Rnnk . a 35 COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from The Library of Congress http://www.archive.org/details/mexicowonderland01cars MEXICO THE wondeela:nd of the south THE^ MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO - DALLAS ATLANTA ■ SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., Limitbd LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THK MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. TORONTO MEXICO THE WONDERLAND OF THE SOUTH BY Wii^'^E. CARSON REVISED EDITION WITH NEW CHAPTERS Neto gork THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1914 jill rights reserved •C53 CoPTEiSHT, 1909, 1914, By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped. Published October, 1909. Reprinted April, 1910. Revised edition, with new matter, February, 1914. IN'otinaott '^ttm J. S. Gushing Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. FEB 26 1914 ©C!,A3 6 914 5 • PREFACE Recent events in Mexico, which have resulted in wide- spread revolution, have served to draw the attention of the whole world to that distressful country. Incidentally, there has been created an extraordinary demand for reliable information concerning Mexico and the Mexicans. This fact, as well as the generous reception accorded this book since it appeared, has led the publishers to issue the present edition, which, by means of careful revision and certain addi- tions, has been brought fully up to date. It should be added that the material embodied in the various chapters was not derived from a merely superficial acquaintance with Mexico, but was gathered during a series of visits to the country and a fairly long residence there. Shortly before the retirement of President Diaz the author, as a newspaper correspondent, made the tour which he describes ; and in relating his experiences he was enabled to make use of certain observations he had made and facts that he had collected on previous visits. In addition to this he had carefully studied the best works on Mexico, statistical, historical and descriptive. It is unfortunate that of the numerous books on Mexico, published in recent years, the majority have dealt with the darker side of Mexican life. The reading public has thus been made unduly familiar with such subjects as the horrors of the peonage system, the corruption of the government and the atrocities of revolutionists. An impression has also been widely given that "greasers," cow-punchers and ban- vi PREFACE dits are typical of Mexican life as a whole. That such an impression is far from accurate, however, is clear to any- one who has visited the larger Mexican cities or is familiar with conditions in the quiet rural districts of the central and southern states. Mexico, it is true, is barbarous in spots. It is equally true that in the capital and elsewhere one finds abundant evidences of culture and the refinements of highly civilized life. Therefore, to judge the country fairly, not only should its undeveloped material be examined, but also the best that it has been able to produce. Mexico has its dark side, but it should be given due credit for the progress that has been made in the face of many difficulties. In the following pages the author has given a concise account of his wanderings in Mexico, a description of the Mexican capital and other interesting cities, of the great haciendas, of the gold and silver mines, of some quaint health resorts and of his experiences in mountain climbing, tarpon fishing and ranching. Ample space has been devoted to the life of the people, the political aspects of the country and its industrial development. Some idea has also been given of the strange contrasts which characterize Mexico to-day. Under the long rule of President Diaz, Mexico witnessed a general progress which might easily have occupied cen- turies. But this very rapidity of evolution has worked against a completeness of development and has left frag- ments of the ancient order that give to the country, in patches, the fascinating mterest of olden days. Railways, telegraphs and telephones, automobiles, electric light and traction have come, and the social life of the educated classes has been largely modernized; and yet the Indian with his burro, the cargador with his burden and the old- fashioned village priest still remain. Thus it is that in PREFACE Vii Mexico the old and the new are everywhere to be seen side by side. It is this strange' mixture of the ancient and modern that has produced such queer phases of hfe as exist in Mexico to-day. The highest type of civiHzation and the most primitive barbarism are oftentimes to be found in close proximity. And it is on this account that Mexico, in point of human interest, surpasses any other country of Latin- America. With a wonderful past, peopled by an ancient race with strange customs and traditions, it is also a land of magnificent scenery, of superb climates and amazing natural resources. While dealing with these subjects, the author has exerted every effort to give the reader an insight into Mexican life in all its gradations. He has tried, in short, to give an accurate description of Mexico as he saw this wonderful country in journeying from place to place — the everyday life of the people, the sights and scenes that he witnessed and the various incidents that marked his travel. One of the new features of the present edition is a careful summary of events in Mexico from the accession of Presi- dent Diaz in 1876 to the administration of President Huerta in 1914, together with an account of the revolutionary episodes of the last few years. During a recent visit to the Republic the author was also able to gain an interesting insight into its present condition, and an idea of the general political outlook, the result of which has been embodied in a carefully written supplementary chapter. Such, in brief, is a summary of this book, the aim of which is to give a pen-picture, fresh, accurate and inclusive, of Mexico to-day. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAQE I. The Tropics in a "Norther". . . . . 1 II. From Orizaba to the Capital . . . .19 III. Mexico City bt Night 44 IV. Mexico Past and Present 67 V. The Sights of the Capital 86 VI. Churches and Miracles Ill VII. The Life of the People 123 VIII. The Mexican Woman 157 IX. The Foreign Invasion 170 X. The White Man's Burden-bearer . . . 184 XI. From Diaz to Huerta 194 XII. The Machinery of Government .... 210 XIII. A Mexican Paradise 219 XIV. The City of the Angels 235 XV. A Mexican Carlsbad 249 XVI. The Valley of Oaxaca 258 XVII. Luxurious Life at a Gold Mine .... 272 XVIII. Christmas at Los Reyes 287 XIX. Prehistoric Mexico 300 XX. Life in an Old Mexican Town .... 814 XXL In the Crater of Popocatepetl .... 328 XXII. Guadalajara the Wonderful .... 339 XXIIL "The Silver City" . - 855 ix CONTENTS CHAPTER XXIV. XXV. XXVI. XXVII. XXVIII. The Titian at Tzintzuntzan The Isthmus of Tehuantepec Tarpon Fishing at Tampico In Northern Mexico Mexican Problems of To-day PAGE 370 378 394 404 428 Index 439 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS A Tehuantepec Beauty Frontispiece FACING PAGE Map showing Author's Route . . . . . . 1 Mexico's Chief Seaport . 5 A Street in Vera Cruz 12 The Blind Beggar ...,«.... 19 A Typical Peon 23 Mexican Riding Costume 23 A View in Orizaba 30 Wonderful Engineering . . . . . . .33 Watching the Train 39 Mexico's National Drink 42 An Aguadore 42 Calle del Reloj, Mexico City 48 Reminiscent of the Past 53 Calle Cinco de Mayo, Mexico City 60 Ancient Picture Record 71 Hernando Cortes 74 The Emperor Maximilian 82 Cathedral and Plaza, Mexico City . • . . . .87 The Mexican National Palace 90 Pyramid of the Moon 90 xi xii LIST OP ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGB The Aztec Calendar Stone 94 Ancient Aztec Pottery and Statue of the God of War 99 The Paseo de la Reforma 110 Stone Figures of the God of Fire and the Sad Indian 117 Church at Tepozotlan 120 Church of Guadalupe 124 Typical Mexican Women of the Upper Class . . . 130 Public School Children 130 "Playing the Bear" 162 The Ancient Race — Types op Mexican Indians . . 186 General Diaz . . " 197 Some Notable Mexicans . 204 • Typical Revolutionists 211, The Rurales 214 The Awkward Squad 214 A "Bit" of Cuernavaca 222. A View from Cuernavaca 227 Aztec Architecture 230 In Old Puebla 238 The Pyramid of Cholula 238 • A View of Puebla 246' The Plaza, Oaxaca 257 Tortilla Making 272 Mexican Rebeccas 272 A Valley in the Sierras •. . 282 Within the Ruins of Mitla 282 Ruins of Mitla 312 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Xlll PAOINO PAOB Ascent of Popocatepetl — View from Halfway House . 330 The Journey's End — On Summit op Popocatepetl . . 330 Cathedral and Main Plaza, Guadalajara . . . 343 An Old Street, Guadalajara 346 Quaint Old Guanajuato 355 A Chamber op Horrors 362 Silver Mining 366 Mexico's Art Treasure — The Titian at Tzintzuntzan 373 The Mexican Tropics 380 The Rocky Road 396 MEXICO: THE WONDERLAND OF THE SOUTH CHAPTER I THE TROPICS IN A '^ NORTHER " A LONG line of flat, sandy coast with numerous sand- bars stretching seawards over which the surf was breaking. The land, covered with scrubby bushes and here and there a melancholy group of cocoanut palms, lay forlorn and desolate under the dark sky. Farther off along the coast I could distinguish a long, gray, straggling city, an islet crowned by the time-worn turrets of a white fort, and two great stone jetties branching out from the shore. We were running through a stormy sea in the teeth of a strong head-wind; and this was my first glimpse of Mexico from the deck of a Ward liner in the early hours of a November morning. From New York to Havana and thence into the Gulf of Mexico our voyage had been through seas that were beau- tifully blue, under a cloudless sky; and although it was winter, the air was as balmy as in June. But on the seventh day there came a sudden change. The tropical sky and warmth disappeared; dark clouds veiled the sun, a strong wind began to blow, the leaden-tinged sea was covered with white-caps. Then came a wireless message from Vera Cruz, warning us that a "norther" was playing havoc all along the coast. These "northers" are the winds which at frequent intervals during the winter swoop MEXICO down from the ice-bound regions of the north and harry the Gulf coast shipping. . The breakers were dashing and the spray was flying about the narrow harbor entrance, but inside was smooth water. In the old days there was no harbor at Vera Cruz and the only protection from the sea was a low coral reef. Then vessels in the roadstead were obliged to he with steam up, ready to put out to sea the moment a "norther' began to blow; collisions were frequent. Within the last few years a fine harbor has been built, at great cost, by S. Pearson & Sons, the English engineers, consisting of a system of great stone jetties which extend round the reef and completely break the force of the sea. Now vessels can lie safely alongside in any weather and discharge directly on to the wharves. Bleak and mournful under the dark November sky, Vera Cruz had yet at closer quarters an extremely pic- turesque, old-world aspect. For about two miles along the shore stretched the city of low, flat-roofed houses; from among them rose the domes and towers of several churches. Conspicuous in the foreground was the new custom-house, a handsome structure of white stone, and not far off were the gray towers of the old cathedral. On a clear day, the distant snow-tipped peak of Orizaba forms a magnificent background for the port, but the famous volcano, when we arrived, was shrouded from view. Lying at the wharves were three American and two English steamers, a big German Imer, and three small revenue cruisers, painted light gray, and flying the Mexi- can ensign of red, white and green. A large and cosmo- politan gang of stevedores — Spaniards, Mexicans, Italians, negroes, Chinese, Japanese — were busily loading one of the American ships with bags of coffee and great bunches of green bananas; the German liner was taking in from THE TROPICS IN A ''NORTHER'' 3 two lighters at once a cargo of bright red dyewood logs. For Vera Cruz is a busy port, despite the ''northers"; the bulk of Mexican trade passes in and out over its wharves. In years to come the northern port of Tampico is likely to rob the old town of much of its trade; but at the present time Vera Cruz handles over a million tons of imports annually, brought mostly from the United States and Ger- many, and including machinery, textiles, and such things as Chicago beef and bacon and tinned meats ; for Mexico, notwithstanding its wonderful soil and climates, is not yet 'a self-sustaining country. The exports are chiefly sugar, coffee, tobacco, rubber, dyewoods and various tropical fruits. Our liner went easily to her berth hard by the little island of San Juan de Ulloa, with its quaint battlements of gleaming white; beneath the walls a group of tall palms covered with their masses of fan-shaped leaves of vivid green gave a touch of the tropics to the scene. Upon this island Cortes landed on AprU 21, 1519, and here he con- tinued his wonderful career of conquest by burning his ships and marching away to the Aztec capital. The first fort, of which not a vestige remains, was built by the Spaniards. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, it was seized by that bluff English hero. Sir John Hawkins, when he entered the harbor to obtain provisions and repair his storm-beaten vessels. Treacherously attacked by a large Spanish squadron which afterwards arrived, he was driven from the port with the loss of most of his ships, many men, and much treasure. The ancient stronghold, en- larged and rebuilt at various times, remained in Spanish hands for over two centuries. In later times it was successively captured and occupied by the Americans in 1847 and by the French in 1864. It is now used as a prison. Vera Cruz was originally named La Villa Rica 4 MEXICO de la Santa Vera Cruz (the Rich City of the Holy True Cross) from the reputed richness of the land in gold and the fact that Cortes landed on Good Friday. Since the Conquest it has always been Mexico's most important seaport. We were not allowed to land before the Mexican health officers had come aboard and examined us. Havana is regarded by the Mexican authorities as a hotbed of yellow fever, and the Havana authorities regard Vera Cruz in the same light. During the winter months there is no yellow fever in either city, but that makes no difference in their fear of each other. Our steamer had touched at Havana, and the doctors accordingly subjected us to a rigorous ex- amination, putting thermometers in our mouths to take our temperatures and otherwise overhauling us. As each thermometer ran the gantlet of several mouths, and was only slightly washed with antiseptic between each, this ordeal was not a pleasant one. Some of us began to fear that we might have yellow fever without knowing it, and should be hurried off to some dismal quarantine hospital to end our days. It was a real relief to find that we had not. In the meantime a mob of gesticulating porters or cargadores had gathered on the wharf, clamoring loudly for patronage. They were yellow-skinned fellows with the coal-black, beady, furtive eyes of the Indian half- breed. Most of them simply wore a shirt and trousers of dirty white cotton, scanty and ragged ; a few had a loose jacket of the same material; all looked half frozen in the " norther." Some had wrapped a tattered piece of blanket about their shoulders to keep out the cold. Some were barefooted, others wore sandals of a rough-and-ready kind. These cargadores, or burden-bearers, are familiar objects throughout Mexico. They are trained from childhood to H OS (« n O bjo Q^ OJ < W '1 1 o fe ID n w o K rl f) ts r/j o o ^ f ) •^ M s w r-) s eS TBE TROPICS IN A ''NORTHER" 5 carry heavy weights, and might also be said to inherit their wonderful capacity. The Aztecs had no beasts of burden, and the baggage of their armies was always car- ried by cargadores. The Spaniards, having few horses, continued this custom. Though most cargadores are not particularly sturdy in appearance, they can lift and carry enormous loads. It is not uncommon to see a couple of them carrying a piano through the streets. A trained cargador will carry a load of one hundred and fifty pounds over rough mountain trails and cover more miles in a day than a mule. The load is held in place by either a fore- head strap or a breast strap or a shoulder strap, or by two or more of these combined. As the cargador moves along with his heavy load, there is a good deal of straining of the straps, reminding one of the line in Omar Khayyam: "Now for the porter's shoulder-knot a-creaking." In the towns the cargadores are licensed, and carry brass plates on their breasts showing their numbers. I stepped ashore, and instantly two cargadores seized my luggage. One took my bags ; the other, quite a slight man, lifted my heavy trunk on his shoulders and trotted off to the custom-house. After the examination he trotted off with it to the railway station about a mile away. Leaving the water front, I walked out into the city of Vera Cruz, where I found that outside the principal thoroughfares the streets were almost deserted. This seemed strange for a city of thirty thousand inhabitants until I remembered the "norther," likewise the midday siesta which is still preserved as a sacred custom even in this busy seaport. A queer, dingy old place it looked, for the most part, the business places being ancient and grimy; the sign-boards with their Spanish wording were faded and battered. The buildings and houses are nearly all low, two-storied structures of solid stone or stucco, 6 MEXICO seldom white, but generally tinted pink, yellow or blue; on the second stories are bright green wooden or iron balconies where the dark-eyed seiioritas love to sit at their needlework and watch the passers-by. Oil paint is seldom used here or anywhere else in Mexico for the exteriors of buildings, and the water-color or kalsomine quickly fades. After one rainy season it becomes soft and streaked, so that even a new building soon looks quite antiquated. The narrow streets were at that time (this has been altered since) paved with rough, unevenly laid cobble- stones, and had open gutters in the centre. Small street- cars, painted bright yellow and drawn by two sturdy mules, ran through most streets, but there were no ordinary car- riages of any kind to be seen. I was told that the bad paving made it almost impossible to use them. On Sun- days I heard it was quite the custom for the townsfolk, even of the better class, to ride up and down the streets in the cars, enjoying the air and gossiping with friends who passed in other cars — the Vera Cruzan substitute for the Champs Elysees or Rotten Row. In the centre of the town is a small plaza, planted with palms and various tropical shrubs, where the local military band plays several nights a week, as is the custom in all Mexican towns. On one side of the plaza is the cathedral, built in 1734, though it looks much older. Not far away is the church of San Francisco, founded in 1568; its tower is now used as a lighthouse. Adjoining it is a convent which has been converted into a public library. The other sides of the plaza are occupied by the portales or arcades found in every Mexican town. Here are various shops and cafes and one or two hotels. On the sidewalk outside the cafes groups of men sit all day and almost all night at small iron tables, forever drinking refrescos, which are cool Mexican drinks, or, alas, the fiery American cocktail. THE TROPICS IN A ''NORTHER 7 In this quarter of the town are the theatres, the exchange, and two or three public buildings. Having to change some money, I went into a hotel where I was accommodated with Mexican coin in return for a small discount. To my joy I found that for every American dollar I received two Mexican. These Mexican dollars, called pesos, are not only larger than the American dollar, but contain a greater percentage of silver, yet their value — such are the freaks of monetary systems — is only fifty cents. However, that doesn't matter much in Mexico, because the purchasing power of the money is on a Mexican basis too. Thus, railway travel, hotels and most of the necessaries of life are somewhat less than in the United States. On the other hand, as Mexico, like this country, goes in severely for protection, most imported articles are extremely dear. Notwithstanding the delight of having one's supply of money automatically doubled, there is a dark side to this bright picture. On this occasion, part of my Mexican small change consisted of twenty-five silver dollars, each weighing nearly an ounce. I carefully distributed these throughout my various pockets, and thus burdened, felt like an ancient Spanish galleon loaded with pieces of eight. Notes and gold are in circulation, but they are not always easy to get ; the notes, too, when you get them, are often in a filthy condition. Silver, however, seems to be pre- ferred by the Mexicans, and they frequently carry their available funds in a handbag strapped over the shoulder. The design of the Mexican dollar is on the obverse the cap of liberty, bearing the word "Libertad," surrounded by the rays of the sun ; on the reverse is the traditional eagle perched on the cactus, with a serpent in his talons. Although the engraving is very crude, it is impossible to improve it, because the Chinese^ who use the Mexican 8 MEXICO dollars very largely in their own country, as being the purest silver coin in existence, would not accept them if the design were changed. At the same time, the roughness of the design makes counterfeiting very easy and its de- tection difficult, with the consequence that there is much bad money about the country. Other silver coins are the half and quarter dollars, and the ten and five centavo pieces, the centavo being worth half a cent. A negro who was lounging conveniently outside the hotel heard me asking my way, and promptly stepped up with a polite bow and a cheery smile. ''Let me show you round the city, boss," he suggested. He was a dapper colored gentleman of middle age, and had that half-famil- iar, half-deferential manner which distinguishes the average negro who has been employed in any serving capacity. Like most negroes, he was full of good humor, and he spoke Spanish like a native. I accepted his offer, and we walked on. As we strolled through the streets, my companion exchanged smiles and greetings with sundry Mexican ac- quaintances, one or two of them good-looking girls of the humbler class. He bowed with exaggerated politeness and lifted his hat with the words, "Que tal? sefior" (How goes it, sir), or "Buenas dias, seiiorita" (Good day, miss). "You seem to be very well known here," I remarked. "Yes, sir," replied the negro, with an air of pride, "I guess I do know quite a few people in Vera Cruz." "How do you like the Mexicans?" I asked. "Well, boss," was the reply, "it's dis yer way: dere's some mighty fine folks in dis town, but Lordy ! most of de poor people are trifling and no account. But," he added, in a patronizing tone, "what else can you expect of dese yer half-breeds ? No, indeed, sir, you won't find no such low-down, no-account people in any part of the States, 'deed you won't, tank de Lord. THE TBOPICS IN A " NORTHER " 9 "Dey's mean, too, dese yer Mexicans," he went on; "dey count deir centavos like dey was gold. Give me a genleman from New York or Boston. You never see 'em counting of deir dollars." This gentle and diplomatic hint was thrown in, I pre- sume, as our walk was about to end. As we were parting company, the colored gentleman, with a grin which would have made the fortune of any negro comedian, remarked : " I's proud o' meeting a genleman from New York or Boston, boss; dey jest naturally know how to travel. Dey ain't like dese yer Mexicans. Dey's all right." It is a curious fact that, although Mexico adjoins the United States, few negroes ever cross the border ; and most of these are found in Vera Cruz and other towns along the coast. With the exception of a few employed by railway companies as porters for Pullman cars, there are almost none in the interior. The "nigger" in Mexico, too, is far from being the subservient creature that he generally is in this country. The Mexicans, perhaps naturally, do not feel the color horror so general among Americans. A negro is granted equality in a way which astonishes an American; and he is something of a curiosity, too, ex- citing more or less wonder in Mexico wherever he goes. In small towns the natives stare at him and children fol- low him. Mexicans call negroes ''negritos," and think them very amusing. A woman of Indian blood would not lose caste by marrying one. The reason why negroes are so scarce in Mexico is that they cannot compete with the Indian population as laborers, and the wages are so small that no American negro could live on them. Some years ago an American company brought down two thousand negroes to work on a Mexican plantation, paid them good wages and fed them well. At first they were very industrious, and did more work than 10 MEXICO the peons. Then they became lazy, many of them took Indian wives, loafed about and refused to work ; so they were discharged, and soon became destitute. The Mexican government compelled the company to take them back to the United States. After my stroll round the city, I sat down outside a cafe near the plaza to take, at my leisure, a first survey of real Mexican life. The scene was full of vivid contrasts. Across the street was quite a smart-looking costumier's shop, in the windows of which were displayed some dainty gowns and hats . This was the centre of attraction for many well-dressed women and girls, who stopped to feast their eyes on the fashions. Only a few doors away was a bat- tered, tumble-down drinking den, cavernous in its gloomi- ness, reeking of stale liquor, where scantily dressed, bare- footed natives perpetually passed in and out ; at the door stood a lumbering old wagon, drawn by two oxen, loaded with bananas — such a cart as might have come over from Spain with Cortes. Then there was civilization again in the shape of a bank, quite a substantial stone building, where much business was apparently being done. Now and again, a Mexican from the country would ride by on a spirited horse, his feet deep in the national pocket stirrup, on his head the steeple-crowned sombrero, or a native milk vendor, sitting almost on the tail of his mule, its back loaded with clattering milk tins; jolting baggage trucks passed, driven by Indians, cracking their whips and calling down perpetual encouragement to their mules of ''Mula, mula!" Then at noon, from the neighboring police barracks, trotted out a patrol of rurales or mounted police in their neat gray, silver-braided, tight-fitting uni- form and huge sombrero, Winchesters slung on their backs, revolvers and swords at their sides. But perhaps the most curious sight in Vera Cruz is THE TROPICS IN A ''NORTHER'' 11 the city's unpaid scavengers. Hopping about the streets, outside the smart costumier's, by the cathedral, alongside the cafes — everywhere, in fact — were groups of zopilotes or turkey buzzards, equalling in size the largest American species. These ungainly birds act as public scavengers, and are protected by law ; the fine for killing one of them is five dollars. Hundreds of them can be seen perched on the roof tops or the church towers, waddling about the streets, fighting over all sorts of offal, or hurrying after the street-cleaners to claim the choicest bits of garbage. What with the zopilotes and their human assistants, the streets of the town are kept quite decently clean. Until recent times, Vera Cruz was a town of bad drainage and evil smells, and yellow fever raged there perpetually. During the summer months each year the mortality was often frightful. Whole ships' crews were sometimes swept away by this scourge, and an unacclimatized traveller visiting the city literally took his life in his hands. A few years ago the city authorities set vigorously to work to stamp out the pestilence. Much of the old city was demolished, and a new sewerage system was constructed, the sewage being taken out to sea, and contamination of the harbor thus avoided. A new water supply was in- stalled, and a relentless war was waged against mosquitoes. This thoroughgoing hygienic campaign ended in a victory for the city's health authorities ; and now there is practi- cally no yellow fever in the winter months, and even in the summer the cases are few and far between. There were only 21 deaths from the disease in 1908, accord- ing to government reports. Unacclimatized travellers who observe the usual precautions are generally safe now- adays at all seasons. Strangely enough, now that Vera Cruz has lost its evil reputation as a plague-stricken city, it has actually achieved 12 MEXICO a new character as a health resort. During the winter ' months large numbers of people flock thither from Mexico City in search of sunshine and warmth. Situated as it is in the tropical region of Mexico, Vera Cruz, even when a ''norther" is blowing, rarely has a temperature below sixty degrees Fahrenheit, the normal winter heat being between seventy and eighty. The "norther" which was blowing through the town when we arrived was not actually a cold wind ; it was simply bracing. But the thin-blooded natives are so accustomed to tropical heat that a sudden drop in the temperature to sixty degrees causes general suffering, and keeps every Mexican indoors as much as possible while the wind is blowing. The greater part of the thirty thousand inhabitants of Vera Cruz are true Mexicans, that is to say, people of mixed Indian and Spanish blood. There is a fairly large foreign element in the city, consisting mainly of business men, American, English, German, Spanish and French. In the surrounding country there are a good many foreign planters cultivating sugar-cane, coffee, bananas, etc. In Vera Cruz, as in all parts of Mexico, Spanish is the only European language known to the mass of the people, although owing to the increasing number of Americans in the country a knowledge of English is gradually becoming more general among Mexican business men. Vera Cruz with the "norther" blowing was a place to hurry away from, so in the afternoon I took the train to Orizaba. This mountain town, situated 4026 feet above sea-level, amidst beautiful scenery, is a favorite health resort for the Mexicans. The gradient is so steep for the greater part of the way that the train takes about five hours to cover the eighty miles from Vera Cruz. ^ On Mexican railways the trains are arranged in the usual American style, and American rolling stock is generally H H P< -a1 THE TROPICS IN A ''NOBTHER''' 13 used. The Mexican Railway, however — the line between Vera Cruz, Orizaba and Mexico City — uses some big Fairlie engines made in Glasgow. The trains are invariably divided into first, second, and third-class cars, the first- class car corresponding to what is usually called in this country "a, day coach." Only the night trains have Pull- man cars attached to them. Compared with an American train, the Mexican Rail- way's day train seemed rather shabby; the first-class car was old and worn, and furnished with black leather seats.