The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-09-01

The people have no comfort now since pulqus's
fallen short.
Early on every morning, King Pulque drove
With ali his mule bells ringing and pleasure in
his tram;
The donkeys and their drivers were busy once
But now they're all so down In the mouth, it
makes a topper sigh.
The famous good Tlamapa, omotusco, San
And even Tlachiasco, are quite gone by the
bowl;
Fen cheap Jepache's very rare-and, speaking
Pucheros are no longer made-they only offer
beer.
Delicious nectar cheering, old Montezuma's
Brave beverage and merry, bring back your
snowy ripple.
See in what sury humor are those who loved
you well:
Our houses are in mourning clad, and sad are
those that sell.
Some of the foregoing names will suggest
themselves as hacienda titles describing the
most popular sources and kinds of pulque.
The style and nomenclature of the pulque
shops is still more curious, exhibiting to what
heights of poetry and enthusa ,m the ready
sale of popular beverage will carry pros
porous dealer. II the alien conner desires to
partake a pious lbation, l can recommend
nothing better than the Pulqueria de Bspirito-
Santo; but il his tastes are wild | advise him
TO take pull at Lne Ancient Tiger. O0 Tue
road to Velasco one gets bad pulque for all that
the sign over the shop invites him in SO many
words to come to Paradise. There was an in
spired puique vender in the City Of Monte
yuma who called his shop the Little Wheel,
and effectually christened its vats Terrible,
Seven Killer, Barly Riser, and Weeper, and,
though cannot fully vouch for it, yet l ven
ture to believe that he had three or four pet
cocks Growing there everJ hour, as is the
onc with dachinO nn1nuarar0C cnoh I
have seen hard by the Apam country.
Pulque is'as old as Popoeatapetl. Anahuao
was once inhabited by giants, and when the
Toltees wanted to get rid of them they feasted
them with pulque, and then fell upon them.
So runs one legend. But a likelier story is
that Xochitl, daughter of Papantzin, discov-
cred the aguamiel, and presenting it to the
Toltee King, won his heart, and subsequently
gave him a son, who was gratefully named
Meconetzin, or the son of the maguey. Long
before the conquest penitents used to whip
themselves with the fbers of the plant and
show them bloody to their gods. More than
this the maguey was a sort of ready armory
for the warlike Aztecs who rushed into
battle 'holding in the right hand keen
daggers of the i4tle," as Mr.. Rca Bar
cena relates in verse. With the ibers, both
fine and coarse, of the msguey, the Mexicans of
the time of Cortes made dresses, sandals
ropes, whips, slings, shields, and much more,
a nd used its leaves to tile their roofs Its
ashes made lye; its root soap; its leaves uten-
sils; its skin durable paper, used by their
artists in leather and gold. Sugar, pulque,
and mescal, they also made from the plant,
which was also good as a medicine. Indeed,
no radically new use of the magney has been
made by the descendants of the old Aztecs.
Its fiber is made into thread twine, rope, bags,
sometimes paper, and the root and under
leaves of the plant are used by simple folk for
soap and medicine. The famous jenequin
fiber of Yucatan comes from the maguey, and
besides pulque mescal, and aguardiente, are
extracted from it. Sugar and vinegar are also
among its products.
There seems to be no end to the possible
uses or the patent resources of this immense
plant. In the plains of Apam there are thirty
varieties, only few of which are good for
pulque and the chief of these is the maguey
manso which grows to the height of three
meters and a half. The principal maguey
grounds are the Llanos de Apam which COM
prise parts of Mexico, Puebla Tlascala; but in
the dry and barren parts of Oaxaca, Queretaro,
Guanajuato, Michoacan, Tehuantepec, San
Luis, and Tamauli pas, it may also be found.
The famous Apam region contains, according
to an authentic statistician, Don Manuel
Payne, no less than six hundred. square
leagues of cultivated and wild magueys. The
maguey de pita yields abundantly the Yu.
catan jenequin for ship ropes, upon
which hand and steam machines are now
at work. From the maguey verdi come the
mescal and tequila, one winish alcohol and
the other gin, made in Jalsco and Gaudala.
lara But by far the best use of the maguey
is to be found in its noble fiber. Don Manuel
Payne long ago observed that when the rail-
road from Mexico to Vera Cruz is completed
the Ixtle of Apam plains will bear export of
greater value than the jenequin OF Yucatau.
Ixtle, finer fiber, supplying threads for har-
ness and shoes, was at last data, worth in
England, f25 per ton, while jenequin was
worth EGO. The fact that Senior Payne was
once Secretary of the Mexican Treasury lends
an interest to his views.
The cultivation of the maguey is simple, and
it would almost seem rude. Before the old
plant dies it leaves about q family of six or
eight. After growing two or three years these
are taken out of the ground and stripped of
leaves excepting the three centre ones. By
some rancheros they are Immediately trans
planted in rows sixteen feet apart; by others,
allowed to remain out of the ground for seve-
raj months, and then transplanted, in order to
prevent a certain worm entering the plant to
kill it, which the worm is supposed to do upon
immediate transplanting. Between maguey
rows various grains are sown if the land per-
mits. No extreme of weather affects the har-
dihood of the maguey, except when the plant
is yielding its own elirir u,te. At the end of
four years some few haciendadoes prune
away the prickles of the plant, and tear
out four or five of its leaves to improve,
but i fancy this usage, along with others
connected with the plant, is al Ike boorish aud
cruel. The maguey, however, will stand any
thing, as witness its uprooting and exoision.
msguey takes from to 15 years to arrive
at the productive period, and yields liquor