The San Saba news. [volume] (San Saba, Tex.) 1873-1966, 1883-02-03
MEXICO.
pNslc-l characteristics or the CSantp with
Reference to Railway Enterprise.


physc-i characteristics or the Csantp with
Reference to Railway Enterprise.
Hon. John ulg;low M lap.r's Magazine.
Mexico, ia her physical proportions,
CONGREGATIONS and situation on tho
Alobe, certainly offers many induce.
meut5 20 railway speculation. tori
tory larger than the combiaed terrific
ries of Groat Britain, France, Spain
the entire German empire; reaching
from the Gulf OF Mexico to the Pacific
ocean aud forming what Humboldt
some eighty years ago termed the
bridge Of the worlds commerce; bound
ed by the United States OF a distance
of nenrly 1000 miles; with physical
conformation which enables her soils to
yield the products OF every climate and
every zone; with mineral deposits that
have already yielded more than half OF
the existing stock Of silver in the world,
and which are believed by some &c be
still the r.chcst on the globe; without
laeinRle competing navigablc stream, or
one that can even he made nayigablo to
advantage; With physical conGgurai
ton which must forever preclude canal
ization; with population OF 100000
or only about one aud seventy one
| hundredths per square milo less than
| the population Of the United States
per square mile; with twelve cities
ranging from 10000 to 5000 inhabit-
ants; aud with foreign commerce
averaging from S70,000,000 to $S0,000,-
coo year, though conducted With no
better facilities Of internal trausporta-
ton than the backs Of mules and some
$50 miles OF railway such a country
certainly lo-gesses some advantages TO:
railway Improvement that are not pos
sessed in an equal degree by any other
nation or people.
But to all tho blessings OF this world
conditions moro or less serious are al
ways attached A country which en-
Joys the c,isi no and yields the products
of every zone within twenty six de-
grees Of latitude can hardly DO ex-
pected TO produce homogeneous pop
ulation, or 10 enjoy a climate altogether
favorable to tho growth aud longevity
of hardy end po.eriul race Of men.
Tho greater portion OF Mexico is
from 5000 to 1900 feet above the Lowell
Of the sea, and 10 invested With an alb
normally rariHed atmosphere. Most OF
tue remainder Of Mexico lies along the
coast, is very hot, and never free from
malignant diseases.
Up to the present timo no people r
that is, no people that deserve to be re.
garded as an active civihziue force has
ever hourished in so high an atmos'
phere as the Mexican plateau, or in 30
high an average perRture as her sea.
board points. People born under bet
ter conditions have frequently Invaded
and occupied Mexico, but all have failed
to maintain themselves there in part
perhaps, from the difficulty of doing
so in part, also, perhaps, because thu
possession vas not worth the cost. IL j.
, true that Mexico Is the only country il
which Providence has made such al
! experiment, but it ID none the less tru'
, that thus far the experiment has no
, proved that she can ever become thl
, seat OF n ruling race.
1 Mexico can hardly DO Bald to have
single good seaport, or one capable o
being made adequate to the exigoncie
OF modern maritime commerce. No
LUIS SUI ~ SluEA9 hhNAb nsADhHAt ~
one sense this may justly be though
advantageous rather than preiudicial tt
railway system, as it implies the NIB
s senco of waterways, usually the mos
Q formidable OF all kinds of competition
= but that is a mistake. No highway ha
yet been devised 80 cheap as the ocean
. yet to this day it contributes tho largos
portion of their business to all the rail
3 way system of the globe.
4 OF the 10000 900 Of people in Mexico
fully three quarters are Indians, two
4 thirds Of whom can not read, nor evei
8 had an ancestor that could, who neye
t slept in bed or wore stocking, am
0 who arc accustomed to live at les
q expense per day than a farm hors
I would cost in any New England State
r These are none of them controllin
t considerations, perhaps, bnt in ttuds
0 ing the natural attractions of Mexic
i for railway enterprise they must not b
i lost sight Of.