Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1883-07-19
chihuahua A,aerieanized.

New Engianuer report upon her life |
of to-day timely. Our visit largely de- |
void of creature comforts, was without |
exception the most interesting Of all
our rambles. In this city of $4,000 in
habitants, the buildings are of adobe or
unburnt clay. mostly one story and
without a roof, aside from the flat
earth-coyering. House, yard, stable,
and garden, are all enclosed with the
same adobe, with the front door an
swefing alike for family, servants and
horses. There is naugllt of beauty in
all the city aside from the central plaza,
forest of fruit and flowers, luxuriant
in bloom and profuse in fragrance, and
the upper and lower alamadas, or
shaded drlveways accommodated with
adobe seats. The plaza is the great
attraction and we passed most of our
time in its shade, inhaling its fra
GRANGE. In the center is an immense
fountain of water, clear as crystal,
brought from the mountains by an
aqueduct of Roman pattern. From
this fountain most of the water is taken
to supply all the requirements of these
thousands of citizens. Where men,
servants are employed they come with
barrel swung across a pole, filling it
with bucket, but the multitude are
women and children, some with pitch
ers but more with ollas (olijahs), jars,
holding from two to six gallons, which
they fill with gueja (weha) or gourd
dipper, after which they lift the Jar
upon the head, the heavier ones upon
the shoulder, and walk leisurely home
From the shade of the plaza may be
seen also the worshippers vending their
way to or from the great cathedral at
any hour of the day, while on Sunday
the multitude go hither, filling the spa
cious building with kneeling worship
pers until hundreds kneel in the dust
and gravel Of the yard outside; and af-
ter the mass is over the funerals begin,
the collins being borne on the shoulders
of four men, while the crude hearse fol-
lows behind. At the burial ground out
side the city that has received the re-
mains of the citizens from time immem-
orial. they dig out old graves to make
room for the new and strew human
bones about the ancient cemetery, Il
sight to chill ones blood as he remem-
bers that Americans as well as Mexicans
must find here a common, uncertain
burial, as the laws forbid the taking of
a body out of the state under two years.
But, to return to the plaza, we see the
common people as they pass the cathe-
dral at all hours of the day uncover
their heads in worshipful. silence, and
ut the hour of high noon throughout the
entire city, when the cathedral clock
strikes, every hat comes off regardless
of the torrid sun. In the evening hour,
as the police file out of the city build
ings beside the plaza, it is amusing to
see them 90 forth out of step and out of
line, with rifle thrown carefully over
one shoulder and massive lighted lam
tern in the other hand.
In the suburbs we saw the men plow-
ing with the timc-honored stick, merely
scratching the surface; the roads in all
directions revealed the poor little bur-
ros, strolling lazily into town laden with
bundles of hay twice their own size, or
with wood nearly as bulky; and by the
shallow stream the washerwomen were
bending, scrubbing soiled clothes on
rocks for washboards, with the root of
the soap7weeds for suds, spreading the
whitened garments on the bleached
sand, keeping them in place with stones
laid upon the corners.
Thus am / tempted to ramble indef-
nitely among the strange scenes of that
sister country. $50 near, and yet so
far suggestive alike of heather lands,
Jesuitical influences and Bible scenes,
but must turn my pen to congratulate
my fellow Christians upon the fact that
hn san - bn 81, in,
Protestant service in that city of 49,
600 inhabitants, and manage it so
wisely that no rivalry threatens it at
present Two blocks from the elegant
plaza, in the front room of his own
residence, Rev. James ID. Eaton, in the
name of the A. b. c. F. NJ, holds
service in Spanish in the morning,
breaches to the English-speaking resi-
dents in the afternoon of every Lords
day. while Miss Adela Pratt, Mrs Ea-
toms sister, meets the little folks for
Bible study earlier in the day. Never
have seen work that promised better
than this. Judicious in every advance,
cautious about arousing untimely pre-
JUDGES. well esteemed by officials of
city and State, as also by the foreign
residents, extending his acquaintance
rapidly among the better class of Mexi-
cans while reaching by kindness and
public services the poor and needy, inn
pressing all with his singleness of pur-
pose and loyalty to the Master, he has
an anchorage to rejoice every friend of
truth and righteousness.
The influence of Il Christian home
was never better illustrated than in this |
instance, and no element of it is more |
apparent than the presence of Miss |
Pratt, II lady of rare social, intellec
tual and musical attainments, who |
teaches English to Mexican merchants |
and State officials rs well as to the |
daughters of the best families in the |
city, through whom Mr.. Eaton and his
home have access as they could not |
otherwise to influences that impress
the modern civilizing tendencies of Pro-
testantism upon society at its fountain
head.
The Mexican Central Railway is
carrying temporal blessings and social
changes into the city; the miners are
arousing the hitherto sluggish financial
life; the Christian physicians are dag
nosing the social as well as the physi-
cal life to advantage, but, better than
they all, our own missionary represen-
tative is dispensing truth in literature,
in home, in pulpit and on the street,
and the days are at hand when Chihua-
hua will be Americanized. Req. A f.
UiRShiD in the Era11g1LiSk