The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-08-09

you should import thrty-faTe pounds OF
paper, and in your invoice the amount
should be put down IS forty pounds. max
ing you pay tax on more than you have,
the custom house officials would fine you,
and when II is remembered that this sys-
tenn extends to every class of shipments il
Is no wonder that Mexico gets S35. 900 90
a year out of its custom-houses. II is from
the heavy duties and from these numerous
fines that the great profit on home manu-
facture arises in Mexico. Everything here
is protected TO such an extent as to almost
prohibit competition and there Is no bet
ter field in the world for manufacturing
enterprises. Such as have been established
are making money, and there is plenty of
room for more. In another letter I will
discuss this question more at length, and
will show how a number Of smart Ameri-
cans are already in the field and are max
ing fortunes.
One of the brightest Americans in the
country, by the way, is Mr.. Fred r.
Guernsey. the editor of the Financisv, a
weekly financial paper which has become
the business authority Of the country, and
which has made Mr. Guernsey and his
partners fortune within the past half
dozen years 1t is bright, reliable, pro-
gressive journal. published both IN Span
u
pendent. Its editor came down here at
the time the Mexican Central railroad was
opened, few years ago, as the correspond
ent of the Boston Herald. He liked the
outlook and concluded 10 stay. He is now
a partner in one Of the largest mer-
camille firms in Mexico, that of
Seegur. Guernsey & Co, and he Is
SAID TO have made several hundred thou
sand dollars within decade. He Is popu-
lar nrS~h D.. l. he
and he tells me he likes the country and
intends TO spend his life in it. His paper
- the only one of the kind in Mexico, and
II Is undoubtedly doing the country good.
As TO the other weekly papers. there Is
mining journal, humorous sheet or so.
and there is paper which circuiates
almost entirely among the lawyers. As
TO outside papers. see more French jour-
nails than Spanish ones on the tables OF
the reading rooms in the clubs, and
Mixico reads more French than English.
The bookstores. OF which there are many,
are filled with French books IN fine bind
lngs, and the cheap novels OF the day are
French ones
Mexico City is perhaps the best place IN
the world for the purchase of antique
books. and the secondhand bookstores
contain hundreds of old volumes bound in
vellum and musty with the age of hun
dreds Of years. / bought a rare old vol
uEne which was printed in the year 1903.
for 81 1t was a Latin book, beautifully
printed and illustrated, and it would bring
high price at any antiquarian's IN Amer
lea. / found it in book stall under the
long arcades that run around the plaza in
Mexico City. and the dark-faced book ped
der asked me SO for il. / pulled out
bright new Mexican dollar and held il up
before his eyes. He at first scorned it, but
as started to put it back in my pocket he
handed me the book and held out his hand
for the dollar You find all kinds of old
and rare volumes here. Two-thirds OF the
wealth OF the whole country belonged TO
the priests at the time that their property
was confiscated some years ago by the
government. They had vast libraries in
their monasteries. and their converts were
filled with old books. Since then
a great many of these have been
sold and stolen, and you find them IN
every language and some of them date
back of the invention of printing, and
were made by the monks OF the middle
ages with the pen / v1sited the national
library of Mexico. II is In the big church
of San Augustin, which was confiscated
and devoted to this purpose. and il con-
tains nearly 10000 volumes. or about one
third as many as our national library at
Washington City. The walls OF the church
have been lined with shelves and its naves
and its chapeis are filed with books. /
walked through long aisles of old volumes
bound IN vellum, and no one Of which /
was told was less than 100 wears old, and |
saw that there were hundreds of men and
boys sitting at the tables IN the reading
room and porting over books and making
notes from them. Some of these were
school boys, others were students of the
many colleges of the capital and others, /
was told, belonged to the Mexican con-
gress and were getting up speeches which
they would soon spout in the Senate and
House.
The theaters of Mexico are excellent.
The first stone theater built in North
America was erected IN the western part
of this country. and you find fair theaters
in all the Mexican cities. Mexico has
three theaters which range in seating
capacity from 1850 to 1900, and you are
sure of finding at least one good troupe
PLAYING. / heard Emma Juch in The
t.Walkure" in the Teatro Nacionai. and
the audience was as fine as any YOU will
see in the Metropolitan opera-house in
New York The cream Of the Spanish
nobility of Mexico was present. and there
were hundreds of finely dressed men and
women in the boxes. There were many
pretty girls, some of them Indians. some
Spanish, some Mexican, and not a few
American and English. The theater
was walled with boxes. and ali
the ladies were in full dress. The pit
was given up TO the men who kept their
hats on until the play began and who
smoked between the acts. At the close of
each scene al Of these men rose, clapped
their opera-gl2sses 10 their eyes and stared
az the ladies in the boxes. and there was q
great deal of bowling back and forth.
There was considerable visiting in the
boxes between the acts, and | am told that
the Mexicans perform many OF their social
obligations at the theateT. Another night
I went TO the Teafro Principal. which is
nearly as large as the NacionsI. This
theater was founded in the seventeenth
century by two monks, and when il was
burned in I722 il was looked upou as a
judgment of God for the sacrilege of the
church irving 20 raise money in this way.
The monks. however, rebuilt it and X is
no,y one of the leading theaters OF the civ.
II is managed differently from our theaters
and you can go N and sit FOR
only listened TO q cents
worth of Traviata in the pit and I might
have had an act in q box Tor about 10 cents
more. was amused al the way the man
in the box office kept track Of the seats
sold He had diagram Of the theate- in
which little holes were punched for each
seat. These holes were Just like those of 3
cribbage board, and into esch Of them was
stuck 3 little roll of green paper which
contained the number of the seat. and
when / picked out my place he handed me
one of these green roles, which formed nv
check for NV seat. Mexico has first-class
variety theaters. and il has a circus which
runs every day OF the week and nearly all
day sunday. and which : operated BY a
couple of Americans And all told, the
e an