Norwich Bulletin Newspaper, May 30, 1914, Page 8

s o R 55 AR R What Lies Between . the Seacoast City and the Mexican Capital. What Our Army Will See if ' It Marches Inland — Wonderful fcenery and Many Historic Spots — ‘A Journey by Rail to Mexico City. F our army In Mexico ~ marches from Vera Cruz to Mexico City, 1t will Journey from the sea to a plateau; from a/tropic to a temperate zone cli- mate; through all the varieties of vegetation . imagi- nable; past villages with aboriginal cus- toms, towns with Spanish architecture and treditions, points of historical inter- est from the conquest to the prgsent day: monuments of a long-forgotten clviliza- tlon and landmarks of modern industrial lite. * * * Just outside Vera Cruz, Laguna de Co-‘ eos—cocoanut lagoon—reminds ome of the surrender of the Mexican troops to Gen. Scott after the bombardment of 1847 And beyond those palms, those red-tile roofs, those little native sugar mills, lies Soledad, where the Spanish commander; Gen. Prim, signed the peacé treaty with the Mexicans ending the war, which was the brief prelude to the tragedy of the Emperor Maximilian. Crossing the Jamapa river, the Ameri- can soldfer would get his first glimpse of the tremendous gorge which the railway =a ‘marvel of engineering—had to con- quer; the gorge is spanned by a bridge more than 400 feet long. The origin of this remarkable railway, the first one in Mexico, Soes. back to 1864, when a stretch of about ten miles, from Vera Cruz to Tejeria, was placed in operation. The same year. a section Of about two and a half miles was finished at the other end, between Mexico City Back was ioo becinaing ar fhe stuncodoss was the of the stupendous rallway development 6f the republic with- in the last sixty years. It antedated by about a year the era of reform which brought to the front the great Benito Juarez, patron and mentor of Porfirio Diaz. Before 1854 all means of communication were by wagon roads and bridle paths, and in some instances stage coaches or the old-fashioned litters. * * ¥ During the French interventlon which placed the unfortunate Austrian archduke ‘on the imperial throne of the Aztecs. the railroad was carried from Tejerla to Paso del Macho, a distance of some forty-eight miles. Paso del Macho—Mule pass—is as yet an unknown name. Possibly it ‘will not remain so. It is a mountain pass having en altitude of 1,500 feet, and it i here that the tropical atmosphere and scenery begin. to disappear. It is reached suggestive of a strong strategic About the time of thé French inter- vention -the construetion of the line was taken in band by an Bnglish syndicate, which .completed the entire section in ten years, the inauguration taking place January 1, shortly after the death of the great Juarez. With the ad- vent of Porfirlo Dicz to the presidency began the era of raiiroad development. On the 16th of September, 1910, the cen- tennial of Mexican independence, there wqr:‘}luppenuun 10 less than 15,260 miles of roads, Paso de] Macho marks the beginning . of the ‘ascent to the Mexican plateau. Numerous bridges of varying length are .and. grades of 4 per cent and Woflnm by the powerful en- gines. “THe rank vegetation of the coast Jands i a memory, and the gigantic secu- lar trees with dazzling flowers give place to ds and red coffee berries. The_traveler.i§ now in the coffée region, one of ithe ‘most famous in the world, nearly %000 feet above the sea—Cordoba! The train ‘is besieged by Indian women with their banboos carrying tube roses, their mangoes, oranges, lemons and the deliclous short, thick bananas called dominicos, never seen in a northern market. * * * Cordoba, founded in 1618 by order of the Spanish viceroy, Don Diego Fernan- des de Cordoba, has all the charm of a corner of old Spain. With its wooden Moorish baiconies, its heavy, nail-studded | doors, barred windows, red tiles and de- lightful glimpses of patibs within, the town is as typically Andalusian as could be imagined, ar gathered from its abso- lute innocence of sanitary arrangements. Peacocks, parrots and the inevitable Mexican crow—zopilote, that useful bird which relieves the mupicipality of a “street-cleaning department —are very much in evidence; also cobblestones, grass in the streets and donkeys brows- about. 