at his
own particular table in Bach's Restaurant between
eight and nine, one is brought back with a jerk to
a sense of the contrasts in this gay and charming city.
Only a year ago Gustavo Madero, brother to the
President, was sitting at one of these tables when
a file of soldiers entered, arrested him, and took him
MEXICO CITY 99
away to be shot. What we call " civilization " is
here only a sham-front plastered on.
There is a fine Parliament House (and another still
finer a-building) with all the outward and visible
signs of democracy. Call-over of members is taken
at each sitting. Those who are absent must offer
excuses and send their " supplentes " (substitutes).
Every member has a substitute, elected at the same
time as himself. President and Vice-President are
changed every month. Nothing lacks, on paper, to
make it appear that Mexico has an advanced system of
Parliamentary government. Yet a few months ago
four members who were obnoxious to the President
" disappeared/' no one daring to ask what had become
of them; and at the beginning of the session in
November 1913, no speech was made in the Chamber
of Deputies for ten days. Without a word the members
passed everything presented to them. They were like
automata. They had nothing to say.
There are handsome Government offices with richly-
decorated halls and audience chambers. But, as we
pass them a friend who is agent for several leading
British firms tells me how a Minister bought certain
goods for 9,000 and had the bill made out for 30,000,
and how another high official tried to get 80 machines
charged up at 1,000 each, so that he could pocket the
difference. This is so usual a mode of doing business
that the official was astonished when my friend
declined. Looking up with delighted eyes at the
Post Office, sightly without and a marvel of cleanly
convenience within, I recall the warning given me
not to post letters there for England. " Registering
them is useless. It only calls attention to them.
Send them by hand to Vera Cruz and have them
100 THE REAL MEXICO
posted on the mail steamer. That is the only safe
way.'*
Here is another contrast. The police of the capital
are a fine body. Armed with revolvers as well as
truncheons, they keep excellent order. They are
polite, helpful, quick to take the stranger's part.
Yet the police-court system is so antiquated that no
one will stop to assist the victim of a street accident
for fear of being arrested as a witness and kept in
solitary confinement for many hours. That is the
regular proceeding.
Even the physical contrasts are disconcerting.
Although the sun is very hot in the day-time, morning
and evening are so cold that an overcoat is necessary,
as well as heavy winter underclothing. It froze one
night ; the next day I had a bowl of strawberries and
cream for thirty centavos (sixpence) delicious straw-
berries too. This was in a popular restaurant much
frequented by officers and politicians. It was full
and seemed gay. Yet all the talk I heard was of the
busy press-gang stealing men off the streets for the
army by night ; of rifles and provisions stored away
in houses and offices " in case . . ." ; of the distrust
which had sprung up of the bank-notes for ten and
twenty shillings which are the usual Mexican currency ;
of silver pesos hoarded for fear the banks might fail.
These are the contrasts which darken the fair
features of Mexico City with a sinister expression.
Some of the buildings still await repair which were
shattered by the cannonade of February 1913, when
the " Maderistas " and the " Felixistas " fought for
ten days in the city, with guns planted on every point
of vantage and rifle-fire sweeping the principal streets.
What happened then might easily happen again,
MEXICO CITY 101
though next time the foreign colonies will be prepared.
The British, at any rate, have enrolled a regiment of
defenders, have stored up arms and ammunition, have
laid in provisions against a siege. The Germans, I
believe, have a similar preparation. In all the country
houses I went to I was shown rifles hidden away.
Of minor contrasts there are many, and they are
often vastly comical, as, for instance, a short-haired,
wild-looking Aztec woman followed through a smart
residential quarter by a pet lamb. Within a few yards
of palaces there are pestilent, filthy slums. Poked
in beside gaudy restaurants are frowsy, smelly
" pulque " shops. (" Pulque " is the liquor taken
from the huge, spiky-leaved maguey plant : fresh,
there is little harm in it, but it ferments into a strongly
alcoholic drink.) Strolling along the fashionable
streets among a throng of highly-dressed, strongly-
scented fashionable people, will be indescribably
ragged Indians, not in the least abashed. There is
a good deal of genuine " democracy " here in spite
of the hollo wness of the constitution. There is more
courtesy, too, than in America or Europe, less grabbing
after and toadying to wealth, more general sharing
in the simple pleasures of existence, such as idling,
gossiping, lounging, and looking on at the spectacle
of life. Therefore Mexico is to the traveller a pleasant er
country than the United States more varied, more
picturesque, in the deeper sense more civilized.
Americans who live there admit this. They do not
like the idea of returning home. I have heard English
people say they could never settle down in England
after living in Mexico, and no German dreams of going
back to Germany. The charm is partly the sunshine,
partly the ease of life (it is more easy to make a living
102 THE REAL MEXICO
in Mexico than elsewhere) ; for women, partly the
pleasant dreaming idleness in which they can pass
a good deal of time without wanting occupation.
The beauty of the country comes in too, the pictorial
quality of the people; the fact, also, that every
foreigner in the country has to justify his existence,
and therefore, in all likelihood, be interesting in some
way.
It is a country different from other countries, and
especially is " Mehico " a city different from any
other city. Although there are so many Americans
doing business in it, it has happily not become in
the least " Americanizado." Its life is active, but
not strenuous. Even in these anxious times its gaiety
is irrepressible. The very uncertainty of the Mexican
situation is turned to humorous account. " What is
the latest from the rumour-factory? " has become the
usual salutation. Absurd stories are invented and
set afloat among the sinister whispers which perturb
the credulous. Since the distractions offered are
meagre, there is a great deal of club-life, and therefore
a great deal of gossip. That explains the rapidity
with which these fairy-tales, once started, go the
round of the city. The theatres are very poor ; there
is no music save that of military bands in the Alameda
and the plazas. Mexicans and foreigners alike are
thrown back upon themselves for entertainment, and
they find it largely in their clubs. There is a very
comfortable British Club in a charming old " palacio "
with sunny balconies around its grey courtyard.
There is a handsome French club, two German clubs,
a Spanish, an American; and, of course, most
fashionable of all, there is the Jockey Club, where
MEXICO CITY 103
the Mexican aristocracy sit in the doorway before dinner
to watch the midday throng in the Avenida de San
Francisco.
" Watching " in any Mexican town is an amusement
of which the natives never tire. They like to live close
to the centre, so as not to miss anything. " Looking
out of window " takes up a great deal in a Mexican
lady's life. They do not go out much, but they
stand on their balconies for hours at a stretch. To
the foreigner " watching " soon becomes equally
attractive. In no country is the stream of existence
so diverting, so varied.
Spend a day with me, strolling and sitting. Let us
be " lagartijos," which means literally lizards, but is
slang for those who lounge unoccupied in the sun.
Starting out early, we have no sun as yet to lounge in.
The morning is fresh, even chilly. We are glad of
our overcoats. In the streets people are hurrying to
their work to keep themselves warm. The Indians
pull their gaudy blankets (sarapes) up round their
noses. Lithe, brown bakers' men are trotting about
with huge baskets of rolls balanced on their heads.
The knife-grinder's musical pan-pipe reminds one of
" Punch and Judy." The dustman tinkles his warning
bell.
Already the street-corner merchants are setting up
their sweetmeat trays. Later, they will be dusting
their candied fruits and dangerous-looking pastries,
and cakes of almond paste, and keeping the flies off
with a whisk; but there are no flies out yet. Early
riders, their cheeks aglow, come clattering home to
breakfast from the Wood of Chapultepec, a most
enagaging park beyond the Castle. Dainty figures,
104 THE REAL MEXICO
their heads shrouded by the graceful black mantilla,
click their heels demurely on the way back from daily
Mass.
Notice how easy it is to find one's way about. At
every corner the street-name is printed clear, in striking
contrast to the custom of American cities. It is
easy to ride about too. Cabs are cheap; one shilling
for any drive in town ; two shillings an hour anywhere.
Taxicabs are cheap as well, but you take your life in
your hand every time you use them. By the side of
Mexican chauffeurs Jehu would have been reckoned an
old lady's coachman. The electric street-cars add
to the dangers of the streets, though their swiftness
is exceedingly useful, and they run far out into the
country. We will take one to the Country Club now
that the sun is hot and the streets are losing their
animation. In the shade of some trees at a corner a
lazy group watches a tiny Indian shuffle his feet while
his father or elder brother plays a mouth-organ for
him to " dance " to. Now the sunny side of the
street is avoided think of it, in mid-November !
Overcoats and blankets have disappeared. You envy
the Indians their high-coned, broad-brimmed hats
and sketchy costumes.
The car-line runs first through slums, giving glimpses
of dark, shuddery interiors, squalid " mixed stores,"
and " pulque joints," each with a high-sounding,
often flowery name. Here is " The Dream of Love,"
near it " The Men without Fear " ; then, oddest of
all, I have seen " Las Emociones " (The Emotions),
though " The Early Mornings of April " ran it close.
I believe " pulque " is capable of supplying all the
emotions one could want !
MEXICO CITY 105
Now we are out of town, amid broad meadows where
cattle graze. All around the mountains glitter, and
the two snowy-peaked volcanoes peer through their
comforters of cloud. A pleasant place, the Country
Club ; a spacious Spanish house, with golf-links (where
are there not golf-links?), lawn-tennis courts, croquet
lawns, and so on. We lunch on a cool " stoop,"
walk round to admire the billiard-table smoothness
of the " greens," look at the big ball-room, where
there is dancing on Sunday afternoons, and start
back.
On the way we will take in the picturesque Indian
village called Santa Anita, where dark-skinned youths
and maids dance on holidays and sit in flowery arbours
and consume large quantities of pulque and beer. It
lies by the Viga Canal, one of the prettiest sights in
early morning when Indian punts are bringing up
flowers and vegetables to the city markets. Here are
some now, laden with fragrant hay and slowly poled
along under the trees which overhang the water from
the canal banks. We look at the gardens, which, it is
said, once floated on the waters of Mexico's rich valley,
and then hurry on so as to see the city at its gayest on
this winter afternoon.
The three parallel main streets, Fifth of May, San
Francisco, and Sixteenth of September, are all lively.
Pretty ladies in Paris frocks are driving in splendidly-
horsed victorias and broughams. The confectioners'
shops are crowded. The big " stores " are doing brisk
business. Brown, barefooted children are pestering
people with lottery tickets or hawking evening papers
with pathetic haunting cry. Beggars exhibit their
deformities with revolting candour. Smart Mexican
106 THE REAL MEXICO
men, young and old, are bowing, waving their hands
with the wiggling of the ringers peculiar to this country,
talking with strident voice and vigorous gesture.
Every one is out to see and be seen.
The sun sinks, and for a few minutes a red glow
is reflected upon the eastern sky. Then suddenly it
is dark. The clusters of street-lights flash into
radiance. The shop windows add to the blaze of
light. Electric signs, horrid importation from New
York and Chicago, force themselves upon the atten-
tion. Offices at closing-time pour forth clerks and
typists to swell the throng. When we are tired of the
brightness and the chatty we can stroll along to the
dark, quiet alleys of the Alameda, where the white
marble of the unfinished National Theatre gleams
ghostly through the darkness. Will it ever be
finished? Quien sabe? Who can tell? Not a
hammer-blow falls now, either there or at the half-built
Parliament House.
They tell of a Chinese Envoy who came to represent
his country at the centenary of Mexican Independence,
just before the revolutions began. He saw the theatre.
" Beautiful ! " he said, " but .what a pity it not
finished/' He looked at the Parliament House.
" Magnificent, but what a pity not finished ! " A
third building still in construction drew the same regret.
Then he was introduced to President Diaz, very old
and very deaf. " A wonderful man," he said. ' What
a pity he finished ! "
Yes, it was the " finishing " of Diaz which led to
Mexico's troubles to-day, and for three years past.
A hundred thousand men killed, a hundred million
pounds' worth of property destroyed ! How can
MEXICO CITY 107
" Mehico " take it so calmly, sipping its chocolate,
tossing off its " copitas," flirting and gossiping and
dressing-up? It must be the exhilarating climate.
How could anything greatly disturb one in such
sunshine and such air?
XI
THE NEMESIS OF PATERNALISM
I WAS told when I came to Mexico City that I had
arrived "just in time." No one talked of anything
but " the crisis/' Every half -hour a fresh rumour
was started, to go its rounds among Mexicans and
foreigners alike, then to be forgotten amid the rush of
newer lies. There are a number of excellent clubs in
the capital. Several of them were good enough to
extend their hospitality to me. I heard all the stories
that were set going as soon as they were born. In few
cases were they deliberately invented. They were the
result of exaggeration and misunderstanding. Usually
they belonged to the most impossible category : An
American warship had been blown up; Mr. Lind had
been assassinated; the President had ordered the
American Embassy staff to leave, and so on. They
would not be worth mention, save for this they
illustrate the state of mind I found in the capital ; the
nervous, anxious condition of all who had families
with them and a livelihood to lose. In almost every
office I entered I heard the same tale of " business
at a standstill." Almost every conversation ended
with the same despairing query : " Can you see any
way out of it ? "
The " Docena Tragica " (Tragic Ten Days), as they
call the period of street fighting, in which the weak
and disappointing regime of Madero culminated,
to!
THE NEMESIS OF PATERNALISM 109
shook the nerves of the people. Long suspense and
uncertainty have kept them cruelly on the rack ever
since. All blame the Washington Government for
their sufferings. The Americans are loudest in their
condemnation of what is commonly known among
them as " grape juice policy." Grape juice is a non-
alcoholic drink reported to be used by President
Wilson and Mr. Bryan, who are teetotalers. All say
that if General Huerta had been recognized by the
United States, he would have been able to suppress
the revolution ; to save many hundred lives and many
million pounds of property, and to restore prosperity
by giving the country peace.
Whether this would have happened it is impossible
to say. I am inclined to doubt it for this reason, that
the very people who express this view also say that
the Federal officers are not trying to suppress the
revolution. From generals to lieutenants they are,
so the story goes, making money out of their commands,
and have no wish for peace. That certainly is a
monstrous charge to bring against a whole army,
but it is hard to escape from the conviction that there
is some truth in it. The Pais (Fatherland) is an
organ of the Catholic Party; one of the best daily
newspapers in Mexico. A little while ago it wrote
" For some time past there has been a thought in
the public mind, an observation that affords the
clue, at least in part, to our chronic anarchy. Nobody,
so far, has given utterance to this thought; but as
the necessity is urgent, as the rebellion is spreading
and assuming sinister proportions, as it has become
absolutely necessary to secure peace, we will denounce
the fact, holding it up to the eyes of the Government
and the public in all its ' canaillesque ' magnitude.
110 THE REAL MEXICO
The revolution has been and continues to be a brilliant
business proposition, an immense source of profit to
many military chiefs. In the time of General Diaz
this was already so for some officers, who collected full
pay for battalions and regiments when every one
knew that the lists were padded with many fictitious
names, and that if the officer claimed pay for a hundred,
the actual number was, perhaps, seventy; and so,
too, in the matter of fodder for horses, etc., there was
always something in every deal for the officer. Thus
the War Department came to be a good mine, making
many poor devils rich. So that when General Diaz
thought that he had an army of more than 20,000
men to fight the revolution of 1910, it turned out
that he had only 14,000, the remainder existing only
on the pay-rolls. The profits of the business have
multipled a hundredfold of late, and it would be worth
while for the War Department to take note, and devise
a prompt and efficacious remedy."
Soon after that article appeared a Federal general
was put under arrest. He was confined to barracks
upon some charge unf ormulated ; yet I was assured
by one who had seen it, that a letter was written by
the Minister of War assuring him that he need have
no fear as to the upshot of his arrest. In a country
like this the rules of probability are of no service.
Not only are they of no service ; they are misleading.
Mexicans themselves assert that there is no such
quality as patriotism among them. They include
their public men, with few exceptions, in a general
indictment for stealing. Foreigners decline to credit
the good faith of any single one. On general grounds
one must discount such sweeping charges, but it is
impossible, in the face of evidence offered, to set
THE NEMESIS OF PATERNALISM 111
them altogether aside. If civil war drags on now
because it is profitable, might it not equally have
been prolonged although General Huerta had been
recognized by the United States?
It is a hard thing to say, but the more one pries
into the records of public men in Mexico the stronger
becomes the doubt whether any Government can keep
the country quiet unless it be supported, advised, and
supervised by some elder brother or brothers, until
its evil traditions and practices have been purged
away. In the spending departments dishonesty is
not the exception, but the rule. The reason why
revolutions are started is simply that the leaders'
palms itch for the public purse. The way to stop
revolution, therefore, is to stop thieving. To use
a shop metaphor, only a cash register can put an end
to pilfering from the till.
Theft is an unpleasant word, and it is only fair to
say that no ignominy attaches to corruption in Mexico,
because no one in office is expected to be anything
but corrupt. Porfirio Diaz kept order by allowing
a few to enrich themselves, and shooting any one who
objected or tried to enter the privileged " ring."
But the day for that is past, and, in any case, there is
no Porfirio Diaz now. The best hope of good adminis-
tration which would take away the incentive to rebel,
lies in making it impossible for peculation to continue.
Material ordered for public needs must be paid for at
its real price. A stop must be put to the practice of
requiring two bills, one showing secretly the sum which
the seller receives, the other openly debiting the
Treasury with a larger amount.
It is hard to see how financial methods can be
cleansed, except by the means which have been
112 THE REAL MEXICO
employed in Egypt. Many Mexicans, after their first
shock of repugnance, would be inclined to rejoice at
some such form of peaceful intervention if the European
Powers would take part in it along with the United
States. Mexico does not like the Americans; the
" Gringoes," as they are usually called, a nickname
which dates back to the war of 1846. The American
soldiers then had a favourite marching song, " Green
grow the leaves of the hawthorn tree." The Mexicans
coined from it their term -of contemptuous abuse.
Nor are the Americans merely disliked; they are
despised. Ignorant Mexicans, who form nineteen-
twentieths of the nation, think they could defeat
them in war. With the United States alone guiding
Mexico along the path of constitutional, and, what is
of more importance, honest government, there would
certainly be friction and quite possibly fighting.
The combined might of the Great Powers would over-
awe a people which has a great respect for Europe and
a wholesome timidity as to what Europe might do.
There would be no question of any European country
acquiring " a controlling influence " in Latin- America ;
so the Monroe doctrine need not stand in the way of
such a solution. It would be at once a statesmanlike
and prudent act of Mr. Wilson, whose proceedings
have intensified the hatred in which his countrymen
are held, to calm Mexican opinion and to make his
own task easier, by permitting other Powers to lend
their aid. Everybody's " face would be saved," and
there would be real hope of lasting improvement.
The history of the country, during, say, the last
seven years has convinced those who have watched
closely that, without assistance, it will be long before
she can secure her own peace and the safety of foreign
THE NEMESIS OF PATERNALISM 113
interests within her border; interests which, seeing
that nearly all business is controlled by foreigners,
are very large. Here in the capital, as elsewhere
throughout the Republic, the hardware trade is mainly
in German hands; the drapery, wholesale and retail,
in French; mining is chiefly carried on by British or
American companies ; the oilfields are being developed
by the same agency. The banks are largely under
French management, even the National Bank.
Machinery is supplied by Great Britain and the United
States. The names of business houses are seldom
Mexican names. The National Railways are managed
by capable Americans, with Mr. E. N. Brown, a
Napoleon among railway men, at their head.
There are, roughly, 100,000 foreign residents, and
something like 350,000,000 of foreign capital in-
vested in the country. It cannot be permitted to
drift into a state of permanent civil warfare, which,
if left to itself, is what it seems likely to do. Not one
in a thousand of the population has any idea of what
government by the people means. The system cannot,
therefore, be " democratic " in our sense of the word.
On the other hand, it is impossible, now that a middle
class has been evolved and the spirit of " liberty "
awakened, to go back to despotism based eventually
upon murder.
One hears constantly in Mexico that " these people
can be kept in order only by a fearless and pitiless
tyrant," and to this is generally added, " like old
Porfirio Diaz." That is why foreign opinion in Mexico
has been, speaking broadly, unanimously, until lately,
in favour of General Huerta. But when the career of
President Diaz is examined with an eye not blinded
by the glory which the world accorded to him, one is
i
114 THE REAL MEXICO
forced to doubt whether he was really such a " saviour
of his country " as for a long time we all supposed.
He certainly gave it thirty years of peace. That, from
the point of view of the foreigner making his fortune
in Mexico, was everything. It was an achievement,
too, which revealed a strong character, a resolute
will.
But, while it was good for his country to be at peace,
while the alternative of " pan 6 palos " (earn your
living quietly, or look out !) allowed the riches of
Mexico to be developed, the " Much^" administraci6n
y poco politica " of the Diaz regime kept the people in
political swaddling clothes and took no thought for
the morrow, when the strong hand should have relaxed
its grip. Diaz was like a father who does not realize
that his sons and daughters are growing up; who
keeps them in subjection; makes all decisions for
them and thinks that his duty lies only in giving
them a comfortable home. When the guiding and
restraining arm of such a father is removed his children
are unfit for the battle of life; they are easily de-
ceived ; they rush into excesses of every kind. That
was exactly what happened to Mexico when the
smouldering resentment against " Paternalism " was
fanned into flame by the Socialist pamphlets of Ricardo
Flores Magon and the eloquence of Madero.
Although it was what might have been expected,
it took everybody by surprise. In 1910 Mexico
celebrated with pride and splendour the centenary
of her liberation from Spain. The sky seemed clear.
I recall a chapter in a " standard work " on the country
published about that time, which proved by all the
rules of logic that nothing could possibly happen to
shake the edifice of " national greatness " erected by
THE NEMESIS OF PATERNALISM 115
Don Porfirio's statesmanship. Now that edifice lies
in ruins. The Mexicans have shown by their savagery
to one another, by the readiness with which they
rushed to arms at the instigation of ambitious men,
by the contempt in which the twelve millions of Indians
are held by the three million " whites," by the failure
of Indians and Spaniards alike to rise to a conception
of patriotism, that President Diaz was too easily
credited with having " created a nation " out of such
stubborn elements.
Diaz was a man in whom there were streaks of
unmistakable greatness. He was a great policeman;
but a statesman would have built upon a firmer
foundation. Then he would not in his age have
been deceived by the flatterers and plunderers who
governed in his name. The " Cientificos " were able
men; not all of them were dishonest. They encour-
aged foreign enterprise and made the City of Mexico
a great capital. But the depredations of a few and
the impositions upon the people, of which the old
President knew nothing, raised the storm by which
Madero was blown violently into office after a few
months of revolt.
It was a disaster that power fell into hands so unfit
to wield it. Madero, like most Mexicans, was a spend-
thrift of glowing words. He was neurotic, a faddist,
incapable of thinking clearly. A vegetarian and a
spiritualist, he held seances, with his wife as medium,
to obtain guidance from the mighty dead. In the
Castle of Chapultepec a number of shelves in a book-
case still harbour his psychic library. His vagaries
made him a laughing-stock. Meetingjone day a man
who said that he was going home to get his overcoat,
Madero replied, " Do not trouble to do that. I will
116 THE REAL MEXICO
make you think you are warm," and in the street he
began to make hypnotic passes !
His family, rich landowners and manufacturers,
were of tougher fibre. They saw their opportunity,
and keeping him under their influence, they took it.
When his brother Gustavo resigned after eighteen
months of office the Treasury was all but empty.
He had spent all the income of the country and twelve
million pounds beside. Had Madero been a man of
even moderate ability he might have led his country
safely through the difficult transition from despotism
to the beginnings of constitutional government. But
he had no talent for affairs of State. His promises
of instant land gifts and radical reform were unfulfilled.
His family took pains to prevent any one from seeing
him alone. He spent hours which should have been
devoted to public business, playing dreamily upon the
piano.
The bad example he had set was followed. Armed
revolution stalked abroad again. When General Felix
Diaz, with the support of the wealthy, had rebelled
for the second time, Madero became, according to
those who saw him, almost insane. In a fit of rage
he is said to have shot with his own hand two officers
whose advice displeased him. He was, at all events,
accessory to murders, though in other moods he was
ready to spare the lives even of those whose treason
deserved death.
At last, when he had few adherents left, came the
" tragic ten days " in Mexico City. The forces of
General Felix Diaz and General Reyes fought with the
Army in the streets of the capital, and 3000 people,
mostly unoffending civilians of the poorer class, were
killed. On a Sunday morning the crowded Plaza,
THE NEMESIS OF PATERNALISM 117
where the palace and cathedral stand, was suddenly
swept by rifle and Maxim gun-fire. The Felixistas
were then in the city, and General Reyes had come
to the Plaza expecting the palace to be surrendered
to him. But there was no reason for the butchery of
a thousand men, women, and children, who were
simply looking on. Whether Madero, whose nerves
had by this time given way, actually ordered it or not
the guilt must rest partly upon him. He was hence-
forward set down as impossible, and steps were taken
to secure a more responsible Government. This is
where General Huerta became a leading figure on the
scene.
