Cañon City record., 1899-01-26
IN OLD MEXICO.
The Editor Of the Record Writes Of
The Strange Sights and Beau
tiful Scenes Of Some Old
Cities.

/
In visiting Mexico one should not
fail to stop at some of the places en-
route. We spent day or two at
each Zacatecas, Aguascalientes, and
Guanajuato, and / am free to say
that if visiting Mexico meant the see
ing of only one of these cities l would
have been richly repaid for all the
time, trouble and money the trip
costs.
zAcATECAs.
Our first stop was of peculiar in
terest because it was our first view
of real Mexican life. The city of
Zacatecas has population Of rs, 900
and is at an elevation of 8,044 feet.
1t is a mining town, yielding rich sill
yer ore. 1t has one mine, which dur
ing its 300 years working, has pro-
duced about six hundred million dol
lars of silver.
! Our hotel here was an interesting
feature. 1t was built for, and was
used for two centuries, as a convent.
1t is of the heaviest stone built taround
q center court and think would be
more appropriate for a convent or
an ice house than hotel, My chief
objection to the hotel was the pillow
I they gave me. They called it cot
ton pillow, but am sure the bag was
filled with shot or scrap iron. We
have since found to our sorrow that
tn s sort of pillow is the only kind
used in Mexican hotels.
| Zacatecas is a quaint old place,
being built in the old Moorish and
Spanish styles of 800 years ago, in a
very billy country it has a strong
resemblance to the cities of the Holy
Land. 1t fact it is sometimes called
the Jerusalem of America. The street
scenes are most peculiar and inter-
esting. They are literally packed
with peons-the lower class of Mexi-
can. who almost fill up the sidewalks
and narrow streets. The market
places are curious. Here we find
hundreds and thousands of merchants
doing business on small scale. Many
a man or woman's entire stock in
trade could be bought for dozen
Mexican pennies. Such merchants
will be found on every street corner
and along every street. They have
their wares spread out on blanket
and there they sit day ard night
waiting for penny customer. The
goods sold on this scale include almost
everything from fruits, vegetables,
and sweets, to calicoes and dry goods.
A man will have whole shoe repair
shop in the space of nail keg, and
you will find barber shop in nook
too small for single bathroom. Fac
atecas seems to be over run with this
class of cattle though they are found
in all parts of the republic.
| One thing that interested US in
this state capital was the way they
handle the convicts. They were
working them on the streets. In
several instances we noticed it took
seventeen mounted guards to watch
twenty convicts. The cons were
packing dirt on their backs from one
part of the city to another and the
entire quantity of stuff the twenty
cons and the seventeen guards moved
at one trip could be hauled at one
load in the one-horse cart of one of
Warden Cleghorn's trustees. How
ever, LABOR is cheap and time little
object in this country. The guards
here get 25 cents day-Mexican
silver.
: A pleasant afternoon was spent
going down to Guadalupe, six miles
below Zacatecas. The trip is made
in a street car, which runs down the
whole distance with no power what
ever, save gravity. The boy driver
rides one of the six mules, driving
the others along the side of the car.
Going back it takes all the combined
energy of boy and six mules to pull
the car up the long grade. The trip
to Guadalupe is made for the purpose
of seeing the magnificent church of
that place. l am not up in criticising
and judging churches, but this is GER
tainly the finest thing of the kind
have ever seen-it is said to be one
of the finest in the republic-well
worth the seeing. Here too, are
many ancient paintings which never
fail to interest the artist.
AGUASCALIENTES.
We were interested and delighted
with our visit to Zacatecas, but we
| Uora chorv,,nJ ,,,;tL A A.~,,o.onI.