The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-08-17
JALAPA THE BEAUTIFUL.
A RIDE OVER THE LONGEST TRAM
WAY IN THE WORLD.

A Mexican City and Some of It's a t.
tractions-Its Beautiful Girls-Won-
derful Mountain FIora-Orchids by
the Million-Fifty Miles Through
Santa Anns's Farm.
From the Washington Star.
VERA CRUZ, MEX, July 30 rode sew
enty-two miles on street car. A mad,
wild race over hill and valley down the
Mexican mountains. A gallop through
great forests and dense jungles. A ride
through orange groves and pineapple beds.
A jump from the regions where the coffee
grows, through myriads of trees loaded
with orchids. out into groves of palms and
on into the rank tropical vegetation of the
Mexican hot land A ride with
strange drivers, who remind you of Italian
brigands. A ride through strange people,
who live in strange houses and who look as
queer as though they came from the other
side of the world. Such is a may idea of
the trip took yesterday morning in CON-
ing from Jalapa to the little village from
whence you take the railroad for Vera
Cruz. 1t was ride over the longest street
car line in the world. IL was ride through
some of the most picturesque country of the
American continent, and 1t is a ride which,
within month, will have passed from the
possibilities of travel.
JALAPA THE BEAUTIFUL.
Away up in the mountains, within sight
of the snow-topped volcano, Orizaba, sur
rounded by the richest of lands, lies one of
the wealthiest and most beautiful cities of
Mexico This Is the old, old town of
Jalepa. There is no place in Switzerland
more beautifully located, and you will find
no town on the continent more picturesque.
The clouds nestle among the hills about il,
and every street climbs up and down, Civ
ing a series of beautiful views and vistas.
The houses are all of one or two stories.
They are of stucco, and they look as though
they had all been finished but a year or so
ago. They have long, low overhanging
roofs of red tile, and these roofs jut out
about yard and a half over the street, and
the rafters and the inside of the roofs are
painted a delicate light blue. Below this
blue comes the brown, drab, or yellow of
the wall of the house, which goes down to
a dado of dark red, which borders the
street The houses have great windows
covered with iron bars, and out of these
look the beautiful girls for which Jalapa is
famous. They have blue eyes, dark hair
and eyebrows. and their compilations are of
the richest of cream. Not a few of them
have rosy cheeks, and caught many a
beautiful picture with my camera as |
passed through the Streets The ground
floors Of the houses are level with the side
walk and you can look through these win
dows right into the houses and see the red
tiled floors, the walls frescoed in gay color5
and the garden of tropical plants which
forms the court yard, about which the
house is built. The people did not seem to
resent inspection and the fair senoritas
laughed when pointed the camera at them,
and l found them kinder and better looking
81 g
Mexican republic. The Mexicans them
selves have a proverb concerning them
They say that Jalapa is part of heaven
let down to earth and the proverb is, LAS
JalapenaS son halaguenas,n or "Bewitching
and alluring are the women of Jalapa.n
The town is in the center of the richest of
the coffee regions of Mexico. 1t has about
!, 400 people, and it is the most old-fashs
Toned city in this old-fashioned country
It's trade is very great, however, and for
twelve years the only connection it had
with the seaport has been this street car
line, which runs from it to the Vera Cruz
Now the Interoceanic railroad of Mexico
runs from the capital to il. 1t was opened
within a few weeks, and within a few
weeks more the line from Jalapa to Vera
Cruz will be completed and the tramWay
will be given up. 1t was thought that the
grades were too steep to be mounted by
steam, but modern invention and engineer
ing have proved the mistake. The iron
horse, within a month at the latest. will
supercede the mules, and the crack OF the
whip Of the Mexican Jehu will be lost in
the shrek of the narrow-gauge locomotive
THE LONG HORSE CAR RIDE.
The cars leave Jalapa early in the morn
ing. They are first and sec0nd-class. and
the only difference between them is that the
drst-class train has better cushioned seats
and Lass than ba
Each car contains six seats, is about fifteen
feet long and open at the sides. The seats
run right across the cars instead of uD and
down, and the driver stands on the front
platform with four lines in his hand. by
which he guides four of the liveliest mules
you will find in Mexico. He drives them
at gallop all the time and we change
every hour and go on dead run up hill
ana down Let me give you picture
of our ride: We paid our fare
| at the depot 1t was little Sc, and as we
took our seats in the oar a light
rain began to fall We drove first through
the long. narrow streets of Jalapa, whose
doors and windows are filed with faces
smiling a kind farewell, and then on ont
into che country. The road was that on
which Cortez marched with his troops and
it is the same road over which the American
army came under Gen. Scott when it can
tured Mexico city. Near Jalapa it is wide
and rugged and paved with cobblestones.
A thick vegetation grows at each side Of it.
and the stone fences which line il ara as
moss grown as those about Cork and K lllar-
ney, in South Ireland. The fields back OF
these are full of the signs of prosperity.
The grass is as green as that of
England, and 1t covers the hills on
every side for miles. There are MANY
fields Of corn, and this is in tassel, and see
roasting>ears bursting forth such as we
have in August. Here is a man blowing.
and cut in the field shows me that the
rich brown loan is from six to eight feet
deep, ard Mexican looks out from his big
sombrero on the seat in front of me. and
tells me that this land is worth as much as
suburban lots about Washington. II IL
curious to note the stages Of the same crop
in almost the same fields. Here is field of
corn in ear, and next to it you see another
with the sprouts rust shooting from the
ground This ground will produce two
crops of corn year, and it never needs
fertilization. Now we pass a 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 as an ear of corn.
The coffee bushes are 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 filed with bios
SONS 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 themselves
around the moss-covered fences, and shine