XII
GENERAL HUERTA
THROUGH the crowded Chamber of Deputies on
the afternoon of November 20, 1913, the date of the
opening of the new Mexican Congress, there stepped
lightly, with hand upraised to acknowledge the cheers
which greeted him, a tall, thickly built soldier whose
briskness belied his sixty-nine years.
He wore evening dress, as did all the members of
Parliament. The only distinction which set him
apart from the rest was a broad sash of the Mexican
national colours (red, green, and white) across his shirt-
front. His dome-like skull gleamed bald under the
light. Closely cropped grey hair covered back and
sides. His complexion was dark, but it was only
when one noticed the hand against the white shirt-
cuff that one realized he was not of European blood.
Clearly his sight was very weak; he added to the
spectacles he wore another pair before he began to read
his Message to the new Congress. Yet, unlike those
of most short-sighted people, his eyes were unusually
bright. They roved hither and thither like the eyes
of a bird, saving a square and dogged face (to which
photographs seldom do justice) from the reproach
of heaviness.
Such, in outward appearance, is President Victoriano
Huerta, the man whose doings have riveted the atten-
tion of the world for a year past. If you share the
EX!
GENERAL HUERTA 119
official American opinion he is a criminal, a dissolute
adventurer; in Mexican phrase a "sin verguenza,"
a man without shame. By his own account he is
a patriot who only clings to office because no other
Mexican is strong enough to crush the revolution. Up
to November 1913, a great many Mexicans, with nearly
all the foreigners in Mexico, endorsed that view.
After that the tide began to turn against him.
A Mexican who under President Porfirio Diaz was
very highly placed said to me : "If Huerta had any
European blood in him one would be forced to believe
that he was a lineal descendant of Nero and Caligula."
While there seemed to be a chance of his restoring peace
his less desirable qualities were glossed over. Now that
the revolution has gained ground, now that he has
heavily increased taxation in order to refill his empty
coffers, now that Europe has declined to support him
against the United States, his evil manners live in brass.
A few murders more or less, a habit of sitting in cafes
and restaurants, disregard of the Constitution, a trick
of treating his Ministers as if they were office boys
these would easily have been forgiven in a President
who really dominated the situation. President Huerta
unfortunately does not.
He is, in private, a jovial companion. His humour
is not exactly delicate, but in a jolly, bluff old soldier
it does not seem out of place. He enjoys chaff and
sometimes carries it to extremes. At a British gather-
ing he urged marriage upon a maiden lady, offering
her any Insurrecto leader she might fancy. At a dinner
attended by many foreign diplomatists he extrava-
gantly eulogized the British race; declared that
Shakespeare, Wellington, and Nelson were the greatest
men the world had produced ; and called Mr, Roosevelt
120 THE REAL MEXICO
" the Zapata of the United States," Zapata being a
" rebel " leader whose name has become a byword
for brigandage and savagery.
He has a kind heart ; witness his visit to the Country
Club of the capital, when he gave a number of children
rides in his motor-car and handed dollars round among
them before he left. But from a ruler two qualities
are demanded in which he is lacking dignity and tact.
A Frenchman who has very large interests in Mexico
went to see him about some proposed harbour works.
Scarcely letting his visitor speak, the President delivered
a long rambling lecture about the part of the country
in which the harbour lies. " En effet," this Frenchman
said to me, " c'est un naif." (In a word, he is a stupid
man.)
It is " naif " of him to say, in moments of convivial
frankness, that if war came Mexico would invade the
United States. It was " naif " to make an appoint-
ment with Mr. Lind, President Wilson's unofficial
envoy, and not to keep it. When the United States
suggested that he should take notice of a particularly
horrible outrage and hinted that the perpetrators
might be found among a certain group of soldiers, it
was equally " naif " of President Huerta to offer to
shoot them all without delay ! Wanting in tact, too,
was his getting rid of a refractory Congress by packing
the members who opposed him into tramway-cars
and carrying them oft to gaol. As I sat in the fine
Parliament building, with its imposing white pillars,
its grave officials, its rows of green leather arm-chairs
and desks, I found it hard to believe that this Chamber,
so civilized and constitutional in outward seeming,
had been the scene six weeks before of wholesale arrests.
The Mexican Parliament is not, it is tniQ, quite
GENERAL HUERTA 121
like European Assemblies. The members smoke,
for instance; the liberal supply of spittoons on the
floor of the House would, I fear, shock Mr. Asquith
and Mr. Bonar Law. It is not the custom either of
British M.P.'s to keep firearms in their lockers. When
the desks of the arrested deputies were searched most
of them were found to contain loaded revolvers.
But on the surface there is an air of up-to-date demo-
cracy about this Congress and its dwelling which is
difficult at first to square with the combined methods
of Oliver Cromwell and Lorenzo de Medici as practised
by President Huerta.
The explanation is that Mexico never has had more
than the forms of constitutional Government, and that
President Huerta is a rough-and-ready old fighter
who has no respect for form. He much prefers living
in a small suburban bungalow to wandering through
the vast halls and saloons of his official residence.
He would rather sit with a few friends in a cafe than
entertain high society at formal dinner-parties. When
he comes across a knot he cuts it. To untie it would
take too long. When a few plain words are sufficient
to express his meaning he finds circumlocution tedious.
A story is told of his giving instructions for the reply
that was to be made to Mr. Lind's first Note. " What
shall I tell him? " asked a perplexed Foreign Minister.
" Tell him to go to the devil," the President is said to
have answered; " but put it in diplomatic language,"
he added soothingly when he saw the look of dismay
on the unfortunate Minister's face. The tale may not
be literally true, but it is typical of the man. The
methods of the barrack-room in the Council Chamber
to that incongruity are attributable both his weakness
and his strength.
122 THE REAL MEXICO
To discover the true nature of this man, who has
become so prominent a figure on the stage of nations,
we must look into his history, not only since he suc-
ceeded Madero as President after the street battle
in Mexico City last spring, but before that. To begin
with, he is of pure Indian descent, and he is proud of
it. ' Yo soy Indio," he declared at dinner given by
the British Club, and he went on, in one of his bursts of
intimate eloquence : " My people are young compared
with your Anglo-Saxon race, but in our veins there are
the same red corpuscles as in yours." By keeping in
mind the fact that he is Indian, we find the clue to
many sides of his character, which in a Mexican of
Spanish or even mixed origin would be harder to explain.
His ability, undoubtedly remarkable, is closely allied
to cunning. His intelligence has strange limitations.
While at times he can behave with striking dignity,
he allows himself in moments of relaxation to forget his
high position. By frequenting cafe's, some of them
classed as disreputable, he has offended the taste of
the cultivated; the more so since in this respect
they compare him unfavourably with President Diaz,
who was always careful to uphold the best traditions of
his office.
It is universally believed in the United States
that he is a heavy drinker. Here there is exaggeration.
That he drinks a large quantity of alcohol is true.
I have been told by one who visited him in the early
morning that his breakfast consisted of a beaten-up
raw egg, a glass of claret, and a glass of brandy. But
the habit is more easily excusable when it has so little
effect, either mental or physical, as in General Huerta's
case. He is in his sixty-ninth year a man of power-
ful frame and vigorous constitution. Alcohol seems
GENERAL HUERTA 128
to stimulate him, without having the same effect as
it would have upon the great majority of men.
Born a poor Indian boy, he might have lived and
died in obscurity but for the timely visit to his village
of a force of soldiers, commanded by a general. The
general needed an amanuensis, and at that time Indians
able to read and write were even scarcer than they
are to-day. Young Huerta had made good use of
such poor schooling as the village afforded. The
general employed him, was struck by his brightness,
and took him to the capital, where, through the interest
of President Juarez, he was admitted to the Military
School. This, of course, could not be compared with
similar institutions in Europe, but Victoriano Huerto
took full advantage of his opportunities, and at the
end of the course of studies was declared a credit to
the college and a young man marked out for high
positions.
Under General Diaz he did good service, but for
some reason was neither liked nor trusted by his com-
mander-in-chief, perhaps because Diaz considered him
a possible rival. Yet when the old President fled the
country, Huerta behaved with stanch loyalty; saw
to his safe conduct ; even ordered a farewell salute to
be fired. As soon as Madero came into office Huerta
was placed on half-pay. Now he engaged in business
as a contractor for building materials. I have spoken
with many people who knew him in this capacity
in Monterrey. In his business transactions he was
honest and fairly capable, but as regards the payment
of his household accounts he was less scrupulous.
That was where the Indian character revealed itself.
Not even when he became President did he settle the
small accounts which he left owing in Monterrey.
124 THE REAL MEXICO
The virulence of the Zapata rebellion in Morelos,
where the land grievances of the Indians were especially
acute, caused his recall to active service. He was
quickly successful in dealing with the Zapatista bandits,
and would have annihilated them but for Madero's
mysterious intervention. Why they were spared
to carry on their infamous brigandage they are still
the terror of Morelos to-day has never been explained.
At all events, Muerta was recalled and once more
placed on half-pay. He took up business again, and
was on the point of becoming a partner in some marble
quarries when the failure of other leaders to defeat
Orosco's rebellion in the North forced Madero to call
upon him for aid.
I have laid stress upon his business enterprises,
because they show that Huerta was not, as his enemies
declare, a man consumed by ambition for power. Had
he been that/ he would not have retired so quietly
into private life. What he sought was money rather
than power. It is avarice, many think, rather than
ambition which has made him cling to office with so
desperate a grip.
Before he agreed to take command against Orosco he
made certain demands for war material. These were
at first refused, but he persisted and Madero's Govern-
ment gave way. His campaign was a triumphant
success. There was not much fighting, but Captain
Burnside, the United States Military Attache, who
accompanied the Federal forces, came back with a
high opinion of Huerta's organizing capacity. Yet
a third time Madero dispensed with his services until,
as the end of his disastrous Presidency approached,
he was compelled to rely upon Huerta once more.
During the fighting in the capital he commanded
GENERAL HUERTA 125
the Federal troops, but he saw from the first how hope-
less Madero's position was. It has been charged
against him that his conduct was " disloyal " to one
who had trusted him and loaded him with benefits.
As the foregoing relation proves, Madero only used
him when it was necessary, and twice flung him aside
after he had accomplished his task. Had the issue
of events been different he would no doubt have been
cold-shouldered again. Huerta saw that the people
of Mexico City were now as wildly enthusiastic for
General Felix Diaz as they had once been for Madero.
Another wave of sentiment had engulfed them. He
saw that Madero had become impossible. He was
appealed to by Senators, Deputies, foreign residents,
and, with especial force, as he himself has told me, by
Mr. Henry Lane Wilson, the American Ambassador,
to end the carnage in the streets (3,000 had been killed).
He met General Felix Diaz at the American Embassy ;
a few hours later Madero was made a prisoner and
forced to resign. Huerta, being Minister of War, and
the strongest man in sight, became Provisional Presi-
dent in accordance with the terms of the Mexican Con-
stitution. General Felix Diaz acquiesced in this
arrangement upon the understanding that he should
be elected President in six months' time.
Huerta's greatest difficulty at this crisis was to know
what he could do with Madero. He consulted Mr.
Henry Lane Wilson, and at first it was arranged that
he should be allowed to leave the country. The
difficulty in the way of this was that the Governor of
the State of Vera Cruz and the Federal general com-
manding that district were both Maderistas, and
declared that if the late President were sent there to
take ship, he would be received with Presidential
126 THE REAL MEXICO
honours. It was therefore decided to transfer Madero,
with his Vice- President, Pino Suarez, from the Palace
to the Penitentiary, there to await trial on charges of
treason to the Republic. On the way both prisoners
were killed. Some say that they attempted to escape
and were shot under the " Ley Fuga," the law which
permits flying prisoners to be shot. Others say that
they were murdered either by " Felixistas " or by the
friends of a Colonel Ruiz, who had been assassinated
in the Palace before Madero's fall. By the Govern-
ment and people of the United States, the guilt is
laid at General Huerta's door, although not a particle
of evidence in support of that accusation has been
produced. He may have known that the attack
was to be made ; he may have arranged it ; but if he
did so he acted in direct opposition to his own interests.
To assume off-hand that he planned the assassinations
is certainly unfair. ,
From that moment, however, he had to face the
determined hostility of the tjnited States. Washing-
ton refused to recognize him, partly on the ground that
it wished to discourage violent revolutions by political
adventurers, an epithet which scarcely applies to one
who had office thrust upon him in the manner I have
described. He was unable to borrow money for the
purpose of defeating the rebellion which broke out
a few days after he became President. The Carran-
zistas overran the north. Zapata and his brutal
peons scourged Morelos and its neighbour States.
Huerta had made it known that his first task must
be to give the country peace ; after that he would think
about reforms in the land system, taxation system,
judicial system, " jefe politico " system, which all
who think at all admit to be necessary. At first he
GENERAL HUERTA 127
seemed to be the very man Mexico needed, and so he
might have proved to be with support, though peace
without justice would have merely postponed the
reckoning. Unsupported, the task was too heavy
for him.
Hailed at the outset as the saviour of his country,
General Huerta steadily lost ground. He could only
see one way out of his difficulties despotism. Against
the advice of his wisest friends, he dissolved Congress
and imprisoned a large number of Deputies. They
probably deserved it. In some cases there is no doubt
that they had been plotting against him. But he
acted unwisely, for the act weakened him, just as a
similar illegality in the long run weakened Oliver
Cromwell. Money troubles became serious. Salaries
of public servants, rents of public buildings, fell into
arrear. The furrows in the old President's forehead
deepened. He showed his weakness by being afraid
to have capable men about him. He quarrelled with
his Ministers. He had begun with a Cabinet of respect-
able, and mostly capable, politicians. One by one they
were " requested to resign," and their places filled by
inferior men. As a Mexican who once played a promi-
nent part put it to me, the President " no longer
sought colleagues, but accomplices." He gathered
around him a crew of sycophants who encouraged him
to think that the United States were " only bluffing,"
and that even if war came, their Army could not defeat
!his ragged, ill-trained Indians.
Now he is obsessed by the belief that he is indis-
pensable. He " cooked the elections " so that he
might be returned as President, although he had not
offered himself. This was merely a ruse, however.
His plan was that the new Congress, consisting for
128 THE REAL MEXICO
the most part of his relatives and supporters, should
declare his election void, but ask him to remain in
office until the country was sufficiently pacified for a
fresh choice to be made. I am assured that he con-
fided to a friend that no election would be possible
for a long time, and that he then counted upon being
elected President himself ! That was in an expansive
mood, however. As a rule he confides in nobody.
Even his Ministers are kept in ignorance of what his
next move is to be. He summons them suddenly,
sometimes in the very early hours of the morning, and
tells them what they are to do. If they argue they are
dismissed. Senor Garza Aldape advised him to resign,
and pointed out that the meeting of Congress would
be illegal. He was not only deprived of his office, but
packed off at less than twelve hours' notice to France.
His two chief difficulties, procuring men for his Army
and money for its campaign against the Revoltosos,
he met by desperate remedies. He set a pressgang
to work. In the capital and other cities he had thou-
sands of labourers seized in the streets at night and
sent off to the front. That made him unpopular with
the lower class. The well-to-do he harried by forced
loans. No effort was made to restore financial con-
fidence. Paper money fell heavily in exchange value.
Silver dollars were hoarded and there arose a most
inconvenient scarcity of change. Shops lost custom
because they had no small money. Several times I
found it impossible to buy things I needed because I
had not the exact amount of the purchase-money.
The notes of provincial banks became valueless in
Mexico City. At last, early in 1914 the Treasury was
so empty that default was declared in the interest upon
the National Debt. The Customs receipts ear-marked
GENERAL HUERTA 129
to provide for the payment of this interest were taken
for general purposes. The Finance Minister, sent to
France to beg for a loan, met with flat refusal. Presi-
dent Wilson's plan of " starving Huerta out " looked
like succeeding.
With an obstinate tyrant on one side and an obstinate
moralist on the other, it is no wonder that all the
foreigners in Mexico and a good many Mexicans are
apprehensive. The situation is difficult and dangerous,
curiously like that which preceded the South African
War. Then, as now, there was an old President
trying all kinds of ruses, fancying he could give battle
successfully to a powerful nation, righting doggedly
against the inevitable. President Huerta is an Indian.
President Kruger was a Boer. But history will say
of them that they were very much alike.
XIII
PRESIDENT WILSON'S PRINCIPLE
I HOPE that my description of President Huerta
will have cleared the way for, and will help to make
clear, the review, which I must now attempt, of the
part played by the United States in the affairs of Mexico
since he took took office. But before entering upon
this review it is necessary to look for a moment further
back.
In any case the attitude of President Wilson and Mr.
Bryan would have irritated the Mexican people. But
it would not have irritated them so much had there
been among them no latent hostility against Americans.
That hostility dates from the invasion of Mexico by
the United States in 1847. ^ n recent years it has
been inflamed by a personal dislike. Americans have
gone to Mexico in large numbers. The last census
showed that there were 20,000 of them residing in the
country. They have made a great deal of money,
and, further, they have offended Mexicans, who are
a courteous race, by the brusqueness of their manners.
Most of them, not content with disregarding, profess
open contempt for the formalities of speech which
are so important in Mexico. In a country where no
labourer will pass in front of another without a polite
" Con permiso," and where, even on the telephone,
business conversations open with a skirmish of inquiries
after the health of each speaker and of their respective
130
PRESIDENT WILSON'S PRINCIPLE 131
families, the rough-and-ready methods of the United
States give offence where none is intended.
/ In spite of this general dislike of " Gringoes," the
relations between President Diaz and the Washington
Government were, in the later years of Don Porfirio's
reign, cordial. By 1909 they had become so friendly
that President Taft paid President Diaz a visit on
Mexican soil, and they exchanged speeches declaring
that the sympathy between their nations was " mutualy
perdurable," their aims and ideals identical, the bonds
between them unbreakable. /^Read in the light of
recent happenings, those sentiments can only provoke
a cynical smile. Even at the moment they were
uttered, the United States were allowing an organized
campaign against the Porfirian system to be carried
on in American newspapers. Plots against the
Mexican Government were being hatched and fostered
upon American soil. When a year later Madero's
rebellion broke out, it was hailed across the border
as a " blow for freedom." Texas lent it not sympathy
alone, but active support. Madero was looked upon
as a national hero, and, when he fell, a howl of execra-
tion went up from the American Press.
The fact that the Americans in Mexico regarded his
fall as a deliverance was disregarded. The advice
of Mr. Henry Lane Wilson, the American Ambassador
to Mexico, was set aside. The other Great Powers
recognized General Huerta as de facto President, but
the United States Government, with popular approval,
declined to admit that " a blood-stained adventurer "
had any right to the position which he had won by a
successful revolt.
It is, of course, necessary to take into account the
fact that the United States had an interest in the
182 THE REAL MEXICO
Mexican situation which was not identical with those
of other Powers. In its character of protector to the
j Republics of South and Central America, the Washing-
; ton Government had resolved to discourage revolutions.
The method by which it proposed to put an end to them
was that of refusing recognition to any ruler not elected
( by the popular vote. The retort that in most of these
Republics there is no such thing as a genuine election
carried no weight. At any rate the forms of constitu-
tionalism were to be observed. If the spirit were absent
the letter must suffice.
In the case of Mexico, the United States went further.
Having recalled their Ambassador, leaving in his place
a clever young Charge d'affaires named O'Shaugnessy
(an old Oxford man, by the way), they made a series
of demands upon Mexico, chief among which was the
proviso that General Huerta should not offer himself
as candidate for the Presidency. Here the United
States left the path of strict constitutionalism. They
said to Mexico, in effect, " Even if the majority desire
General Huerta for President, you must not elect him.
We do not approve of him." From that moment the
personal equation most unfortunately became promi-
nent. Without any evidence the United States
accused Huerta of murdering Madero. It is said that
President Wilson was strongly influenced in this
direction by the appeal which Seiiora Madero made to
him. At all events, the quarrel now became, in effect,
a trial of strength between two men.
The people of the United States, for the most part,
looked on with amusement. Few of them had any
wish to go to war. They had little sympathy with
their fellow-countrymen in Mexico whose lives and
property were endangered by the civil war. Both
PRESIDENT WILSON'S PRINCIPLE 183
President Wilson and Mr. Bryan have replied to repeated
representations from Americans in Mexico that their
policy does not cover the protection of American
business interests. In August they went so far as to
advise all Americans in disturbed areas to leave the
country. That advice was endorsed by the mass of
the American people, who said, " They went there of
their own accord. They took a risk and they must
put up with the consequences," a vivid illustration
of the weakness of the national spirit in the United
States. The most frequently uttered American view
was that the two factions in Mexico should be left to
fight it out, and that both should be allowed to buy
arms freely, so that the end might more quickly come !
Opinion being ill-informed and interest in Mexican
affairs slight, the Washington Government proceeded
on its way without any check. Even before it with-
drew its Ambassasor, President Wilson had sent
" personal representatives " to report to him upon
conditions in Mexico. Apparently they led him to
believe that a veiled threat of force would be sufficient
to cow President Huerta. In August, therefore, he
sent another " personal envoy," Mr. John Lind, to
present to the Mexican Government the following
programme
" (a) An immediate cessation of fighting throughout
Mexico, a definite armistice solemnly entered into and
scrupulously observed ;
" (b) Security given for an early and free election
in which all agree to take part ;
" (c) The consent of General Huerta to bind himself
not to be a candidate for election as President of the
Republic at this election; and
" (d) The agreement of all parties to abide by the
134 THE REAL MEXICO
results of the election, and co-operate in the most
loyal way in organizing and supporting the new
Administration.
" The Government of the United States will be glad
to play any part in this settlement or in its carrying
out which it can play honourably and consistently
with international right. It pledges itself to recognize
and in every way possible and proper to assist the
Administration chosen and set up in Mexico in the
way and on the conditions suggested."
At first there was some doubt whether President
Huerta would " recognize " Mr. Lind, who, although
he journeyed to Vera Cruz in a battleship, had no
official position. His Ministers, however, chief among
them Senor Gamboa, an able diplomatist, persuaded
him to reply. In a clever letter, written by Senor
Gamboa, Mr. Wilson's demands were declared to be
humiliating and out of touch with the realities of the
situation. Clearly it was futile to suggest an armistice
without first making sure that the revolutionaries
would agree to it. Equally visionary (though the
Mexican Government could not say so) was the touch-
ing belief that all difficulties could be cleared up by a
"free" election. With no. experience of any people
but their own, Mr. Wilson and Mr. Bryan persisted
in their conviction that the democratic form of govern-
ment, which succeeds but indifferently well among
civilized nations, must be applicable (like a plaster)
to a hybrid people, of whom the vast majority were
only just emerging from the barbarous stage.
However, the proposal gave General Huerta his
opportunity. He announced shortly after the exchange
of notes that he intended to hold a presidential election.
He had been chosen Provisional President for that
PRESIDENT WILSON'S PRINCIPLE 135
purpose; he regarded it as a sacred duty. Further,
he himself would be prevented by the terms of the
Constitution from offering himself as a candidate.
He fixed the election for October 26.
For the time being Washington was satisfied.
President Wilson openly called the world to witness
the triumph of his policy. Candidates were selected.
Addresses were published. By the Catholic Party
Senor Gamboa was nominated. The Liberals adopted
Sefior Calero. The friends of General Felix Diaz put
his name forward, although he was not in the country.
In spite of continued rebel successes, the feeling grew
that the corner towards peace and order had been
turned. A new President, recognized by the United
States, would be able to borrow money and put down
the revolution. The outlook had become decidedly
more cheerful. But it was not to remain so for long.
In the second week in October the horizon became
again black and threatening. A thunderbolt fell.
It took the form of an arbitrary dissolution of Congress,
the imprisonment of more than 100 members, and the
assumption by General Huerta of dictatorial powers.
He was in a difficult position. The remnant of
Madero's House of Deputies had been systematically
" obstructing." He had evidence that some of them
were corresponding with the rebels. Some who
wished him well urged him to be patient, but, soldier-
like, he cut the knot, and once more the United States
rang with denunciations of " the tyrant, the oppressor."
Immediately he was warned that any injury to the
imprisoned Deputies would seriously concern the State
Department. Mr. Wilson gave out that he was
horrified. The relations which had seemed to be
improving became more strained than ever.
136 THE REAL MEXICO
Very little was now hoped for from the election;
the announcement that General Huerta had received
the largest number of votes, although not a candidate,
caused no surprise. It is not suspected only, it is
known that he issued instructions to ensure this result.
At the same time a Congress was " elected," full of
the President's friends and supporters; so many of
them officers that it was suggested the bugle should
be adopted in place of the chairman's bell.
To this Congress the United States refused recogni-
tion equally with the President. It could not, they
declared, have been legally elected, seeing that the
previous Assembly had been illegally dismissed.
Again they called upon General Huerta to resign and
to consent to the annulment of all the recent elections.
At one moment he almost decided to give up the struggle.
I have been assured by one in whose word I place full
confidence that a comical misunderstanding caused
him to change his mind. He received from a friend
whom he had sent to the United States to " take the
temperature " a cablegram which described the inter-
national situation as " resolute and firm," meaning
that Europe was leaving Washington a free hand.
