San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1896-06-14
MEXICO CITY LETTER.
AN INTERESTING MOUNTAIN TRIP
TO TRES MARIAs.
What is Seen of the Mexican Valley at
a Height of Nearly Ten Thou
sand Feet.
Special correspondence.

Among the many merits claimed for
Mexico are the facts that 1t is land
Of romance and of scenic grandeur,
and there seems no country on the
face of this earth that can so delight
the eve and charm the senses. The
more YOU see of Mexico the more you
want to see and the more you see the
more YOU are delighted and awed by
its grandeur. This is especially true
of the City of Mexico and its envi-
rons.
There are many delightful trips out
of the city, but, perhaps, the most
convenient and attractive is that go
ing southwark over the Mexico, Cher
nava and Pacific railroad, having for
it's objective points Tres Marias and
Chernava. The former place is "a
kilometers 81 miles, from the city
and this is the present terminus of
the railroad that is pushing on
through Chernayaca. The conductors
don't cry "all aboard" here, as in
America. He shouts 'vamonos,"
which means ''let us CO." and soon we
are off and pass through the outskirts
of the city. The first place of note
we see is Chepultepec, which rises
high on a hill. This is the white
house of Mexico, and President Diaz
spends his summer there. In the rear
of it is the famous Moline del Rey.
These places are celebrated in history
as the scenes of the last two battles
in the American Mexican war, 1871,
(which gave the victorious Americans
possession of the City of Mexico and
ended war which General Grant
stigmatised as ''unholy and unjust
In passing the Hacienda Morelos
we realize that we are making an as
cent, i'm fact we are climbing
and we have heap of climbing to do
before we are at our journeys end.
Most people think that the City of
Mexico is in the clouds, for 1t is 7,349
miles to Aculpaco, on the Pacific
coast. so if you want to go to Cher
navaca, which is 45 kilometers fur
Their south, you have to take a stage,
but it is worth the journey.
| had heard so mnch of this famous
trip and decided to take it, so last
Sunday. by kindness of President
Hampson and Auditor Brash. / was
on the excursion bound for Tres Ma
rias. The ordinary daily train is
mixed train, leaves at 7:15 a. m.
and makes the return journey to the
city the same day. arriving at 4:3O
p. IN. The excursion trains, that run
every Sunday and are well patron
lied. are passenger trains only. leave
at $50 a. m. AMI are back in the city
ut $50.
There We're five coaches OH the
train, first, second and third class, as
all trains are made up here, and the
fare is according to the class you
travel in. the third being the cheap
est.
Twenty-Five hundred feet above the
level of the sea When you consider
that San Antonio, high and dry. as
she is. is not 900 feet above the sea
level. you can realize how high this
city must be, but before we can get
to our destination we reach an alti-
tude of 1896 1900. Just think of
that! Nor is this ALL You have no
idea of the curves and loops that have
to be made in the track to avoid
mountains and rugged chasms, and
vet the great ascent is easily made,
there being only n rise of two and a
half per cent.
The first station of Importance is
Tacubaya, the Monte Carlo of Next
co. Here are fashionable gambling
houses. where the swells play for
high stakes and all forms of gamb-
ling are INDUCED in by the poor at
stands on the public street. Here al
so is a famous bull ring. These attrac-
tons draw many people from other
enyirons. There are also many pri-
yate residences of citizens of the cap
ital, who live here.
Onward the train speeds, rising
slowly, until it reaches Contreras, a
considerable village, famous for its
cotton factory, worked by La Canada
River and its vegetation, which is
tropical in character Here the train
is met by the greater part of the resi-
dents and by vendors of delicious
fruits, beautiful flowers, pulque, bot
tied beer and the succulent tamale.
These tamales are not only great, but
good. They are about the size of six
ordinary San Antonio tamales, well
filed with good meat, nicely cooked,
and favored and only cost three
cents. Why, even a newspaper man
can enjoy such luXuries.
Our stay here is brief and soon we
are on our way to Eslava, passing the
volcanic rock, belched out by the dor
mant AjuscO, to the 40 kilOmeter post.
Here are two big cuts in the noun
tains. To give the reader an idea of
their immensely and the difficulties of
railroading here it may be said that
to make them 10000 cubic meters of
rock had to be removed and the big
cut is plainly visible as long yellow
streak from the City of Mexico. This
point is 1867 feet higher than the
capital and 9OO6 feet above the sea
level.
The train stops in the great cut,
which commands a view of nearly
the whole of the great valley of Mex
leo. eighty miles in extent, and before
us lay panorama that has no equal
in the world. From our heights we
look down in the valley, the Anahuac
of the Aztecs. The various colored
soils, crops and foliage, Illuminated
by the silvery sheen of lakes Texcoco,
Chalco and Xochimilco, were them
selves grand. but we could look also
on the capital, its grand old cathedral
and many of the prominent buildings
n al 49, aWstgs