* It was, however, no worse than the ordinary first-class cars in which I afterwards travelled on other Mexican railways. The companies, I was told, could not afford to run Pullman cars on their day trains at present, as there are not enough foreign passengers to make it pay, and Mexican travellers are usually too parsimonious to pay any additional fare for the sake of more comfort. About twenty passengers from the steamer had taken tickets for Orizaba, so that the single first-class car was fairly well filled when the train started. '-' The Mexican Railway, which is owned by an English company, has the distinction of being the first railway ever built in Mexico; it was begun in 1858 and finished in 1873. The track runs from the lowlands of Vera Cruz up through the mountains, and is a marvel of engineering. Some of the gradients are stupendous; at one point the line reaches an altitude of over ten thousand feet ; in some places it runs along the mountain side on terraces cut out of the solid rock. Owing to the magnitude of the work and the enormous difficulties of laying the track, the con- ' A change for the better has since been made. The Mexican Railway Co. now runs some comfortable, reclining chair cars for the accommodation of first-class passengers, and for which no extra fare is charged. 14 MEXICO struction cost over $35,000,000, or about $125,000 a mile. The Mexican Railway is not only regarded as one of the best railroads in the world, but as a scenic line it is sur- passed by none, the views for most part of the way being magnificent. The country for miles round Vera Cruz is a vast sandy waste interspersed with swamps, the haunt of herons, wild ducks, alligators and snakes. This, at intervals, is broken by dense woods filled with aromatic shrubs and gorgeous wild flowers peculiar to the tropics. Leaving this unwholesome region, the line runs through a succession of banana and cocoanut plantations, miles of coffee trees, with their dark, glossy leaves and bright red berries, forests of palms and palmettos, groves of oranges and lemons, fields of pineapples and green sugar-cane. Novel as all this was, I must confess that, without the glare of sunshine and the heat which we have a right to expect from the tropics, the tropical vegetation lost most of its charm. We passed a number of small stations, mostly crude structures of wood, usually set in the midst of a grove of palms or cocoanut trees. Outside these a few yellow- skinned, barefooted natives would be seen, with their sarapes or blankets drawn tightly about them, looking half frozen in their thin cotton clothing and straw som- breros. Some Americans who appeared to live in the district boarded the train, and their talk was all about banana- and coffee-growing. But with the cool weather and the dark sky it seemed impossible to realize that one was actually in the tropics. The first important station at which we stopped was Cordoba, about sixty miles from Vera Cruz. This town has an altitude of 2713 feet and a population of ten thou- sand, and is just on the border of the sub-tropical zone. It is noted for its fruit and flowers as well as for its fine THE TROPICS IN A ''NORTHER'* 15 coffee, of which there are numerous plantations in the neighborhood. It is quite an old town, having been founded in 1618 as a place of refuge from the malarial fevers of the coast. Numerous beggars, picturesque in their tattered garb, clamored round the train for centavos. Two or three of them carried queer-looking old harps and mandolins, and entertained us with a verse of the Spanish song, La Paloma, which they sang in rather high-pitched nasal tones. One blind man, with a most saintly expression, stood by our car, sombrero in hand, beseeching us to be generous for God's sake — "por el amor de Dios." Another blind beggar, led by his much-wrinkled, sad-visaged Indian wife, gave an excellent imitation of various sounds peculiar to animal life, such as the quacking of a duck, the clucking of a hen, the grunting of a pig, and the whistling of a mock- ing-bird. Standing a little removed from this motley swarm of mendicants, I noticed a melancholy looking Mexican wearing a rather battered brown felt sombrero, his limbs encased in skin-tight trousers of thin gray cloth, adorned with numerous patches. Over his shoulders was a bright red blanket. He was strumming away at an old-fash- ioned mandolin and singing some mournful Spanish song. Catching sight of me, he stopped playing, and lifted his sombrero. I went out on the car platform and handed him five cents. To my astonishment, he politely declined my humble offering. "Senor," said he, in choice Spanish, with some emotion, "you must pardon me for being unable to accept your gift, but I am a ten-cent beggar, sefior (un mendigo de diez centavos) , and never, never accept a smaller gratuity." Drawing himself up with an air of pride, he continued, "I shall be honored to sing for your entertain- ment a song of old Spain or one of our noble Mexican airs, 16 MEXICO but always for a fee of ten cents, never for less, for I am a ten-cent beggar, senor, poor as I am." It was impossible to resist this touching protest, so with an apology I handed the courtly vagrant his proper fee, which he acknowledged with "a thousand thanks" (Mil gracias, senor) and a graceful bow. At the other end of the car the mob of beggars were scrambling for copper coins thrown to them by my fellow-passengers. The mel- ancholy minstrel glanced at them, shrugged his shoulders and waved his hand deprecatingly. "Ah, senor," he ob- served, "those poor people, they have to work hard for their bread ; good folk, worthy folk, well deserving of your charity ; but they give you a very bad impression of Mexico. Pray, seiior, do not class them with poor musicians like myself." With these words he commenced twanging his discordant instrument again, and once more burst into a song so dismal that it seemed to make the gloomy weather even more depressing. Fortunately, our train commenced to move on a few moments later, and Cordoba and the courtly ten-cent beggar were soon lost to view. During our short stop at the station, Indian women and children had offered us fruit and flowers at tempting prices; large bunches of camellias for a few centavos, luscious pineapples of six to eight pounds for ten cents apiece, all the bananas and oranges you could carry, for a few cents. Cordoba well maintained its reputation as a place of fruit and flowers. As we travelled farther from Vera Cruz there was a noticeable drop in the temperature, and while it was not cold, still one would have welcomed the prospect of arriv- ing at a comfortable country house with a cheerful wood fire blazing in the hall. No doubt the black sky and the rain which began to fall had something to do with this feeling, but the altitude probably had much more. THE TROPICS IN A ''• NOBTHER 17 In Mexico almost everything depends on the altitude, and it is to altitude that Mexico owes its three climates. Being well within the tropics and near the equator, it is naturally always thought of as a warm country, but only parts deserve this character. Geographically speaking, Mexico is situated in North America. It has a maximum length of 1990 miles, is 540 miles across at the widest point, and has a coast line of over 6000 miles. On one side of this great country is the Atlantic or Gulf Coast, and on the other the Pacific. Along both coasts there is a broad, flat tract called the tierra caliente or "hot land," which is wholly tropical. In this region grow tropical fruits and flowers of all kinds. Here, too, are vast forests with a jungle of creeping plants, where are found mahogany and numerous valuable dyewoods, which are exported to all parts of the world. Much of this tropical region is unhealthful, though the winds from the sea generally mitigate the heat during the middle of the day, and the nights and mornings, as a rule, are pleasantly cool. As you travel inland from the Atlantic or Pacific coasts, the country constantly rises, until in the interior it reaches an altitude of six or seven thousand feet. A good idea of this peculiar topography is given by the following cut, which shows the profile of the country between the ports of Tampico and Manzanillo on the eastern and western coasts. FEET 6000 5000 " 6000 ■1000 " -4000 !IX(0 " 3000 :ixio " 2U00 ^loix) " 1000 SEAi-EVEL 18 MEXICO At an altitude of four thousand feet or more, a sub- tropical region known as the tierra templada, or temperate land, is reached, where the climate is perpetually delightful. A third region, six thousand feet or more above sea-level, is called the tierra fria or cold land, although it is not actually cold, for the mean temperature is not lower than that of central Italy. In brief, perpetual summer, eternal spring, and a temperature rarely cold enough for snow or ice are the climatic joys which Mexico offers to the shiv- ering American who travels southward in midwinter to escape from the blizzards of the north. THE BLIND BEGGAR. " One penny, seuor, for God's sake. CHAPTER II FROM ORIZABA TO THE CAPITAL Nearly four centuries ago the soldiers of Cortes, march- ing over the mountains from the coast to the Aztec capital, came to an Indian town situated in a beautiful valley, intersected by rushing streams which kept it forever green. The natives called the place Ahauializapan or "joy in the waters." The Spaniards, with their usual avidity, took possession of this attractive spot, but after heroic efforts to pronounce its name, they wisely changed it to Orizaba. Under Spanish rule, a new town arose on the site of the old, and this became, in time, one of the most important places in Mexico. For generations Orizaba was a haven of refuge for people who fled from the pestilent coast during the yellow-fever season to seek health in the pure mountain air. In later times it was a favorite resort of the Emperor Maximilian, who, during his brief reign, often sought rest and quiet in the quaint old town. To-day it is a popular health resort, and has a host of visitors the year round, its climate being perfect and its scenery charming. I did not see Orizaba under its best aspect, for like many other places, it has its dreary days. Pursued by the "norther," I reached the ancient city at seven in the even- ing, to find a heavy rain falling, while the chilly air was reminiscent of an American November rather than what one expects in the Mexican sub-tropics. Some Indian urchins, looking pinched and cold in their ragged clothing and bare feet, surrounded me as I left the train, offering 19 20 MEXICO to carry my bags. They were pushed aside by a pictur- esque-looking ruffian wearing a huge steeple-crowned som- brero and swathed in a heavy red blanket drawn up to chin height. He was an Orizaban cab driver, and he under- took to drive me to my hotel in his cab or coche, a heavy, lumbering vehicle of the station-fly order, with a capacious leather hood. It was drawn by two vigorous mules, and it needed them, for the paving of Orizaba's streets was even worse than that of Vera Cruz, I took a seat in the coche and was soon jolting through some narrow streets lined with low, flat-roofed houses and buildings, seldom over a story high, and quite Moorish- looking. All were of the same washed-out tints of pink, yellow and blue. The upper windows, I noticed, were rarely glazed, but simply provided with wooden shutters ; while the lower windows were crossed with thick, prison- like bars of iron, not only as a protection against thieves, but to guard the Juliets of the household from their swarthy Romeos. This, of course, applies to the habitations of the well-to-do. The poor in Mexican towns invariably live in mere hovels of unbaked brick of only one story, looking like rows of stables. They have no windows, and light is admitted through the doorway only. When a norther is blowing, the door is kept tightly closed, and the shivering inmates endeavor, by excluding the fresh air, to keep life in their thin-blooded bodies. I noticed that very few of the shops of Orizaba had glazed windows, but were mostly open to the street somewhat after the fashion of English butchers' shops ; some were lighted with flaming oil lamps, and others with gas. All the streets were well lit with electric light. It was Saturday night, and despite the rain, the streets were crowded with dark-skinned natives in their picturesque attire. The dress of the poorer classes, the Indians, called peons, FROM ORIZABA TO TUE CAPITAL 21 is much the same throughout Mexico. Men wear a loose suit of white linen, coat and trousers, sometimes no coat, the shade of whiteness varying in accordance with the clean- liness of the owner. Sometimes the clothing is white (soon after washday) , sometimes it is a cream hue, but usu- ally it is a dark gray ! The trousers are often rolled up to the knee, and the native goes about with bare legs and feet. Sometimes the trousers reach to the ankles, and he is pro- vided with sandals strapped over his bare feet. Stockings are never worn. On his head the peon wears a huge steeple- crowned straw sombrero, with the brim anything up to two feet wide. This is sometimes used as a basket. I often saw Indians in the market buying fish or vegetables and carrying them off in the brims of their hats. In addition to his linen suit and straw sombrero, the peon has a wooUen blanket or sarape (pronounced sah-rah-pay) . This is usually of bright red, with black stripes at each end. Sometimes it has a slit in the middle through which he thrusts his head, the blanket falling over the body like a shawl. During the heat of the day the sarape is folded and carried over the left shoulder. It serves the double purpose of a garment by day and a blanket by night, for the peon sleeps under it. Mexicans of a higher class, when they can afford it, will often buy a felt sombrero — the felt about a quarter of an inch thick — decorated with gold and silver tinsel embroid- ery. In country places the wealth of a man is usually shown by the style of his hat. Some of the finer embroid- ered sombreros cost over a hundred dollars. For riding, extremely tight skin-fitting trousers, edged with small metal buttons, are commonly worn, accompanied, in some cases, with a heavily braided, short bolero coat ornamented with bright buttons. This, with the gorgeous sombrero, makes a very picturesque costume. In the towns and 22 MEXICO cities, however, the middle and upper classes dress like Europeans. The Indian women are usually dressed in some cheap kind of calico, the favorite material being a plain blue dotted with white, or white dotted with blue, and all of them wear a shawl or mantilla called the rehosa. This is generally of some thin woollen or cotton stuff, and is always of a faded blue tint. It is usually draped tightly over the head, leaving only the face exposed. Thus attired, they have a strong resemblance to the women of the East, and this is especially noticeable when you meet one of them coming from a village well, bearing a pitcher gracefully poised on her head. As a rule, the women have an unkempt, be- draggled appearance, and their coarse black hair is worn in two untidy plaits. The children of the poor have a very queer appearance, looking exactly like little men and women. Boys dress just like their fathers, having the same linen suits, big straw sombreros and red sarapes ; girls wear the same long dresses and blue rebosas as their mothers. At first sight, the Mexican Indians seemed to me to be a very melancholy race, and this first impression was con- firmed by what I afterwards saw of them. As we drove through the streets of Orizaba, filled with the passing throngs of natives, moving silently, barefooted or shod with noise- less sandals, there was rarely the sound of laughter; nor was there any roughness or horseplay such as one would have noticed in an American street filled with Saturday- night shoppers. Strings of children glided along silently after their parents, wonderfully subdued and grave, rarely exchanging a word. The shops were, of course, decorated with Spanish sign- boards, the fondas (grocers) and dulcerias (confectioners) being the most noticeable. Here and there, however, there FROM ORIZABA TO THE CAPITAL 23 were indications of an American invasion, for over some of the buildings were big sign-boards advertising ''Dr. Dash, American Physician," or " Dr. Blank, American Dentist." In most Mexican cities nowadays there are several American doctors and dentists. Some of the shops, apparently Amer- ican, had English as well as Spanish signs, and proclaimed themselves "The United States Grocery Co.," with "Goods at cut prices," or the "American-Mexican Canning Co." In less than ten minutes my coche took me to the Hotel de France, which I found to be an excellent establishment ; in fact, it has the reputation of being one of the best hotels in Mexico. It is conducted by an enterprising Frenchman. Arranged on much the same plan as many Spanish hotels, this Mexican hotel was a large, square, stone building having a central courtyard or patio, paved with tiles, open to the sky, and centred by a fountain surrounded with palms and flowers. From here flights of stone steps led to the upper stories, outside each of which there was a wide tiled gallery extending completely round the patio. The rooms were entered from these galleries, and some which had no outside windows were lighted by tinted glass panels in the doors. The bedrooms had tiled floors, each was sup- plied with one or two rugs, and the bedsteads were of iron, a very good plan in a country where fleas and other insect pests are too common. Most of the Mexican hotels are arranged and furnished in this way. The rooms are in- variably neat and well-kept, and the bedding, strange to say, in a land where cleanliness is not always regarded as a virtue, is usually clean and fresh. My Orizaba hotel had another feature which is common to hotels throughout Mexico. Just inside the entrance there was a small office where guests signed the register and ar- ranged for their rooms. Outside the office there was a large blackboard with the numbers of the rooms arranged 24 MEXICO in rows. As soon as a room was assigned to a new arrival, his name was written with chalk on this blackboard oppo- site to the number of his room. Any one could thus see at a glance who was stopping at the hotel. Chambermaids, I discovered, are seldom employed in Mexican hotels, their places being taken by men-of-all- work, sometimes young, sometimes elderly, called mozos (boys). There is a mozo on each floor who acts as boot- black, porter, messenger and chambermaid ; he takes away one's linen to some remote laundry and brings it back the next day, clean and snowy white. In the larger towns the mozo often speaks a little English and acts as interpre- ter for guests who do not understand Spanish. In the American hotels in Mexico he is less in evidence, as these establishments usually employ chambermaids. The Mexican hotels are comfortable enough for the average traveller, and if they had only been made sound- proof they would be still nearer perfection. I thought so, at least, when I was awakened about six o'clock the next morning by a terrible clanging of church bells. This was my first experience of what I afterwards found to be the greatest public nuisance in Mexico. The Mexican churches do not possess sweet chimes, but generally have from one to half a dozen large, harsh-toned bells. Commencing early in the morning, and continuing at frequent intervals during the day, a muscular peon clutching a rope attached to the bell-clapper clangs away with all his strength, making an awful din. Sometimes he wields a sort of sledge-hammer, beating the bell from the outside with all the vigor of a village blacksmith. When all the church bells in a town are kept clanging in this way, the din is deafening. Unable to enjoy any more sleep on account of these ec- clesiastical instruments of torture, I went down to an early breakfast and afterwards took a stroll through the town. FROM ORIZABA TO THE CAPITAL 25 Although the rain had stopped, the sky was still overcast, and the mountains were wreathed with white clouds. Along the streets poured a steady stream of Indian men and women returning from early mass, tramping patiently through the mud, the majority of them being barefooted. The men had their red blankets drawn tightly round them, looking half frozen, although the air was as mild as an early summer morning. Only the poorer classes attend early mass. Later on I saw numbers of white women and a few men walking and driving to the eleven o'clock service. I also noticed several men whom I instinctively recognized as priests despite their dress, which is not what one is ac- customed to see in other Catholic countries. The laws having forbidden them to appear in public in their clerical dress, the Mexican priests have adopted the plan of wearing a peculiar black cloak which, while not exactly ecclesiastical, is not worn by men of any other class. With this they wear an ordinary derby or silk hat. The cloak enables them to be distinguished a long way off. Some zealous opponents of the church want to have this cloak declared illegal and various other anti-church laws enforced. There are some fine old churches in Orizaba dating from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; the oldest, called Santa Teresa, was built in 1564. The cathedral, which stands in the main plaza, was built in 1720, and is a iarge, imposing edifice. A stroll through Orizaba gives one a very good idea of the arrangement of Mexican towns which, following the Spanish system, were all originally built round a public square or plaza. As the towns have increased in size, similar plazas, which are sometimes called alamedas, have been provided, until each quarter eventually has one of these little parks. Orizaba has several of them. On one side of the plaza in the average Mexican small town there 26 MEXICO is generally the principal church and the municipal building or city hall. The lower story of the latter is usually formed of arcades called portales, which are the centre of business, and there the citizens rest and take their liquid refreshment. The plaza serves as the general breathing place, and in the smaller towns the market is held in it. On Sundays and feast-days a band usually plays there ; in the larger towns a military band, and in the smaller a municipal or police band. The military bands, as a rule, are excellent, for the Indians have a natural ear for music. It is very interesting to see these swarthy musicians rendering classical com- positions, such as selections from "Tannhauser" and "Lohengrin," for there seems to be so little in common between German legend and song and the descendants of the Aztecs. Orizaba is a large, straggling place, but clean and well kept, with a population of thirty-five thousand. It lies in a beautiful valley, and towering above the wooded, ever green mountains which look down upon it rises the great snow-capped peak of Mount Orizaba, over eighteen thou- sand feet above the level of the sea. The surrounding country is wonderfully fertile, and there are numerous sugar and coffee plantations. Through the middle of the town there flows a rushing, foaming stream, spanned by ancient arched bridges of massive stone; and along its banks the Indian women may be seen during the day vig- orously washing the clothes which seem to attract dirt so quickly and are so seldom clean. Although situated in the temperate zone, the town is just on the border of the tropics ; it has the moisture of the lowlands, with the cool breezes of the uplands, and is there- fore one of the finest winter resorts in Mexico, the climate being always mild. It is very healthy, and has none of the annoying insects or tropical fevers of the hot region. With FROM ORIZABA TO THE CAPITAL 27 its soft-tinted, one-storied buildings, with their red-tiled roofs, and its background of green mountains, the old town is wonderfully picturesque. The natives take life easily, in spite of which the place has a cheerful air of prosperity. Like the Spaniards, they seem to possess that happy faculty of postponing disagreeable things until manana — the mor- row. A restful, dreamy atmosphere hangs over the ancient city, and this I afterwards felt in some other Mexican towns. As it was Sunday morning when I took my walk, the streets were, of course, unusually quiet. At intervals a small street-car, drawn by two mules, passed leisurely along the main street — a remarkably wide thoroughfare — • from the railway station to the other end of the town. Nobody seemed to hurry, and that good old maxim, "To save time is to lengthen life," was apparently unknown to the placid Orizabans. I was informed, however, that a great change was in prospect; for in the course of a few months the town was to appear in all the glory of asphalt paving, and the slow-moving mule-car was to be replaced by swift American electric traction. Perhaps this entrance of American progress may prove to be the serpent in the Orizaban Paradise, and will some day replace the ease and quietness