Daily Yellowstone journal., 1886-04-14
A CHARMING OLD MEXICAN TOWN.
Rambies Through Moreiis--A Mexican
Hotei-A Morning kspast-

R~mbies Through Moreiis--A Mexican
Hotei-A Morning kspast-
Leaving the City Of Mexico very early
in the morning by the aforesaid Amer.
can railroad (here known IS the Mexican
NationaD you arrive at the outskirts OF
Morelia after dark, and are bundled, bag
and baggage, into tramvia, which takes
you TO town. A distinctive popularity
of the Mexican railway system Is that all
its stations are located In the remote
suburbs of every city by order OF the
government; the citizens being still too
much afraid Of the iron horse and too
distrustful of the American employees to
permit closer approach. But the
"tramvias- street cars imported from
the United States) are everywhere, those
in Morelia being as recent an improve
ment as the railroad.
You proceed 10 the hotel-presumably
FL Michoacan or La Soledad-and after
the usual amount Of Mexican "red-tape'
find yourself incarcerated in an apart
ment whose general air inclines you to
the belief that you have inadvertently
strayed into the penitentiary or lunatlc
asylum. These two hostleries are large
rambling ex-convents which were occu-
pied by nuns or monks for a hundred
years or more. 1t is romantic, to say
the least of it, TO sleep in some musty
cell where pious recluses have done equal
penance in other years, and the effect is
not lessened by the carven cross or lugu-
brious head crowned with thorns which
appears above the doorway, quite in
keeping with the tiled or plastered floor
and the small, grated windows.
At the first glimmer of dawning the
great bell of the cathedral, booming like
a cannon, together with a hundred
smaller bells in the churches, will awaken
you, and before noon, especially If it be
on Sunday, you will come to the conclu-
sion that the anti-church government
does not hold the bell-ropes here and reg
ulate their ringing, as in the City Of Mex.
leo, but that in Morelia they clamor in.
cessantly.
The first thing to be done, according tc
the custom of the country, is to take"
coffee-and if 10y any series of howls and
poundings you can attract the attention
Of servant, there being no bells, the
universal light morning repast, called
desaguno, will be served in your room
without extra charge. Nothing more
substantial can be had "for love OF
money" before noon. 1t consists of o
small loaf of Mexican bread resembling
a cannon BALL, minus butter, accom-.
panied by only small cup of coffee OF
chocolate. Should you be so unreason-
able as to require a couple Of eggs, they
may be obtained for small considera-
ton from the astonished host, who mar.
vels within himself at the greediness OF
@Los Americanos."
Strolling out into the principal street
called the Gale Nacional, you soon dis
cover that Morelia has not been over
rated, though its praises have beef
sounded in your ears ever since you
reached the border of Mexico. II is Ger.
tainly most charming old town-a city
set on hill that can not be hid-in the
midst of most delightful rural sur.
roundings. Its one-storied casas, EN-,
powered in perennial bloom, look Older
than they really are, being mostly built
of a pinkish trachyte (quarried about 6
mile from the city, which quickly take:
on a weather-beaten aspect. The town
was founded about the year 1880 by
that famous Spaniard, Don Antonio dc
Mendoza, and for nearly three centuries
was called Valladolid, till changed to its
present name in 1923, in honor of the
patriot cure, Juan Maria Morelos.-Fan,
ME B. Ward in Philadelphia Record.