The words " resolute and firm " were interpreted by
him as advice. He hardened his heart and would not
go. Instead he issued a " note." He had, he said,
a presentiment that Congress would declare his election
illegal on account of the small number of votes cast :
in due course, therefore, there would be a new election ;
and he was the only man capable of keeping order
until this was over. Here was direct defiance. Now
the daily rumours grew more and more alarming.
Many people, chiefly Americans, left the city.
Anxiety was born of the feeling that now the
PRESIDENT WILSON'S PRINCIPLE 137
United States must " do something." They had
threatened. Their threat had been disregarded.
What would they do ?
The question rather was What could they do ?
They found themselves in a position in which it was
impossible either to go forward or to go back. There
was wild talk of war, but it would have been tragically
farcical to see such advocates of peace as Mr. Wilson
and Mr. Bryan attacking a neighbour country on the
ground that they did not approve of its Provisional
President. There was talk of a blockade, but for that,
equally, justification was lacking. The general feeling
in Mexico City, especially after the President's Message
to Congress, in which he blandly ignored the United
States, was, if I may adopt a metaphor from " poker,"
that Washington's " bluff had been called " and that
it had nothing in its " hand." So far as can be seen
at present, then, Mr. Wilson's desire " to triumph as
the friend of Mexico " has done good to nobody,
excepting possibly the Revolutionaries, whom it has
encouraged. To fight for a principle is magnificent,
but it is not politics.
Such a plight as that of Mexico can only be mended
in one way. That way, often practised by the British
in India, is to support the strongest man in sight.
When he has restored order, then there can be talk
of reforms. The alternative to mending is " ending."
For that the United States have no stomach. If
they once went into Mexico, they would be obliged
to stay there. That would increase their responsi-
bilities, cost them vast sums of money, and estrange
the South American Republics. Yet Mr. Wilson's
diplomacy has brought the danger of war very near.
An incident like the incident of the Maine would almost
138 THE REAL MEXICO
certainly provoke it. A too peremptory phrase might
goad General Huerta into staking his country's future
upon a last desperate throw.
Even if war be avoided, that future is heavy with
storm clouds. The two factions in Mexico are too
nearly equal. They are like chess-players so closely
matched that neither can ever call " check-mate."
The only hope of a settlement lies in a joint peaceable
intervention by the United States and the Powers of
Europe. To demands thus presented Mexico would
listen. A man of character and capability, not ob-
noxious to any but " bandits," could be set up as
President and firmly supported. The Army could be
properly trained with American help. Money would
be provided without reluctance to set the country in
order. Then there ought to be an International
Commission to look after the country's finance and to
stop " grafting " in the public service. This would
effectually put an end to revolutions. It would remove
the motive for them, which is invariably " graft."
XIV
WHERE DON PORFIRIO FAILED
I HAVE mentioned already the summing up of the
Mexican situation which comes glibly from the lips
of nearly all British and American residents in the
country, " What Mexico needs is to be ruled ruthlessly
by the sword." I am persuaded that this is a short-
sighted view, a view upon which it would be dangerous
for any ruler to act. Yet there are excuses for it.
The foreigner, living in nearly all cases a life apart
from that of Mexicans, is liable to hasty judgments.
His only desire is for quiet which will let him pursue
his occupations undisturbed. He looks back with
wistful longing to the generation of peace and good
order which was President Diaz's gift to the country.
He recalls many ruthless acts of punishment, many
" removals " of men who seemed likely to give trouble.
He tells with appreciation how, in the early days
of railways, damage to the line and attacks upon
trains were stopped. In one district a number of the
spikes which pin the rails to the ties (or, as we call
them, sleepers) had been pulled up, and the ties stolen.
Diaz sent instructions fora body of " rurales " (mounted
policemen) to ride into the district and shoot the first
six men they met !
In a lonely part of the south a train had been robbed
by the inhabitants of a certain village. The President
139
140 THE REAL MEXICO
told a young officer to take his company and " put an
end to that sort of thing." The young officer had every
house searched. Almost all contained stolen property.
He then marshalled the villagers, picked out every
fortieth man, and had him shot. After this he said :
" I am taking my troops away, but if any more train
robberies take place we shall come back and shoot
every twentieth man. Should it be necessary to
return again, every tenth man will be executed."
No more trains were attacked.
Whether these particular stories two out of many
are true does not matter. There is no doubt that
such measures were employed. They were necessary.
Robbery was the custom of the country. There is a
lady living in Mexico whose father and mother sixty
years ago travelled from the coast to a town inland
in a coach which was pillaged three times on the
journey. When all had been stolen except their
clothes, their clothes were also taken. Driver and
passengers reached their destination stark naked !
It was only by ruthless methods that such ruffianism
could be repressed. That is proved by the recurrence
of exactly the same kind of outrage since the iron hand
was lifted and crime left unavenged.
A saloon-keeper in Torreon, a well-known American
character in the city, set out a few months ago for the
United States. The railway was cut, so he drove in a
mule-coach with one companion, a Mexican. Their
money they sewed into their clothes. On the road to
Eagle Pass or rather on the way, for there are no
roads in this part of Mexico they were met by bandits
passing as followers of Carranza. These scoundrels
seized the mules, stripped the two men, beat the
Mexican for denying that his clothes contained money,
WHERE DON PORFIRIO FAILED 141
and then left them to walk naked in the scorching sun
to the nearest railway section-house six miles away.
Beyond all question, brigandage of this nature
should be put down by the means which Diaz employed.
The Indians or half-breeds who behave in this way, as
soon as disorder arises, can understand no other argu-
ment than the loaded rifle. The suppression of the
bandits who have come to the surface in the three
years of revolution, like scum upon a troubled pool,
is one of the problems which will face whatever Presi-
dent may be in office when the revolution ends. To
that extent the country must be governed by the bullet
and the sword.
But it is short-sighted to imagine that no other
problem will exist. The Diaz system was in many
ways suited to the needs of the age in which it flourished.
It certainly kept too long in statu pupillari the few
who were growing fit gradually to take part in managing
their own affairs. It doled out education with a
niggard hand. It ignored intellectual elements which
it would have been wise to conciliate. But on the
other hand it allowed the country's wealth to be
discovered and developed. It turned what had been
a blood-stained cockpit of warring jealousies and am-
bitions into the semblance of a nation, united and
secure. Those were great achievements.
But even admitting that the Diaz system was at
the time the only system possible, it is Utopian to
suppose that it can ever come back. To argue that
because the mass of the Mexican people are unable to
read or write, unable to think outside the circle of
their own daily interests, unable to comprehend what
self-government means to argue that on this account
no measure of self-government is possible such a
142 THE REAL MEXICO
view is altogether mistaken. In all European
countries the representative system began long
before the mass of people were fit for it.
Truly it is a misfortune for Mexico that her Constitu-
tion was framed in 1857 so f ar ahead of the stage
which she had then reached, so far ahead even of the
stage which she has reached to-day. But that Con-
stitution can be altered in the light of fuller knowledge.
Most of the present voters are Indians, incapable of
voting intelligently. If they vote at all, they vote as
their employers direct ; or they say naively that they
would like to vote for the candidate who will win;
or they stupidly ask the polling officials (all active
politicians) to tell them what to do. If it is considered
undesirable to disfranchise them, some graduated
system of voting might be introduced. That would
make elections more of a reality, and their results,
if they were honestly conducted, more representative
of the country's intelligent opinion.
If 2Don Porfirio's sight had not been dimmed by
old age at the time when his people began to outgrow
their leading-strings, it may be that he would have
changed the system himself. Undoubtedly it was
his failure to realize their growth which caused his
downfall. It is true that at one time he could have
crushed the revolution, if needful measures had been
taken. But that would only have postponed the ex-
plosion. What events led up to the sudden deposition
of the ruler whom Europe supposed to be entrenched
not only behind strong works of power but also in
the hearts of his subjects, has for most people remained
a mystery. I have taken the trouble to piece together
from the oral narratives of many who took part in
them a sketch of the occurrences which preceded his
WHERE DON PORFIRIO FAILED 143
downfall. I think it will be a help towards under-
standing the state of Mexico now.
Towards the end of Don Porfirio's reign there were
two other men who exercised a great deal of influence
in Mexico Serior Limantour and General Reyes.
The former was the extremely clever Minister of Finance.
The latter was Governor of the State of Nuevo Leon,
dictator of the rapidly-growing city of Monterrey.
The idea that he ought to take thought for the morrow
of his country had not escaped the old President.
He felt at times that it would be a relief to retire;
at other times he was troubled by misgivings as to
what might happen when he was gone. Sefior Liman-
tour seemed to him to be the most fitting successor
in sight, so he urged him to come to an agreement
with General Reyes. This was done. Reyes was given
a seat in the Cabinet. The matter seemed settled.
The President heaved a sigh of relief.
But soon the two strong men began, as strong men
will, to disagree. The breach between them widened.
Limantour could not hope to succeed as President
with Reyes against him. It was necessary to look out
for somebody else. This time the President chose
a certain Sefior Ramon Corral, and made him Vice-
President. It was an unfortunate choice. Corral
was unpopular. His appointment fanned the slowly-
spreading flame of discontent.
How had this flame been lighted ? By the growth
of a middle class a class between those who owned
land in large estates and those who worked for them.
Don Porfirio had created this class by such schools as
he set up, and by the general development of the
country. But he never realized that it was there. He
never saw that, as Mr. Root once adroitly put it while
144 THE REAL MEXICO
he was directing the foreign policy of the United States,
" However comfortable a man may be in bed, he can-
not lie in one position always ; he needs an occasional
change." He never understood how widespread was
the dissatisfaction with the dragooning and dishonest
methods of many hacendados and most " jefes
politicos " (mayors working under the direction of
State governments). He never detected the resent-
ment against the many " jobs " by which Ministers
and their friends were supposed to be growing rich.
Senor Limantour has denied that there were any such
"jobs." I can only make answer that, if Don
Porfirio's Ministers were honest, they are severely
misjudged. The universal opinion in Mexico is they
were not.
There was yet another cause for the stirring of popu-
lar sentiment against the Diaz regime. For some
years a certain Ricardo Flores Magon had been sowing
Mexico with Socialist pamphlets, sent at first by
post and afterwards by hand from the United States.
Magon carried on his campaign against the Government
of Mexico first in San Antonio, Texas; then in St.
Louis, Missouri; finally in Los Angeles, California,
where he was arrested, at the instance of Don Porfirio,
charged with breaking the neutrality law by enlisting
a force for the invasion of Mexico, and sent to prison.
Like many of his followers whom I have met in
rebel camps, he was a sincere fanatic. While he was
in prison he was offered an income of 2,500 a year
if he would live in Europe and give up inciting his fellow-
countrymen to rebel. The offer was refused. He
had command of large sums of money ; his adherents,
scattered all over Mexico, subscribed their farthings
weekly to the cause. But he never took personal
WHERE DON PORFIRIO FAILED 145
advantage of this. He was in such poverty when he
was arrested that he had no money for a lawyer.
This I had from a very high Mexican official who was
charged with the study of his movement.
Misguided as it was, it sowed the land with mines,
and when Madero came (he was at first the disciple,
though later the enemy of Magon) they all exploded.
Don Porfirio had been persuaded by the wealthy classes,
by all who held posts under Government, by the
foreigners who had prospered under his protection,
that he was indispensable. The new middle class
sulked and waited for its opportunity. The poor
were dazzled by promises of land and an easier life.
Madero 's success ran like a fire through the country.
There was a moment when the armed rebellion
could have been checked, when the only Insurrectos
armed and in the field were some 3,000 in Chihuahua.
But to check it energy was needed, prompt military
action, an immediate increase of the Army, which
had been allowed to dwindle. Don Porfirio missed
the moment. Sefior Limantour, on whom he leaned
chiefly for advice, was in France. The Minister of
War was old and feeble, but the President could not
bring himself to supersede a lifelong friend. In his
eighty-first year General Diaz worked night as well as
day, trying to direct the campaign in addition to his
other duties.
From one who worked with him I have heard how
at eleven at night, at midnight, at one in the morning,
his wife would urge him to go to bed. At last he would
take his clothes off and lie down, but after an hour or
two he would be back again, reading telegrams, issuing
orders, wearing his strength away.
After long delay Senor Limantour sailed from Europe.
146 THE REAL MEXICO
The Porfiristas longed for his return, hoping he would
infuse more vigour into the struggle. But in New York
he heard that orders were given for American troops to
concentrate on the border. The news struck panic
into his soul. He had always feared an American
invasion of Mexico. It was his idle fixe. He could
not rid his mind of the conviction that some day the
United States would extend to the Isthmus of Panama.
He hurried to Mexico City and urged upon the President
that it was his duty, as a patriot, to resign. " If we
fight among ourselves we shall have the Gringoes upon
us," was his argument.
Weary, dazed by the whirl of Fortune's wheel, which
had cast him headlong from his seeming security, Don
Porfirio wavered. Even then the old proud spirit
might have triumphed save for an incident trivial in
appearance, but tinged with that bitter irony which
makes men the playthings of chance. An aching tooth
worried him. One day at a Council he asked his
Ministers to excuse him while he had it taken out.
The dentist used an unclean instrument. In an hour
the President's cheek had swollen to a grotesque size.
Fatigue had weakened his blood. Septic poisoning
had set in. From that moment he scarcely knew
what he was doing. That is the phrase of a friend
who was constantly with him. So pitifully closed the
reign of Porfirio Diaz, the greatest man Mexico has
produced.
It was not only the end of him. It was the end of his
system. No one can govern the country again as he
did. But, on the other hand, it will never be governed
by a President of the,Madero type. As soon as the
people who had shouted for " Don Panchito " discovered
what he was, their ardour cooled. He was a little,
WHERE DON PORFIRIO FAILED 147
fidgety man, lacking altogether the gift which we call
" personality/' without any balance of mind or sense of
personal dignity. A general who called to see him
by appointment was waiting in his study, when the
President rushed in, calling to a small dog, and not
seeing it, plunged under a sofa to make search.
When he had ceased to grovel his visitor saluted.
" Who are you, eh ? Oh yes, I recollect. Come again
to-morrow." That was the greeting which the general
received.
King-hearted and a sincere idealist, he might have
been beloved and happy in an obscure condition.
For any kind of power he was utterly unfit. He fell
by reason of his unfulfilled pledges, of the poor im-
pression he made, and of the immense sums that were
squandered or stolen from the public purse. The
disbanding of his revolutionary forces cost millions.
When he took office there was some 7,000,000 in
the Treasury, and he borrowed 4,000,000 more.
All of that he spent, in addition to the yearly revenues
of the country. When General Huerta succeeded
the Exchequer balance stood at less than 200,000.
Madero was an accident. It is unlikely that the
Mexican people will be deceived again in the same way.
But the man who is to rule Mexico successfully must
have something of Madero 's good will and sympathy,
as well as a great deal of Don Porfirio's ruthlessness
and strength. The notion that the Mexicans need
merely a despot betrays failure to understand either
them or human nature. They are not fully grown up
yet. But they are not children any more.
XV
OVER THE EDGE
IF you imagine Mexico as a whale-backed animal
sloping down from the United States border to Central
America, you get some idea of its shape and natural
features. All down the upper and middle part the
back is high. At the sides it gradually slopes away :
on one side, to the Atlantic ; to the Pacific on the other.
This explains why the country has three distinct
climates.
Up on the high back are the " cold lands " (tierra
fria) : not what we should call cold, for the sun burns,
even in mid-winter; but never oppressive at night,
always fresh and bracing. Then, as the back slopes,
come the " temperate lands " (tierra templada), and,
after these, along the ocean coasts, the " tierra caliente "
(hot lands), where in December the sun blazes with real
ferocity, and the heat of summer is unimaginable by
those who have not felt it.
Russia is something like Mexico. The Russian
"steppes" really are steps; but they ascend and
descend gradually. In Mexico there are places where
the descent from the cold to the temperate lands is
almost like falling off a house. There are " barrancas "
or gorges into which you can look down and see
tropical vegetation thousands of feet below. One of
the most famous is near Guadalajara. In this city
there is a daily supply of tropical fruits grown two
148
OVER THE EDGE 149
thousand feet below it, yet only a few miles away.
You look into a crevice of the earth, sheer down for
half a mile, and you can see where they grow.
Another road which offers a like surprise is the rail-
road from Mexico City to Vera Cruz. Here you seem
to get to the edge of the high plain and to tumble over.
Three quarters of an hour after you have looked your
last at the distant mountains which guard the rich
valley of Mexico, you are three thousand feet lower
down, with a totally different kind of cultivation
around you, a much hotter climate, and a woolly
feeling in your ears due to the sudden change.
In Mexico City or in Puebla an overcoat is needed
after dark, and thick underclothing. In Orizaba and
Cordoba I walked about at night feeling too warm
even without an overcoat. When I reached Vera Cruz,
I went back to the lightest summer garments and felt
uncomfortably hot in these. All within a few days !
For a long time after the train leaves the squalid
suburbs of Mexico City it runs through endless fields
of maguey, the cactus plant with huge spiky leaves,
from which " pulque," the peon's curse, is drawn.
It is a milky looking liquid taken from the centre tube
of the plant. Newly drawn, it is refreshing, and seems
to have so little effect that you cannot imagine any one
getting drunk upon it. But taken in large quantities,
especially when it is a little stale and perhaps " doped,"
it has a stupefying, and sometimes a maddening effect.
The latter state, though, is usually caused by
" tekhuila " (tekeela), a spirit concocted from pulque;
or by aguardiente (sugar brandy) ; or by a drug called
" marihuana " (mareewahna) . The Indians are fond
of all these poisons. Drinking is a national vice.
Almost all the peons and a great many of their women
150 THE REAL MEXICO
drink whenever they get the chance. The habit can
only be ground out of them by the slow machinery of
education, and by raising a standard of living so that
they will want the money for other things.
For miles and miles the straight rows of pulque plants
run away on either side of the line, losing themselves
in the distance. Here and there they are broken by
white-walled hacienda enclosures. Here the owner's
house is, a house in which he seldom lives, with a
church and a store for his labourers, and huts for them
to live in, often as neatly and precisely planted in rows
as the maguey itself. If they do not live within the
enclosures, the peons herd together in dusty, dilapidated-
looking villages, where nothing but the perpetual
sunshine and the clear air can make life endurable,
unless, indeed (which is most likely), they lead the
unquestioning incurious lives of animals, content with
whatever surroundings they happen to be born in.
Through the dust they jog, carrying heavy loads,
with that odd shuffling trot which the Mexican Indian
can keep up for hours, or else they are harvesting barley
from the yellow fields which at last give relief from
maguey. So long as they are at work and have enough
to eat (enough being a few beans, a few maize cakes,
and a little coffee) they are tractable creatures. But
their heads are easily affected. Drink makes them
savages. Turn on a tap of empty eloquence among
them and they are quickly carried off their feet.
They have a certain amount of intelligence, but no
hard sense. To expect them to show by their vote an
instructed interest in the affairs of their country is as
futile as it would be to look for a barking welcome from
a china dog.
In Orizaba, at which we arrive after our thrilling
OVER THE EDGE 151
slither down the mountain-side, the peons have been
taught to work in cotton and jute factories. They
run the looms and look after the spindles and do
mechanical jobs in the " shops " with fair intelligence.
Mexico produces about five million pounds' worth of
manufactured cotton goods in some hundred and sixty
factories, situated mostly in Puebla, Orizaba, and Mexico
City. She imports about a million and a half pounds'
worth, as well as a large quantity of raw cotton, since
she only grows half the amount her factories require.
The crop of 1913 was unusually heavy, but since the
Laguna district (Cohuila State), where 90 per cent,
of it lay, was in the hands of the rebels, there was
difficulty and delay in gathering the cotton. The supply
at Orizaba was short and the factory manager anxious.
They were obliged to run short time already; they
knew that if they should be forced to shut down, there
would be bad trouble. " So long as we can keep him
busy and his stomach full, the ' pelado ' is all right,"
I was told. " As soon as he begins to feel hungry and
has nothing to do, he will break out, and then anything
may happen."
The Orizaba Jute Factory (Santa Gertrudis) is a
British concern. It employs several hundred people
(housing a number of them in " model " cottages),
and runs 6,000 spindles, on each of which a two-shilling
yearly tax has to be paid. This used to be only one
shilling. Another tax recently doubled, which hits all
business unpleasantly hard, is that on stamps. Under
the old scale the Santa Gertrudis Mill paid every month
about 120 for stamps on receipts, invoices, and suchlike
papers. Now its monthly expenditure under this head
has been raised to 240. The import duty on jute,
which comes from India, has also been raised. And,
152 THE REAL MEXICO
in addition to Government demands, there are frequent
labour agitations for increased wages. In six years
wages have been raised 40 per cent. Now they are
70-80 per cent, higher than at any other mill in
Mexico.
I saw a foreman in the well-equipped machine shop
of the factory, which, like all the other buildings, has
a most modern and efficient air, whose earnings come
to 145. a day. He is an Indian, but you must not class
him as a " peon." He and his like belong to the new
artisan middle-class which was born of the Thirty
Years' Peace under President Diaz. Their children
are clean, well dressed, with shoes and stockings
instead of sandals and bare legs. It is they who make
any return to Diaz-potism impossible.
The Dundee men who manage the jute factory live
in an orange grove, which, considering the fame of
their city for marmalade, makes them feel quite at
home. Orange trees grow in the plaza of the town too,
with roses and all kinds of semi-tropical flowers. As
usual, the plaza is the one pleasant spot in the place.
A kind of fury of road-mending has seized upon the
Orizabans. Almost every street is blocked, either by
repairs or by an overflow of the market which litters
the roadway, here with heaps of vegetables, there with
embarrassing displays of ladies' underwear.
I have rashly hired an ancient " coach " which tosses
on the cobbles like a fishing-smack in a cross-Channel
sea. Clearly, though, I gain a certain consideration
by riding in it. The sad-eyed, ragged Indians, standing
or squatting along the kerbs, salute me. Brisker shop-
men lean out of their doorways to wiggle respectful
fingers. Who knows ? I might be the new military
governor, or a revolutionary " cabecilla " (little chief).
OVER THE EDGE 153
It is just as well for Mexicans in these days to salute
everybody and keep on the safe side.
I am drawn into the market-house by the glorious
colour of the fruit stalls, heaped high with luscious
spheres and cones. I am driven forth again by the
smell of the meat stalls which, if I lived here, would
certainly make me a vegetarian. As I come quickly
out and climb back into my " coche," a Mexican Mary
is having trouble on the pavement with her " little
lamb." In this case the pet is a full-grown sheep
with a fine pair of horns. It has got Mary down and
is butting her for all it is worth !
A queer, indolent, slipshod city is Orizaba. Pros-
perous and large, but without any ambition. There is
a brewery here which advertises all over Mexico, and
brews excellent beer. I pictured the place, before I
went there, as a kind of Mexican Milwaukee, very trim,
and with a German atmosphere of order about it.
Nothing could be further from the reality. The only
fine thing about Orizaba is its situation, mountains
in the background and a huge snow-peaked volcano
towering above.
The winter climate is mild and dry, but there are
rains for a long period, and their effect is detestable.
The humid air is good for cotton factories, but not for
human beings. In the first hour of disappointment I
was tempted to call Orizaba uncivilized. That,
however, would be unfair, for it has " kinemas," and
several drug stores. You have probably noticed that
the first requirement of civilization is a " cantina," or
drink-shop; the next, a drugstore. Evidently " il
faut souffrir pour etre civilise." It is only barbarians
who can live without headache tablets and indigestion
cures.
154 THE REAL MEXICO
Orizaba, too, possesses a rickety horse street-car,
which will take you from hotel to railway station at
four in the morning, if you join (as I did) the night train
from the capital to Vera Cruz. Furthermore, at that
shivery hour you will find a decent little restaurant
open at the station and hot coffee ready for you with
sticky, sugary rolls of " pan dulce " (sweet bread).
If true civilization means taking thought for the needs
of others, then I am not sure, when I recollect early
morning starts from English railway stations, that
Orizaba is not more civilized in reality than a good
many places at home.
Cordoba, a lazy, mediaeval Spanish relic, lies only
about twenty miles further towards the coast than
Orizaba, but those twenty miles make a great difference
to the vegetation. It becomes tropical. Sugar-cane,
bananas, pineapples, all grow well. Between the
two cities lies the chief coffee-growing district of Mexico.
When the plants are in blossom, one might think there
had been a fall of snow. Then come the brown
berries, and the busy picking of them by chattering
Indians, and the heaping-up of them in the " aso-
leadero," a sunny part of the verandah, where they are
put to dry. This is the season when all day long the
sound of scraping and rattling continues, as men keep
on turning the beans over and over with wooden hoes.
Then they are packed in bags and sent away, so that
the owner of the " finca " may receive the reward of
his toil.
If we did not otherwise know that we were in the
tropics, we could tell by the vastly increased size of
everything growing. I have never been surprised at
people who dwell in tropical lands taking themselves and
life less seriously than do the dwellers in cold climates.
