The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-03-01

The only Pills to take with Hoods Sarsaparilla.
! Spaniards to drain the valley Of Mexico
are of course well known and the great
Nochistouga cut through the mountains
is monumental graveyard of Spanish
| doubloons, Indian lives and fallen hopes.
The present drainage company-an
American company-claims to have sue
cess assured as soon as sufficient water
/ power can be obtained to flush the sewers
of the city.
The only water supply for this world Of
| 4VV,OO0 people is in artesian wells of doubt
full origin, and requiring engine or hand
| power to raise the fluid to the surface of
! the ground. The saturation of the soil
! with water and sewerage causes malaria
and pneumonia among the higher classes
| and rheumatism and crippled limbs
| among the denizens of the courtyards.
The houses are invariably built around
a hollow square called the patio Court
| Yard, other houses form the three outer
| walls, leaving on three sides no openings
| for light and air except through the pa
| ito. II this patio is small and the build
| ings many stories il forms a dark, damp
opening into which the sun has little
| chance to enter.
AS the horse and his less clearly COM
! panions, the servants, occupy the patio,
it is easy to see how dangerous to health,
| in all respects, is the groundwork of Mex
| lean homes.
| In addition to the want of sunshine and
ventilation there are no fire-places or fiues
with which to drive out the dampness or
modify a winter temperature of little
| above 60 degrees. 1t is small wonder that
! pneumonia is so fatal and so much feared.
American tourists call for oil stoves and
sometimes get them by paying seventy-tive
| cents a gallon for the kerosene. What
bonanza for the man who discovers coal
| or oil wells in Mexicoi But the MexicanS
look with distrust on any mode of artifi-
/ cial heating. considering it both unhealthy
and uncomfortable.
! The walls of the houses are often five
| feet thick and no wood work is used ex-
cept for window castings and doors. Floors
| and stairways are of stone and roofs of
| corrugated metal, stone or brick. A con-
| Migration would be Impossible hence fire
escapes and fire companies are not provid-
| ed. The scarcity of large timber in Mex
| leo and the difficulties of transportation
account for the use of stone and brick
| for even the meanest novels. The houses
are sun-proof, flre-proof and absolutely in
| destructible except by earthquakes.
| The house in which we first took apart
| ments was 400 years old and apparently as
/ good as when the old monks filled it's cav
ernous depths with Spanish Pater nosters.
Outside of the valley are ideal climatic
| locations such as Guadalahara, Cuernava-
| ca, Or1zaba, Cuautla and many others.
Could an American city be built in one
| of these tropical mountain spots, what an
| ideal existence might be realized But
| the serpent that would enter in would
! be the restrictive and oppressive municipal
| laws of Mexican cities, relics of the Span
| tsh system of taxation. Mexico is plaster
| ed all over with stamps. The inquisito-
rial and grasping finger of the city gov
| eminent is laid on every, transaction of
| its citizens. No paper is valid without
/ the government stamp. No hotel or
! boarding house or renter of rooms but
must pay an exorbitant license. The city
| compels a copartnership with it's mer-
| chants, by which the profits are divided,
| and to secure such division a strict es-
| pionage is put over account books and
| cash. Bicyclers are taxed 81 a wheel for
| every two months or fraction thereof.
| The necessity for this unusual taxation
| is found in the size of Mexico's foreign
debt to be paid in gold; in the semi-civil-
| lied condition of many portions of her
| territory that make the maintenance of
| a large standing army necessary; in the
existence of her beggar population, and
| in the taste of the nation for public dis
| play and for amusements at the public
/ expense.
| The sequence of high taxes and cheap
| and abundant money is, of course high
prices for goods, with the exception of
rough handmade products, such as native
| pottery and hand-woVen carpets and
and money easy to get what matters the
| high taxes or high prices?
The expense of living in Mexico is ex-
tremely reasonable, but the comforts and
elegancies of our American hotels and
| homes are not to be obtained.
The streets of the city are very good,
| except for the dust during the winter sea-
son. when no rain falls. The Paseo, the
| grand boulevard Macmillan built re-
| ceives the attention of a street sprinkler
| every afternoon, but on other streets men
and women are set to throwing water
from buckets. There are also battalions
of street cleaners. who sweep the streets
with handmade brooms, raising an aw-
full dust in the process.
These Mexican laborers are of small
stature, but they do the work of draught
horses. Horses in Mexico are for the
rich to drive, the poems are the beasts of
burden. When a family desires to move
the furniture is loaded on the hacks of
Mexicans, and they trot along the streets,
caravan of moving beds, tables cabi-
nets and pianos.
The city is eXcellently policed. No kind
of disturbance can occur without the uni
formed minion of the law carrying all
concerned to police headquarters. Only
this vigilance and sure punishment of
theft or assault render life or property
safe from the rateros that infest the city
The business streets are narrow crowd
ed, fun of beggars and small vendors and
the stores unattractive. The aristocracy
is chary of showing its face to the pub
lie, except from its luxurious carriages in
the invariable morning and evening drive
on the Paseo.
A birds eye view of Mexico city would
be pretty picture of white masonry,
many domes. boulevards. the castle of
Chapultepec on it's erie and all framed in
the circle of mountains that are near
enough TO be strong in outline, but blue
and beautiful
We cannot but feel the charm of the old
Spanish city, of its barbaric splendors, its
dulcet language, its friendly people and
its stimulating ozone, and we have Just a
suspicion that dear old Georgia may seem
little tame after this winter in the blue