Din$wr t'KBOtOGlCAI, Sltmi^AWV Ln*A»V. MEXICO Next-Doior Nei^Kbor*' The MEXICO MISSION METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH r\% REV. FRANCIS S. BORTON, D.D. MEXICO “OUR NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBOR” BY REV. FRANCIS S. BORTON, D.D. THE MISSIONARY SOCIETY OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH RINDGE LITERATURE DEPARTMENT 150 Fifth Avenue, New York PRICE, TEN CENTS Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2018 with funding from Columbia University Libraries https://archive.org/details/mexicoournextdooOObort INTRODUCTION EXICO, the Old ^^^orld of the New World, although just across the street from the southwestern dooryard of the United States, is less known to the American people than are most of the countries of Europe. Many of the touri.sts who visit Mexico in increas¬ ing numbers betray an anmsing and, at times, a lamentable ignorance of the geography, climate, history, conditions, and cvistoms of the country. Also many people in our Church who are interested in the missionary work in Mexico have but vague ideas with regard to this most ancient Aztec land; to them it is but a name and a place on tlie map. Although our visiting bishops do what they can to tell the Church about the conditions that prevail here when they re¬ turn to the ITnited States, their sermons, lectures, and mission¬ ary addresses reach the ears of but a comparatively small number of Methodists. So there seems to be a real need for condensed and handy information on this subject—a luind- book that may answer a few of the many questions that arise with regard to the great and growing republic, “Our Next- Door Neighbor.” In response to the request of Dr. A. B. Leonard, Correspond¬ ing Secretary of the Missionary Society, the following pages have been prepared in the hope that tliey may be of real service in imparting information about Mexico and in stimulating, on the part of the Church at home, an intelligent and hel]rfiil interest in the great task of spreading the light and joy of the Gospel of the Son of God tliroughout this oldest region of the New World. For those who would like to read something on the vast sul)ject of INIexican hi.story a short list of authorities is given at the end of tliis booklet. ^ ^ F. S. BORTON. Puel)la, Mexico. 3 COURT OF THE GIIiES’ SCHOOL, FUEBLA MEXICO “ OUR NEXT- DOOR NEIGHBOR ” GEOGRAPHY EXICO is bounded on tlio north Ijy the United States and tlie Gulf of Mexico, on the east I)y the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, and British Honduras, on the south and west by Guatemala and the Pacific Ocean. It extends through 18° of latitude, between the parallels of 15° and 33° north, and through 30° of longitude, between the meridians of 87° and 117° west. Including i.slands, the country has an area of 767,000 square miles. The Tropic of Cancer passes through Area Mexico nearly midway between its northern and southern boundaries, the southern half of the country therefore being within the tropics. The boundary between Mexico and the ITnited States is about 1,200 miles in length, the northern extremity of the coun¬ try being its widest portion. The Isthmus of Tehuantepec, a little more than 100 miles across, is the narrowest part. Coast Line Mexico has 1,727 miles of coast line on the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea and 4,574 miles on the Pacific Ocean. In form IMexico resembles a cornucopia, with its narrow end tapering toward the southeast. CLIMATE Three zones of climate are distinctly marked. The tierra caliente, or hot land, lies along the low maritime zone of the Gulf and the Pacific, and includes swampy and sandy coast lands and well-watered plains and slopes leading up to the moun¬ tains. The growth of luxuriant tropical vegetation is promoted by a mean annual temperature of 77° to 82° Fahr., the mer- The Tropics cury seldom falling below 60°, but often rising to 100°, and at Vera Cruz and Acapulco to 104°. Some places, as the port of La Paz, are among the hottest in the world. The seacoasts are unhealthful, fevers prevail, and in some localities yellow fever and black vomit are endemic. Above the Gulf and Pacific hot zones are the tierras tem- pladas,or temperate lands, Temperate from 3,000 to 6,000 feet Zone al)ove the sea, embracing the higher terraces and parts of the central plateau. The temperate lands rise to a higher elevation in the southern than in the northern States. The mean temperature is from 62° to 70° Fahr., and does not vary more than 4° to 5° during the year. Thus extremes of heat and cold are unknown ; semitropical THE FAMOUS PKEIIISTOKIC PYRAMID OF CIIOLUEA products, like those of southwestern Europe, are abundant, and to some extent, also, products both of the tropical and cold regions. Around the city of Oaxaca wheat and sugar cane may be seen growing on the same piece of ground. 6 Al-jove the temperate lauds are the tierras frias, or cold lands, 7,000 feet or more above the sea level, with a mean temperature of from 59° to 63° Fahr. Most of the great central pla- Cold Zone teau, with its girdle of mountains, is included in this region, but in the deeper valleys a warmer temperature and tropical products are found. It is literally true that you can ride down into a valley in an hour or two and be in the midst of a tropical vegetation. The lower levels of these cold lands are the most thickly inhabited regions in Mexico, all the largest cities, with the exception of Vera Cruz, being found in this zone. The rainy season, the most healthful and delightful period of the year in Mexico, lasts from about the middle of May to October. In the winter, or dry season, little or no rain falls. The city of Mexico has an average rainfall of thirty inches a year MINERAL WEALTH Mexico is one of the richest mining countries in the world. Excepting Sinaloa and Sonora, which contain vast stores of the precious metals, nearly all the historic mines lie on the Mines south-central plateau, at elevations of from 5,500 to 9,500 feet. A line drawn from the city of Mexico to Guanajuato, thence north to Chihualiua and south to Oaxaca, incloses a silver-yielding zone that is unsurpassed in richness. The cen¬ tral group of mines in the districts of Guanajuato, Zacatecas, and Catorce, in the States of Guanajuato, Zacatecas, and San Luis Potosi, liave thus far yielded over half the silver mined in Mexico. The “mother vein” of Guanajuato alone produced $252,000,000 between 1556 and 1803. In some places copper is found in a pure state. Iron in vast abundance occurs in Michoacan, Jalisco, and Durango, but until coal has been found in paying cpiantities there is little prospect that iron mining will become very important. The famous Cerro del Mercado, or “Hill of tlie Market Place,” in Durango, discov¬ ered in 1562, is a hill of magnetic iron ore, 4,800 feet long, 1,100 feet in wddtli, and 640 feet high, averaging a!)out 70 per cent of metal, and estimated to contain over 300,000,000 tons 7 of ore above the plain, beneath which it may extend to a great depth. Fuel is one of the most pressing needs of Mexico. Fire¬ wood costs in the city of Mexico $14 a cord. Coal ranges from $16 to $22 a ton and is brought from England and the United ENTRANCE TO “ HALL OE MONOEITIIS,’' RUINS OF MITLA, OAXACA States. The cooking in Mexico is all done by means of char¬ coal used in /iro.sero.s. Stoves are unknown outside of the for¬ eign colonies in the larger cities. Tliere are no chimneys Fuel nor fireplaces. AVhen people are cold they put on extra wraps, if they have tliem, or else “grin and bear it” until tlie sun comes out. There are three government mints. The total coinage of Mexican silver from the time of its discovery by tlie Spaniards to 1895 amounted to $3,398,664,400, whicli is more than Mints one third of the world’s production of sih'cr from 1493 to 1895. As a large amount of silver is not coined, but is used in the arts, it is estimated tliat INIexico luis produced nearly one half of the world’s silver mined in the past four centuries. S POPULATION It is difficult to take a direct census in Mexico, particularly in the many districts inhabited by Indians, who fear that they will be taxed if they are enrolled in the census return. Census In 1900 the population included 6,716,007 males and Returns 6,829,455 females. Nineteen per cent of the population were pure white, 43 per cent mixed bloods, and 38 per cent Indians. The cold lands, l^eing the most healthful, have A I’LEASIXG TYPE OF THE POOKEU CLASS the dense.st population, or alwut 75 per cent of the total population. A relatively small part of the people, from 15 to IS per cent, live in the temperate zone, and only 7 to 10 per cent in the torrid zone. The first census, in 1795, showed a population of 5,200,000. The population therefore much more than douliled in the past century. The per cent of increase from immigration is very small, and not to be considered. Of the foreign elements of the population the English, Germans, Spaniards, and French monopolize many branches of business. The country is to some extent being Americanized as far as means of transportation, electric lighting, improved hotels, and other modern conveniences are concerned. The tendency of the people, how'ever, is to cling to the old habits which grew out of their Spanish ancestry and climatic environment. They still desire their midday siesta, their many religious feast days and holi¬ days, but they are unwilling to live abstemiously, spending their money freely and dressing j^oorly. This is especially true of the In¬ dians. The low rate of wages Wages is an obstacle to large immi¬ gration, field hands receiving from 25 to 37 cents a day in Mexi¬ can silver, and laborers in the cities, carpenters, masons, black¬ smiths, etc., not averaging more than 75 cents a day. Other diffi¬ culties are that a large portion of the public lands have already been disposed of ; comparatively little of the land, either public or private, has yet been ade¬ quately surveyed, and therefore cannot easily be obtained in small lots, and the large landholders are unwilling to divide their estates, which are still governed and tilled by an almost feudal system. On every great hacienda is the castle of the proprietor, and huddling about the lofty and massive walls, 10 A BASKET CAKRIER pierced with loopholes, are the huts of the peons, or retainers, actually almost serfs, who are born and die on the estate, anil are nearly as much a part of it as were the slaves on the old plantations in the South “before the war.” EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE In nearly all the States education is free and compulsory, but the law is not strictly enforced; illiteracy is very prevalent, and but little has been done to educate the Indians. In 1899 the common schools supported by the federal and State govern¬ ments numbered 6,376; by the municipalities, 2,989; the teachers in both, 15.505; enrolled pupils, 684,563; average attendance, 474,622; cost of schools, 86,805,074 (Mexican sil¬ ver). The private and clerical schools numbered 2,560; en¬ rolled pupils, 134,987. The federal government supports special schools for engineering, law, medicine, mining, agricul¬ ture, etc. The National Library, housed in what was once one of the finest churches and convents in Dlexico City, contains over 205,000 volumns. There are 138 other public libraries. Libraries 33 museums for scientific and educational purposes, 11 meteorological observatories, and 702 newspapers, includ¬ ing 11 in English and 11 in Spanish and English. Puebla, with a population of almost 100,000, has no daily paper, but de¬ pends on the papers printed in Mexico City for her news of the day. The paper with the largest circulation is FA Imparcial, with a daily issue of from 70,000 to 74,000. Mexico owes what she is to-day, from an educational point of view, to the efforts made by President Diaz during the past twenty- five years. He is still doing all that he can to uplift and edu¬ cate his people. To judge correctly of the progress made by Mexico upward toward the light we must not compare her with the United States, but compare her with herself as she was in the sad and hopeless years of tyranny and civil war in the days gone by. 11 THE PEOPLES OF MEXICO The population of Mexico at the present day is largely Indian, and in many parts of the country ancient customs, superstitions, and languages hold sway. There are probably more than Dialects four millions of pure blooded Indians and a somewhat larger proportion of mestizos, or people of mixed blood. Dr. Nicolas Leon, a personal friend of the writer, and the most recent and accurate student of the linguistic families of Mexico, has divided them into 17 families and 180 dialects, and is of the opinion that future studies and investigations tvill re¬ solve this number of families to three mother tongues, which A UltOl P OF WOMKN AND CllILDKEN IN THE STATE OF GUEKKEKO will be the Otomi, Maya-Quiche, and the Nahua. In many parts of the republic where certain languages are spoken over extended areas we find dialectical differences in every village. In some parts of Mexico the tribes occur in masses, while in other parts people speaking different languages are strangely intermingled. In the same town, separated by a single street, we may find two different languages spoken, while in one town Starr reports Aztecs, Otomi, Tepehuas, and Totonacs, each group preserving its independence in language, dress, customs, and super¬ stitions, and occupying its own distinct cpiarter in the town. 12 Most of the Mexican Indians have l^een superficially con¬ verted to the IIOman Catholic form of Christianity; many are still idolaters, although they have lost much of their Idolatry and knowledge of ancient traditions and religion. They Superstition are excessively superstitious and believe in omens, witchcraft, and divination. Among the Huicholes, whose habits, customs, religion, and symbolism have been ex¬ haustively studied by Carl Lumholtz, and the Mijes, who have been briefly investigated by Starr and Belmar. we find greater GKINDING COKN TO M.4.KE “ TORTILLAS ” adherence to primitive ideas than among any other Mexican people. All over Mexico the commerce of the people is carried on in very much the same manner as before the Spanish conquest, and their periodic markets, the tianguis, are held weekly, as in former times; they also carry merchandise for long distances 13 to attend annual festivals of certain miracle-working saints, whose modern shrines are built on the sites of ancient pagan tem¬ ples. The Indians are principally agriculturists, though Commerce certain aboriginal trades still prevail, such as weaving, basket and mat making, and the manufacture of pot¬ tery ; and the products of these industries, for which certain villages are noted (as Guadalajara for its pottery), are scattered throughout extended areas Their mode of living, habitations, and clothing have changed but little under Spanish rule. Their food consists mainly of corn, beans, and chili peppers; the corn is made into thin cakes, or tortillas, or else a sort of mush called atole; their food is prepared as before the con- Food quest, and nearly all their cooking utensils are made of clay. Their great vice is drunkenness ; they make many kinds of native drinks as in former times, and take advan¬ tage of all feast days to indulge to excess. The Indians are indu.strious, peaceable, and courteous. Protestantism has made considerable progress among tliem, especially in the mountain regions and country districts. MEXICO’S HISTORY The Aztec, or Nahuatl, tribes whom tlie Spanish conquerors found in the central valley of Mexico had been preceded by at least two other races in that region. From the Early History hopelessly confused legendary accounts of events in prehistoric Mexico it is possible to make out only a rough outline of what probably happened. The Toltecs were said to trace their history back to the year 720 of the Christian era, when they began a long course of wanderings which finally led them, about the year 970, into the valley of Mexico, There they erected vast cities, whose ruins, at Tulantzinco and at Tula, or Tallon, some fifty miles north and northeast of the present city of Mexico, ju.stify the name of ‘ ‘ the builders,” given them by their successors. In the year 1103 the Toltec power was overthrown, and they were eventually driven from the country, going off toward the south, where they are supposed to have erected some at least of the immense 14 buildings now in ruins in Yucatan, Honduras, and Guatemala Their conquerors, the Chichimecas, first appeared in the vicinity of the two great volcanoes Popocatepetl and Ixtaccihuatl, where the ruins of Amecameca show the center of their power. The Chichimecan legends carry their history back for 1,796 years before the Christian era. After they succeeded the Toltecs as the dominant power the Chicliimecas settled at Texcoco, on the ea.st side of the lake MEXICAN CURL FROM YUCATAN of that name, wliere they were living in a flourishing condition when, early in the twelfth century A. 1)., seven allied Xahuallaca families or tribes entered the vallev from the north, having started on their wanderings, cjuite possibly, in the cliff-dweller region of New Mexico and Arizona. 15 One of these tribes, unable to win a home elsewhere from the powerful Chichimecas, settled upon some marshy islets in the lake of Texcoco. The year 1325 is given, with some A Sign from signs of probability, as that in which these Nahuatl the Gods Aztecs fixed upon this location, which is said to have been pointed out to them by a sign from their gods, an eagle perched upon a prickly-pear cactus, the 7iopal, stran¬ gling a serpent. This sign is now the national seal of Mexico, and is seen on all the coins of the country. For over a century the settlement made in the marshes grew in power and territory, until by the year 1437 the Aztec nation was known and feared far and near, and a great city had come to be the center of their kingdom. In the year just mentioned Motecuhzoma, or Montezuma the First (Wrathy Chief), came to the throne. He was perhaps the first chief to combine the functions of warrior and priest, and prepared for the down¬ fall of the tribal power by allowing the latter to interfere with the former. His successors considerably extended the influ¬ ence of the Aztecs by conquering the tribes beyond the mountains to the two seas on the east and west and as far as Guatemala to the south, and forcing them to pay tribute of slaves for the horrid sacrificial rites which were becoming the established and popular religious practice of the nation. (For particulars with regard to these sacrifices see Prescott’s Conquest of Mexico.) In 1.502 the second and most ill-fated Montezuma was elected to the chief position of the tribe. In the years 1519-21 the con¬ quest of Mexico by the Spaniards was effected, in which Montezuma after a most heroic resi.stance the city of Mexico was almost completely demolished and the ruins flung into the numerous canals; hundreds of thousands of lives were lost, and what had been once the beautiful city of Tenochtitlan be¬ came a smoking heap of ruins soaked with blood and covered with corpses. After the taking of the city Cortes promptly set to work rebuilding it. The dead bodies were burned and the city roughly cleansed, the canals filled up, streets, market places, and the sites for a church, fort, official residence, an,d of her necessary buildings located. There were many rapid changes in the form and personnel of IG the government of Mexico, or New Spain, as it was officially