Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-07-18

load down the branches Of the trees
/ TO which they are married. Birds Of the bright
est of plumage fly in and out among them,
and the hooking bird whistles at our car as the
! mules go galloping by. The vegetation changes
as You go on. Near JaIapa you find the forest
! trees of Ohio, and twenty miles further down
the mountain you have jumped into the vege-
tation 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
repianting for more than twenty years. In some
parts OF western Mexico there are said to be
plants which have been cut year after year for
forty years, and which still thrust out new
shoots IRON the old stumps, which fairly bubble
with saccharine water. fhe cattle Of this part
OF Mexico are fat, and these green hills are
dotted with cows. sheep and goats. These are
generally watched by half naked poems, and
every now and then you pass q matched village
or great hacienda
SANTA ANNA AND HIS FARM.
We came on dead gallop up to the station
where Santa Anna made his headquarters on
one Of these haciendas. He was, you know,
the great general of the Mexican army and die
tator of the republic, and Gen. Scott defeated
him at the battle OF Cerro Gordo when he
made his march up this road to the capital.
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 other parties. His hacienda ia a
hollow square Of long low buildings, with
matched huts surrounding it, in which
hive the poor indiana who were prac-
tically his slaves. 1t was here that
We made our first change Of mules,
and the car stopped for about five min
utes while four new animals we're put in. Then
a Rrrv ka1 h
at the rate Of twelve miles an hour. As We did
so freight car. to which was also harnessed
four mules. was sde-tracked on q switch to let
us pass, and behind us came the second-class
train gaiioping 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 Whifest of white duck-linen clothes and his
pantaloons clasped his legs after the Mexican
style with as close ft as those Of the ballet
girl He had q whip twenty feet long,
and his sullen eyes looked out Of handsome
lace under gorgeous yellow hat, whose bfim
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 q 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
hot lands are different from those of the Mexi-
can 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 roof half a dozen men slept with moth
ing but breech clouts on them and the sun
crawled In through the Sits in the roof and
painted their skins vanished mahogany
brown. Many of the women were bare armed
and bare bosomed. 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 10
so rich and fruit is so plenty that they can al
most live without working. and they do no
more than they can possibly help. Their huts
are made of canes of about the size Of a lishing
pole and l noted that they were very ingen-
Iousiy 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 to-
Gether by other poles, which run around them
and to which they tied. From the top of
these walls a conical or fiat ridge roof runs up
ward. 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 together. and YOU
can see the whole operations 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
door-.and We caught some unmentiorable sights
a. We went by. The people sleep on the ground
and they cook without stoves and the smoke
finds its way out as best il can. Many of the
girls are very pretty and the whole ride was a
Kaleidoscope panorama OF ever-changing hu-
maAlty.