The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1888-06-22

u
mostly vanished. And by nine O'Clock
unless band happens to be playing
on one of the plazas, there il absolute
ly nothing in the whole city to be
seen. There are plenty Of lights In
the public:squares aud thereare lamps
at the principal street crossings. But
the squares are few and the crossings
are far apart, and the Disguised sight
seer, finding no sights to see. returns
to his lodgings and lies down to-
dreams that will be a. little disturbed
by outside tumult as If he were in q
country village.
~
But he will not regret these enforced
early hours il he arises corresponding
ly early the next morning and gees to
the flower market. This il one Of the
institutions of Mexico, and the travel
er brings away no pleasanter recollec-
tons than Of the dewy mornings he
spent in this delightful little park, in
the cool shadow of the mighty cathe-
dral, breathing air heavy laden with
the perfume of roses and violets and
lotus, and feasting his eyes on great
masses of flowers of every hue and of
every name, arranged in every way
that an apparently instructive appre-
citation of the harmony of cOlors can
suggest.
-
These flowers, as well as nearly all
the vegetables that supply the city.
come from the FLOATING gardens, "just
south of the town. Mexico was start
ed in the middle of a swamp because,
SO the story goes, Montezuma got a
fool idea that he had to build city
where he saw an eagle perched on
cactus growing out ola rock in the
said swamp,) and it used to be called
the Venice of America. The swamp
has been mostly filed up though and
all that remains now to suggest
Venice is the Viga, a canal about 10
miles long, emptying into lake Tezcoco.
Along the Viga lie the floating
gardens, which do not float and prob
ably never did, the idea only being
suggested by the fact that the land is
divided into small patches by numer.
Gus irrigating bitches. Nevertheless a
voyage down the Viga is one of the
features of a visit to Mexico aud should
be by no means omitted. The gondOla-
like boats, the professionally attireless
might be added-boatmen,t the washer.
women at work over their stone wash
boards along both banks, the quaint
matched cottages on either hand, the
recollection that the enbankment to
your left is the old causeway where
thousands of Aztecs Welded up Their
lives in a vain endeavOr to keep the
Spanish invader away from the halls
of their Montezumas,-allt these things
unite to make your Viga voyage q
pleasant memory.
~.
Al Another one Of the suburban trips
that every visitor takes, is of course to
the hill and castle of Chapultepec, a
> mile or 80 southwest of the city. A
3 street car line runs to the gate Of the
9 beautiful park at the base of the hill
3 which rises up, sheer wall of stone,
. 200 feet above the level of the valley.
. A broad carriage road, bOrdered with
| eucalyptus and cypress trees festooned
| with Spanish moss, skirts the hill and
reaches the summit from the sloping
western side,-the direction from
which the American soldiers made
their famous assault. Just before be-
, ginning the ascent, one comes sudden
t ly upon monument erected, so the
t inscription says, to the memory of the
, cadets who lost their lives in gallant
t defense of their country "during the
| North American invasion" The word
\ "invasion" startles you for moment
and you realize more strongly than
ever that you are in 4 foreign country;
and you are compelled to admit also.
: with a blush of personal humiliation
a that you never felt before, that the
4 word is fifty chosen. When one Is in
a foreign country the sense of his
t nationality is much stronger upon him
and he feels personal responsibility
r for the acts of his country that he rare
: ly realizes when at home.
e -.
e 1t is a regal castle that crowns this
: hill, lifting its stately white walls
above the trees that surround it. Part
of it is used as the residence of the
: President, and as this dignitary was at
e home we were not admitted. The re.
l mainder of the immense building is
1 used as military school,-the Next.
, can West Portland we were shown
through such parts of it as are CT in
terest. The trip is remembered most
pleasantly, however, for the magnifi-
; cent view it gave us of the city at our
feet, the wide reaching valley with its
, lakes and groves and villages, and the
ever majestic Popocatapetl, lifting his
snowy head above the drifting clouds.
like a sentinel keeping eternal watch
over Iztaccihuatl, 1.-The Woman in
f White" who lies by his side, and
guarding all the land.
CHAs. F. SCOTT.