called, from the days of Cortes, the first governor, down to the year 1535, A\hen the first viceroy, Antonio de Mendoza, New Spain came from Spain. The University of Mexico was founded in 1553, under Viceroy Velasco, and the mineral and other sources of wealth developed. Few acts or episodes of general interest mark the reigns of the succeeding viceregal rulers of Mexico. The capital grew, was periodically flooded by the overflowing lakes, and plans were as regularly made for its draining, but the drainage has only been effected finally and satisfactorily during very I'ecent years, under the direction of President Diaz. The drainage works of the valley of Mexico are to-day among the greatest feats of engineering of the mod¬ ern world. The black and bloody Inquisition was The Inquisition introduced into Mexico in 1571, and the terrific autos-da-fe claimed their victims down to the year 1821, when the hellish tribunal was forever done away with. But ah, what a history of crime, cruelty, and devilishness is associated with the three hundred and fifty years of the Inqui¬ sition in this land! In 1789 Count Bevillagigedo began the rebuilding of the capital. One result of these works was the finding of the famous Aztec Calendar Stone and the so-called Sacrificial Stone, which had been buried at the time of the con- cjuest. They are to-day in the national museum. The gradual increase of education among all classes, the spread of revolutionary and independent ideas all over the world, beginning in the revolt of the New England colonies, a succes¬ sion of viceroys who responded to the pressure from Spain by draining the American colonies of every possible ingot and coin, and finally the addition of Spain to the appanages of Napoleon were”all potent factors in causing the growth of ideas of inde¬ pendence for Mexico. THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE Various groups had been formed for the discussion of revolu¬ tionary plans, and some of the advocates of independence had been imprisoned and killed before the fateful 16th of Septem- 17 her, 1810, when the parish priest at Dolores, near Guanajuato, Miguel Hidalgo, upon suddenly learning that some of his fellow- conspirators had ijeen arrested, rang his church bell and Hidalgo called upon his people to follow him and free Mexico from foreign tyranny. His Grito de Dolores, the cry of “Long live religion, long live America, and death to bad government!” MIGUEL HIDALGO, THE WASHINGTON OF MEXICO marked the beginning of the struggle for Mexican independence. Hidalgo was at that time in his fifty-eighth year, witli a strong and soldier-like body and venerable looking white locks. He is the one instance in modern hi.storv of a comparatively old 18 man inaugurating a great national movement for the gaining of political freedom. His eloquence had a powerful effect on the people, and to heighten the enthusiasm he carried aloft the banner of our Lady of (luadalupe, patron saint of Mexico, and gave to his uprising the character of a crusade. He took the cities of Guanajuato and Guadalajara after a fearful slaughter, and with an army of 50,000 men marched on ^Mexico, defeating on the way several l)odies of troops sent to oppose him. But the all-powerful Church and Inquisition had launched against him and all his friends and followers the dreaded decree of ex- communication, and owing to this and the discord prevailing among his lieutenants his forces melted away, and he was forced to retreat. He succeeded, liowever, in reuniting his men to meet the army sent against him l)y the viceroy, but his dis¬ orderly mob of 100,000 men was pitilessly crushed by the onset of 6,000 Spanish veterans, January 17, 1811. Hidalgo fled and set out for the United States to procure assistance, but was captured, degraded from his priestly office, shot and deca])itated, and his head exposed in an iron cage hung from the wall of the great government edifice in Guanajuato that he had stormed and taken the year Imfore. As the years go by his honor grows among the Mexican people, and he means even more to them than IVashington does to the people of the United States. Each year on the night Other Patriots of September 15, at 11 o’clock, the President of the republic steps to the lialcony of the government palace in Mexico City, rings the old liberty bell that is hanging there now, and repeats the famous cry of Hidalgo, ‘ ‘ Long live Mexico ! Long live independence ! ” The Avaiting croAvd of 50,000 l)eloAV takes up the cry, the l)ands and church Irells all peal out at once, and together it forms a scene to stir the Iffood and aAA'aken the patriotism of the most sluggish. After Hidalgo’s death there Avere others ready to take up his unfinished Avork, among aa’Iioiu the names of Morelos, Guerrero, BraA'o, and Mina stand out conspicuously. In 1S21 a plan was arranged Ijy AA'hich Iturbide l)ecame the first independent ruler of Mexico. Con¬ gress ratified his choice of himself as emperor May 19, 1822. He was croAvned amid great pomp and splendor, but it was 10 taken as a sign of ill omen that the crown trembled and almost fell from his head when he received it And in less than two years from that date, after having been deposed and exiled, he was shot upon returning to Mexico. But, nevertheless, between the years 1810 and 1822 the political independence of Mexico had been achieved and the power of the Inquisition forever shat¬ tered. The last victim of the dread tribunal in Mexico was the patriot-priest Morelos, ‘ ‘ the hero of a hundred bat- A Patriot Priest ties,” who was betrayed into the hands of the Church and shot in December, 1815. Let us not lose sight of the fact that the great task set before Hidalgo and his followers was that of bursting the political bands that bound Mexico to the throne of Spain. The more dreadful and diffi¬ cult and crushing task of bursting the bands of religious tyranny and despotism that fettered Mexico to the throne of the Vatican in Rome fell to the lot of the immortal Benito Juarez, of whom we shall speak later on. From 1823 until 1875 chaos reigned, and one revolution succeeded another in gloomy and awful regularity. In this period also came the war with Texas (1836) and the war with the United States (1846-48). During the period 1810-75 there were over 200 different uprisings, insur¬ rections, rebellions, and seditions! During the two years’ war with the United States there were twelve changes in the chief executive of Mexico, a fact which helps to explain the inability of the Mexicans, in spite of their admirable fighting qualities, to prevent the advance of the United States troops. It was because of internal dissensions that a handful of Spaniards were able to conquer the great kingdom of Me.xico, and it was in great part due to the same reason that a few thousand American troops were able to force their way from the Gulf and unfurl the Stars and Stripes over the ancient city of Mexico. An interesting item in connection with the famous battle of Churubusco is the following; It was there that the Mexicans made one of their most stubborn stands. One jjart of the old convent church there was especially well defended. When the battle was over it was found that the troops defending that point were deserters from the American army. They were all Roman Catholic Ii’ish, and were known as St. Patrick’s Battalion. 20 Several of them were hung as traitors, and about a score were branded on the cheeks with the letter T. When Roman Catholic orators grow eloquent in talking of what their troops have always done for the honor of the flag let them remember the battalion of traitors who slew many of their own country¬ men in the battle of Churubusco, and all in the name of Holy Mother Church and his holiness the Pope of Rome. In the treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo Mexico suffered a heavy loss of territory, which to-day forms no inconsiderable part of the west¬ ern United States. From 1830 to 185.5 one of the leading fig¬ ures in Mexican history is the notorious and in many respects infamous Santa Anna, of whom it may be said that Mexico could neither get along with him nor without him. He Avas by turns president, exile, dictator, refugee, and traitor. It will be many a year before Mexico erects a monument to his honor. In December of 1855 General Comonfort, the first liberal presi¬ dent of Mexico, was installed, and in June, 1856, issued the fa¬ mous decree ordering the sale of all unimproved Church lands, which precipitated the long and fierce and as yet unfinished struggle between Church and State. THE STRUGGLE FOR RELIGIOUS INDEPENDENCE The Magna Charta of Mexico’s republican independence is the famous Constitution adopted February 5, 1857, and which is still in force. In 1858 Benito Juarez, sometimes called Juarez “the Abraham Lincoln of Mexico,” came into power. Juarez was a full-blooded Zapoteca Indian, born in 1806 in the State of Oaxaca. At twelve years of age he was a poor, ragged, barefooted Indian boy, unable to speak the Spanish language. It was one of the strange providences of God that the Indians, who for so many long and weary years had been robbed and ridden by the power of Rome should have fur¬ nished in the person of the Indian Juarez the most pitiless foe and relentless scourge of that same haughty and wealtliy Church that has yet appeared in Mexican history. The .stripes upon the Church’s back administered by Juarez and his friends of the Liberal Party are unhealed 21 to-day There is no man more hated of the Clerical Party and no man whose name is more honored in Mexico to-day than Benito Juarez, for he it was who helped the groaning and over¬ burdened people to break the bands of priestly and ecclesias¬ tical despotism that bound them to the banks of the Tiber. He was endowed with an inflexible will and sufficient clearness