Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-08-27
YDA Adds LETTER.
Mexico lndustrialIy, EcclesiaSticai-
ly, Socially and BenevOiently.

EDITORS HERALD-I am often much q
verted by theignorance prevailing anon
Americans, otherwise clever and vel
informed, concerning Mexico. Sometime
in the course of relating mild little ar
ecdote, have occasion to say, "And 8
I 'phoned across the town to so-and-so,
or "And We took the tramway to such-a
place, twelve miles away, which, G
course was much cheaper than carri
age," whereupon the average American
who has not visited the country, make
q croquet-arch of his eyebrows, and says
"What Do you have telephones ant
tramways in Mexico?" And have ever
heard said "Of course you must have NJ
such thing as letter-carriers in Mexico,
whereas the fact is that one finds tele
phones in wretched little ranch-towns
twenty leagues from anywhere; every
town of any importance along the rail
ways has tramway ply ing between the
center and the station and about the
t,wn, at fare ranging from
t, IL cents, while every poin
Of interest to sights eers neal
the larger cities are reached by horse
cars. AS to postal arrangements, the
City of Mexico has an ample force ol
carriers, and the mail is distributed and
collected four times daily, or oftener on
special occasions. The number OF popu.
lation requisite for the privilege of car
rier delivery is smaller than in the
United States. Then in the arrange
ment and fitting up of public Offices,
Mexican towns far surpass American
ones of the same size and Importance.
In providing apparatus and other school
supplies, also, the respective officers and
committees are very liberal, readily pro-
viding the newest and best equipments,
and that in abundance. One finds in
small class rooms charts, models, etc.
Then in the way of benevolent institu-
tions, Mexico is far in advance of the
preconceived suppositions of foreigners.
Take for instance the charitable es-
tablishments at Guadalaxara, city from
which returned about fortnight since.
There are three establishments there
which would compare favorably with
corresponding institutions anywhere.
The hospital is situated in one
of the pleasantest and most sa-
lubrious portions OF the city, and
the building was erected especially for
its present use, whereas many such
asylums occupy old convent or church
buildings whose arrangement is ILL
adapted for such purposes. A pleasant
portico gives ingress to the building, 185
meters long by l70 wide. 1t has twenty
three courts, surrounded by noble Tuscan
corridors and inclosing pleasant gardens,
full of fruits and flowers. Throughout
the establishment everything needful for
comfort is provided, while nothing is ex-
pended on mere luxury-a pleasing con-
trast to the ostentation too often seen in
such places. In the Founding Home
twenty-nine babes we're in the hands of
the nurses at the time of my visit, and
in the Orphan Asylum 1874 boys and 1856
girls were sheltered, clothed, fed, and
taught. They all seemed as healthy and
C ,ntented as possible, and the smiles and
shouts with which they welcomed the
matron, Dona Luz Herrera, bespoke the
kindness of their treatment, for these
little tots are too young to have learned
to dissemble. In the School of Arts and
Trades for Women are taught the girl
inmates of the Hospice of over twelve
years of age, as we'll as outside
pupils, who must be girls of good moral
conduct between II and IS years old,
who may enter with the consent of their
parents or guardians. They are taught,
beside the common school branches,
astronomy, music and foreign anguages,
lithography, drawing, photography,
printing and bookbinding (the printing
office conducted by these girls has the
contract for the State work in this de-
partment) also somewhat of carpentry,
the making of fdeos "a sort OF vermi-
celli-like paste Tor soups), breadmaking
(the bakery supplies the Hospice and
the City HospitaD, and the weaving and
knitting of hose, ribbons, rebozos (the
native head-scarfs) and other textiles
consumed by the establishment or sold.
Then the drawn work, embroidery, etc.,
made here is most exquisite; SO fine it
seems as to appear impossible to make
by hand. The Home for the INDECENT
Aged, under the same roof, protects some
twenty-eight men and fifty-six women at
present; but the noblest department is
that which keeps girls and women from
paths of dishonor by fitting them
to earn an independent and hon
orable living. This Hospice, of
which Guadalaxara is SO Justly
proud, and which she so zealously main
tains, was founded in 1903 by the then
Bishop of that diocese, Juan Cruz Ruiz
de Cabafias, whose benevolent face is
pictured in the lovely little chapel,
whose Ionic dome, at height of thirty
meters, is topped by statue of Mercy
five meters tall.
The city hospital, usually called
"Belem" (Bethlehem), was finished in
1792-the same year of the death of its
founder-another Bishop of Guadalaxara,
which seems to have been blessed be-
yond all the rest of Mexico in the matter
of churchly magnates. Antonio Alcalde
was Dominican who came from Yucca
tan in 17S6-the year OF the great famine
in Mexico, owing to frosts which had
ruined the crops of the preceding year.
During that season this noble Bishop
spent $4,000 for corn, which he be-
slowed upon the poor. His whole life
was given up to benefcence. He built
schools, more particularly for girls,
caused the paving of the city streets, had
roads constructed, fostered public in.
struction and strove to benefit the people
generally, crowning his efforts with the
founding of this hospital in the place oi
the convent of San Miguel de Belem. He
used to say that his soul would not be
happy in heaven since there would be nc
poor and wretched there for whom te
strive and labor; when he died the en-
tire proceeds of his belongings-clothing
furniture, episcopal robes and jewels
was 1892. .25, and his plate consisted o
one small silver basin. One feels some