3 mfismuemy. Cordoba is Interesting as the town where the treaty was signed be- for O'Donohue) and Iturbide, who later pro- claimed bimself ror of Mexico and ecame to an end re the firing squad, naonfl;l‘c the independence of Mexico, Cordoba.'is famed for its. coffee, culti- on numerous prospering haclendas viclnity. ‘There are also very ex- fields ofd l‘llll"—:fl-nei g;meap%e:s bananas, and espec obacco. The oss hfiodwued frontManila 1n-A770, P Rl s Awaitinr s et miles distant, provides a curious con- trast with the Spanish atmosphere of the town. These Indians, though they have lived for centuries ‘close to Spanish- speaking people, refuse not only to speak even to understand Spanish, and have Gen. Augustin sl ! 2 up_their dialect and ‘traditions characteristic jealousy, although are very devout Catholics. is after leaving Cordoba that the « Uesss pears. There are passes and points and curves on this line that make a man draw in his breath, and not only in admirction. Just bevond Cordoba the railroad creeps cautiously down the Metlac ravine and over the bridge spanning the tropical Metlac torrent, a piece of engineering that is considered wonderful even today. The bridge is 330 feet long and curves Lat a radius of 325 feet, with a striking horseshoe effect, on a grade of at least 2 ‘per cent, and some ninety feet above the river. It is considered beyond doubt the most dangerous point of this dan- gerous line. The outlook is wonderful, what with trees covered with many-colored blos- soms, varieties of palms, creepers of all kinds, jungle and, far below, the tropi- cal valley. After passing through numer- ous short tunnels, the train finaliy enters upon a widening plateau studded with native huts,. which have for a long time been absent from the landsdape. The coffee zone covers the entire tion from Paso del Macho, w) feet above sea-level to O; sec- ich is 1.500 aba, 1,000 feet above. Sumidero, midway between Cor- doba rizaba, is the heart of the coffee district. Coffee was introduced into Mexico in a roundab. ered in southern Arabia in the thirteenth centruy, it was first tried in west rope in the seventeenth century, about that time taken to Java by traders. From Java it was reintroduced, as a plant, to Holland, and in 1720 a French naval officer c: i from that plant first ex botanical gardens of Amsterda it fashion. Discov- tinique, in the West Indies, whence it gradually spread over the new world. At 4,000 feet Orizaba is reached. This is one of the most picturesque towns in all Mexico. It stands on the site of a very- anclent aboriginal &ettlement which was conquered by the ‘invading Aztecs Some sixty vears before the Spaniards under Cortes appeared in Mexico. - . o Its name is derived from one of the many streams wate power of this stream was utili: Spaniards to run a flour miil a§ early as 1553—more than half a century before the pilgrims landed at Plymouth. Today. the waters of Orizaba and vicin- ity, notably those of the Rio Blanco, are utilized for the production of textiles, the {mills. being. equipped with the latest machinery and operated by electric power from the falls. The colton mills for which Orizaba is famous are among the largest in the republic. - Orizaba, thanks to its delightful climate and its many produgts of both the tropic am]_ temperate zones, its picturesque sit- uation and easy access both from the coast and the plateau, has always been a | favorite resort where people from the ca {ital and Puebla meet those from Vera Cruz and far-off Yucatan. There are some interestin and a few monuments, notably that erect- ed to%the memory of the “defenders of | the fatherland”—defensores de la patria— dedicated to the sons of the state of Vera Cruz, the inscription says, who defended the country and Orizaba against the American invaders in 1847 and 184S, It is a marble statue made in Ita e bears the quot . The | old churches y. Ove on from Lucanus, causea Deis plaguit sed victa ato which might convey a special significance to President Huerta. Orizaba's market place reflects the beauty and fertility of its surroundings. There oue finds every variety of frui vegetables and flowers. Mangos pine- apples, bananas, melons, oranges, to- matoes, cocoanuts. mameys, lilies, roses, gardenias and many others. Excursions in the environs are very at- tractive. There is a tramcar service to the suburbs and many pleasant horse- back rides may be undertaken fo nearby haciendas. Thete is a battlefield at Tro el Borrego. where the French Zou: in 1862 fought the Mexican troops. * * * Between Orizaba and Boca del Monte, at, the entrance to the Mexican high plateau, some of the most grandiose scen- ery and the most fearful and wonderful