and constanc}^ of purpose to fight the great battle to a finish. Victor Hugo wrote to Juarez: “America has two heroes, Lin¬ coln and thee—Lincoln, by whom slavery has died; The Lincoln and thee, by whom liberty has lived. IMexico has of Mexico been saved by a principle, by a man; Thou art that MAN.” The struggle was, in a sense, the continuation, on American soil, of the fight begun by Luther. It was, as the Mexican Avriters describe it, “the tragedy of a nation passing from her Cah’ary of national crucifixion to Tabor, the mount of her glorious trans¬ figuration.” This daring figure, Avhich contains no intentional irre\'erence to the Master, explains better than any other Avords can the surging emotions AA’hich stirred the hearts of the patriot sons Avho fought in the long and bloody strug¬ gle. But the great epic of that struggle is too long to be told here. Only the barest outlines can be glA'en. ubkoes of mexicax independence There are many books easih' accessible Avhere all may be read in detail. Suffice it to say that La Reforma, the Avar for the reform of the corrupt Church and for the giA'ing of free thought and free speech to the peo¬ ple, began and Avas continued Avith all the fury of religious Avar- OO fare. Juarez, on July 12, 1859, issued his famous decree nation- alizinjf all property of the Church. At that time the Church owned or controlled at lea.st one half and some say two thirds of the nation’s wealth, so that the decree was indeed a dev¬ astating thunderbolt in the midst of her fat-fed ease. What she lost then and afterward she has never regained, and so long as men like Diaz are in power she never will regain it. The battle of Calpulalpam (December, 1860), with the defeat of Miramon by the Juarez forces under General Ortega, marked the end of the old order of things. In addition to Rise and Fall the difficulties of internal administration Juarez un- of the Empire fortunately brought foreign war on the country by decreeing the suspension for two years of the pay¬ ments on the foreign loan. The act, wise and perhaps necessary in itself, was not managed with sufficient diplomacy, and on Oc¬ tober 31, 1861, the convention of London was entered into by England, France, and Spain, in which these powers agreed upon common action for the protection of their interests in Mexico. Fleets were at once dispatched across the ocean, and in De¬ cember a Spanish force occupied Vera Cruz. In February, 1862, England and Spain withdrew their forces upon becoming aware that Napoleon III was scheming to establish an empire, supported by France, in America. On the departure of the f'inglish and Spanish troops the French came out openly again.st the Mexican government, and were joined by all the forces of the Clerical Party, which was, of course, hostile to Juarez After a number of Inittles, in which the French were victorious, on June 10, 1863, Juarez and his cafiinet were compelled to flee from the capital. On July 10 an assembly of notables at Mexico pro¬ claimed Mexico an empire and tendered the crown to Maxi¬ milian, Archduke of Austria, and brother of the Emperor Francis Joseph. Maximilian accepted, and after having been Maximilian duly blessed by the pope he and Carlotta landed at Vera Cruz on May 29, 1864. On June 12 the sovereigns entered the capital, faking up their residence at Chapultepec, where they established a court with all the regalia and forms of a European dynasty. But of it all to-day nothing remains save the gilded and gorgeous state coach used by the imperial couple 33 and wliicli forms one of the objects of interest in the national miisenm. But Juarez still lived, the love of liberty was not dead, and the patriots still struogled on toward the realization of their high and holy mission. Maximilian’s throne was upheld not by the hands and hearts of Mexico, but ])y the l^ayonets of French soldiers, and when, in 1SG6, Napoleon III was notified by the United States that the further presence of those soldiers in Mexico could no longer be tolerated tlie eml was not far off. With the departure of the French troops Maximilian was left practically alone with tJarlotta and his band of clerical support¬ ers. But Juarez, reform, and liberty were rolling u]) in ever- increasing strength toward tliat tottering imperial throne. Dissensions, betrayals, and traitors lielped to luring swiftly on the inevitable catastroi)he, and after tiie siege and betrayal of t^ueretaro, where Maximilian laid made his last stand, the emperor was cajffured, given a military trial, and shot with his faithful generals, Mejia and IMiramon, on June 19, 18(37. In the meanwhile Carlotta had gone to Furope and had begged the pope to interfere in their behalf, but the astute old pontiff saw the portents in the air; he saw the civil w'ar ended, and he heard the voice of the government at IVashington speaking words of good cheer and hope to Benito Juarez and his cause; and so Borne then, as ever, was false and faithless to those whose star was declining. Boor Cailotta lost her reason and happily never knew of the tragic fate of her husband, and to-day still lives, a harndess lunatic in her splendid palace near Brus¬ sels. If the heroes of Le.xington tired the shot heard round the world, none the less were the shots fired at the execution of Maximilian heard and heeded all over Mexico and the world; for it was not a man who di('d, but an evil principle that ])er- ished; it was the shot that announced the end of papal and for¬ eign intervention in the affairs of IMexico; it was the end of a struggle that had lasted from 1520 until 1807. After four years of absence Juarez entered the city of Mexico on July 15, 1867, and began the reorganization of the republic. An election was held which confirmed him in the presidency, and he held the position until his death, in 1872. To-day in the Panteon of Han Fernando his ashes rest beneath a marble 24 cenotaph that represents the spirit of his country holding his head lovingly on her laj:). It is a great and beautiful work of Mexican art, worthy of the man whose memory it Reorganization commemorates. Lerdo de Tejada succeeded to the of the Republic office and held it until 1876, when he was succeeded by Porfirio Diaz, who became president in 1877. In 1880 Diaz was succeeded by his friend. General Manuel Gon¬ zalez, whose four years of inefficiency convinced Diaz of the necessity of governing in person. Since then he has continued to fill the presidential office. Hidalgo’s task was to liberate Mexico from Spain, the task of Juarez was to liberate her from Home, and to Diaz has fallen the labor of arousing his country from the sloth and ignorance bred and fostered by the centuries of vassalage under these twin tyrants. Only those who knew Mexico thirty jmars ago are capable of judging correctly of what has l)een wrought under the firm and almost despotic rule of Diaz, one of the greatest statesmen of the nineteenth cen¬ tury. Under his wise and fostering care have occurred the re¬ markable extension of railroads that has knit together the most distant portions of the republic, the great advance in textile in¬ dustries, the enormous development of mines, the practical re¬ building of the capital, soon to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world, and the e.xtension of the common-school system to all parts of the republic. In a personal interview granted the writer ho said: “ I realize that my country needs two things more especially—public schools to educate Ihe coming generation, and railroads in Two Great order that the people of the different sections may Needs travel, lose their pi’ovincial ideas, and become welded into one ])eople.” With the advent of Diaz the curtain fell u])on the years—centuries—of blood and struggle; the era of peace came at last, the period of tlevelopment and enlighten¬ ment. It was about this time that Protestantism, with an open Pil)le and the message of full and free salvation through faith in Jesus Clu'ist, came to the ancient land of the Aztecs, from which she had been so rigidly, mercilessly, and bloodily shut out dur¬ ing all the years. RAILROADS COMPLETED, CONSTRUCTING & PROJECTED Mexican Railway,.marked No. 1 Mexican Central,. Mexican National,. Sonora,. International,. Mexican Oriental,. Mexican Southern. Inieroceanic. Tehuantepec,. Yucatan. Hidalgo,. C.H.MOR.gAN MEXI SCALE OF Ml 0 so" 100 200 30 I 110 105 100 WHAT PROTESTANTISM FOUND IN MEXICO AFTER THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF ROMAN CATHOLIC DOMINION 1. She found a Churcl^ that had taken no pains at all to edu¬ cate the people over whom she had ruled for three centuries and a half. This assertion is proved by the illiteracy of Illiteracy all the Indians and the larger part of the me.stizo, or mixed, races. Although the printing press was at work in Mexico in 1539 and has been there ever since, the noble invention of Gutenberg and Fust has meant little or nothing to millions of Mexico’s population. Nearly all of the books printed were of a religious nature and intended for the use of the priests or the authorities. Even to this day a large proportion of the common people have no more idea of the meaning or value of the printed page than the peasantry of Europe had in the sixteenth century. To show the attitude of the Homan Church toward all that did not smell of Rome it will be suf¬ ficient to recall the notorious deeds of the first archbishop o^f Mexico, Fray Juan de Zumarraga. At the time of the conque.st by the Spaniards, and we know not for how long previously, IMexico was in possession of a picture writing, symbolical in meaning. The Mexican books were manufactured chiefly from the tough and lu.strous fibers of the maguey plant, although other materials, such as dressed deer skins, were also employed. These books contained the history, science, and philosophy