Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1886-06-12
IN NEW ROME.
.oaquin Mlllcrln Y. Independent.


but the poor little donkey.
And IL takes three men TO manage ono car
aud they arc kept busy all the time, all thre
OF them. The driver has big, brass horn
and he blows II at any time in the street II,
blows IL as Joshua blow whenever horse o
| dog, or child gives him the least chance b
make noise as a note OF warning that he
she, or IL ~ liable to DO run down by tn
donkey and its three managers Surel,
everything Is done with ga flourish OF trum
pets in this Rome of the New World.
The policemen here have no beat. A pc
ilceman, in Mexico City, is placed in tn
middle of the crossing of two streets; ant
there he stands night and day, day an,
night, looking up and down, and right ant
lett, four ways for trouble. And / commend
TINS method to other great cities for II there
is anything going on, in this way he can
surely see it. No beer Tor the public guard
in Mexico; no chance ever to take a shilling
on the sly, as In London. The eyes of the
city are on him. At night he has a lamp at
his feet At all times he has a club in his
hand, aud a bright, ivory handled six shooter
| at his side.
Order seems to be perfect here. Not sin.
| gle drunken man or woman have | seen. II
~ as sober and orderly city as was old
| Rome n decade since. And | rememhe,
| writing 1t down that in all the two or three
| years i lived In the Eternal City saw bat
| Two drunken men one a German, and the
other an American.
| Statistics refuse TO give me what NAV be
called even an approximate of the population
| Oh Mexico CITY. Some persons have set 1t
| down At half a million others at only half
| mat one writer insists that there are to.
oay only about two hundred thousand souls
| IN this city. But think hall million more
exact For know how stubborn Indians
| anu, anu, III lac', all uninformed and supersti-
. aoas poopie, are aoout giving their names
| ana The numbers or their household Thev
all Will tell you that 1t il death to count their
| numbers too closely.
Looking at the people AZ ! meet them un-
der the palms and amid their seas of flowers
under the path of the sun, / should saw that
at least one half of them wear sandals, one.
quarter are barefooted, and one-quarter only,
AT high estimate, wear shoes, or boots.
Ana the burthens these brown children of
the sun will bear! DooK down the street a
load OF wood. Look up the street hay.
Look left or right cabbage, flowers, fruit
In wagons? On mules? Donkeys Moth
ing OF the sort The great high rick of hay,
WOOD, flowers fruit, is borne forward by
single little brown man or woman. Two
hundred pounds is not counted an overload
for these singular little people, who gener-
ally carry their burthens on the run or trot.
All about the streets at all times you SEQ
these cdr=OddroS standing, rope In hand,
ready to carry anything in the world any
where. The monks brought the donkey
here from Spain to take the place of these
people; but not to much purpose.
And OF all picturesque creatures, commend
me 10 the native courier. lie is dressed
ike prince. lie wears silver buckles on
his sandals, silver belt, and plenty of silver
bells about his body where he can fasten
them. He' too, does his work on the run.
Why don't they introduce the Aztec in New
York, and make telegraph boy out of him /?
Prescott tells us that before the Spanish con.
quest these little fellows were accustomed to
make as much as one hundred miles day
when bearing letters and dispatches for
MonteZuma
have just returned from the heights of
Chapultepec. This glorious old fortress, the
residence of the late adventurer, Maximillian
put now line military school, overlooks all
this gorgeous valley of flowers and am
tempted 10 tell you just how the old city lies
and looks from this storied battlement
You will please open the Independent
about the middle. Now mark the white
space down. between the pages. This white
space Is the elevated aqueduct flowing east
TO the cathedral from the lower heights of
Chapultepec. Keep this clearly in your
mind Eow, and ascend the i've or six hun
dred stone steps, facing the wood-grown for
tress with the MONDAY sun over your left
shoulder, and you will know where to locate
the city when we reach the summit
Here we are ! Two hundred feet perpen-
dicular, and almost in the centre of a valley
as round as this paper would be if YOU took
a pair OF scissors and clipt off the corners
lhe White line of the middle, reaching to
and beyond the marvellous cathedral, by far
the hnest edihco in America, divides the city
almost equally.
Away out yonder, in the right-hand upper
corner of your paper, stands Popocatapetl and
his faithful spouse, ''the lady in white"
Matchless Glorlously magnificent! so
splendid in their sole mpanionship, so con-
slant and true so eternal ! And do you knew
that it is a satisfaction to see them together
l think maybe this idea will seem foolish to
some But II is a resttul thing to me to look
out and up from any place in this round,
rich valley, or in the city and see them there
together she in white, yelled as at an altar
he more rugged, yet white also in his ever
lasting mantle OF snow and ermine.
They have made great caves in those cones
OF snow up there. These little brown "caro-
daras' go up there and bring down ice out of
those caves, every day. From them this city
receives its ice brought down on the backs
OF the patient and mysterious children of the
sun. All day,and nearly all night and for three
hundred and siXty-iiVe days in the year,
there are at least a thousand little barefooted
and nearl naked little babies not more than
foot or so in height toddling about the pub
lie squares selling ice cream, sherbets, water
Ices and so on, all made from this ice which
has lain under the sides of these sunny noun.
tains since long before the rich man cried out
for drop OF water from the friend of father
Abraham in heaven.
SO much for the right hand upper corner
vi youE paper NOW IoOh vi Ill inc lelt manu-
corner. There lie the ruins of the ancient
TOtic capital. Before the AZtecs fled to the
Islands IN the center of this valley, this left
hand cornre was already the tomb OF kings.
Oh course tradition gropes here, and hasten
on from subject about which l can set
down nothing new. ] only wanted to get
the geography of the great points of interest
clear in your mind as we stand here on tho
heights of Cbapultepec looking out over this
storied and romantic city OF Mexico.
lat hatCrA ms nd hraA tar
oi league distant are the gates OF the city by
which the American army entered the City
OF Mexico after their merciless and most un-
necessary war ofinvasion. But it gives no
sign of seige or combat now. Only the great
stone columns stand now, and all may come
or go at WILL You see no marks or signs of
the Mexican war anywhere.
The MeXicans are a much wiser and
much more civilized people than we Ameri-
cans i'll this respect For they set up no
shafts, or monuments, or statues to their
hired fighters. They do not set up statues at
all, in fact, TO men who make the trade of
war Il profession. Nor do they celebrate
their military men above their civil ones
The old monk who proposed and pushed to
prosperous conclusion the war of indepen-
dence, is greater hero than any of those
who rode down to battle sword in hand.
No, no nuisance like that which has over
taken us in Washington city distgures their
squares or public walks here. The truth is, If
they should set up stones to every hero of
every war, they would have room for little
else.
However, right under our feet here as we
stand on the brow OF Chapultepec, there is
one tall and slapSly shaft Read a. wa le-