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

Looping by. The vegetation changes as you
go on. Near Jalapa you find the forest trees
of Ohio, and twenty miles further down
the mountains 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-pianting for more than twenty
years. In some parts of western Mexico
there are said to be plants which have been
out year after year for forty years, and
which still thrust out new shoots from the
old stumps, which fairly bubble with
sacharrine water. The cattle of this part
of Mexico are fat, aud these green hills are
dotted with cows, sheep and goats. These
are generally watched by halt naked poems,
and every now and then you pass matched
village or great hacienda.
SANTA ANNA AND HIS FARM.
We came on the dead gallop up to the sta
ton where Santa Anna made his hesdouar-
tiers on one of these haciendas. He was,
you know, the great general of the Mexican
army and dictator of the republic, and Gen
eral Scott defeated him at the battle of Ger
70 GordO. when he maze his march up this
road to the capital. Santa Anna owned
hundreds Of thousands of acres along this
road. We rode for fifty miles, perhaps,
through his plantations, which have since
been divided up and which are now owned
by these parties. His hacienda is hollow
square OF long. low buildings with matched
huts surrounding 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 five minutes
while four new animals were put in. Then
the driver cracked his whip and away we
us tha r-otl nf olr
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-cla 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 white duck linen clothes and his panta-
looms clasped his legs after the Mexican
style with as close a nit of those of the bal
let girl. He had whip twenty feet long,
and his sullen eyes looked cut of a hand
some face, under gorgeous yellow hat
whose brim was pulled down over his eyes.
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 as We went by. The
Indians OF the not lands are different from
those OF the Mexican plateau. They wear
fewer clothes, and in fact some of them
wear nothing at all l saw many naked
babies, and under one palm leaf
roef 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
a vanished mahogany brown. Many of
the women were bare armed and bare Dos
omed. They all had long, black hair which
hung in braids down their backs, and some
OF them, as they looked out of their tall.
matched huts, were really beautiful
HOUSES OF FISHING POLES.
The Indians of Vera Cruz are said to be
lazy, and a 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
they do no more than they can possibly
help. Their huts are made of canes Of
about the size of fishing pole, and noted
that they were very ingeniously construct
ed. Nails are dear in Mexico, and these
huts are all tied together. The poles are
driven into the ground, and they extend
about five feet upwards, making q circular
or square wall of poles fastened together by
other poles which run around them and to
which they are tied. From the top of these
walls . conical or fiat ridge roof runs up
wards. These roofs are made Of palm
leaves and fishing poles, and the thatch of
palm il tied to the poles. The poles of the
ground wall are not always very close to-
gether. and you can see the whole opera
lions Of the family going on within them.
Some OF them have but ono room, and men,
women and children, married and single,