Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-12-07

the level of the sea exceeding that of the
summit Of Mt. Washing ton,-diverging to
the left as far as picturesque and semi
tropical Orizaba. only eighty miles from
the Gulf of Mexico with it's Swiss noun
tains, mountain torrents and picturesque
buildings, and it's Javanese coffee, palms
and hahanas,-diverginS to the right as far
as attractive and prosperous Guadalaja
on the Pacific slope of Mexico, with its
lake, it's waterfall, 1.-The Niagara of MeXi-
CO." and its canon that boasts the temper
ate zone at Its top and the torrid zone at
Its bottom; and pushing southwark as far
Oajaca and the famous ruins of Militia,
also in the vicinity of the Pacific, and many
miles nearer to the equator than is the sec
ond cataract of the Nile.
Wonderful Diversity of Sightseeing.
The principal plateau city is of course
Mexico, a great modern capital of nearly
100000 population. the center in succession
of Aztec. Spanish-Amerlcan and Mexican
civilization, and wonderfully interesting,
both from what it is and from what has
been preserved of the striking evidences
concerning what is has been. But there are
on the plateau a half-dozen other distinct
types Of city, as, for instance, beautiful
Puebla, the cathedral city; unique Guam
ajuato, a typical mining town, and Aguas
Calentes, the Arkansas Hot Springs of
Mexico. 1 doubt whether anywhere else in
the world short a distance of travel can
display a more striking diversity of sight
seeing. There exhibited the character
istic spectacles of the torrid temperate and
frigid zones; here the tropical jungle, the
palm, the bamboo and the banana; there
the coffee. the maguey, Indian corn
ard beans; then the cactus of the
arid wastes of the Mexican desert; and
finally the EGGPLANT of the glaciers of
Orizaba or Popocatepe volcanoes crowned
with perpetual snow. In historic assoc!a-
tons and relics of the past there is the same
diversity, There are reminders Of Diaz, OF
Juarez and Macmillan, of Gen. Scott and
Santa Ana, of Spanish viceroys and Hidalgo,
of Cortes and Montezuma, and of the I'M
known builders OF pyramids and palaces,
that antedate the beginnings OF recorded
history in America Among the men of the
Mexico of today there is in appearance and
customs a similar diversity. There are a
few hundred men of vast wealth and mill
lions of paupers, there feudal lords and
vaSSalS, and there are types representing or
suggesting the proud SpanIard and the pill
abe Egyptian, the Ethiopian and the Mon
golian.
More Foreign Than Europe.
Mexico is more foreign in appearance than
nine-tenths of Europe, the thoroughfares of
which are well trodden by the tourist myr-
lads, and which has few by-ways remaining
to crafty curiosity with the new and
strange. Mexico's twelve millions of natives
are, speaking generally. either pure Indian,
Greet and unadulterated descendants of the
Aztecs and other Indian tribes, or mixed
Indian and Spanish, tmuch the smallest
class pure Spanish. Four-fifths of the peo
pure Indian ard about ole-third can neither
speak nor understand Spanish, and use their
original Indian dialects. In the outward
appearance of the men, women and children
and in their habitations, costumes and
habits it suggests In its different sections
and among its varied peoples now Europe in
Moorish Spain. now Asia in Palestine, now
Africa in Egypt.
Spanish Suggestions in Mexico.
The large cities Spanish, with low,
fat-roofed homes of the Moorish type bare
and forhidding without, but built around
courts often rendered attractive by foun-
taiHs, flowers, statuary and singing birds
Iron gratings at the balconies shut out the
lover from the dark-eyed Mexican senorita
as they DO in the case Of her Spanish sister
and both young women are, unhappiiy, dis
carding the picturesque mantlla for the
latest Paris fashion and spelling their COM
pleXi0ns with Partisan rouge.
The Mexican horSeman is even more dash
ing and picturesque than his old world
counterpart. AS in Spain, the city's heart
is often plaza, promenade park, with
stand for Sunday band music, with the