Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1901-04-04

! Most Of the hauling is, however, done
by men, women and bronchos The
latter carry their loads usually in two
bundles, one on each side, but | fire.
quently saw them carrying on their
little backs from an eighth to quar-
ter of cord of wood. bound upon
them by ropes. The men and women
have strap over their foreheads
reaching backward and fastened to
their loads, which, STOPPING forward
they carry on their backs often a
weight of 500 or 400 pounds apiece.
| saw lot of them each carrying four
silver bars. l endeayored unsuccess-
fully to- lift even one of them. This
is a fair specimen OF the arduous
tasks of the poor fellows l rejoice
that am not Mexican. l would rather
be wheelbarrow, a vehicle seeming
~ unknown in our sister republic.
which they proudly call the pearl of
the occident
The National Beverage.
About one-half of the country we
visited is a barren waste, there being
no water with which to irrigate it
and little growing upon it other than
stalwart cactus in great variety. Much
of the country is we'll irrigated and
much is available for agriculture with
out irrigation. But even these por-
tons seem poorly titled and the crops
very meager. Wheat, corn and
maguey plant are the chief produc-
tions, the latter greatly prevailing.
This is the plant from which pulque,
| or Mexican whiskey, is manufactured.
1t grows wild almost everywhere but
f1ourishes better when cultivated. 1t
plant. AS we rode along on the cars,
hundreds of thousands of acres of it
were visible, set out in rows II feet
apart. 1t requires seven or eight years
to mature. AS soon as the plant
shows signs of poisoning it is cut
off in the center leaving a bowl
shaped surface. The sap runs into
this for several days and is drawn off
from time to time in a gourd by sue
ton from the poems mouth and then
emptied into hog skins, skilfully con-
trived for the purpose. In this con-
dltlon it is taken to the market on the
burros or on the back of the poems
and is good to drink in this condi-
ton for about "a hours. What remains
is fermented, distilled and converted
into beverage called mescal which
looks like our whiskey only a good
deal worse. The Mexicans, of course,
think it the right thing in the right
place. There must be millions of bar
rels if it made here every year The
whole country seems to be covered
with these whiskey farms. When the
pluque is extracted from the plant,
the leaves are worked into a fiber
which excels manila hemp for the man
ufacture of cOrdaget and for many
other purposes. What there is left of
the plant is gladly consumed as food
by the cattle, sheep and burros. So
this maguey plant is a very important
article in Mexican agriculture. 1t is
estimated that each plant ultimately
produces 81 in money. AS there are
always countless millions of them in
sight the financial result must be de-
cldedly important to the producers.
But still, they have to wait seven or
eight years for their dollars.
Food Very Poor.
Cattle, sheep, goats and razorback
hogs are very numerous but have an
extremely emaciated appearance and
make very poor meat. 1t lacks the
juicy luxury of our American pro-
ducts. Poultry and eggs are abundant
also. The chickens and turkeys are
about half the size of ours. The white
meat tastes like fricaseed shavings,
having scarcely any flavor. The eggs
are very small and lack that delicacy
Of taste of which our own poultry are
doubtless proud. No food served in
Mexico is palatable to the American
appetite except the bread. An indi-
Vidual loaf is served to each guest
The color is little brown but the
taste is excellent and the baking good.
The butetr is good also, but very spar
ingly served. The potatoes are not
larger than buckeyes and are even
disgusting in taste. Everything cooked
is beslobbered with some sort of
brownish gravy, red hot with q va
riety of invisible pepper. If ordered
without gravy, i is practically desti-
tute of taste Or nutrition, as the juices
have already been cooked out Of it to
make the gravy. I arose from the
table of the Hotel Iturbide, the best IN
the city of Mexico, positively hungry
on several occasions
At Guadalajara, the second city in
Mexico, a grand banquet of ten
courses was given to us at the Hotel
Garcia. 1t was an elaborate and very
stylish affair. The green-turtle soup
at the opening was most excellent. So
was the icecream at the close All
the other eight courses were abomi-
nable. One of the courses called
"garbanza" consisted Of about 479
varieties Of pepper chopped and com
pacted together in corn husk. | de-
termined to eat it and did so. The
fires are still raging 1t is strange
how determined these people seem to
be to spoil everything in the cooking.
Markets a Feature.
In every considerable town or city,
there is a public market where all
sorts of edibles are brought for sale.
The markets are extensive, accommo-
dating hundreds of producers and pat
ronized by thousands of consumers. |