of the old town with all the excitement of American hustle. Founded by the Spaniards and inhabited by their de- scendants, Orizaba naturally retains many features of the life of old Spain, and the same thing can be said of all the old towns and cities of Mexico. As I strolled along its narrow, cobble-paved streets that Sunday morning, I could easily have imagined myself in Toledo or Granada ; and the impression was heightened by the appearance of the Span- ish-looking, Spanish-speaking people who passed on their way to church. Many of the women wore the black man- tilla gracefully draped round their heads; the men, for 28 MEXICO the most part, wore clothes of semi-American cut, with soft felt or derby hats, though one occasionally appeared in the national sombrero. In one of the back streets I witnessed a scene which was even more typically Spanish, when I came to a queer old drinking place filled with peons enjoying their Sunday- morning dram. Attracted by the sound of music, I glanced through the wide open doorway into the vault-like interior, with its grimy, time-stained walls, where numerous barrels stood on the rough stone flagging. A brigandish-looking half-breed, with a bright red handkerchief tied about his head, was strumming a guitar and singing what seemed to be a wild gypsy song. His audience of peons were standing about the place or squatting on the barrels. A few minutes later, when the song had ended, a half- breed of rather intelligent appearance walked in, carrying a newspaper in his hand. On the back of his head was a new felt sombrero, and he wore a decent suit of clothes, which made him look quite a superior order of being to the scantily dressed Indians in the drinking den. Lifting his hat in salute, the newcomer said, ''Senores, with your permis- sion, I will entertain you with the news." The suggestion was evidently received with favor, for several of the peons responded with "Bueno, bueno" (Good, good). With this encouragement, the man with the newspaper leaped on to one of the barrels and commenced reading a news item. Owing to widespread illiteracy among the poorer classes, public newspaper readers of this sort have become a fea- ture of Mexican life. Very few men of the peon class are able to read or write, though compulsory education has been introduced in recent times. Thus it is that the news- paper reader is enabled to earn a living by making the rounds of the drinking places and reciting the news of the FROM ORIZABA TO THE CAPITAL 29 day. A certain amount of literary skill is required to follow this strange calling successfully; the reader is, in fact, a sort of peripatetic news editor, for he selects only two or three items which he knows will please his audience. The Orizaban reader, for instance, started with the most im- portant topic of the day. He commenced upon an article which discussed the financial panic then in progress in the United States, and the hard times it had caused in Mexico through the closing of mines and other enterprises controlled by Americans. Things were improving, said the newspaper, and thousands of Mexicans who had lost employment would soon be going back to work and earning plenty of money to buy food and drink. Some of the peons in the audience apparently belonged to the great army of unemployed, for they shook their heads and shrugged their shoulders at the mention of " work." They brightened up, however, at the magic word "drink," and applauded by rapping their glasses on the barrel-tops and giving vent to Si, chorus of "Buenos." The reader next selected what journalists would call a "human-interest story." In tragic tones, with appro- priate gestures, he entertained his audience with a despatch from northern Mexico which related how a drink-crazed peasant had set fire to the hut of a neighbor with whom he had a feud, shooting down his enemy as he attempted to escape, and despatching him with a knife. Pursued by the rurales, the murderer had fallen riddled with bullets after opening fire on his pursuers. This "top of the col- umn" story seemed to excite intense interest, and at its conclusion there was another outburst of "Bravo," " Muy bien," and such comments as "Buen hombre" (Good man) , ' ' Hombre valiente ' ' (Brave fellow) , Leaping down from his perch, the itinerant editor went round, sombrero in hand, making a collection; then bowing 30 MEXICO politely, with a "Buenas dias, senores," he sauntered off to the next drinking place. I had a delightful walk through Orizaba's principal resi- dential quarter, where old Spanish-looking mansions of crumbling stone were set in the midst of large gardens, beautifully shaded with palms, orange trees and other tropical growths. In the Alameda, lined with venerable trees and adorned with statuary and fountains, I found a wealth of flowers — oleanders and lilies and geraniums of all shades, in full bloom. Here, too, there. were swarms of blackbirds, hopping about the shady walks and perching in the trees, piping merrily. There were myriads of these birds all over the town, and they seemed to be as prolific as sparrows in our cities. Lounging about the street corners or squatting along the curb, smoking and gossiping in their quiet way, were nu- merous Indian men and women, many of whom had evi- dently come in from the country. Though they all seemed wretchedly poor, their faces bore a look of patient content- ment, and occasionally one would actually smile at some choice bit of repartee. Near an old bridge, in the main street, spanning the mountain stream, there sat an old Indian dame, in a much-worn rebosa, placidly puffing a cigarette. Before her was spread a poor little stock con- sisting of half a dozen bananas, two or three oranges and a few sweets. As I stood there, a small mongrel dog came up and sniffed at her wares. Seizing a stick, the old woman dealt the animal a vicious blow and he ran off yelping down the street. An ill-tempered, cruel race, these Indians, I thought; but a moment later I gained a different impression, when there came along a small barefooted, grave-looking Indian urchin, scantily dressed in ragged cotton clothing, with a piece of old bagging about his shoulders. He halted near FROM ORIZABA TO THE CAPITAL 31 the little pile of fruits and sweets and gazed wistfully at them. Catching sight of him, the old woman's face under- went a remarkable change, and actually took on an expres- sion of benevolence. Picking up a bright red stick of candy from her little stock, she held it towards the child. "Here, nino," she said, "this is yours." As he took it with a polite "Gracias, senora," the old dame gave him a kindly pat on his closely cropped head and sent him off overflow- ing with happiness. This I afterwards discovered to be typical of the Indians of Mexico, — full of the most amaz- ing contrasts of cruelty and kindness, at once hateful and admirable. The public market is one of the most interesting sights of Orizaba, with its array of tropical fruits and flowers, and their vendors in the bright costumes of a tropical clime. It has probably not materially altered since the days of the Aztecs. In a description of ancient Mexico, Bernal Diaz, one of the followers of Cortes, expresses surprise at the large crowds of people which were seen in the Aztec towns, the order which prevailed and the variety of merchandise displayed. In his account, he says: "The meat market was stocked with fowls, game and dogs. Vegetables, fruits, articles of food ready-dressed, salt, bread, honey and sweet pastry, made in various ways, were also sold here. Other places in the market were appointed to the sale of earthenware, wooden household furniture, such as tables and benches, firewood, pipes, tobacco, copper axes, and working tools and wooden vessels highly painted. The entire square was enclosed in piazzas under which great quantities of grain were stored, and there were also shops for various kinds of goods." The markets in Mexican towns are to-day practically the same. Low piazzas of solid stone enclose the market square and these are occupied by small shops;, the central part, open to the sky, is filled 32 MEXICO with the stalls of the Indian vendors, men and women, who squat on the ground on a rush mat with another sus- pended above them for protection against the sun, their little stock spread before them. During the morning hours in the Orizaba market the crowd of natives was so dense that it was almost impossible to push a way through them. Among the fruits on sale I noticed mangos, zapotes, granaditas, sapodillas, bananas, cocoanuts and other tropical fruits. Most of these look much more tempting or interesting than they really taste. The Mexican mango does not compare with the East Indian variety, being smaller and having much more of the peculiar turpentine flavor. The zapote is a small green melon which grows in clusters on trees and contains great quantities of pips resembling black currants ; the sapodilla, which looks something like a small round potato, is filled with a dark yellowish pulp of insipid sweetness; the granadita is the fruit of the passion-flower, and contains a slippery, whitish pulp filled with small black seeds. Everywhere in the market there was a great variety of beans, black, brown and yellow, — beans fried in fat, called frijoles, being the staple food of the poorer classes. There were also great heaps of golden maize, for corn and not wheat is the Mexican "staff of life." This is cooked in various ways, but more especially in the form of unleavened cakes known as tortillas, which are a distinctive feature of humble Mexican life, and are even popular among the wealthier classes. Considerable labor is necessary to evolve the tortilla, and many women devote their days and a large portion of their nights to its manufacture. The kernels of corn are first soaked in lime-water until they become soft; they are then placed on a flat kneading-stone called a metate, and ground with a rude pestle until they are reduced to S '^ FROM ORIZABA TO THE CAPITAL 33 fine paste. This is shaped into small round cakes, which are worked between the hands and patted until flattened out very thin. They are then baked on an iron pan over a charcoal fire. Having neither salt nor seasoning, they are rather insipid to the unaccustomed palate, although when served hot they are not unpalatable. In many households a special cook is employed to make tortillas and serve them piping hot at mealtimes. When cold, they are rather leathery, but they are said to be very nu- tritious, and are often carried by Mexicans when making long journeys in unsettled parts of the country. The meat in the market did not look inviting, some that was dried being as black as ink, and seeming quite unfit for human food. The Spanish word for meat, came (pro- nounced Camay), is not pleasant to the ear, and when you see some of this evil-looking Mexican meat, it somehow reminds you of the English word " carrion." The meat, too, is very carelessly handled. A butcher's boy can often be seen in a Mexican town carrying a string of tough beef-steaks and using it as a whip on any stray dog that he happens to meet. In addition to the eatables, there were all kinds of native baskets on sale, kitchen utensils, toys, bright red pottery, goat's milk, trinkets and clothing. A peon's cotton suit, by the way, costs about a dollar, his sandals ten cents and his blanket about a dollar and a half, so that he is fully clothed for less than three dollars. A most interesting part of the market is the pottery department. The shapes of the various vessels have been handed down from Aztec times, and are probably much the same as those seen by Cortes. Many of the pieces are fan- tastic in shape and ornamentation ; some of them have a graceful appearance, resembling old Grecian or Roman pottery. When it is considered that the native potter has 34 MEXICO no other tools than his wheel, a piece of broken glass and a horsehair, the results are certainly marvellous. With the hair he trims off the top, while the glass is used for smooth- ing the rough places. Some of the water-bottles and other pieces are ornamented with pieces of china, fragments of broken cups, plates, etc., arranged in tasteful patterns while the clay is soft. Each part of Mexico has its distinctive pottery, that of Cuernavaca being distinguished from that of Guadalupe, Aguas Calientes or Guadalajara by its color and design. In a quiet corner of the market was the evangelista or ^ public letter-writer, seated at his little table with a pot of ink and a pen, ready to dash off a matter-of-fact business note or an ardent love-letter for natives unable to write. In another place were the cobblers prepared to cut and fit leather sandals in a few minutes. Pushing through the crowd went the picturesque aguadores or water-carriers, with their huge earthen water-coolers strapped to their backs, from which many a refreshing draught was supplied. In towns where there is no public supply of water, the aguadore takes water daily from house to house. Queer sweets and pastry, called dulces, are sold in the markets. The Mexicans imitate the French in their con- fectionery, but it is a very poor imitation, their sweets being over-flavored and insipid and their pastry heavy and in- digestible. At various street-corners during my walk, I noticed the policemen of Orizaba, swarthy Indians, most of them, dressed not unlike the policemen of country towns in France; but instead of a sword they have a revolver strapped to the waist by a belt filled with a row of car- tridges. They looked stalwart, efficient fellows, and perform their duty well in keeping order. Later in the morning, in company with several fellow- FROM ORIZABA TO THE CAPITAL 35 travellers who had come from Vera Cruz and had stopped at the Hotel de France, I got on the little street-car and rode to the railway station to continue my journey to Mexico City. The waiting-room and the platform of the station were packed with Indian men, women and children, some of whom had come to take the train, and others to see their friends depart. When the train came in at eleven o'clock, we found there was only one first-class car, and that was pretty well filled with passengers, so that we had hard work to find places for ourselves and our portable baggage. Most of our fellow-passengers were Mexicans of the middle class, chiefly men ; and nearly all of them smoked in the car, as there was no compartment for smokers. Mexicans are rarely pleasant travelling companions, as they generally carry a lot of bags, boxes and bundles, which they pile in the seats, and they chatter incessantly. The women, strange to say, are much less talkative than the men. On our train the second-class cars were filled with Mexicans of the lower middle class ; the third-class cars were literally packed with Indians, mostly men. Railway travel in Mexico is very cheap, the third-class fare being less than one cent a mile. The Indians, I afterwards discovered, have a perfect mania for travelling, and when they are not spending their spare cash in gambling or on fiery native drinks, they buy a railway ticket. It apparently matters very little where they go, and they seem to wander off without any definite object in view. The Mexican third-class car is arranged on the American system, has hard wooden benches, and is not inviting ; yet it is always packed with Indians, who exchange cigarettes, drink each other's health in pulque and mescal, which they carry, and gossip incessantly. In fact, for the peon, the third-class car is a sort of travelling workingmen's club. He has genial company, and sees the country as he travels. 36 MEXICO When the train stops at a station, he gets out and gossips with brother Indians on the platform. But a pleasure-trip of this kind sweeps away the poor peon's earnings just as the craving for drink does. While we were travelling from Orizaba to Mexico City, I witnessed a pathetic scene at a small railway station which strikingly illustrated this fact. An Indian was on the platform with his wife and several children, and some friends were urging him to take a ride, just as I have seen the companions of a British workman urging a comrade, fighting against temp- tation, to enter a public house and have "just one more drink." "Don't go, Juan," urged the tearful wife; "we owe for rent, and the grocer hasn't been paid." The children, bellowing loudly, hung on to their father's blanket. "Aw, come along, Juan, old fellow; don't be henpecked," said his swarthy companions in equivalent Spanish, pulling him towards the car. "A few miles won't hurt you or the missus." The engine gave a whistle, the train began to move, the peons jumped on, and poor, weak Juan, unable to resist temptation, sprang in after them. As the train moved off, the poor wife, realizing that the week's wages would be spent in travel, ran after the car, wringing her hands and gesticulating wildly to her husband, who looked stolidly at her from the window. Railway travel in most countries is either a luxury or a necessity, but Mexico is the only land in which it amounts to a positive vice. From Orizaba the railway runs through fertile fields and wooded hills until it reaches the mountains and enters a deep ravine called the Caiion del Infernillo or Little Hell, a wild spot, filled with numerous cascades and streams of rushing, roaring waters. The train here makes a wonderful ascent, twisting and climbing over twenty-four hundred feet in nine miles . When the train is coming from the other direc- tion, Indians offer fruit and flowers for sale at the summit; FEOM ORIZABA TO THE CAPITAL 37 then, while the train is travelHng the nine miles, they scam- per down the twenty-four hundred feet by a short mountain footpath and meet it again. Climbing steadily upwards, the train crosses numerous iron bridges, spanning deep chasms, passing through many tunnels, sweeping round dizzy, beetling points, the line crossing and recrossing itself, twisting up serpent-like to the mountain heights. Far above, as the train climbs upwards, you see one or two white specks which are stations. Looking backwards, you can see the wonderful twistings of the line. The scenery is often inexpressibly grand, the pink-tinged, treeless moun- tains rising on all sides from the foliage of the foot-hills. At Alta Luz, where the engine takes water, the traveller looks down on the village of Maltrata, thousands of feet below in the valley, which is spread out like a toy city on a green carpet, with its white church, its central plaza, its tiled and thatched houses, its little line of streets, and its surrounding green fields and orchards ; and high above the valley, and far above where the train is standing, tower the mountains, culminating in the snow-tipped peak of Orizaba, which seems to pierce the skies. From this point there is a steady and continued climb upwards, until Esperanza is reached at an altitude of 8044 feet. As the train travelled upward to this place, the air grew quite sharp, and the rare- fied atmosphere caused a noticeable quickening of the action of the lungs. While travelling slowly up the mountains, we witnessed a novel and pathetic sight. Two natives, carrying a bright blue coffin, trotted down a mountain path, followed by a peon and three weeping children, keeping closely together at the same jog-trot. They were evidently bound for the municipal cemetery outside a little village far below. The Mexican country cemetery is very different from the peace- ful God's acres in our own country districts, and is simply 38 MEXICO a plot of waste land surrounded with a wall of whitewashed brick. A few of the graves are marked with rude wooden crosses; the others are unmarked. The place is usually overgrown with coarse grass and cactus. At Esperanza, which we reached at half-past one, there was a halt of thirty minutes for luncheon. None of the Mexican railway trains have dining-cars attached, and stops for meals are made at certain stations, the customary price being fifty cents. Passengers of all classes have equal privileges in the dining-room, and unless you are care- ful, you are apt to find yourself seated with a motley com- pany of unwashed natives whose manners constantly re- mind you that fingers were invented before forks. The white passengers on the train — that is, the foreigners and best class of Mexicans — usually gather at one table, and it is advisable to wait a few minutes until the company is seated, so as to make sure of getting a place at the right table. Though meals are rather crudely served, the food is generally well cooked and palatable. At Esperanza, mountain climbers can travel by road to the village of Chalchicamula, whence a trail through the woods leads to the foot of Mount Orizaba. This giant peak of over eighteen thousand feet is, next to Mount McKinley in Alaska, the highest peak in North America. For an experienced mountain climber the ascent is difficult but not dangerous. In making the ascent, one passes through all varieties of climates, from the sub-tropical region of the valley to the pine woods of the north, and then on to the cold, icy, snow-capped Arctic regions. The scenes to be witnessed on every side are magnificent. Travelling from Esperanza down to Vera Cruz, the descent in many places is so steep that steam-power is not used. The train runs down the moimtains by its own weight, brake-power only being necessary to regulate the pace. SI FBOM ORIZABA TO THE CAPITAL 39 After leaving Esperanza, the line reaches the flat table- lands, bordered with mountains in the distance, dry and dusty in the winter time. The country is dreary and mo- notonous, with scarcely a tree to be seen. Here and there I noticed a big white hacienda building or ranch-house set in the midst of the plain, where large herds of cattle were browsing on withered grass, the only signs of cultivation being occasional fields where the dry, yellow Indian-corn stalks left from the last harvest were still standing. This dry, dusty appearance of the country was, I found, char- acteristic of the highlands of Mexico in the winter months. There is then little or no rain, everything gets dry and parched, and only where there is an irrigated patch is there any green vegetation. Sometimes the train passed over a dry watercourse, for in the higher lands most of the streams and rivers dry up during the rainless season. When the rains set in, they soon begin flowing again, and frequently get into a flooded condition. Mexico is very poorly supplied with rivers, excepting along the Gulf coast, where they are very numerous and quite large at the mouth, but not navigable for any distance. The monotonous country through which we travelled during the afternoon was rendered still more depressing by the weather, the sky which in Mexico is usually a clear, deep blue being still dark and cloudy. Blowing from the coast, the ''norther" was making itself felt in the high table-land. There were, however, occasionally a few interesting scenes to relieve the tedium of our journey. At one village there was an encampment of soldiers, infantry and cavalry, and a long line of tents. Everything seemed to be conducted in good military order. At nearly every station where a stop was made the train was besieged by a throng of wild-looking Indian women and children selling boiled eggs, fried chicken, fiery Mexican dishes, such as tamales, and native cakes and 40 MEXICO drinks. These were eagerly bought by the Mexican pas- '^ sengers, who seemed to be continually eating, Mexican railway stations, especially in the small towns, are always crowded, as the arrival and departure of a passenger train — sometimes there is only one daily — is quite an important event. Poor people with nothing else to do and loafers of every description gather to see the train, smoking and chat- ting together, staring at the passengers and discussing them with much apparent enjoyment. Beggars of all kinds, the lame, the diseased and the blind, are always on hand, clamoring for centavos, and singing lustily to the accom- paniment of their queer old harps, fiddles and mandolins. We passed very few villages, and these mostly consisted of square, flat-roofed huts of adobe or sun-dried brick. ^ Adobe is an important feature of life in Mexico and is the salvation of the poor Mexican . Wood being very expensive, and stone or manufactured brick out of the question for him, he has to fall back on mother earth for shelter. The * soil in many places is a sort of clay which, after being mixed with water and straw, — usually the refuse from stables, — is put in square wooden moulds and baked* in the sun. This sun-dried brick is called adobe, and it is wonderful how long it will stand the stress of sun and rain in a country where there are no severe frosts. Not only does the poor man make use of this cheap building material, but many a pretentious wall that is covered with a respectable coating of stucco and finished in imitation of stone, when it even- tually falls into decay, shows that within 'iVhas relied for strength and support upon adobe, , -^ ' Later in the day our train steamed across the plains of ■ Apam, relieved only by monotonous rows of maguey plants, from which the national drink, pulque (pronounced <^oZ- kay), is made. Apam is, in fact, the most important dis- trict in Mexico for the cultivation of this plant — a species FROM ORIZABA TO THE CAPITAL 41 of agave which looks a good deal like the " aloe" used for ornamental purposes in American gardens and sometimes called the "century plant," from the fiction that it blooms only once in a hundred years. The Mexican plant, how- ever, is much larger, its dark green spiked leaves sometimes reaching a length of fifteen feet, a foot in breadth and sev- eral inches in thickness. From six to ten years are required for the plant to mature in its native soil. It then sends up a tall, stiff spike, which is covered with clusters of small, bell-shaped blossoms as white as bleached cabbage, and then dies. In maguey plantations, however, when the flowering time arrives, the plant is marked with a cross, the stalks being then full of the sap for which it is culti- vated. To obtain this, the entire heart is removed, leaving a natural basin in which the sap collects. In this condition the liquor is sweet and perfectly clear, and is called agua miel or honey-water. The sap, which gathers quickly, is removed two or three times a day by an Indian, usually provided with a long, hollow gourd with a hole at each end. He places the small end of the gourd in the sap, and applying his mouth to the opening at the other end, sucks the liquid into the gourd. This primitive method, however, is being supplanted by a long siphon, which enables the sap to be removed more quickly and cleanly. After its removal, the sap is emptied into a pigskin which the gatherer carries on his back. Each plant yields on an average about six quarts of sap daily for a month or more. It then withers and dies and another is planted in its place. The sap collected each day is put in barrels and fermented, when it is ready for the market. Pulque, after- fermenta- tion, tastes a good deal like stale buttermilk diluted with stagnant water — a thin, starchy, evil-smelling liquor. After further fermentation, it acquires a putrid taste. The natives like it best immediately after fermentation, as it 42 MEXICO is supposed to spoil — if it can spoil — within twenty- four hours afterwards, and there is a law prohibiting its sale after that time. Thus it must be drunk at once, which may account for the energy with which the Indians imbibe it. Very few of the better classes drink pulque; it is the beverage of the poor. A taste for pulque has to be acquired by strangers. The first experience is always repellent, but familiarity is said to breed contempt for its nauseous qualities. Great virtues are claimed for the drink, especially in the cure of kidney diseases. Some Mexican doctors prescribe it for these ailments, but several physicians who have investi- gated its alleged curative powers assert that it is of no value whatever. Pulque was first known in Mexico, so it is said, in 1050 A.D., when a beautiful Indian maiden with the unbeautiful name of Xochitl brought to the Toltec emperor, Teopan- caltzin, a large pot of