, 1889-07-27
A IN MEXICO.
A Sort OF Fireworks which the MexIeans
Shoot on on Special Occasions.

A Sort OF Fireworks which the MeKIcans
Shoot on ON Special Occasions.
The Judascs are manifold as regards
both form and material. There are
scores of droll little devils made of clay
and painted, spidery Of suggestion,
being perhaps an inch long, but com
plete in make up, with tail and horns.
These are sold from one half cent to
one and a half emit each, and they
are worn dangling from button or
buttonhole. Then there are monkey
shaped tri1es, made of silken or wool
en- fluff, or of chenille, with bead
eyes, which are swung by scores in
festoons in the shop windows. and
hawked about the streets for a medic
or a real, ct or 12t cents each. These
also are suspended from a button.
Then there are Judases of all shapes
and sizes, and almost all grades up TO
more Than the stature Of a man. They
are made of paper and rags of mon
strously crude formation and coarsest
painting. They are made of card
board, paper, cloth and straw on n
cane foundation. They are made of
papier mache in really clever designs
and brilliantly painted. l have one
in the shape of a hunchbacked frog,
gaudily attired in painted on) coat
and trousers of the true frog colors,
only of enhanced brightness, and a
crimson waistcoat its expression is I'M
speakably drol and knowing. But
the foundation of all these JudaSes,
save the two kinds first cited-the
vital principle, S TO speaks gun
powder, for was not the first original
Judas red haired and Of a highly in
cendiary characterl
Good Friday night in Mexico. If one
visit the churches, is apt TO inspire
somewhat of solemn thought even in
the most frivolous, although it may
be only through the impression of the
services, But Saturday morningl Ali
Sabado de Gloriai Saturday of gloryl
Then it is that the Judases are fired
no slang; the term is literal. The
youngsters set Off their little lone
horse" Judases, and on the street cor
neTs and in front of the most enter
prising pulque shops-for this is an
excellent device for advertising-the
large ones r suspended from ropes
stretched from side TO side of the
thoroughfare and touched off amid
general acclamation. They whizz and
hiss and sputter, twirling on their
ropes, until the fire reaches the fuse
OF the rockets which compose their
internal economy, and then slapi
bangl popl away goes a fusillade like
young artillery, and the crowd shrek
and yell and go in to plank down their
last tlaco for pulque.
The large Judases are less well
made in Mexico than in the interior,
where, also, the people have "A naive
way of giving TO the face the sem
blance of a hated Gachupin (cant term
for Spaniard) or some other unpopular
parsonage. l remember a scene over
or under-a Judas in the port of
Mazatlan in my childhood, whose i'm
preston has always remained with
me very strong and unpleasant. Those
hot blooded, passionate coast people
seem to regard the arch betrayer as a
personal enemy, and his efigy as a
living, sentient creature. While it
hung in the air, whirling with the
might of the forces engendered within
it by its burning, they Knocked it, they
butfeted it, they spat upon it, they
~imprecated it; and when at last its
explosive contents burst it into frag-
ments they fell upon the pieces tooth
and nail, and bit and rent and tore
them with a fury and ferocity that
the things semblance to humanity
made sickening. But the people Of
the plateau have been too long under
the yoke of oppressors and the dem
milton, deadly dull grind of poverty
to show so much fervor. They take
theirs out in screaming aud in guz-
almighty of Mexico Cor. San Fran
cisco Chronicle.