The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-09-01

dame, Salinos, Victoria, and in the more i'm
mediate vicinity of Monterey. With i'm
proved machinery, they are expected to give
greatly remunerative returns. When we re-
call accounts of the enormous stores of gold
and silver possessed by the early Tlascalans
Tezcucans, and Aztecs, under the reign of
Montezuma, lxtlazihuau, Nezahualpitti
lXtilxochitl, ETC., and that for centuries
these mines have been constantly worked.
We wonder whether there is no bottom to
these mines, or if nature is buster here than
elsewhere.
In the vicinity of Monterey are three fac
tories for the manufacture of cotton cloth,
run by water-power. Two of them make
bleached goods, and have been so successful
that within the past year they have doubled
the number of looms. The commonest
calico, which in the United States retails for
about four cents per yard, sells here at from
twenty-five to thirty cents per vara, about
three-quarters of yard. The duty on prints
amounting to more than the cost OF the cloth
ITSELF it would we'll repay capitalists to es-
tabllSh print factories in Mexico, especially
as the duty on the raw cotton is simply NOM
lnal, and the price of labor lower than any
where else on the continent. The import
ance OF these factories will increase with the
opening of facilities to reach other portions
OF Mexico. Formerly goods had to be trans
ported in carts or on pack mules, whereas
now much freight will be saved by rail
tree OF duty, and right here is an item for
enterprising agents, viz, that the most or
binary sewing-machines sell here for $125
upward.
1t is also suggested that paper-mill be
erected near Monterey. Paper costs 50 per
ream in the United States, and by the time it
has reached Monterey it has advanced to
$3.50 per ream. The refuse of the cotton-mills
which is now burned up as of no value
could doubtless be utilized in this new in
dustry. A soap factory ought to yield a bo-
nanza here. For common ten-cent cakes of
toilet soap we pay fifty cents in Mexico, and
from 81 to $50 for "Lubin's best" Com
mon brown bar soap is sold in thin Slices
ike boardlng-school sponge cake, at madic
(slX centS) per slice, or thirty-ive cents per
bar. The materials for soap making might
easily be obtained among nation who use
wood only for fuel and much fat for food
except for the fact that their appetite for the
latter leads them to eat up those portions of
pork, etc, which we consider fit only for
soap ,greese. In my opinion another bonanza
lies In potato raising and the cultivating of
small fruits and vegetables In my six
months residence in Mexico / have scarcely
seen a potato. Though they grow readily
here they are imported from the States and
sold by the pound at exhorbitant prices.
Strawberries are grown in Coahuila (nearly
hundred miles from Monterey, and only
stage or packmule transportation between)
but nobody seems ever to have thought of
trying to raise raspberries, black berries
pums, cherries, asparagus, etc., for market
The Treasury Department, of Mexico, has
recently published an official valuation of
the landed property in the republic and puts
its total at upwards of SO, 900, 000 900, Nearly
two-thrds of this is credited to urban" es-
tates, one-fourth to rural" estates, and the
remainder, exclusive of property devoted to
religious uses, to estates pertaining to the
government Among the urban" details
are enumerated forty-six theaters, valued at
So, 900, 900, twenty-three bull rings" for the
popular amusement of bull-fghting, at $780,
600, and ninety-eight cock pits" at $116-
900. The church edifces are divided into
two classes, l78 large edices, all Roman
Catholic, being valued at $54, 100000, and l.,
200 lesser edices, including the
very few places of Protestant
worship, at $27, 900, 100000. The city
houses are divided into three classes, num-
bering, all told, 1,42l, 93S, at total valuation
of 1878, 100000. Considering that the en-
tire population of the republic does not
reach twelve millions, according to the most
extravagant estimates, and probably not
more than ten millions, this number of
urban" houses, in proportion to inhabit-
ants, is very large. 1t bears witness to a
Characteristic of Mexico, viz, the crowding
of people into cities by reason of the former
insecurity of country life. In all Mexico
there is not farm house." as the term is
understood in our own country. The
haciendas are really forts, behind whose high
adobe walls the owners were forced, in times
past, like the barons of old to shelter their
laborers horses and cattle from depredators
So great has been the insecurity that even
the large cities have no 'suburbs"-no fine
residences fringing the outskirts for miles,
as is the case in other countries. But all this
is bound to be changed, now that the new
epoch" of peace and alleged improvement
has begun and the Mexico of the past rapid
ly merging among "the things that were"
America is the prince who has come to
awaken this sleeping beauty from the repose
of centuries. If you want to see the land of
the cactus and the palm with the glamour of
the past upon her you must come quickly.
F. B, W.