The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1897-04-17
WONDERS OF MEXICO.
Some of It's Cities, People and
Strange Customs.
Sights and Scenes That Impress
an American Tourist.

In addition to its other points of in
terest, Guanaiuato can boast Of theatre
building Just completed after the expen-
diture Of 20 years Of labor and million
Of dollars. 1t is surpassed in elegance
by no other structure Of it's class on the
North American Continent, with the
possible exception Of the Auditorium OF
Chicago.
A visitor whose bent of mind inclines
rather to the curious than to the pictur-
esque or practical, will perhaps award
to the cemetery Of Guanajuato, or the
"Panteon' as it is called, precedence
among the sights of the place. There
is hardly room in Guanajuato for the
living, so it behooves her to exercise
rigid economy in the disposal Of her
dead. The burial place is on the top Of
steep hill which overlooks the city and
consists Of an area enclosed by what ap-
pears from the outside to be high wall
but which discovers itself from within
to be receptacles for bodies which ore
placed in tiers much as the narrow con-
fines Of their native valley compel them
to live. Each apartment in the wall is
large enough to admit one coffin and it
is rented for 81 a month. The poor
people are buried in the ground without
the formal;ty of a coffin, though one is
usually rented in which the body is con-
veyed to the grave. As there are not
graves enough to 60 around, whenever
q new one is needed, previous tenant
must be disturbed and this likewise hap
pens when tenant s rent is not prompt
ly paid in advance. The body is then
removed from its place in the mausole-
um or exhumed, as the case may be,
and the bones thrown into the basement
below. This great underground char
mel house is about 1900 feet long and is
packed from floor to ceiling through al
most it's entire length with human bones.
BY some strange quality Of the soil in
some parts of the ground, bodies are
found on DISAGREEMENT to be in re-
markable state of preservation; the hair
and the clothes, ii any, are intact, and
the face and figure might be easily rec
ognized by one who knew them in life.
About three dozen of these mummies
stand upright along the walls of this
Mexican Golgotha. All manner of at
titudes and grotesque expressions are
exemplified. There is the laughing lady
and the toothless old coquette who
looks with ghastly leer through her
thin grey hair; there is the Carlylean
gentleman with black beard and hair
who leans against the wall and medi-
tates on the vanity Of flesh; there is a
young woman with placidly folded hands
standing in what disciple OF Delsarte
would call the attitude of subjective
reflection with half suppressedyawn
on her face; then there is the young
man, rather bold ior his age, with a
"powerful' bad case OF stomach ache
and with an expression Of mouth like
the whole LAGOON.
One could fancy the gruesome COM
pany in the silent watches Of the night,
taking partners and forming into a
ghostly quadrille in which the adjacent
quarter of mile of their less fortunate
brethren would gladly join, save tor the
embarrassing circumstance that they do
not know what arms and legs thay arc
entitled3to use.
You mount your burro at the Panteon
gate, for you have ridden up, partly be-
cause the hill was steep and the day was
warm and parity for the CLARKE OF a
day on burroback land begin the descent.
Several miles south Of Tula, on the
main line, the celebrated Nochistongo
Cut or "Tajo de Nochistongo' great
canal commenced in 1907, for the pur-
pose of draining the Valley of Mexico.
It varies in width from $50 to $50 feet,
with depth of from $50 to 1856 feet. A
fine view of this remarkable work may
be had from the trains of the Mexican
Central Railway, which line is built
along one side of the cut at an elevation
of from so to 60 feet.
Salamanca is busy little city, the
seat of the penitentiary of the State OF
Guanajuato, and engaged in the manu-
facture of leather and straw goods.
Iraputo is the famous "Strawberry
Station Of the Mexican Central where
that luscious fruit is always in season.
The baskets of berries are exceedingly
attractive and the fruit is good, but the
arrangement is like the pies Of ancient
danes, an upper crust OF wheat and an
under crust OF rye.
& GUADALAJARA. ,
In its loyalty to the church, Guadala-
jara is second to no city in Mexico and
makes good its claim by works Of chari-
~. $50 -