The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1880-06-03
A Mexican Diligence.

cODlpdgHOn de UOyage and | 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 al
hour that elapsed before the starting Of
our conveyance in drinking an excel
lent cup of coffee, which an old hal
breed lady with formidable gray beard
and mustache was kind enough to make
for us with her own fair hands. Assure
means of gaining the good will of an In.
dian or AeStizO lady of undecided age
is by addressing her as SenOritG or
miss as the AleXicans among them.
selves always use these diminutives.
You are not asked to wait u n1ODlentO,
but DlOaleHtitO, and | heard on one
occasion a muleteer, who had lassoed q
most obstreperous mule that was en-
dangering every ones life within ra-
dius of twenty yards, and almost kick
ing his own heels off, describe the vi
cious little brute as nlUtGtltd 6O1attitd
nsd1sSita q4erictititd; or Gpglice, a Every
wee, tiny, little, pretty, tame, darling
mule"
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 he
will be able to imagine what the Next
can diligenciG 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 rGtSOn d etre of the difgenctG
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-iledged driver, and
who already puts on airs with the pas
sengers. Hanging on a row of pegs at
either side of the coach is a wonderful
collection of whips of every size and
weight, almost every mule having a
special lash. with which the driver or
his assistant belabors him with remark
able dexterity. Behind the driver
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 out of
reach of the whips. The assistant hurls
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 a short whip
with great effect. If night should set
in before the diLigenciG reaches its des-
tinaiion, it is his duty to run with two
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 4" tOolingr their
iaunty tit" 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.
On the top of the coach behind the
driver there are three seats on what is
called the peScGl1te. 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
a word from 6he driver a man who has
been holding the nine mules with ropes,
something like greyhound leashes, lets
90 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 every avail
able rail and strap lest they should be
hurled into space. We rattle through
the ill-paved streets OF the little village,
duckine 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
6olds ,,f f;pa xvbaat and oo,.n apI avarv
now and then tract of ndguey where
the natives are blowing with the most
primitive plows and team of very lazy
oxen that are stirred up with an enor-
nous goad. On every side a vast plain
bordered with mountains in
the blue distance, looking much nearer
than they really aresin the thin, rarefied
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 or
four feet in depth. Every half hour or
so we pass through some Indian village
with its two or three fine churches and
nuts, the latter built OF adobes,
or unbaked bricks, with fat roofs, on
which rows of caidbdsdS or pumpkins
are driving in the sun. Around each
house there is hedge Of cactus, usually
Of the kind called the n0pal, so well
known as the plant upon which the
eagle perches in the Mexican coat-of-
arms. A few plants of mGguey and a
rick of hay or straw in the branches of
the nearest tree comprise all the other
of the owner of the hut, with
the exception of few horribly bristly
and attenuated porkers that are roofing
in the warm dust of the road. These
pigs are joined by numerous herd of