sweet liquid which she had drawn from the maguey plants in her garden. The emperor was so pleased with the drink that he married the girl, and in course of time a son was born who was christened Me- conetzin, meaning "The son of the maguey plant." Queen Xochitl did not make pulque, but merely extracted the sweet, sticky juice of the plant, the agua miel. In the northern parts of Mexico the natives drink this, and it has no bad effects. For a hundred miles and more round Mexico City there are pulque estates where the maguey plant is cultivated, and on some of these over a thousand peons are employed attending to the plants and gathering the sap. Special pulque trains loaded with this vile beverage run into the capital every day from the country districts. It is sold at pulque shops, the lowest class of Mexican saloons, patronized only by Indian peons. A cheap drink, it costs MEXICO'S NATIONAL DRINK. Gatheriug the maguey sap for making jjulque. AN AGU ADORE. The Mexican water-seller. (See page 34.) FROM ORIZABA TO THE CAPITAL 43 only two or three centavos a glass ; yet the daily expendi- ture for pulque in Mexico City is said to exceed twenty thousand dollars. Indulgence in this drink softens the brain, ruins the digestion and paralyzes the nerves; while its effects on the native population are so destructive that it has been well named "the curse of Mexico." It is principally drunk in Mexico City, where the Indian population is the most degraded in the Republic. Many employers of labor will not hire men from the pulque districts if they can possibly get them from elsewhere. Tequila and mescal, two fiery spirits largely consumed in Mexico, are distilled from a smaller species of maguey. They have some resemblance to cheap brandy, and are equally deadly in their effects on the human system. Whatever his racial weaknesses maybe, there is no doubt that the degeneracy of the native and the degrading con- ditions under which he often lives, especially in the cities, are mainly due to drink. Every centavo the Indian can scrape together is spent on pulque and mescal. Most of the murders in Mexico City are due to drink, Pulquerias, as the drinking shops are called, are for the most part located in the low quarters of the town, and are reeking, foul-smelling dens with earthen floors, the state of which had best not be inquired into. These bar-rooms are deco- rated and painted in a very strange way, brightly colored tissue paper and flags of all tints adorning them without as well as within. The outside walls of these are usually covered with pictures of warriors, chariots, battles and even martyrs and saints, daubed over them in gay colors. -k CHAPTER III MEXICO CITY BY NIGHT Hours of steaming through bare plains, hemmed in by- bare mountains, cone-shaped, the true volcanic type! Hours of dust and rattle, the scenery broken only by the huge, flat-shaped maguey plant, interminable save where a few acres round a lonely village church show the yellow- ing stalks of last season's harvest of Indian corn ! Such are the plains of Apam, through which the heavily loaded train from Vera Cruz panted and jolted as the sun sank and the quick-falling darkness made the weirdly lonely scenery more weird, more lonely and desolate, if that were possible. It is "starved, ignoble nature" in very truth, and the traveller wonders, as he stares through the gather- ing darkness, where Mexico City can be hidden in the plain's hopeless desert. Mexico, however, is a land of contrasts, and this the newcomer is not long in learning. Thus the transition from the barbarically wild to the civilized is remarkably sudden. For miles before reaching the Mexican capital we passed through these sandy wastes and fields of maguey ; past straggling Indian villages of adobe huts with garden- plots enclosed with cactus, tall and straight, forming nat- ural fence-posts, where Indian men in their red blankets and straw sombreros, and unkempt Indian women in their blue rebosas, squatted about and stolidly watched the train flit by. Suddenly from the desert we entered what ap- peared to be a suburban district where there were stone 44 MEXICO CITY BY NIGHT 45 houses of Spanish appearance, quite well built, with a few Americanized business buildings mixed with them, dec- orated with garish advertising signs in Spanish and English. Then electric lights began to twinkle along the highways, and an electric car filled with passengers glided onward to the city. A few minutes later our train ran through some rather squalid streets and then entered a railway station which, though really nothing but a glorified shed, was the terminus in Mexico City. There are no stations in the capital equal in size and appointments to those in even a third-rate American city, and most of them are crude in the extreme. They are arranged in much the same way as are the American stations, without raised platforms, and having only one waiting-room for passengers of all classes. No sooner had the train come to a standstill than it was besieged by a mob of cargadores, offering to carry our baggage., These men were not in uniform, but wore the ordinary dress of the peon — a dirty linen suit, or just trousers and shirt, and some had a ragged blanket wrapped round their shoulders. As the cargadores are not allowed to enter the railway carriages, the traveller passes his bags to them through the window. I was duly captured by one of these burden-bearers, and following him emerged to find a large crowd of cabs, very much like the Parisian fiacres, in the station yard. The drivers, however, were very different in appearance from the cochers of Paris, for they all wore the heavy felt, steeple-crowned sombrero. There are first- and second-class cabs in Mexico City, the former bearing a small blue flag and the latter a red flag. The blues charge fifty cents and the reds thirty cents an hour. A local guide-book suggests that tourists can remember the two classes by saying to themselves, "Red cabs for the ordinary red-blooded people, blues for the blue 46 MEXICO bloods." A year or two ago there was a third class of cabs which sported a yellow flag, and were popularly known as "yellow fevers." This, of course, was a joke, but they certainly were pestilential conveyances, and the city is well rid of them. As I left the station in one of the red-flag cabs, bound for my hotel, a policeman at the station exit noted down the number and destination of the vehicle. This, I found, is done at all the railway stations in the City, and it is an excellent idea; for if anything happens to a passenger, if he gets lost or robbed, the police are thus able to get some trace of him. My cab drove quickly through wide asphalted streets, bright with electric lights, and bordered with flat-roofed houses in Spanish style, with their balconies and barred windows. Intermixed with these were a few modern- looking business buildings and stores, and one or two ancient churches with quaint towers and domes. Along most of the streets through which I passed electric street- cars were running, crowded with passengers. As in all Mexican cities, these cars are American-made, and carry passengers inside only. The brilliantly lighted streets, the crowded cars and the passing throngs of well-dressed people all gave me the feeling of being once more in a great metropolis; and this seemed wonderfully strange when I reaHzed that less than half an hour before I had been travelling through Indian villages and a lonely desert. I had engaged quarters at the Hotel Sanz, which is under American management, and as comfortable as hotels are in the Mexican capital. There are no really fine hotels in the city, most of them being old convents or mansions partly rebuilt. The Sanz was the usual large, square, flat-roofed build- ing of three stories built round an unroofed patio, encircled MEXICO CITY BY NIGHT 47 by galleries at each story ; the office, some reception rooms and the restaurant were on the ground floor. In the centre of the patio there was the usual fountain, with its flowers and shrubbery. All this would have looked very attractive and refreshing on a sultry evening; but the "norther" was still blowing, the sky was overcast, the air was dis- tinctly chilly and there had just been a heavy shower of rain. Everything seemed damp, dark and cold. There was not a stove or open fireplace in the hotel, but in this respect it was no worse off than the other establishments. None of them are heated, and when the weather is cold there is absolutely no way of getting warm unless you go to bed ; and even then you are apt to suffer, as the rarefied air is very penetrating. I had a comfortable room, but it made me shiver to look out on the cold, damp patio and hear the chill wind sighing round the open court. Mexico City certainly needs a good modern hotel, and at first sight such an establishment would seem to be sure of making large profits and well paying its promoters. The servant problem, however, and the extortionate prices which are demanded for ground in eligible districts have thus far prevented capitalists from embarking in such an enterprise. Several well-known American and European hotel lessees have investigated the matter, but none of them have been willing to engage in what they consider would be a losing venture. The present hotels are cheap and clean, but in the majority of them every- thing is old and dingy, and the service is very inferior. Twenty years ago, I was told, visitors were making the same complaint, but the need for a modern hotel is still a crying one. With all their faults, the Mexican hotels have one re- deeming trait — they are not expensive. Those in the big centres usually make separate charges for rooms and 48 MEXICO meals, the price of rooms generally ranging from one dollar fifty to three dollars a day, while meals are served k la carte. Some of the hotels, however, serve a regular dinner, which costs, as a rule, about a dollar. In Mexico City, where the cost of living is higher than in small places, one can manage to live very comfortably at a hotel, with room and board, for four or five dollars a day. In the smaller towns the hotels charge so much a day for room and board together, usually from two to three dollars, the price varying according to the size and position of the room. Good servants are very difficult to get in Mexico, and the domestics, who are chiefly drawn from the Indian population, are seldom long contented with their places. The chambermaids in the Americanized hotels — most of them swarthy Indians or half-breeds — look a good deal like typical gypsy maidens. They wear the usual native costume, a loose skirt and bodice of speckled blue and white and a rebosa draped over the shoulders. Their coarse black hair is generally worn hanging down the back in a long plait, their eyes are very dark, and they are much given to wearing large ear-rings. When not at work, they sit about the stairs in twos and threes, and to a stranger seem very picturesque. Their ideas of housework are also interesting to the stranger who does not have to employ them as domestics, although their method of dusting would drive an American housewife mad in a week. At the end of a stick they tie a cloth and very lackadaisically flick it around in the direction in which they think the dust is. The whole process suggests the indolence with which these folk regard all life's problems. The district of Mexico City in which the principal hotels are situated is historic ground, for some of the most stirring events of Mexican history have been enacted in this par- ticular quarter. Opposite the Hotel Sanz is the Alameda, Cuiivriglit by l' luk-rwood it Underwood, New York. CALLE DEL RELOJ. One of the busiest streets in the capital. MEXICO CITY BY NIGHT 49 a pretty little park about twice as large as City Hall Park, New York, and from this radiate some of the principal streets. Once a piece of waste land, the Alameda is now a long stretch of velvety green lawns and numerous beds of tropical flowers, shaded by fine old trees and graceful palms. In the centre is a handsome fountain, and on one side a. quaint Moorish kiosque, in which refreshments are sold. One of the regimental bands plays in the Alameda every day. Until recently, the little park was Mexico City's fashionable promenade, and on Sunday mornings the smart people gathered there much in the same way as they do in Hyde Park during the London season. But the centre of population is moving southwestward, and the Alameda is, as far as I could observe, becoming chiefly the resort of the poorer classes. This spot has a tragic history, having been the place of execution for the victims of the Inquisition. In 1574 twenty-one "pestilent Lutherans" were burned there. Crowds used to stand on the steps of the old church of San Diego, which still faces the Alameda, to get a good view of the burnings and watch the ashes of the victims thrown into a marsh which then existed behind the church. The Inquisition was not abolished in Mexico until 1812. In the evening I took a walk through some of the prin- cipal streets, and was astonished to find them so deserted. The Mexican capital has a population of over four hundred thousand, and I had read such glowing accounts of the gayety of the place that I confidently expected to find it a sort of transatlantic Paris. I was doomed to disappoint- ment, however, for although it was only nine o'clock when I took my walk abroad, all signs of life had departed from the streets. Only a few stores and restaurants were open, and very few people were to be seen. Nor was this due to the fact that it was Sunday night, for the streets have 50 MEXICO the same dreary appearance on other nights of the week. There is a reason for this, and it is undoubtedly cKmatic. While the day temperature, even in winter, is mild and often hot, the nights in the capital are invariably chilly; in the winter months dangerously so. The whole popula- tion are terrified of the night air, and thus it is that after eight o'clock Mexico City is almost a city of the dead, except in some of the important business streets where such night amusements as exist are to be found. A few theatres and cinematograph shows afford amusement to those who will face the night air; but there is no cafe life as in France, and no sort of out-of-door life. Nobody seems to come to the restaurants, except in the case of a few popular establish- ments chiefly patronized by foreigners. At some of these good dinners are served, during which excellent music is played ; but there is little to attract one in going, on a cold night, through deserted streets to half-deserted restaurants. The theatres do not open until nine o'clock, and unless there is some very good company playing, they do not attract large crowds. As I wandered along, I noticed a lantern standing in the middle of the street at nearly every crossing. These lights, I found, belonged to policemen, for in all Mexican cities the policemen stand at night at the street corners, placing their lanterns in the middle of the road. The long row of flicker- ing lights, up and down, in every direction, has a curious effect; but to the law-abiding it is a comforting one, in- dicating as it does that the Argus-eye of the law is on the sleeping city. Unlike Diogenes, the Mexican policeman employs his lantern to find a possible thief, but humorists say that the lantern is really intended to aid the thief in avoiding the guardians of the law . In dress and appearance the police, who are chiefly recruited from the Indians and half-breeds, are not unlike MEXICO CITY BY NIGHT 51 the Parisian sergeants de ville. On one side of his waist the poHceman wears what American poHcemen call "a, night stick," and on the other a revolver is strapped. During the day he walks his beat and takes an occasional rest by leaning against a door-post. At night he wears a long blue cloak, and if the weather is cold you will see him muffled up to the chin, breathing through the cloth. All the Mexican masses seem to dread the night and early morning air. Muffling themselves up in their blankets, the peons breathe through them with heroic disregard of the germs which must lurk in their dirty folds ; women cover their mouths with their rebosas, using them as res- pirators. The popular idea is that unadulterated cold air entering the lungs is likely to cause pneumonia. Windows in the city are all barred with iron bars; the heavy doors would require dynamite to blow them open, and fires are infrequent. The Mexican policeman's lot is therefore a happy one, for he has little to do, which is what the Mexican likes best. When the streets are deserted, he not infrequently leans against a door and goes to sleep ; but if you want him, his lantern enables you to find him and rouse him from his slumbers. The police are very numerous all over Mexico, because the government has found it advisable to keep itself well informed of affairs, in order to check revolutionary movements. Even in the smallest villages there is a uniformed police. The metropolitan police appeared to me to be a very efficient body of men; they are very courteous to strangers, and have made the streets of the capital almost as safe as those of New York. Just as the London police are affectionately called "Bobbies," so the Mexican guardians of the law have their pet name, "Serenos." The old Spanish watchmen whom they supplanted used to call out the state of the weather just as did the English watchmen in olden times. As 52 MEXICO Mexican weather is usually clear, the watchman's cry was simply a reiteration of the words ''Tiempo sereno " (weather clear), and thus they came to be called "Serenos." By the way, they have a peculiar custom of arresting all parties in an altercation. If a policeman is called to arrest an offender the complainant will be arrested as well and marched off to the police station. In such cases there is only one thing to do and that is to obey orders, accom- pany the policeman to the " comiseria," and trust to luck in having the matter settled by the officer on duty there. During my walk, I not only noticed the sharpness of the air, which every poor man in the street was trying to avoid by breathing through his cloak or blanket, but I also noticed a pecuHar atmospheric quality which somehow reminded me of the high mountainous districts of Switzer- land. I also felt a queer dizzy sensation in my head and \ a slight difficulty in breathing. Then I remembered that I was in a region of rarefied air, for Mexico City is nearly 8000 feet above the level of the sea. It is owing to this high altitude that most visitors on their arrival experience a slight headache and shortness of breath, which, however, wears off in a day or two. The geographical situation of Mexico City is unique among the world's capitals. Lying on a beautiful plain about sixty miles long and thirty broad, the city is encircled by a chain of mountains, some of which have the charac- teristically pointed volcanic shape, while nearer to the city rises a long range of barren foot-hills. Owing to its altitude, the city usually enjoys an even and moderate temperature, the thermometer showing an average of seventy degrees the year round, and even the summer is pleasantly cool. Its peculiar situation, however, causes some very unpleas- ant climatic conditions, such as the " norther" which was blowing when I arrived. The sun is always waging war MEXICO CITY BY NIGHT 53 with the cloud troops and the mountain air, a combat of nature which gives rise to sudden and trying changes. The city being less sheltered from the north and northwest, the winds blowing over the snow-capped mountains often bring frost and even snow in the winter. On a bright, clear day, too, there is often an extraordinary difference between the temperature on the sunny and shady sides of the streets ; for it will be roasting hot on one side, while on the other one feels an unpleasant chill. In fact, the Spanish proverb regarding Madrid is often applicable to the Mexican me- tropolis, for the wind which on a bright day does not seem strong enough to blow out a candle on the sunny side of the street will almost take a man's life in the shade. The seasons in Mexico are divided into the dry and the rainy, the former beginning in November and lasting until June. In the highlands during this time of the year little or no rain falls, save a few heavy showers in March or April, and unless a "norther" is blowing, the sun shines with un- clouded splendor and the sky is intensely blue. During the rains, from June to November, showers fall every day from two to four, and the dry, sun-baked plains and hills, arid and yellow, then turn to a rich emerald. Thus the climate of these Mexican highlands is no warmer in summer than in winter, and travelling, thanks to the absence of dust, is far more agreeable. It always puzzles the Mexicans why tourists visit their country when it is at its climatic worst. Around the city lie six shallow lakes, Texcoco, Xochil- milco, San Cristoval, Xaltocan, Zumpalgo and Chalco. The first of these is about three miles from the city. In Aztec times the waters of these lakes entirely surrounded the capital, but since the conquest their shores have gradu- ally receded. Zumpalgo is twenty-five feet higher than the city and drains into Texcoco, which caused a serious flood L 54 ' MEXICO on three occasions, the city being once inundated to the depth of seven feet, and there being no outlet, the waters remained in possession for years. To prevent such another catastrophe, with all its attendant loss of life and property, the Spaniards, in 1607, began digging a huge drainage tunnel, which cost the lives of thousands of unfortunate Indian slaves. Unaccustomed to hard toil, half starved and overworked, they speedily succumbed to the ill treat- ment of their Spanish taskmasters. Their labor, after all, was in vain, for when the tunnel was at last completed, a large portion of the roof caved in. Many years later it was decided to turn the tunnel into an open canal, and work on this continued for over a hundred years, the canal being finished in 1789. It was known as the Tajo de Nochistongo, and remained in use until a few years ago, but was never satisfactory. It was then supplanted by a modern scheme of drainage carried out by Pearson & Sons, which has proved a great success not only in draining the overflow of the lakes, but in carrying off the city sewage. The old Tajo is now a dry trench, with an average depth of two hundred feet, from three to seven hundred feet wide at the top and slop- ing to a few feet in width at the bottom. It is nearly five miles long, and is partly used as a cutting by the Mexican Central Railway. It is curious that Cortes should have built his city on the site of the ancient one thus placed in the midst of lakes and swamps, with the accumulated debris and filth of ages beneath it. He had plenty of higher ground to choose from near at hand. It is difhcult also to understand why he did not select a site nearer either of the coasts. Prob- ably he was tempted by the fact that there was plenty of building material at hand from the Aztec temples and palaces which he destroyed. Thus it was that the site of the modern Mexican capital was most unwisely chosen, and MEXICO CITY BY NIGHT 55 the evil results of it are still experienced. Even to-day, a few feet below the surface the earth is soft and swampy, which has caused many of the buildings to settle unevenly, while it has also made the drainage of the city extremely difficult. Much has been done to mitigate the unfortunate position of the capital ; but the death-rate is still remarkably high, particularly in the winter. The average duration of life is said to be only twenty-six years, which amazing condition is largely due to infant mortality. Typhoid and malarial fevers are prevalent, and pneumonia takes heavy toll. Owing to the effect of the rarefied air on the action of the heart and lungs, diseases of these organs are rarely curable on the spot, and whenever possible patients are transferred for treatment to lower altitudes, such as Cuernavaca and Cuautla, which have altitudes of about five thousand feet. The hopeless ignorance of hygiene and the entire absence of sanitary conditions of life among the working classes is largely responsible for the heavy death-rate. Their dwell- ings are mere hovels, their habits are filthy, their clothes are ragged, and the foods they eat are ill-cooked and contain little nourishment. Thus it is no wonder that diseases, especially those associated with dirt, such as smallpox and typhus fever, are terribly common; while skin diseases, scrofula, rheumatism and bone troubles make constant inroads on the national health. No precautions being taken to insure the purity of the drinking water, the typhoid fiend stalks unchecked among the lower quarters of the city. A report of the American consul states that of three hundred and fifty-eight deaths occurring during one week in January, 1908, one hundred and twenty-five were from ailments of the digestive organs, and one hundred and six pulmonary. Bad food, coupled with sudden changes of temperature, wexe the chief causes of this heavy mortality. 