of the nation. The explanation of those written characters would now be hailed with universal delight and might shed a bright illumination on the origin of a very important part of our popu¬ lation and tlie history of our race. Rut scholars and statesmen were doomed to be forever deprived of the materials for such an investigation. Literature of any kind but one was hateful in the eyes of those men who first came in contact with the Mexicans. It is the shame of an archbishop that adds another dark chapter to the long history of the destroyers of literature. Let the name of Don Juan de Zumarraga be marked as that of one of the darkeners of human intelligence. This prelate, about twenty years after the mournful destruction of priceless Arabian 28 luanu.script.s by Xinieiies, diligently collected all the Mexican manuscripts, especially from Tezcnco, the literary capital of the Mexican empire, piled them into one great heap in the A Literary market place of Tlatelolco, and reduced them all to Bonfire ashes. The rage of the destroyer did not end here, but ^ extended to all parts of the country. In this man¬ ner the records of IMe.xico’s past were hopelessly lost, and all our history must begin -svith the chronicles of the priests who came over with the conquering Spaniards. At the begin¬ ning of the nineteenth century Lizardi, known as “The Mexi¬ can Thinker,” was hounded by the Inquisition because of his liberal use of the printing press to help a little bit in the educa¬ tion of his fellow-citizens. 'I'lie Holy Church was far moi-e lenient to the ignorant and crime-stained robber than she was to the educated man who dared lift up his voice in favor of moral and intel- The Roman lectual progress, and as it was then so is it to-day. Church Opposed To-day the Roman Church in Mexico is the deadly to Progress and relentless foe of all that is meant by a free press, free thought and speech, and free public schools. She crushed and destroyed it so long as she had the power, and now that her fangs and teeth have been pulled she retains the same undying hatred for all that the printing press means to the people of Hngland, Cermany, and the United States. If she dared, if she had the ])ower, she would to-day drive every Protestant from Mexico, set up the Impiisition again, and plunge Mexico again into the darkness of the good old times (for the Church) of the sixteenth century. 2. M'hen Protestantism entered IMexico, thirty years ago, she found a Church that had signally failed to make even tolerable Christians out of the majority of Mexico’s millions. As Paganism already shown in the forim'r part of this booklet, the In¬ dians and common people were and still are Christian only in name. Supenstitions prevail; witchcraft is believed in and practiced to a great extent. The writer had an interview with a Spanish priest in the mountains of Puebla and was told the following anecdote: In another part of the Sierra the priest had noticed that although the Indians, as they went along the mountain trails, would always make a reverence in front of the numerous crosses on the hilltops and in the valleys, there was one large stone cross on a certain eminence before which the Indians would always kneel and pray. The priest’s curiosity was aroused, and he had the cross taken to pieces and found that it was hollow. Inside was a stuffed owl, the Indian symbol of the evil spirit, and the Indians really had been worshiping that pagan emblem and not the emblem of the Christian faith. Last year during a terrific storm not far from Puebla the light¬ ning struck the roof of the parish church in an Indian village. The bolt tore up the roof and, passing within, struck the main altar, containing a famous image of the Virgin. The electric fluid burned all the gaudy trappings from the image, but did not destroy the image for the following reason: The image was nothing more nor less than a pagan idol of stone, an ancient goddess of the old Aztecs that was dressed and gilded to represent the Virgin Mary. The Indians who knew and the priests who did not know this had left their offerings and burned their candles not before the image of the Virgin, but before an old pagan stone idol! A German priest who lived for some time in Puebla told me the following: He was called to confess a very Catholic sick Indian, and in his confession Idolaters the Indian told him that he had not been a true son of the Church, but with many others had secretly re¬ tained his fear and reverence for the gods of his ancestors. He said that in a certain cave in the mountains not far from Puebla the padre would find the idols which the Indians of his vil¬ lage went to worship secretly at cer¬ tain times of the year. The priest went there, found and took possession of several idols and pagan objects of worship and use, and brought them to the bishop of Puebla. The latter rvas very much shocked and mortified 30 A MEXICAN IDOL, YCCATAN and told this priest, Father H-e, of the College of the Prop¬ aganda of Rome, not to let it be known that almost within the sound of the cathedral l)ells of Puebla so-called sons of the Church were still practicing the idolatrous customs of four centuries ago. The priest, however, told me ju.st as I have written it. 3. Protestantism found here a church that had been unable during three hundred and fifty years to raise a large percentage of the people above the wigwam stage of life socially Degradation and morally. Although the Indians do not live in wigwams, they occupy miserable huts of sticks, stones, cornstalks, grass reeds, maguey leaves, or mud-pla.stered bam¬ boos that are ju.st as uncomfortable inside as a wigwam. They have no furniture, no lamp, no conveniences of any sort, not even a floor. The rain pours in through the roofs, the wind A TVIUCAI. INTEKIOK OF ME.XIOAN INDIAN IICT. WOMAN .MAKING TOKTILLAS ” and cold come in everywhere, and the only way to keep warm is by huddling about the fire built among some stones in the middle of the dirt floor. A great many filthy personal haliits prevail, such as strike the foreigner with horror. They are poor and degraded, ignorant, superstitious, and drunken. And yet they are just as Romanism made them during three and a half centuries of uninterrupted and absolute rule. If they are not the leqitimate 'product of Romanism, why are they not ? 31 4. Protestantism found here a Churcli, rich, powerful, and haughty, which had given to the people of Mexico but a hideous travesty of the religion of Jesus Christ, a mixture of Degenerate saint and Virgin worship and rank superstitions of Church paganism. You can take the denunciations of the scribes and Pharisees by Christ and apply them liter¬ ally to the great body of the Mexican prie.sts as they were thirty years ago. We know priests who are good and true men, but they are in an insignificant minority. The Mexican clergy is considered with so little favor in Rome that in all these years, during which Mexico has poured uncounted treasure into Spain and Rome, she has never yet been able to get a Mexican cardinal, and the prospects are that she will have to wait many years more for that eagerly desired honor. Under the very shadow of the Church of Guadalupe, the Mecca of Mexico, and on the holiest days of the Church calendar you will see more gambling, drunkenness, quarreling, and Holy Days fighting than anywhere else in Mexico. There the pick- are Days pockets and depraved women ply their trade, and any of Terror decent pagan, would either laugh or else hold up his hands in horror to be told that these were festivities in connection with the honoring of the nation’s patron saint, the Virgin of Guadalupe. All the holy days of the Church are times for extra policemen to be called for, when there is more drunken¬ ness of the most beastly sort on the part of both men and women, and when there are more cutting and stabbing affrays. Religion in Mexico among the common people has absolutely no connection with morality or cleanliness of body, mind, or lips. The language that floats up from the streets all through the Sunday afternoons here in Puebla, this city of the Levites of Mexico, is something to make one shudder. To lie, to steal, to break all the Commandments is at least condoned, if not al¬ lowed, so long as the person goes to mass and confession and pays the Church tithes. It would be considered a sin for one to work on a Church feast day, but not a sin to get drunk or to go to a bullfight on Sunday afternoon. A woman said here in Puebla that she would rather see her daughter an inmate of 32 a brothel, and yet a good Catholic, than to see her inside our Methodist church here. In all the books prepared for the religious instruction of tlie people the second commandment is omitted. It would l)c X.NTEKIOK OF THE CATUEDilAE Oi" PUEIU^A impossible for the priests to retain that commandment in the catechism and at the same time go on with the idolatrous image and idol worship that is everywhere prevalent. No'Second With the exception of a marble statue of Christ Commandment made in Italy by a real sculptor, and lately set up in the Cathedral of Puebla, I have never seen an image of Christ in Mexico that was not positively hideous and 33 revolting. He is always represented as the “Man of sorrows,” as the scourged, thorn-crowned, and crucified Chri.st, but never as the exultant and risen Lord of life and glory. Blood in streams and Irlack clots and cakes covers his forehead and face, and fills his eyes, mouth, and nostrils. Blood streams down his limbs. His eyes are always turned upward as though in unutterable agony, ftpon his brow is set a crown of terrible thorns, and U 2 :)on his shoulder is laid a great cross. Mexico knows nothing of the risen and glorified Saviour; hers is a dead or dying Christ. Her religion has in it nothing of the joy of the Psalms