OVER THE EDGE 155
The latter so clearly dominate Nature. The former
are dwarfed by her. Insignificant, they move among
her giant works. Death waits for them round every
corner, whether in the shape of wild beast, poisonous
insect, hurricane, earthquake, or feverish swamp.
How can they think themselves of any importance in
the scheme of life ?
Here, as we draw nearer to the coast, one seems to
be looking at grass and bushes and trees through a
magnifying glass. One's eyes appear to have developed
suddenly the power of a microscope. Everything is
on a huge scale. It is no doubt this tropical influence
which makes prices in Vera Cruz so high. The " carga-
dores " (porters) expect, and demand, twice as much
here as they get anywhere else. The hotels are piratical.
Fourteen shillings I was charged for a room in an annex,
a bare room, not a large room, a room with nothing to
recommend it save a little balcony looking on the
Plaza, and even that was a doubtful advantage, for
late folks talked under the Portales until long past
midnight and the clatter of traffic began soon after
five a.m.
What would Vera Cruz be without the Portales,
the Arcades, which are streets around the Plaza arched
over so that they form open-air restaurants and cafes ?
It is hot enough to be glad of the open air in December.
White linen suits are worn all the year round. One
is thankful if the night breeze be cool enough to
refresh one. It is only cold when a " norther " blows,
which is not often. Then you find suddenly that you
want thick underclothes, and a flannel shirt, and a
tweed suit, and a heavy overcoat, and with all these you
feel cold still. The rapid change from sweltering heat,
from a sun which even in winter begins to be fierce at
156 THE REAL MEXICO
nine o'clock in the morning, to grey skies and bitter
Polar gale, unmans one.
But when there is no " norther," what can be more
pleasant than to sit under the For tales and watch the
tide of Vera Cruzan life flow by ? In the early hours
the parakeets chatter musically in the thick tree-tops
of the Plaza, and sooner or later everybody who is
anybody comes by. On band evenings, what could be
gayer ? Groups of pretty girls walk round and round,
their arms disposed, with intent to tantalize, about each
other's slim waists. Every table is full. Waiters are
busy serving chocolate, ice-cream, " copitas " of brandy,
wholesome Mexican beer. The music is gay, the
bandsmen play as if they enjoyed playing.
That is the recollection of Vera Cruz which I treasure.
By day it is not an engaging place. The lower kind
of people have mostly an ill look. The streets away
from the Plaza are featureless. It has improved since
the " zopilotes " (carrion crows) were its only scaven-
gers, and drains ran, open to the sky in all their foul-
ness, though the town. It is clean now, and for such
as are careful, healthy, but it does not tempt one to
linger, except of an evening when, under a blue velvet
sky with silvery pin-holes, you sit or stroll with infinite
contentment, watching, listening, living, savouring
one compensation of existence in this tropical zone.
So I saw the Plaza of Vera Cruz on my last evening
in Mexico. The band was crashing out " Lohengrin,"
and crooning the familiar " Geisha " airs.
I leaned from my balcony, to hear snatches of light-
hearted talk, ripples of laughter. I walked round the
bandstand, and saw there were many sailors in the
crowd from the foreign warships in the harbour.
Did the Mexicans resent this ? Not in the very least.
OVER THE EDGE 157
The English and American and German bluejackets
were looked at with curiosity, but certainly without
dislike.
" Politics ! " They shrug their shoulders. " The
fighting." It is so far off. It is a Mexican habit not
to meet trouble halfway. Did not the deserted towns,
the torn-up railways, the mines silent, the fields unsown
that I had seen did not these trouble them at all?
The dead in the streets, the night skies reddened by
burning, the shootings and hangings and torturings
had they forgotten all these ? Truly yes. They gave
them never a thought. No visitor from another
planet plunged into Vera Cruz that evening could have
guessed that it was the chief port of a country very
close to bankruptcy, torn by civil war.
XVI
AN OPERA BOUFFE ARMY
IN Vera Cruz as well as in the capital the press-gang
had been busy, seizing men off the streets to be soldiers,
so that the Army might be brought up to something like
its nominal strength. It is because he is obliged to
resort to such a method of recruiting that General
Huerta has failed to make his position good. He showed
his unfitness to govern by not realizing that he could
do nothing without a real army. It would have paid
him to let the Revolutionists alone for six months while
he trained a certain number of troops with the help of
American or European instructors and sergeants.
Then he could have wiped out rebel forces in one or
two engagements, and the rest would have melted away.
Let me give two examples of what happens now.
On a Sunday at the beginning of November to be
accurate, the second of the month I was watching
General Velasco's brigade entrain at Saltillo for Torreon.
I asked the general if he meant to start that day. No,
not that day. Very shortly. Perhaps to-morrow.
It made no difference that the troops were in their
cars and vans. They are accustomed to live in trains.
Their wives are taken along, too, to act as Army Service
Corps. They would never be in any hurry to start.
They enjoy the lazy side of soldiering, but they dislike
fighting as much as they dislike work.
Torreon, the prosperous centre of the cotton-growing
158
AN OPERA BOUFFE ARMY 159
district, was taken by the revolutionaries in September.
After denying for a week that it had fallen, the Wai-
Office admitted the truth, but said that it would be
retaken in a few days. For a month or so nothing
happened. Then it was announced that " a blow would
be struck." General Velasco would start at once and
the rebels would be driven out of Torreon. The
Government had been urged to act vigorously, because
in the cotton district a record crop was in need of
being picked. They responded by putting a new tax
upon cotton " to meet the cost of the warlike opera-
tions," and by doing nothing !
For six weeks after I saw General Velasco 's brigade
in its five trains, Torreon remained in the hands of the
rebels. The forces which were to retake it advanced
and retreated, chasseed and set to partners, marched
this way and marched that. General Velasco was
frequently reported to be, not with his command, but
in Saltillo. Not until the loth of December was
Torreon retaken, and then only because the rebels had
drawn off and left the garrison very weak.
Equally mysterious the case of General Rubio
Navarette, who left the capital early in November
with a force that was to drive the rebels away from the
country which lies between Monterrey and Tampico.
The newspapers wrote as if he had but to take the field
and the enemies of order would disperse in confusion
at once. The first event after General Navarette's
arrival was the capture by the rebels of Victoria, capital
of the State of Tamaulipas. For ten days this was
denied by the War Office, which issued statements
every evening implying that General Navarette was
driving the enemy before him. He had saved Victoria.
He had cleared the railway line. He had won battle
160 THE REAL MEXICO
after battle. Then the War Office suddenly dropped
the subject. It was admitted that Victoria had fallen
and that the rebels were in complete control of the
Monterrey-Tampico line. And one day an incon-
spicuous paragraph stated that General Navarette was
back in Monterrey !
These two cases are typical, and they explain why the
Government makes no headway against the Revolu-
tion. The fault is not with the common soldiers. If
they were trained and led they would do well. They
are good material, tough and hardy, small and sinewy
like the Japanese (whom many Indians resemble
closely in feature also)*, able to bear fatigue and priva-
tion and the pain of wounds with the patient insensi-
bility of animals. But they are not trained at all,
and they are led very badly.
I have mentioned before the absence of any fire
discipline. Large numbers of the men do not even
raise their rifles to the shoulder. They fire from the hip
into the air. They scarcely ever charge. They
are never put through tactical exercises. Some of the
regiments which are kept in the capital, such as the
29th, upon which the Government confidently leans,
have a few non-commissioned officers who understand
their duties. Among the company officers there are
some who know that everything is wrong. They do
their best with their own men, but what are they
among so many who neither know nor care ?
The Mexican idea of making a soldier is to cram him
into a uniform, give him a rifle, and let him fight as
best he can. Even if the men were willing to serve,
this plan would be disastrous, seeing that most of them
are Indians from the fields, very low in the intellectual
scale. But when we consider that soldiering is looked
AN OPERA BOUFFE ARMY 161
down upon as disgraceful, that the Federal ranks are
recruited by the press-gang, and that many criminals
are turned out of prison into the Army, we see at once
what a tragic farce the civil war in Mexico is.
After the evacuation of Torreon by the Federals
General Munguia was tried by a court of inquiry.
The intention was to shoot him. This was his defence :
"How could I meet the rebels in the open? " he
asked; " they fight in loose formation. I was obliged
to keep my troops together. If I did not they would
melt away. Desertion is the idea uppermost in almost
every soldier's mind. Again, how could I order my
officers to lead their men to the attack ? I knew their
men would shoot them down as soon as they got the
chance."
The best generals would find it hard to do anything
with such an Army as this until they had disciplined
it and discovered a certain number of men whom they
could trust. Mexican generals have unfortunately
very little talent for war, and they make, as a rule, no
attempt to " lick their men into shape." Officers in
command are to our minds incredibly slack. At a small
battle in the State of Morelos the Federals by use of
machine-guns forced the rebels to retire. The nature
of the country made it easy for their retreat to be cut
off. But the Federal colonel looked at his watch.
" It is time for dinner," he said, and told his bugler to
sound the " Cease fire." The rebels leisurely went away.
That kind of incident, which happens daily, helps to
keep current the belief that Federal officers do not wish
to bring the war to an end. They do not take soldiering
seriously. At some gun-trials near the capital the
general's daughter came forward to fire a charge ; then
his wife was urged to show her courage, then his son
M
162 THE REAL MEXICO
must do likewise ! It was more like an afternoon tea-
party than a serious piece of military business. Natur-
ally when guns go into action they are handled very
often without any effect. At Tuxpam, in the oil
district, a barge load of women and children left
suddenly one afternoon for a safer spot. As the barge
went down the river the Federal artillery opened fire
across it. Shells could be seen exploding over Federal
positions. If the gunners did any harm at all, it was
to their own side.
If President Diaz had kept the Army up to a safe
standard in numbers and equipment there would have
been no Madero revolution. He allowed it to dwindle
to about 12,000 men. He also allowed officers to grow
far too old in their commands, and he made no attempt
to build up a sound military organization. The College
of Chapultepec, where officers are supposed to be
trained, has often been compared to West Point,
Sandhurst, and St. Cyr. The comparison is ridiculous.
There is some good teaching, and the college has
turned out some clever young soldiers; but it is far
below the American or European level. Now there are
many officers who have not been through Chapultepec,
many who have been promoted from the ranks, many
who have volunteered as " cadets " and after a short
time been gladly commissioned as lieutenants. Instead
of seeing subalterns with grey whiskers and decrepit
captains tottering in their walk one now finds boys as
majors and colonels of thirty. Even amongst the aged
generals one young man of thirty-three has forced his
way. Yet this influx of youth has changed the Army
very little. In the course of a campaign it is difficult
to build up organization, and unfortunately there was
no framework to start with.
AN OPERA BOUFFE ARMY 163
The Mexican Army has no Army Service Corps, no
medical department to speak of. It carries no camp
equipment, no supplies. Watch a field force break
camp at dawn. First there go pattering off a horde
of women laden with pots and pans, blankets, some-
times babies. These are the soldaderas, the camp
followers, the commissariat of the force. That they
move as quickly as they do is a miracle. Whatever the
day's march may be, they are always on the camping
ground before the men arrive. They rig up shelters,
they cook tortillas and frijoles (maize cakes and beans) ,
they make coffee. You see them mending their
husbands' coats, washing their shirts, roughly tending
flesh wounds. Without these soldaderas the Army
could not move. While President Huerta was seizing
hundreds of men by night in Mexico City and other
cities in order to swell his forces to a hundred thousand,
he also had women " pressed " to go with the new
soldiers and take care of them. Criadas (maid-
servants) were positively afraid to be out after dark.
This extraordinary system accounts for the immo-
bility of the Federal troops. Compared with the rebels
they are leaden-footed. They cling to the railways and
to the box-cars, in which they live with some comfort.
Man for man, so far as I have seen, the Revoltosos are
better men, and they are all mounted. The way to
deal with them would be to send out flying columns :
to keep them moving, which they would dislike ex-
ceedingly; and to execute sweeping movements over
a large area until they were " rounded up " into a place
where they could be effectively shelled. Nothing of
this kind is attempted. The endeavour of each side is
in most cases to avoid the other. A train full of
soldiers went out of Tampico to reconnoitre. It
164 THE REAL MEXICO
sighted a train full of rebels. Each train went
back !
The stratagems of an active general like Villa, who
is the best soldier the rebels have, are resented. He is
not considered to be " playing the game/' In a club
one day a Mexican complained to me of the trick by
which Juarez was taken as " shameful." Villa seized
the railway, piled his men into trains, forced the
telegraph operators to announce these as freight trains,
and turned his troops out in the city before the author-
ities had any suspicion that they were on the way.
" Shameful ! " my Mexican acquaintance declared.
Another day I asked a Mexican war correspondent
who had been present at a small fight whether the
Federal loss was heavy. " Very/' he said, and then
in horrified tone added, " they killed a colonel."
Against such an army as this any United States
expeditionary force would have in pitched battles an
unpleasantly easy task. I have seen something of the
cavalry training, which is very like mounted infantry
training, of the United States Army; it is very good
indeed. I believe the War Department at Washington
reckons that 200,000 men would be required for a
Mexican expedition. That would be for the policing
of the country. The probable loss of men is estimated
at 25,000, and the cost of a campaign at 400,000 a day.
By far the greater part of such a force as this would be
members of the National Guard and volunteers, who
would have to be put through some training before
they could take the field. The Regular Army numbers
66,000 30 regiments of infantry and 15 of cavalry.
Of these n infantry regiments and two of cavalry are
in the Philippines. There seems to be little doubt
that, if the President called for men, enough would
AN OPERA BOUFFE ARMY 165
answer, and there is no doubt at all that they would
have no difficulty in winning battles and capturing
towns.
The difficulty would lie in suppressing guerilla war-
fare among the mountains, in the jungles, wherever
the country offered good cover for " sniping " and
sudden attacks upon small detachments. It would be
necessary to put in force a measure like the Crimes Act
in Land League Ireland, which would make it a serious
and, if necessary, a capital offence to possess arms.
This would mean that the United States would have to
govern Mexico for an indefinite period. It would mean
annexation ; and that the United States do not desire
or intend to annex Mexico has been authoritatively
declared. Where, then, is the remedy? The only
hope lies in the creation of a Mexican Army capable of
keeping order. If no Mexican ruler is equal to this
task, then some one else must do. That some one
should clearly be the United States.
XVII
CHAPALA AND GUADALAJARA
THERE are as yet in Mexico few places which offer
themselves ready-made to the holiday-maker. For
certain kinds of holiday no country could be better.
If you enjoy riding away from civilization, over
mountains, across vast plains, sleeping rough and faring
like a pioneer, you can take your fill of such pleasure,
and come back sun-browned, hardy, your body lean
and lithe from hard exertion, your eyes with that
mystic gleam in them which tells of looking into the
face of Nature and roving through the vast empty
spaces of the world. If you shoot, if you fish, if you
botanize, if you study dead races, Mexico is a rich
field for you. But of " pleasure resorts " there are few.
Cuernavaca is the only one which approaches the
American or European conception. Here there are
expensive, cosmopolitan hotels, there is a social round
of small gaieties, there are many pleasant easy excur-
sions to be made. Only a few hours from the capital
by train or motor, it is perched on a ridge overlooking
a magnificent view. Further, a romantic charm is
lent to it by the beautiful Borda Garden, laid out by
a wealthy Frenchman in the eighteenth century on a
steep hillside behind the town, and much beloved by
Maximilian and Carlotta, the unhappy young Emperor
and Empress whose short and lurid reign added a
scarlet blot to the stained pages of Mexican history.
166
CHAP ALA AND GUADALAJARA 167
Their coach is in the museum of Mexico City; a
famous painting by Manet recalls for a few the young
monarch's execution ; their ghosts walk in the Borda
Garden : but to the world they are a forgotten episode.
Most of the fifteen millions in Mexico have never even
heard their names.
Maximilian was imposed upon Mexico by France,
or rather by Napoleon the Third, at a time when the
state of the country was such as it is to-day. Napo-
leon's idea was that " the founding of a regular govern-
ment " would keep out the United States and create a
market for French commerce. He sent an army across
the Atlantic, occupied Puebla and Mexico City, and
induced the Mexican Clericals, then calling themselves
the Conservative Party, to offer the crown to the Arch-
duke Maximilian of Austria. The new Emperor and
the beautiful Empress Carlotta arrived in 1864. For a
while they strove by studied extravagance to appeal
to the garish instincts of their adopted race. But
Mexico would have none of them. Under Benito
Juarez, whose statue stands in every Mexican city, a
revolution gained rapid force. Napoleon refused to
help his nominee, although the Empress pleaded
piteously with him. By the summer of 1867 all was
over. Maximilian had been captured and shot,
Carlotta was a fugitive, a Republic was proclaimed once
more. The pitiful couple left no mark upon the
country save faint, fragrant memories, such as those
at Cuernavaca, of their love of beautiful things.
Further off from the capital than Cuernavaca, about
twelve hours' journey, lies Lake Chapala, which will
in time become a playground rivalling the Swiss and
the Italian lakes. For the whole of its seventy miles'
length it is about twenty broad this inland sea;
168 THE REAL MEXICO
" El Mar Chapalico," is guarded by mountains and
forests. As yet there are few places on its shores
which set themselves to attract visitors. Chapala
Village has a few simple inns. Ribera Castellanos is
the best point at which to stay, for here there is a
modern hotel, very prettily situated and very com-
fortable. I had some delightful experiences at Ribera.
Not the least delightful was the walk I took through an
orange and grape-fruit orchard, not only admiring the
trees hung thickly with their golden lamps, but picking
and eating as I went. The sun was hot, and I had
had a long, dusty drive. Nothing could have given a
parched throat more delicious relief.
Long and dusty as the drive was in a swaying
" cocheY' I enjoyed it immensely. It was Sunday
morning, and the Indians were coming along the road
to Mass and market in the little town of Ocotlan. The
men were all in white. Their red " sarapes " (blankets)
either hung neatly folded over their left shoulders or,
if they were mounted, served as saddle-cloths. Earlier
they had used their " sarapes " as overcoats. I
started soon after seven, and all the figures I saw were
muffled up to the eyes, only some twelve inches of loose
white trouser appearing below the red.
Pleasant people they were along the high-road,
smiling back if you smiled at them, lifting their hands
to their huge-brimmed, high-coned hats with a natural,
easy grace as they murmured, " Buenas dias " to my
driver and me. Many horsemen had their wives either
behind them, pillion-fashion, or in front, as the Sabine
women were carried by their Roman abductors.
Those who walked were mostly " huarachi " (sandal)
wearers, and I admired their sense (though perhaps it
was necessity !). A good many went barefoot. Here
CHAPALA AND GUADALAJARA 169
and there by the roadside groups of women and children
sat resting in harmonious poses of unstudied pic-
turesqueness. The women's costume was a long cotton
veil, drawn over the head and reaching to the feet,
just such a covering as the women of the Bible wore
Hagar in the Wilderness or Ruth at the Well.
In Octolan the stores were full as I passed through.
The fruit stalls on one side of the narrow street gleamed
with piled-up oranges. On the other side the shady
" Portales " (a covered arcade) were filled with gossip-
ing peons. On the pretty little plaza sat or strolled
among the orange-trees small farmers in tight grey
short jackets and riding-trousers, something like the
breeches which are called in India " jodhpur " ; dandies
with silver spurs or hats heavily embroidered with
gold lace; " rancher os " and " rurales," smart young
officers and laughing, chattering girls.
The town left behind, I came in sight of gleaming
water, and soon Lake Chapala, surrounded by its misty
mountains, was full in view. It has been compared
with the Italian Lakes, but the only one of which it
reminded me was Gar da. There is a nobility, a wild
grandeur about it which trim Como cannot match.
There is good fishing in the lake, and the fish are good
eating. There is also quite wonderful wildfowl shoot-
ing. Herons, egrets, and pelicans are indigenous.
Millions of duck and geese, of widgeon, teal, and pintails
spend the winter here or it would be more correct to
say spend here the months which are wintry in other
climes. On Lake Chapala it is summer always. I
bathed and found the water really warm. I was out in
a motor-launch until dark fell : there was not a touch
of chilliness in the air. Nights and early mornings
are fresh. You want a blanket to sleep under all the
170 THE REAL MEXICO
year round. But the temperatures vary very little
between July and January, and days without sunshine
are scarcely known.
On the well-irrigated hacienda, which grows the
grape-fruit, there flourish also wheat and maize.
Strawberries ripen every day of the year. Of course it
is an American, not a Mexican, property, an example
of what can be done with the land when enterprise
is applied to it. You may well ask how wheat and
oranges can grow together. The explanation is that
this lake region is 5,000 feet high. That accounts for
the dry and equable climate, for the invigorating tang
in the air.
Only fifty miles away lies the city of Guadalajara
(the " j " pronounced as " h "), which is also famous
for its blue skies, its perpetual sunshine, and its bracing
mountain air. Next to the capital it has the finest
appearance, the best shops, the most flourishing com-
merce of all the cities of the Republic. Mr. Holmes,
the popular British Vice-Consul, was kind enough to
go with me through the principal large stores. Six
drapery shops of a good class are all French. Here, as
elsewhere, the hardware trade is German. I was sur-
prised at the character of the stocks until I heard that
Guadalajara boasts of eighty peso-millionaires, that is,
men worth 100,000 or more. This accounts for the
number of fine houses in the " colonias," as well as
for the rich carpets and good furniture and expensive
china and glass in the stores.
I saw some examples of Mexican cabinet-making
skill. The talent shown for copying was remarkable.
Furniture made here from German and Austrian
designs could only be distinguished by close examina-
tion from the real thing. British goods are not much
CHAPALA AND GUADALAJARA 171
in evidence ; they can be discovered if they are looked
for, but there might be many more " lines " of them.
I heard here the same stories of British commercial
stupidity as I have heard in so many countries where
markets are developing.
From a firm at Ipswich two agricultural machines
were ordered. These gave complete satisfaction, and
it was suggested to the firm that, if they sent out some
catalogues, they would be sure to receive further
orders. They replied that they would be happy to
send catalogues, at the price of two-and-sixpence
apiece ! Even more " penny wise and pound foolish "
was the niggardliness of a British firm of engineers who
tendered for the carrying out of a large public work.
They found that they could save a few pence on the
postage of their blue-prints if they were to reduce them
in size. They cut them down, therefore, mutilating
their diagrams, saved their pennies, and had their
tender contemptuously thrown aside.
Guadalajara used to be so prosperous that it had for
a long time very little revolution. On the big estates
an almost patriarchal system prevails, feudalism in its
better aspect. In the town there was plenty of work.
In the mines the peons were content. Now the labourer
finds work scarce. Industry languishes, with three
parts of the country given over to civil war. Many
mines are shut down. What can the unemployed
" pelado " do but join the " bandidos "? He steals
a horse, borrows a rifle with no intention of returning
it, and belongs to a roving band of marauders.
The increase of these bands and the advance of an
organized rebel force from the west make Guadalajara
nervous, though you would not think it from the gaiety
of the streets. Yet every one is asking quietly for
172 THE REAL MEXICO
news, " Que hay de nuevo ? " Even the pretty misses
who walk under the Portales, looking at you with frank,
open, honest eyes, have tremors of apprehension when
they hear of the Revoltosos' abominable crimes.
The women here are of a most attractive type.
Many have brown or fair hair instead of shiny black.
They are in appearance far more " white " than
Mexican (that distinction is usually drawn), and the
reason is that this State of Jalisco was colonized by
Andalusians, the aristocracy of Spain. The good stock
has always been kept up, though it is now far more
noticeable among women than men. Many of these
handsome girls, who have been to school abroad, will
not marry Mexicans. Some Englishmen and a good
many Germans have profited by this to make rich
marriages, and, I am told, usually happy marriages as
well.
The difference between European and Mexican young
men is well understood by mothers, one of whom said
to a handsome English friend of mine, quite a young
man and unmarried, " I don't mind my daughters
going to the Country Club under your charge, sefior;
I know they are perfectly safe with you." A pretty
place this Country Club, with a dozen tennis courts of
rolled earth, and a riot of flowering creepers and bushes
in November.
The mention of marriage reminds me that while I
was in Guadalajara a very fashionable wedding was
celebrated ; the invitations bade the guests first to the
Cathedral, then to a " lunch-sooper." I could not
discover exactly what this meal was ; it had a Gargan-
tuan sound. Probably it meant a go-as-you-please
entertainment lasting from midday until late at night.
At one " wedding breakfast " to which a friend of
CHAPALA AND GUADALAJARA 173
mine went the fare consisted chiefly of champagne and
sausages. This same friend once sent a very fine cut-
crystal flower bowl as a wedding present. When he
went to call on the newly married couple, he could not
find it. At last he saw it on the floor. Its purpose
had been mistaken. It was being used as a spittoon.
The Cathedral is rather odd than beautiful. Inside,
the decoration is all white and gold, which strikes a
theatrical rather than a devotional note. Outside,
every style of architecture is represented. Two huge
Byzantine towers dominate a group of buildings, some
of which are Gothic, some Moorish, some Doric, some
Corinthian. The effect is not so bad as it sounds.
