The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-04-17
THIS WINTER IN MEXICO.
Suffering and Death From Cold a
Far South as the CaDital City.

Far south as the Capital City.
This rigorous winter, which has come
along to disprove the theory put forth in
recent warm winters, that the globes CHI
mate Is radically changing, has been severe
~ felt here. says the Boston Herald. With
snow actually falling at Tampico and along
the Alvarado coast by the gulf, and with
the people at Vera Cruz budding around
braseros with charcoal to keep their fingers
warm, we have had all the proof needed
that the winter was an unusual one. 1t
has been very cold up in the Northern
states, along the frontier, where cattle have
persisted and thinly-clad herdsmen, too
In this central part of the Republic the
cold has been felt and made evident by the
immense nantes of snow on the volcanoes
of Popocatepetl and Ixtaccihuatl which,
even today, make a very wintry picture
against the turquois sky Of this high alti-
tude. Old Ajusco which rarely puts on
snow cap, has been whitened, and on the
lofty plains of Ajusco, where wheat and
potatoes are grown at an elevation of 5000
feet, the frost has been a severe one.
Go down into the hot country and you do
not escape the chill in seasons remark
ably cold as this one A wind comes rush
ing down from the high mountains to-
ward night, bringing with it sensation
of an invasion Of Boreas and all his crew.
The people in the hot country do not freeze,
and no frost comes, but ones blood is thin
down there, and fall of five degrees is
severely felt.
Up here in the capital we have not seen
snow except the tops Of the engirdling
mountains, but there has been snow
feeling in the air, and the deaths from
chill of many poor people have been re-
corded. Under the arcades around the
Plaza Mayor at night huddle many home
less people, who, in their thin rags worn
SO that even the paper makers refuse them,
are as sensitive to 80 degrees as a Boston
beggar to zero or below.
In times like these, one would give good
slice Of the tropics for a cosey bedroom
with an open-hearth fire. There Is no fun
in cold, if you are not prepared for it, and
in the thin air of this lofty region the chill
is penetrating even to the bones and mar
row. l have never been able to compre-
bend why open fires are not needed here
in cold winter morning and nights The
Mexican people, like the Spaniards have
much to say of the dangers of pneumonia
arising from getting comfortably warm and
then going out into the air of the streets
But up in Real del Monte, the English
miners use fires, and one would find 1t cold
comfort in many high-placed Mexican
town without a wood fire at nightfall in
January.
The prejudice against fires might logically
be carried so far as to prohibit the warmth
of lamp in a chamber or against thicker
clothing or warm bed. In Leadville,
which is a good deal higher up than the
City of Mexico, and where the air is thin
enough, fires abound, and so also in Santa
Fee In New Mexico where, in April, / have
seen it snow and blow, and have found
a cheerful wood fire mighty comforting.
One begins to think that the Southern
races, accustomed the main part Of the
year to warm climate come to entertain
a baseless prejudice against artificial heat.
During the greater part of the winter the
people here do not really feel the cold,
except at nightfall and in the early morn
ing. The poor SILVER in their cotton gar
sufferings. You will see them in the city
by hundreds at 6 a. m. taking imitation
coffee around the street stands For even
in a coffee-growing country it is not every
one who may enjoy genuine cup of fra
grant Cordova or aromatic Uruapam. But.