Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-07-19
with porcupines, decorated with the most
wonderfully shaped and beautiful fowerA
Orchids of Every Variety.

Orchids of Every Variety.
These orchids are of more than hundred
varieties They are of all shapes and colors
and you find them on all sorts of trees. You
could have carload here for the picking,
and they hang over the road and fairly load
down the branches of the trees to which
they are married. Birds of the brightest of
| plumage fly in and out among them, and
| the mocking bird whistles at our car as the
mules go galloping by.
| The vegetation changes as you go BY.
Near Jalapa you fHd the forest trees Of
I Ohio and 20 miles further down the noun
| tain you have jumped into the vegetation of
| Florida and Louisiana. You soon get into
the fields of pineapples. They are little
low bushes like cabbages and they cover the
ground, their red bodies shining out below
the green leaves. Near them are fields Of
sugar-cane, and am told that sugar will
grow here from year to year without re-
planting for more than 20 years In some
parts of Western Mexico there are said to
be plants which have been cut year after
year for 40 years, and which still thrust out
new shoots from the old stumps, which
Fairly Bubble With Sacharrine wateH
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 hGlf-naked poems, and every
now and then you pass thatehed village or
great hacienda We came on the dead
gallop up to the ststion where Santa Anna
made his headquarters on one of these
haciendas. He was, you know, the great
general Of the Mexican army and Dictator
of the RepUblio, and General Scott de-
teated him at the battle of Cerro Gordo,
when he made his march up this road to the
capital
Santa Anna owned hundreds of thou
sands of acres along this road We rode
for 5S miles perhaps through his planta-
tions, 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 thGtched huts surround
ing it, in which live the 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 away we went
at the rate of II miles an hour.
The Drivers Are MeroiIess.
As we did SO freight car, to which was
also harnessed four mules, was side-tracked
on switch to let US pass, and behind US
came the second-class train galloping 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 duck-linen clothes, and his pantaloons
clasped his legs after the Mexican style,
with as close ut as those of the ballet girl
He had a whip 20 feet long, and his sullen
eyes looked out of q handsome face under
gorgeous yellow hat, whose brim was pulled
down over his ewes. 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. He 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 a.
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 wear
nothing at all l saw many naked babies,
and under one palm leaf roof 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
vanished mahogany brown.
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 plentiful that
they can almost live without working, and
tuS1 uO uO uOIe Juey can POSSIBLY
help. Their huts are made of cane of about
the size Of fishing pole, and L noticed that
they were very ingeniously constructed.
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 tired. From the top of
these walls conical or fat 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 to-
gether and you can see the whole opera
tions 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. 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 Kaleidoscope panorama of ever
changing humanity.
Oxen Harnessed by the Horns.
We took our dinner at Rinconado and ate
with a dozen Mexican farmers, who wore
their black sombreros at the table. A pretty
Mexican girl with a mantilla around her
head sat opposite rae and smoked a cigar
ette after her meal and hungry-eyed Indians
looked curiously into the windows of the