and Gospels, nothing of the melody and music and in¬ spiration of hymns so dear to the Prote.stants, nothing of the gladness of Christianity, nothing of the Holy Spirit. The type of Christianity that prevails here is gloomy, sad, narrow, and fanatical, where it is not licentiously lax. G, the depth of the abyss that separates these people from the tender, loving presence and knowledge of the I.ord Jesus Christ! O, the dreadful reckoning that the Church which has ruled here for centuries will be called upon to pay when the Judge of all the earth shall ask after these little ones, his breth¬ ren, in the la,st day! “ Pvaffles of Souls” (!) by means of which souls are raffled out of purgatory, are held in most of the churches each November. A ticket costs from six cents to twenty-five cents, and “ Raffles those purchasing tickets are entitled to enter the names of Souls ” of their departed loved ones in the raffle. If they should happen to get the capital prize they are sure that their friend or dear one will be rele.ased from the flames of pur¬ gatory. (The writer can supply copies in facsimile of such announcements of “A Grand Raffle of Souls” in Spanish and English for ten cents each.) 5. Protestantism found here a Clmrch calling itself the only true Christian Church, and yet the Ijitter and relentless foe of the Bible. By the decree of the Inquisition in the Opposition latter part of the eighteenth century the Bible was for- to the Bible bidden to the IMexican people in Avhatsoever tongue or edition. That decree has never been lifted, and until this year of 1904, from the time of the Spanish conquest in 1.520, 34 the only edition of any unniutilated part of the Holy Scriptures in the language of Mexico was the edition of the Gospel accord¬ ing to St- Luke as printed in the Aztec tongue on our Methodist Episcopal press in Mexico City in 1879. Away back in the six¬ teenth century a good and wise priest prepared a part of the epistles in the Zapoteca language for the use of that people. But he was punished for his too much zeal, and his book was placed under the ban. To-day that book is worth far more than its weight in gold. The first edition of the entire Bible in Spanish and Latin printed in Mexico appeared in 1833, more than three hundred years after the Roman Catholic conquest of Mexico. But the edition was in twenty-five volumes Avith an atlas, and cost o\"er $150, so that, so far as tlie common people AA^ere con¬ cerned, it might as Avell have never been printed. That Avas seventy-one years ago. It is the only edition of the Bible eA’er printed in Mexico. All that Mexico of to-day knoAA^s about the Bible is due to the splendid efforts of the American Bible Society since 1846 and the different missionary societies since 1869. Of course where the majority of the population is illit¬ erate a Bible Avould be a useless book, although it AAere jAi’inted in gold and crimson and bound in vellum set Avith precious jcAvels. A good friend of mine, noAV dead, AA'as coiiA^erted to God, not by the Bible, but by reading a copj^ of Uncle Tom’s Cabin in Spanish. At that time he had neA^er seen a “ Uncle Tom’s Bible nor had he heard of a Protestant. But Cabin ” a Means AA'hen he read about LTicle Tom and little EA’a a of Grace great hunger and thirst for God aAvoke in his soul, and he did not cease until he had found a Bible, found Chri.st as his SaAUOur and the singing joy of sah'ation. In a fanatical attack upon a Protestant congregation AA’here he Avas present lie lost three fingers of his right hand tliat he lifted to stay a machete stroke. 35 WHAT METHODISM HAS DONE IN MEXICO DURING THE PAST THIRTY YEARS ]\Iethodi.sm began her glorious work in Mexico with the coming of Rev. William Butler to that country in 1873. With the memory of his great work in India to strengthen his Founding of heart and faith he joyfully began the task of founding Our Mission the Methodist Church in the land covered with the ruins of ancient Aztec idolatry and with the splendid temples of the hoary system of semi-pagan Roman Catholicism. In Mexico City the property acquired by Dr. Butler was a part of the famous church and convent of San Francisco, which occupied the ancient site of Montezuma’s Gardens. After the secularization of the Church property, in 1857, the convent passed into secular hands. For some years the large interior court had served the purposes of the Chiarini Circus. The fol¬ lowing is a notice printed in one of the Church organs when it became knovm that the hated Protestants had secured the property: “ EACH TIME AVORSE “ It is said that the Protestants have purchased the Chiarini Circus. As is known, this place is formed out of a patio of the Monastery of San Francisco. You will wander lamenting around that place which was sanctified by the presence of the sons of St. Francis and which has been profaned in a descending scale by rope dancing, immoral shows, licentious balls, and finally by the ceremonies of a dissenting sect which is the enemy of the Church. It is a real profanation, but it cannot be reme¬ died, for power protects the profaners.” That one time convent and circus is now the center of our Methodist work in Mexico, a stately and beautiful edifice in the business heart of the capital city, and where we have housed two congregations, two pastors and our Conference treasurer, our splendid printing plant, and our book depository and offices of El Abogado Cristiano. Our first property in Puebla, the ecclesiastical center of Catholicism in Mexico, was formerly a part of the Inquisition 3G buildings of the Dominicans. In the immense walls were found the skeletons of victims who had been icalled tip alive there by the inquisitors Later on that property was sold, and we secured a much more favorable site in one of the best parts of the Puebla city, where we now have the schools of the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society and the Mexican Methodist Institute and a beautiful brick church. AVhile this church was building the fanatical Catholics tried to burn it down, and once Dr. Graver was fired at from an opposite roof as he sat writing in his of¬ fice. Dur Puebla property was also formerly the site of a large and wealthy nunnery, and visitors are still shown the great stone fountain and thick-arched rooms that remain from the convent days. Those early days were days of trial and triumph. But God sent men Pioneer and women who were Heroes of heroic fiber. The names of Drees,Butler, Graver, Siberts, Smith, Leiiders. and Palacios will always be held in loving memory by those who know aught of the early history of Metho¬ dism in Mexico. In Pachuca, the great mining center, and the home of some five hundred English miners and their families, we have a magnificent property. Our church there is called the Pachuca Protestant Cathedral of Mexico, and the building of the Woman’s Foreign ^Missionary Society adjoining is the home of several hundreds of day and boarding pupils who are 1‘LLPIT OF CnUKCII OF S.VN FJtANCISCO, TL.AXC.\L.\ 37 being trained for Christian Mexican womanhood It is difficult to overestimate the influence for good that is being exercised on the future of Mexico by the wmrk among the girls and young women in our four great Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society METIIOIUST EI'ISCOPAL CIIUKCII, PACIIUCA Market dealers in foreground scliools in Guanajuato, Mexico, Puebla, and Pachuca. We are educating briglit girls to become the future Christian wives and mothers in this land. So well known and appreciated is our work in this line that all of our schools are crowded — overcrowded. 88 ]iut while the work is so interesting, profitable, and progress¬ ive in the larger cities, it is out in the smaller villages that pos¬ sibly our work for Christ is more apparent. I will San Felipe give a few concrete examples : Teotlalzingo This is a village of full-blooded Aztecs, about three hours from Puebla by rail and horseback. You will notice how the name is a combination of Roman Catholicism and ancient paganism; for “San Felipe” means “Saint Philip,” while “Teotlalzingo” means “the land of the gods.” This com¬ bination of Romanism and paganism in the names of towns and places is very common throughout Mexico. In this place we have had work established for several years. Once the little building that then served as schoolhouse and church was attacked by fanatics, instigated by the priest, and several shots were fired through the wooden door. I saw the bullet holes. Five years ago one of the graduates of our theo¬ logical school in Puebla, a full-blooded Aztec, was sent out to that place as pastor. When he arrived he found things in a Ijad way. The few Methodists were hated and persecuted, and people would spit at them and cross themselves when they met our people in the streets. I secured funds from a friend in the United States with which to buy a fine piece of land A Working with a good roomy adobe building on it in the very People center of the town, directly opposite the parish church. Through the same kind friend a nice organ was secured, the Indian congregation paying the $75 freight and customs charges. The pastor was organist. He preached the Gospel, had conversions and accessions. He opened a day school, and began to make his influence felt. The Indians said, “We ought to have a floor in our church.” Out of their grinding poverty they gathered enough money to put down a nice brick floor. Then they said, “ We must have some good seats instead of these old broken and unsightly benches.” Again they began scraping and saving and were able to have one of their carpen¬ ters make .sixty good strong chairs. Then they said, “We are ashamed of this old lamp; we must have something better.” So they all worked together, and in a few months had enough with which to purchase two large