Chief treasure of the Cathedral is Murillo's " Assump-
tion of the Virgin/' a good example of the Spanish
master's florid sentimentalism. I have only one
quarrel with the excellent guide to Mexico written by
Mr. T. Philip Terry, a guide on Baedeker lines, but
very much more human than Baedeker, to which every
visitor to Mexico becomes affectionately attached.
I cannot understand his passion for the paintings of
Murillo.
Some day, if ever the revolution ceases, Guadalajara
will grow rapidly into a great city. Its population is
already 135,000, though, as a witty Frenchman put it
to me, " only ten thousand count/' I asked him to
explain.
" Why," he said, " you cannot count people who
neither sit on chairs nor sleep in beds, and who would
not know what to do with a knife and fork."
That is how the bulk of the Indians live. But in
time they will learn, as the Indians of the north have
learned, to want boots and furniture ; brass bedsteads
and bicycles ; gramophones to grind out Harry Lauder,
174 THE REAL MEXICO
as I heard one doing the other day in a village " can-
tina/' a group of half -naked peons standing round with
puzzled faces, but enjoying it all the same !
By that time the Southern Pacific Railway will have
finished its line from Sonora to Jalisco, and will perhaps
be continuing it to Mexico City, along the shore of Lake
Chapala. Then there will be pleasure towns on the
edge of the water, instead of the tiny villages with
fishing-boats drawn up on white sandy beaches and
just a handful of cottages clustered round a white-
washed little church. Those who want to enjoy the
finest climate in the world, before the world at large
gets to know about it, had better make haste.
XVIII
THE CHURCH AND THE CATHOLIC PARTY
SINCE Guadalajara is one of the chief centres of
clerical influence in Mexico, something may appro-
priately be said here about the Catholic Party. But
first a word of warning against the notion that in
Mexico the " party system " really obtains. The
party system belongs to the machinery of what we call
constitutional government, and to expect genuine
constitutional government in Mexico is fatuous.
According to President Wilson (I quote from a
lecture which he gave at Columbia University in 1908),
the ideal of any such system must be "a definite
understanding; if need be, a formal pact, between
those who submit to it and those who are to conduct it,
with a view to making Government an instrument of
the general welfare rather than an arbitrary, self-
willed master doing what it pleases."
An excellent definition, and one which makes it clear
that no such system is yet possible in Mexico. For the
mind of that country is still in that stage in which
Government appears to be a force operating from
above.
For example, certain of their pleasures, such as
robbing and killing, are known to be " wrong," that is,
dangerous, so long as they are swiftly and severely
punished. The moment the arm of the law weakens,
country districts are infested by bandits. The police-
175
176 THE REAL MEXICO
man, well mounted, armed with carbine and revolver,
was, under Diaz, the safeguard of social security.
Now that the character of the Rurales has altered for
the worse, and that the finest of them have been drawn
into the Army, Mexico is no longer a safe land to live
in, either for foreigners or for its own people. Pillage
and murder stalk abroad again, unchecked by the
strong hand of authority. That furnishes a vivid
illustration of the very long distance which the Mexicans
have to travel before they can in any real sense of
democracy begin to govern themselves after the fashion
of England or the United States.
What deceives the superficial observer is the existence
of the forms of constitutionalism. There are all the
trappings and the suits of party government elections,
a Parliament, a Council of Ministers, a written Con-
stitution with 128 articles, all breathing the most
advanced liberal sentiments. But these are shams.
There is nothing which " passeth show " behind them.
How could it be otherwise in a country where out of
15,000,000 inhabitants there are 11,000,000 unable to
read or write, and as many as 2,000,000 of remote
Indians who do not even understand Spanish, the
official language of their race ?
The same lack of reality comes to light when one
examines into the political parties of Mexico. One
finds that they have next to no influence, and their
proposals little bearing upon actual conditions. They
formulate vague generalities, and are satisfied. The
only era in which Mexican politicians were divided by
a clear and definite issue was that in which the Liberals
attacked and the Clericals defended Church privilege
and Church property. That struggle was ended by
the common sense of President Diaz, who allowed the
THE CHURCH AND CATHOLIC PARTY 177
anti-Church laws to remain, but did not enforce them.
Religious bodies are still precluded from holding
property or giving education. Priests are forbidden
to wear distinctive dress in public. Church bells are
not allowed to be rung. Yet all these prohibitions
are evaded. If an indiscreet or over-zealous inspector
should visit a convent, the nuns hide themselves or
put off their habits. Bells are struck instead of being
swung. In their readiness to accept appearances the
Mexicans betray their Asiatic descent.
But although the Church has little to-day to com-
plain of, she still seeks to keep up her influence in
politics. The only party which has anything like a
definite programme or a widespread organization is
the Catholic Party. There is no reason to doubt, I
think, that if the latest Presidential elections had been
free and fair the Catholic Party's candidate, Sefior
Gamboa, would have been elected. The Catholic
Church has the allegiance of 90 per cent, of Mexico's
population. It has no competitor. Its influence, if
it were permitted to exercise it, would be immense.
In thousands of villages what the priest orders is law.
I know of one town in Jalisco, a very churchy state,
where out of 816 votes cast 800 were given to the
Catholic candidate. That will undoubtedly happen in
many parts of the country if ever elections are con-
ducted as President Wilson wishes them to be. Would
he and the people of the United States feel any satis-
faction in knowing that they had substituted a clerical
despotism for a military despotism? Of the two the
former is usually the worse.
The leaders of the Catholic Party have assured me
that their aims are not clerical. They have avoided
calling themselves Conservatives for fear of being con-
N
178 THE REAL MEXICO
fused with the old Conservatives, who really were
" Clericals." In their published programme there is
nothing to which objection could be raised, even by
Benito Juarez, the President who curbed the Church's
power. Furthermore, the present head of the Church
in Mexico, Archbishop Jose Mora y del Rio, is a man of
open-minded and statesmanlike views. He was ap-
pointed by the Vatican through the direct intervention
of President Diaz; his influence has been cast on the
side of wise toleration. It is significant that he was
a close friend of the head of the American Methodist
Church in Mexico, and that when the latter left the
leading Catholic newspaper, El Pais, deplored his
departure and highly commended his work. But
not even a liberal Catholic Party, not even a Primate
like Dr. Mora y del Rio, could hold the clerical element
back if ever the Church became the supreme power in
politics. That she certainly would become if elections
were conducted squarely and if the voting system,
which would then allow the ignorant and priest-ridden
peon to " swing " the country, were left as it is to-day.
Nothing is said by the Catholic Party's programme
about a change in voting qualifications. That can
easily be understood. It is the Catholic Party which
stands to profit by priestly exploitation of the peon.
What does seem strange is that the Liberal Party,
which has everything to lose by the continuance of
present methods, should not advocate electoral reform.
Yet it would be stranger in effect if the so-called Liberal
Party should advocate anything. To speak accurately,
one should say " Liberal Parties," since there are more
than twenty competing groups, each of which claims
the title. They have neither leaders nor principles in
common. They make no effective appeal for support.
THE CHURCH AND CATHOLIC PARTY 179
It is hard to know what a Liberal in Mexico really is.
Even General Huerta calls himself one. So does
General Felix Diaz, who is still waiting in Havana for
"the call of his country;" I saw him there, mildly
hopeful, persuaded that his strength lay in sitting still.
But of all the " Felixistas " he is, I fancy, almost the
only one left. His irresolution has both irritated and
alienated his friends. They see that those people were
right who said that in this pleasant, portly gentleman
there was not the stuff of which greatness is made.
Under his uncle he was a useful as well as an ornamental
Chief of Police. But those who fail to take the current
when it serves must lose their ventures.
It is a pity, for he could have won the support of
the most solid elements in the country. Added to his
popularity with the masses (mainly due to his name),
this would have put him in a very strong position.
Then, with the aid of the best men available for
Ministers and Governors of States, and with a deter-
mination to rule justly as well as firmly, he might have
given Mexico peace. But character was lacking; the
golden opportunity slipped by. That is the more
unfortunate since there are so few Mexicans in sight
who are qualified, either by ability or by being widely
known, to take the helm of State.
In the Catholic Party there are a number of men
whose talent is above the average and who in sincerity
of purpose also rank high. But there is none who
stands out with the mark of a leader upon him. Most
of the chiefs of the party are large landowners, and they
take, as is natural, the landowner's point of view.
They say nothing about the injustice of exempting
the huge estates from taxation. They would no doubt
oppose even a tax upon uncultivated land, which would
180 THE REAL MEXICO
help to break up these properties. Their ideal of
government for Mexico is an enlightened paternalism,
which, could it but be realized, and did it wisely share
its power with the new middle class, would ideally meet
the case. But in that qualification " enlightened "
the difficulty lies.
The Catholics make light of the view that land-hunger
is at the root of Mexico's troubles. They admit that
in certain districts, notably Morelos, and to a lesser
extent in the northern States, the Indians have a
grievance which ought to be righted. Their lands
have been unjustly niched from them. They will
never be quiet until they get plots of their own. But
so far as the country generally is concerned the Catholic
leaders say that the land question has little to do with
the unrest.
They maintain that the real cause of the trouble lies
in the farcical character of the elections (which, as I
have explained, keeps them out of office), and in the
corruption which exists among the jefes politicos.
These officials are appointed by the Governors of states ;
they are in small places supreme : even in big places
they are sometimes powerful in defiance of munici-
palities. They are paid very little, and they com-
pensate themselves by oppression. A common method
of augmenting their income is to have a man seized
and put in gaol, either on a trumped-up charge or for
some trifling offence such as drunkenness or brawling.
Word is conveyed to him and to his friends that a
certain sum is necessary to procure his release. There
is no one to appeal to. Magistrates and judges are
in subjection to the political authority (the Catholic
Party propose to make them irremovable, as they are
in England and as all honest Americans think they
THE CHURCH AND CATHOLIC PARTY 181
should be in the United States). There is nothing for
it but to pay. The jefe politico system, say the Catholic
leaders, must be cleansed of its abominations before the
peon can feel secure. This, they consider, weighs far
more heavily with him than a wish for a small holding.
" If you gave him land/' said one of the most
prominent Catholic Party chiefs when we were dis-
cussing this, " he would only sell it and then complain
that the buyer had robbed him of it." In which there
is, as all who have studied the peon will testify, a large
element of truth. But this must be recollected, too
that the jefes politicos manage the elections and secure
the victory of the candidate whom they are instructed
by the President through the Governors of states to
return. Therefore they stand in the Catholic Party's
way. Since honest elections would enormously benefit
that party, " Honest elections " is their chief cry.
Yet being, as they are, so largely an agricultural
party, the Catholics have naturally something to say
in their programme about the land. They are opposed
strongly, as landlords, to the Radical-Socialist preach-
ings of the " Constitutionalistas " in favour of a general
division of property. But they are, on the other hand,
firm advocates of agricultural co-operation. In several
southern states there obtains a system by which the
landowner provides the cultivator with a holding of
from eight to twelve or even twenty acres, supplies
him with seed, lends him a plough, with sometimes more
elaborate machinery, and receives in return half the
produce. That system does not make for advance in
agriculture, for many landlords, having quite enough
to live upon comfortably in Mexico City or in Paris,
leave their tenants to follow the methods of the Bible
patriarchs; but it seems otherwise to be reasonable
182 THE REAL MEXICO
enough, unless you agree with the Constitutionalists
that the landlord has no right to any property at all.
It works fairly well in Jalisco, where society is still
arranged on patriarchal, or feudal, principles. Here
and in the neighbouring states of Michoacan, Queretaro,
and Guanajuato there has been as yet little serious
trouble. The relation between many owners and
cultivators of the soil is one of friendliness and mutual
respect.
Even the rebels are ready to admit that. On the
hacienda of a well-known member of the Amor family
a party of Insurrectos were about to burn and ravage.
The peons in a body asked them to forbear, showed
them the church and school which the landlord had
built, and so impressed them that no damage whatever
was done. Such landlords, and there are not a few
of them, are ready at all times to help their tenants.
It is by their wish and with the intention of support-
ing the small-holder that the Catholic Party programme
demands land credit banks, and lays stress upon the
necessity of improving agricultural education. At
present this leaves much to desire. There is a big
building in the capital supposed to be a central agricul-
tural college. It is really a home for any friends of
officials who may be in want of a salary, and it is of
no use whatever to the farmer so many practical
agriculturists have assured me. Those who are trying
to improve Mexican methods of cultivation and to
introduce new crops have been driven to seek help
from the United States Agricultural Department at
Washington. The more progressive hacendados have
to spend considerable sums in making experiments
themselves.
Another Catholic proposal is that the 32,000 Church
THE CHURCH AND CATHOLIC PARTY 183
schools scattered over the country shall receive a State
grant. That is, of course, looked upon by some people
as " the thin edge of the wedge." But Education is
such a large theme that I must leave it for another
chapter. Enough has been said here to show that the
Catholic Party have, even though their professsions
be vague and wordy, some sound and progressive aims.
If they could keep themselves free from Clericalism
they might serve their country well.
XIX
EDUCATION
EDUCATION is the modern cure-all. It is worshipped
as a fetish. It is murmured as an incantation. Its
real nature, even the real meaning of the word, is in
danger of being obscured. To draw out the best that
we have in us, so that we may find our proper level in
life that is an ideal most worthy. To imagine that
by a certain absorption of book-learning all may be
made equal that is moonshine. President Diaz was
too shrewd to be taken in by any hocus-pocus of the
latter kind, but he did allow himself to use " the need
for education " as a comforting Mesopotamianic phrase.
He, or some one for him, framed fervent sentences
about it. It was " the foundation of our prosperity,
the basis of our very existence, our foremost interest,"
et patati et patata. " I have," said Don Porfirio,
" created a public school for boys and another for girls
in -every community in the Republic." Moreover, he
signed with his own hand certificates attesting that
little Pedro or little Josepha had passed certain
standards. To what these standards amounted he did
not too closely inquire. There were the schools, free
to all, school books free also. There was the entry
in the accounts of every State. " Instruction Piib-
lica," even though the figure against it was often
ludicrously small. After all, Don Porfirio was a
184
EDUCATION 185
great Policeman, not a great Statesman, so it was
to his credit that he did anything in this direction
at all.
On paper the Mexican system is excellent. Glowing
accounts of it have been written by British and
American travellers, who accepted in a humble spirit
whatever plausible politicians in Mexico City liked to
tell them. It is excellent that there should be schools
in every community. But what if the system some-
times works out like this? What if the community
gets its grant, and the grant goes into somebody's
pocket, and the school is only opened for ten days or
so in a year at the season when the inspector's visit is
announced? No surprise visits in Mexico; nothing
so " underhanded " as that ! And suppose that, in
schools which are open all the year, the teaching is
unskilled and unintelligent ; that there is far too much
shouting of lessons in unison and next to no individual
development : that, instead of inculcating " scholar-
ship, industry, and patriotism," as the old President
claimed, these schools do little to dissipate ignorance,
idleness, and incivism? Religious teaching in the
State schools is forbidden, and the 32,000 Church schools
are refused grants. They are on definite Catholic
lines, of course; for the rest they are neither better
nor worse than the others. President Diaz thought
that religion would be imparted at home, but the
homes of Mexico City seem to neglect it if a recent
Minister of Education was right in describing the
schools of the capital as " manufactories of Zapatistas "
Zapata being a notorious brigand who has gathered
around him desperadoes without pity or shame.
There was in that gibe exaggeration due to impatience,
but there is a kernel of truth in it, just as there is some
186 THE REAL MEXICO
foundation for the charge that the American Methodist
schools turn their pupils into revolutionists.
The condition of Mexico is so deplorable that any
one who is taught to think at all must think changes
necessary, and the easiest line of argument is that any
change must be better than none. It might be con-
tended with greater force that any school is better than
no school. But most of those in Mexico, whether
judged by results or by the methods practised in those
which I visited, leave much to desire. The best are in
the north, where the influence of the United States
is at work. Often the buildings are handsome and
convenient. There are normal schools for teachers,
though it is mostly the blind who lead the blind in
them. Of schools above the elementary level there
are few, and those few are so poor in character that
almost all parents of the " educated class " send their
children either to the United States or to Europe.
Beaumont, near Windsor, and Stonyhurst in Lan-
cashire, have many Mexican " old boys."
The quality lacking in Mexican schools, as in Mexican
life generally, is a sense of reality. The children are
quick at learning, receptive, intelligent; but neither
their minds nor their characters are solidified. They
change lamentably as they develop in body. In-
tellectually they are shallow; their judgments are
flighty, their opinions ill informed. If the boys played
games and worked off their animal energy, they would
grow into men of tougher fibre. Their instability of
character might in time be overcome. They have as
yet little determination or perseverance. However,
they have made a beginning with borrowed games. I
saw a team of Mexican young men playing baseball
against Americans. They began vigorously and for
EDUCATION 187
two-thirds of the game they led. Then they suddenly
went to pieces. The Americans played resolutely to
make up the ground they had lost, and before their
" grit " the Mexicans crumbled away. I saw a football
match too. This was arranged on the lines of a bull-
fight. A lady was chosen to preside ; the captains of
the elevens led them up to her and asked if they might
begin ! They showed some knowledge of the game
though.
Very few Mexican boys take any regular exercise or
undergo any character training. That is why, when
they go to work, they periodically fall slack and have
to be shaken up. On the surface they are still clever.
They talk well ; this is the gift of the race or perhaps
" curse " would be the more suitable word. But their
talk does not lead to action. They have no firm grasp
of realities ; they are contented with shams. At Vera
Cruz when I was embarking a German was in trouble
with the Customs. He was ordered to fill up various
forms of declaration, and he had to write out on several
sheets of foolscap a complete list of the samples his
cases contained. When he took this in to be checked,
he found that the official in charge was an acquaintance.
" That is all right," the Mexican said, and signed the
documents without even looking at them. Formal and
fussy as they often are, Mexicans have no real desire
that all things shall be done decently and in order. In
a train which was taking troops to the front members
of the " Sanitary Corps " were prominent. It would
be impossible to imagine anything more horrible than
the sanitary arrangements, even for the officers. Add
to this that seventy officers, ranking from generals to
subalterns, ate and slept in one compartment which
was never cleaned, never swept out even, and of which
188 THE REAL MEXICO
all the windows were shut at night ! Yet the army is
proud of its " Sanitary Corps." With Asiatic sim-
plicity they prize the letter which killeth. They know
nothing of the spirit which giveth life. How can one
expect officers who have been so ill-educated that they
are content to travel in such indescribable squalor to
cherish a keen sense of personal honour ? A friend of
mine secured a pass for himself and his horse on a
military train. The lieutenant in charge of it refused
to take the horse. My friend was puzzled. There
seemed to be no ground for the refusal. At last he
offered the young man a ten-peso (i) note. It was at
once accepted and the animal allowed to be entrained.
Legal education is, I believe, good. Medical educa-
tion, on the other hand, is poor. Here are two cases of
Englishmen who have suffered severely at the hands
of. Mexican doctors. One who was very ill was assured
that his trouble was indigestion. He died from nothing
else than lack of care. The other had a gangrened
wound and went into a hospital, where they set about
preparing to cut off his arm. Fortunately he was
rescued in time, taken to a German doctor, and cured
without any surgery at all. Foreigners in Mexico can
multiply experiences like this an hundredfold. The
last days of Don Porfirio's Presidency were clouded by
suffering which a dentist caused him, who had used an
unclean instrument in his mouth. Mexicans, in spite
of some notable exceptions, are not good business men
either. The best proof of this is that almost all the
business of the country, great and small alike, is done
by foreigners. Cashing a draft in a Mexican bank is
a weary process. Clerks and cashiers confer. There
is much running about. When at last the bearer is
held to have proved his identity the delivery of the
EDUCATION 189
money involves another long delay. This is due, like
military slackness, the deficiencies of professional men,
and the scandalous lives of too many priests, to the
absence of any sound basis in education. There are
many able men in the country of pure Spanish stock,
but the real Mexican can seldom think rapidly or reason
logically. He has no decision of character, no settled
views.
It is the absence of a sound basis in education which
makes the real Mexicans like children ; bright up to a
point, pleasant mannered, easy to get on with, kindly,
unassuming, and apparently European; but without
understanding of the apparatus of civilization which
they have borrowed ready-made, and utterly unable
to appreciate the European point of view. Those who
deal with them successfully treat them as children;
many have told me the secret. Let me offer one
amusing instance. .A certain United States Consul
(who is not, as some in the north are, a partisan of the
revolution) had news brought to him that a train had
run over and killed a Mexican. Now in such cases the
Mexican practice is to arrest all concerned, and to keep
them in solitary confinement, incommunicado, for
seventy-two hours. Frequently witnesses are treated
in the same way, which explains why people in Mexico,
when they see a street accident, hastily pass by on the
other side. The Consul knew that the crew of the train,
who were Americans, would be at once taken to gaol
unless he saved them. He also knew that it would be
useless to protest, for the Mexicans would have law on
their side. So he decided upon a stratagem. He went
to the local judge before whom the matter would come,
and talked for some time upon general subjects. Then
he brought the conversation round to this law. " Sup-
190 THE REAL MEXICO
pose,'* he said, " a train knocked a man down, you
would not in that case, I imagine, commit the driver
and fireman and conductor to prison until you had
inquired into the cause of the accident ? " " Oh, no,"
replied the magistrate politely. When, a little later,
he was informed of what had occurred, he could not go
back upon what he had said. The train-crew were
released.
One could only characterize as childish the callous-
ness of a general who roared with laughter when his
men rolled about in agony after eating rat-poison from
a shop which they were looting, in mistake for some
potted meat. Nor was the other general less childish
who said that the Americans would never fight because
they were of British, German, Dutch, Russian, Scandi-
navian origin (so he had " read in a book ") and hated
each other worse than they could hate any one else !
Through all classes this same strain of simplicity runs.
One finds it reflected in the newspapers. Only a
credulous people could put up with them. The one
journal in the capital which has any sense of responsi-
bility is a journal published in English, the Mexican
Herald. El Impartial, the Government organ, dis-
tinguished itself on the day after Parliament had been
dissolved and no members thrown into prison, by
referring to these events in a paragraph of eleven lines.
In every case of a Federal disaster the newspapers have
kept back the news for at least a week. They print
the most ridiculous stories and then forget all about
them. El Pais, the Catholic mouthpiece, is the best,
but all are such as could be tolerated only by a race
without any solid instruction.
To seek in their pages any comment upon the events
which they chronicle is, as a rule, useless. The most
EDUCATION 191
disgraceful perversions of justice go unrebuked. I
mentioned in an earlier chapter a Constitutionalist
officer who spoke of himself as " the man they wanted
to burn." His name is Fuentes; and he was once
Governor of the State of Aguascalientes. As a known
revolutionary, he was arrested and, in March 1913, was
confined in the Mexico City Penitentiary. On the
night of March 25 the Governor of the Federal District,
a nephew of General Huerta, went to the Penitentiary
and demanded that Senor Fuentes and two other men
of position who had been Governors of States should be
delivered up to him. As he was clearly intoxicated,
the official in charge declined to deliver them up.
Enrique Zepeda this was the Governor's name then
went to another prison known as Belem, got possession
of a prisoner named Gabriel Hernandez, had him shot,
and then burned his body, some say before the man
was dead. Zepeda was brought to trial. This could
not be avoided. But on November 4, 1913, he was
acquitted on the ground of " irresponsibility/' which
was the Court's polite way of saying that he was drunk.
This monstrous result, which in any civilized country
would have loosed a torrent of denunciation, was
reported without remark.
When the newspapers do publish " leading articles "
their comments are usually couched in the language
of bombast and hyperbole. This is, of course, partly
due to the Spanish idiom which inclines to roundabout
and gaseous methods of speech. It is a lazy language
at best. Only a race determined to save themselves
trouble would have commuted " films " into " hijo,"
pronounced " eecho," ch as in " loch " ; " mulier " into
"mujer" (moocher) ; " fideles " into "fieles"; and
" periculosus " into " peligroso." But the Mexican
192 THE REAL MEXICO
goes even further than the Spaniard. He refuses to
roll the double " 1." Instead of " Cabahlyo " for
" caballo " (horse) he says " cah-by-yoh." He does
not lisp his " c's " and " z's," like the Spaniard of the
north, but pronounces them as we do, and, except for
his indolence with regard to the double "1," the
educated Mexican speaks Spanish purely, and his speech
falls very pleasantly upon the ear.
Such news as one can find in Mexican journals is
made irritating to read by the habit, carried to excess,
of beginning articles on one page and continuing them
after a few lines upon another, or upon others. One
morning I found the heading to an interview with a
bull-fighter scattered throughout a " leading journal/'
Bull-fighters are so popular they occupy the public
mind far more than football-players in Great Britain
or baseball-players in the United States that I suppose
the editor felt it was wise to pepper such important
matter all over his pages. Newspapers of this character
neither inform their readers accurately nor teach them
to think. They miss altogether that educational in-
fluence which makes the Press valuable. Instead of
weaning the nation from its childishness, they make it,
by their sycophancy, their unreality, their crying of
peace where there is no peace, more childish still.