66 MEXICO The population of Mexico City is thoroughly cosmopolitan, for it contains representatives from nearly every nation of the earth. The Indians are vastly in the majority; the half-breeds or meztizos, who call themselves the Mexicans, ranking next in number, and forming the great middle class. Then there is the richest class, for the most part of pure Spanish descent, ''whites," as they like to call themselves, from whose ranks most of the government officials are derived. These people of the upper class are not all dark; still a blonde is very rare among them. Most of them are of olive-brown color, suggesting, in spite of their denial, a mixture of Indian blood; for in the early days it was not considered a mesalliance for a Spanish officer of even high rank to marry an Aztec maiden of the better class, so that Indian blood is, in fact, very widely diffused through the Mexican upper classes. I had a good opportunity to observe the mixed types of the city's population when I went out on the morning after my arrival, for in marked contrast with their deserted appearance the night before the streets were now crowded, and presented a queer motley of life. Numbers of men and just a few girls (as the custom of employing female clerks, etc., is only beginning to be adopted in Mexico's capital) were hurrying to business. Among these business men and clerks, dressed much as they would be in an Amer- ican city, were moving typical Mexican Indians in their cotton attire, blankets and straw sombreros. Their wo- men, mostly barefoot, pattered along wrapt in their rebosas. Sometimes one of the Indians would have his whole family with him, a row of ragged children, straggling behind in single file. Filthy little urchins of Indian newsboys, with lank black hair, brown, smiling faces, and merry black eyes, in tattered clothing and battered straw sombreros, hawked their papers at the street corners, shouting lustily, "El MEXICO CITY BY NIGHT SI Im-par-ci-al" and "El Dia-r-io," giving their r's a peculiar long trill. Along the street rode a troop of Mexican cav- alry, swarthy, bronzed fellows, mounted on the trim, ser- viceable Mexican pony, and dressed in blue uniforms and Austrian-shaped kepis of glazed leather, their rifles strapped on their backs. Here and there I passed a soldier on foot dressed in German fashion, a blue uniform with red facings, and a brass-spiked helmet. The scene was full of color and vivid contrasts. Electric street-cars glided by packed with people, many of them compelled to go to business in true strap-hanging fashion. Red and blue cabs were abroad, and now and again an automobile dashed past, its horn tooting merrily ; while the quaint old-world country life which lay outside the city boundaries was represented by a chance country wagon drawn by oxen, its wheels clumsy disks cut in a solid piece from some huge tree trunk. The weather was not unpleasant, for although the sky was still overcast, the "norther" was moderating, and the air was slightly milder. Passing the new opera-house, which was in course of erection, and on which a large gang of workmen were hammering the great steel framework and hoisting stone, I came to the new Post-office, a magnificent structure of white stone and marble of platero or mixed Spanish design. It is one of the most beautiful public buildings in the world, and certainly does credit to Mexico, though its actual con- struction is due to an Italian architect and American con- tractors. The interior fittings are very elaborate, fine mar- bles and bronze being lavishly used. The opera-house is also being built by an American firm. Mexico City might be described as a sort of Americanized Madrid. The architecture of the older buildings is largely of the antique Spanish style, with a few modifications adopted for domestic and climatic reasons. Many of these 58 MEXICO old structures are being rebuilt in much the same style as American business buildings; and the Americanizing pro- cess is still further evidenced by some large, new office buildings of American design which have been erected in recent years. One peculiarity which is shared by many of the buildings, old and new, is the absence of cellars, which is due to the marshy nature of the soil. Chimneys are also scarce, as fireplaces are seldom used. The streets of the capital are laid out in blocks of the familiar chess-board pattern, on the same system as that of American cities. Looking down some of the principal streets, one sees a picturesque mixture of ancient, flat-roofed houses of stone or stucco, now used for business purposes, seldom over three stories in height, usually cream white, and having the familiar balconies round the first story. Intermixed with these are modern buildings of various heights and styles. On a clear day, with a bright blue sky overhead, the views down some of the older streets are won- derfully attractive, the long lines of buildings of mixed architecture and varied shades of color ending in a distant vista of reddish-tinted mountains which overlook the city. Most of the main thoroughfares have an up-to-date and prosperous appearance, but in the residential districts one catches glimpses at the crossways of queer, dingy side streets in which the houses, with their faded, cracked stucco and rusty ironwork, seem to have been painted a hundred years back and forgotten ever since. In many of these old-fashioned streets, houses which were once fashionable mansions are being gradually transformed into business buildings or are used as boarding-houses. In one quarter of the city — quite out of the world — I strolled through some narrow streets so little frequented that blades of grass were sprouting up through the cobble-stone paving. In these streets were some fine old mansions, evidently MEXICO CITY BY NIGHT 59 built in a long-past age and once the homes of wealthy citizens; but the district had become unfashionable, and the ancient mansions, tenanted by a very different class of people, had gradually fallen into decay. All these old houses had huge double doors, some of them beautifully carved, which opened on to the great stone- paved patio with its fountains, flowers and shrubbery, with wide flights of stone steps leading to the upper galleries. This is the invariable arrangement in the old Mexican houses, which are seldom imposing on the outside, their rows of iron-barred windows giving them rather a prison- like appearance. A peculiar feature of them is that the family usually occupies the upper stories, the ground floor being used for stables, the carriage room, and the servants' quarters. Strange to the American eye is the lack of chim- neys, already referred to, which is due to the fact that char- coal is generally used in Mexico for cooking and heating. Very little coal is found in the country, and as most of that used is imported from abroad, it is rather an expensive lux- ury. All through the city the charcoal sellers can be seen making their rounds with the cry of "Carbosin" (charcoal). Poor families have to content themselves with a few small pieces — just enough to cook their frugal meals of tortillas and frijoles. Most of the business buildings which have been recently erected or reconstructed have rather an American look, the sign-boards helping to give this impression. I noticed, for instance, such familiar signs as "La Maquina Singer" (Singer Sewing Machine), "Maquina Escribir Remington'^ (Remington Typewriter), "American Cash Register," "Quaker Oats" and "American Electric Co.," all indica- tions of the great American invasion. There were also some other signs of it. Americans seemed to swarm everywhere — in the streets, 60 MEXICO in stores, in offices, and likewise in the drinking places ; for several American bars have lately been started in the central district. These are popular meeting places for a large class of Americans who come down to Mexico in search of employment or to embark in business in a small way. In one short street I saw an Americanized barber's shop, an American grocery store, an American drinking saloon, an American billiard room, an American boot- black's stand, and encountered so many Americans that it was difficult to realize that I was in Mexico City and not in Chicago or New York. As the result of this invasion, the principal shops make a great point of catering for Americans, and display the announcement so often seen abroad, "Enghsh spoken here." Some ultra-patriotic Americans object to this frequent use of the word "English," and tell the Mexicans that it should be changed to "United States." While becoming gradually Americanized, Mexico City is, however, still cosmopolitan; for in a short radius one can see a French costumier's, Spanish wines and groceries, a German hardware store and agencies of several important European firms of various nationalities. Some of the finest buildings in the city are in Calle Cinco de Mayo (Fifth of May Street) , a sort of Mexican Wall Street, where there are several new American office buildings — skyscrapers of ten or more stories — most of them being the offices of railway companies. One of the best buildings is occupied by the Mexican Light and Power Company, a Canadian corporation supplying electric power for light- ing, running factories, street-cars, etc., from its works at a great waterfall about forty miles out. Some of the old buildings used to-day for business pur- poses date perhaps from the sixteen hundreds; but they have lost their antique appearance as far as the outside is concerned. Through their great square doorways, how- o MEXICO CITY BY NIGHT 61 ever, can be seen the true old-fashioned patio, with its galleries around each story, its central fountain and shrub- bery. Some of these old buildings were once the mansions of Spanish grandees, and fine carved fronts are to be seen. Among the most notable of the older buildings is the former residence of the Escandon family in the Calle San Fran- cisco, which is now cut up into offices, the first floor being the ticket office of the Mexican Central Railway. Next to the Escandon mansion is the Jockey Club, com- monly known as the House of Tiles, built by the Count del Valle in the eighteenth century as a private residence. Its exterior is entirely covered with porcelain tiles of blue and white, imported from China at great cost. The en- trance is massive, and the grand stairway is a superb piece of work, practically unaltered from the olden days. A large lamp with an alabaster shade, which hangs on the landing, has a grim association, for it was beneath its light that the Count was assassinated. Throughout the interior the decoration is largely done in porcelain tiles ; and tum- bago, a valuable composite imported from China, has been used for the balustrading. The Jockey Club is the most exclusive of all Mexican clubs, very few foreign members being admitted. Mexicans are not clubable in the American or English sense, and in- stead of being founded in the interests of horse-racing or social intercourse, the original object of the Jockey Club was gambling. This was conducted to such a scandalous extent that, it is said. President Diaz, in his autocratic fashion, had a few years back to put a stop to the ruinously high stakes which were played for. At the present time the Jockey Club is practically a social club, where baccarat is played chiefly as an amusement, and the club now justi- fies its name by owning a race-track near the city, where meetings are held in the autumn and spring. 62 MEXICO One of the most interesting streets in the capital is Calle San Francisco (San Francisco Street), Mexico City's Broad- way, which is the most Americanized street of all and a great resort for tourists. The numerous curio stores in this popular thoroughfare are owned principally by Ameri- cans, and in their windows are attractive displays of Mexi- can pottery, feather-work, opals, drawn-work, sarapes and Mexican trinkets — many of the latter suspiciously suggestive of Waltham or Meriden, U. S. A. — and of course quantities of picture postcards. There are also several American bookstores where American and English maga- zines and newspapers are sold. In the upper part of the street the shops are not imposing, being much as one would see in a small French town ; but farther down are some really fine establishments, jewelers, and others, which would do credit to Fifth Avenue. Here, too, there are several dulcerias (a combination of confec- tioner's and cafe) where pastry, tea, coffee, and chocolate are served. At these places, contrary to the usual Mexican custom, there are girl waitresses, most of them dark-skinned, Indian-looking "meztizas," very few of whom would take the first prize in a beauty contest. In this street there are some of the largest hotels, including the Iturbide, and also some of the leading restaurants. Over the Gambrinus, a German restaurant conducted by an enterprising Italian, the British Club has its rooms, where the travelling Briton^ with proper credentials, can find an agreeable resting-place. Mexico, Germany, Italy, England — truly a cosmopoHs ! In and around San Francisco Street there are a few department stores of the American type, selling a little of everything, and conducted on the American system. These establishments also announce their bargains in true American style. Plastered over the windows are such appeals as "Ojo, gran barata, ojo " (Look at the great MEXICO CITY BY NIGHT 63 bargains; just look at them); " Prccios muy reducidos" (Prices greatly reduced); "Gran reduccion" (Great re- duction). One worthy shopkeeper, with a hmited knowl- edge of English, announced ''Gods at the cut price," evidently a Mexican variation of the popular American expression, "Goods at cut prices." Some shops, in a des- perate attempt to Anglicize themselves and appear very up to date, have christened themselves "Fashionable," "Old England," "High Life" (pronounced hig leef), "Five o'clock," "Royal Club." In one restaurant an attempt had been made to "Eng- lish" the bill of fare, with such lamentable results as "Beef- steati viete" (for sirloin steak) and "Cocteel" (cocktail). One of the dulcerias, too, which caters for English and American patronage and serves American "breakfast foods, " had made a brave attempt to translate some of their weird names for the benefit of customers, the menu card being a hotch-potch of Spanish and English. The trans- lator started off with oatmeal, which he transformed into "avena," this word having to do duty in describing various cereals of a totally different character, " Shredded- wheat biscuit," for instance, appearing as "Biscochos de avena." But when at last he came to such terrifying names as "Puffed Rice," "Roasted Pearl Grits" and "Syrup Waf- fles," he had evidently given up the task in despair, as there was a long series of melancholy blanks. The translated terms were not exactly a success. I ordered some "Bis- cochos de avena," and the waitress brought me an omelette ! Every shop in the city has a name painted over the door, and sometimes they are very picturesque. It is all much like the old English custom of the sign-board, "At the sign of the Boot," "The Leather Bottle," etc., but the names are not always so appropriate. Thus one drug store calls itself the "Gate to Heaven," and a drinking saloon is "The 64 MEXICO Bait of the Devil"; a hat shop is entitled "El Sombrero Rojo" (the red hat), a petty tobacconist's is "El Universo," while a grocer calls his establishment "El Puerto de New York/' although it appears to have nothing to do with that city. Other stores were labelled "La Ciudad de Londres" (City of London), "La Suiza" (the Swiss Woman), etc. But the custom is gradually dying out, and the common- place system of putting up the firm's name is coming into vogue. Mexican shopkeepers are evidently alive to the sweet uses of advertisement. They stock the latest novel- ties and lavishly advertise in the newspapers, and with wall-posters and street-car signs. Even the drop-curtains of the theatres are adorned with advice to the audience as to the best drinking saloon, the cheapest tailor's or the best cure for corns. Some of the streets have names as grotesque as those of the stores, which is very bewildering, as there are over nine hundred streets, and each in its length will rechristen itself at almost every street corner. San Francisco Street, for instance, is called First San Francisco, Second San Fran- cisco and Third San Francisco. Some streets bear the names of men honored in Mexican history. Others are of an elaborate religious character, such as "Calle Amor de Dios" (Love of God Street), "Calle Espiritu Santo" (Holy Ghost Street), "Sepulchre of the Holy Ghost Street," "Sabbath Street," etc. Some names are grotesque, such as "Sad: Indian Street," "Pass if you can Street," "Lost Child Street," "Street of the Wood Owls," "Bridge of the Raven Street," "Walking Priest Street." Sometimes a street at a special spot is called "Puente," such as "Puente de San Francisco," which means that there was originally a bridge over a canal, but the canal has disappeared ages ago. As in London, some streets belong to certain indus- tries. For instance, there is "Coffin-makers' Street," MEXICO CITY BY NIGHT 65 entirely given over to that lugubrious calling. The nar- rowness of the sidewalks in the busy streets causes many people to walk in the roadway, and as these thoroughfares are always thronged during the daytime, the city seems to have a much larger population than it really has. Shopping and shopkeeping in Mexico City have several odd features. In the old-fashioned stores, for example, the salesmen stand in a row behind the counters like a file of soldiers. Smoking is permitted, and the salesman meas- ures off a yard of cloth or fits you with new collars between the puffs of his cigarette. In the smaller establishments the prices quoted are always higher than you are expected to pay, for the Mexican shopkeeper assumes that his cus- tomer is a bargain-driver. This is also true of the Mexican stall-keepers in the markets, who always demand about three times the real price of their wares. Some of the goods in the stores are surprisingly cheap, but most of them are dear from the American point of view. This is due to the high protective tariff, which imposes a heavy duty on most imports. American toilet articles and patent medicines are about twice the regular price; furniture, too, is very expensive, and all clothing, hats, shoes, gloves, etc., are very dear. Probably the expensiveness of women's cloth- ing is the reason for the poverty-stricken appearance of so many Mexican women of the lower middle class. Wherever you walk, ragged Indian men, women and boys badger you with the persistent cry of "Boleto por la loteria, por manana, seiior" (Tickets for to-morrow's lottery, sir). Second-rate shops, too, expose these tickets for sale. There are all kinds of lotteries, for the Mexicans are born gamblers, and people of all classes buy the tickets. Some of the lotteries are conducted by the National and State governments and bring in large revenue. There are also private lotteries of various kinds, and even on the 66 MEXICO backs of the street-car tickets, and on coupons in cigarette packets are the fateful words entithng you to some kind of drawing. Tlie prizes generally range from fifty cents to $50,000, and the tickets vary in price from twenty-five cents to $25. Men have sometimes founded their fortunes by winning a lottery prize, and thus procuring the capital to embark in business. While I was in Mexico, a poor peon invested all his savings in a ticket and won $10,000, a sum sufficient to keep him in luxury for the rest of his life. Enlightened Mexicans regard these lotteries as a great pubhc evil, and would have them suppressed, but public opinion is too strongly in their favor. An important con- cession to public morals has, however, been made in recent years by the closing of the public gambling houses which were once common in the city. One of the worst features of Mexico City is the swarm of beggars, who constitute a serious nuisance. Filthily dirty and truly worthy of the title, " Verminous persons, " the lame, the halt, the blind, and able-bodied rogues and vagrants are encountered almost everywhere, demanding centavos. Beggars are common throughout Mexico, but they are seen at their worst in the capital. The cit}^ government has made an attempt to check this nuisance by compelling each beggar to take out a license, which, it is true, costs nothing, but is only issued on proof of the beggar's actual want. As elsewhere, these hordes of cadgers have undoubtedly been much encouraged by the public, and especially by American tourists, whose indiscriminate charity, however well intended, has only served to increase the begging nuisance. CHAPTER IV MEXICO, PAST AND PRESENT Just as in order to understand modern Mexico one must know something of her past, so in order to fully appreciate Mexico's fascinating history, which has been so graphically related in the pages of Prescott, one must stand upon the historical ground where the drama of the country was un- folded. Gazing on the spot where once stood the great temple of the Mexican gods and the palace of Montezuma, upon the identical place where the Spaniards were butchered by the Aztecs during the ''sorrowful night" of their flight from the city, upon the tree beneath which Cortes wept over this defeat, the stranger cannot help but feel emotion, however lethargic his interest may previously have been. Fully as thrilling are the events which followed the War of Independence in 1811, when Spanish rule came to an end in Mexico, the series of revolutions which followed, and the incidental wars of invasion ; for twice during the past cen- tury the Mexican capital has been occupied by foreign armies and its streets have resounded, in turn, to the strains of Yankee Doodle and the Marseillaise. The present is the child of the past, and the influence of all these strange events may be traced in greater or lesser measure in the development of the Mexican people to-day, Mexico's earliest history is unfortunately shrouded in profound mystery. The native records, which might have thrown some light upon it, were ruthlessly destroyed at the 67 68 MEXICO time of the Spanish conquest, when ignorance and bigotry were active in stamping out all traces of native culture. After the conquest, several Spanish chroniclers collected the oral traditions of the conquered people, while certain native writers who had learned Spanish wrote what pur- ported to be a history of their country. This great mass of material, which has been so fascinatingly condensed and presented by Prescott in his "Conquest of Mexico," is a curious blending of fact and fiction. On one point, how- ever, all narrations agree, namely, that Mexico is a country of great antiquity and has been peopled by a succession of races. Of these early inhabitants almost nothing is known. Scattered all over Mexico are the ruins of cities, temples and palaces built in remote periods, and which were prob- ably in much the same condition ages before the Spaniards came. The mystery which surrounds their prehistoric builders is deepened by the strange relics of the past which are being constantly unearthed. Jade beads which un- doubtedly came from China are found with stone idols and statues of marked Egyptian appearance; while inter- mixed with pyramids which recall those of early Egypt are ruins of temples and palaces, the architecture of which bears a singular resemblance to that of Japan. Among the Indian races of Mexico to-day certain customs exist which seem to have had their origin in the Far East ; and there is much resemblance between the religion of the early inhabitants and that of China and India. These facts have led many historians to believe that some connection was actually established between ancient Mexico and the Orient. According to native traditions, the whole of Mexico was originally known as Anahuac, and was inhabited by a suc- cession of highly cultured races who built the vast temples and palaces, the ruins of which still exist. The most ad- MEXICO, PAST AND PRESENT 69 vanced of these were the Toltees, who were said to have come from some unknown land. Prescott represents them as having arrived in Anahuac in the seventh century; other authorities beHeve that they entered the country fully five thousand years earlier. The Toltees are said to have built a wonderful city called Tula, and an attempt has been made to identify this prehistoric city with a little village of adobe huts and magnificent ruins not far from the capital. This is but one of many instances in which Toltec names of towns and districts still survive. It was at Tula, according to ancient legends, that Quet- zalcoatl, a mysterious messiah, known as the Fair God, made his appearance. He was a white man with a long, flowing beard who taught the Toltees the arts of civiliza- tion, agriculture and war, then sailed away to the west to return to his own country. After his departure he was deified by the Toltees, who represented him in their sculp- tures as a winged serpent. He had promised to return after many years, and this pledge was handed down from generation to generation. All traditions agree that the Toltees were a people of wonderful culture ; that they were peaceful and temperate, had reached a high moral plane, and had a form of reli- gion which was largely nature- worship. Fruit and flowers were offered in their temples, which were never stained with human blood as in later Aztec times. Castes existed among them, and as in the case of some races of the Far East, they had two written languages, one of which was used when addressing superiors, the other for inferiors. Their social classes were divided into priests, warriors, merchants and tillers of the soil. They also had an elaborate feudal system. The empire of the Toltees was eventually overthrown by an invasion of fierce tribes who swept down through Mexico 70 MEXICO from the north, followed in turn by races of higher civiliza- tion, perhaps akin to the Toltecs, whose language they ap- pear to have spoken. The Toltecs gradually relinquished possession of the country and retired southwards, while the invaders apparently acquired some of the culture of the people whom they had displaced. Some of them, notably the Tezcucans, eventually made great progress in the arts of civilization. Some of these tribes developed a system of picture-writing resembling somewhat that of the North American Indians.^ ^ An interesting specimen of these picture-writings, which is pre- served in Mexico, records how the ancestors of the Tarascan Indians inhabiting the State of Michoacan, came down into Anahuac from the far north. A reproduction of this ancient record is given on the opposite page. According to tradition, the Tarascans were one of nine tribes who wandered down to Mexico, having emerged from seven caves in the west, and passing a narrow arm of the sea on wooden rafts or hurdles made of canoes fastened together. They marched together from this place, and after many days halted at a large tree, in the trunk of which an altar was erected to the god Huitzilolvehtli. While encamped there, the tree suddenly split in the middle. Taking this as a bad omen, the heads of the tribes consulted the god, who advised them to take separate roads, which was done, some of the tribes going in one direction and others in another. The Tarascans eventually took possession of the country around Lake Patzcuaro. These scenes are all depicted in the record. The square at the upper right-hand corner shows the tribes emerging from the caves, led by their nine high priests; and intersecting the squares are lines showing the road they took. Each square depicts some incident in their long wanderings, a special feature being made of their encamp- ment at the tree of Huitzilolvehtli. Over the squares are inscriptions in the Tarascan and Mexican languages, supposed to have been added by native writers some years after the Spanish conquest. Some of the words have been translated ; the meaning of others is unknown. Two colors are used in the drawing — black and red. The latter ia used only for the line which indicates the road followed and for the species of shirt or jacket worn by the individuals who appear to be chiefs or priests. Speaking of these picture-writings, Prescott says: "A Mexican manuscript looks usually like a collection of pictures, each one form- MEXICO, PAST AND PRESENT 71 Chief among the invading tribes were the Aztecs, who are supposed to have come from northern Cahfornia and made their way southward. According to Aztec legends, they were told by an oracle that they should build a great city on a site that would be indicated by an eagle perched on the stem of a cactus or prickly pear with a serpent in his talons. In 1325, so tradition says, they arrived in the Valley of Mexico, where the capital now stands, led by their high priest, Tenoch, a sort of Aztec Moses, whose name meant " the stone cactus." As they approached the lake, the site of the present city, they beheld a golden eagle stand- ing on a prickly pear, holding in his talons a serpent, as had been predicted. In obedience to the sign, the Aztecs settled at the lake, built their temple and founded a great city, which they called Tenochtitlan, after ing the subject of a separate study. The Aztecs had various emblems for expressing such things as from their nature could not be directly represented by the painter. A 'tongue,' for example, denoted speak- ing; a 'footprint,' travelling; 'man on the ground,' an earthquake. These symbols were often very arbitrary, varying with the caprice of the writer; and it required a nice discrimination to interpret them, as a slight change in the form or position of the figure intimated a very different meaning. . They also employed phonetic signs, though these were chiefly confined to the names of persons and places. Lastly, the pictures were colored in gaudy contrasts, so as to produce the most vivid impression, for even colors speak in the Aztec hieroglyphics. " Clumsy as it was, however, the Aztec picture-writing enabled the people to digest a complete system of chronology and to specify with accuracy the dates of the most important events in their history. Serving as a sort of stenography or collection of notes, these writings were used in the colleges of the priests, where the youth were in- structed in astronomy, history, mythology, etc. This combination of the written and oral comprehended what may be called the litera- ture of the Aztecs. "The manuscripts were made of different materials, cotton cloth or skins nicely prepared ; a composition of silk and gum ; but for the most part a kind of paper made from the leaves of the maguey. The few Mexican manuscripts which are now preserved in Europe have been reproduced in Lord Kingsborough's magnificent work, 'The Antiquities of Mexico.' " 72 MEXICO the holy sign and their priestly guide, the word meaning "the place of the cactus." The legend of the eagle, the serpent and the prickly pear is now preserved in the Mexican arms, and is perpetuated on the coins and the national banner. In later years the city was called Mexico after Mextili, the Aztec God of War, and this name was eventually given to the entire country. The ancient city of the Aztecs bore some resemblance to Venice, some of the houses resting on piles, others being built on the numerous islands, with canals intersecting the various parts of the city. Massive stone structures, re- sembling those of Egypt, were reared, including the great Teocalli or Temple of the Aztec gods, in pyramidal form, over a hundred feet high, with one hundred and fourteen steps, reaching from the ground to the esplanade, broad enough for thirty horsemen to march abreast. Great paved causeways led from the city to the surrounding villages. The Aztecs, at first, were a fierce, migratory people ; but after their arrival in Mexico they seem to have acquired the civilization of the tribes by whom they were surrounded, who had inherited the arts and civilization of the Toltecs or other races whom they had succeeded. Having made great advancement in the arts of war, the Aztecs gradually subjugated the surrounding nations and extended their sway over a large part of Mexico. The empire of their great king, Montezuma I, was established about 1460. Under this monarch their power and prestige greatly in- creased. The Aztecs and other races inhabiting Mexico at this time were largely sun-worshippers, their religion being distinguished by the most cruel and terrible ceremonies. Prisoners of war, slaves and other victims were slaughtered MEXICO, PAST AND PRESENT 73 by thousands in the temples. When the great temple of Tenochtitlan was dedicated, twenty thousand are said to have been sacrificed in four days. In the centre of this temple stood the sacrificial stone now in the Mexican Na- tional Museum. On this the victim was stretched, when his body was cut open by the officiating priest, and his heart being torn out was offered to the sun and the ferocious God of War, The bodies of the sacrificed were afterwards devoured by the populace. Thousands of skulls, the result of this butchery, were formed into a huge pyramid in the temple, the walls and floor of which reeked with blood. Apart from their terrible religious ceremonies, the Aztecs were a remarkable and cultured race. Even in their reli- gion they recognized a supreme being, and some of their prayers which have been handed down are remarkable for their lofty sentiments and the beauty of their language.