The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1900-03-23

side and out from IS to 80 inches thick.
The rooms are from 10 to 20 feet high,
The walls are thick and the ceilings high
to shut out the cold and heat alike and to
give superior ventilation.
From Monterey we took the Mexican
Gulf railroad for Tampico. This trip is
made entirely by daylight, and consumes
two days. This road is owned by Belgian
capitalists and great amount of new
work is being done. No less than eight
fine iron bridges are being constructed,
| and when these are completed it is prob
able that through trains will be put on
and the trip made in one night and day
Tampico is a gulf port of much promi-
nence, and it is also located in the tropical
region where all kinds of tropical fruits
grow in abundance 1t is city of some
| As, 900 inhabitants with fair sprinkling
of American citizens. AS an indication of
the amount of traffic received from
| foreign countries here it may be stated
that the government import duties amount
to from four to six hundred thousand dol
lars per month. At Vera Cruz the i'm
port duties amount to million and
quarter dollars monthly. Our stay at
Tampico was short. We took time, how
ever, to look about the city and to ride
over to LaBarre, on the Gulf, about four
miles from the main part of Tampico.
Here the beach is most fascinating, and
the broad expanse of water as it rolls in
great waves, white with foam, is a
picture not soon forgotten.
At Tampico we transferred ourselves
and baggage to the Mexican Central rail-
road, the greatest railroad system in the
! Republic, and made our first stop off at
Aguas Calientes, the place of all places in
Mexico where the good wife of every
tourist makes for as soon as circumstances
will permit, for it is here that the beauti-
full drawn work" is made. The scenery
between the points named is most pictur-
esque in places. The climb up the noun
tains, nearly 1000 feet, and the winding
and twisting evolutions made necessary
|
summit, presents sight no less inspiring
and interesting than the ride over the
mountains and through the canyons of the
Black Hills. The Mexican Central rail-
road has done much toward opening up
and developing the mineral and agricul-
turalist interests of the Republic, and for
this it cannot be too highly praised. 1t is
a system that is splendidly equipped with
fine cars, differed by gentlemen of emf
nent railroad ability, and conductors and
trainmen as courteous as can be found
anywhere. This system passes through
fifteen of the twenty-seven states of the
Republic, and eight millions of the thir-
teen millions inhabitants of Mexico are
settled contiguous to it. 1t is no fattery
to say that the Mexican Central has been
to Mexico what the Great Northern and
Northern Pacific railroads have been to
North Dakota and the territory to the
west.
Aguas Calientes is interesting from
other Mexican cities only from the fact
that it is the source whence all 'drawn
work" flows. Here hundreds of busy
hands are employed the year around max
ing up this beautiful work with which to
catch the American dollar-and they
catch it with simple ease. There is a fine
warm water spring flowing from the
mountain side, and this is more than
welcomed by the dusty traveller, for there
are bath houses here which afford oppor-
tunity for plunge that is collaborating,
restful and cleansing. We tarried here
three days. Two suffced for doing and
being DONE" but one day was devoted to
building up our system. debilitated from
surplussage of poorly cooked Mexican
food that caused our stomach to go on
strike and refuse to perform its regular
functions. But diet on crackers and
milk for a couple of days brought our
American stomach to realizing sense of
its duty, and we have had little difficulty
with internal troubles since.
From here we went direct to the City of
Mexico, arriving there Monday morning.
and from which place our previous letter
was dated AS this letter is already quite
too long, and, we fear, lacking much in
interest, we will desist from inficting
further punishment on the readers of the
Free Press until we are rested and re-
novated with a square meal of good
American food. We reach FL Paso at
o'clock tonight, and as it is now after four
o'clock you may correctly guess that we
are happy pair. L. P. H.