XX
THE OIL RIVALRY MYTH
OUT of every ten Americans who spoke to me about
Mexico as I went through the United States, nine at
least said : " I suppose the trouble is all due to these
rival oil companies down there." That suggestion has
been spread abroad, whether purposely or ignorantly,
by newspapers and periodicals all over the country.
How it originated I cannot find out. But of this I
am satisfied that there is no truth in it.
Usually the struggle is said to be between " Pearson's
and the Standard Oil." It pleases the American
business imagination to think of oil companies foment-
ing and financing revolutions. The idea of a fight
for concessions between British and American capi-
talists lends to the war news an added thrill. As for
evidence, that is never asked for. Nobody inquires
whether the Standard Oil Companies have any large
interests in the Mexican Oilfields. No one looks
up the concessions that have been granted, to see if
they are of any value. The vague general belief
that " Standard Oil " supported Madero, and Lord
Cowdray keeps General Huerta in funds, is based,
so far as I have been able to discover, upon nothing
stronger than loose gossip.
I have talked to the leading men in the oil industry,
and I am convinced that they have none of them gone
o 193
194 THE REAL MEXICO
out of their way to back up either side. I travelled
on a certain journey with the manager of the American
company which is supposed to be working for the
Constitutionalists, and I knew (although he did not
himself say anything of it) that he was nervous about
being captured by them. That fact did not square
with the supposition. Neither did the sum of money
paid by a certain British Company to the rebel
General Aguilar prove that they were supporting
the revolution. It was extorted from them under
threat of damage to the oil wells. They knew that the
Huerta Government might object, as it objected to the
payment by a copper company at Concepcion del Oro
of several thousand pounds to the rebels of that district.
They certainly had no desire to finance the Insurrecto
cause. They paid because they were obliged to, and
they felt, I have no doubt, equally aggrieved with the
rebels for robbing them, and with General Huerta
because he did not protect them from being
robbed.
It is true that the leading men of the oil industry
held, in common with almost every foreigner inhabit-
ing Mexico, that the recognition of Huerta by the
United States ten months ago would have been best
for the peace of the country and for the benefit of
all who have property or business there. But no one,
I believe, entered into any compact with him. If
Pearsons' were, as people in the United States say,
" behind him," they would not have allow r ed him to
impose upon the oil industry a heavy war tax. If
he were, as is so often suggested, " in their pocket/'
he would not have permitted his Foreign Minister,
Senor Moheno, to draw up a scheme (which no one
takes seriously) for nationalizing the oilfields by
THE OIL RIVALRY MYTH 195
arbitrarily buying out the present owners of
wells.
It is only since the beginning of this century that
the wealth of Mexico in petroleum has been discovered.
How vast it may be is not yet known. The country
where oil is known to be workable extends for a distance
of about 100 miles along the coast of the Mexican Gulf
from the south of Tuxpam to north of Tampico, prob-
ably a good deal further south and north than the
points which bound the area already prospected.
Stretching back from the Gulf, too, there are lands
which yield richly, although, as yet, their development
has hardly begun.
Of the Mexican wells which are actually producing
in large quantities, there are two which give phenomenal
results. One, belonging to the Huasteca Company,
has been yielding 25,000 barrels a day for nearly
four years. That is said to be a record ; no other well,
I have been told, has continued to produce so large
a quantity so steadily and for so long. The Mexican
Eagle Company have a well of even greater capacity.
For two years it has been filling more than 26,000
barrels a day. It was opportunely discovered, soon
after the first fortunate " strike " of the Eagle had
unluckily caught fire and burnt itself out.
Many who are qualified by experience to give
opinions, say that these oilfields will prove to be the
richest the world has yet seen. They base their view
upon the fact that vast amounts continue to be thrown
up over such long periods, and that, instead of becoming
weaker, the wells actually improve as time goes by.
Already after very few years' work, the quantity
produced is close upon 100,000 barrels a day, dis-
tributed in these proportions
196 THE REAL MEXICO
Huasteca Company . . . 40,000
Eagle Company . . . 36,000
Mexican Petroleum Company . 3,000
East Coast Oil Company . . 4,000
Oilfields of Mexico . . . 500
Other Companies . . . . 15,000
At the rate of one peso (2s.) a barrel, that appears
to represent a large return. But, when we consider
that some 25,000,000 have been invested in these
Mexican oilfields, and that since 1901 rather less than
70,000,000 barrels have been produced, the complexion
of the matter changes. In twelve years the return
to those who have invested has been only ten per cent
not ten per cent, a year, but ten per cent, for the whole
period. So far only a very few of the companies
interested have paid dividends, and, seeing that oil
is always a risky investment, the conditions under
which they work are none too favourable. The pioneers
have to contend with many serious obstacles. All
their material has to be imported, and it still takes
from four to six months to get machinery from Europe
or the United States. The camps are so situated that
they must supply, not only provisions and stores of
every kind, but their own transport (usually motor-
launches) and their own postal service. The com-
panies have to make roads, to build railways, to own
or hire steamships, to lay pipe-lines. To drill a well
in the United States costs about 1,600. In Mexico
the cost is three times as great. A pump which can
be bought for 1,000 in New York, costs 3,000 at
Tampico or Tuxpam.
These are the centres of the oil industry. Both
towns are river-ports, several miles from the sea.
THE OIL RIVALRY MYTH 197
Already Tampico has begun to " boom," and if ever
600,000 are spent upon giving Tuxpam a good harbour,
that place, which has at present only some 12,000
inhabitants, scattered among the seven hills on which,
after a famous precedent, it is built, would become
an active competitor. It would then have two advan-
tages over Tampico. It is nearer to the capital, and
it has very rich country behind it. In the valley
watered by its broad river flourish coffee, sugar,
rubber, maize (of which three crops can be raised in
the year), and vanilla. It has yielded large quantities
of " chicle," which is made into the chewing-gum that
is consumed in such enormous quantities in the United
States and Canada. Now the trees from which the
" chicle " exudes are being cut down, but in their
stead are rising plantations of papaya, from which
pepsin, the popular remedy for indigestion, is made.
Strange are the forces of civilization which snatch from
the wild places of the earth the sweetmeat which keeps
the jaws of New York office-boys and typists in per-
petual movement, and the drug that soothes stomachs
worn out by the nerve strain and the excesses of our
feverish modern life.
As for Tampico, it is, as I have said, Mexico's " boom
city." It has " boomed " even through the civil
war, which seems as great a miracle as if a tree should
put forth leaf and blossom in a season of frost and snow.
Yet if a tree were warmly rooted and fed below ground
by a nourishing stream of fertilizer, even that miracle
might be seen. So it is with Tampico. The stream
that feeds it is a torrent of oil. Its roots are set deep
in the development of the petroleum industry. We
are entering now upon the Oil Age. The world cannot
get enough of this valuable fuel which has lain hid
198 THE REAL MEXICO
through all the ages until now. In every likely region
holes are being punched through the earth's surface
in the hope to find it. To-day the United States
produces more oil than any other country. Russia
comes second. When the Mexican oilfields are yielding
to their full extent they will, it is believed, take Russia's
place. Then Tampico will be a flourishing city, one
of the great oil ports of the world.
A few years back it was a small town, unimportant,
unheard of. It did a small trade in fruit : the valley
in which it lies is well watered and fertile. But it was
just a hot, dusty, slow-coach of a place; and so, for all
that Mexicans did or tried to do, it would have remained.
British and American enterprise have already trans-
formed it. The streets, where formerly a stranger was
a curiosity, are bustling and thronged. White women
and children, the women nearly all bare-headed,
stroll up and down them quite at home. White men
in white clothes (even in mid-winter) pass to and from
their offices. English and German are heard at every
turn. Tall office buildings are dwarfing the squat
houses. A big hotel is a-building. Land is going up
in price. Speculators are spying it out and mapping
the probable directions in which the city will grow.
Plans are being laid for big stores to open. All the
elements of a " boom " are here.
Already there are pleasant homes of foreigners. A
colony is being made some three miles out, where trees
and gardens and shady verandahs will temper the
ferocity of the sun. Sometimes the British and
Americans who are building houses here wonder whether
they will ever live in them. Over Tampico broods the
shadow of a sword. It was attacked in December
1913. The assault then beaten off is sure to be renewed.
THE OIL RIVALRY MYTH 199
The outlook is cloudy and threatening. Near by the
" bandidos " have been very busy, and no " ranchero "
is safe. While I was at Tampico the able and active
British Vice-Consul, Mr. H. W. Wilson, introduced
me to an old American named McCrocklin. He owns
a ranch near a place called Micos, between Tampico
and St. Luis Potosi. He has worked hard on it for
many years. His horses and cattle and his plantations
are a credit to him. A few weeks ago a gang of
" rebels " had ridden up to his house. They had
demanded 100 (1,000 pesos). He said he had not
so much money in his safe, and he showed them the
inside of the safe to prove his word. All he could
offer them was between 60 and 70. They said it
was not enough. A rope was produced and a noose
tied round his neck. Old McCrocklin said to his
manager, an Englishman named Clark (I talked with
them both), " Take witness I die like a man." They
were marched out to a tree. The other end of the
rope was thrown over a branch and jerked so that
the old man could only touch the ground with his toes.
Then he made a last appeal. " I am seventy-four," he
said. " I can only live a few years longer. Let me
finish my life naturally." After some discussion it
was agreed that he should go free if he would agree
to fetch 300 from his bank in Tampico. Accordingly
he and Clark went to Tampico, and there the Consuls
advised them not to go back. Mr. Wilson positively
forbade Clark to take his wife into the Micos district
again. Clark himself insisted upon returning to look
after his employer's cattle. He only just escaped
the same body of thieves, who worked off their dis-
appointment by wrecking the farm, robbing the peons,
and seizing their women.
200 THE REAL MEXICO
That is an example of what would happen in Tampico
itself if anarchy came. There are bad Indians and
Mexicans in large numbers in and about the town.
One night, when I left a bridge party, my host and
two other men were going to sit up all night. They
had heard alarming rumours of a rising among the
" pelados." It was not their first vigil of the kind
either. The natives have a lowering, savage look.
That is partly why Tampico makes at first upon the.
visitor a detestable impression. Partly, also, it is
because that new hotel is so badly needed. Those
which exist are Mexican. I say no more. Happily,
through the kindness of a " friend in need," I found
comfortable sleeping quarters in the Club. Meals,
even breakfast, have to be shared in primitive restaur-
ants with millions of flies. The place reminded me of
a mining camp. Even the rose bushes of the Plaza
looked forlorn and out of keeping, blooming in a desert
of dirty, unkempt roadways, sidewalks littered with
rubbish, empty spaces thick in dust.
Yet the view from the higher part of the town is
delightful. You look across wide sheets of water,
green meadows, wooded hillsides, all glittering in the
tropical sunshine, all quivering in a sheeny haze.
Towards the sea, some few miles down the river,
stretch miles of railway sidings and quays. On the
hills there has broken out an eruption of oil-tanks,
looking like gigantic mushrooms. In the river are
many vessels, greedy for oil.
From the Pearson wells there are pipe-lines
which carry the oil both to Tampico and to Tuxpam.
At the latter place it can be poured into the holds of
vessels nearly a mile from the shore. Three mooring
berths have been built, and six pipes are led out to
THE OIL RIVALRY MYTH 201
them ; through these the fluid rushes into the tanks at
the rate of 1,000 barrels an hour. Some day vessels
will call here, and at similar places, to "oil" just as
they now " coal." The process will be quicker as well
as cleaner. Our men-of-war can be made more com-
fortable for those who have to live in them, and this
is important ; for it is already become difficult to induce
bluejackets to renew their engagements. This Pearson
enterprise at Tuxpam is thus very interesting as a
" pointer " towards the future development of shipping,
naval and mercantile both.
Much of the Pearson oil goes also to Coatzacoalcos
(Quatzaqualcus), another Gulf port. Not far from
here is Minititlan, where the Eagle Company has a
very large and well-equipped refinery. Another is
being built between Tampico and the sea. For storing
oil the Company has, near its famous Petrero well,
a huge tank holding two and a half million barrels
(about 350,000 tons). This at the time of my visit
was being patrolled night and day by armed guards.
Between blackmailing rebels and a Government which
is screwing up taxation, the oil companies are hard
pressed. The import in the production of oil has been
raised from 5^. to is. 6d. a ton, and the stamp-tax has
been doubled, making it now 2\d. a barrel. There is
also a local tax of is. a ton to cover improvements in
the Tampico river.
Further, the owners of oil lands, in their short-sighted
greed, are inclined to join with the Federal and the
State authorities in crippling the goose which lays the
golden eggs. The usual payment to landowners is ten
per cent., but there is a decided tendency to try and
secure more. If the Mexican Government, instead
of talking wildly about buying up the oilfields, for
202 THE REAL MEXICO
which they would require a loan of fifty millions sterling,
would put petroleum upon the same footing as metals,
that would be welcomed as a really wise reform. This
would mean a certain fixed royalty, part to go to the
Government and part to the owner. Such a change
would benefit the oil companies and the Mexican
people both. It would also end the ridiculous rumours
which attribute all Mexico's troubles to concession-
hunters.
In a case of this kind the best plan is to ask each
concern what it believes its rival has been doing. In
Mexico the two chief oil companies are the Eagle and
the Waters- Pierce. The latter was once connected
with Standard Oil, but the tie which bound them has
been severed, and they have been for some time on
bad terms. So much for the Standard Oil myth 1
I inquired of the Eagle Company whether they believed
the story of the Waters-Pierce people being committed
to the party of so-called " reform." I asked the man-
ager of the Waters-Pierce if he thought the Pearson
interests had " supported " General Huerta. In each
case the answer was an emphatic "No."
There is not a jot or tittle of proof that any oil
company ever gave money to either side. A Committee
of the United States Senate inquired into the vague
charges murmured about and reported that they could
discover nothing but hearsay evidence. The most
persistent rumour alleges that Madero received a large
sum of money from the Waters-Pierce Company, which
was trying to drive Pearson's out of Mexico. I know,
too, that old President Diaz said on his way to Europe
that it was an " oil revolution " which had driven him
out. But even if Madero was " nobbled " in this way,
I do not believe that any oil company has supported
THE OIL RIVALRY MYTH 203
either side since then. Nor is there any reason why
they should have done so. Examine the Eagle " con-
cession," and what does it amount to? It gives no
monopoly, but grants freedom from all taxation except
the stamp tax. Yet the Eagle Company are paying
at exactly the same rate as every one else. The con-
cession also gives leave to exploit Government lands
in four States : but so far the production of the Eagle
Company is obtained entirely from lands which it
either leases or owns. It would be scarcely worth
while to finance either a Government or a revolution
for the sake of a " concession " like that.
XXI
THE ISTHMUS OF TEHUANTEPEC
THERE is one town in Mexico which would repay a
visit from the advocates of " Votes for Women." It
is called Tehuantepec and lies on the isthmus of that
name.
Here dwells a race of Indians among whom the
women are, both in physique and in intelligence, vastly
superior to the men. All the business is in the capable
hands of the superbly-built, handsome matrons of
the tribe. They will not allow a man to sell anything
in the market-place. Even the meat-stalls are in
charge of women, who carve up carcasses and slap
the " prime cuts " on the counter with all the jovial
assurance of the male butcher. If you buy coffee or
bananas off a Tehuana plantation it is with a woman
that you will treat, and she will drive a shrewd
bargain with you.
As soon as you come into the district you find the
women far more noticeable than the men. The latter
are small and insignificant. They seem to have
nothing to do but smoke cigarettes. The women
do that too, but they go about with an air of being
occupied. They walk with an exquisite pictorial
grace, and always as if they were going somewhere on
important business. They are not very dark Indians,
and their features are refined as well as intelligent, so
204
THE ISTHMUS OF TEHUANTEPEC 205
much so that one can easily imagine such faces on
European women of a high class. Of no other Indians
can that be said.
I travelled on the Tehuantepec Railway (built by
Lord Cowdray's firm between the Atlantic and the
Pacific) with several of very striking appearance.
One oldish woman with grey hair and a resolute jaw-
line might have passed easily for a political hostess
in London, the sort of political hostess who pushes a
weak husband into the Cabinet by sheer force of
determination. She wore, as most of them do, a
short red and black jacket of the Zouave type. Her
skirt was simply a sheet of red cotton with a thin white
line in it, draped tightly round her and kept up by
having its end tucked in at the waist. Her feet were
innocent of boots or shoes, but, on the other hand,
her hair was beautifully braided. The usual mode of
hairdressing is to carry a braid all round the head so
as to display its shape. And nearly all theTehuantepec
women put flowers in their hair. At first the contrast
between heads so neat, so elaborate even, and the
sketchy costume below is disconcerting. It is rather
as if a man should wear a top hat and a bathing suit.
However, in such heat as scorches down upon the
isthmus that combination might not be amiss. One
sopn realizes that the head needs protection and the
body as much freedom as possible. Many women wear
simply a loose cotton tunic and a skirt of the kind I
have described, with a good deal of light brown waist
showing in between the two. To this on Sundays
they add incongruously a very large frilled and
" gauffered " linen and lace cap, something like the
caps which Dutch women wear in the islands of the
206 THE REAL MEXICO
Zuyder Zee, only more decorative, and capable of
being worn in a dozen different ways.
In the pillared market hall, open at the sides, they
sit and chatter gaily in sweet-toned voices all day
long. Their wares, mostly fruit or vegetables or grains,
are spread out before them in painted bowls. Around
them play their naked children, all mixed up with
dogs and pigs. I was astonished at first to see children
of between two and three years old being " nursed,"
but this is quite usual Sometimes the little creatures
are suckled till they are four years old. By that time
they have learned to smoke, and they say down here
it is not uncommon for a child to leave its mother's
breast and immediately light an " after-dinner " cigar !
I cannot say that I ever saw this myself.
Like certain other -tribes of Indians, these people
keep themselves very clean. They are as particular
about their daily bath as a New Yorker. One evening
I saw numbers of them in the river, rolling over and
over in their enjoyment of the cool water. It had
been a sweltering day and I envied them. Although
the sun had dropped behind the mountains, leaving
them in deep purply-grey shadow, the air was still
hot. Any exertion inade one instantly sticky. Yet
here the heat is dry and therefore more supportable
than that of the Atlantic side of the isthmus, where
heavy rains produce a tropical jungle.
At first, when the train plunges into this, the green-
ness and shadiness of it are refreshing. The luxuriance
of the growth pleases the eye. The flash and squawk
of parrakeets ; the flutter of blue butterflies nine inches
across; the vivid blossoms, pink and crimson and
scarlet, mauve and purple and blue; the trails of
THE ISTHMUS OF TEHUANTEPEC 207
creeper which hang down and the muffling giant
convolvulus which climbs up to smother all it can,
are all new and attractive. But gradually Nature in
this prolific mood repels one. Sinister suggestions of
danger and death creep into the mind.
At Salina Cruz, the port which Lord Cowdray
created on the Pacific, I felt the same distrust. The
ocean was deliciously blue, reflecting a cloudless sky.
The waves broke on a clean, sandy beach with a most
inviting translucence. But a voice in my ears said,
" Sharks," and when I heard of hurricanes from the
north which blow for a month at a time, when I was
told casually that earthquakes happen " on an average
once a week," when I felt the burning heat of the
December sun, I thanked Heaven for our grey English
seas and skies. " In medio tutissimus ibis " is truer
of climates than of anything else.
One of the " sights " of Salina Cruz is the pelicans
fishing in the harbour. They flop on to the water
with ungainly spread of their great wings, but their
huge beaks generally pierce the fish they have aimed
at. Often seagulls hover round them, trying to steal
their prey. They make a dart for the fish as soon as
the pelican brings it up. He may have to keep it
under water for a long time to escape their thieving
grasp. I shall always remember Salina Cruz by
those pelicans and by the scent of an armful of tuberoses
which a woman brought into the train at dusk. That
strong, heady perfume seemed to symbolize the master-
ful women of Tehuantepec. It brings to memory
their noble brows, their deep-set eyes, their perfect
contours unconfined by corsets, their swaying, rhyth-
mical step.
208 THE REAL MEXICO
I shall remember, too, a " book-agent " I met there,
an American of course. He was selling a book on
the steam-engine, and he surprised me by saying that
the native rail way- workers were buying it " like hot
cakes." The price of it was ten pesos, a sovereign.
He had sold so many that he had to telegraph for a
fresh supply to be sent. " Then they are really
anxious to learn, these Indians? " I asked him.
" Some of them are," he said, " and the rest want
the book so as not to be out of the hunt." He knew
the Mexican Indian pretty well, I fancy, for he had
made arrangements to have the payment for the book
deducted from their wages. Without that precaution
he might in many cases have whistled for his money.
The railway managers know them too. All who
work for the railway are paid what is due to them
every night, so that they may not be tempted by
receiving a week's money in one sum, for them a
large sum, to gamble or drink it away.
The Tehuana men can work well, if they are well
handled. Ten miles from Salina Cruz on the journey
from Puerto Mexico (also known as Coatzacoalcos),
the Atlantic terminus of the line, our engine broke
an axle. A break-down gang was summoned and
under the guidance of two very capable Americans
they did a very heavy piece of work cleverly and
quickly. I call them Tehuanas, but in fact few of
the males in this part are of true Tehuana stock.
That is the explanation of the difference between
them and the women. The Tehuana men were nearly
all killed off in the guerrilla warfare which they kept
up for many years against the Government. They
were a cruel race, given to hideous barbarities. When
THE ISTHMUS OF TEHUANTEPEC 209
they captured the brother of Porfirio Diaz they cut
off the soles of his feet and forced him to walk through
cactus. It were hard to imagine a more devilish
torture.
Yet the cruelty was not all on their part. Even
now appalling pains are inflicted in the name of
justice. A complaint was made recently that some
rolls of wire-netting had been stolen, and a certain man
was named as having been probably concerned with
others in stealing it. In order to induce him to confess
and betray his fellow-thieves he was first put against
a wall and threatened with shooting ; then a rope was
tied round the most tender part of his body. And,
the other end being thrown over the branch of a tree,
he was hauled up, suffering agony of which the very
thought sickens one. The man who lodged the
complaint was horrified. He was a Mexican, but he
had been at school and college in the United States.
In the forests of the Isthmus there is, as in all the
hot country States of Mexico, an inexhaustible wealth
of timber, especially of the finer woods, mahogany,
rosewood, and others used for furniture and dye-
making. In one lumber property, not far from the
railroad, cutting could go on at the rate of 100,000 feet
a day for sixty years. The Pan-American line which
runs from Gamboa through the State of Chiapas to
the Guatemalan frontier taps a rich forest region, and
also a country where banana and pineapple planta-
tions are yielding marvellous crops. North of this
line there is an immense territory waiting to be opened
up. Oil is said to be here as well as every tropical
product. As yet there are no railways between the
Tehuantepec line and the State of Yucatan.
210 THE REAL MEXICO
The Yucatecans have grown rich of late by growing
henequen or sisal hemp, a plant of the cactus tribe
which is used for the manufacture of ships' cables
and " binder twine/' that is, the twine with which
the harvesting machines bind the sheaves as they are
reaped. Grown on a large scale, this sisal grass can
be turned into the greeny-yellow thread which the
rope and twine makers need at a cost of 145. per
hundred kilograms. The selling price of that quantity
is over 505. The number of bales exported yearly
has risen from 97,000 (worth 175,000) in 1880 to
750,000, worth two and a half million pounds. A
more ingenious method of pulping the hemp might
result in the by-production of alcohol and paper.
But the Yucatecans are not famous for energy or
enterprise except in getting the most work out of
the unfortunate Maya Indians, whom they have
enslaved, at the smallest possible cost.
Another railway which branches off the Tehuantepec
line is the Vera Cruz and Isthmus. This runs through
a land of moist, enervating heat where rolling meadows
of vast extent alternate with stretches of jungle.
Here numbers of Americans had settled, in spite of
the climate, to grow sugar-cane and bananas. Many
of these settlers have fled, terrified by stories of murder
and outrage. Only six miles from the Isthmus
railway a farmer named Wood was found tied up to a
tree, his hands above his head and his body slit open.
Another American named Meyer, farming near the
Pan-American line, was also killed, his hands being
first cut off. As many as a hundred American farmers
on the Isthmus have abandoned their holdings, and
gone back penniless to the United States. Yet there
THE ISTHMUS OF TEHUANTEPEC 211
has been no serious revolutionary trouble in this
district . Such crimes are committed by persons who
have got out of hand by reason of the weakening of
authority and the lawless spirit which is rampant
again after being prisoned for thirty years.
