The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-07-19


tain YOU have jumped into the vegeta-
ton OF Florida and Louisiana. You soon
| get into the fields of pineapples. They are
| little low bushes like cabbage, and they
cover the ground, their red bodies shining
| out below the green leaves. Near them are
heldS OF sugar cane, and l am told that
| sugar Will grow here from year to year
without re-planting for more than twenty
| years In some parts of Western Mexico
| there are said to be plants which have been
cut year after year for forty years, and
which still thrust out new shoots from the
Old stumps which fairly bubble with sac
charlne water. The cattle of this part of
Mexico are fat, and these green hills are
dotted with cows, sheep and goats. These
| are generally watched by half-naked poems,
and every now and then you pass a
matched village or great hacienda.
SANTA ANNA AND HIS FARM.
We came on a dead gallop up to the
station where Santa Anna made his head
| quarters on one of these haciendas. He
was, you know, the great general of the
Mexican army and dictator of the republic,
and General Scott defeated him at the
battle of Cerro Gordo, when he made his
march up this road to the capital. Santa
| Anna owned hundreds of thousands of
acres along this road. We rode for fifty
miles, perhaps, through his plantations,
which have since been divided up and
which are now owned by other parties.
His hacienda is a hollow square of long,
| low buildings, with matched huts sur
| poor Indians who were practically
his slaves. 1t was here that
we made our first change OF
mules. and the car stopped for about five
minutes while four new animals were put
IN. Then the driver cracked his whip and
~ q e -
| an hour. As we did so, freight car to
| which was also harnesssd four mules, was
| sidetracked on a switch to let us pass and
| behind US came the second-class train gall
| Looping away as fast as we were. Our
| driver seemed to rejoice in every fresh
| team, and he had no mercy on the steeds.
He wore the whitest of white duck-linen
| clothes, and his pantaloons clasped his legs
| after the Mexican style, with as close q fit
as those of the ballet girl. He had n whip
| twenty feet long, and his sullen eyes
| looked out of a handsome face under a
| gorgeous yellow hat whose brim was
| pulled down over his eyes. His whip
crack sounded like pistol, and up Hill or
| down hill, he thrashed his mules, keeping
them on the dead gallop all the time. lie
| seemed to delight in whipping the mules
! as we passed the poems on the road, and
he was the admiration of the dark-eyed
Indian girls, who looked at him with great
| eyes as We went by. The Indians of the
| hot lands are different from those of the
! Mexican plateau. They wear fewer clothes,
and, IN fact, some of them wear nothing at
all. / saw many naked babies, and under
| one palm-leaf roof, a half dozen men
| slept with nothing but breech-clouts on
them and the sun crawled in through the
| Sits in the roof and painted their skins a
vanished mahogany-brown. Many of the
| women were bare-armed and bare-bosomed.
They all had long black hair, which hung
in hro91 de- 4rx.s fhasr AIu aud ~
them, as they looked out of their tall,
matched huts, were really beautiful.
HOUSES OF FISHING POLES.
The Indians of Vera Cruz are said to be
lazy, and greater part of this ride was
| taken through the state of Vera Cruz. The
| soil is so rich and fruit is so plenty that
they can almost live without working, and
they do no more than they can possibly
help. Their huts are made of cane of
about the size of fishing pole, and noted
| that they were very ingeniously con-
structed. Nails are dear in Mexico, and
these huts were all tied together. The
poles are driven into the ground and they
extend about five feet upward, making a.
circular or square wall Of poles fastened
together by other poles. which run around
| them and to which they are tied. From
the top of these walls a conical or fiat
ridge roof runs upward. These roofs are
made of palm leaves and fishing poles, and
the thatch of palm is tied to the
poles. The poles of the ground wall
are not always very close together,
and you can see the whole operations OF
the family going on within them. Some
| of them have but one room and men,
women and children, married and single,
sleep and dress under the same piece of
thatch. Many of the huts have no doors,
and we caught some unmentionable
sights as we went by. The people sleep
on the ground and they cook without
stoves. and the smoke finds its way out as
best it can. Many of the girls are very
pretty, and the whole ride was q kaleide-
oscopic panorama of ever-changing hui
mainly.
We took our dinner at Rinconado and
ate with dozen Mexican farmers who
wore their black sombreros at the table. A
pretty Mexican girl with mantilla around
her head sat opposite me and smoked q
cigarette after her meal, and hungry-eyed
Indians looked curiously into the windows
of the hacienda and watched US eat. As
we left the station we saw boy blowing
in the Jungle, and his wooden pillow was
pulled by oxen who were harnessed 20 it
by the horns. Everywhere in the fields
and in the houses we saw the signs of
the great superstition OF the Mexican
peasants. Most of the corn and wheat
iields had crosses stuck up IN them to keep
the devil out of the crops, and
many of these matched huts had
crosses covered with flowers and
paper stuck in their roofs or
in the ground surrounding them. As We
neared the foot of the mountains We found
the vegetation again changed. and we
passed by great trees from the branches of
which hung the bean from which the van
lila extract is made, and the cocoanuts
hung from the palms. As we went on we
found more naked children, and little
babies of and toddled around
! looking at us with wondering, innocent
eyes. Some of these were very pretty,
and the sun gilded their bronzed little
| bodies, and their teeth shone as they
smiled when we went by. / saw pretty
girls smoking cigarettes as they dawdled
half-dressed outside of these huts under
the sun, and the half-naked men who
| lounged around them were typical OF the
| tropics, where the air and nature invites
to repose, and where the chief thing in life
is the dolce far niente.
THE OLD NATIONAL ROAD.
We left Jalapa at about 7 In the morn
| ing, and we reached the end of our jour-
| ney about in the afternoon. Allowing
two hours fo- stops. we made the seventy
! two miles in six hours, or an average Of
twelve miles an hourly no means q bad
record for street cars and mules. During
| this ride we used twenty-eight mules, and
we changed about every eight miles. The
| ride back from Vera Cruz TO Jalapa Is said
to take twice as long, and the trip will be
| made in three hours by the new railroad.
| The railroad trip, however, will not COM
mare in historic interest or in natural seem
.,;.l, .hfs rida tho rha