^ * " In contemplating the religious system of the Aztecs," says Pres- cott, "one is struck by this apparent incongruity, as though some portion of it had emanated from a comparatively refined people open to gentle influences, while the rest breathes a spirit of unmitigated ferocity. It naturally suggests the idea of two distinct sources, and authorizes the belief that the Aztecs had inherited from their pred- ecessors a milder faith on which was afterwards engrafted their own mythology." The Aztecs recognized the existence of a supreme being, the Lord of the universe. They addressed Him in their prayers as "the God by whom we live," "omnipresent," "that knoweth all thoughts and giveth all gifts," "without whom man is nothing," "the invisible, incorporeal, one God of perfect perfection and purity,"- "under whose wings we find repose and a sure defence." These sublime attributes infer no inadequate conception of the true God. But the idea of unity was too simple or too vast for their understandings, and they sought relief in a plurality of deities who presided over the elements, the changes of the seasons and the occupations of man. Of these there were thirteen principal deities and more than two hundred inferior. At the head of these stood the terrible Huitzilopochtli, the Mexican Mars, the patron deity of the nation. His temples were the most stately of the public edifices, and his altars reeked with the blood of human hecatombs in every city of the empire. At the dedication of 74 MEXICO They were learned in astronomy; were good lapidaries and potterS; workers in silver and gold and weavers of cotton and silk. They cultivated the land thoroughly, and had developed elaborate systems of irrigation. Commerce was organized ; towns and villages were con- nected by roadways; and law and order prevailed. They had an ingenious method of picture-writing and a regular system of education for the young. The doom of the Aztec empire and its neighbors was sealed in 1519, when Hernando Cortes landed in Mexico on his expedition of conquest. He had a fleet of 11 ships carrying 110 sailors, 16 cavalrymen with their horses, 553 foot-soldiers, 200 Cuban natives, a battery of 10 small cannon and 4 falconets. To check mutiny among his Spanish followers and to prevent them from seizing the ships and retreating, Cortes burned his vessels at Vera Cruz, then marched inland to the capital of the Aztecs, Montezuma II then reigned in Tenochtitlan. He had been informed of Cortes' arrival by spies who had been sent down to the coast. By relays of runners it was possible for a message to reach the Aztec capital (265 miles from the coast) in twelve hours. It is said that fish caught at Vera Cruz in the evening was served at the dinner of Montezuma the following day. This would be as fast as the railway train travels to-day. The Spaniards were astonished at the rapidity with which news of their movements was spread. By these runners the Aztec monarchs kept in com- munication with all parts of their empire.^ the great temple in the capital it is said that seventy thousand cap- tives were slaughtered at the shrine of this terrible deity. ^ Prescott quotes an author who relates how a North- American In- dian travelled a hundred miles in twenty-four hours. According to Plutarch, the Greek who brought the news of the battle of Plataea covered one hundred and twenty-five miles in a day. Prescott adds : "The Aztec couriers travelled with such incredible swiftness that HERNANDO CORTES. From an original poitrait in the Mexican National Museum. MEXICO, PAST AND PRESENT 75 Montezuma and his priests were convinced from their official reports that Cortes was none other than the Fair God, Quetzalcoatl, the child of the sun, whose return had been promised ages before. They recalled a prediction that Quetzalcoatl was to overturn the Aztec empire. Montezuma sent the supposed god lavish gifts of gold, and endeavored to dissuade him from coming to the capital; but the gold only whetted the appetite of the Spaniards for more and hastened their march to the interior. Cortes was greatly aided in his conquest of Mexico by Marina, a beautiful young slave who had been presented to him by a Tabascan chief. She was an Aztec, but having learned various dialects when in Tabasco, she was enabled to communicate indirectly with Cortes, who became in- fatuated with her beauty and made her his mistress. She eventually learned Spanish, and acted as interpreter be- tween himself and Montezuma. Marina told the Mexicans glowing stories of the greatness and splendor of the Span- iards, and it was undoubtedly through her influence that the natives went in such great awe of these strange beings who had come to them from over the seas. Soon after his arrival, Cortes invaded the country of the Tlascalans, one of the powerful tribes, who had a republican form of government and were at war with the Aztecs. After conquering them, Cortes gained them as allies, and a large force of Tlascalans accompanied him on his march through the country. He next marched into the kingdom of Cholula, which he subjugated, destroying all the temples and public buildings, and slaughtering thousands of the inhabitants. The natives were terror-stricken by the can- despatches were carried, by relays of runners, from one to two hun- dred miles a day. Fresh fish was frequently served at Montezuma's table in twenty-four hours from the time it had been taken in the Gulf of Mexico, over two hundred miles from the capital." 76 MEXICO non and firearms of the Spaniards, and as they had never seen a horse, the animal and rider were supposed to be one being, and were regarded as superhuman. Marching over the mountains, Cortes pressed on to Tenochtitlan, passed over the causeways and entered the city on November 8, 1519. Montezuma came out to meet the conqueror and, under the influence of superstition, regarding the Spaniards as gods, the Aztecs made no attempt to prevent their entry. The Spanish leader took up his residence in the old palace of Montezuma, where much treasure was discovered and divided among the invaders. Early the next year (1520), owing to the cruelty of a body of Cortes' soldiers, who robbed and murdered a num- ber of Aztec nobles, the people rose in revolt. Montezuma, who had been seized and held prisoner by the Spaniards, was killed while attempting to quell the uprising. On the night of July 1 (afterwards known as "la noche triste" or "sorrowful night") the Spaniards attempted to secretly evacuate the city, but were detected and pursued, many of them were killed or taken prisoners and thousands of their Tlascalan followers were slaughtered. With the remnant of his force, Cortes retreated to Tlascala. In the meantime, Cuautlahuac, brother of Montezuma, was crowned king, but dying four months later, was succeeded by Guatemotzin or Cuauhtemoc, Montezuma's nephew, who proved to be a brave and able leader. Cortes, refusing to acknowledge defeat, recruited his forces at Tlascala, and won the support of all the tribes who had suffered from Aztec oppression. From mountain forests he brought timber sixty miles overland to the shores of Lake Texcoco, built thirteen brigantines, crossed the lake and once more appeared before the walls of Tenochtitlan with two hundred thousand allies. MEXICO, PAST AND PRESENT 77 The siege began on December 3, 1520, and continued until August 13, 1521, when the garrison was starved into submission and the Spaniards entered the city. Before it fell, all the Aztec treasure was destroyed or concealed. Guatemotzin was cruelly tortured by having his feet held over a glowing fire, but he refused to disclose the secret. The lake and canals were dredged several times, but only a small part of the treasure was recovered. The unfor- tunate young monarch was afterwards compelled by Cortes to go with him on an expedition into Honduras. In the depths of the jungle Cortes had him hanged to the branch of a ceiba tree. Thus perished the last of the Aztec kings. Cortes destroyed the temples in the city and ordered the erection of churches and convents, the first church — now the cathedral — being built upon the site of the great temple of the Aztecs. The Spanish priests, with fanatical frenzy, destroyed nearly all the Aztec picture records or codices, making huge bonfires of them. Of those which escaped destruction a few are preserved in European museums, notably at the Vatican, and some are in the Mexican Na- tional Museum. The Aztec houses and public buildings were gradually torn down and replaced with Spanish houses, but the formation of the city was generally observed. In 1634 there was an earthquake, and the waters of the lake suddenly disappeared and the canals gradually dried up. After the Spanish occupation the native population of the city decreased until in 1600 there were only about ten thousand natives and about the same number of Spaniards. From that time the increase in numbers of Spaniards and mixed population was very rapid, until at the end of the next century there was a population of nearly one hundred and twenty-five thousand. Cortes became the first governor of Mexico, acquired vast estates, was created Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca, 78 MEXICO and subjugated the rest of Mexico. Many of his followers found wives among Aztec women of noble birth.^ Warlike enough before the Spaniards came, the Aztec masses seem to have been subdued at one blow, and were soon reduced to the position of mere serfs. The Spanish priests, too, having gained a great influence over the natives, taught them to obey those whom God had sent to conquer their country. Chiefs who would not submit quietly were won by bribery. Thus by means of force, religion and every corrupt means that could be employed, the spirit of the • The author of "Picturesque Mexico" (pub. 1897) says: "Many- Mexican families of high hneage can point to a family history dating back to the days of the war against the Moors. Some of them are wealthy and still possessed of great estates. Descendants of Cortes still exist, some bearing his name ; one of them is living to-day in Tacubaya. " There are also several descendants of Aztec monarchs, notably Senor Roberto Luis Cuauhtemoc, who is fourteenth in descent from the emperor, Cuautlahuac, brother of Montezuma II. Other descend- ants of Cuautlahuac are Don Pedro Patino Itzalinque, who lives in Holland, and another, Don Pedro Patino Itzalinque, living in the City of San Luis Potosi, Mexico. " There are several well-proved descendants of Aztec monarchs now living, who draw pensions from the Mexican government. Some of them reside in Spain and other European countries, and among them is the Duke of Abrantes, the Marquis del Aguilar Fuerte and the Conde de Miravalles. " The direct descendants of Montezuma are living in Salamanca, Spain, the present head of the family being Senor Don Augustin Maldonado y Carbayal Cano Montezuma, Marquis of Castellanos y Monroy. The Maldonado family is connected by marriage with the English house of Lancaster and also with the house of Abrantes and Medinaceli, which are of the first nobility in Spain. " Among other descendants of Montezuma is Eugenie, ex-empress of the French. It is therefore apparent that the widow of Napoleon III was of greater imperial stock than her husband, and brought to the alliance more dignity than she acquired by it. " In Mexico City there is a gentleman named Mercado who is a de- scendant of Montezuma, who has many relics of his illustrious ances- tors, and is extremely well versed in the history of the Montezuma race." MEXICO^ PAST AND PRESENT 79 people was crushed and all resistance to Spanish rule was overcome. Then followed a great building period. The cities throughout Mexico were rebuilt according to Spanish ideas; and great churches and cathedrals were erected by Indian workmen on the grandiose designs of Spanish archi- tects. Thereafter, for three hundred years, Mexico was under the dominion of Spain. During this time there were five governors, two councils of three to five members each, and sixty-two viceroys, the first of whom was appointed in 1535. The rule of some of the viceroys was wise and able, and the country made great progress ; but as in all Spanish colonies, there was great corruption, oppression and misgovernment. All public offices were held by Spaniards, while the natives, even those of Spanish descent, received no recognition. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, when Na- poleon had overturned thrones and marched an army into Spain, the spirit of revolution spread to Mexico. The newly acquired independence of the United States of North Amer- ica also served to arouse a desire for freedom among the Mexicans. Several insurrections started at this period, but were speedily stamped out. The first important uprising took place in September, 1810, when Miguel Hidalgo, curate of the village of Dolores in the State of Guanajuato, began the first great movement for independence by ringing the bell of his church, calling his people together and starting a war for freedom. Raising a sacred banner bearing the figure of the Virgin of Guadalupe, the priest organized a little army of three hundred men, armed with clubs, swords, knives and bows and arrows. At the head of these in- surgents, he marched to Guanajuato, the people of the country everywhere flocking to his aid. The Spanish gar- rison at Guanajuato was defeated and the city captured. After successful battles at Morelia and Valladolid, Hidalgo 80 MEXICO marched towards Mexico City, but when almost within sight of the capital was defeated, driven back, and his army- dispersed. Hidalgo and his chief officers, Allende, Aldama, and Jiminez, were betrayed, captured and executed. After the death of Hidalgo, a desultory struggle against the Spaniards continued for ten years, and then a new leader, also a priest, Jose Maria Morelos, who had been a student under Hidalgo, entered the field. Organizing a small army, Morelos for two years waged war against the Spaniards, but was at last defeated by an overwhelming force, betrayed and captured. He was tried by an ec- clesiastical tribunal and degraded from the priesthood, then handed over to the military authorities, by whom he was condemned to death and shot near the capital in De- cember, 1815. To-day he ranks next to Hidalgo as one of the heroes of Mexico. The next prominent leader in the fight for freedom was Augustin Iturbide, a Mexican of Spanish descent, and a former royalist officer, who had been largely responsible for the defeat of Morelos. Deserting from the Spanish army, Iturbide gathered all the insurgent leaders around him and issued a proclamation, pledging the support of his party to the establishment of the Roman Catholic Church, to the exclusion of all others ; the independence of Mexico, with a monarchical government under a Spanish prince; union and equality of Spaniards and Mexicans. His army thus became known as the Army of the Three Guarantees. A number of Spanish regiments deserted and joined Itur- bide, who in 1821 marched through Mexico, capturing city after city, and at last occupied the capital. This practically ended Spanish rule in Mexico, and after a year or two of negotiations, the independence of the country was at last recognized by the Spanish government. After the revolution, Iturbide forced the Mexican Con- MEXICO, PAST AND PRESENT 81 gress to select an emperor, and by threats and bribes man- aged to get sufficient votes to secure his own election. He and his wife were crowned in the cathedral as emperor and empress of Mexico. His title was Augustin I. He ruled unwisely, dissolved the Congress in less than four months, sent several members to prison and created so much discord that uprisings were of frequent occurrence. A successful revolution was led by General Santa Ana; the empire was overturned, and a republic established, with Santa Ana as president. Banished from Mexico, Iturbide was given a pension of $25,000 a year for his past services. He went to England for a time, but unwisely returned to Mexico in 1824 to lead a new revolution, when he was arrested, condemned to death and shot. Some of his descendants are still living in Mexico and enjoy a good deal of social distinction. From 1824 until 1846 there were constant revolutions as the result of disputed elections. In the latter year troubles arose with the United States over Texas, which had formerly belonged to Mexico, but had seceded, and after a few years as an independent republic had been annexed by the Americans. War was forced on Mexico by the United States, and two American armies were marched into Mexican territory, one coming down from Texas south- ward, the other landing at Vera Cruz. After a series of battles, in which the Mexicans were defeated and sustained heavy losses, the Americans entered the capital. A treaty was then signed which gave the United States a vast ter- ritory, including New Mexico, Arizona, and California, the Mexican government receiving fifteen million dollars compensation. General Grant, who was then a lieutenant in the United States army, once declared that the war with Mexico was the most unholy and unjust war ever waged by a strong nation against a weaker one. 82 MEXICO Following the American war there were more revolutions, which continued until 1861. Benito Juarez, a full-blood Mexican Indian, called the George Washington of Mexico, then became President. A great struggle between church and state had been in progress for several years, and it came to a climax at that time. The church, which had burdened the Mexican people with such a vast number of priests, friars and nuns, and had acquired most of the wealth of the country, clung tenaciously to its privileges and prop- erty. After adopting a new constitution, declaring for separation of church and state, the Mexican Congress passed a law confiscating church property, closing the monasteries and convents and restricting the power of the church. This resulted in civil war between the clerical and liberal parties. Juarez personally commanded the liberal forces, and in 1860 entered the capital. The Liberals, in the meantime, were excommunicated by the church, and in retaliation the Papal Delegate and several bishops were ordered by Juarez to leave Mexico. The country was then in a terrible con- dition. Bandits committed depredations everywhere, and many foreigners were robbed and murdered. In 1861 the Mexican Congress passed a law suspending payment of interest on the bonds of the Republic held by foreigners. This gave the European powers an excuse for intervention. The French government claimed $600,000 damages suffered by French subjects during the civil war. No doubt damage had been suffered; but many of the claims were ludicrous, as, for example, one item of $60,000, the value of pies alleged to have been stolen from a French cook by the Mexican soldiers. In 1862, a combined British, French and Spanish fleet arrived at Vera Cruz, and an allied force was landed for the purpose of enforcing payment of Mexican obligations. President Juarez met the represent- atives of the powers at Orizaba, and signed a treaty ac- THE EMPEROR MAXIMILIAN. Mexico's ill-fated ruler, shot at Queretaro in 1867. MEXICO, PAST AND PRESENT 83 knowledging the claims and promising payment. Great Britain and Spain then withdrew their forces. Encouraged by the clerical party, the French remained ; and Napoleon III, who was anxious to increase his prestige by establishing a monarchy in the Western Hemisphere, readily entered into a scheme of conquest. Four thousand French troops eventually landed in Mexico and advanced to Puebla, where they were defeated, on the 5th of May, 1862, by the Mexican troops under General Zaragoza. This date, so important in Mexican history, is annually set aside for national celebration, and nearly every city has a street named Cinco de Mayo (5th of May) . On the 17th of May, however, Puebla was captured by the French forces. On June 9 they entered Mexico City. A so-called Assembly of Notables was then called together and a declaration made that Mexico should be governed by a constitutional monarch and that a Catholic prince should be selected. At the suggestion of the French rep- resentatives, the throne was offered to Maximilian, Arch- duke of Austria, who was also a representative of the ruling house of Spain. Maximilian accepted the throne on con- dition that he should be elected by popular vote, and that the Emperor Napoleon should give him military aid as long as it was necessary. He arrived in Mexico City June 12, 1864, with his wife Carlotta, daughter of Leopold I, King of the Belgians. After his accession, Maximilian aroused the opposition of the clerical party by enforcing the laws of church reform. Juarez, in the meantime, had crossed the border into Texas, and from there continued to direct the movement for driving out Maximilian and the French. Maximilian, at this time, under the influence of Marshal Bazaine and other evil counsellors, made a fatal mistake. He issued a decree declaring the civil war at an end, and that all persons in 84 MEXICO arms would be treated as bandits and shot when captured. The execution of the Liberal generals, Arteago, Salazar, Villagomez and Felix Diaz followed. At this time the Civil War in the United States was drawing to a close, and the American government, regarding the French aggression in Mexico as a serious breach of the Monroe doctrine, in- formed Napoleon III that the United States would not tolerate the establishment of a monarchy on the western continent. On receipt of this note, Napoleon abandoned Maximilian and recalled the French forces in November, 1866. The collapse of the empire speedily followed. As soon as the French left. President Juarez entered Mexico, gathered his forces and marched southward. He defeated Maximilian's general, Miramon, who retreated toQueretaro, where he was joined by the emperor. In the meantime, General Porfirio Diaz, who commanded the republican forces in the south, had captured Puebla, defeated Maxi- milian's troops in several battles and had commenced the siege of Mexico City. After a siege of several weeks, Juarez captured Queretaro. Maximilian and his generals, Miramon and Mejia, were tried by court-martial on charges of filibustering, of treason and of issuing the decree of October 3, 1865, under which the Liberal generals had been executed. Seiior Riva Palacio, the emperor's counsel, and other distinguished lawyers, defended Maximilian, but without success. The emperor and the two generals were found guilty and sentenced to death. After the trial, Seiior Riva Palacio went to the neighbor- ing city of San Luis Potosi to plead with President Juarez for a modification of the sentence, and Princess Salm Salm rode across the country one hundred and twenty miles on the same errand. Although personally inclined to show mercy, Juarez considered it necessary to strike a decisive blow for the maintenance of the Republic. A protest from MEXICO, PAST AND PRESENT 86 the United States government was received, but that was of no avail. Maximilian sent in an appeal on behalf of his companions, but this met with no better success. On the morning of June 19, 1867, the emperor and his two generals were shot on the hill outside Queretaro. Carlotta, his un- fortunate consort, who was in Europe at the time, had en- deavored in vain to get the Emperor Napoleon to send another army to rescue her husband, and had also pleaded with the Pope without success. Grieving over Maximilian's death eventually shattered her mind. The story is one of the most pitiful in modern history. A few days after Maximilian's execution, General Diaz captured Mexico City, and President Juarez returned to the capital after an absence of five years to reestablish his government. He died in 1872, and after a brief revolution in 1876 General Diaz became President. He served almost continuously until 1910, when a successful revolution caused his retirement and the accession of Don Francisco Madero. Disorder prevailed throughout Mexico during President Madero's brief administration, which came to an end in February, 1913, as the sequel to a revolution headed by General Felix Diaz, a nephew of the former President. A few days after his deposition from office Sefior Madero was assassinated while being conveyed from the National Palace to the State Penitentiary. In the meantime, General Huerta, a distinguished officer of the regular army, had formed a provisional government with himself as President, his retention of the office being confirmed by Congress pending a presidential election to be held in 1914. CHAPTER V THE SIGHTS OF THE CAPITAL Every capital has its great central point from which radiates the life of the city — in London, for example, the Bank of England, in Paris the Opera House, and in BerHn the Unter den Linden. In Mexico City everj^thing starts from the Plaza Mayor or main plaza, a great public space larger than the Capitol square in Washington, which is the true heart of the city. Here it was that the city first began, from it start some of the principal streets, and it is the oldest and in many respects the most interesting part of the Mexican capital. To some extent it resembles the Isle de la Cite in Paris ; for in Aztec times it was entirely sur- rounded by water, and here stood the temples and palaces which the Spaniards destroyed, replacing them with the cathedral and various public buildings. In the great plaza the life of the city had its centre in early Spanish times, the market and the principal shops were here, and it was the public promenade and place of recreation. To-day, with its quaint, time-worn buildings and its memories of the past, it has suffered a modern invasion in the shape of the street-cars which start from it. I felt a curious impression of this juxtaposition of the modern and the mediaeval as I stood beneath the giant walls of the sixteenth-century' cathedral and listened