The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1882-02-16
FROM MEXICO.
Extracts from a Letter written
by an Austin Young Man now
Travelling i'm the Land of
the MOntezumas.

The following extracts are copied
from IA lengthy descriptive letter, written
by young gentleman (about seventeen
years of age now travelling with his ia
ther in Mexico. The document is too
long for publication in full, and hence
we forage for extracts, and, to render
them more interesting, the exact lam
guage OF the writer is used:
After crossing the Rio Grande you
are then in the Land of God Nand Lib
erty, and for ninety long miles You
travel ovec just such country as that in
Texas, near the Rio Grande. After
leaving Laredo you can see for nearly
100 miles in any direction, but what
there is to be seen amounts To but little.
All along the road are seen thousands OF
plumed quail, which are very beautiful,
little greaser-tailed rabbits and donkeys.
Oh, my goodness! every place
you tstop at you either drink
donkey milk or goat milk, ana
the person who woud turn around for
CHI ice is sure to get left, for the one you
prefer is surely the worst Beans for
breakfast, walel for dinner and swell
up for supper, with a little dog and
plenty of pepper, is what you live on
from Laredo 10 Monterey"
Just TO the right OF Lampasas is very
tall mountain, whose top is as level as
any field you ever saw; and on this NOUN
tam Is plantation embracing about
twenty leagues, or about fifty
miles. and it is u great curiosity that
there is only one place around this great
mountain that horse can 90 up, and SO
it is the finest natural fence in the world.
On top of this mountain is q like more
than mile long and half mile wide"
The second night we were
out we stopped at the Rio Salado.'
This hotel IS not like the Raymond nor
ike the Hotel Brunswick 1t is a one
story, one room dirt house,
and in this one room
IS whishJ shop, wholesale and retail
store, bed room, eating room and tele-
gIdph Office. The floor is full of holes
al dt the size of saucer, and on this
f1Oof you have ~ sleep, hay ing for be-.
two sheep skins, the hair of while h is no
more, having been worn off by time
The night we went to bed there were
orly six men and four boys in the room,
but the neAC morning about Daylight |
walked up and, to my ut er establishment,
there were two young aides and an old
woman asleep light By my head. Well,
I'll be hanged if eyer l had seen anything
like that before, so had to laugh out
loud, like a fool, and then the whole
hoLse was in stir-girls dressing, boys
laughing at them, etc. \
From Lampasas TO Monterey we had
rough trip; once the horses "bogged"
out of sight, all except their heads, and
for at least an hour we thought they
would sink down TO hades. X
Monterey is beautiful city, fine houses,
fine walks, fine squares and parks.
The meals at
the hotels are lust simnlv
grand, but the way in which they serve
them up is different from anything
you have ever seen. For dinner they
first give you soup, then plate of rice,
then one plate after another of all kinds
of meats, cooked splendidly, then the
different kinds of vegetables, one at a
time, then the Mexican beans, and last
the .'dolci, or dessert Then YOU sit at
the tab G and smoke and drink wine and
be merry" "On these
farms you can see thousands of doukeys,
horses, cattle (rearly all the cattle are
black, and hogs. The hogs are what
they call lard" hogs, for when they are
fat there is nothing but fat. For in
stance, hog weighing $50 pounds will
produce 200 pounds of lard. You can
also see many sheep, goats and dogs, the
cInines almost Outnumbering all the rest
together. There
are street cars running from here to
Guadalupe, distance of four
miles. The way they are run
is this: The grade is very heavy; the
cars are turned loose at Yacoticas, and
aW ay they go right down to Guadalupe
before they stop; then drove of mules
are hitched to them and they are pulled
back to the top"
The letter is interesting from beginning
TO end, well written, and we are sorry
its great length precludes its publication
entire in the STATESMAN.