The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-06-21
THE CITY OF MEXICO.
Bird's-Eye View of the Wonder
full Aztec Capital.
600 MILES OF PAVED STREETS
Resting Above a swamp, Without Drain
age and Sewers, Yet Containing 3oo.-
900 Healthy People-The Cathedral.

| the world II is more than mile straight
/ up in the air above London, Berlin, Paris
| or Washington, and il is hemmed in by
/ great mountains, which kiss the sky with
| their frosty lips some two or three miles
higher. Here, among these mountains,
there is a little oval-shaped valley, about
forty-fve ::miles long and Isome thirty
| miles wide at the center, which contains
| half dozen great lakes, one rising above
another, and the level of nearly all being
| higher than that of the spot on which this
| great city stands. Mexico was built by the
| Aztecs, and they chose..a swamp for
| foundation The Spaniards, when they
| rebuilt the city, stuck 10 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
i of earth on which the town is built seems
| to be solid, but builders tell me they dare
| not attempt 10 make deep foundations,
and it may be that the city is built over
| great subterranean lake. Considering this
| fact, il is greater wonder than Venice or
| Amsterdam, and il is model in the shape
| of good pavements, solid buildings and ex-
| cessve 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 City at the time of
| a beginning 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.
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 800 years the people have lived
| and died and have cast their garbage and
their offal into its cess-pools. Ten genera
| tons 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 10000 people are sink
| ing into it today. Ii is indeed wonder that
and dying. According to 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, light them.
and for the better classes Mexico is city
insurance companies of New York. which
have agencies here, find that 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 the
foulest debris of ages, with shiny water
two feet below them, and with nothing be-
/ tween them and the earth except the cot
| ton clothes and the red blanket 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.
The question of the drainage of Mexico
has been discussed for generations, and it
is one of the great problems of today. 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 it rises during the
wet season. Several times il has over
flown the city, and within only a few
years back, am told, the whole town was
covered with three feet Of water One i'm
undation lasted for five years, and the
waters were finally carried off by an earth
quake. sinking through the crack caused
by IL. The other lakes are higher than Tez-
COCO. and one of them is twenty-nine feet
above the city. Johnstown food here
would do an immense deal more damage
than il did in Pennsylvania. and in coming
into the city rode by great cut which a
Spanish engineer made nearly 800 wears
ago, with the aim OF draining the lakes
and the valley and carrying the water of
into the Gulf OF Mexico. change of
government occurred while the work was
in operation and il was finally abandoned.
The present government has given a con-
tract for another immense canal TO drain
these lakes, and hundreds of men are
now at work on them under American
engineers. A big cut is being made
through the mountains, and, within two
or three years at the farthest. Mexico City
will be out of danger and vast amount of
land now covered with water will be re-
| claimed. Plans for the sewerinv of the
city are now under consideration. and this
canal will, l understand, be eighteen
or twenty feet below the present
portant question will be as TO
whether the city viii not sink when the
vast amount of water which IS found under
II at every point Is removed and whether
such q drainage would not be more dis
asirous than great earthquake The ex-
| pense OF this canal, so one of the engineers
tells me. will be 5000, 900 or $6 900 600 and
its construction Is one of the big engineer
ing projects of the world to-day. This
expense, however, Is 3 bagatelle in COM
parison TO the loss by single innundatio
! During the great food OF 1910 il Is estimated
| that $4,000 600 worth of property WAS de-
stroyed, and the Mexlco of that time was
not more than one-hfth the size in wealth
! or in population Of the Mexico of today
In the DAYS OF Montezuma the lakes sur
| rouned the city. Since then they have
steadily receded. but the foods NAV vet
come. II is only by dikes and by this
| Spanish cut that the city has been saved
/ several times in the past
From the above il might be thought that
Mexico was q sort OF second Rotterdam.
| It's 500 miles of streets are as dry as bone,
and the square houses which line the side
walks with their smooth fronts OF plaster
fairly glare with thirst under the bright
sun OF the Southland. The town has It's
waterworks. The roads are not warered
throughout the day, as are the thorough
| fares of an American city, but they are
swept every morning by poems under
every bit of dirt is picked
| Up from the principal streets till
| they are as clean as japanese parlor.
Ehese streets OF Mexico are well paved and
/ Improvements are going on steadily. Not
| long ago some of the streets were laid with
| Trinidad asphalt. and this pavement is far
better fitted for Mexico than Washington
| CITY Others of the streets are paved with
| Nicholson blocks and 4 great many have
the old cobble-stOnes Of years ago. The
streets are eyeryw here wide, and on the
whole Mexico Is 5 beautiful capital.
Take stand with me on the spire Of the
great cathedral. which faces the plaza IN the