to the persistent clanging of the street-car gongs. For there is one feature which dominates the plaza and vividly recalls the days when Spain was a mighty world- 86 M ^ THE SIGHTS OF THE CAPITAL 87 empire and Queen Elizabeth ruled the destinies of England. That feature is the great cathedral built on the site of the wonderful teocalli or temple, dedicated to Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec War-god and patron deity of the ancient city. Here in the temple centre stood the famous Stone of Sacri- fice, upon which tens of thousands of human victims were slaughtered, their breasts sliced open with obsidian knives, their hearts torn out and burned in the holy of holies in honor of the terrible deity. Close at hand were the palaces of the Emperor Montezuma. It was typical of the splendid arrogance of the Catholic conquerors that Cortes should have seized upon the theatri- cal idea of building his great stone apotheosis of his faith on a site reeking with memories of pagan foulness. It was in 1573, in the reign of Philip II, that the first stone of the great church was laid. The soil was of such a marshy nature that the builders had great difficulties with which to contend. These indeed were so enormous that after nearly fifty years the walls had only been built twenty feet above the ground. Philip III, on hearing of the slowness of the work initiated by his father, had new plans drawn up and lavishly subsidized the undertaking. The principal sacristy was finished in 1623; the vaults in the middle nave were complete about the middle of the seventeenth century, and in 1667 the interior was so far advanced that an inaugural service was possible. The choir, however, was not complete till 1730, and thus the great church had been building nearly two centuries. The whole cost was nearly three million dollars ; but that rep- resents only a fraction of the money lavished on the greatest Catholic fane in the New World, if those who toiled had been paid fair wages and the material had not been commandeered. From north to south the vast edifice is more than four 88 MEXICO hundred feet long, the interior measuring three hundred and eighty-seven feet, while the height from floor to roof is one hundred and seventy-nine feet. The towers are two ' hundred and forty feet high. The material used is a lime- stone of a dark cream tint. Over the whole is a superb dome. The architecture in the main is Gothic, with a lavish use of Doric and Corinthian pilasters. But it is in the interior of the cathedral that one realizes the amount of money which has been lavished on the adornment of the great church. The ornamentation of the high altar is said to be worth the almost fabulous sum of a million and a half of dollars. The lamp hanging before the sanctuary is said to have cost $80,000, while the tabernacle of massive silver is valued at over $150,000. The whole place gives one an impression of glittering gold and gems, a treasure- house of an ecclesiastical Croesus. There are fourteen chapels in the cathedral, each pro- fusely decorated and gilded. Under the altar of one of them are interred the heads of the patriots Hidalgo, Allende, Aldama and Jiminez, who led the first revolution against Spanish rule and were executed at Guanajuato. After the Spaniards had been finally driven from Mexico, the heads were brought in great state and pomp to the cathe- dral and buried where they rest to-day. In another chapel lie the remains of Augustin Iturbide, the first emperor of Mexico, known as The Liberator. It is also the tomb of several Spanish viceroys, as also of Gregorio Lopez, the Mexican "Man with the Iron Mask," alleged to have been a son of Philip II of Spain. The choir is surrounded with a high railing of richly carved woods, and is connected with the nave by a passage- way enclosed with balustrading of rich tumbago. In this instance the composite consists of a mixture of gold, silver and copper, and is so valuable that the offer of an American TEE SIGHTS OF THE CAPITAL 89 to replace the railing with one of solid silver was indignantly refused. It would seem that Catholic fervor in Mexico is on the decline, for save at the time of the services the devout of the upper classes are rarely seen in the cathedral, the whole building being given over to the poor. Walking through the aisles, one sees the blanketed Indians kneeling, sombrero in hand, at the altars, or on the worn stones of the chapels, often the Indian women at their sides. Here and there a whole Indian family can be seen in their tattered, flimsy clothing, making a touching picture as they remain in reverent contemplation of the figure of the Virgin or saint whose protection they invoke. As in other Latin countries, women form the bulk of the worshippers at all the services. Men of the wealthier class scarcely ever attend. In the early morning the women go to mass dressed in black, with the graceful lace mantilla generally draped over the head, half exposing the olive-brown faces and bright spar- kling eyes of the senoritas. On the east side of the plaza, and facing the cathedral, is the National Palace. This is built on the site of Monte- zuma's second and greater palace, where Cortes built for himself a mansion. In 1562 this latter building was sold by his descendants to the Spanish government, and for more than a hundred years it was the Viceregal residence, until in 1692 it was destroyed in a great riot. The present building was begun in the same year and finished in 1699. It is the official residence of the President, and contains the state apartments, the offices of some of the chief ministries, the Senate Chamber, the Record Office and the Treasury. The palace is a long, flat-roofed, gray stone, two-storied building in Spanish style, and while architecturally not remarkable, has a quaint, old-world picturesqueness all 90 MEXICO its own; and it does not take a great stretch of the imagination to picture the eighteenth-century Spanish caballeros riding in and out of the courtyard. It has a frontage of six hundred and seventy-five feet, extends backwards proportionately and forms a large square. Outside the main entrance, dark-skinned Mexican sentries, with their blue uniforms and glazed leather kepis, march up and down with fixed bayonets on their rifles, and a group of officers and soldiers off duty can generally be seen. All this is in striking contrast for the visitor who comes direct from the United States, where soldiers are never stationed at public buildings, and even the White House at Washing- ton is guarded by only a few policemen. The presidential apartments are magnificently furnished and decorated. Quite regal in its measurements is the Hall of Ambassadors, stretching the entire length of the palace, and lit by large windows looking out upon the cathedral. Here the President formally welcomes state visitors and receives the accredited representatives of foreign governments on their arrival to take their official posts. At these ceremonies the foreign ministers are pre- sented to the President by an official entitled the Introducer of Ambassadors. At the south end of the chamber is a dais set with chairs in a half circle, where the President sits surrounded by his cabinet ministers. The walls are hung with portraits, including those of George Washington, Benito Juarez, Iturbide, the generals Guerrero and Morelos, and President Diaz. Over the main entrance to the Palace is hung the Liberty Bell of Mexico, which was rung by Father Hidalgo in 1810 in the village of Dolores, to call the people to arms in the first struggle for independence. This relic was brought to the capital in 1896, and on the night of the fifteenth of September each year is rung with great ceremony by the THE MEXICAN NATIONAL PALACE. Copyi-i-rht by The Detroit Photo Co. PYRAMID OF THE MOON. (See page 107.) THE SIGHTS OF TUE CAPITAL 91 President of Mexico, in the presence of an immense gather- ing. Just above the Liberty Bell is a clock which was exiled from the church of a small Spanish town because it was supposed to be bewitched, having struck the hours out of order. Although the National Palace is the President's official residence, he does not live there, but in a compara- tively small house in the Cadena, a thoroughfare running off the Plaza, whence he comes, often on horseback, and always without any escort, to his daily work. The National Museum has a wing of the Palace devoted to it. Here there is a splendid collection of Mexican antiq- uities, idols from temples, ornaments from palaces, jewels, arms, shields and utensils of the Toltecs and Aztecs, with some few of the Aztec picture-writings, which were saved from the bigotry of the monks. There are also portraits of the great characters in Mexico's history since the Con- quest. Among the most interesting exhibits are the arms and armor of the early Spanish invaders, some of their standards, a fine portrait of Cortes, oil paintings portraying the baptism of Mexican Indians by the first missionaries, and a collection of the weapons, head-dresses and costumes of the Aztec warriors. Near the entrance is the great Stone of Sacrifice which formed the entire altar of the Tem- ple of the Sun, which stood but a few feet from the site of the museum. It is circular, very elaborately carved, the figures on the rim showing the Aztec priests dragging their victims by the hair to the scene of sacrifice to be offered to the Sun-god. At the Conquest the stone was buried by Spanish priests and was not rediscovered until 1791, when some drainage excavations were being made near the cathedral. Near by is a grim and hideous relic of the terrible Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec War-god, an elaborately carved block of stone representing the ferocious face of the deity, with snakes' teeth and a fringe of snakes' heads depending 92 MEXICO as a breast ornament. At the base of the figure, the feet are in the form of a slab, upon which it is beheved the still palpitating hearts of the slaughtered victims were placed as an offering. In the same gallery is the Aztec Calendar Stone, a stone circle of twelve feet in diameter and weighing 53,790 pounds. This huge monolith, which was originally embedded in the walls of the great Temple, is elaborately carved with what appears to be calendar divisions. Many efforts have been made to decipher the carvings. Perhaps one of the most interesting is that of Mr. W. W. Blake of Mexico City, who sees in the second large circle four parallelograms indicat- ing, in Aztec mythology, that the sun had died four times. These epochs or ages were, Mr. Blake thinks, the Age of Air, the Age of Water, the Age of Fire and the Age of Earth, and he thus interprets them: the Age of Air was the glacial epoch, representing the Aztec traditions of the ice lands to the north, from which their forefathers came; the Age of Water was the time of the submersion of the continent of Atlantis; the Age of Fire was the period marked by the eruptions of the volcanoes and accompany- ing earthquakes. Finally is the Age of the Earth, which began 4431 years before Christ and ended 1312 a.d. This Calendar Stone, like the Stone of Sacrifice, was buried in the Plaza, and was only unearthed in 1790. According to tradition, both of them were quarried near Coyoacan in 1478, over five thousand men being engaged in the work; they were then dragged over causeways on wooden rollers, crossing the canals on specially constructed bridges, and were thus transported to the great temple. It is said that this event was celebrated by the sacrifice of over seven hundred human beings. In the museum are many large and terrible Aztec idols from all parts of Mexico, some of them having a very marked THE SIGHTS OF THE CAPITAL 93 likeness to Egyptian figures. This is especially true of the so-called figure of Chac-Mol, which was found by Dr. Le Plongeon at Chichen-Itza in Yucatan, and is supposed to represent the God of Fire. This figure is notable as having an almost perfect Egyptian head-dress. A statue of the Goddess of Water, excavated at Teotihuacan, near the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon, is more than eleven feet high and five feet wide, and weighs forty thousand pounds. The feathered serpent, a mythic figure of great prominence in Aztec carvings, is found all over Mexico. It is called Quetzalcoatl, and represents the Mexican myth of a white man with a long flowing beard, who taught the people religion and civilization, a religion which the early Spanish are said to have found very much like Christianity. Ac- cording to a Catholic legend, this mysterious teacher was one of the apostles, possibly St. Thomas. The Mexican government now claims all Aztec relics and superintends all excavations, jealously guarding the sites of the ancient cities. One of the galleries is devoted to pictures, chiefly the portraits of the Spanish viceroys of Mexico from the time of the Conquest to the declaration of independence. They are poor specimens of art for the most part; but they portray a picturesque lot of rulers and give one a very fair idea of those in whose hands the fate of so many human beings once rested. In another gallery are housed the state carriages of the ill-fated Emperor Maximilian and the Empress Carlotta, gorgeously decorated with gold and silver and emblazoned with the imperial arms. The silver-mounted harness is also there, and, in a burst of very unrepublican emperor-worship, is hung on the wall above a picture of a gorgeous footman, inscribed " State footman of the Emperor Maximilian." It is all very pathetic, and the pathos is deepened by the object-lesson 94 MEXICO in democratic simplicity which is given in the other corner of the room. There, in its cracked, old-fashioned, plain black leather, stands the carriage used by President Juarez, who overturned the empire and authorized the execution of Maximilian. Strange to say, most of the visitors to the museum are Indians of the working class, who can be seen walking through the galleries, gazing with solemn looks at the relics of the Aztecs, and discussing, in their own language, the achievements of their ancestors. The policemen on duty there, who are also of Indian descent, are very vigilant in en- forcing the official regulations, as I found to my astonish- ment one morning. I had gone to the museum at rather an early hour, when the place was almost deserted, and was strolling through one of the long galleries, when I heard a stern voice far in the rear, commanding me to halt. I turned and saw a policeman who was beckoning to me and saying, "Senor, senor, regrese " (Come back, sir). Re- turning to the entrance door where he was stationed, I asked him what he wanted, whereupon he simply pointed to a placard inscribed, "A la dereche" (Keep to the right) ; and it then dawned on me that I had actually been keeping to the left. The rule, of course, was intended for enforce- ment only when the museum was crowded ; but the worthy policeman had evidently been told to keep people to the right, and he was determined to do it whether there was one visitor or ten thousand. Apologizing to him for my disgraceful violation of the rules, I resumed my walk, taking great care to keep to the right. On the west side of the Plaza is the National Pawn-shop or Monte de Piedad, which was founded as a charity, but which is now managed in much the same way as the French Montes de Piete. Similar establishments exist in most of the larger Mexican cities, enabling the poor to obtain THE AZTEC CALENDAR STONE. THE SIGHTS OF THE CAPITAL ' 95 loans on pledges at a very reasonable rate of interest, and thus rescuing them from the merciless usurers. The Monte opens every afternoon for the sale of unredeemed pledges. Tourists are said to pick up great bargains in jewellery, his- torical relics and curios of all sorts. While I was in the city, an American bought from a curio dealer what was alleged to be the ivory and gold-mounted cigar case of the Emperor Maximilian, and ten ivory napkin-rings bearing the imperial arms. These were sold for ten dollars. If they were genuine, it is possible that they had come into the bric-a-brac dealer's hands at one of the daily sales at the Monte de Piedad. No Mexican would have bought them, as they are all very superstitious, and believe that any- thing that belonged to Maximilian brings bad luck. Not far from the National Palace is the so-called Volador or Thieves' Market, where dishonestly acquired goods of every description are offered for sale by a picturesque crowd of ragged vendors. Most of the things offered are believed to have been stolen, and prices rule low, great bargains being sometimes obtainable. Valuable books, old gold and silverware, relics of all kinds, even old paint- ings, are displayed for sale. Some years ago a Murillo is said to have been bought here for five dollars. A prettier sight is the Flower Market, which is also close to the cathe- dral, and in the morning presents a beautiful scene, with its wealth of carnations, violets and roses. The flowers are delightfully cheap, and mammoth bunches of double violets — all you can carry — can be had for fifty cents, and heaps of roses, even in midwinter. A picturesque row of buildings on one side of the Plaza have their lower stories in the form of arcades or portales, which, as already noted, form a distinctive feature of the plazas in all Mexican towns. Supported by columns, they extend over the sidewalk and furnish a grateful shade on 96 MEXICO a hot day. Under the portales there are some of the most attractive stores in the city, and they are also a refuge for various itinerant vendors who sell dulces, fruit, trinkets and other smalj wares. The portales and the two-storied buildings connected with them have a very old look, and date perhaps from the sixteen hundreds. I imagine that the Plaza has altered very little during the past two hundred years, and to me it seemed to be the most romantic spot in the capital. Spanish officers in doublet and hose and feathered bonnet must once have strolled about there discussing the latest news, perhaps cursing that English terror of the seas, Francis Drake, whose capture of treasure-laden galleons so often caused consternation in Mexico. The very stones that one treads on to-day have probably echoed to the feet of the victims of the Inquisition, as they marched in sad procession from their place of trial (the old Inquisition building erected in 1571, close to the Plaza, and now used as a medical in- stitution) to the bonfires of the auto-da-fe in the Alameda. Threading their pompous way beneath the shadow of the great cathedral, the Spanish viceroys, with silken canopies of state held above them by Indian slaves, have ridden on marvellously caparisoned steeds, surrounded by regal grandeur, into the old palace courtyard. A large building in the Plaza is the Mexican equivalent of an American city hall, as it is the official residence of the city's administrators, and it also contains the offices of the principal city departments. The government of Mexico City, it may be added, differs entirely from that of other Mexican cities, the capital and various small towns sur- rounding it being situated in what is called the Federal District, corresponding to our own District of Columbia. It is regarded as neutral ground, as the National Congress is held in the capital ; and on this account the government THE SIGHTS OF THE CAPITAL 97 of the district is in the hands of the federal authorities. The government is represented by three officials appointed by the President — the Governor (who is practically the mayor), the President of the Superior Board of Health, and the Director of Public Works. Their power is supreme, and all departments are under their control. The system has worked wonderfully well, and it is perhaps due to the direc- tion of affairs being left entirely to these three officials that public improvements are carried out so quickly in Mexico City. Even the most casual observer cannot fail to be impressed by the fact that the capital is remarkably well governed. In the centre of the Plaza is a small park called the Zocalo, planted with trees and flowers, where a regimental band plays several times a week. From the Zocalo the electric cars run to all parts of the city and to the principal suburbs. It is strange to see these prosaic American cars labelled with such queer Aztec names as Coyoacan, Tlapan, Tlalnepantla, Atzacapotzalco, all suburban places. Mexican street-cars, by the way, are divided into first and second class, but they run singly, the first class being painted buff, the second class green. The latter are always crowded with evil-smelling peons. First-class fares are from three to ten cents, according to the distance travelled. The second class are a few cen- tavos cheaper. Private cars, well fitted up, can be hired for parties, and freight-cars and cattle trucks are also run. One afternoon the President and his cabinet went out to some suburban festival in a sumptuous special car. Except in the cases of the wealthy, the street-cars are always used for funerals, a special car painted black being employed. Every day, and almost every hour of the day, you can see the funeral cars running out to the suburban cemeteries. The hearse-car, elaborately draped with black 98 MEXICO cloth, and surmounted by plumes and a cross, with a raised dais for the coffin, goes first ; and then come two ordinary cars of solemn black for the mourners. This funeral train is only for the well-to-do. For the poor there is a car completely closed, with doors at the back, and fitted with shelves upon which the coffins are stacked. Attached to this is a second-class car, painted black, and inscribed "Funebre," in which relatives and friends ride to the cemetery. Mexico City abounds in spots which, like the Plaza, have romantic or historical associations. For instance, a street corner called Salte de Alvarado marks the place where Alvarado, the lieutenant of Cortes, leaped across the canal, using his lance as a leaping-pole, when escaping from the Aztecs on the night of the flight from the city. Close to the Zocalo is the site of the house in which was established the first printing-press of the New World, in 1535, more than a century before one was employed in the English colonies. Prior to 1550, a dozen books or so, chiefly re- ligious, had been printed. The first, bearing date 1536, was called ''Escala espiritual parallegar al Cielo, Traducido del Latin en Castellano por el Venerable Padre Fr. Ivan de la Madelina, Religioso Dominico, 1536 " (The Spiritual Ladder for Reaching Heaven, Translated from Latin into Spanish by Father Ivan, Dominican). It was here that the first music in the New World was printed in the old illuminated style, as also was the first wood-engraving cut. During the seventeenth century, Mexico City was regarded as a great seat of learning; but even before the spacious times of Queen Elizabeth, literature had its beginnings in the Mexican capital. In Felipe de Jesus Street there is still standing the house in which the first Mexican saint, San Felipe, was born in 1572. His father was a Spanish merchant, who carried on THE SIGHTS OF THE CAPITAL 99 extensive trade between Mexico and the Philippine Islands in slow-sailing galleons. After a wild youth, Felipe was converted, became a Franciscan monk, and for many years was a missionary, until at last he found a martyr's death in Japan, A generation later he was canonized, and became the patron saint of Mexico City. In the patio of the house there is an old fig tree to which a beautiful tradition attaches. Felipe, despite his wild youth, used to tell his mother that he would die a saint. She said that would come to pass when the fig tree in the garden bore figs. The fig tree was then dry and barren. Years after- wards, when Felipe won a martyr's crown, the fig tree be- came, in a moment, green and healthy, and was loaded with luscious fruit, though it was not the bearing season. At different points in the city are the ruins of the aque- duct of brick and stone which was completed in 1779. It brought water to the city from a spring at Chapultepec, and ended at a beautiful fountain called el Salto de Agua, still preserved. The water supply of the capital is now so up-to-date that it has almost done away with the neces- sity for one of the most picturesque street types, namely, the aguadores or water-carriers, bending under the weight of huge earthen pots in which they carried the precious liquid from door to door. If Mexico City had no other claim to be ranked among the finest cities of the world, she could complacently base her pretensions upon the Paseo de la Reforma, the great drive which leads from the end of the Avenida Juarez for two and a half miles to the park and castle of Chapultepec. It is safe to say that there is no finer thoroughfare than this in the world. Fringed by a double avenue of trees, chiefly eucalyptus, surrounded by trim lawns and flower beds and lined with really fine houses, standing in beauti- ful grounds, the homes of Mexico's wealthiest families, 100 MEXICO the whole arrangement, with a double roadway, recalls the beauties of the Champs Elysees. At intervals the Paseo widens into circles, which are called glorietas, and in several of these there are some really fine statues. The bronze equestrian statue of Charles IV, which centres the glori- eta at the city end of the Paseo, was set up in 1803, and is a very striking work of art. Its sculptor was Manuel Telsa, a Spaniard. In another glorieta is the Columbus statue by Cordier, a fine piece of carving. On the base are represented historical scenes, beautifully sculptured, and the whole is surmounted by a figure of Columbus drawing aside the veil which hides the New World. But the most remarkable monument is that by Fran- cisco Jiminez, which honors the memory of Cuauhtemoc or Guatemotzin, the nephew of Montezuma, the last Aztec king. The Indians still revere his memory, and annually honor it by a festival, on which occasion the monument is decorated with wreaths and flowers. Scenes from the life of the prince, and his torture by Cortes, are worked in bronze on the four sides of the base ; on the plinth stands an ideal statue of the heroic warrior in war costume, a spear poised in his hand. It is worth noticing that while this worthy memorial has a place of honor in the city which has suc- ceeded the Aztec Tenochtitlan, there is not among the public monuments even a bust of the cruel and bigoted Spaniard, torturer and murderer of the brave Aztec prince. It was during the empire of Maximilian that the Paseo was laid out, and it at once became the fashionable drive of the capital. Here, in the afternoons, but more particu- larly on Sundays and feast-days, there is a wonderful dis- play of carriages and horses. The procession passes up one side and down the other, while police duties in directing traffic are performed by the picturesque Republican Guard, mounted on the wiry Mexican ponies, and armed to the THE SIGHTS OF THE CAPITAL 101 teeth with sword, Winchester rifle and revolver. But there is no need for this heavy armament, for the whole scene is one of gayety and good temper. The people have come out to enjoy themselves, and very happily and brightly they do so. At the end of the Paseo, occupying much the same position as the Arc de Triomphe does in the Champs Elysees, is the Castle of Chapultepec. It stands on a high bluff of volcanic origin, on the scarred face of which are carved some ancient hieroglyphics. In Aztec, Chapultepec means "The Hill of the Grasshopper," and it was on the hill that Montezuma had his summer palace. The castle, which architecturally hardly comes up to its name, having a striking resemblance to some huge sanitarium, is a vast, rambling building which was designed as a viceregal resi- dence and completed in 1785. It has, however, been much enlarged and altered since that date. Maximilian was responsible for the decoration of the castle, and for the planning out of the beautiful gardens in which it stands. With the exception of two chairs, which are traditionally believed to have been used by Cortes, all the old furniture has disappeared, and there is no trace of the short-lived empire, everything bearing