engineering feats of the journey are en- 1 countered. Just beyond the deotton mills there is a somber and ill-boding rayine, aptly called “el Infiernillo”—the little hell— chasms and precipices would have re- Jjoiced the heart of Dante. By this time all tropical and semi-tropical scenery and temperature are a thing of the past. There is a decided chill in the air. At Maltrata the altitude is already 5.544 feet. ~Here the magnificent cone of the Orizaba is seen to dominate the land- scape. This Pico de Orizaba is the ac- knowiedged sovereign of the Mex! mountains. It is not well known orx as picturesque “as Popocatapetl, or as ro- mantic as the “White Woman” (Iztauci- huatl),- but it is “the_grand sentinel of Mexico,” visible at unexpected turns all the way up from the ast. It is interesting to recali that the first ascent was made by a p: of Ameri- can officers of Gen. Scott's forces in 1848, Their feat was doubted until three years later, when a French traveler also ciimb- ed to the top and found what remained of the ~American flag planted there by the officers, with the date 1848 cut in the flagstaff. ‘There is now an irom cross on the spot, hose the most sacred of ancient Mesican tra- ditions. It ‘was ‘thert that the_body of Quetzalcoatl, the Mexican air god, after stupendous beauty of the scemery ap-| i i The top of Mount Orizaba holds one of | 21 1oW, lived in constant dread o i flendish gang of foreign cutthroats/ Their Baxnawas Anp COTT TE CULTIVATION, T¥Pican OF CORDOBA REGION his departure from Mexico and death by the sea_was devoured by a fire from heav- en. 11is spirit ascended to heaven In th hape of a peacock, and the Asztecs believed that he would some day return to Mexico. * * % It is thought that this Quetzalcoatl, v° - acted as the teacher and guide to the Indians, was really a white man who had been shipwrecked on the Mexican coast. Climbing up beyond Maltrata over end- less curves, one gets a unique view of what one has left hehind and below. More than once fully half a dozen tracks e visible beneath, with bridge after bridge. is negotiated the heaviest grade on the road, the 5 per cent one at Alta Luz, which is When clear unrivaled. Crossing Winner's bridge ‘oveg a deep gorge is one of the thrilling moments of the journey, when one suddenly looks down 2,000 feet. At last Boca del Monte appears and the traveler is on the Mexi- can high plateau. He is already 250 feet higher than the City of Mexico and still climbing. It seems almost incredible that he left the tropics that same morning. On the left rises the lonely peak of Malinche, 14,740 feet, covered with snow. Here you find corn afid wheat fields, and especially apple orchards, for which this section is celebrated. The pulque district is then entered. Mex- ico is the land of cactus plants, and of these the most conspicuous is the ma- guey, which name covers some thirty- odd species found on the plateau. The literally in the clouds. the panorama here is PAaNORAMIC TowN ON RAILROATD ATaMovs REsoRa Omlfi.moc RIDGE T ORN THE RAILRQAD- best known is the American aloe, which vields the pulque liguor that enters so deeply into Mexican customs and life. In Aztec times the maguey leaves were made into paper, much like the Egyptian papyrus. But even then pulque tippling was a national vice. It can be traced back to the Toltecs, from whom - the Aztecs inherited it when they conquered the valley of Mexico. There is an old tradition symbolizing the downfall of the |and = lquantities. The pulque Toltec empire through pulque. Mo3r DANGEROUS POINTS 3 AMONG TBE LARGEST B o a— The Spaniards were convinced - that pulque was responsible for the degener- acy found among the Indians and many a vice-regal edict was intended to stamp it out. A Mexican pulqueria, saloon, &s one of the most repulsive things' to be seen anywhere on this con- tinent. The intoxicating properties of pulque are very small, but its cheapness makes it possible for the natives, men omen, to swallow it in colossal roblem of the “Votes for Women!” “Of all the per- sonal experiences Col. Roosevelt de- lights to recount— and I've heard him recount many,” sald Representative Chandler of New York, “I think the one he most en- Joys telling is this: “‘When 1 was ranching out west,” he said, ‘there was | a cowt'zoy' Wlthl . ‘whom I spent much time on the range, enduring hunger and thirst or sharing our food and blan- ~ any legal steps against them for fear of their vengence. “One night as Hester and a