XXII
" MEXICAN RAILS "
MEXICO owes her railways, as she owes almost
everything except her magnificent climate and rich
soil, to foreign enterprise. Had she been left to her-
self, the riches would not have been drawn from the
soil, railways would not have been required. Thanks
to British and American capital, she has already a
system which makes communication easy between all
principal points, and as soon as order triumphs over
the Mexicans' inborn preference for turmoil, foreign
companies are ready to extend it. Regions rich in
oil, in minerals, in timber, in tropical products, will
be opened up. The wealth of the country will in-
crease. Its resources will begin to be worked system-
atically, instead of being merely picked at, as they
have been up to now.
I have been warned sometimes against believing
that Mexico is a rich country. One man (brother to a
prominent Scottish M.P.), who has lived there for nine-
teen years, assured me that it only seemed to be rich
" because 2 per cent, of the population were living on
the other 98 per cent.," and because the latter were
in a state resembling slavery. " If they ever got their
fair share," he said, " that would scarcely be enough
to go round." But that, I think, was a view coloured
by indignation against the few who own huge estates
and by sympathy for the many who
212
'MEXICAN RAILS' 218
" tread life's stage
With weary feet and scantest wage,
And ne'er a leaf for laurel."
As an antidote to this, reflect that Mexico can bring
forth every kind of crop, every kind of fruit. Think
of her immense areas suitable for cattle-raising, and
of further vast spaces which only await irrigation to
become fertile. Consider that her gold and silver and
copper production could probably be doubled, and
that her oilfields have only been exploited for a few
years. Only let the Big Stick of firm government
be used energetically, only let the country become
safe again to live in, and fortune will return with both
hands full. Then will begin a new period of railway
development. The existing lines will recover their
prosperity. Many new ones will be laid.
Travelling by rail in Mexico may be a perpetual
entertainment or it may be torture. It must be torture
to people who dislike (i) noise, (2) tobacco smoke,
(3) dust, (4) heat, (5) the company of people who do
not belong to their own particular class and caste.
If you are one of those who only consent to travel
by train on condition of being allowed to shut yourself
up by yourself in a first-class English compartment
or in a Pullman " drawing-room/' then you had better
keep away from Mexico, or if you insist on going there,
only take trains which carry Pullman coaches along
with them.
If, on the other hand, the human comedy delights
you, if you can cheerfully bear a little discomfort for
the sake of varied and picturesque experiences, come
with me and we will take a trip, not in a fast train
upon one of the great highways (where we should
travel by Pullman), but over a line where stoppages
214 THE REAL MEXICO
are frequent and local passenger traffic heavy, where
we can see all classes of travelling Mexicans, from the
patriarchal " hacendado," or landowner, down to the
" peons " who have scraped together just enough to
enjoy what is, next to getting drunk, their favourite
diversion, a ride in the " Ferrocarril."
To-day there is a " fiesta " at a town some thirty
miles away. A famous relic is to be exposed. There
will be a fair, with gambling booths. Vile liquor will
be sold cheaply. The church will be suffocating at
mass time, and afterwards the day will be one long
carouse. That is why, half-an-hour before the train is
due to start, the ticket office is a seething, sweltering
jam of men and women, all chattering, all pushing, all
frantically afraid of being left behind.
This is a common scene at Mexican railway stations.
We ought to have taken our tickets beforehand.
Never mind; we can pay in the train if it comes to
the worst. Meanwhile there is plenty to look at.
As the Indians come out with their tickets, counting
their change several times over with puzzled lines
across their brown foreheads, you can see that they
are of many types. There is a slant-eyed Mongol,
there a high-cheek-boned North American, there an
Aztec face. You see, too, that whenever their costume
exceeds bare coverings (which is not often) their taste
runs to finery. They are of all ages. Old people like
that couple over there : grandfather wears a huge grey
sugarloaf hat and big iron-rimmed spectacles ; granny
holds a glistening gaily coloured shield over her bare
head to keep off the sun. Men in the prime of life
with silver buttons and tassels on their tight breeches
of Jodhpur cut. Buxom women, with brown babies
slung on their backs or placidly ta.king breakfast as
'MEXICAN RAILS' 215
Nature meant them to. Girls, slim or plump, with
large, liquid eyes and the supple, swimming carriage
of bodies which have never known constraint. Children
in swarms, solemn little morsels, with infinitely attrac-
tive features and grubby, warm palms that will soon
rest in yours confidingly, if you take the trouble to
make friends.
Pattering and clattering and chattering, the brown
folk pack themselves into the second-class (there are
only two classes) long, airy coaches with seats down
each side and a bench, on which passengers sit
back to back, in the middle. The first-class are like
unto them except that they have a gangway down the
middle with double seats on either side of it, covered
either with leather or with rush-work for the sake of
coolness, and with movable backs. If the train were
not full we could secure a section, that is, two seats
facing each other, to ourselves, but this is impossible
to-day. The first thing that we notice as we climb
into the already crowded carriage is the strong smell
of soap. To that you must grow accustomed in Mexico.
Men and women there both like strong scents. The
ladies use a powder which stands out on their faces
like frozen snow on the side of a house and which
wafts a penetrating perfume. I have heard an Ameri-
can woman say that, after being kissed by any of her
Mexican friends, she is always in fear of lead poisoning !
Recovering from this we have our attention attracted
by the oddity of the luggage they have with them.
They carry innumerable packages, which look as if
they were on the point of coming undone. One woman
has a pailful of clothes, another carries, in addition
to her parcels, a birdcage filled with boots, a string
of pomegranates, and a large earthenware jar. The
216 THE REAL MEXICO
pomegranates have been acquired on the journey.
The Mexican when he travels must be for ever buying.
He will buy fruit, flowers, sweetmeats of positively
lethal appearance, toys, walking-sticks, sugar-cane,
opals, tortoises, drinks of pulque, cheeses, crabs, fish
11 just out of the sea." At a little place called Boca
del Rio, in the State of Vera Cruz, a man tried to sell
me a small live pig ! That reminded me of a fellow-
traveller I once had in the Caucasus, who bought at
a station near Tiflis a live lamb.
Selling at the Mexican railway stations is a lucra-
tive occupation for thousands of women and girls.
" Tamales, tamalitos," is a cry constantly heard; if
you are bold you will certainly buy, once at any rate,
some of these " savoury messes " of meat and Indian
corn and hot seasoning of green or red peppers, which
are handed up to the window in a maize-stalk wrapping.
It is never safe to walk along under the windows of
a train, since spitting is a national habit. At stations
where eatables are sold it is especially undesirable.
You are more than likely to be hit by a bone or a
tamale wrapper cast out by some careless diner.
The dogs know this ; there are always troops of skinny,
furtive curs foraging about in the dust in hope of a
meal.
Even between the stations the childlike desire of
the passengers to be spending their money is catered
for. The " newsagent " in the train sells not only
magazines and books, but oranges, sweets, bananas,
bottled beer and sweet pink lemonade. I have
actually seen men buy pear drops at eight o'clock in
the morning. Should there be nothing new to buy,
the passengers look out for anything they can snap
up along the line. I remember a stop between stations
'MEXICAN RAILS' 21T
in Sonora being enlivened by a raid upon a quince
orchard. We all got over a wire and picked as many
as we wanted. Some adventurers went further afield
and found peaches, but they were like cobble-stones.
I wonder if the owner of the quinces ever knew.
Mexican trains start and stop very much less vio-
lently than trains in the United States and Canada.
The engine-drivers of these latter countries show their
independent spirit and their contempt for the passengers
by a series of hideous jolts and jerks at every halt
and every renewal of the journey. Another difference
which men appreciate is that tobacco may be smoked
in the carriages and not only in a lavatory along with
glistening tin basins. Many American trains do not
provide accommodation for smokers at all, and very
often they sternly refuse to let you drink a glass of
beer or wine with your meal in the dining-car or in
railway restaurants. Mexicans would not submit to
any such curtailment of personal liberty. In our train
there is no dining-car, but we have twenty minutes
allowed us to take our lunch at a " meal station."
In the restaurant all is ready. We are served with
excellent soup, omelettes, dishes of stewed mutton
and grilled steak, sweet potatoes and salad, a sugary
cake, oranges, and coffee, all for two shillings. The
Indians eat at little tables set close alongside the train
for shade and a fine subject this would make for a
painter who delighted in colour and strong sunlight.
Meanwhile our engine is coaling by means of a
basket, which one man fills and then upsets into the
tender, rather a lengthy process, which stretches our
twenty minutes to forty. The inhabitants of the
place are, no doubt, grateful. The daily passing of
the train is their one excitement. They stand or
218 THE REAL MEXICO
lean against walls, perfectly still, and stare, such of
them as have nothing to sell, without any expression
whatever. You wonder what they are thinking about ?
It is highly improbable that they are thinking at all.
As the day wears on the dust becomes a burden hard
to bear. Outside the landscape sizzles in the heat.
All the windows are open. The carriage is filled
with a thick golden haze. Dust seems to be regarded
by these people as a normal element to breathe in. I
envy the old women who cover themselves up with
their black veils. I feel particularly sorry for the
nurse, with long tails of glistening hair down her back
and a chequered " rebozo," or shawl, which makes
her look like Highland Mary. To attend to a squally
baby under such conditions must be torture.
Yet when sunset streaks the sky with gold and
crimson one forgets every discomfort. After the
day's heat comes a delicious coolness. We buy a
cake each of excellent bread and stay our hunger. The
desire for tea is cheated by oranges bursting with
sweet juice. A gentle wind fans us. The sticky
feeling which has oppressed us all afternoon ceases.
I shall never forget coming suddenly to the sea at the
end of such a day. The sound of the waves was
sweetest music. The measureless blue and the palms
waving on the beach filled my soul with content.
Then the blue velvet cloak of night was drawn around
us, and the fireflies flecked it with gold spangles, and
the moon came up, a sickle of bright glory. Those are
the hours which touch travel upon Mexico's 16,000
miles of railway with an ineffable, unforgettable joy.
Of these 16,000 miles the National Railways own
about half. The nationalization was planned and
very skilfully put through by Sefior Limantour, the
'MEXICAN RAILS' 219
French Finance Minister, who was to have been
Don Porfirio's successor. Of the 46,000,000 of stock
the Mexican Government owns just over half, 50*3
to be exact, against 497 in private hands. That gives
the Government control of voting power; it also
guarantees the Four per Cent. General Mortgage
Bonds. But it does not work the National Railways
as a branch of Government. The foreign bankers
who provided the money for Senor Limantour's opera-
tion made it a condition that this should not be
attempted. They knew the Mexican character with
its ability " to resist everything except temptation,"
its unfitness to manage anything upon progressive
lines. Consequently the direction remained in Ameri-
can hands. At first the train-crews were also American.
That has now been changed. Engine-drivers, firemen,
conductors, auditors (ticket examiners) and brakemen
are, on the National lines, almost all Mexican, and
they have been drilled into doing their work pretty
well. The American railwaymen hastened their own
dismissal. It is commonly said that many conductors
and auditors made fortunes by dishonest dealing.
Between Guanajuato and the capital no regular
travellers used tickets. They tipped the conductors
instead !
There is no dishonesty now, although the Mexicans
are paid less than the Americans used to be. They
are too carefully watched. At first the native servants
of the road received from one to three shillings a day.
Now their pay ranges from two to ten and even twelve
shillings. Railway employment has largely helped to
create that middle class which is the real disturber
in Mexico.
The lines which were merged into the Nationa,
220 THE REAL MEXICO
Railways were : (a) the old National, (b) the old
Mexican Central, (c) the Mexican International.
Afterwards the Pan-American and the Vera Cruz-to-
Isthmus Companies were bought out, while the Inter-
oceanic line was leased. The important systems out-
side the National are
1. The Mexican Railway built with British capital
in 1873 and known for many years as " The Queen's
Own"; this runs from the capital to Vera Cruz, a
journey of about eleven hours, which can be made
comfortably in a sleeping-car at night, but which it is
well worth making at least once in the daytime for
the sake of the wonderful views when the line drops
from the Tierra Fria to the Tierra Templada, and
again from this semi-tropical zone to the " hot land "
of the Gulf Coast (see Chapter XV).
2. The Southern Pacific of Mexico, closely connected
with the United States Southern Pacific. This begins
at Nogales, on the frontier of Sonora, runs through
Hermosillo to Guaymas (264 miles), and thence to
Tepic (667 miles). From Tepic it is to be continued
to Orendain, whence it will run over the National line
to Guadalajara. Possibly it may be extended in time
to Mexico City, by way of Lake Chapala.
3. The Mexican North- Western, one of the F. S.
Pearson interests (not to be confused with Lord
Cowdray's firm), starts from El Paso (Texas), or,
rather, from Juarez, which is just across the Rio
Grande, and runs as far as the city of Chihuahua, with
ramifications into mining and timber districts. This
company, with its 472 miles of track, has suffered
proportionately more than any other from the revo-
lutions of the last three years (see Chapter III).
4. The Isthmus of Tehuantepec Railway, built by
1 MEXICAN RAILS* 221
Lord Cowdray for the Mexican Government and leased
to him for operation upon a profit-sharing basis. At
each end a new port has been created. Salina Cruz
on the Pacific is a marvel of perfectly-equipped basins,
quays, and warehouses where a few years ago was only
foam-flecked sand. At Coatzacoalcos, on the Gulf of
Mexico, there is a river, forming a natural harbour;
here also machinery has been installed which shifts
cargo with the utmost speed. This railway owns
more rolling stock to the mile than any other. Over
its 184 miles run 1,900 cars. Its passenger traffic is
small, but a large trade in all kinds of merchandise is
carried on by means of it between Europe, the Atlantic
seaboard, the Pacific coast of the United States and
Canada, Honolulu, Hawaii, and the Far East. Enor-
mous quantities of sugar are brought from Hawaii,
and Salina Cruz holds the record for rapidity in un-
loading this cargo, 7,500 tons, in nineteen hours.
Speed is, of course, more necessary here than in most
ports. No time must be lost in transhipment. In
eleven days, not long ago, 12,500 tons of sugar were
unloaded from a ship, and 8,500 tons of general
merchandise were put into her. A German skipper
at Coatzacoalcos told me they unloaded there more
quickly than at Havre. Even when the Panama
Canal is opened the Tehuantepec route will still be
used ; it will in all probability be used more than it is
now. The trade between east and west will increase,
and this means of dispatch will have advantages over
Panama in that the Isthmus is more conveniently
placed than the Canal for ocean traffic, and that the
charges across the former are not so high as the Canal
tolls will be (see also Chapter XXI).
The most interesting of the new railways already
222 THE REAL MEXICO
planned and authorized are the coast lines which will
run from Tampico north to Matamoros and south to
Tuxpam and Vera Cruz. The interest of these is
heightened by the fact that they pass through the
oil regions, which are going to hold the world's attention
for a great many years to come. There will also be a
short line from Tampico to Mexico City, and possibly
one from Tuxpam as well. A still shorter line, but
one with excellent prospects, is the Tampico-Panuco,
which will connect up a promising oil district with
the oil capital. These, with the exception of the last
mentioned, will be built by the National Lines. British
capital is to construct a railway starting from Santa
Lucrecia (where the Vera Cruz and Isthmus joins the
Tehuantepec Line), running through the State of
Tabasco and Campeche, tapping some of the richest
tropical country in the world, and connecting up with
the railway system of Yucatan. From the Pacific
harbour of Acapulco to Sihuatanejo further west
another line is planned, and the idea is to connect this
with Balsas, the terminus of a line which runs due
south from Mexico City through that most delightful
of pleasure towns, Cuernavaca.
The standard of railway management in Mexico is
high. With civil war going on, one cannot expect
either the same comfort or the same punctuality as
one would demand in times of peace. But considering
that the National Lines have suffered actual damage
to the value of 2,500,000, and that their services have
constantly to be suspended because the track has been
dynamited or bridges burned away, every one con-
nected with them, from Mr. E. N. Brown and Mr.
Hudson (president and vice-president) downwards,
deserves credit for the plucky fight that has been
4 MEXICAN RAILS' 228
made to give any service at all. Added to other
difficulties has been that of keeping the engines supplied
with fuel. The Mexican railways use oil instead of
coal, which makes travelling infinitely more pleasant.
There is no dirt from the locomotive, no grits to
torture the eyes, no foul smoke, no smell. Oil is
cheaper, too, which perhaps helps to account for the
lowness of fares. First-class works out at i^d. a mile,
second-class at \d. The bulk of the second-class
passengers are peons, who are as fond of travelling
by train as the natives of India. They will often take
their whole family quite a long distance and then walk
back. Religious fiestas give them plenty of excuses
for excursions. The railways make 30,000 a year
out of the December pilgrimage to the shrine of Our
Lady of Guadalupe, near the capital.
The success of the Mexican National Railways is
not an argument in favour of nationalization, for they
are worked by a private company still. But it is
worth while noting that the Mexican Railway Laws
are considered by experts to be " almost perfect."
Sefior Limantour is not reputed to have been a politician
of the highest wisdom, but he certainly had a con-
ception of government as a science. He had a com-
plete study made of the railway legislation of various
countries before deciding what to do. In 1900 the
Mexican Congress passed the law which was the result
of such study, and this has served usefully ever since.
The Railway Commission appointed as adviser to the
Ministry of Communications works in perfect harmony
with the managers. The latter cannot get quite all
they want, but they admit that the Commissioners
are always reasonable. Nine in number, they are
appointed in this way : five by the Government,
224 THE REAL MEXICO
two by the railways, one by the Boards of Trade
(Chambers of Commerce), and one by the agricultural
societies. Thus all interests are considered, and when
the Mexicans cease from behaving like wild animals,
the railways will be the chief agent in the development
of their country along the most promising lines.
Every one knows how much the Canadian Pacific
Railway did for the Dominion. It is quite likely that
the railways of Mexico may do as much for her. Here
is a land which could support sixty instead of sixteen
millions of people. Here are 500,000 square miles
ready to bring forth their increase as soon as they are
tilled. The best hope of improving the peon is by
giving him an example of industry and energy and
common sense. The railways can help to do this by
bringing in settlers of more vigorous blood. They
are depressed at present, but they will some day be
as valuable as any railways in the world.
XXIII
THE CHARACTER OF THE MEXICAN
I. THE INDIAN
THERE is one key, and one only, to an understand-
ing of the Mexican Indian. That key is to realize that
understand him fully one never can. This is not a
paradox. It is a plain statement of fact. To Euro-
peans (of course I include Americans in that term)
the Mexican mind is a mystery ; just as much a mystery
as the Chinese mind. All Asiatics are a puzzle to us.
They do not reason as we do. Their standards are
different. Their minds are divided into compartments,
it appears. Whether the Indians who peopled Mexico
before the Spaniards came were descended from
Asiatic immigrants, or whether Asia was invaded in
the twilight of the world by races from the American
continent, no one can yet tell. But clearly the
Mexicans are " Asiatic " in the sense that they and
the peoples of Asia had common ancestry.
One might be forced to this conclusion by the
prevalence in Mexico of the Chinese and Japanese
and Burmese types of face. When I saw the Twenty-
ninth Regiment, the most trusted of all, on parade in
Mexico City, I cried out and a British officer who
was with me felt at the same instant the same impulse
of speech "They might be Japanese." Beetle-
browed, with bright eyes set in expressionless faces;
Q 225
226 THE REAL MEXICO
stocky, short of stature, firmly set upon their feet,
they proclaimed an unmistakable relationship. It
is not often that one sees so many of the same type
together, but in almost all parts of the country one
notices frequently peons who might be Orientals. A
Tehuantepec woman smoking a cigar could pass easily
for " the Burmese girl a-sitting " on the road to
Mandalay. Watch labourers in linen drawers trotting
about their tasks with a sullen alacrity : you could
fancy yourself in China or Japan. Nor is it only
among the lower class that Oriental features are com-
mon. General Huerta, himself a pure Indian, might,
if he were dressed in Mandarin's robes, be mistaken
for a genuine wearer of the Yellow Jacket.
And this cousinship with the Far East, which is
suggested by facial resemblance, becomes doubly
certain when Mexican mental characteristics are
studied. Those who have been longest in the country
are those who say they know the people least. They
are a people full of contradictions. For example,
nearly every Briton or American in Mexico says
flatly that all Mexicans are dishonest. " Wouldn't
trust any of them. Crooked all the time." Yet I
have found that nearly every Briton and American
has found one Mexican at least whom he can trust
implicitly. In offices, on ranches, on farms, there are
natives to whom everything is confided, and most of
them are faithful to their charge. A ranchero from
Texas who had been assuring me that every Mexican
was a born liar and thief, remarked casually later on
that, when he went away, he put everything in charge
of " old Trinidad," who looked, after his interests
as Well as he could himself. An Englishman who
solemnly warned me against ever trusting a Mexican,
THE CHARACTER OF THE MEXICAN 227
pointed out to me next day a young man in his em-
ployment, in whose keeping, he said, he would gladly
and confidently leave all he possessed in the world.
These trusted Mexicans are generally pure Indians.
They may not be able to write or read. They may
keep their master's accounts by tying knots in a piece
of string. They may be both ignorant and incurious of
all that lies beyond the range of their daily experience.
But, partly because they are attached to their masters,
partly because they believe that any delinquency is
certain to be found out by " white magic/' they prove
themselves good and faithful servants. " Leave their
land and their women alone, treat them decently and
above all justly, keep drink away from them, don't
excite them by putting into their heads ideas for
which they are not ready, then the Indians are as
good creatures as you will find anywhere." That is
what a man told me who has lived among them and
employed them for a great many years.
Drink is their curse. Pulque, mescal, a fiery spirit
distilled from a cactus root; aguardiente, the brandy
that burns; tekhuila (tekeela), which is fermented
pulque men and women alike are eager for all these
poisons. They madden themselves also with a drug
called marihuana. This has strange and terrible
effects. It appears to make those who swallow it do
whatever is uppermost in their thoughts. At El Paso
a peon came across the International Bridge firing a
rifle at all and sundry. Much talk against the
Americans and a dose of marihuana had decided him
to invade the United States by himself. The bridge-
keeper quickly put a bullet into the poor wretch.
Like all primitive races the Indians lack self-control
in gambling as well as in the use of intoxicants. At
228 THE REAL MEXICO
every fiesta crowds gather round games of chance at
which the " bank " is bound to win. I made a round
of gambling saloons in Guadalajara one night. It
seemed impossible that any people could consent so
cheerfully to be fleeced. One green table had on its
partitions pictures of animals instead of numbers.
When the stakes had been placed, the proprietor
looked to see which animal had been most lightly
backed, fired with an air-gun at one of a set of little
doors in a cupboard at the end of the room, and the
animal he wanted came out ! Small wonder that such
an ingenious folk are peculiarly susceptible to the
influence of inflated language. They are in all essentials
children, subject to the most_sudden changes, capricious,
unstable, :%ery easily moved.
Yet pleasant rhildreikJtoQ 1 _In their native con-
dition they are courteous, fond of Animals, Jond of
flowers. A smile goes further in Mexico than in any
country I know. They respond quickly to kindness,
even to common politeness. In the street one day I
picked up a hammer which had been dropped by two
masons working inside a window a little way from
the ground. They overwhelmed me with the most
gracious smiles and expressions of thanks. Yet those
same men would have cheerfully killed me, and even
tortured me in the most hideous fashion, if an anti-
foreign riot had started, as many thought it would at
that time.
In the same way, though they like petting animals,
they do not look after them. Dogs and cats have to
pick up their own living, and are most of them miserably
thin. An acquaintance of mine in a small town had
six puppies on his hands, and told an Indian woman
they were to be dro wned. She was genuinely grieved
THE CHARACTER OF THE MEXICAN 229
and asked if he would give them to her. " What, all ? "
" Yes, all," though she had two dogs already. He
sent the puppies to her. Five died from sheer neglect.
Another man complained to me that his Indian neigh-
bour's mules, which were never fed, ate his family's
washing. It appears to be the general belief in Mexico
that mules can exist on a diet of rocks and tin cans.
Nor is it only neglect from which animals suffer.
They are often horribly ill-treated, not from cruelty,
but from lack of sympathetic imagination. Mexicans
are not disgusted by the sight of the gored horses in
bull-fighting, their national pastime. Cock-fighting is
practised openly. They work horses and donkeys
with the most horrible sores upon them. The way
they carry fowls and animals to market is often
revolting. Yet, if they were rated for inhumanity,
they would be astonished and aggrieved.
The same limitation of mental grasp is betrayed
by their having very little sense of time or distance,
and by their inattention to anything which does not
personally concern them. I asked a country boy who
was guiding me the names of several birds we saw.
He could not tell me one of them. At another place
a dam was being built ; a peon living close by knew
nothing whatever about it. As in all such cases, his
answer was a humble " How could I know, senor? "
Yet he knew a great deal about the habits of the
wild-fowl we were after. Like animals, he and his
kind are often quick and clever over the processes
which win them their food.