the monogram, "R. M." (Re- publica Mexicana). The President resides at the castle for only a month or two in the summer, and occupies one of the wings, which has been specially furnished for him and his family. Sometimes official visitors of great dis- tinction are entertained there and allotted apartments during their stay in the city. From the castle terrace, which looks down upon the sweep of the Paseo, and over the tree-tops towards the capital, there is one of the most magnificent views in the world. The eye takes in the marvellous panorama of the vast plain studded with towns and hamlets, centred 102 MEXICO with the gHttering white of church tower and housetop in the city itself, and ringed round with the distant hills shrouded in a purple mist. Beyond these are the great snow-capped volcanic peaks of Popocatepetl and Ixtacci- huatl, which tower above the lesser mountains and domi- nate the horizon. In a wing of the castle is the Mexican military college, conducted somewhat after the fashion of West Point. Here the sons of the best Mexican families receive a military education. They are a fine-looking set of young men, wearing a uniform a good deal like that of the French military schools. When the Americans took the castle in the war of 1847, the cadets assisted in the defence, and a large number of them fell. A modest monument to the memory of these young heroes stands at the foot of the hill, and on this fresh flowers are placed every morning. The castle is surrounded by a beautiful park called the Bosque, very much like the Bois de Boulogne, with miles of shady walks and drives, under semi-tropical groves of tree-ferns and palms, and above them is the foliage of some fine oaks and wonderful cypresses. Of the latter there is an ancient avenue, centuries old, from the boughs of which Spanish moss hangs in graceful fringes. Beneath the shade of these giant trees Montezuma is said to have held his court, and here, too, the news was brought to him of the Spanish invasion. Near the hill is a large stone basin into which a spring drains. This, tradition — probably very inaccurate — declares to have been Montezuma's bath. In later days it has been used as a water supply for the city. Not far from Chapultepec, on one side of the Paseo, an enterprising American company has started what is called Luna Park, an imitation of the famous New York seaside resort. Coney Island. Here there is a huge Ferris wheel, a switchback railway, shows of every description and a THE SIGHTS OF THE CAPITAL 103 circus. The President, in his apartments in the castle, can probably hear the revels of Luna Park. Also near the castle is the Chapultepec Cafe, a fashionable rendezvous, where one can get an excellent meal, served in French style, or if not hungry, can sit outside at a little marble-topped table, and watch the carriages while sipping the ever popular Mexican lager beer. It is here that all the cosmopolitan inhabitants of the capital gather on a fine Sunday afternoon, and almost every European language can then be heard. Almost as many carriages assemble in the Paseo on Sundays as one can see in the Bois, and a visitor can gain a very fair idea of the wealth and beauty of the capital. For the most part, the carriages are open barouches, landaus and Victorias of the latest European makes, and drawn by the Spanish-Arab type of horse, which, with their curving necks, their glossy silken coats and sweeping tails, make a wonderful picture in the sunshine. The coachmen and footmen are dressed in liveries correct even to the cock- ades, though many of the old-fashioned Mexican families still favor the native serving dress, tight trousers edged with gold buttons, short bolero coat, heavily braided, and an enormous felt sombrero. Most of the carriages are tenanted by dark-eyed Mexican beauties. The men either drive dog-carts in English style, or ride on a row which runs parallel with the carriage road round the park. There are many smart automobiles to be seen, too, and there is also a large mixture of humbler conveyances, with dozens of blue-flagged cabs filled with men, women and children. It is said that some Mexicans of good birth but of much straitened means, who find it hard to keep up appear- ances, send out their carriages with blue flags half the week, and thus earn their keep as cabs. Many poorer citizens, such as clerks, deny themselves every luxury to take this 104 MEXICO drive with their families on Sunday, and squander all their spare money on it. The paths of the Paseo are filled with all sorts of people, well-dressed Mexicans, Europeans and Americans, residents and tourists, also people of the poorer classes, including numbers of Indians, men and women, in their blankets and rebosas. Groups of Mexican "mashers" stand on the edge of the walks, criticising the fair occupants of the carriages and seeking to attract their bewitching eyes. The Mexican masher, it may be added, is called a lagartijo (pronounced lah-ahr-tee-ho) , meaning "little lizard," because he basks lazily in the sun at the street corner to ogle the fair sex. He usually wears a French morning coat and trousers, American patent leather shoes, with pointed toes, and an English top hat, and in his fingers is the inevitable cigarette. During the afternoon excellent music is played by the band of the Republican Guard stationed near the Cafe, where towards the evening hours the scene becomes won- derfully animated, with the moving procession of vehicles and the hundreds of pedestrians. In the far distance are the blue mountains, sharply silhouetted against the clear sky, which in the fading light takes on varied tints under the rays of the setting sun. As the twilight comes, the whole scene suggests a piece of illuminated fairyland; the carriage lights flit, in the growing darkness, among the trees like fireflies; the electric lamps flash out along the Paseo; in the distance the sky glows with the lights of the capital ; and as the leaves of the trees idly stir in the evening breeze, the band strikes up the stirring Mexican National Anthem, and the pleasant hours at Chapultepec come to an end. On week-days, from six to seven, a procession of carriages drives up and down San Francisco Street in an endless chain, going down one side and returning on the other, the occu- THE SIGHTS OF THE CAPITAL 105 pants sitting up very straight and solemn, looking as if they were taking part in a most serious function. Some of the automobiles are quite imposing. I saw one gorgeous car in which a wealthy Mexican and his family were riding. The chauffeur was dressed in the height of motor style, and in the rear, with folded arms, sat two French footmen, resplendent in black attire, top-hats and white gloves. Riding and promenading are not the only recreations enjoyed by the people of Mexico City on Sunday afternoons, for thousands flock to the ever popular bull-fights, which are held in the Plaza de Toros or Bull-ring, not far from Chapultepec. On Sundays the street-cars which run in the direction of Chapultepec all bear a great label, "Toros " (Bulls), and are packed with people. The Plaza de Toros is a huge circular building of stone and wood, with an interior that forms an immense amphi- theatre, seating thousands of people. Rising to the top, where the private boxes are situated, are tiers of seats, and as there is no roof except over the outer circle shading the boxes, there is a shady side called "Sombra," and a sunny side, "Sol," with prices varying from ten to twenty- five cents in the sun, and from fifty cents to a dollar and a half in the shade. Bull-fights or corridas de toros are conducted in much the same way as in Spain, and have been too often de- scribed to need repetition. In Mexico, however, the spectators never seem satisfied unless several horses are killed. The picadors, who carry pikes with which they prod and torture the bull, are mounted on old hacks and seem to purposely get in the way of the enraged animal. Their horses get gored terribly, and are kept on their feet as long as they can stand, streaming with blood. When- ever they drop dead, other poor hacks are brought in to take their places, the spectators sometimes shouting, " Otro 106 MEXICO caballo" (Another horse). The bulls are of Spanish breed, with huge horns, some of them imported from Spain, and some of them bred locally. I went to the bull-ring one Sunday afternoon and saw six bulls killed. During the fight, several horses were gored and despatched, until the whole place reeked with blood like a shambles. The fight had been well advertised in the newspapers, and the public were invited to see the butchery of "six terrible bulls, unusually fierce — the greatest fight on record." Most of the bulls were very mild specimens, and submitted to being killed without much of a fight. One of them turned tail and fled, leaping over the fence at the entrance to the ring. The spectators were furious, and shouted all sorts of uncomplimentary remarks about the management. One man yelled, "Where are the fierce bulls advertised in the Imparcialf" to which the "sol" or the "gallery gods" responded with hooting and groans. All through the fight, the matadors and toreadors were greeted with shouts of praise or denunciation whenever they made a good coup or a bad mistake. Most of the toreadors come from Spain, and as they get from $1000 to S2500 for each performance many of them are quite wealthy. The toreadors are lionized by the lower classes in much the same way as prize-fighters are in England and America. A popular toreador of Mexican birth is a millionaire amateur who goes into the ring just for the pure love of the sport. As a rule, the Mexican upper classes do not visit the bull-ring, and the President is never seen at a fight. As a matter of fact. President Diaz endeavored to have the sport abolished, but even the all-powerful Diaz could not carry his point in this instance. The people adore the pastime, and the Mexican small boy plays at bull- fighting as the American boy does at baseball. THE SIGHTS OF THE CAPITAL 107 Suburban life is yearly becoming more popular with people in Mexico City, and there are several Mexican equiv- alents of our New Jersey suburban towns, where well-to-do citizens have their homes. Most of these places are old towns and villages adjacent to the city, and easily reached by the electric street-cars. One of the prettiest suburban towns is Tacubaya, which abounds in beautiful parks, gardens and shady streets filled with flowers and fine trees. Tacubaya lies on the hills back of Chapultepec, and was once as infamous for gambling as Monte Carlo. The streets were filled with gambling booths where every sort of game of chance was played, and any one could wager from five cents to a dollar ; while in the gambling houses there would sometimes be $20,000 or $30,000 on the table at once. To- day all is changed. Tacubaya is now a model of respecta- bility, and gambling, if indulged in, has to be carried on far more privately. Twenty minutes' ride in a street-car took me, one after- noon, to Popotla, where still stands the tree of la Noche Triste (the Sorrowful Night), under which Cortes is said to have wept on the night of his defeat by the Aztecs (July 1, 1520). The tree, a cypress, gnarled and withered by the hand of time, is enclosed by a high iron fence to guard it from souvenir hunters. Some years ago, an Indian fanatic lit a fire at the foot of the tree with the purpose of burning it down, but it was fortunately discovered before much damage was done. The country round Mexico City abounds in mementos of the mysterious races which once inhabited the country, and there is hardly a district that does not contain the remains of once imposing temples, palaces or tombs. Among the most important of these are the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon, which are situated near the village of San Juan Teotihuacan, twenty-seven miles from the city, 108 MEXICO and reached by the Mexican Central Railway. The village marks the site of a famous Toltec city, and some wonderful structures raised by the Toltecs are said to have been stand- ing there at the time of the Spanish Conquest, but were sub- sequently reduced to ruins. Teotihuacan means "City of the Gods," and the ancient city may have been a holy place or city of temples. There is a great difference of opinion as to whether the Toltecs or some race that pre- ceded them built the pyramids and erected various great structures near to them, the ruins of which still exist. Some archeologists assert, however, that they are as old as the ancient works of Egypt and India. In company with an American friend, I went out one day to see the pyramids, which stand in the midst of a great plain. Surrounding them in all directions there are ruins of an ancient city with fortifications and walls, one of the latter measuring 200 feet in width. The Pyramid of the Sun is 216 feet high, the base 751 feet by 721, while the top is 59 by 105 ; the Moon Pyramid is somewhat smaller. Both are supposed to have served as bases for temples which stood on their summits. In their interior construction a mixture of clay and volcanic pebbles was used, over which was laid a facing of light porous stone, and this, in turn, thickly coated with white stucco. But with the progress of time they have lost their original appearance, and now resemble earthen mounds. At the time of the Conquest, a temple stood on the larger pyramid, having a colossal statue of the sun made of a single block of stone. In a hollow in the centre of this there was a planet of fine gold. The temple and the figure of the sun were destroyed by the Spaniards, who also seized the gold. There are several smaller pyramids or mounds on the plain, some of which have been excavated, revealing in at least one case chambers with frescoed walls. It has been THE SIGHTS OF THE CAPITAL 109 suggested that they were shrines attached to the greater temples. The frescoes, cornices and walls were colored in ten or twenty different shades or tints. In the Moon Pyramid, some years back, a passage was discovered, the walls of which were of cut stone carefully orientated. The Indians who live about Teotihuacan have some queer ideas concerning the ruins, and firmly believe that the pyramids were built by giants. Most of them are con- vinced that treasure is buried somewhere among the crum- bling walls ; and they can sometimes be seen prowling about the ancient stonework as if in search of this mythical gold. Occasionally, as I discovered, their ideas of wealth are on a much humbler basis. As we were examining the rugged sides of the Moon Pyramid, we suddenly came upon an Indian woman, wrapped in her faded rebosa, seated among the debris of ages, gazing pensively at a large stone on which there was some rude carving. ''Musing over the glories of her ancestors, poor soul," suggested my companion, and so it seemed. But the thoughts of this female descendant of the Aztecs were apparently of a different nature; for on catching sight of us, she hurried forward with out- stretched palm, and gave utterance to the words so con- stantly heard in Mexico, "Solo un centavo, senores" (Only one penny, gentlemen). When contrasted with the present decadence of the Indian races in Mexico, the wonderful skill exhibited by the ancient builders in the construction of their temples and palaces seems all the more remarkable. Charnay, the French archeologist, who made a thorough exploration of the ruins of Tula and Teotihuacan, expresses deep admira- tion for their architectural designs. In his work, "The Ancient Cities of the New World," he says: "Unlike most primitive nations, they used every material at once. They coated their inner walls with mud and mortar, faced their 110 MEXICO outer walls with baked bricks and cut stone, had wooden roofs and brick and stone staircases. They were acquainted with pilasters and caryatides, with square and round columns; indeed, they seem to have been familiar with every architectural device. That they were painters and sculptors we had ample indications in a house that we un- earthed, where the walls were covered with rosettes, palms, and red, white and gray geometrical figures on a black ground." In several places the remains of irrigation works have been found, showing that the land was carefully cultivated in ancient times. A curious causeway named Calle de los Muertos (Street of the Dead) connects the Sun Pyramid with the Moon Pyramid ; and on either side of this is a terrace of cement and lava faced with mortar of high polish and brightly colored. Along this street many mounds have been opened, revealing chests of cut stone containing bones, ornaments of obsidian, earthen vases and miniature earthen masks. One theory is that these masks were portraits of the dead, buried in the same way as in the Egyptian tombs. Charnay, who collected a number of these masks, says: "Among them are types which do not seem to belong to America; a negro, whose thick lips, flat nose and woolly hair pro- claim his African origin; a Chinese head, Caucasian and Japanese specimens ; heads with retreating foreheads, and not a few with Greek profiles. The lower jaw is straight or projecting, the faces smooth or bearded; in short, it is a wonderful medley, indicative of the numerous races who succeeded each other and amalgamated on this continent, which until lately was supposed to be so new and is in truth so old." O Vj < a M CHAPTER VI CHURCHES AND MIRACLES Mexico City, like London, possesses a number of old churches, many of which have been overtaken by the on- ward march of commerce, and find themselves to-day sur- rounded by prosaic stores and warehouses. Some of these old structures date from the early days of the Conquest; they give a touch of the picturesque to otherwise un- attractive streets; and their history, too, is often full of romantic interest. Few of them are architecturally beauti- ful, the outside usually being far more imposing than the interior. They are generally built of stone and stucco, painted with kalsomine or distemper, which has long ago faded into soft tints of pink, yellow or cream, giving them an appearance of great antiquity. One of these old churches, Jesus Nazareno, is famous for having been founded by Cortes shortly after his occupa- tion of the country. Large sums were lavished by him for this building, which was begun in 1575, and took nearly a hundred years to complete. Appropriately enough, the bones of the great Conquistador rested here. He had directed that should he die in Spain his bones were to be taken, after ten years, to Mexico and deposited in the Convent de la Concepcion, which he proposed to erect, but never built. Cortes died on December 2, 1547, in Castilleja de la Questa, Spain. His body was placed in the tomb of the dukes of Medina Sidonia, and a decade later was removed 111 112 MEXICO to Mexico to the Church of San Francisco in Texcoco. There they remained until 1629, when Don Pedro Cortes, his grandson, and the last of the male line, died. The bones of the Conqueror, together with those of the latter, were with great ceremony placed in the Church of San Francisco in Mexico City. But even here they were not allowed to rest longer than 165 years, for in 1734 they were once more exhumed and interred in a splendid marble mausoleum in the church of Jesus Nazareno. This was their home for thirty years ; but during the War of Independence, when everything Spanish was hateful to the Mexicans, the coffin was secretly removed and hidden in another part of the church. Later it was sent to Spain, and found eventually a final resting-place in the tomb of the dukes of Monteleone in Italy. Thus the remains of this great Spaniard, after crossing the Atlantic twice and having been entombed once in the country of his birth and thrice in the country he conquered, found, at last, a final resting place in an alien land. The ancient-looking church of Nuestra Senora de los Angeles, which faces the Plaza de Zaragosa, about a mile from the Alameda, was founded in 1580 as the result of a strange miracle. During that year the city was inundated, and in the course of the flood an Aztec chieftain, Isayoque, discovered a picture of the Virgin floating in the water. He erected a chapel of adobe, and had a replica of the picture painted on the walls. Fifteen years afterwards a larger church was built over the mud-brick one, keeping intact the wall on which the picture was painted, in the design of which so many angels figured that the shrine was called "Our Lady of the Angels." In 1607 much damage was done to the church by another flood, and the picture was injured, but the face and hands were unhurt, an accident which was superstitiously magnified into a CHURCHES AND MIRACLES 113 miracle. Two centuries later the present church was built, and the remains of the miraculous painting, covered with glass, are shown within. Not far from the Alameda there also stands the venerable church of San Hipolito, which marks the spot where the Spaniards were defeated and slaughtered by the Aztecs on the famous "Sorrowful Night" during their retreat from the city. Then the place was occupied by a canal, but this dried up years ago. On the victorious return of the Spaniards on the feast-day of San Hipolito, August 13, 1521, a Spanish soldier, Juan Garrido, built a small chapel of adobe in memory of his fallen comrades. This was called San Hipolito of the Martyrs, and the name is still preserved. In 1599 a much larger church was begun, and completed in 1739. For many years on the 13th of each August the monks made processions to the church, bearing the crimson banner used by Cortes during the wars of the con- quest. On the church wall is the " Sorrowful Night " me- morial tablet. Cut on the stone is an eagle, with an Indian in his claws, the rest of the design being composed of musical instruments, arrows, spears and trophies of the Aztecs. Another interesting church is that of Jesus Maria, founded in 1557 by two Spaniards, with the idea that the female descendants of the conquerors should take the veil. The convent was completed in 1580 and removed to its present site in 1582, when there came a nun who was alleged to be a daughter of Philip II of Spain, and a niece of the then Archbishop of Mexico. This story gains corroboration from the fact that the convent benefited largely by grants from the royal treasury of Spain and the viceregal exchequer of Mexico^ Almost all these churches, and in fact most of those found throughout the temperate regions of Mexico, are of similar design, with a central dome and Doric towers. 114 MEXICO Some scores of the finer city churches and convents were confiscated by the government after the disestabhshment, and are now used as warehouses, hotels, private residences or government offices. For two centuries after the Conquest there was an" epoch of church-building in Mexico. Peon and millionaire sub- scribed lavishly, and the remarkable feature of this great outburst of building was the way in which Aztec and Spanish art were blended, with a result that, if somewhat barbarically florid, is very impressive. Even in secluded villages and townships you can see towers and domes which rival the best work of Italy and are reminiscent of the triumphs of Moorish art. For the most part, they were the work of the native Indians, who carried out the architectural ideas of their Spanish masters . Many of the intricate designs and elaborate figures doubtless represent the mythology of the Aztecs, blended with the traditions of the victorious church. In some details there is a strong likeness to the strange symbols of the ancient Egyptian and Persian monu- ments. The ornate facades often exhibit a blending of the two religions, the Christian saints being substituted for the pagan deities. In some quite small villages the churches astound with their splendor. Here and there is a towering fane with hardly a trace of a human dwelling near it. But this is not the case in the tropical portions of Mexico, where the churches are of a very humble and unadorned nature. Doubtless this is due to the fact that the early conquerors did not penetrate the hot lands, and also to the difficulty which the constant risk of earthquakes presented to the church-builders. For the most part the beauty of the churches is external, the interiors being often disappointing and garish in their ornamentation. But as you stand outside you feel strangely CHUBCHES AND MIRACLES 115 impressed with the weird beauty of the extravagant and often bizarre sculptures. On this point Charles Dudley- Warner says : "There is a touch of decay nearly everywhere, a crumbling and defacement of colors which adds some- what of pathos to these old Mexican structures, but in nearly every one there is some unexpected fancy, a belfry oddly placed, a figure that surprises with the quaintness of its position, or a rich bit of deep stone carving; and in the humblest and plainest fagade there is a note of individual yielding to a whim of expression that is very fascinating. The architects escaped from the commonplace and con- ventional ; they understood proportion without regularity, and the result is perhaps not explainable to those who are only accustomed to English church architecture." In keeping with the somewhat tawdry ornamentation of the interiors, the organs of most Mexican churches are very inferior, and most of them have too much resemblance to the old-fashioned street organ, lacking both musical qualities and power. The choir-boys rarely have good voices. They are too nasal and harsh. Most of the old churches were erected as the result of some supposed supernatural occurrence, Mexico, for two centuries after the Conquest, having been a veritable land of miracles. Nearly every town and village has its legend of miraculous appearances of the Virgin, of saints or angels. Almost every church has its wonderworking image or picture, superstitiously guarded through the ages. For example, at Tacubaya, not far from the capital, there is the arbol benito (blessed tree). The story is that an aged monk, weary with his work among the Indians, rested under the shade and gave the tree his benediction, praying that it might be blessed with eternal youth. No sooner had the good man spoken than a choir of sweet angel voices was heard, and a spring of pure water gushed from the 116 MEXICO roots. You really feel you must believe this, for the tree is standing there, ever green, and the little rivulet flows on forever. The church of La Piedad, in another suburb, was built by a Dominican in 1562 in fulfilment of a vow. He was com- missioned by the brotherhood to bring them from Rome a picture of the Virgin and the dead Christ, painted by a well- known artist. Obliged to come away in a hurry, he brought the picture in an unfinished state. During his journey the vessel was overwhelmed in a terrible storm, and the monk vowed to the Virgin that if the ship came safely to port he would build a church in her honor. The prayer was an- swered; and more than this, for when the painting was exposed in Mexico, it was found to be finished in all its details. This remarkable picture is hung to-day over the altar. At Los Remedios, three miles from the city, stands the church of our Lady of Succor, or Senora de los Remedios. During the flight of the "Sorrowful Night" a Spanish soldier, Juan de Villafuente, had on him an image of the Virgin. Wounded and unable to guard it, he hid it under a maguey plant. Twenty years later, an Aztec chief, Cequauhtzin or Juan Aguila, while hunting on the hill of Totaltepec, saw the Virgin in a vision, and she told him to seek the image. The chief searched, found it under a maguey plant and took it home. In the morning it had disappeared, and on returning he found it again under the maguey. Once more he took the image back to his house, where he placed fruit and flowers as offerings before it, but it returned to the plant. Again he brought it back, and this time, being a cautious man, he locked it in a strong- box and all night long slept on the lid. But even these precautions were in vain ; for when dawn came, the box was empty, and the image was found under the maguey. The 125 < =1 ;?; Q < C/J H K . H a W S H r/l u 0) rt H <3 O 4^ Q ^ Iz; «l d ij w .s ft n3 ?^ t^