gang of them were returning from a wholesale murder their wagon broke down near the home of my uncle, a farmer. They roused him up without any pretense of conceal- ment of their identity, and commanded him to get tools and assist them to_re- pair. I remember his saying that when he went out he did not expect to return, nor did any of the family expect to see him return alive. The fiends would often- times murder from sheer love of it. “But the nerve of one lone man worked their ruin. A young Irishman, McPar- land, joined the gang, and. for two years, bored into their secréts. Then he sprung kets together. Some time after my re- turn east I got a letter from him, say- ing he was in deep trouble—in jail, in fact—and begging me to help him. That wouldn't be hard, he assured me, “for,” he wrote, “they've jugged me for shoot- ing a woman, but she was only my ife.” * Y ’Ana the colonel,” fponcluded Mr. Chand- ler, “never falled to' chuckle heartily as he recalled that cowboy’s grotesque ar- gument for his legal rights.” Single-Handed. “No one can to- day reali~s the ab- solute “reign of terror that, a gen- eration ago, hung over my section of country like a pall,” sald Repre- sentative Lesher of the sixteenth Pennsylvania dis- trict. “Men = who recall it still speak of it with a shud- der. It was the Mollie M a g u ires. Every one, high that the trap, sent the leaders to the gallows or the penitentiary_for life and wiped them out. But it ruined his health “He is living in Denver today, and was sctive in the Harry Orchard case.” A Political Puzzle To be beaten’ in every single coun- ty In your disfrict, and then to be triumphantly elect- ed—who says the age of mircales has passed! For this was the paradoxical feat accomplished at the last congres- sional election by Representative Fordney of Sagi- naw, Mich., and that, too, without the aid of spirits or djinns or other mi- raculous or supernaturat agencies, celes- tial or diabolic. ‘Wonderful, isn't it? But it Isn’t one bit miraculous or mar- vellous after Mr. Fordney shows how he turned the trick. It's just as e-e-e-easy! “‘Twas very simple” explains Mr. Fordney, with a smile. “There were threo candidates—a demolrat, a progressive and open highhandedness was conceivable; wellnigh in- for mo onme dared to take a ‘republican, myself. There were four counties in the district. The democrat carried two of them, beating me by a small plurality; the progressive man wasn’t in sight at all there. In the other two counties the progressive candidate beat me by a nose, while the democrat hardly knew he was in the race. “When they came to count up the total vote I had won over both by a neat plurality. That's all—but, you see, hadn’t carried a county!” What's that? Oh, yes, we've all heard abaut C'lumbus and his egg trick. Wilson’s Double. Every President seems fated to have somewhere in his neighborhood a “doppelganger,” as the Germans call it; in English, a ‘“douple”—some ome who resem- bles him so close- Iy that he is con- tinually being mis- itaken for him. President Wil- sofi’s double is also in public life. He is Representative McKenzie of Illinois, and they look as much alike as twins—although Mr. Mc- Kenzie is sald to look more.alike than the President, according to the wit of the House press gallery, who is an Irish- man, of course. As, Representative McKenzie was lels- urely strolling through the lobby of a ‘Washington hotel one evening last win- ter a stranger approached him. “Pardon me, Mr. President,” he said, with & frown of concern, “I know you are most democratic in your habits and the people admire you for it, but really, sir, this is too great a risk for the ruler of ‘the United States to take, thus wan- dering about the city at night, alone and unattended by even a single guard. You owe it to the people to be more careful.”” Mr. MeKenzie bowed in acknowledg- ment, and, laying his hand upon his shoulder in a friendly way, thanked him for his kind interest, and, promising to ore careful in future, passed on, ving the stranger in an ecstatic trance. didn’t have the heart to tell the low the brutal truth and spoil his even- ings for the rest of the winter, at the lodge and the cormer drug store and the table when there’s company for dinner,” remarked Mr. McKenzie with a smile later. “I never do with these strangers. It means so much to them to go home and tell and tell and then re-tell again that glorious experience, living over again with each telling those blissful moments