The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-05-31
THE LAND OF AZTECS
Though Rich and Picturesque, it
is Yet Little Known.
NATIVE DUDES AND DUDINEs
Where Mortals Breathe Champagne and
DelYe in Endless Mines and Reap
Perpetual Harvests.

SILAo, MEXICO, May, %, 1691.-[Special
correspondence OF THE HERALD. l-One
hundred thousand Americans will spend at
least one hundred million dollars in Europe
this year in sightseeing. They will rush
from one part of the continent TO the other
carrying little America along with them
and viii have their two hundred thousand
eyes worn out with picture galleries ana
cathedrals, and their two hundred thousand
legs will limp from the effects OF their
tramp Their one hundred thousand
stomachs viii be turned inside out at least
twice by the billowy Atlantic, and their one
hundred millions of dollars will be largely
spent in discomfort and discomfort
Europe they will find to be no longer for
eign country The tourist has taken its
picturesqueaess out of it, and the customs
of It's people are almost the same as ours.
The most foreign country in Christendom
can now be reached in Pullman sleeper.
and the only water that needs to be crossed
is the ragged little river known as the Rio
Grande. Mexico is land Of different civil
lization from ours. Its people are people
in themselves, and l find it one of the
strangest countries of the world. 1t is less
known in guide book literature than any
country in Europe, and it is land of Won
6ers and continuously changing kalideo-
scope of strange things of both man and
nature.
HoNoRED WHITE MAN.
We know very little of Mexico. Pres
colt gave US a picture of the country in the
time of the Montezumas Passing travel
ers have written the impressions that came
to them while looking out of express trains
going at the rate of forty miles an hour,
and we have hazy idea of the republic as
a sort of tail to the United States. The
truth is that the country is an empire in it
self, and just what sort of an empire and
how much it is worth even its own citizens
do not know. 1t is supposed that there are
about eleven millions of people in the re-
public, but they have never been accurately
counted, and the most of them are of
character and race about which the world
knows nothing. The men known as Mexi-
cans are the ruling class and these are num-
bered by thousands instead of millions.
The real people of Mexico are the Aztecs,
millions upon millions of whom have not q
drop of Spanish blood in them, and many
of whom possess no element of nature in
common with the Spaniards, the half
breeds or with their civilization. Most of
these Indians speak Spanish, but they have
their own tongues as well, and it is said
there are at least one hundred different
dialects used by them in different parts of
Mexico. IN some parts Of this country you
will find nothing but these Indians, and
Senator Hearst, year or so ago, Travelled
over some of the back districts of Mexico
where he was the first white man the peo-
pie had ever seen. They regarded him as a
great curiosity, carried him on their should
ers for miles and delighted IN doing him
honor.
DISTINGUISHED AzTECs.
The word Indian gives no proper idea OF
these Aztecs of the Nineteenth century.
They are nothing like our Indians in APP.
pearance or civilization. They are as ad-
vanced as the lowest classes Of many parts
OF Europe, and they have manners and a
civilization peculiarly their own. They
have shown themselves possible of great
development, and some of the most striking
men in Mexican history have come from
them. Jaurez was an Indian Hidalgo was
an Indian; and the president of Mexico to-
day, Senior Diaz, has some Indian blood in
his veins. The Congress of Mexico is
largely made up Of the descendants of the
Aztecs, and it is believed by many that the
future possibilities OF Mexico are to come
from this race. The pure Spaniards OF
Mexico are few, and they and the people Of
mixed Indian and Spanish blood make up
it is said, less than one-fourth of the whole
population. Still, ii is from them that the
whole country has been judged in the past
and it remains to be seen what the influence
of railroads and the consequent develop
lGaF1f will hnxra on fhn
MODERN ELDoRADo.
The best part of Mexico has not beer
prospected as yet by the miners. A minins
engineer, who has been travelling in tht
southern states Of this country, tells M,
that the great mines of the future lie in the
south rather than in the north Still tn,
north has been worked for ages, and polC
and silver are turned out there by the mi!
lions OF dollars worth every year. Ever
the northern mining regions are compare
lively little known, and Colonel Bivins, ,
well-knoWn American miner who owns val
liable property in the state of Guanahuato
tells me that he has obtained a concession
for Philadelphia syndicate to some won
derfully rich but unknown gold territor,
on the western coast Of the country TIL
agricultural resources of Mexico are as lit
tie known and have been as little tested a
its mines, and there is enough untitled Ian,
here to feed the whole of the United State
If it were cultivated. Just now COTE
planting is being largely undertaken an,
new sugar and ceffee fields are being plante
in number of the states.
AS VAST AS IT Is RICH.
Americans know but little of the Mexic
of the present. They would consider it Al
evidence of ignorance If q Mexican ha
never heard of the name of any one of tn
United States, but ninety-nine American
out of one hundred cannot name withou
looking at the geography five of the twenty
seven states which make up this great re
public, and the majority OF them look upo,
the whole country as being about as larg
as one of our medium sized states Tn
fact is Mexico In one-fifth as large as th
United States, including Alaska, and it i
six times as big as Great Britain. II /
more than three times as large as Germany
and you could lose three countries as big a
France inside of it. Across the top of il
where like a great horn it is fastened to tn
United States, it is as long as Indianapoli
is distant from New York city, and a lin
drawn from the root of the horn at Cslifor
MIA catacornered across it to its tip at Qua;
emala would be as long as the distance fror
New York to Denver. This horn is abou
one hundred and fifty miles wide at tn
bottom, or tip, and about eight hundre
miles wide al its roots, where it Joins on
u.s. In it's curve it embraces the Gulf q
Mexico and the Pacific ocean washes il
other side. 1t is not a smooth horn by an
means. Great mountains lie along its tor
and this top is a vast, rolling table land, til
most of which is mile above the sea-
had imagined this great Mexican platea,
which runs from the north to the sout
no ant ra nfrrr 20 ~, a.