Northern Ohio journal. [volume] (Painesville, Ohio) 1872-1896, 1880-05-29
A Mexican Diligence.

A.
Leaving Mexico City at the early hour
of five in the morning, writes CORE
spondent of the New York SIN, my
conlpdgmo,a de Coyage and l found our
selves at about seven o. clock at the rail.
way station of Cuantitlan, from which
the other line of diligencias runs to Pa
chuca. We spent the quarter of an
hour that elapsed before the starting of
our conveyance in drinking an excel
lent cup of coffee, which an old half
breed lady with formidable gray beard
and mustache was kind enough to make
for us with her own fair hands, A sure
means of gaining the good will of an In
dian or Mestizo lady Of undecided age
is bv addressing her as senorita or
''miss," as the Mexicans among them
selves always use these diminutives.
You are not asked to wait a 7nOnento,
but naonaentito, and l heard on one
occasion a muleteer, who had lassOed a
most obstreperous mule that was en-
daugering every ones life within a ra-
dius of twenty yards, and almost kick
ing his own heels off, describe the vi
cious little brute as a natlatlt0 6o7a1titd
Emaaasitd queriOititd; or aasglice, a. very
wee, tiny, little, pretty, tame, darling
mule. - a @~~ 2sls
While we were drinking our coffee,
| which, by the way, is always excellent
in Mexico, the Instrument of torture
had been dragged out of its shed and
stood ready for the mules to be put to.
| Let the reader imagine one of the New
York hotel stages deprived of its springs
and driven for four or five years over
| the bed of a very rocky stream, and be
viii be able to imagine what the Mexi-
can diligencia is in its palmiest days.
As, however, it always seems utterly
worn out and disorganized, such con-
ception of this vehicle would prove too
complimentary. In order to drag it over
the vilest roads in the world, two mules
are harnessed in the traces, four in front
of them, and three more as leaders. The
| driver is a person of the greatest con-
sequence, fully impressed that the sole
and only raison a. etre of the Qjtige1aciG
| is that there should be something for
him to drive. He is very handsomely
paid, drives remarkably well and snubs
the passengers in the most cavalier man.
ner. The regulation dress is a pair of
very tight leather trousers, with rows
of silver buttons down the outside of
the leg, short coat, cut something in
the style ola Spanish bull fighters bob
| tail jacket, and an enormous white SOM
brero with broad silver band. Beside
the driver sits his assistant, who will in
time become a full-fedged driver, and
who already puts on airs with the pas
sengers. Hanging ON a row of pegs at
either side of the coach is wonderful
collection of whips of every size and
weight, almost every mule having a
special lash. with which the driver OF
his assistant belabors him with remark
able dexterity. Behind the driver S
seat runs trench of some half a foot
in depth and width, filled with stones
like those used in macadamized roads.
These are for the special benefit OF the
leading mules, who are almost souts OF
reach of the whips. The assistant hur1s
a stone from time to time with wonder
full accuracy, always hitting one mule
and carroming on the next. Now and
then he jumps off the box, runs along
beside the mules and uses short whip
with great effect. If night should set
in before the diligencia reaches its des-
pitch pine torches, lighting up the
road. So that altogether his :. lot is
not happy one.' 1t might, perhaps,
be worth while for the members of the
New York Coaching Club, who find
so much difficulty in g ''toeling their
| jaunty tits'' around the corner at Ma
como's Dam Bridge, to utilize the swells
who are SO fond of sharing the box
seats by having them Initiated into the
mysteries of stone throwing. a-za
On the top of the coach behind the
driver there are three seats on what is
called the pesconte. These seats are the
cheapest, but to foreigners they are in
finitely preferable to the inside, with its
atmosphere reeking of the mingled
fumes of garlic, chillis and pulque. - AT
word from the driver man who has
been holding the nine mules with ropes,
something like greyhound's leashes, lets
60 and every mule tries to go differ.
ent way. A shower of stones from the
drivers assistant, and a vigorous 'appli
cation of the whips, remind them, how,
ever, that they must pull together, and
the suffering humanity contained in and
clinging on the coach clutch everyIavail
able rail and strap lest they should She
hurled into space. We rattle through
the ill-paved streets of the little village
ducking our heads to avoid the branch
es of trees and the kerosene-oil lamps
which hang over the middle of the
street ON ropes fastened to the houses
on either side, and find ourselves in the
open country. The road leads through
fields of fine wheat and corn and every
now and then a tract of a71agatey where
the natives are plowing with the mos
primitive plows and a team of very lazy
oxen that are stirred up with an enor
nous goad. On every side vast plaiI
extends, bordered with mountains il
the blue distance, looking much nearer
than they really are in the thin, rarefief
air The dust on the road is some two
feet thick and rises in clouds as we
pass, and the ruts into which the coach
pitches every minute are often three OF
four feet in depth. Every half hour OF
so we pass through some Indian village
with its two or three fine churches and
miserable huts, the latter built of adobes
or unbaked bricks, with flat roofs, OF
which rows of calabas0s or pumpkins
are drying in the sun. Around eacf
house there is a hedge of cactus, usually
of the kind called the mopal. so wei
known as the plant upon which the
eagle perches in the Mexican coat-of
arms. A few plants of anaguey and 8
rick of hay or straw in the branches O.
the nearest tree comprise all the othel
property of the owner of the hut, with
the exception of few horribly bristly
and attenuated porkers that are roofing
Ill JIG WdiHI uuSG VI Gllc IOtu. IIleSt
pigs are joined by numerous herd O.
dogs, who accompany us to the out
skirts of the village, where they fall of
by degrees, painting with their exertion:
or choked with dust.
The four-years- son of w. T.
McCrea, of Passaic, N. j., while visit
ing relatives in Port Jervis, fell ovel
twenty feet into q well that had six fee1
of water in it. He got hold of the pump
tubing and, climbing. to the top, cried
for help until rescued. @
There are five great grazing regions
in the world-the interior of Asia, South
Africa, South America, Australia and
the trans Missouri and Mississippi coun.
try of North America.