The true northerner., 1896-04-15

Delicious oranges can be bought for
half cent, Anericdis0, and there are pine
apples that melt in ones mouth, while
in some places delicious strawberries
are marketed every month in the year.
But the dulces, well, we sampled good
many, though usually finding one taste
sufficient, AS was also the case with the
ubiquitous tortiita. The pulque, too,
or national beverage, didn't quite
please our American palate, though we
were much interested in learning the
process of its manufacture from the
maguey plant, of which we saw acres
and acres, and from which large rev.
enues are derived.
But let us return To- our street scene,
of which three important features re-
main unnoticed: | will call attention
I'd the street cars, which are of three
classes, designated by the colors blue,
green and yellow. Each is drawn by two
mules usually hitched tandem, and un-
der the impulse of "a g-lashed whip
most skilfully curled about their ears,
they gallop madly from one stop To the
next the driver, who wears a tall SOM
brerO and gay sash, impartially dividing
his attention between said whip and
long tin horn which he blows Justify at
every crossing. Then, trotting down
the narrow streets over the uneven
cobble stone pavement, are tiny, pa
tient burros, packed" with loads of all
sorts, oft-times SO large as TO make them
resemble animated hay-ricks or wood
piles; and dividing the honors with
these animals are the no less patient
poems, or common day laborers, who
carry immense loads OF fodder, lumber,
marble slabs, anything and everything,
upon their backs by means of wide
strap passed across the forehead, earn
ing "a muniiicent sum equaling ID cents
day In our money. The burros and
poems are the drays of Mexico. And
everywhere are the children of these
poems, children of all ages and sizes,
the boys suits generally including a
shirt and pair of abbreviated, tight tit
ting pants OF white cotton, both show
ing the brown skin through SO many
rents that one wonders how they are
ever put on, while rimless or crown
less straw hat completes the costume.
The girls usually wear but one scant
cotton garment, and often a ten-year-old
girl has child of two or three years
bound upon her back, while one lit
tie older trots beside her. And such
beggars as they are! They will follow
the tourist as long as permitted, most
pleading expression on their bright
little faces for they are nearly all pret-
ty), while their musical voices plead in
i'm soft, pitiful accents for Juno centavo;
uno centavo"! But they look fat and
healthy, the climate is SO warm and
equable as to render much clothing not
absolutely necessary for comfort, and
90 x-fAta Hf.n nat tnn cn fnt h0
little beggars, especially after you
catch them slyly winking ut each other
behind your back, or see how smilingly
they leave you when once convinced
that no centavo is forthcoming Be it
said to their credit that there is moth
ing vicious about these little street
waits; they are loving and gentle to
one another, very courteous To strang
ers, and among the hundreds that we
met, not once did | see anything like
quarreling or sauciness, while crying
child is almost unknown.
| would like To tell you something of
the wonderful things we saw in Guada
lajara, Guanajato, lrapuato, Aguas
Calientes, Queretero and Zacetecas; of
their beautiful plazas and unique mar
ket places of their numerous grand
cathedrals and hoary converts, the lat
ter now converted to other uses; of the
strange contrast between the adobe
huts of the poor and the palatial homes
of the rich; of Chapultepec, Guadaloupe,
the old Vega canal, and numerous other
points of Interest in and about the Mex
lean capital, which like lovely gem in
its setting of snow-capped mountains,
gltters on the bosom OF the fair vale of
Anahuac.
But this letter has already so far ex-
ceeded its intended limits that you are
entirely at liberty TO exercise your ed
itorial prerogative of depositing a
portion of it IN your capacious waste
basket along with the spring poetry
and other literary surplus. So | will
at once conclude with kindly greeting
TO friends one and all
CORA d. MARTIN.