Wichita eagle., 1888-06-07
GOOD BYE OLD MEXICO.
GUADALAJARA, THE BEAUTIFUL
CAPITAL OF THE PACIFIC.
The Shadows Where the Fleas Nip the Wo-
men; Place to 60 to When You Die;
People Who Had Never Been In
yaded Before, and Many
Sights and Incidents.


While the rambling style of this and of
the missives which have gone before
necessarily involve seeming contradic-
tons, they are no more so than that coun-
try itself, rejecting, as they do, the rap
idly succeeding pictures and impressions
made upon the mind of the writer from
hour to hour and city by city as he was
whirled around about aud over land
whose inhabitants, as witnesses before
courts Of justice, in knots Of dozens, do
regularly stand up and solemnly swear
that they saw the said locomotive leave
the track a quarter of mile for the sole
intent and purpose of running over and
killing the innocent ass Of the poor
owner, the unoffending plaintiff, and
which locomotive then and there after
giving a terrible shrek OF triumph, re
turned to its track and proceeded on its
way to the City of Mexico, anon footing
its whistle in exultation over the fact
that a poor peon had no rights which the
gringo's engine was bound to respect.
When | die [ want to go to Guadala-
iara. Like the shadow of great rock
in weary land the songs of its sweet
birds, the music OF its many fountains,
the perfume of its delightful flowers and
fruits, and its many beautiful visions fell
upon our tired senses as our train rolled
through its welcoming gates on last
Monday evening, week.
Speaking of shadows, no one can SO
wildly realize what the prophet felt or
what the blessing of shadow is, or how
weary, very weary. land may become
in the absence Of shadows, as he who
travels in Mexico IN mid summer. For
a thousand miles, and more, through
northern and central Mexico the only
shadow is that of the great rock" The
mountains are sheer and nude of blade
or leaf, standing out like mighty works
in dark bronze against pitiless sky,
while the intervening valleys are only
cacti deserts of alkal, the thirst of whose
impervious and floating dust is never
slaked by spring Or stream, where
the dews Of heaven never christen
and rains never bless, or fall only
at long intervals. The dark hovel, the
low hutted village, the teeming, mud
built squalid city, all alike, bask forever
beneath blazing vertical sun by day.
and under an undimmed star gemmed
sky of truest SAPPHIRE by night.
But to Guadala iara-pronounced, if
you please, wah-dah-la- Thar -rah-the cap
Ital OF the state of Jalisco, and situated
one hundred and twenty miles from the
Pacific coast, about three hundred miles
south of the mouth Of the gulf of Cali
fornia, or two thousand miles south of
San Francisco. The state is the most
densely populated Of all the thirty states
of the republic, and its capital the ric .
and refined. 1t is reached after a DAY
and nights run from the City OF
Mexico, the last twelve hours through
a valley or along one of the largest
streams to be found in Mexico. The rail-
road had just been finished and ours
was the first American excuruion party
that ever entered its enchanting pre-
cincts. The city is about as far from
the City of Mexico as it is from Wichita
to St. Louis Here, on the shores of the
farthest occident have we the true glo-
rieS of the orient: here on the shores of
the latest discovered continent the civil
izations of the two hemispheres meet and
the times of the most ancient and those
of the most modern conlmingle. Here
it is written III the statutes of the state
that the man must pull on his breeches
and the woman veil her modesty before
entering within the gates of city whose
plazas and palaces are enlivened by the
presence of hundreds of dudes and
dudesses who look as if they had but
just stepped from Broadway or the
Champs Elysees, and the wife of whose
governor is New York woman; CITY
of the finest streets, the finest cathedral
and churches, the finest gardens and
squares, the finest public institutions
and expositions, the finest banks and
stores, the most polite police and army
and the most progressive governor to be
found in all the Republic of
Mexico. ''There are no flies
on Guadalaiara, but we are
are compelled to draw the line at the
flies, for her fieas-welI, YOU ought to
have seen the circus gotten up by the
ladies of our party on that question-ex-
hibition absolutely free. Here grows
the majestic date palm, and the cocoa
tree, the orange. the mango. the lime.
lemon and the plantin, the banana, fig
and grape. and, to the people of the
north, many other strange products of
tree and vine; here the air is resonant
with the songs of birds and redolent
with the aroma and perfume of deeply
dyed flowers and richly-colored fruits:
a city in the possession of memorials and
more ancient than the set
Element at Jamestown. of Virginia.
whose pavements are of thing as bright
as those which make up the floors of the
national capitol at Washington. and
many of whose streets are so clean as
would not soil the daintiest fabric. And
here is a city which, up to few weeks
ago, never had railroad, over whose
streets for three hundred years past the
wheels of wagon never rolled. vet
which boasts theatre 150x300 feet.
stage 100x150. with five tiers of balcony
seats and a seating capacity, entire, OF
five thousand people. Upon and from
the crevices of the many old walls. high
in air grows the cactus and other shrubs
and covering the iron bars across many
of the ancient windows of the older
churches and houses are growing grasses
and moses. Governor Corona. who is