Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1884-04-17
NIEXICO.
An Americans Observations About
the Country and People.

BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY AND NOTHING
IN 1T.
ico?'
"A beautiful country, with nothing
in it for US
Then YOU think Texas is worth all
of Mexico?"
Il do. 1t raises more, exports more,
has better soil. and more energetic peo-
pie than all Mexico
POOR LAND, BUT WELL CULTIVATED.
Now" said to Col. Wharton. lex
press to me what you think of the land
in MeNico?"
1T was originally poor, thin soil.
and 1t is we'll nigh exhausted. There
was not much to get out, and there is
hardly anything left But it is 4 mis-
take to say that they are not good Gull
tivators. They are better farmers than
we are, considering what utensils they
have. They have no improved ma
chinery to speak of, but they have the
most industrious labor, suppose. on
the globe-the poems or Indians Mex
leo has 100000 of people; 100000
of these are Indians. OF the better
society of Mexico, particularly the la
dies, you hardly see anything at all,
unless You should be taken 10 their
homes. But these poems are up early
and work late, and they exceed ne
groes or whites in their assiduity. They
will 90 miles and miles with $50 pounds
on their backs, never complaining.
The Indian blood has produced the
strongest characters in recent Mexico.
Diaz is of that stock, and so was
Juarez."
How do you mean that the soil is
we'll cultivated"
Because they cultivate up to the
highest arabic point on the mountains.
They go far up beyond the place where
we would till the land There is so lit
tie good soil, they have to use it all
Rocky New England is not as we'll Gull
tivated as those portions of Mexico
where it will pay TO raise anything.
They will take Il wooden pillow or some
kind Of q stick, and work up the soil
like a garden. / saw the Indian corn
rows set apparently by mathematics,
so straight they were. A drill could
hardly have planted the corn as straight.
Occasionally, you will find a valley in
Mexico which looks beautiful to the
eye and contains every description of
fruit and product; but when you 60 to
examine it, you will find that it is ex-
ceptiOnally narrow, and, indeed, Mex
leo is cultivated in little patches of
ground like Ireland, not q quarter of
an acre in a patch, and that alone gives
the rich piece Of soil SPLENDID appear
ance, with its many costumes and vari-
cOlored productions. The spaces of
bad lands between the arabic places,
are long and vast"
FOREIGNERS THE BUSINESS MEN.
wv hat constitutes the business class
of Mexico?"
The Germans and French. They
are firmly planted in the business, but
the natives there look on them as they
do on us-with indifference. A Next
can will plant himself in your neigh
borhood, and just look at you out of
his eyes as if he could stand sitting
there as long as you, and meant TO stay
there till you broke up and left him
what you had accumulated in the coun-
try. In some respects, they are smart
Ell people than we are" said Col.
Wharton.
I'm what way?" said /.
"Well, they can wait longer. They
are moro frugal. They live on little,
they 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 q
private character"
MEXICAN MINING.
How did the gold come out of the
ground?"
''Why one of the poems will take a
rock as big as your desk and patiently
sit down beside it and split off small
piece with q hammer, and he will look
that little piece all over TO see if it has
a particle of gold in it, and let none
escape him. In that way, he will
slowly knock the rock to pieces, and
when he is done with it, you will find
no gold there to get out. The govern
ment formerly and the churches got the
most of the gold"
Then you think the mines of Mex
leo have been pretty well hunted
over?'
Eyes. Ii any man ever comes to you
and wants to sell you mine which he
saws is full of water, and only needs to
have the water pumped out to WORK 1t
to good advantage, don't you believe
him. If that mine is full of water, it
is pretty certain the Mexicans have
done with it, and have got everything
out of it.
FINE CAVALRY.
"Did you see any of their troops?"
Yes; l saw some 81 lendid troops.
There are 1000 soldiers kept in Mexico
City. They are as good troops as [
ever saw, clothed in blue, very much
like our regular army soldiers. | saw
the finest regiment of cavalry there
yer saw. Every horse in it was black
except one ridden by the colonel, and
that was pure white.
THE CITY OF MEXICO.
''Do you like Mexico City?"
II did, very much, as a place to
linger, to loiter, to admire. The air is
so pure and limpid that all distances
seem obliterated. You 90 up on the
mountains of Chepultepec, and the