Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-06-05
RAINY SEASON IN MEXICO.
EXTENSIVE TREELESS and UP
LAND PLAINS.
Licensed Cargadores, whose Voca-
ton is to Carry Pedestrians
"Papoose Back"

tiful, with turquoise skies, balmy airs and
singing birds-a dream of Eden in fresh
ness and beauty But invariably, little
after midday, mutterings of distant thun-
der are heard, suddenly increasing in vol
ume as black clouds roll up and obscure
the sun; and then big drops begin to pat
ter, followed by smart showers, like those
of northern Aprils. 1t requires less than
the poets eye TO see
Aquarius old
Walking the fenceless fields of air
And from each ample fold
OF the clouds about him rolled
Scattering everywhere
The showery rain,
As the farmer scatters his gain
or when it is over, to watch the wandering
drops
- On the bridge of colors seven
Climbing up once more to heaven
Opposite the setting SUM-
There are 40 long, cold drizzles here, like
our spring or November rains; but the
clouds mean business" when they roll
up daily with the regularity of clock-work,
discharge their contents without loss of
time and disappear as quickly as they
came. For an hour or more
TIE ROADS Run RIVERS,
And the use is explained of those great
stepping-stones which. scattered along
every street, are such d detriment TO car
riage travel and damage TO careless wheels
during the remainder of the year. Within
week after the FIRST rains the country
takes on o new livery of cheerful green,
in lieu of the arid tints to which we have
long been accustomed; the hot dVst-clouds
mi for ,.,oDfbc have haaD q npr,aatI1 al for
ment are effectually laid" and the vic
iously-active feas which infested them
have all persisted in the deluge, like the
races OF Noah's day, or sought other arks OF
safety In this section the wet season con-
tinues about five months, gradually in
creasing in daily fail of water and dura-
ton of showers--bv and by raining all
through the night, but seldom beginning
before II o'clock A. A. When the streets
become flooded,
MUATITuDEs OF cARGADoREs''-
Standing upon either pavement, with their
trousers rolled to the thighs-ply lively
business carrying pedestrians across upon
their backs. They make nothing of hoist
ing lady. as though she were sack OF
potatoes, with her reticule, fan, parasol and
other paraphernalia, and trotting away
with her, while her little feet dangle and
generally beat a tattoo upon his back, and
her fingers clutch him nervously amid q
series OF shrieks, and dump her dry shod,
upon the other side, all for six cents
When family party comes along-mother
| maids and chilGren-it is funny sight to
see them transported, one by one, over q
three-foot- wide, six-inch-deep torrent, with
| more fuss than Barnum's menagerie, white
elephant and all, would make in crossing
the Mississippi.
Desiring to avail ourselves OF several in
yitations before the rural roads BECAME
impossible, we recently made carriage
journey Suitably escorted) to some distant
haciendas. Our route lay toward the cele-
brated plains of Apam and Otumba, the
great maguey-raising section, where mill
ions of barrels of the national beverage
pulque, are annually drawn from the succu-
lent hearts of the century plant, or AgarG
americana.
About the same description applies to all
this portion of Mexico outside the cities-a
universal look of vastness and desolation
as of an aged country, worn out with time
and struggle, taking its rest in the evening
of life. 1t is impossible to convey with pen
or pencil correct idea of the scenery for
thousands of miles along these
CENTRAL TABLE-LANDs
Because the silent solemn empty world,
with many palmy plain like those OF
Egypt, must be viewed through this clear
mountain atmosphere, in which remote OBJ
jects stand out sharply defined against the
sky with peculiar distinctness, producing a
succession of pictures in water-color tints
which are enough to craze an artist with
enthusiasm. Ruins are everywhere never
ivy-grown like those of Europe. but mex
pressibly dreary in their gray nakedness.
Here Viceroy's ancient palace now serves
as shabby meS0H, where mules are fed,
and their drivers tarry to drink pulque
there a whole village is crumbling to de-
cay, with its old church, deserted convent,
tumble-down walls and tenantless huts-
all roohess, windowless and surrounded by
still fiowery, though weed-choked, patches
that once were gardens. Not ten miles from
the busy capital one may find roads which
are more complete solitudes to-day than
when Cortez came here nearly 400 years
ago-whose eternal silence is broken only
by some passing muleteer with his train OF
patient beasts loaded to the utmost limit of
donkey endurance, or rowing group of In
dams jogging on foot to town in their usual
pigeon-toed, half-trotting style of gait.
These degenerate descendants of a once
proud race are, in degree,
GENTLE, FALSE, CUNNING AND cowARpLY.
Contact with superior civilization" has
not improved them, but till the end of time
| they will remain as weak, indolent and
| improvident as nature makes such creatures
in tropical climate, when perpetual war
fare is not an incentive to ambition
| For leagues scarcely tree is to be seen
outside the gardens, except an occasional
clump of the graceful arbal de Peru, with its
pendant clusters of pink peppercorns; Oh
| here and there solitary palm with plumed
| crest-majestic monarch of the plain or
giant cypress, gray bearded with moss like
some venerable David, its arms out
stretched in perpetual benediction. Anon
| maguey-fields stretch away as far os the
eye can reach, many of the plants lifting
| the points of their enormous leaves fal
above the head of man ON horseback
At rare intervals we pass pastures of scam
grass, where lean cattle are grazing, outly
| ing some hacienda, whose moated anC
FASHIONED walls tell of feudal times, whose
spirit has not yet passed away from thi:
mis-named republic.
| At an Indian village of unproneuncabl,
name we stopped for luncheon, in its only
public resting-place-a typical .fondId
which is Spanish for :" little restaurant
! The earth floor of this wayside inn wa.
neatly swept, and its whitewashed innel
| walls
| HUNG WITH PICTURED SAINTS,
Wreathed with CANDY paper roses. Rick
ety-legged benches were ranged (immov.
| ably around the table, and the only two
chairs the establishment afforded-which
were kept as choice articles of virtu. of lit
tie actual use to their owners-were brought
for the accommodation of los Anlericdnos
who were suspected of not wishing to con
form to the rural custom of seuatting upon
a petdtc tstraw matt spread on the floor
The windows, of course, were guiltless Of
glass, and had the usual iron bars before
them, but observed that the rude, barn
door-lke shutters were of solid mahogany
"a wood, by the way. which is cheaper il
many parts of Mexico because less rare
than common pine. The great oaken door
with its enormous hinges, and lock like thu
breast-plate of medieval warrior. wa.
quantity carved, probably not less than /.
century ago, by some long forgotten artist
There are many things in this wonderful
country which are calculated to arous'
the spirit Of highway robbery in the breas
of the most honorable tourist i longed Il
tear that door from its hinges and run OF
with it; or TO seize from the shoulders O
the master of the mansion his zarape-:
native blanket of softly-blended 0rienta
hues, with the national escutcheon in tn