The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1884-02-23
RAILWAYS IN MENTCO.
A Country Where the People Are
Never in Hurry
And VIII Not Permit ANY One Else
TO Bc---A People Who Can
DO a Good sob Of
Waiting.

New York, Feb, 23-~Gath" says: re-
Gently met Col. Gabriel Whorton, of Louis
vile, KY, who had Just returned from Mex
ice and asked him:
what is your general idea of Mexico"
"A beautiful country, with nothing in it
for n
"H hat is to become of the new railroads
the Americans are building there!'
Every one of them will fail, and the Mex
leans viii own them
DO you feel confident about this"
Absolutely confident There is nothing
to bring ont of it, and they who live in it do
not require much of anything
What do you estimate that failure uponl'
Upon my observation, on almost universal
4 report and ON the history of the Eagiish
railroads from Vera Cruz to Mexico City,
which had so long the monopoly of the trade
there
What is its condition."
1T is only worth 60 cents on the dollar
Many people have been badly injured by the
fan in the stock. The only vitality it ever
had was while the Americans were building
the two new railroads, and hauling tLeir stuff
and supplies over the English road
SIS that English road well builtF1
Eyes, probably the best built railroad in
the world. The bridges are Of stone and iron,
and the stations are Of solid stone and may
last for centuries
do you mean to say that there is not
much of anything hauled over the English
liner
Nothing to speak of. l was six days in
Vera Cruz, and in all that time the receipts
over the railroad from Mexico were 200 bags
of coffee, weighing 200 pounds to the bag"
With reference to the way the railways
are run the colonelkaid the chief hotel in the
City Of Mexico 'is called for the former
proprietor, Tturbide,, it having been once
his palace. You can get nothing to eat
bsfore o'clock in the day except coffee and
bread. That is the Mexico habit, and they
will not change it. They will make the
English companies stop the train whole
hour, so thatthe Mexican canseat his dinner in
courses. They will make the Americans dc
just the same, because the Americans can not
run their railroads as they do in this country
Indifferent to public opinion.
Vow have they already interfered with
the railroad buildersr
why, in the first place, they refused to let
the English build their railroad to Vera Cruz
by construction train, and put it through
rapidly. They made them hire ox-wagons,
and haul the rails up to Mexico City, which is
about twenty hours by steam to Vera Cruz,
so as to give employment to the Mexicans, and
they had TO lay the railroad from Mexico
toward Vera Cruz, and consequently the rail
road cost enormously. When the Americans
started to build the railroad, they made them
work alternately from Mexico as from Ell
Paso and Laredo The rails had to be brought
up over the English railroad to give it bust
ness and make 1t valuable to the Mexicans,
who are now getting control of it. This made
the stock run up o40, and then it was sold to
a lot4of English ounces at that high figure,
who now find it worth 60 cents on the dollar.
In my judgment, they will drop that rail
road, and the Mexicans can get it for
song So think they will drop the Ameri-
can railroads, and let the Mexicans buy them
without any war or foolishness. The Ameri
cans started to build those roads on the vision
of rich and gorgeous Mexico. They will
have the experience, and the Mexicans will
have the railroads" aIn some
respects they are smarter people than we
are"
an what ways" said l.
well, they can wait longer. They are
more frugal. They live on little, do not want
to change their base, are not an initiative
people, prefer what they have got, and they
have uniformly inherited what the foreigners
put there Of public character and much of
a private character"
You don't mean to say that they are 60
ing to confseate these railroads by forceN
"Oh, no; they like the Americans as well as
they like anybody They like nobody. They
probably know that all foreigners have lived
under the delusion for century that Mexico
Che richest country in the world. 1t is in
reality the poorest. What has been got out
of Mexico has come from the most careful
and frugal labor 1t is true that the aggre-
gate amounts to a great deal in gold and
silver. l came with Catholic priest over a
part of my journey, and he told me that
there did not exist in Europe churches with
as splendid solid gold ornaments as the
catbedrals of Mexico and Pueblo apd the
shrine Of Guadalupe and some other
churches"
"How did this gold come out of the
groundp
"Why, one of the poems will take rock as
big as your desk and pat entity sit down be-
side it and split off small piece with ham,
rner, and he will look that little piece all over
to see if it has particle of gold in it, and let
none escape him. In that way be will slowly
knock the whole rock to pieces, and when he
is done with it you will find no gold there
get out. The government formerly and the
churches got the most of that gold.
tThen you think the mines Of Mexico have
been pretty well hunted overs"
eyes If any man ever comes to you and
wants to sell you mine which ne says is full
of water and only needs to have the water
pumped ont to work it with great advantage,
don't YOU believe him. If that mine is full of