hanging lamps of the best make. 39 Again they said, “We must have a clock.” More saving and gathering, and a fine large American wall clock was procured. Then they said, “ Now we must have a pulpit and an altar for our pastor.” The Methodi.st carpenter went to work, and in a short time they had a nicely finished altar and pulpit. I secured a good pulpit Bible for them from the American Bible Society, whose agent kindly donated it to them. All these months the church and school were growing. The prejudice was dying out. The pastor was faithful, vigilant, and M.VKING TUE MEXICAN “ UKAWN WOUK ” sensible, and, above all, he was a full-blooded Indian, and preached and lield prayer meetings in the Aztec tongue. One of the most faithful members is a very old Indian woman A Faithful who cannot talk Spanish. M’hen I was there the last Pastor time she could only take me by the hand and say, “Jesus, hermano, Jesus” (“Jesus, brother, Jesus”). Little liy little victory came. The leading Catholic of the town 40 was converted, he who used to be the master of ceremonies in the Roman Catholic church there. The teacher of the govern¬ ment school became one of ours, as also the leading mer- A Growing chant and the jefe 'politico, or mayor. Church To-day Methodism runs that town. The church has been twice enlarged, and within a few weeks will cele¬ brate the third extension of its walls, when it will be our largest and most completely furnished native church. The congregation averages over one hundred, and the day school has over sixty- five pupils. There is a flourishing Sunday school and Epworth League. They are now anxious to have a bell for their beauti¬ ful little church. If some one who reads these lines San Salvador could secure them a bell how thankful they would be! Tzompantepec This is another Indian town, not far from the ancient, historic city of Tlaxcala. Here we have a band of faithful Indian Methodists who are very poor and have been fiercely persecuted, several of them having been imprisoned by means of the efforts of the hostile priest. The la.st time I visited that place they came out to welcome our party with a l^and of music. The following anecdote will show that these Indians really are Christians, fearing God and keep¬ ing his commandments : Some time ago the local authori¬ ties decided that a new .stone l)ridge must be built across a little arroyo near the village. They ordered all the men to be on hand the following Sunday to work on the l)ridge. The men who were members of our congregation refused to work on Sunday, and although they were in the minority, offered to build one half of the bridge if allowed to do so on week days. Their request was finally granted. On the Sunday the Roman Catholic men and their wives were on hand, and also great quantities of pulque and native whisky. They made a regular feast out of their part of the bridge-building. Contrasts in and it was but a drunken piece of work at the best. Bridge-building On Monday our Methodists went to work on their half, and as we have there the best stone masons in the town their part of the work was done in a creditable and workmanlike manner. There it stands to this day, huilded in stone, so that every passer-by may see and know—the difference he- 41 tween drunken Roman Catholicism aoul sober Methodism. These truly faithful and loyal Methodists are in great need of money with which to buy a good piece of land and erect a modest Tuxtepec, church and school building. Oaxaca Here is another sample of what the Gospel is doing among our Mexican Indians. Only a few years ago this important little city down in the tropics of the State of Oaxaca was, for the first time, visited by a Protestant mission¬ ary in the person of our lamented Brother L. C. Smith. He held meet¬ ings in the home of a liberal Indian. He sung—and how he could sing !— the songs of Zion in Spanish, prayed, preached, and told them what Prot¬ estantism stood for. They liked it, and wanted more. But it was not until three years later that we could send them a pastor, a former student in our Puebla Theological School. He was active, energetic, full of zeal, and wonderfully baptized not only with power from on high, but also with common sense. He visited, talked, explained, prayed, and preached. The mission helped him all it could; the presiding elder raised money in the United States to help the people who were helping them¬ selves. The wealthiest man in the town, an Italian, and one who was educated for the priesthood, came over to our side with money and sympathy. .■\ TYPE OF lNni.\N GIRLS IN O.VXACA 42 The priest, who was an adulterous drunkard, arose in fear and wrath and tried to stop our work, but all in vain. He was chal¬ lenged to public debate by our young pastor. The debate was held in the theater, and the priest was badly worsted. The interest increased. Land was secured, and a building of bamboo with grass roof erected as a church. A school was opened. To¬ day we have there the chief place in the religious and educational life of that people. Our congregation is large and increasing. The day school has over one hundred and fifty pupils, with two teachers. The brother of the pastor is now in our Puebla school, preparing himself more thoroughly for the work in and about Tuxtepec. He longs to return to that field of labor where he was assistant pastor for two years. Does it not warm your heart to read of such people as these? These descendants of the ancient pagan tribes, who have been reared in the gloom of .Mexican Koman Catholic paganism, are coming to Christ, to the light and joy of the Gospel. Is it not a privilege to be per¬ mitted to help people who are doing all they can to help Zachila, themselves? Oaxaca This is a town of Zapotec Indians where our work has been established several years. This was the residence of the last native king of the Zapotec tribe. Six brothers, the last lineal descendants of that king, were members of our church. The youngest was over sixty, the eldest almost ninety. But one remains, and he is eighty years of age. How it thrilled our hearts to hear them in class meeting tell of their love for Christ and of their gladness because of the coming of the missionaries to them! In this town a wealthy Indian who had abjured llomanism became very sick. The priest forced his way to the man’s bedside and threatened him in the name of the Church if he should not leave a good sum of money to the Church. But the man refused to be intimidated by the priest’s menaces. After he was dead the priest came into Priestly the 7nidst of the mourning family, turned down the shroud Revenge from the still form, and scourged teie de.\d body, in re¬ venge FOR HIS Dis,4i>i>oiNTED CUPIDITY! The authorities heard of the infamous and barbarous deed, and the priest was jailed and fined a good round sum. 43 OUR GREATEST AGENCIES AND OUR GREATEST NEEDS Wliile the preaching of the Word must ever remain the great agency for bringing the Gospel directly home to Sowing the people, yet we Ijelieve that a most important place the Word must be assigned to our printing press, our schools and colleges, and our medical work. All these years have been a time of preparation, of plowing and sowing, of demonstrating to the people our right to be here. But from now on we look for the beginning of the Beginning of harvest, for we have been here ju.st one generation, the Harvest long enough to educate young men and women who are born in Protestant homes. To-day our pupils are in the majority from Methodist homes. They are to be our Methodi.st teachers, preachers, wives, hu.slnands, and business men. They are to be the leaven that shall leaven Me.xico far and near. A U nj ow' larger schools are full and crowded. We need money. Ah! we so much need money for our schools in Puebla, Mexico City, Pachuca, Miraflores, Guanajuato, and Queretaro. The Crowded best claiss of people are now sending us their Ijoys and Schools girls, jjeople who are not all Protestants, but who are not Catholics. They are the liberals, who have come to see that our methods of instruction are the best in all ways for their children. As for our press, we are printing on an average over five million pages of evangelical literature each year. We are doing much, have done great things, and could do so much more if we had the money. We need $50,000 (gold) for each of our schools in Puebla and Queretaro to make out of them what God is calling us to make them, and we need at the very least $25,000 (gold) for our press in Mexico. There are so many good books that we should translate into Spanish and print. For are you aware of the fact that the literature of the Gospel, with all of its thousand branches, has never been put into Spanish ? The Spanish language is the richest, mo.st flexible, and most expressive of European languages. 44 But Spanish literature is the poorest there is to-day in Christian, evangelical, twentieth-century writings on most lines. S23ain and the Spanish tongue were petrified in the seventeenth A Petrified centur 3 ^ The thought of the Spanish-speaking races is Literature in a fossil state. And it is our great and God-given duty to put into Sj^anish tlie very Ijest and choicest books that we find among our literaiy Christian lieritage of the cen- • OKADUATING CLASS OF 1005, NCKSES’ TKAININO SCHOOL, OUANA.TUATO SANITAKIITM turies. We have an able local committee. Is there not some one who is willing to give us $500 with which to jirint a gener¬ ous edition in Spanish of some standard work of the Church that would be a blessing to all Spanish-speaking America? (), the influence of our Methodist printing press in Me.xico, scat¬ tering its millions of leaves of healing broadcast each year ! 