Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1874-06-10
VERA CRUZ.
A Neat Little sketch OF Neat Little
Mexican City.

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Mexican City.
Vera Cruz is the smallest. compactest,
cleanest and deadliest of national sea-
ports. 1t lies in the hollow of your
hand. 1t has practically but two streets,
one going straight back from the mole TO
the centre of the wall that swings like q
semi.circle around the town; the other
is the string of this bow, whereof the for
mer is the arrow. j stretches along its
diameter the enormous distance OF a
mile. The arrow is about third that
length. Two or three streets cross this
at right angles, going from the gulf to
the wall, and two others are parallel to
Central street, as it is called, but behind
it, and shorter, subtending acres oflesser
area. What makes the city such VIC
tim of the yellow fever is a question often
asked and rarely answered 1t is not it's
filthiness, for cleaner town one never
sees. Its block stone pavements are
washed nightly, and shine like Philadel-
phia door-steps. The big black buzzard
acts as scavenger, and clouds of them
occupy ro0f-top and church cross, dip
ping into the street for stray morsels,
and in their ravenous hunger would
make nothing of boots and hats and old
clothes, if the people ever had such
articles to cast away. So far as gar
bage and dirt are concerned, no city has
less fault to find with its fathers.
No more is the affluent and decaying
vegetation the cause, or quiet inland
waters and semiwaters, such as lie in
lagoons and rich but deadly deltas about
New Orleans. The bluffs about Vera
.a0I and nnI.r
must go miles from the city to reach fat
and fatal lands. The walls are thought
to be the chief source of evil, for they
shut in the air, and prevent it sweeping
easily through the town. They are 20
feet high and no value whatever as a
protection. They increase its perils, for
they necessitate bombardment in all
civil wars which ruins roofs and churches
and destroys lives, while they do not
prevent the capture of the town. Ifthey
also cause the pestilence, then there is
every reason for their removal.
Central Street has one characteristic
of Venice. 1t is without carriages. Not
four wheeled, or two wheeled, or even
a one-wheeled vehicle did | see in all its
tiny thoroughfarcs. The horse and it's
rider, the donkey and its pack, were the
only representatives of carts and CARR.
ages, except the Indian loaded like his
brother, the ass, with burdens grevious
to be borne. The levees of the great are
attended by gentlemen and ladies on
foot. Even to the Presidential recep-.
ton, which flashed with diamonds and
grand turn outs of apparel, everybody
went aioot. But Venice is without horse
or mule; and so Vera Cruz hath pre-
eminence.
In another thing it surpasses. With
out public or private carriages, strangely
enough it has horse car. | shall have
to revise my first statement. This four
wheeled car exists. 1t goes up and
down this single avenue every fifteen
minutes, or less But it carries nobody
save driver and conductor. People have
no call to either extreme, and the shops,
safes, and churches are all within bis
cuit-toss of each other and of the houses
of the gentry, the very few that have
real to spend. The horse railway, like
many a northern steam road, is simply
a superiority, no call arising in either
case for the extravagant enterprise. It.
may by this time have ceased to be.
The prettiest ride from the city is by
cars to Medelliu, some ten miles south a
little back from the sea, along the bank
Of muddy and shaded river. This was
the favorite resort for Cortez, and it bears
the name of his birthplace over the sea.
We pass down Gale Centrale by many a
work. shop and wine.shop. In the for
mer you see tailors, hatters, cordage-
twisters, candle makers, shoenakers,
iron workers, each busy at his hot trade
this hot December day There is no
privacy. All their works are manifest
to all passers-by.
The wine and coffee shops are equally
open and more attractive. Hot to the
hot is the law, whether it be delicious
coffee or frey spirits. Ice water and
drinks are things unknown. What the
acute Hazewell, of the Boston Traveller,
asserts should be our law of conforming
to nature, ice water for winter and tea
for summer, is here carried out, and the
heEted liquids refresh heated frames.
A church, we'll battered by the shot OF
Scott stands near the southern gate,
rent and abandoned. A bridge is just
outside the gate, perhaps thirty feet long,
stone with q lew parapet, and benches
for Ioungers. Tie broad path to 1t on
either side for hundred ieet is lined
with Young eocoanut trees. That bridge
was first built by Cortez for q sum so
fabulous that his Emperor staggered
when tbe bills came in. Il is Of no use
except as a loungingplace, and not too
much for that, for the trees are too small,
the promenade too short, and the means
of Getting to it too scanl for the fashion
abjes to frequent it, even if the horse
car runs thither; so it is left to dogs and
loungers of the lower sort, or, more COM
monty, to silence aud emptiness, save
the croaking presence of buzzards and
the stray foot of the foreigner doing"
the town.