Omaha daily bee., 1890-01-19

The cadets are a fine lot OF young
men,, ranging in age from sixteen to
t~wenty-four years, but like all young
Mexicans are understood, compared
with u American boys. They are
delicate little fellows, weighing from
ninety to l4O pounds; not one in the 800
was over b feet s inches in height. Our
visit there was o pleasant one, and long
to be remembered.
Our treatment was as courteous and
h%ospitable as we could wish.
Looking from the terrace OF Chapulte-
pee we see first before us on what was
once an island IN the center of the
great lake, the grand old City of Mex
leo, the capital of Auahuac, said to con-
tain fully 100000 people. Steeples of
numerous churches, the palace, squares
OF houses-all white and beautiful in
the distance-three miles of broad
cedar-lined avenues leading from
Chapultepec to the city-the great
stone aqueduct to the left, three miles
beyond the city, northeast the bold
p~romontory and hill of Guadaloupe with
Its churches and monument to the sailor
dead, built in the form OF n mast with
sail spread. East and southeast fifty to
seventy miles appear as only a dozen
miles away, the snowy scalps of IL
tacc1huatl-the white woman-and the
famous volcano of Popocatepetl rising
more than Il. 1000 feet above sea level.
10 the west and north are mountains
and valleys as beautiful as a picture.
Just south Molino Del Rey, where the
American batteries were planted to
she'll C~hapultepcc and just under the
brow of the hill southeast the beautiful
gardens OF Tacubaya, from where the
Americans started on their charge to
scale the walls of the famous fortress.
Colonel Corella showed us where the
Yankees scaled the ramparts, and he
showed no feeling as he told of Santa
Annals defeat. Were | n Mexican 1
would never forget or forgive the Amer
leans for this unholy al of conquest
the big mans fight for a little boys
apple.
Tuesday the Oath we visited the mu-
scum and saw much to interest the tour
ist. particularly Il foreigner. We
were more interested in the Aztec de-
fetal stones, etc. The Aztec calendar
stone, eight feet in diameter
aud four feet thick: a hard,
tlinty rock handsomely carved more
than a thousand years ago, is the best
monument eXtant of Aztec learning and
civilization. We saw the jewels worn
by Montezuma and the armour worn by
Cortez, ole Spanish arms and flags.
The entire collection of this museum is
very interesting and we'll displayed.
Part of this day, Tuesday, was spent
in purchasing %curios, opals, onyx,
feather work, pottery and other pro-
ducts of the country.
Wednesday, being Christmas, nearly
all the stores were closed except the
sidewalk and plaza shops. Our party
spent most of the day in and
about the c~athedrals and in the
Alameda, the largest city park in Mex
leo, containing about forty acres. This
| park has every attraction in the way of
trees, fountains and fine walks.
The plaza in front of the palace and
cathedral we found full Of people SELL
ing their wares. Sunday is the best day
for trade; Here and everywhere in the
City of Mexico and in all large towns
we find the lottery ticket vender most
numerous and most persistent Of all.
All their sales have q percentage of
bepefit for the priest. They have pious
names-the Lottery Of the Holy Trim
ity, immaculate Conception, and other
names indicating governmental sane
ton, as FL National, etc. The ice
cream vender was calling out'tAlouse,"
''Alouse,a so we heard it, and our in
terpreter said he meant ice-cream.
Some of us went out to Tacobaya,
three and a half miles south. The finest
residences in Mexico are located here.
We were invited to inspect the best one,
which we.fOund located in the center of
an eighty-acre park, full of the finest
trees, fountains, lakes, walks and flow
ers, mystic glens ami handsome drives,
handsomer than any portion of Cen
trail park, New York. The house
contains forty parlors, every one
a picture gallery, hung with choice
paintings from the old masters. The
grounds surrounding the old mansion
we're enclosed by a high stone wall,
only entrance being through a high
iron gate. The millionaire owner of
this palace spends most of his time in
the city, was told-for fear of being
being abducted by bandits.
Thursday morning, the Goth, at 6
o'clock, we left the city of Mexico for
Vera Cruz-the city of the holy cross.
Our train had the usual carload of SOL
diers, baggage and mail cars, two pas
senger coaches and III two specials.
The first matter of interest to us after
leaving the city, wa the wonderful
fields of maguay plant, hundreds of
acres in extent. Men and women could
be seen laboring in the fields sucking
pulque from the plant. The pulque
is packed to the railway station
in hogskins loaded upon the
backs of burros. The packages
lying upon the platform ready for ship
ment look like a lot of dead hogs.
From Esperanza to Orizaba about thirty
miles we dropped 1000 feet, an average
of over 1870 feet to the mile, part of the
way the grade is over two hundred feet
to the mile. Fairlie engines to pull the
train-no machines like them in the
United States--are used OF this mountain
division. The rails and ties are of steel,
the road bed of broken and solid rock,
bridges all of stone and iron, the best
and most costly road in America. Mr..
Thompson and myself rode down this
first mountain grade to the Orizaba
plateau on the cowcatcher OF this double
headed engine. We saw the beautiful
village OF Nal Trata $500 feet
below our track. The city
blocks 800 feet square looked as IL
they were the size of panes of glass in a
window. We were in a temperate zone
near the frost line. Just below $500
feet we're orange groves, banana orch
ards, rhOdodendron hedges in full
bloom. Can you imagine such a picture?
From Orizaba the first great plateau
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