Smyrna times., 1886-12-15
In the Heart Of Mexico.
BY JOAQUIN MILLER.

BY JOAQUIN MILLER.
The center and focus Of all things in
the sister Republic is Mexico City; and
the core Of this city is the great cathe-
dral. The Mexicans, like the Latins,
are peculiarly gregariOus. The Saxon
loves his own separate home, his castle.
The Frank never would live alone.
You may travel France all over to-day,
and you will find not a single farm
house. All the French farmers live in
villages. And so it is here. If a man
must live in the country and keep
cattle, the first thing he does is to build
little city, hacienda, and fill it full of
Indians, servants, and followers. If he
can do no better he will catch up and
keep all the "tramps" that chance to
come his way; for the Mexican will
have a city of some sort, even though
he has to build it and people it himself
And yet, to tell a very plain and un-
palatable truth about the Mexican, it
must be frankly admitted that he is not
very substantial builder of any sort.
In fact. he has built, of himself, little
more than a mud hut, or a group of
mud huts, called a hacienda, for more
than sixty years.
Investigation develops the fact that
when the Mexican became a free man
he ceased to build, or do anything else
but make war, to speak Of
1t is now more than sixty years since
/ Mexico became independent of Spain.
And yet, in all that time, she has not
built a single public edifice. The Mex
leo City which we find here to-day is
entirely a Spanish city. So we must
bear in mind, as we enter the heart of
the Republics heart for half an hour
this morning, that all we see is the
work of the Spaniard.
True, the splendid halls of Justice
have modern look; but they are sim
ply a convent with the monks turned
out. The same may be said of the
Library, with its 100000 volumes. The
same may be said of the museum, with
its strange and hideous Aztec idols
wonderful calendar stone, sacrifcial
stone, and so on. All these, and doz
ems of other great buildings, were erect
ed by the Spaniard. The Mexican die
a good work in turning out the lazy
monk, it is true; but he does not show
half as much industry and enterprise
in turning out the monk and remodel
ing his converts to his own use as die
the monk in building them.
Yes, this is an ugly fact and a dis
couraging statement, l know, to max,
about the Mexican; but the cold, cleal
truth is he has done but little, unit
within the past very few years, bu
fight and plunder. Why, this very
hotel in which l write was a nunnery
The great iron bars which would max,
all escape impossible in case of fire, tht
double window and the deep cSsemen
which shuts out half the light from me
this bright Mexican morning, all thi
which shuts me in at my work, ono,
shut in from the world and the light
light for body and soul-some poo
little lady of rich and romantic New
Spain.
But now at last there seems to b.
setting in from some source or anOthe
a new current of blood and vitality
The old ruts and cuts i'm the streets
paved with massive stone, after tn,
early fashion Of Rome, are being re
paired. New and light pavement i
AtANlAlS NilC plelOC Vi lilC Olus ClCCJIl
light illumes the chief places in th
city now. Attention is paid to drain
age and all the simpler sanitary uses
and the heart of Mexico is a lighte
and better heart to-day than it ha
been since the expulsion of the Span
lard.
Yesterday 1 sat on the steps of tn
great cathedral, and saw the Mexican
cut down the beautiful Austrian gur
trees (EUcalyptuS) which had been sc
in the grand plaza by Maximilian. Thi
plaza has been for centuries a place fo
beggars, cheap venders, tramp traders
and so on. But the new Empero
planted it in trees, and set up a musi
stand in the centre; and the musi
stand and the musicians are there still
but the glorious trees, which in a fe,
years had grown almost as tall as tn
cathedral, were cut down yesterday.
asked an officer in charge, why
He looked hard at me, and at last h
said il was because these strong an
tall trees were taking all the strengt
from the finer and humber plants an
trees in the garden. But the secret an
true reason is the hatred in which IL
memory of Maximilian is held. I'll
fact is, no man, dead or living, h;
7, been more bitterly exeCrated than tn
N dead adventurer is to-day here in Me,
n leo.
y And rightly, l think. He saddle
st the land with debts and trouble whiC
will be felt for generations to com
And he left it nothing. His carrias
and his splendid silverplate, which
i. saw this morning in the museum, sho
n him to have been foppish and sha
r low-minded man, caring for his oW
le vanities and display rather than f
= the bleeding and torn land he professC
to want to help and heal.
And now let us pass from these pc
ishing follies and the petty revolution
and hatreds and heartburnings, to tn
which forever will be the wonder of Il
l. New YOrld, the ancient civilization
this city of Mexico.
After Cortez had been driven fro
the city with great loss, and had final
built feet and retaken the city aft
three months siege, he razed Il
b place to the ground. He utterly
strOyed everything which could be
. strOyed. The things which could n
70 Jul hCui anu yOb WOI0 lOo u6dNy
be shipped out and thrown into h
lakes surrounding the ruined AIT
city, he buried where they lay, aft
b having had them battered and brok,
so far as any human force could bait
: and break them.
And yet only last month a gardent
in widening and cleaning up one of t
, little walks among the flOwer-beds, n
i. fifty feet from the front-door of the {
thedral came upon an obstructi
ne which seemed, upon further excavati
in the loose black loan, to be the he
of an idol. The Government took t
discovery in hand, excavations we
ordered. and three immense imag
each weighing more than a ton, we
~ taken from under the feet of the CT
- dinal, where they had lain since t
MS days of Cortez.
ty These hideous and monstrous imae