The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-06-21

dUONe LOuuOu, VI w ISL
ington, and it is hemmed in by great noun
tains which kiss the sky with their frosty
lips some two or three miles higher. Here
among these mountains there is little
oval-shaped valley about forty-five miles
long and some thirty miles wide at the cen
tire, which contains half-a dozen great
lakes, one rising above another, and the
level Of nearly all being higher than that of
the spot on which the great city stands
Mexico was built by the AZtecs. and they
chose a swamp for a foundation. The
Spaniards, when they rebuilt the city,
stuck TO the old site, and with high ground
all around this great Mexican metropolis
stands upon Shiny ooze of black mud so
soft that two feet below the surface the
water is found and so that piles may be
driven down, going into the earth easier
and easier as they go deeper The crust of
earth on which the town is built seems to
be solid, but builders tell me they dare not
attempt to make deep foundations, and it
may be that the city is built over a great
subterranean lake. Considering this fact.
1t is greater wonder than Venice or Am
sterdam, and it is a model in the shape of
good pavements, solid buildings and exces-
slve cleanliness. There Is no town in the
United States which has cleaner streets
than this great Mexican capital. and their
condition is even better than that of the
streets of Washington at the time of a be-
ginning of a new Congress when the street
cleaners of our capital are doing their work
well in the hope of holding on to their job
THE RICH LIVE, THE POOR DIE.
This cleanliness of Mexico is all the more
wonderful from the fact that the city has
no system of sewerage or drainage For
more than three hundred years the people
have lived and died and have cast their
garbage and their offal into its cesspools.
Ten generations of men and women have
poured the constant filth of their daily life
and an enormous business into its soil, and
all the refuse and waste of 800, 900 people
are sinking into it today. 1t is indeed a
wonder that this city is not a mighty hos
pital of dead and dying. According 10 the
ordinary rules of municipal health, its |
whole population ought to die off every |
year, and one would think that the typhoid !
fever and diphtheria would leave the rest /
OF the world for Mexico. The sun and the |
air, however, fight them, and for the better |
classes Mexico is city of life rather than |
one of death. The life insurance people of |
New ork, which have agencies here, find |
tnat the death rate Is very low among the |
insurable people, and the high death rate of |
Mexico city comes from the poor Indians /
who sleep on the ground saturated with this /
foulest debris of ages, with Shiny water /
two feet below them, and with nothing be-
tween them and the earth except the cotton |
clothes and the red blankets, which form /
their costumes by day and by night. These
die more rapidly than is generally known.
The better classes sleep on the second floors
and their health Is generally good.
TO WARD OFF DANGER FROM FLOODS.
has been discussed for generations, and il
is one Of the great problems OF to-day. This
little valley has no outlet. and the city is in
Its lowest part. Lake Tezcoco which at
this time is only two feet lower than the
level OF the city, has an area of sixty-seven
square miles, and IL rises during the wet
season. Several times it has overfiown the
city, and within only few wears
back l am told the whole town was
covered with three feet of water One in
lndatlon lasted for five years, and the
waters were finally carried off by an
sinking through the crack
caused by il. The other lakes are higher
han Tezcoco and one of them is twenty
nine feet above the city. A Jamestown
food here would do An immense deal more
lamage than it did in Pennsylvania, and j
u coming into the city rode by great {
ut which a Spanish engineer made nearly I
hree hundred years ago with the aim of
training the lakes and the valley and carry
ng the water of into the Gulf OF Mexico. i
change of government occurred while the j
work. was in operation and it was finally {
Ibandoned. The present government has {
,iven a contract for another immense ,
anal 70 drain these lakes and hundreds of /;
Gen are nuw at work on them under &
American engineers. A big cut is being I
nsde through the mountains, and within s
wo or three years at the farthest Mex /
co City will be out of danger and vast {
mount of land now covered by water will c
,e reclaimed. Plans for the sewering of g
be city are now under consideration, and {
bis canal will, l understand, be eighteen {
o twenty feet below the present level of ]
be town. A very important question will C
e, as to whether the city will not sink r
vhcn the vast amount of water which is p
ound under is at every point is removed, a
nd whether such drainage would not be q
1ore disastrous than a great earthquake. u
The expense Of this canal, 20 one Of the G