The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1896-06-30
Continued from last ,ceek }
THE LAND OF THE MONDAY
SUN-MEXICO IN MID WINTER.
BY JUSTICE WALTER CLARK, LII. D.
Rrom Arena for May.l

another army come up from the sea-
ward, from the white walls dimly dis
cerned where nestles Vera Cruz by the
deep waters. And the bugles rang out
full and free, and the drums rolled and
the long blue lines came marching
through, ( d in their ranks, but I'm
noted thin, were young captains and
lieutenants-RObert E LIE and U. S
Grant and Stonewall Jackson and
Sherman and Meade and Thomas and
L,ngstreet and many another whose
names have passed into history now
and are
Ga the dusty roll the ages keep"
They had first met the enemy and
driven him back at the National
Bridge, which we passed a station y
two back, and then at Cerro Glrdo
(angIice round hiil'O the conical top
mountain which lifts its head out
yonder. Sharing the same fare, fol
lowing the same leaders, drinking from
the game canteen, they passed by the
door of this hotel, up that strs ct yon-
der, through the pass that opens be
yond, up the mountain, on and on,
even on and upwards till now they live
amid the stars.
And down the same street rode since
at the head of q ~retreeting army, with
the t~ricolor floating over him and the
imperial eagles of q Napoleon borne
before him, q marshal Of France who
left a reputation behind him to fad the
infamy OF an Arnold on the green ard
golden slopes Of Lorraine-Bs inc,
the only nan in al history who has
ever surrendered an army of IT'S, 600
fighting men.
And SO Jalapa, with her bright Gun
shine and her narrow streets and her
pretty women and laughing children
and bubbling fountains, has seen his
tory pass by her, and she remains IN
moved and unchanging as Or z ,ba.
which stands out yonier, the monarch
of this republican continent, with his
slumbering fires beneath and his I'M
melting SHOWS above, the sentinel of
the ages, unchanged, while generations
of man and empires pass by and disap
pear like f9ecy clouds melting into the
infinite azure of the past.
Jalapa was the birthplace of Presi
dent Lerdo de Tejada, and his Danish
ment from the country has not pre-
vented his statue from being erected in
the Pisa, and a plate affixed to the
house records the locality and date Of
his birth. A tram road carries us out
to Coatepec, a little village e~mbosomed
amid clfee haciendRs. Thecoffee trees
are eVergreeEs, as are all trees here
abouts, and the ccff9e is gathered con
tinuously the year round. l 5growe on
trees which bear fruit very much re-
sembling cherries, each cherry con
tanning two seeds which are the ccffa &c
grains. The business is very profta
bic, as c-f9e is raised here at a cost of
from six to eight cents and is sold in
San Francisco at twenty two and one
half cents in gold, which, It the pes,
ent enhanced value of standard, is
equal to forty one cents here. In some
sections the cof5e trees require to be
irrigated during the dry season, but
here there is moisture enough the year
round. The proftabIeness of ccf e
raising Is carrying a great many Amer
leans to Mexico. The merits of Mexi
can ccf3e are now well established,
and it is said to be not surpassed by
the best Mocha.
Leaving Jalapa westward we begin
to climb the mountains. The track,
especially on reaching the edge of the
great plateau, runs through lava beds
for many miles, showing that the great
central plateau of Mexico was in some
remote age lifted up seven thousand
feet by the titanic forces beneath.
When this was done the corresponding
depression was made which is now the
Gulf Of Mexico. The views from the
ascending train are marvellous. Noun
a ridges and valleys unroll them
selves like a panorama, and a full
hundred miles away are the ships and
white walls OF Vera Cruz while first
before, and then behind, US as we turn.
now this way and now that, are the
white capped Orizaba and the coffee
shaped Cofre de Perote, looking like a
gigancic square box on the Sop of q
truncated cone. We pass also the old
castle of PerOte, where formerly a
large garrison was kept to patrol the
National Road, running from Mexico
to Vera Cruz. The I~nteroceanic is