, 1884-05-30
DRAINING MEXICO.
What the Capital City of Our Sister
Republic Needs.
a -CIogGed soil Filthy with
h Accommodations of Ages
The Pullman Plan of
Drainage Proposed.


Tn great need of this capital is good drain.
age. A company of energetic and wealthy
Minnesotians was formed for this purpose
two years ago and they made a contract
with the government to that end. But they
demanded that their pay for the great work
should be secured in advance, and required,
| believe, that they should be allowed to col
lect certain public revenues as they progress
cd with the canal leading from this valley
northwnrd through the mountains, and this
condition broke up the bargain.
During the last ten days L have made a
pretty thorough examination of the surface
of this city and its suburbs, and it seems
very doubtful IL the scheme of the Mime
sotians will ever be successful. 1t is only an
attempt to complete the work begun by the
Viceroy Salivas in 1907, on which millions
have already been spent. There is a better
way; the pumping of the sewage of the city
to the suburban fats which perish of drouth
for several months every year. The system
which is understood to have proved such a
success at Pullman, Ills, is admirably
adapted to the City of Mexico.
There are no cellars in this city. Water lies
within two feet of the surface-water clogged
and rendered impure by the filthy accumula-
tions Of ages. There is no water in all the
valley twenty-five miles square, fit to drink
except such as is brought up through deep
artesinn wells. In the summer fevers and
pneumonia abound. When Cortez found
the city it covered a small island in Lake
Tezcoco, and was connected with the main
land by two or three long and narrow cause
ways built through the shallow water and
broken here and there by defensive bridges.
Since then the lake has receded till it Is
nearly ten miles away. The floating gardens
of the Aztecs-rafts of wicker-work uphold
ing rich vegetable mold-have long since
come to anchor and formed solid beds of
earth with bitches running between. The
city is now surrounded by a low, level plain
threaded by broad and beautiful bouleyards
200 feet wide, embowered in cypress and
eucalyptus trees. Thu terrible canals in
which the little band of Cortez was repeat
eddy engulfed have Withdrawn or dwindled
into bitches. This great waste of new land
is terribly dry in the rainless season and un-
productive.
II great central sink were to be excavated
in the city, and all the sewage were led into
1t to be pumped thence upon the surrounding
meadows, they would be made to blossom
the year round, the heathfulness of the whole
valley would be guaranteed, the cost would
be far less than would be involved in the
Huchnetoca canal, and Mexico would
become, take it all in all, the most attrac-
tive city in the world to visitors. The
scheme has been proved feasible by the sue
cess at Pullman, and the very coufiguration
Of the outlying lands, the vast benefits to
accrue, the splendid avenue to be beautined,
the fertile fields to be reclaimed, the health
of 100000 of people to be protected, and the
seriousness Of the dilemma which defies any
other solution, ought to tempt the authorities
to put it in operation at once. Instead OF
being brown and dusty, parched and fever
stricken, the valley of Mexico might be made
a garden, sustaining the happy population
that 1t supported under Montezuma, and
blooming with moro than historic splendor.