Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-01-30
QUERETARo.
A TYPICAL MEXICAN CITY, UN.
CHANGED BY IMMIGRATION.
of La CANADIAN Indian
Fete Day.

| Especial Correspondence of the REcoRD-USIoS. ]
QUERETARo, Mexico, January 30, 1886.
Until recently SO difficult of access has
been Queretaro that the outer world knew
little of it. Lying more than 5000 feet
above the gulf, in the heart of the Sierra
| Madras in the center of a wild country
which could be traversed only by stage or
| ule-back transit over robber-infested
roads-naturally there has been none of
the rush of foreign immigration here which
has so demoralized the border towns. APP
parently the wheel of time has not been
turned for Queretarans, and the old city
has caught nothing of the spirit of the
nineteenth century, but preserves in
tact the manners and customs that
prevailed before the Pilgrim Fathers
sought our northern shores, and so
delightful is its quIetness that the
| fortunate traveller who has found it resents
all innovations and breads the inevitable
/ dav when American enterprise whose
| forerunner, the locomotive, is already here
shall have metamorphosed its olden
charms with the commonplace. The CAPT
| tai of Queretaro is distant from the City of
! Mexico only 234 kilometers, and is now in
| direct line of communication between the
| United States and Mexico's capital. via the
| Mexican Central Railroad Since the COM
| ing of the .tero carra (the cars), so-called
| Improvements have been rapid. Queretaro
| is now lighted by electricity, and has fine
! tramway service, telephones, etc. Tele-
| graph lines intersect the State the Post
| MAJ hos anI ri
| everywhere and besides the main railway
which connects it with all important cities,
branch line is projected from Queretaro
| to San Bias on the Pacific coast, via Celaya
aud Guadalajara. The city of Queretaro,
| being the State Capital, has of course the
| Gubernatorial palace and other pueblo
| buildings; besides a handsome theater,
casino, club houses, many elegant
| private residences and more than the
usual quota of good hotels. The
| streets are exceptionally well paved-for
| Mexico-and in the Gale de Tocutorios are
some splendid hot sulphur baths. The
| Otra Banda river winding around two sides
| of the city, furnishes excellent irrigating
! facilities for the parks and gardens, and an
| inexhaustble supply comes from the
neighboring mountains by means of great
stone aaueduct, seyeralt miles long, whose
massive arches are from twenty TO ninety
| feet high This enormous waterway cost
not less than S230,000, and was paid for by
the Marquis Villar de Aquila-a better
monument to the good mans memory than
that which his grateful townsmen subse-
ouentlv erected among the banana trees
| of the Santa Clara Plaza. Though so far
| in the tropics that winters cold never
| comes TO this favored spot, its altitude pre-
| cludes excessive heat, and its climate is like
that of
AN ETERNAL JUNE
From year to year. In Mexican, as in
most European cities, the first thing the
well-regulated tourist sets out to dc" is
| the churches Among the most note
worthy of Queretaros ancient sanctuaries
are the great Cathedral de San Francisco
and the churches of San Augustin, Santo
| Domingo, Santa Clara, Santa Rosa and Ell
| Carmen de la Cruz. The finest is that of
Santa Clara, with its lovely garden and
antique monument, mentioned in pre-
yious letter. The most exquisite wood
carvings compose its altar, and stalls for
canons and clergy, choir, confessionals,
and in short, most of the interior, produc-
! ing an odd but elegant effect. In the rear
is a now -disused convent for the nuns of
| Santa Clara which, in days of Papal su-
premacy, was one of the richest and most
aristocratic in all SpanishAmerica.
| To me more interesting than others is
| the fast-crumbling ruin of FL Carmen de Ia
| Cruz, with its tumble-down monastery ad-
| Joining. The winds and rains of three
| hundred years have almost etfaced the in
| scription upon the great granite cross set
| into the pavement in front of the monas-
| terry door and all the stones around it have
been worn into hollows by the knees of
dead generations. Standing in this now
| deserted spot, one can fancy the procession
| of cowled monks, of the order called Padres
Camilos, filing out from under the gloomy
arches, each chanting and carrying his
| lighted candle, TO perform their morning
| devotions around the sacred Cross del
! Carmen.
Against the protests of our guides we
entered the dark and crumbling cloisters,
! stumbling over broken pavements and in
danger of hidden pitfalls, for many of the
| trap-doors leading to subterranean vaults
have rotted away. Upon the walls of
some of the corridors may still be
| seen large paintings, dim with age,
| grim representations of the sutferings of
| thirst, and pictures of pallid saints contem-
| plating grlnning skulls or enduring horri-
| bic martyrdom. At our approach, huge
rats scampered into dark corners; cent?
pedes dragged their loathsome lengths
along the floor; scorpions darted over the
walls, and colonies of startled bats tapped
| their wings in our faces From most of
the moldy cells, where the pious monks
are supposed to have spent austere lives in
| the effort to win heaven, are secret pas
sages descending to unknown regions-but
whether to the wine cellars beneath, or to
| the underground channels which honey
comb the city below its surface, leading be-
tween the converts and monasteries and
the Inquisition, it is not charitable now TO
I iror1irn SivnPa tho hava lnno baal1
| dust.
One of the most delightful drives here
abouts is to the celebrated baths of
LA CANADA,
| A village about six miles from Queretaro.
| We were warned that it is unsafe to go
alone beyond the suburbs-Betsy and l,
with only hired coachman-but the expe-
rience of two years constant travelling over
the length and breadth of Mexico has
taught US that the extraordinary dangers
we sometimes hear of, lie chiefly in the
! imaginations of towards, or in the tongues
of voluble foreigners, who add zest to the
recital of their adventures by the flavor of
| blood that never was shed, and the exploits
OF brigands who never existed.
The leafy road toward La Canada, Dor
dered by hedges overrun with wild flowers
winds past the Hercules Mills, with its sur
touiiuinS NlIlaSei anu uHuer Tue olu dque-
duct, whose towering arches follow US to
| the journeys end. Clusters of adobe cot
tages outlie the city, perched upon the hill
sides in picturesque situations. their little
gardens reached by perpendicular steps cut
out of the solid rock, shaded by cactus and
oleander trees. Then come the .jacals
| (cane-stalk huts matched with straw OF
the country poor cultivated fields of cen
fury plants, cane, tobacco, wheat, corn,
skirtiDg the foothills of the Sierra Gordas
Ruined shrines by the wayside, and inches