Like animals too, they only do work enough to
supply their simplest needs. They are paid very
little, that is true. But they need not be pitied on
that score. Their dwellings are of " adobe " (mud)
230 THE REAL MEXICO
brick, or of bamboo, mere huts about fourteen^ feet
by twelve; the roof covered with wooden shingles
or roughly rush- thatched ; the floor of earth. Their
possessions are a stove, a few pots and pans, a pestle
and mortar, a rolling-pin and a platter for the making
of tortillas. They need little money for life in these
conditions, and few of them show any desire for
change. If they are paid more, they work less. The
only way to get more out of them is to multiply their
needs, induce them to save up for gramophones and
sewing-machines, set the fashion among them of
wearing clothes, boots, watches; persuade them to
sleep in beds, sit on chairs, eat off plates and live in
houses instead of " pigging it " in hovels. That is
the process glibly called civilization : no doubt it will
be applied in course of years.
Whether it will improve the Indian is another
question. Many who know him think it will be his
ruin. At present many tribes command respect by
their fine physique and noble bearing. The Aztecs
of the Valley of Mexico, ground down into national
degradation by Spanish tyranny, have a shrinking
air of melancholy remembrance. But that is excep-
tional. Most of the Indians on their own tierras, to
which they are deeply attached, and which, however
far they wander, draw them back from time to time,
are people in whom there is much to like and to admire.
Transplant them into towns, give them the idea
that they are " as good as any one else," inflame them
with abuse of the rich or the foreigner, smear a little
miscalled " education " upon them, and they quickly
deteriorate. Though their religion is little different
from the idolatry which their ancestors practised, it
must have some restraining, stimulating effect. See
THE CHARACTER OF THE MEXICAN 231
them kneeling with widely outstretched arms before
the Blessed Sacrament, or toiling on their knees up a
stony steep to a place of pilgrimage, and it is impossible
to doubt this. Take religion away, which " educa-
tion," as a rule, effectually does, and supply nothing
in its place ; the result can be foreseen.
A few raise themselves in the scale of labour and
to a higher standard of living. They are often clever
artisans, mechanics, masons, carpenters, electricians,
and so on. Their children wear shoes and stockings,
may be sent to some third-rate school in the United
States, grow up into the middle class. But of the
mass of town Indians it may be said that their last
state is worse in every way than that from which
they were taken. It is no use supposing that Indians
can be developed en masse into Europeans by being
" educated " ; still less can they be expected for many
years to come either to understand or to make use
of a constitution on European lines.
II. THE MEXICAN PROPER
Between the mass of Indian peons in Mexico and
the few aristocrats who still claim pure Spanish
descent come the half-castes^ If at this time of day
any persuasion were needed, ift^ would persuade one
that the mingling of races isa 1 " crime,. They have
inherited the vices of both Spaniard and Indian without
any of their virtues. X nev nave neither the Spaniard's
dignity nor the Indian's simplicity. They are proud
without having anything to be" proud of ; punctilious
over trifles, but casual in matters of moment ; cowards
both physical and moral, in spite of their braggadocio ;
mean and crafty and " crooked " beyond belief. " A
232 THE REAL MEXICO
Mexican would always rather earn fifty cents by a
trick than a dollar by honest work." That sums them
up not unfairly.
They practise fraud in the smallest as well as in
the largest affairs. Honest Ministers and Government
officials are exceptional. At Vera Cruz lately a small
steamer was purchased for military use. The price
was 55,000 pesos (5,500). The bill was made out for
more than twice as much. A certain foreigner in
Mexico City had a claim against the Government for
2,800. He could not get paid. At last he offered
to give 1,000 of it to a very high official. He received
his money at once. Such dishonesty runs all through,
down to the railway passengers, who travel without
tickets and tell pitiful stories to kind-hearted conduc-
tors, while they have money in their pockets all the
time.
Another trick is to offer a conductor a large note
for a small fare, and when he cannot change it to say
airily, " Next time." One American conductor on
whom this had been played more than once by the
same man punished him in the end. He wrapped
up in a newspaper all the copper coins he took, until
he had enough to change a 25-peso (2 los.) note.
When, as he expected, the note was offered, he took
it and gave the astonished Mexican the newspaper
parcel.
The manager of a factory near Orizaba told me it
was hopeless to try and stop pilfering by the workers,
and almost hopeless to seek for Mexican cashiers at
once competent and honest. When they do not steal,
they are usually muddle-headed. One hotel in which
I stayed had made the experiment of engaging a
Mexican to keep the books. The accounts he presented
THE CHARACTER OF THE MEXICAN 233
caused an uproar. He had them all muddled up. He
was discharged, arid the whole work had to be done
over again.
Of their personal dignity the Mexicans are very
jealous before witnesses; but even the highly-placed
may be talked to with the utmost frankness in private.
In the presence of others they must be addressed as
if they were beyond the reach of suspicion and deserved
the highest consideration. A labourer will never
forget or forgive being rated before his fellows. The
way to reprimand him without filling his mind with
murderous thoughts is to do it chafnngly. Good
humour is very necessary in handling them, and a
cynical tolerance. That is why Englishmen succeed
better than Americans, as a rule. The American is
inclined to be impatient, to expect too much, to lose
his temper. He often neglects the small courtesies
to which in Mexico so much importance is attached.
These are apt, it is true, to be annoying. A servant
will not fail to inquire in the morning, " How did you
pass the night?" The most casual introduction is
followed by a murmured flow of honorific phrases.
Even telephone conversations open with a mutual
twitter of politeness which to Anglo-Saxon ears sounds
like foolish waste of time. A friend of mine, exas-
perated by hearing one of his clerks invariably inquire
over the wire after the health of each member of a
family before he got to business, suggested to him
that he might confine himself to what he really wanted
to say. " I am as well educated as you are/ 1 retorted
the boy (meaning " better educated ") and flung out
of the office. In order to get communication quickly
it is advisable always to address the telephone girl as
" senorita," and to ask her if she will " do you the
234 THE REAL MEXICO
favour " to put you through. Facile to say that all
this lip-service " means nothing/ 5 But it certainly
makes Mexico a pleasant country for the stranger,
and in any case it always eases life to fall in with the
habits of people whose guest you happen to be.
Neither Spaniards nor Indians lack courage. They
can die bravely. At Monterrey I saw peon soldiers
walk calmly across a fire-swept square. They knew,
no doubt, what bad shots the men on the other side
were, but still, when bullets are zipping through the
air, it is not easy to be unconcerned. A finer quality
of courage than that was displayed by a group" of boys
of good Spanish families in Monterrey, who were
captured by Orosco and shot because they would not
cry " Viva Carranza " and abjure their cause. It was
not lack of imagination but sheer grit which made
them brave. The mestizo, on the other hand, is usually
afraid. In a train one day a few rebels came through
demanding that revolvers should be given up; they
needed them. The Mexicans who wore them could
not unbuckle the cases from their hips fast enough.
A short, square American railway-man sat among
them. " Have you a pistol, senor? " he was asked.
" Yes," he said grimly, " and if you want it, you'll
have to take it." The rebels looked at him, and left
him alone.
Even in large bodies Mexicans are easy to overawe.
In the city of Guadalajara there was a revolutionary
outbreak which assumed an anti-foreign complexion.
There were no local grievances to speak of, so the
agitators stirred the people up with lurid accounts
of the killing of a Mexican in Texas. A crowd soon
came together, and went about threatening foreigners'
houses. Around one they became violent, so the
THE CHARACTER OF THE MEXICAN 235
householder fired into them from his roof. One man
was killed. The crowd melted away. The trouble
was over.
There was a ludicrous example of the want of pluck
both among citizenfolk and among the rebels at a
town in Michoacan. One day a small band of Revol-
tosos armed with machetes (knives) held up the place,
" borrowed " 500 from the leading people, and carried
off all the fire-arms they could collect. Shortly after
this four Americans arrived and found the towns-
people terribly perturbed. The rebels were threatening
another visit, demanding another 500. The town
was a town of over a thousand inhabitants. There
must have been in it at least 150 able-bodied men, and
the " Bandidos," as they called the enemy, numbered
less than thirty. Yet it never occurred to the able-
bodied townsmen to resist. The Americans were more
enterprising. They had a message sent out to say
that a large number of " Gringoes " had come into the
place and were determined to fight. The messenger
was told to add on his own account that the Gringoes
were looking forward to the battle. The town was
not troubled any more.
Along with this unreadiness to risk their skins goes
a bombastic exaggeration of dangers. From a place
called Wadley in the State of San Luis Potosi there
rode out one day a body of Rurales (military police)
to hunt out a rebel commando. They took no pre-
cautions, sent ahead no scouts. Suddenly they were
fired on at very close range from the roadside and
several were killed. There were only a few rebels,
but the Rurales galloped back and told how they had
fought desperately against tremendous odds !
Worse than cowardly was the behaviour of another
236 THE REAL MEXICO
troop of Rurales sent to guard a mine in the State of
Jalisco. When a band of Insurrectos came in sight,
an Englishman named Harrison, who was in charge
of the property, asked them whether they would stay
and fight, or run. They said they would run. Mr.
Harrison therefore met the rebels when they arrived,
and was making terms with them when the Rurales
opened fire from a hill above and killed four men.
Never was man nearer death than the Englishman in
that hour. Fortunately he was known to some of the
rebels, who vouched for him, saying that he could
not be involved in such treachery. His life was there-
fore spared. The Rurales were chased into the woods,
several were killed, the rest were deprived of their
rifles and ammunition, and even of their clothes. Then
they sent in a report saying they had defeated the
rebels severely; and that report appeared in the
newspapers. So is the country deceived.
The nerves even of Mexican officers are apt to give
way. At Nuevo Laredo one night, while I was there,
a Major who had been in action and had lost about
forty men, was so shaken that when he got back to
barracks he changed into civilian clothes, walked
down to the Rio Grande, waded across in the darkness
and disappeared into the United States. It is cowar-
dice which makes the mass of Mexicans refuse to take
sides. They are afraid of stepping down upon the
wrong one. Among no people is there more windy
talk of patriotism. Judging by the number of statues
to be seen everywhere, there must have been more
" patriots " to the square mile in Mexico than in any
other country of the world. Yet example and precept
are alike barren. If the hacendados had supplied
themselves with arms and ammunition and taught
THE CHARACTER OF THE MEXICAN 237
their peons to use them, as, for example, the El Oro
mining companies, the Necaxa Electric Power Works,
and other foreign employers have done, they would
not now be wailing their heavy losses, and the civil
war might be over. Mexicans themselves admit
regretfully that " there is no patriotism among us."
They forget that this virtue, like charity, should
" begin at home."
The Oriental nature of the Mexican appears in his
treatment of women. They are regarded as ministers
to his comfort and his pleasure, and they seem con-
tented enough. They go out very little. In the plazas
on Sunday evening, and in many towns on a week
night as well, they walk round and round, or sit in
the lamplight, listening to the band (which, as a rule,
is good, for to this extent the Mexicans are a musical
people). Their toilettes are made with elaborate care,
and sometimes with taste. Their hair is dressed to
perfection. In a small town with no other evidence
of wealth, this is surprising. But if you could follow
them home, you would find that many of them lived
in conditions not far removed from squalor. The
Mexican woman usually spends the earlier part of the
day the whole day if she does not go out or receive
visitors in a slovenly wrapper.
In well-to-do families the girls are usually without
any occupation. They sit about for hours, unemployed,
not wanting employment. Their thoughts run, and
their talk pivots, upon Men. Marriage is their one
idea. After marriage they cease to trouble about
their appearance. They age quickly and grow stout.
How far off they remain from the habits of American
and European women may be judged by their mourning
customs. For at least six months, usually for a year
238 THE REAL MEXICO
after her husband's death, a widow is not seen in the
streets. For twelve months she wears heavy crape,
then for another year lighter black, then for a further
period black and white.
Many women still keep up the practice of driving
in closed carriages, which in the glorious Mexican
climate must be torture. They would not think it
seemly to take the air in what American slang calls
" low-necked " vehicles. " Backward," indeed, the
Mexican woman must seem to Europe and the United
States. Yet she has the qualities of he* defects (if
defects they be). She is a good wife, a mother loving
and beloved by all her children. It is to her that the
intensity of Mexican family life is mainly due. The
father rules in appearance as an autocrat of unchal-
lenged authority. The mother is frequently the power
behind the throne; or, if it be truly a tyranny, she
softens the yoke and gives Home a tender magnetism
which never fails.
Gradually influences from outside are modifying
the life of the Mexican upper and middle classes. The
ascendancy of Senor Limantour, who was iivessence
a Frenchman, did a great deal to break dowi^the
feeling that " what was good enough for my father
ought to be good enough for me." He made familiar
the European idea that everything should be done
decently and in order, that spaciousness should be
aimed at, and seemliness without and within. In the
capital he had his way. At all events the outside of
the platter shines. Slowly other cities are following
the lead. Much prejudice still persists, though, in
favour of dirt and darkness and confusion. The
Government telegraph office in Monterrey, a dark
little dog-hole up a stair, is disgraceful, and the market
THE CHARACTER OF THE MEXICAN 239
of that prosperous city deserves a worse epithet. One
night I passed there and saw hundreds of rats scamper-
ing fearless, attracted by the refuse. A petition for
meat-covers was signed by many foreigners, but the
Mayor would have none of ". this new-fangled fussiness."
Yet one can see a bright side even to the Mexican's
unwillingness to adopt the standards which civilization
imposes. In more civilized countries there is a pretty
clear line of separation between classes. In Mexico
the relations between all sorts and conditions of men
are far more human than in the United States or in
England. A cabman has no hesitation in asking his
fare for a cigarette, if he wants one. I have seen a
train " auditor " (who corresponds roughly to an
English " guard ") sit down by an officer in a railway
carriage, and neither think anything of it. There is
scarcely any snobbery in Mexico; that is one reason
for its being such a pleasant land to travel through.
The same is true of Russia; an additional argument
in favour of the suggestion I have already made
that these two countries are beneath a thin crust of
modernity in much the same stage of development
the stage through which Britain passed during the
Wars of the Roses, five and a half centuries ago.
XXIV
THE MEXICAN AT HOME
ANGLO-SAXON peoples have a gift for home-making
which is denied to the rest of the world. It is especially
denied to such as dwell in perpetual hot sunshine.
These do not need homes as Anglo-Saxons do, in chilly
England, for example, with its seven months of long,
dark evenings. Yet to Anglo-Saxons in a hot country
the climate makes no difference. They must have
homes, sunshine or no sunshine. They have certain
definite ideas of comfort which they insist upon carry-
ing into effect, and by their own standards they judge
all other people's houses. That is why they pronounce,
and why I pronounce, Mexican homes comfortless.
To our eyes they are stiff and cold and uninhabitable.
But it is quite possible that Mexicans might not like
ours.
The first requisite for being comfortable in any home
is a certain untidiness. No Mexican house is untidy
I speak now of what would in England be called
" gentlemen's houses." The Indians live mostly in
wooden " shacks " or flimsy huts which they make
themselves. Let me quote a description from Viva
Mexico, one of the best books ever written about this
or any other country
" A small inclosure of bamboo, fourteen feet by
twelve perhaps, the steep, pointed roof covered with
rough hand-made shingles of a soft wood that soon
THE MEXICAN AT HOME 241
rots and leaks. The bamboo, being no more than a
lattice, affords but slight protection from a slanting
rain and none whatever from the wind ; the dirt floor,
therefore, is damp everywhere, and near the walls,
muddy. At one end is a ' brasero/ not the neat, tiled
affair for charcoal, with holes on top and draughts
in the side, that one sees in towns, but a kind of box
made of logs, raised from the ground on rough legs
and filled with hard earth. A small fire of green
wood smoulders in the centre of this, filling the room
from time to time with blinding smoke, and around
it are three or four jars of coarse brown pottery, and
a thin round platter of unglazed earthenware on
which are baked the ' tortillas.' Near by is a black
stone with a slight concavity on its upper surface
and a primitive rolling-pin of the same substance
resting upon it. On the floor in the corner are some
frayed ' petates/ thin mats woven of palm or rushes.
This is all, and this is home. At night the family
huddles together for warmth with nothing but the
' petates ' between them and the damp ground.
They sleep in their clothes and try to cover themselves
with their well-worn ' sarapes ' (blankets)."
That conveys, I think, an exaggerated impression
of discomfort. In a cold or damp climate such a
dwelling would be utter misery. The climate of
Mexico is during the greater part of the year hot and
dry. On the high table-lands the nights, it is true, are
chilly; but I have slept in huts with only a light
rain-coat around me and not felt the need of any other
covering. The Indians, like all other peoples in
a state of nature, adapt their houses to their conditions
of existence.
So do Mexicans who belong to the comfortable
R
242 THE REAL MEXICO
class. You can see by the look of a Mexican home
that they spend a great part of their lives in the open
air. In the salon the chairs with their backs to the
wall look like a well-drilled regiment. The furniture
is usually under covers ; it is arranged with a precision
which gives one an icy feeling round the heart. On
the walls will probably be pictures. Let us not speak
of them, but, like Virgil and Dante, " glance and pass
by." Very unconventional householders may have
some photographs showing, and even a few books,
not, of course, lying about, but in a case or on a shelf.
The ornaments are, in their horrid ugliness, like an
echo of our worst Victorian period. I cannot swear
that I have seen wax flowers under glass, but they are
just what one would look round for. The rooms do
not seem to be lived in. How could one live in them ?
One would petrify. They are like " show rooms " in
some " great house " through which a glibly respectable
parrot-housekeeper leads parties of gaping tourist-
visitors.
The explanation is, I think, that Mexican men do
not live much inside their] houses, and that the ladies
spend their time looking out of window, almost their
only recreation. If they have balconies, they stand
on them, chattering and giggling like pretty school
misses, " quizzing " .all who pass by. The windows
on the street level are heavily barred. Behind the
bars one often catches, as one passes, the gleam of
lustrous, dark eyes, the perfume of thickly piled-up
dark hair; or else one hears soft whispering voices
and, turning, sees as it were a cageful of charming
girls. Outside these barred windows the lovers of
these girls come to court them, in the Spanish phrase,
" to play bear," which means hanging about for hours,
THE MEXICAN AT HOME 243
on the chance of getting a smile, a whisper, a hand to
kiss. It strikes Europeans as a mode of love-making
which makes the man look ridiculous, but it is general
in Mexico, except among the wealthiest class, whose
young men and young women have better opportunities
for getting to know one another. In this class, too,
one meets people whose homes are more in the comfort-
able American style, people who have been educated
in the United States or in England. But the mass of
well-to-do Mexicans, even some of the very richest,
live in rooms such as I have described.
Mexican clubs are the same. No lounging chairs,
no tables littered with magazines. The rooms, all
plush and mirrors, remind one of those gloomy parlours
where the dentist keeps you waiting in company with
Punch's Almanack a year old. You marvel that
any one could bear to sit in them, and then you find
that they don't. There is a bar and a bar-saloon.
That is where the members are to be found, some play-
ing dominoes sedately, some drinking noisily in groups.
There is generally a ball-room, too, and here the club
entertains. Always there are certain rooms in which
on certain occasions ladies are welcomed. The
Mexican notion of club-life is strangely unlike ours !
In all the cities, however, there are pleasant, hospitable
foreign clubs after the Anglo-Saxon's own heart,
oases of comfort and good fellowship to which in
memory the traveller returns again and again with
feelings of gratitude for their restful, kindly shelter.
Yet there is one unfailing charm about Mexican
houses. That is the charm of flowers. All Mexicans
love flowers. Their homes usually present to the
street bare, unlovely walls, but very often you get
a glimpse of a patio where the sunlight flickers on
244 THE REAL MEXICO
green leaves and vivid blossoms. Always you may
count upon such an interior even if you cannot see
it. These peeps into gay garden-courtyards are what
I remember when I think of Mexican streets. It is
the custom to build houses round a green plot open to
the sky. Sometimes there is a loggia round this,
a loggia into which all the rooms open (there being no
" upstairs "), and where the household lives in warm
weather, cooled by the plash and tinkle of a fountain
in the centre. Or else the ground floor may be given
up to offices or stabling, and, mounting a stairway,
you come to a broad balcony screened from the sun
by thick trails of flowering creeper. Delicious to wake
up at half-past seven of a November morning and
luxuriate in hot sunshine as you go across the patio
or round the balcony to your bath.
Most hotels are built more or less on this plan,
which almost makes up for the hardness of their
pillows. The Mexican idea of a pillow is that it
should by its extreme discomfort prevent you for as
long as possible from falling asleep. Otherwise hotels
are tolerable. The food is usually pleasant enough.
Mexican dishes are always highly seasoned, sometimes
painfully " hot i' the mouth." But a " mote," which
is a fowl or a turkey served with a thick, dark-brown,
slightly sweet sauce all over it, is as good as any curry.
They have attractive modes of cooking pork, for those
who are hardy enough to eat it in Mexico. There is
always fruit and always drinkable coffee. This is the
land of coffee, and I was told how it " really ought to
be made." A small quantity of coffee, very, very
strong, should be prepared (of course, from berries
freshly roasted and ground), and in each cup a little
of this should be poured ; the cup should then be filled
THE MEXICAN AT HOME 245
up with hot water. The same method is followed with
tea in Russia; equally good results follow.
The hotels are not cheap. From ten to twelve
shillings is the usual charge for a room. But they are
clean, as a rule, even those in small places, and in
towns of any importance sanitation is now looked
after, which removes the worst horror of travel in
years gone by.
Mexican kitchens, being open to the air, like the
other rooms, are fresh and light and appetizing.
(I speak of those I have seen.) Cooking is done on
a " brasero," a charcoal stove in the centre of the
kitchen with several glowing nests in it, on which
several pots or pans can simmer or fizzle at the same
time. The stove is on one side hollowed into a semi-
circle ; the cook stands inside this, and is able to look
after all the operations at once. The cook is frequently
a " Chino " (Chinaman). Possibly his knowledge of
Spanish is limited to a few words, yet somehow " with
nods and becks and wreathed smiles " no smile
ever deserved Milton's epithet so thoroughly as a
Chinaman's smile a system of communication is
established. A friend of mine has a capital " Chino,"
who for a long time could only say, " I do' know."
This was his reply to everything that was said to him.
It was necessary to discover from the way in which he
said it whether he understood or not. One day his
mistress gave him long instructions as to getting his
master up very early the next morning, and giving
him his breakfast so that he might catch a train at
dawn. When she had finished the Chinaman said,
" Good-night, lady." That was all. But he carried
out her instructions exactly.
Woman servants are called " criadas " and wear
246 THE REAL MEXICO
their hair down, either in tails or falling loose around
their shoulders. They can be trained into clever
cooks, neat waitresses, and careful housemaids, but
it is not often that they are so trained. Much patience
is needed. It is useless to expect too much of them.
If they are scolded or worried, they simply leave
without warning. They must be allowed to do their
work more or less in their own way. Certain habits
have to be checked. I suppose nearly all cooks use
their fingers to test the temperature of soup. Mexican
servants practise even more unpleasant tricks until
they are taken in hand.
They are sometimes inclined to pilfer, more from
curiosity, I believe, than from a thieving propensity.
But it is a libel to call them all dishonest, as many
people in Mexico do. They have odd ideas which
may make them appear dishonest when they are not
so. For instance, a woman who washed for an ac-
quaintance of mine in Mexico City told him one day
she was going to live in Toluca. He paid her and said
good-bye. A little later he discovered that his linen-
press was short of several sheets, pillow-cases, etc. ;
he also missed some shirts. Naturally he concluded
that the washerwoman had stolen them. Three months
afterwards she called at his office and said that she
had left the missing articles at his rooms and would
he please pay her? She had taken them to Toluca,
washed them, and kept them until she had an oppor-
tunity to bring them back. Time meant nothing to
her. Besides, " he had so many."
That is the kind of mentality one is frequently " up
against " in Mexico. It is useless to argue. It is
worse than useless to be angry, for the poor Mexican
is simply bewildered. The only thing to do is to see
2O
Socorro J.
English Miles
so 100
o 5o 100
Mbmetres II
ZOO 3
Figures attached to names of mountains
Railways .**=
Si&marii .e fatten
no
THE MEXICAN AT HOME 247
the humour of it and smile. Smile when you are told
of some valued piece of china that " at dawn it found
itself broken." Smile, although you know for certain
that your coffee and sugar are supplied regularly to
your " criada's " relations. Even when you are sued
for defamation of character by a servant whom you
have had convicted by the courts of theft (this actually
happened), smile.
At the same time, however, look out for negro
servants. As cooks they are far better than Chinamen,
and they keep a house cleaner than Mexicans ever
will. They are faithful, and you do not have to wonder
always what they are thinking about, for they have
not the duplex Asiatic mind. They have to be paid
more. " Criadas " seldom earn more than 24 a year,
and sometimes as little as 10. But the change
will be worth the money.
On the whole, wages are moderate. A chauffeur,
if he is a Mexican, can be hired for 8 to 10 a month.
A Japanese gardener costs about half that, and in
this land of gardens a gardener you must have.
Rents are high in the cities, but the cost of living
is less than in the United States. Many Americans
used to winter in Mexico, partly for the sake of the
golden warmth, partly to save money. On the top
of all her other losses, the country is suffering from
the stoppage of its yearly stream of visitors. Civil
war is draining away all its resources, ruining Mexicans
and foreigners alike.
THE END
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