The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1884-04-24
MEXICO.
An Americans Observations About
the Country and People.

Wharton, Of Louisville, KY, who has
recently spent much. time in Mexico,
and the results of the conversation are
given in the Cincinnati Enquirer:
A BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY AND NOTHING
icoP"
"a beautiful country, with nothing
In it for us"
Then you think Texas is worth all
of Mexico?"
II do. 1t raises more, exports more,
has better soil. and moro energetic peo-
pie than all Mexico"
POOR LAND, BUT WELL CULTIVATED.
Now" said to Col. Wharton, ''ex-
press to me what you think of the land
in Mexico?"
1T was originally poor, thin soil,
and it is we'll nigh exhausted. There
was not much to get out, and there is
hardly anything left But it is mis-
take to say that they are not good cul-
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 5000, coo. of people; 5000, 900
of these are Indians. OF the better
society of Mexico. particularly the Ia
dies, you hardly see anything at all.
unless you should be taken to their
homes. But these poems are up early
and work late, and they exceed ne
groes or whites in their assiduity. They
will go 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."
s..How do you mean that the soil is
well cultivated?"
because they cultivate up to the
highest arabic point ON the mountains.
They gofar up beyond the place where
awe would till the land. There is so lit
tie good soil, they have to use it all.
Rocky New England is not as well cul
tivated as those portions of Mexico
where it will pay to raise anything.
They will take a wooden plow or some
kind of q stick, and work up the soil
like agarden. lsaw the Indian corn
rows set apparently by mathematics,
so straight they we're. Adrill could
hardly have planted the corn as straight.
Occasionally. you will find valley in
! Mexico which looks beautiful to the
eye and contains every description of
fruit and product; but when you 90 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 patch, and that alone gives
the rich piece of soil a splended 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.
What constitutes the business class
of MexicoP'
/ 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 Mexi-
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
er. people than we are," said Col.
Wharton.
'In what way?' said l.
"Well, they can wait longer. They
are more 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 a
private character"
MEXICAN MINING.
How did the gold como out of the
ground?"
''Why one Of the poems will take
rock as big as your desk and patiently
sit down beside it and split off small
piece with a hammer. and he will look
that little piece all over TO see il it has
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
oyerP"
"Yes. If any man ever comes to you
and wants to sell you mine which he
says is full of water, and only needs to
have the water pumped out to work it
to good advantage, don't you believe
him. II that mine is full of water, it
is pretty certain the Mexicans have
done with it, and have got everything
out of il.
FINE CAVALRY.
'Did you see any of their troopse"
Eyes; saw some splendid troops,
There are z. 900 soldiers kept in Mexico
City. They are as good troops as
ever saw, clothed in blue, very much
ike our regular army soldiers. ! saw
the finest regiment of cavalry there
ever saw. Every horse in it was black
exceptFone ridden by the colonel, and
that was pure white"
THE CITY OF MEXICO.
"Do you like Mexico Cityg"
IL did, very much, as place to
linger. to loiter. to admire The air is
SO pure and limpid that all distances
seem obliterated. You go up on the
mountains of Chepultepec, and the
CITY, three or four miles away, seems
SO close that yop can touch it, loved
to sit up there and just look down at
the city, the lakes, and at the distant
mountains. There are four active vol
canoes in Mexico, and some of the high
peaks you can see from Chepultepec-
one of them, forty miles away. looks as
if you can walk it ia nn hour"
'Is Mexico City busy placer"
mo; stupid. yet picturesque. They
say it has 100000 people. There is
more life in New Orleans in one day
than in Mexico in month"
MAMMALIAN.
hpid you see any signs of Maximil-
ian's dominions in MexicoP'
"Only one, kind of causeway or
viaduct that he built over the hill of
Chepultepec to reach his palace there.
That is all you find of Maximilian in
the country"
DO the Mexicans say anything about
Maximilian, or have they any regard
for his fateP''
Not one bit. They consider him a
mere barbarian, They consider his
fate to have been inevitable, and are
rather glad that he died, but do not say
munh ahout H. II tho moor mon uuaro