when the President laid his hand on his shoulder. “He's got amighty by this time he isn't vi he said, ‘Look here, the President replied, just as you say, etc.’ recording angel Will poor imagination it idly recalling how Woodrow, etc.,’ and ‘All right, Jim, But I think the take care of that | little fb." Obliging. Repre sentative Robert Crosser of Ohio does not be- lieve in tiring his auditors, and this connec tion tells the tale of a rather “long-wind- ed” preacher of whom he knew. This preacher one Sunday had elect- ed to give his con gregation a lengthy discourse on the - prophets, a2y | By W time he had reached the climax of his sermon, according-to the Ohio representative, one of the male members of the congregation was drowsing The preacher, raising his voice untik it penetrated every corner of the church, exclaimed: “Where shall we place Hosea?" The sleeper roused himself partially and straightened mip with a tired air. At this moment the preacher, fairly shouted, “I say, where shall we place Hosea?” By this time the sleeper hadf fully awakened, and, taking his hat I one hana and rubbing his eyes with the other, he started toward the door, remarking meantime in a loud voice: “He can have my seat. home."” I'm going or pulque 8 m, ) OF R10 PrAnco CorToNMmLS, Tar MEXTCOS Mexicafi highlands is on a par with the opium _question in China. At Ocotlan, in the state of Tlaxcala, the highest point on the line is reached, ,333 feet. From there the road descends 00 feet to the capital. Ocotlan has a most interesting old church, one of the best specimens of Spanish colonial archi- tecture In the country. It embodies the type called Churrigueresque, the Span- ish_development of the Italian Baroque style. It is so called after Jose Churri- guera, a native of Salamanca, Spain, Who lived in the latter part of the seventeenth century. Mexico is full of this style of art, both architectural and ornamental. It Is, in fact, the dominant art note of the coun- try, and with its audacity of conception and exuberance of detall lends itself em nently to the decoration of the Mexican plateau. It was Tlaxcala, the smallest state of modern Mexico, which the time of the Spanish conquest virtually decided the fate of the Aztec empire. The Tlaxcal ans were a people who had evolved a form of republicanism which brought them into sharp conffict with the Astec autocracy. When Cortes arrived on_the scene they ere at war with the Em- peror Montezuma, and after testing.the. prowess of the white invaders they be- came their stanch allies and ' thus brought about the eventual downfal-~of the Aztecs. * = % One grand reminder of what had been long before the Spaniards took possession looms in the distance ‘as the traveler speeds down to the Mexican capital—the terraced pyramids of the sun and moon. The place is called Teotibuacan, which in Aztec means the City of the Gods, but it is quite certain that to the Aztecs and probably even to earlier conquerors the two mounds—the largest, by the way, on this continent—were as much a mystery as they were to the invading Spaniards and are to this da These tzacualli, as they are a in Aztec annals, inspired both Aztecs and Toltecs with awe. It “vas hither that the Aztec sovereigns came to be crowned and Aztec high priests had their abode here. Aztecs and Toltecs knew no morc about their origin and early religious purpose | than we know; but through th uity the pyramids becam: ligious center of these successiv It is only in recent years earth has been removed from pyramid, showing the terrac which recalls the pyramids of Egypt. It is a curious fact that many of the littie terra cotta heads—probably roval and sacerdotal effigies—unearthed around the mounds and i the nec-opolis, bear an un- questionable resemblance to the Egyptian race type. A few more miles along Lake Texcoeo, famous In Mexican history, and another great religious monument of the Americos is reached, at the outskirts of Mexico City. It is the famous shrine of Guads- lupe, the Lourdes.of Mexico. Its turesque tradition of the -Indian Jusn Diego—whose tilma, or cloak, with the miraculous image of the Vi im- pressed on it is seen over the altar of the sanctuary—is intimately connected with m:H;pmdolChrhflnmwhm.m warld. Historically, Guadalupe is of vast nificance, for it was here that the treaty between Mexico and the Ui States of Pehru\n':;l 2, l’um way ed which gave Mexico $15,000,000 and. United States 522,955 square ritorry. WALTER b4 ' Tihes SR e