The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-07-19

about fourteen thousand people, and it is
the most old-fashioned city of this old
fashioned country. Its trade is very great,
however. and for twelve years the only con-
nectlon II had with the seaport has been
this street car line which runs from it to
Vera Cruz. Now the Inter Oceanic rail-
road of Mexico runs from the capital to ii.
IL was opened within few weeks, and
within few weeks more the line from jail
apa To Vera Cruz will be completed and the
tramway will be given up. 1t was thought
that the grades were too steep to be mount
ed by steam, but modern invention and en-
glneerihg has proved the mistake. The iron
horse within a month, at this latest, will
supercede the mules, and the crack Of the
whip OF the Mexican iehu will be lost in the
shrek OF the narrow gauge locomotive.
The cars leave Jalapa early in the morning.
They are first and second class, and the
only difference between them is that the
frst-class train has better cushioned seats
and less passengers than the second class.
Zach car contains six seats, is about fifteen
feet long and is open at the sides. The seats
run right across the cars instead of up and
down, and the driver stands on the front
platform with four lines in his hands by
which he guides four of
THE LIvELIEsI MULES
you will find in Mexico. He drives them at
a gallop all the time, and we change mules
every hour and go on dead run up hill and
down. Let me give you picture of our
ride. We paid our fare at the depot It
was little over S., and as we took our seats
IN the car light rain began to fall. We
drove first through the narrow streets of
Jalapa, whose doors and windows were
filed with faces smiling a kind farewell,
and then on out into the country. The road
was that on which Cortez marched with his
troops, and II is the same road which the
American army came under General Scott
when it captured Mexico City. Near Jalapa
1t is wide and rugged and paved with cobble
stones A thick vegetation grows at each
side OF 1t, and the stone fences which line
1t are as moss grown as those about Cork
and Killarney in South Ireland. The fields
back CT these are full of the signs Of pros
perlty. The grass Is as green as that of
England, and il covers the hills on every
side for miles. There are many fields of
corn, and this is in tassle, and see roasting
ears bursting forth, such as we have in
August. Here is a man ploughing and
cut IN the field shows me that the rich.
brown loan is from six to eight feet deep,
and Mexican looks out from his big SOM
brero on the seat in front of me and tells
me that this land Is worth as much as sur
burban lots about Washington. 1t is Curl
Gus TO note the stages of the same crop in
almost the same fields. Here is a field of
corn III eur, and next to it you see another
with the sprouts just shooting from the
ground. This ground will produce two
crops of corn year, and it never needs fer
tilization. Now we pass coffee plantation
The glossy bushes are shaded by tall. wide
leaved banana plants, whose heads bend
over, and upon many OF which there are
long brown blossoms or buds as big ss an
ear Of corn. The coffee bushes are as full
of ripe, red berries and the fora and the
trees are wonderfully beautiful. Here is
Buena Noches tree thirty feet high crowned
with great red flowers, and there are trees
filled with blossoms which are Of the same
size and shape as the Gala lily, and below
them are the long yellow tendrils of the
Mexican love plant which have wrapped
around the moss covered fences
and shine like sapphires under the rain and
the sun. The rain Of the morning is now
closing with a sun shower, and the dark
coffee trees are covered with drops of dis-
monds set into their emerald leaves.
ORCHIDS BIZ THE MILLIONS.
A few miles from Jalapa we 60 into a for
est and here we first see the Mexican
orchid. They increase as we 90 onward
until they cover the forest and hang down
in great punches, making the trees look a.
though they were studded with porcupines
decorated with the most wonderfully shaped
and beautiful flowers. These orchids are
of more than a hundred varieties. Thew
are of all shapes and colors. and you find
them on all sorts of trees. You could have
q carload here for the picking, and they
hang over the road and fairly load down the
Of the trees TO which they are mar
ried. Birds of the brightest of plumage fy
in and out among them, and the mocking-
bird whistles at orr car q the nglee 20 "a.