The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-07-19

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 1t can.
Many of the girls are very pretty, and the
whole ride was a Kaleidoscope panorama
of ever changing unity. 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 a
cigarette after her meal, and hungry-eyed
Indians looked curiously into the windows
of the hacienda and watched US eat. As we
the jungle and his wooden pillow was pulled
by oxen which were harnessed to it by the
horns. Everywhere in the fields and In the
houses we saw the signs of the great super
stition of the Mexican peasants. Most OF
the corn an wheat fields 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 sur
rounding 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
bear from which the vanilla extract is
made and the cocoanutS hung from the
palms. As we went on we found more
naked children, and little babies of two and
three years old 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 handled 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 nientc.
THE OLD NATIONAL ROAD.
We left Jalapa at about 4 in the morning
and we reached the end Of our journey at
about 8 in the afternoon. Allowing two
hours for stops, we made the Seventy-two
miles in six hours. or an average Of twelve
miles an hour, by no means a 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 rail
road trip, however viii not compare in his
toric interest or in natural scenery with
this ride on the street cars. Inc Journey
is like one taken in a comfortable carriage,
for the track is smooth and the seats are
The old road over which 1t
goes has been in existence for hundreds of
years. and it was over it that the Indian
peasants carried their heavy packs of mer-
chaadise before this street car line was
built, and for hundreds of years all the
mule trains and man trains which carried
the imports received at Vera Cruz to Mex
leo City had to pass over this road The
road is now as safe as any road in the
United States, but only few years ago it
was infested by brigands and travellers
were often robbed and killed, or rather
killed and robbed, upon it. You may still
see wooden crosses by the roadside with
heaps Of stones about them, and you may
know that each of these crosses stands
above the bones of q murdered man, and
that the stones have been cast by the super
stitious passersby upon the graves as mon
uments.
FRANK G. CARPENTER.