Juliet signal. [volume] (Juliet [i.e. Joliet], Ill.) 1844-1???, 1847-05-18
The Halls Of the MOntszumas.

Montezuma II, ascended the Mexican
throne A. ID. 1902, at the age OF twenty.
three years, before Mexico had been dis.
covered by Europeans. He died 3O,h
June, 1920, in the AID year of his age, of
wounds inflicted by the Spanish discover.
ers, whom he had invited to his royal pal.
ace. Historians agree in admirlng his
character.
On ascending the throne, not content
with the spacious residence of his father,
he erected another muca more magnificent
fronting on the pldzG mayor of the present
city of Mexico. So vast was this great
structure, that a. one Of the historians in.
form US, the space covered by its terraced
roofs might have afforded room for thirty
knights to run theis courses in q regular
tourney. His fathers palace, although
not 90 high, was 80 extensive that the vie.
itors were too much fatigued in wander.
ing through the apartments, ever to soc
the whole of it. The palaces are built of
red stone, eFnamentsd with marble, the
arms Of the Montezuma family, Ian eagle
bearing tiger in his talons being scuip.
tursd over the main enhance. Crystal
fountains, fed by great reservoirs in the
neighboring hills, played in the vast halls
aad gardens, and supplied water to hun.
dreds of marble baths in the interior ofthe
palaces. Crowds ofnobles and tributary
chieftains were continually sauntering
through the halls or lettering away their
hours in attendance on the court. Rich
carvings in wood adorned the ceilings,
beautiful mats Of palm leaf covered the
floors. The walls were hung with cotton
richly stained, the skins of wild animals
or gorgeous draperies OF feather work
wrought in imitation Of birds, insects,
flowers, in glowing radiance of colors.-
Clouds Of incense from golden censors
diffused Intoxicating odors through splen.
did apartments occupied by the nine hun.
dred and eighty soiUeS and five thousand
slaves Of MontezuRa.
He encouraged science and learning,
and public schools were established thro'.
out the greater part Of his empire. The
city of Mexico numbered twice as many
inhabitants as at the present, and one
thousand men were daily employed in
watering and sweeping It's streets, keeping
them so clean that man could traverse
the whole city with as little danger of
soiling his feet as his hands. A careful
police guarded the city. Extensive as.
senals, granaries, warehouses, an aviary
for the most beautiful birds, menageries,
houses for reptiles and serpentS, collec-
ton of human monsters, fish ponds built Of
~. Ill I'D -o,,.,,,rcs - NJ r,,bliC Ithr0 .;a.
ell on the most extensive scale, added their
attraction to the great city Of the Aztecs.
Gorgeous temples-in which human VIC
Tins were sacrificed, aud their blood baked
in bread, or their bt dies dressed for food
to be devoured BY the people at religious
festivals-Eeared their pyramidal affairs
far above the highest sdifices. Thousands
of their brother men were thus sacrificed
annually. The temple Of Maxtili-their
war god--was 90 constructed that its great
alarm gong, sounding to battle, reused the
valley for three leagues around, and called
three hundred thousand armed Aztecs to
the immediate service Of their monarch.
So vast was the collection of birds Ofprsy
in building devoted to them, that 500
turkies, the cheapest meat in Mexico, were
allowed for their daily consumption. Such
were the "Halls of the Montszumas Pr
The summer residence Of the monarch, on
the hill of Chapoltepec, overlooking the
city, was surrounded by gardens of sever
al miles IN extent, and here were preserv-
ed until the middle of the last century,rwO
statues of the Emperor and bis father
The grea, cyprus trees, under which the
Aztec sovereign and his associates once
held their moonlight revels, still shade the
royal gardens. Some Of them fifty feet in
circumference, are seversl thousand years
old, but are ys: - green Is in those days
of Montezuma, whose ashes, or those Of
his ancestors, rendered sacred, in the
eyes of the native Mexicans, the hill Of
Chapoltepec. Natural decay and waning
population, now mark the seat ofpowsr of
the great MontszumaS.