The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-12-17
IMPRESSIONS OF MEXICO
(Continued from First Page.)

I say, the women take but little interest in dress. The nearest these people be- come to cleanliness is when they make their bread The kneading of the bread removes the dirt to some extent and it is assimilated in the bread. This makes it more suited to the tatse of the na- tive, but not to the stranger. MT. War her said he supposed he could eat it if he had to, but he never should till he had eaten the last towel in the house.
 Within half a days journey of Mex ico strawberries ripen every day in the year. Cream, however, is not to be had and without it one is inclined to wonder as to what good are strawberries
 'The meals served at the hotels con- sist usually of several kinds of meat served up one after the other, A friend of mine said that he paid $30 for a months board at one of these country hotels, which would be about S15 of our money"
 Speaking of the Spanish conquest of the country, MT Clark said that the his- torians told of how the Aztec forces were routed by the Spanish cavalry which charged laundering across the plain. As a matter of fact" said Mir. Clark, "the Spaniards had only sixteen horses. Each horse scared twice as many AZtecs as saw 1t.
 "Thenew City of Mexico is wholly un- like the city in the time of Montezu- ma. Nearly all that remains of the old Aztec civilization may be seen In the museum of that city. The Aztecs were bloody and cruel in their religious rites. It is said that 10000 human lives were sacrificed by them on one occasion. I saw in the museum one of their old sacrificial stones. The victim sat on the edge of it and priest grabbed him by the throat with horseshoe shaped piece of metal and strangled him while another priest tore out the victims palpitating heart and threw it in a bowl. This sacrificial bowl I also saw in the museum. The destruction of the 1 Aztecs by the Spaniards was a deserved retribution for their bloody sacrifices. It would have been useless for them to have performed any operation for the l heart upon the Spanards.
 Tn the City of Mexico every home is | built about a court which is planted l with flowers and vines. The principal | drink is pulque made of the agove. The | stem of the agove is cut off and a Mex | ican sucks the juice through pipe and 1 places it in bottle made of sheepskin. | This gives to it a flavor of agove and sheepskin alloyed with Mexican. | "The drink is carried to the City of Mexico in large loads every day, where | fermented 1t sells for half a cent a glass. The Mexicans get very drunk on pulque and when drunk slash each | other with long knives, which they car ny. They have respect for q foreigner, which accounts for our safe return.
 "The people are cruel in their tastes, They are fond of pleasure and blood and combine the two when they can. Even the shrines of their temples are smeared
 over with blood. The land is covered
 over with temples. The reason for this
 is that formerly the people paid one-
 tenth of their income to the priests.
 This was used by the priests in the erec-
 ton of more temples. The amusement
 of the people are bull and cock fights.
 The latter was the most interesting to
 me on account of the interest which
 the participants displayed in it. The | bull fights consist for the most part in | goading on the infuriated bulls to gore | poor blindfolded horses. An American
 lady would faint at the sight, but the | Mexicans rejoice in it. The bull fights
 are held on Sunday.
 Each Mexican town has plaza | which is carefully tended and luxuriant l with flowers and vegetation. Every
 Mexican town, too, has a central mar
 ket which, think, might be well mi | tated in our own tOWn.'