Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-04-07
In YUCATAN.
AFFAIRS AT THE OTHER END OF
THE CONTINENT.
Household Matters Among the
Yucaeecos-Other Facts of
Interest on the Isthmus.

mate so antagonistic to achievement of any
sort, we hardly expected to find much
education or well-developed talent. But
we soon discovered our mistake. Merida
boasts of many writers of more than local
distinction-auth of valuable historical
works, of poetry, fiction and the drama.
One work especially dictionary of the
aboriginal language of the peninsula-is
of inestimable value. A drama, recently
written here by native author, has been
produced in Madrid and Havana with
great success. And no doubt many an un-
developed Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra,
a Coplas de Manrique, and a native k
tlilxochtl, have blushed unseen" for
lack of opportunity.
1t seems strange that men Of fame and
education should select this remote corner
of the globe as an abiding-place; but even
to the uninterested stranger there is an
indefnable charm about the old place that
keeps him here, and grows stronger as time
passes on. Some of Merida's Eell-con-
tented citizens were educated in London
and Paris, have crossed and recrossed the
Atlantic, spent years in Europe and Wis
tied most of the worlds important cities
yet who love Merida beyond any other,
and desire to live and die here.
The present population of Merida is reck-
oned at $4,000 Besides the various pub
lie buildings and fine educational institu-
tions mentioned in previous letter, it has
large library and reading rooms, aims
house, ioundlings' home and one of the
best appointed hospitals in all Central
America.
Several newspapers are published here
the daily Reristd del Merida the semi
weekly Ell Echo del Concrete, an official
organ; two religious papers-one Catholic,
the other independent. There is also a
horse-car line, telephones in general use,
lawyers and doctors by the score, more
than thirty mercantile houses, and many
very handsome private residences.
The market-place, which occupies an
immense square, is situated about ten
blocks from the Hotel Nerico, and is sur
rounded by high adobe wall, plastered on
the street side so that it looks like polished
stone. Entering its wide gate, you are in
stantly surrounded by a crowd of market
women, who "press" you-in more senses
than one-to purchase their wares, each
imploring you fervently, in the name
of the Blessed Virgin and todos los
santos GALL the saints to buy of her
only. Their commodities are varied in
character, and many of them indescribable
was an amused spectator to the strug-
giles of an English stranger in their clutches
"a rather swell young tourist in travelling
suit of exaggerated plaid, with cane-head
in his mouth, glass screwed in his eve and
the general air of one who owned at least
half the earth's surface. In an instant the
importunate horde were upon him, like
flies around a molasses barrel. One old
woman urged u small gourd rattle upon
him. Woman" said he, do you mis-
take me for baby"
Another insisted upon his buying
coarse cotton chemise-" for your sweet
heart" said ste-assuring him that it was
well sewn. Another pursued him with
cage full of young birds; others harrassed
him with greasy tomdleS, freshly fried and
red-hot; another with long switch Of real
hair-her own, maybe, cut off because too
tangled and thickiy populated to be longer
endured-until they actually forced him
to fly before he had advanced dozen
steps inside the gate.
Merida has its banking house, and drafts
on New York and Europe can also be OBJ
tanned from the hemp exporters, who are
by all odds the heaviest business men in
Yucatan. The premium on drafts is about
Is per cent, sixty days sight. The rate of
Interest here is from / to per cent a
month. Travellers coming to Yucatan
should bring American gold, as it pays no
duty and is always at a high premium.
Lying SO far southwark, of course the
climate of Merida is hot as the hottest
but even the furnace heat of midday is
always tempered by cool ocean breezes.
Day and night the wind, " blowing where
it listeth," renders life endurable, the tenn
perature, from year to year, ranging from
SO to 900. Though northerner would
naturally suppose the hottest months to be
August and September, yet here March
and April enjoy that distinction-partly
because at that time the heat generated by
the tropic sun is augmented by burning
corn-tields which are then fired all over
the country.
The rainy season, varying in different
parts of the country, in this section con-
tinues from May to October, beginning
later to the northward. In the latitude OF
Mexicos Capital the rains not only fall
between June and October, but they have
occasional showers during the winter,
especially in February, when the weather
is exceedingly changeable. The Mexicans
have a proverb which runs:
Febrero loco
Porque de TODD
Tiene un poco;
meaning " February is fool, because she
has little of everything"
In the winter snow falls at an elevation
of 5000 feet, while under the equator the
snow-line is situated at 1880 feet Baron
Won Humboldt gives the line of perpetual
snow in Mexico at 1901 feet above sea
level.
Though midway, in point longitude, be-
tween Havana and Vera Cruz-uhose
cities which every year are smitten by
yellow feyer-Merida scarcely ever suffers
from this scourge A few cases occur
annually, but the disease seldom becomes
epidemic; and it is asserted that pomito
has never existed at the same time both at
Merida and its seaport, Progreso.
Though its sole supply of water is de-
rived from the clouds and from few
subterranean eaverns, the city is in
condition of exceptional healthlulness, for
the tropics. No doubt this is largely due
to the proverbial neatness of the people.
Many of the houses were built more than
a hundred years ago, and their beams and
rafters, of sabine or zapote wood, are as
hard as iron and bid fair to last forever.
There are generally two walls, from four to
six feet apart, flied in with small stones;
and these are plastered and replastered,
season after season, making them as
smooth, beautiful and durable as polished
marble. They are notably freer from
vermin than is usual in this latitude
probably owing to the manner of their
construction.
The lofty and spacious apartments are
arched overhead, the great beams that sup
port the adobe roof painted in different
colors. Being undraped, uncurtained and
mostly bare of ornament, their vauit-like
vastness has an imposing look, rather than
one of home comfort, extremely depressing
at first to one fresh from the cosiness of
northern fre-sides. But at least they of
fer no harbor of refuge for scorpions, cent?
pedes and spiders, and one may retire to
his hammock with sense of security rare
in tropical regions.
There are no wooden floors in Yucatan.
hut always the beautiful shining cement.
tinted pale blue, gray or strawberry mink