The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-02-20
WHERE CORTEZ WEPT
Vic Murdoch Describes the
Arbor de Nochte Iriste.
SCENES ON THE PLAZA
Feast Day Furnishes a Good
Lesson for Americans.

Mexico City, Feb. 6.-Nearly every trav-
eler who comes to the City Of Mexico SITS
down in the plaza, and, having decided to
devote the time TO it. dreams d lirlle.
AS he approaches this plaza, there is
evidence on every hand that this city
was once Venice. A street is called
so and Sos bridge" when the nearest
water is miles away. There is no visible
evidence that the plaza is high ground
yet this little space was once an island
in a big lake. the island on which the
Aztecs found a sign, eagle with a snake
is his beak, and located That it was an
island one knows from the nochistongo
ditch which you see before entering the
city. Two hundred years ago a man built
| this great ditch to drain the valley Of
Mexico in case of need. People laughed
at him A rainy season came on and he
plugged up his canal. Mexico City was
flooded. 1t was nine feet deep in places
The high water marks are shown on
buildings yet by lions heads. From 1893
| "a, five years, the streets of Mexico City
were passable only in boats. The plaza
| is about as big as the square on which
the county building stands in Wichita. 1t
is filed with banana trees, tied up on
frosty nights, flowers and shrubs of vari-
Gus kinds. On its north side is the Cathe-
dral; on the east side the long govern
ment buildings, two stories high only; on
the south dry goods stores with a sort
of deep veranda in front; on the west
IrFc, ole 10 oaT1 Id
plateros, in which there are hundreds of
little displays of wares. Also on the west
of it is the national pawnshop, where the
nation advances money on goods, holds
them for sale at a fixed price for thirty
days and then, begins reducing the price
daily, look into which pawnshop indi-
Gates that one of the first things, adj
versity jars loose from a family is the
piano.
All sorts of things have taken place on
this plaza. Here the Aztec tower Stood
on its top the sacrificial stone which you
see over in the national museum, and see
without jostling, for the Mexican visitors
have passed it by and are congregated in
the department Of natural history,
around a two-headed goat in particular.
The stone is a large affair." ornately
carved, but the gutter, which is said to
have carried off the blood of the victim
whose heart had been torn out, is a fake.
If the gutter had been needed it would
have been made equally ornate with the
rest of the stone AS it is, it was chopped
out with an axe, and the chances are
that it never was a gutter, but is the
evidence Of someone's efforts to cut the
huge stone in two. The Aztec kings used
to feed their victims we'll, fill EN- full
Of good liquor give 'em a harem and
then on a fixed date, have them led up
this tower, placed on this stone, their
hearts were cut out and thrown into a
big stone tub which is still shown When
the tub was full of hearts it was present
ed to some god That's the way 1 re-
member the story in Prescott, read years
ago. Into this square came Cortez and
his little band. They came in November
of one year; by July l of the year fol-
lowing the Cortez outfit had painted the
town so many brilliant shades of red
that the Aztecs arose in anger and went
after the Spaniards, who retreated west
ward from this plaza. You get up and
follow the route now street, then
causeway About three-Quarters of mile
to the west the Spaniards made a stand
and were licked to a fragile. At this
point on a wall surrounding a church
called San Hippolite, is an inscription, in
recital of the fight, and declaring that
this church was Erected in memory of the
Spaniards who fell here that famous af-
ternoon. 1t is wonderful how easily you
can make out what a Spanish inscription
means, and 1 posted myself in front of
this and began to decipher it. Curiously, |
the policeman near, also began to read. |
Two soldiers came up and they read it |
with deep interest. Quite a crowd con-
gregated and read It. I think it must |
have been new to them, so old they had |
never noticed 1t before Its reading Gre |
ated no comments or controversy. Going |
on westward a little way you come to a |
street called Puente de Alvarado, "Alva-
radios bridge" In CorteZ's time there !
was a dam there. This the Aztecs CUT |
and the rushing waters were making the /
ditch wider every minute. Alvarado, |
Cortez's captain, stood there and fought |
the Aztecs back while his men crossed, !
and finally Alvarados bridge was born
into history by Alvarado sticking his |
spear into the middle of the torrent and !
the Spaniards paused for breath and |
night coming down. Cortez, who had /
come to Mexico when commanded not to |
do so, and was in pickle, sat down /
under a cypress tree. and wept This tree /
with a hole burned up the middle, but 4
green around the outer limbs still stands. /
enclosed in a high iron fence. I sat down |
near it and took it in and thought how |
old it was. and how dead. how very dead /
was the man whose tears irrigated it into /
fame. A street car came up from the |
direction of the city, three Americans /
jumped of. two men and a young woman.
one man paced back twenty feet, levelei 4
his kodak at the other two in front Of.
the tree. said Raise your chin little /
Miss Morrison" snapped the machine, /
cried Here comes our car crawled /
aboard and went back to the city I
watched them closely and they did not