Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-05-29
THE VALLEY OF MEXIC1.
Gazing at a world of Splendor-The Ma
guey Plant-Pui1ue-

guey Plant-Puioue.
The City Of Mexico is under our feet
and II seems TO be III the center OF sea
You can define the long lanes Of trees
reaching from the mountains in many
! places to the walls of the city But the
valley of Mexico, as seen from the sur
/ rounding mountains, still seems to be. fOI
| the most part, vast body of water, To
| right and left and all around you, here and
ali over the low fertile hills. yon behold
| one unbroken sea Of green. This is the
| maguey plant. We call 1t the century
plant at home. Ii is rank and responsive
grower, and disdains nursing 1t will
| iasten 10 an OLD fence, fashioned of loose
stones, and flourish there better than in a
field. 1t is certainly the cleanest and
| healthiest plant in the world. Its sturdy,
stiff leaves, here where it grows to perfec-
ton, aie in some cases rs large as a man
, and as warlike. The end of each thick,
| healthy and clean green leaf is armed with
a spear that would split fence-rail.
In the heart of this green, healthy plant
that stretches away in vast rolling fields on
either side of US for ten or twenty miles, the
Mexican digs hole. He selects the larg-
est in the field, and has perhaps 100 plants
tapped" at the same time. Three times q
day he comes with pump and pumps out
bIiS lillO Il pIS-ShlD, CdITIGu on MS
| back. 1t is Il sort of sugar making" busi-
ness, only they do not boil down the water.
They put it in barrels or tubs, and after
three days take it TO town, where, il is said,
| 5000 gallons per day is consumed. / have
tried to drink this "pulque," both at the
shops and at the table, but ii is impossible
to stand the vile smell of it after il has fer
mented and been tumbled about for days
| on the backs OF men or mules in pig-skin
! OF a former generation.
But look up and over and beyond the
green sea of century plants Look away
beyond the great lake, the flower gardens,
far away and above to the grand and eter-
nal mountains OF snow that lie cleaning
and flashing in the setting sun. Was there
ever such world of splendor to look upon
before? And only to think" says an
eminent American, who comes from an
other car and stands al my side, 81 have
lived fifty years within six days Journey OF
all this and never saw it before will
come every year of my life now" Words,
sentiment and utterance seem like an i'm
pertinence here. Old battle fields the rise
! and fall of this faction or that State or
nation-they are all below us now. These
sublime mountains. what have they cared
or concerned themselves for all that man
has done in their majestic presence? If we
could only partake little of their awful
stability and sternness and unchanged
truth
Here Montezuma stood, for he loved this
spot and in his simple faith seemed to see
the footsteps of his god on yonder mount
aims with the first burst of morning Here
Cortez stood, and in his religious bigotry
planned to place colossal cross on those
eternal banks of snow. And here stood the
old American soldier, glass III hand, con-
templating the road by which he was TO
cross those shallow lakes and plant the first
strange flag on the walls of Montezuma that
had been planted there for more than three
hundred years. What scenes What sur
roundiugs What traditions What proph-
ecies No wonder that the enchanted
Spaniard, when he first set foot here, named
the spot st. Angel Joaquin Miller in Chi
c10O Times