The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-12-08
THE CITY OF MEXICO
A Ramble Among Scenes of His
tOrical Interest.
SCENES AT A SUNDAY BULL FIGHT
A GOred and Bleeding Bull Fighter-In the
Art Galleries-The Mexican's Craze for
Gambling and Lotteries.

Mexican Central railroad, and arrived at
the
CITY OF CHIHUAHUA
on the following day; I laid over two days
there "to take in the town" Chihuahua
contains 10000 inhabitants, among them
quite sprinkling of Americans, Germans
and French. There are a smelter railroad
shops and large foundry, which give en-
ployment to several hundred men. The
city is embellished with some very fine and
costly buildings, among them two very
large and old churches. One was built in
1913, and the other in 1875. The govern
ment building is avery imposing structure
1t is $50 feet wide, 800 feet long and three
stories high. 1t is built entirely Of cut
stone, of light color, and over the arched
entrances and windows is some very fine
ornamental work. There is in course Of
erection a very fine building that will be,
when completed, occupied by bank. This
building is also of cut stone, and nearly as
large as the government structure.
THE PLAZA
is ornamented with trees, fountains and
monuments. The garrison contains quite
large number of soldiers, who are drilled
about four hours each day. There is also
a good military band that plays on the
plaza every evening.
The town is situated 224 miles from Ell
Paso and 1000 miles from the City Of
Mexico It is the fault Of nearly all the
Mexican towns, in having very narrow
and crooked Streets which are kept any
thing but clean. While was sitting on
the plaza, 1 was surprised to see our old
friend and townsman, Heleman Pratt, who
few years ago, was on the Salt Lake
police force, came along. He is looking
well and says he is doing well financially
The city is about mile from the depot;
so thought the last night l was there 1
would try and secure lodgings as near the
depot as possible in order to be handy for
the train in the morning, which gets in at
z o'clock. | had formed the acquaintance
of gentleman during my stay, and he told
me that friend Of his had two beds in
room, and thought could get one of them;
so in the evening we went to this mans
house, who was an Englishman with very
LITTLE REGARD FOR THE QUEENS ENGLISH,
and found him about half-full of bad
whisky. l asked him if l could get a bed,
and he said: ayes, you can sleep there"
and pointed to dirty mattress lying on the
floor, which, by the way, was a mud one,
without pillow or bed clothing. was gaz-
ing at the mattress, meditating whether |
should take it or not, when he said ''Ill
divide beddin' with you, and that's as much
as I'd do if President Diaz himself should
come 'ere.m While he was getting of this
eloquent speech, he rolled up a blanket and
threw, it at me-, striking me
that it fully staggere me and knocked a
freshly lighted cigar out of my mouth so
far that could not find it. After that he
left and l went to bed. had been asleep
some time when he returned in a state of
beastly intoxication, bowling, swearing
and carrying on in such a manner as
would have made first-class maniac blush
with shame.
HE KEPT THAT RACKET UP TILL
nearly daylight. When 1 arose in the
morning he was sitting on his trunk hold
ing his head with both of his hands, which
looked to me about three sizes too large for
his hat. 1 was so much disguised with the
bed, and being kept awake, that [ did not
intend to ask him how much it was, or
even bio him good morning, so l started
for the door, when he said, 81 guess you
lad better settle fore you go.n l turned
around and said you don't surely intend
charging me anything for such bed, and
especially after Keeping me awake all
night!" He cast his blOodshot orbs on me
and said with great elaboration, my friend,
h'Ill tax you just, 'alf dollar for that
nights lodgin's.n l paid him and left.
When l got outside l saw a man and asked
him what kind Of fellow my landlord was,
and he said he was first rate fellow, only
he was occasionally troubled with those
delightful spells known as "snakes in the
boots'' By this time the train was ready
to start and l stepped aboard and was soon
on my way to the city of Mexico. 1t is a
fourty eight hour run from
CHIHUAHUA TO THE CITY OF MEXICO
and the road passes through a great many
towns. Among the largest are: Santa
Rosalia, Mapimi Serdo, Torreon Junction,
Fresnillo, Zacatecas, Agnas Calientes and
Guadalajara The country between Chi
huahua and within three hundred miles of
here is very barren-scarcely anything but
low hills, sand and different species of
cacti: but the last three hundred miles of
country seem very fertile. There are sew
eral streams of water, large groves of pine
apple, banana and orange trees, the fruit
Of which is peddled at the various stations
by hundreds of the Mexicans, old and
young and of both sexes. The fruit is ex-
ceedingly cheap. Large fine oranges you
can buy for six cents per dozen, and other
fruit in proportion. Along this part of the
road there are some magnificent groves of
rees-cottonwood, different varieties of
willow and some tropical trees and plants.
This section of the country is exceedingly
fertile and vegetation of all kinds seem to
grow luxuriantly. The climate here is
delightful. The thermometer goes up to
about eighty degrees during the warmest
part of day and goes low enough during the
night to make it just pleasant.
THE CITY OF MEXICO
contains something over four hundred
thousand inhabit0uts, nearly all Mexicans
l was surprised to ind so few foreigners
here. for you c..l walk from one end of
town TO the other without seeing an Amer
lean, and when gu do find one it is great
treat, / assure you. On this account it is |
difficult for an American to find out much |
about the city. There is one newspaper |
here printed in the English language, but |
1t has only a small circulation and does not |
amount to much as a newspaper. Board |
and lodging are very high, quite as much |
again as in Salt Lake city, and if an
American doesn't watch out he will get
cheated on everything he buys. There are
two distinct classes among the MeXlcans-
the wealthy or upper class, and the poems.
The upper class, both males and females,
dress very much the same as well-to-do
Americans, and appear to live in fine style,
but
THE Poems ARE wRETCHEDLY POOR
and the scenes in some of their quarters |
are degrading, far more than anything l |
ever expected to see among human beings. |
| have been in Chinatown in San Fran
cisco, Sacramento and Portland, Oregon,
and thought had witnessed scenes of filth
and dirt as vile as 1t was possible to get,
hut was mistaken, for the Chinese quar-
tiers assume quite an aristocratic air COM
pared with some of the Mexican quarters 1
that have seen in this city, Hundreds of
men. women and children go barefoOted
and bareheaded, with scarcely enough
olotbiDoy 1Inon them to hide their n alxedness