The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-06-14
AT MEXICAN RESORT
How the Pretty Indians Sport
About in the Water.
MANAGEMENT OF THE STORES.
What It Costs to Dress q Mexican Dude
The Markets and Their Curious
Ways-Aztec Lovers.

the famous hot springs of Mexico 1t Is
altogether different from an American
health or summer resort, and it might be
bodily transplanted to the soil of Western
India and not seem out of place. l am
sitting in my long, high-ceilinged room in
the Hotel del Plaza. 1t is like all the rest
OF the rooms of the hotel on the ground
floor, and | call my boy chamberlain TO
make up my bed by clapping my hands.
1t has no windows, and it looks out on a
little garden full of most beautiful flowers.
The hotel is built around this garden. 1t
is of one story, and it makes me think OF a
hotel at which | stopped in one of the ma
tive states of Hindoostan Ueypore). save
that there | had TO have my own servant,
and he slept all night in front of my door.
Aguas Calientes contains about 10000
people, and nine-tenths of the houses are
of one story. They all have fiat roofs, and
the water is drained off through pipes of
clay which iut out about a foot from
the edge of the walls These
walls are very thick. They are
built of stone or sun-dried brick,
and are succeed where they face the
street, and this plastering-like stucco has
been painted in delicate blues, or pinks or
of rainbow colors, which, strange to
say, does not look out of place under this
bright Mexican sun. None of these houses
have gardens in front of them They are
built close up to the cobble-stone sidewalks,
so that in going through the town you seem
to be passing between walls of gaily-col-
ored bill-boards ready for the posters, each
OF which has hole in its center for a
door The poorer houses have doors very
roughly made, and in the galloping mule
street car. that takes you from the depot
to the center of the town, you see few
houses with windows, and many of these
doors are filled with queer looking dark
faced people. The men, in their red and
gaily-colored blankets, look picturesque,
and the women, with dark, mahogany
faces, their long, black hair streaming
down their backs, freshly wet from their
last bath in. the hot waters, are in some
cases very pretty, and in others as ugly as
the witch of Endor after an attack of the
smallpox.
As you leave the station you pass the
public lighthouses, low Spanish buildings,
where you can get, for from 20 to 30 cents,
bath of any kind you want, and go on
up long. dusty thoroughfare under wide
spreading green trees into the business
part of the city. The business of this city
of 10000 people is a fair sample of that of
the interior Mexican town. 1t is big only
in the prices asked for the articles sold.
Mexico is not a great business country.
The most of the firms are run on small
capital, and there are hundreds of stores
which have not more than $500 worth of
stock. Many of these here have even less.
and the storekeeper, in the majority of in
stances. has a little cave of store with
out any windows opening out on the
street, and he stands behind a counter
which runs right across the store in front
OF the door, and offers his goods for sale
for three times what he expects to get.
In the case of the smaller businesses.
the trader IS generally a Mexican, and
there are more peddlers In one city in this
country than you will find in ten cities of
the same size of the United States. | have
Just come from the market Imagine
long tier OF stalls around two hollow
squares which cover the area of a CITY
block. These stalls are occupied by the
butchers, and bakers, and the candle
stick makers who have the biggest stocks,
and and the squares are filled with big.hatted
men IN white cotton clothes, and by red
sklrted women in white waists and
red skirts who sit under white
umbrellas as big as the top
of a small camping tent. with lit
tie piles of vegetables and fruit around
them; asked as to prices and
found that things were sold in
piles and not by measures
So many little potatoes made up
pile, and was asked two cents for four DO
tatoes, each of which was as big as buck
eye. A pile of four eggs cost here three
cents, and q little pile of tomatoes and pep-
pers were among the things sold. Peppers,
both green and red, were sold everywhere,
and L saw that some of the bigger market
men had great bins of them. They form a
part of every Mexican dish and are eaten
in great quantities. The average Mexican,
however, eats very little in comparison
with us. His market bills are NOT half as
heavy as those of his American brother,
and sewing basket would contain the
daily supply for large family. The
cheapest thing sold seems tn he fruit.
which grows in the shape of oranges. ban
anas and lemons very abundantTy about
here; and got splendid oranges for q cent
apiece.
About this market the Mexican peddlers
had collected themselves by the dozens.
Here was woman with two great lars of
what looked like very thin buttermilk be-
fore her. She was selling it in glasses
which held from half a pint to a pint. to
the passers-by. at one and two cents a
glass. ] asked what it was, and was told
ii was pulque, the Mexican beer. which
comes from a species of cactus, and which
is drunk by the barrel every day through
out Mexico. At the corner beside her, be-
fore case which looked like a bookcase,
stood a shoe-peddler. His stock was
made nm of SharD-tOed oaito-. o.,l by
actual count he had only twenty pairs to
sell. A little further on a yellow
faced woman in her bare feet sat
side I he T Fhis made 0a ap b snoe whole ole
establishment, and around the corner l
found very pretty Aztec maiden sitting
on a stool and rolling black tobacco into
cigarettes. The paper she used was
thicker than the newspaper in which this
paper over the cigarettes at both ends to
make il stay together. Before she did so,
however she moistened the paper with her
cherrp lips. and when / smoked package
of her wares at the cost of 2 cents il
seemed TO me that scent of the cherries
fingered there still. 1t was about 10
O'Clock at the time | visited the market
and found but few buying. Two well-to-
do Mexican ladies, dressed in black
passed through. giving directions to their
servants as TO what 10 buy, but | am told
that this was contrary 10 etiquette, and
that the ladies of Mexico seldom do their
own marketing, but leave it entirely to the
servants.
Near the market found few very fair
stores. but they would he small affairs in
a town of 40. 900 in New York or Ohio, and
a Western city of 10000 could show many
=. 4, NFarc 4l1a