4.5 Our Christian Advocates, our Berean Leaves, our tracts, and Hymn Books—how they go forth to bless and brighten the sad hearts about us! Can you help us, much or little, or “ He Who any at all? If you can, then do it quickly; for we Gives Quickly need it now. Just now we are on the eve of a great Gives Twice” revival in Mexico, and every cent, dime, and dollar that you can contribute will help that much toward making this Aztec, pagan, Roman Catholic land one of the many kingdoms of our Lord Jesus Christ. As for our medical work, it is not possible to overestimate its importance. It has opened up a way of usefulness that w'ould otherwise have remained closed to us forever. The Medical Work statistics furnished by Dr. Salmans, of Guanajuato,will show what this part of our work means and needs. Mexico is our nearest foreign missionary field. More and more the bonds of trade and travel knit these two great republics together. Both are republics ; both have passed through Sister strife and sorrow; both are rich in history of brave and Republics true men. We of the land of Franklin and Washington owe it to the land of Hidalgo and Juarez, because of all that happened between the years 1830-1848, to give to the people of Mexico the best we have in the way of truth, life, and light. The Mexican people so love the name and fame of Washington that they will not allotv any saloon to put that honored Washington name over its doors! Does that not put to shame Revered many cities in the United States, where a “ Washing¬ ton Saloon ” is a common thing ? Our work during the past thirty years has been one of break¬ ing ground, sowing seed, and getting started. If it required four centuries and more, or say twelve to fourteen generations, to produce the present conditions of things morally, intellect¬ ually, and spiritually in Mexico, we cannot hope to undo all that sad and dreadful condition in a few years. It will take many years. Our work is indeed like the leaven, that works although hidden away in the midst of the great mass. It is harder to bring these semi-pagan Christians to Christ than it would be if they were just pagans, pure and simple. 4C METHODIST GIKDS’ SCHOOL, PACHCCA Yet slowly and surely our influence is l^eginning to tell The influence of the Protestant printing press is incalculable. Tens and even hundreds of millions of pages have The Printing l)een printed that have gone out as leaves of healing Press through many parts of Mexico. The Sun of Right¬ eousness has risen over Mexico with healing in his wings. Through the Tract Society, the Sunday School Union, and the American Bible Society hundreds of thousands of Bil)les and tracts in Spanish have been put into the homes of the people. Through the faithful preaching of a great company of preachers, teachers, and missionaries tens of thousands have heard the message of Jesus’s love. Our day schools and colleges have educated scores and hun¬ dreds of boys and girls and sent them forth to be the Gospel salt of many circles in Mexico. (Jur Christian homes and Education our Christian lives have been ever-potent and ever¬ present factors in the education and uplifting of those al)Out us. First the period of bigoted hatred and fanatical persecution, until the soil of Mexico was wet with the blood of Protestant martyrs. Then the period of the cessation of violent persecution, to be followed by the longer period of impotent hate, silent, fierce, and malevolent. Afterward the time when Ave were looked upon with less of deadly hostility by the com¬ mon people, as they began to feel some of the good results of our being among them. There is no doubt that our medical Avork and our medical missionaries have had much to do with bringing about that change of sentiment toAvard us in many places. The Medical Work common people found that Protestantism had come to heal and help them physically, intellectually, and spiritually. And so the active opposition has died aAvay A^ery largely. There are no more such bloody and murderous out¬ breaks as Ave once kneAV. We are noAV tolerated and eA’en re¬ spected. We are gaining ground in the cities and more especially in the farming districts and in the villages. Our congregations are increasing in numbers and size. Our schools cannot ac¬ commodate the boys and girls from good families Avho are ask¬ ing for adtnission. Our printing presses are taxed beyond their 48 ulnio.st capacity. New openings for teachers and ])reachers are beheld on every hand. In our own Methodist Church we could employ two dozen new teachers and preachers this year in new work if we had the means with which to open up the new work that confronts us. And this is largely the case with all the mis¬ sionary bodies at work here. The harvest has been coming slowly, but now it is beginning to ripen fast. Alas, for the lack of reapers! Who will help—who will help in this latest and best conquest of Mexico for Christ? Our two great schools in Puebla and Queretaro are in great need of money with which to enlarge our quarters. Our press THE FACULTY OF THE METHODIST MEXICAN INSTITUTE, FUEHLA in Mexico City should liave .1f2.5,n00 (gold) to make it what it ought to be in view of the grand prospects that arc be¬ fore us. () friends who read these words, if you could but see as we see and feel as we feel the nakedness, ignorance, poverty, and sin of these people, you vould surely help us e\’en more than you have. If you could but see how all our workers, both Mexi¬ cans and Americans, give so generously and freely toAvard this work, it could not fail to impress you. I know that figures are but dry reading, and yet I submit for your information Avith regard to the Avork of the Methodist Ifpiscopal Church in Mexico to-day the folloAA'ing: 41 ) STATISTICS Number of Congregutions. 143 Number of Probationers. 3,008 Number of Members. 2,920 Number of Day School Pupils. 4,000 Number of Sunday School Scholars. 3,000 Number of Adherents, including Members and Probationers (about). 12,000 Our properties have reached a valuation of $776,050 (Mex¬ ican silver). If we were to give them all the present market value we should be able to say nearly $1,000,000. Our proper¬ ties in Mexico City alone, including the Woman’s Foreign Mis¬ sionary Society property, are worth nearly half a million dollars. In Puebla, Pachuca, Guanajuato, Queretaro, Orizaba, and Oaxaca we have splendid and strategically located properties. Our mission raised for self-support in 1903, including the med¬ ical work, $62,137 (Mexican silver). “The medical work in Guanajuato began thirteen 3 "ears ago in the hands of a presiding elder who spent spare hours at it. It has since that time occupied the hands ami Statistics of hearts of eight other doctors, six of whom are Medical Work still ‘ at it.’ It has spread into several cities. In the capital chy' itself the work now consists of a sanitarium and hospital and a school for nurses, the first in modern form in this country, and in which are working to-day the three doctors (Levi B. Salmans, Pablo del Kio, and Charles W. Foster), the superintendent of nurses (Miss Pauline M. Pvhodes), and ten Mexican nurses, nine of them in training and oiie who has already graduated. A large dis¬ pensary work is also being carried on by the hospital force. The institution has been incorporated by the federal govern¬ ment Avith the right of mortmain, a right denied to eA^eiybody in this country for more than forty A'cars. In order to put the institution on a fully self-supporting basis and render it as permanent as possible, the Good Samaritan Association, since its incorporation, has undertaken the building of an ex- 50 DK. M. G. CAKTWBIGUT AT WOIIK IN HER DISPENSARY FOR THE POOR SICK, LEON tensive new wing, with donations raised on the ground, and the installation of a full outfit of such machinery and apparatus as are usual in the best sanitariums for the use of hydrotherapy, phototheraiDy, therniotherapy, electrotherapy, vibrotherapy, and massage. Over $4,000 has already been invested in this wa}^, and the construction of the new wing is being urged, as not all this apparatus can be installed in the former parts of the edifice. Some idea of the work done is shown by the following statement for the year 1903: Visits to homes, 1,GS4; office consultations, 4,555; surgical and medical treat¬ ments given, 9,374; operations, 241; different medicines or prescriptions furnished patients, 13,834; different patients MEMHEKS OF TUE MEXICO ANNV.^E CONFERENCE OF 1904 served, 1,982. The other three doctors are at present working in Silao and Leon.” (Data furnished by L. 11. Salmans, M.D.) We have 44 Epworth Leagues with almo.st 2,000 members, the exact figures being 1,993. There are to-day 13 or 14 Prot¬ estant societies w’orking in Mexico, with about 700 congrega¬ tions, 22,700 members, and about 75,000 adherents, including members. There are 210 young people’s societies, with 0,943 members; there are 10,991 pupils in their day schools and 13,502 in their Sunday schools. Mexico is beginning to stretch forth her hands towaird God. We have a grand and God- directed Diaz at the helm of the nation, and he is our friend. Our schools, our churches, and our people are full of promise and liope for the future. We do all we can, although at times our hearts are near breaking. We look upward to the signs of promise above our tear and toil-wet furrow. Can you not help us a little more to win this people for Jesus, until the radi¬ ance from the open Bible shall be reflected from all tlie blue lakes and silver peaks of Mexico? SOME GOOD WORKS ON MEXICO Butler (Willi.\m), Mexico in Transition. Eaton & Mains. Brown (H. W.), Latin America. Fleming H. llevell Com¬ pany. Gooch (F. C.f, Face to Face with the Mexicans. Ford, Howard & Hurlbut. Lummis (C. F.), The Awakening of a Nation. Harpers. Prescott’s Conquest of Mexico. Calderon de la Barca. Life in Mexico. (A great work.) Oder (F. A.) Travels in Mexico. Estes & Lauriat. 53 >