Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1885-06-21
LIFE IN TExcOCo.
SOME SCENES AND PICTURES.

A visit 90 the Ancient tts-A glimpse OF
,he People aud Their Wass-Ltftiag the
Veil.
correspondence Philadelphia Evening Bull
letin.l
Two trains 20 out every morning
from the City of Mexico to the ancient
city Of Texcoco, twenty miles or so
away across the valley to the eastward.
The first-class train leaves at I o'clock.
The second-class train leaves at 8
O'Clock. And we took the second
class train, for it is just as hard to get
UP early in the morning in Mexico as il
is in any other part Of the world.
ANYHOW, there is more unvsrnished
human nature in the second-class
trains. and as to politeness, that has
nothing TO do with station among the
people Of this wondrously civil land.
There was one eminently respectable
man in the cara lank parsonage,
dressed in seemly black and wearing
spectaclcs. He was the apothecary OF
Texcoco. as we knew before the day was
done. The rest Of the passengers did
not profess TO be respectable, and were
comfortably clad in white-cotton jack
cts and trousers and print gowns.
Most Of them had bundles, Of which
they were jealously careful, and ileas,
Of which they we're not careful at all.
There were some dogs, of course
Mexican Of the lower class rarely goes
anywhere without dog or two. Such
Of the women as lack a baby are apt TO
carry dog. in baby fashion, wrapped
in the folds Of their rebosos and Rugged
tightly to their breasts. The other day
saw a woman who, having neither
baby nor dog. was placidly walking
along the street with little red
Dig pressed close to her generous heart.
Luckily there were no pigs on our
train. Most Of our fellow-passengers
had things to eat with them, and those
who had not bought eatables at the
stations along the line. The Mexicans
are great hands for eating while jour
neying, and at every railway station
vendors Of fdmdles are in force.
The run to Texcoco was made in an
hour and half, the snow-peaks Of the
two VOLCANOES, Extacciwatl and Popo-
catapetl, in sight all the while.
TEXCoCo IS A FAMOUS OLD TOWN,
for here it was that Cortes had his
base during his siege Of the city; here
ne lived for awhile-before going
down to Cuernavaca-when banished
from the City Of Mexico, and here,
half a century before the Spaniards
landed at Vera Cruz, lived and glori.
ously reigned over Acalhuacan the
great King NetzahualcOyotl. Had all
the Aztec kings possessed the good
qualities of NetzahualcOyotl, the
Spanish conquest would have been not
the mixed blessing that it was, but an
unmixed evil. This monarch was at
once a poet, philosopher, and states
man. Under his firm but gentle rule
his small principally was expanded
into a powerful State; a benignant re-
ligion was introduced, in which the
cruel sacriiicial rites Of the Aztec race
had no part; life and property were
made secure. Such Of his writings as
still suryiye-notably his Hymns to
an Unknown God ARE evidence of his
religious andp philosophical Temperament,
and his charming " Ode TO Flower -
sufficiently justiiies his right TO the
title of poet. In his lifetime the pro-
phecy was current that white gods from
the East would come to reign in Mex
leo and so strong did the faith in this
prophecy become that his son, Netza-
hualpili, king only less remarkable
for his good qualities than his great
father, refused to nominate a successor
to the throne. When, therefore, only
five years after Netzahualpili's death the
Spaniards came into Acalhuacan they
were received gladly as tie white gods,
whose coming had been looked for during
many years. Hence it was that Tex
coco became the base from which Cortes
operated against Mexico. 1t was here
that the brigantines were built-lor the
town then stood upon the border of the
lake-with which the reduction Of the
city was accomplished. Cortes, with
the wisdom that characterized all Of his
acts, confirmed the son of Netzahuapili
a sovereign Of Acalhuacan, tributary to
the Hires of Spain. Dropping his name
of Extlilochite and his hereditary reli
gion with it. this prince was received
into the Christian communion, was
baptized Fernando by that Submission
airy, Fray Martin de Valencia, and be-
came a most jealous convert to the
true faith. As an evidence at once Of
his devotion and humility, he carried
with his own princely hands the stones
with which the foundations of the
Church of San Francisco, in Mexico,
were laid; and as an evidence of his
loyalty, he fought gallantly with Cortes
during the remainder of the great COM
mandor's Mexican campaigns. He
died not long after the conquest, and
with his death the Texcocan dynasty,
founded early in the twelfth century by
Xolotl the Great. became extinct.
Save that in the main plaza there is
a column surmounted by bust of
Netzahualcoyotl, there is nothing left
in TexcocO now to recall the memory of
its famous kings. 1t is placid little
town of 10000 or 10000 inhabitants,
the streets laid out as regularly as
Phlladelphia's own. The broad main
street is planted along its entire length
with double row of orange trees,
making green vista that is shut off at
its northern end by the massiyely grand
old Church Of San Francisco. With
in the walls Of the church-yarj
is the still older chapel Of the Her
msnadad, built first Of all when Tex
coco ceased to be Pagan and became a
Christian town; plain, square little
building, having no beauty to commend
it, but venerable because Christian
prayer has gone up from it daily for
three hundred and sixty-three years.
There are half dozen more churches
in the town, but beside these there are
no notable buildings. The houses are
the regulation one-story, fiat-roofed
houses that, outside Of the great cities,
are found all over Mexico not hand