The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1891-07-01

of which is a mile above the sea. I had
imagined this great Mexican plateau,
which runs from the north to the south
throughout the entire country, to be a
fiat. 1t is rolling and is made up of DIES.
ert wastes, rich valleys and of mountains
which have for the past 200 years been
furnishing great part Of the gold and
silver OF the world.
Mexico is land of good-sized cities.
Its capital, which is away at the south,
has more than 100000 inhabitants.
Gauda!ahara has 100, 900, and there are
a number of towns, the names of which
are practically unknown to us, which
have twenty-five thousand and upward.
1t is land of many climates. Along
the coast you have the tropics with all
of their rich vegetation, their fruits, and
also, I learn, their tigers and tarantulas.
In the higher mountain regionsiti is cold,
but on this Mexican plateau you find the
ideal climate of the world. This plateau
constitutes the greater part OF Mexico,
and this may be called the climate of
Mexico, Here the climate is the perfec-
ton of pleasant June in Ohio the year
around. The air is as pure as that which
sweeps over Egypt from the desert in
winter time, and south Italy and Greece
can furnish no more beautiful skies than
these.
Think of a country where the crops
grow in luxuriant greenncss all the year.
Where the rose grows into trees and
flowers bloom forever. saw yesterday
men harvesting crops in one end of
field while other men were planting the
same crops at the other. Upon parts of
this plateau strawberries are ripe during
every week of the year and everything
seems to grow at any time it is planted.
The rule about Silao is two crops of
wheat from the same ground year and
l see that in harvesting the wheat is
pulled, root and all, from the ground,
and this air and sim form the only man"
ure. This part of the Mexican plateau
is like a garden. There is some irraga-
ton, but in many places the crops grow
without it, and rode for miles yester-
day through lands which were as rlcn as
cuano and as black as the rich soil that
makes glad the valley of the Nile. The
lands along the coast are, am told, even
richer than these uplands and the beauti-
full valley in which Mexico City is located
is one of the garden spots of the world.
,Io~;oo C;+y ia ahout 1000 feet above the
sea.
The Mexican plateau is not, however,
by any means all green. There are vast
deserts like those of Arizona and Nevada.
and in coming here through the great
State of Chihuahua on the Mexican Cen
tral Railroad I travelled for two days
through binding blaze of dusty sand
in which the only green thing was the
cactus, which grows there in all Its
beauty and in all its ugliness. These
deserts are in some places fit for grazing
and Meylcans tell me that on them are to
be the great cattle raising grounds OF the
future. Vast tracts of them will be re-
deemed by irrigation and thousands OF
acres have already been reclaimed. The
land when irrigated makes splendid cot
ton ground, and one tract produced ~
600 bales last year. A number of new
companies are now being formed and
Americans are largely interested in them.
The low lands which slope from the
plateau down to the coast do no. need
irrigation. They have an immense rain
fall during the rainy season and vegeta'
ton grows as rank as that of the Jungles
of India.
The whole of this country partakes of
the Orient. The moment you cross the
Rio Grande you are in the lands OF the
romantic east rather than in the practical
west. The air, the sky and nature are
those of Palestine in spring time, and
the architecture reminds you now of
Moorish Spain and again of the mud huts
of Egypt. The people are among the
most picturesque on the globe. Every
man is a fit subject for painting, and
the American artist, Mr.. Church, who
has spent seven winters in Egypt sketch.
ing, SAYS he finds Mexico a much more
fertile field than the well-worked coun-
tries of Europe. As soon as I crossed
the Rio Grande l saw at every station
lusty brigand-like men, with handsome
dark faces shining out from great SOM
breros, the crowns of which came to Il
point q foot above their heads, and the
5rims of which seemed to be foot wide
all around. These hats were gorgeous
in their silver and gold trimmings. Some
of them had ropes of silver around them
almost as thick as your wrist, and they
formed only part OF the ghttering cos
tunes of these Mexican dudes. The
clothes below them shone with silver but.
tons and braid. The pantaloons of some
of the men were striped with silver
.--G
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