Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-01-07
MEXICO In M DWINTER.
ANIMATED PICTi RES SEEN FROM
A WINDOW.
Dreadful Penance Of the Discipline
The Princess SaIm Salm and
Eugene BaEaine.

CITY OF AENTCo, December y, 1887.
While people at the North are wrapped
in snow this midwinter season, eve Mexi-
cans" are iuxuriating in perfect summer
time of fruits ard flowers Armed with
palm-leaf fans asld in dresses Of thinnest
muslin, we spcld many 'of the drowsy
hours in hamHaoclls swung in the patio, or
in picnicking the floating gardens
(Which no longer foat) away up the Viga
canal.
As for the flowers there is no end of
them, and at this time Of year they
ae marveI,asly cheap. One may buy
peck Of pansies or an armful of the most
gorgeous roses-Jaceueminots and Field
of the Cloth Of Gold"-for % cents; and
nobody thinks Of paying anything at all
for heliotrope, isignonette, institutions,
aguatum and other floral beauties, which
grow wild here and are no more valued
thar common weeds.
The vegetation hereabouts is wonder
fully varied. Half a days railway jour
.ney will take one through the fora of
every zone-pines hemloclls and aloes in
the higher attitudes; elms and oaks
weighted with myriads Of orchids; mag
nificent expresses trailing somber curtains
of Spanish moss; fronded palms of every
variety; cacti of twenty different species.
filing every vista with pulpy greenness :;
coflee-groves with their dark, lustrous
leaves, starry blossoms and jeweled beans;
orange, lemon, banana, fig, pomegranate,
Y,aapno md aUuaca+a traoc fraiobtfncr tho
air with fragrance golden pine-apples
glowing behind nopal hedges-every house
and howell overgrown with bIossoming
creepers, flowers rioting everywhere, and
over ali a sky of celestial blue, broken
only by the peaks of snow-cappcd vol
canoes.
The day is warm to sleepiness, and,
lounging in the balcony, we
SEE MANY ODD SIGHTS
Which / would like to describe to you.
The architecture of Mexican houses is
quite as queer as the people or the natural
landscape. Fancy a city street in which
one house is sky-blue, the next Chinese
yellow, next pale pink, and SO on through
every conceivable shade of color, alter
mated with an occasional casa made en-
tirely of Dutch tiles, e< painted in checks,
stripes or figures, like printed Calico All
of them are of of brick or adobe, heavily
succeed on the outside, fiat-topped, with
quaint gargoyles, and inches here and
there for saints and angels every window
irOn-barred, and yards hidden from the
passers view within the walls.
Although there is so much unoccupied
territory in Mexico, the population of the
cities is greatly overcrowded. Here the
flat, or ririenda system is the rule, and to
occupy a separate house is the exception
Since the demand for small houses is so
much greater than the supply, why does
not some shrewd Yankee benefit the peo-
pile and enrich himself by building n great
many convenient little cdSds here of from
six to ten rooms? They should not be
Moorish castles nor Spanish forts like
most of those in vogue, nor yet strictly on
the American plan. Each should be of
one story only, with It's patio, or courtyard,
in the middle, having very large SdlG, or
parlor, and medium-szed bedrooms, din
ing-room and Kitchen judicious com
promise between Mexican and European
ideas of architecture.
To the average American builder the
construction of
A MEXICAN HOUSE
Would be simplicity itself. There are no
chimneys to build, nor cellars, nor attics,
no costly and elaborate wood finishing, and
very little paint. If there are glazed win
dows-which is seldom outside the larger
cities, the glass : Of the poorest quality
anG Jar better and more beautiful than
wooden floors are those of cement, tiles, or
square bricks in general use here Mex
lean houses do not require expensive re-
pairs which are constantly necessary in the
United States. Being pretty much Of solid
masonry there is no woodwork TO rot, and
never any frest to unsettle the foundation.
In Mexico there is no need TO go to
market, for the market comes to YOU, and
from a balcony or window one may pur-
chase almost every product of the country.
Here comes a cargadore, in sandals, leather
breeches and apron Of pita fiber, who
pauses and look up without saying a word.
On his back he carries a load of charcoal,
weighing at least hundred pounds, which
he has toted 20 miles or more. from away
beyond the Cord:lleras This indispensi-
BILE commodity sells here for about four
times the New York price but, fortu-
nately, the cooking braziers consume little
and none is required for warmth.
Now woman halts outside, and holds
up a water-bottle to tempt your reales. 1t
is Guadalajara ware-a chalk-like kind of
pottery, SO porous that the rapid evapora-
ton cools water within it like ice. She
wants medic peso (half dollar) per bot
tie; and really the grotesque painting out
side is worth double the money.
Here comes a collector of antiquities,
with whom | have dealt before, and who
grows sharper and more unreasonable every
week, since Americans, with their ready
purses, have come pouring into the country
and put the prices up on curios of all sorts
We beckon him in, and he enters the
heavy portal, crosses the howery patio
where oranges are ripening, doffing his
sombrero as he enters orr apartment, with a
courteous "Buenas dias, Senorita - then.
glaneing styling around, to make sure that
he is unobserved by any Catholic members
of the household, he unfolds parcel and
displays a handful of rusty iron, which
looks like bit of antique chan-armor. Ii
is species Of spiritual armor, being those
INSTRUMENTS OF sELF-ToRTURE
which Romish peadeaties used in DAYS not
long ago. There is band, four inches
side Of it covered with spurs and prongs to
laeerate the flesh. There are similar chain
bands for the neck, the legs and arms, all
furnished with barbs sharp as pins and Civ
ing inaUbitable evidence of much usage.
There is also q chain-whip, called dis
ciplisd, with which the religious devotee
strove to increase his piety by scourgiug
himself 1t is about two feet long. and at
the end are dozen ehafn-lashes, sc equip
ped with thornS of iren that it vas-ld tear
the flesh nj every bloE-
In the Old days all nuns and n,enks in
Mexico were compelled by the rigid rules
of their Orders to use the diScirl.ssu on
their own naked persons every night and
morning, before retiring 10 and rising from
the iran bedsteads that were purpoeeiy
made too short and supplied only With a
block of wood for a PILLOW. Nine Calde-
ron de Ia Barca. sn her book on Mexico
written forty years ago, tells us all about
It. Says she.:
The discourse appeared like prepare
ton for the execution Of Il Eaultitude of
condemned criminals. After K they ali
Joined in prayer, with much feryor and
enthusiasm, beating the;r breasts and fall