The Savannah morning news., 1901-01-13
GLIk'PSES OF MEXICO
A sAvANNAHIAN's TOUR OF THE
LAND OF MANANA.
CHRISTMAS IN THE CAPITAL.
THE PALACE OF CHAPULTEPEC,
ITS GROUNDS AND MONUMENTS.

MIR. j. NJ. SoIOmOns' Impressions OF
Bull Fight Disgusting, but sOuve-
Mrs of 1t in the shape of Feather
Pictures Very Pretty and interest
ing-The Alameda ON Christmas
Eve-The Tree of the Dismal Night.
Cathedral Surrounded by Gam
blers-TwO Kinds of Funerals.
Mr.. ]. NJ. solomons, in company with DR..
G. c. Schley recently made three weeks
trip through Mexico, and has returned,
after some very interesting experiences,
and with some very vivid impressions of
the country, its people and their customs.
1t was in the City OF Mexico that the
greater part of Mr.. Solomons' time was
spent He reached there Sunday morning,
Dec. %, and Immediately set out to see
something of the characteristic life by
taking in bull fight, of which one is
given every Sunday. He thought the ex-
hibition not only brutal and degrading,
but disgusting also, and so did not stay
long although, during the time he was
there, he saw four horses gored to death
and number of bulls slain. He says that
his sympathies We're entirely with the
bulls. The men were never apparently in
any danger, because as soon as they
found themselves closely pressed by the
bull they vaulted a fence that surrounded
the arena for that purpose. 1t was noe
until the bull had been wearied by repeat
4 I IL.
barbed, but gaily haunting banderillas,
and too weak from his efforts to be really
dangerous, that the final coup is given
him.
The horses that blindfolded, are used
in this so-caled sport are so nearly dead,
said Mr.. Solomons, that they have almost
to be pushed up to the bull, so their end,
except for the cruelty of it, makes little
difference. AS souvenirs of the fight, Mr..
Solomons brought back with him a set of
pictures in which, in colored feathers, are
artistically and wildly worked out the va
rious scenes Of the fight from the prelimi-
nary parade of the toreador pcadors and
matadors, to the death of the bull. The
pictures are very interesting and extreme
ly well done.
The second day of his stay, Christmas
eve, Mr.. Solomons visited the Alameda,
where, always on that day, are displayed
the work of the Indians, consisting of
various curious devices that are sold
chiefly as souvenirs. Among these things,
said Mr.. Solomons, are huge stuffed fig
ures, wearing fearfully ugly masks, of
many kinds, curious pieces of pottery,
particularly masks made of clay and
bearing the familiar and characteristic
fiat features of the former Aztec idols
One of these masks Mr.. Solomons brought
home with him.
Other things that were sold were huge
ships made of paper, and resembling,
more than anything else the pictures one
sees of Chinese junks. There were also
figures of all kinds of things cut from
paper. This stock of goods, said Mr. Sol
onions, was the result of the years work
of whole families, and was so plentiful
that he thought it hardly possible that
there would be sale for half of it, but
he found upon visiting the Alameda a
day later that nearly all of these curious
goods had been disposed Of
One of the most striking features of
this gathering of the Indians, Mr.. Solo
mons said, was their curious mode of eat
ing. Squatting on the ground with a dish
of soup before them, they dispense with
any other spoon than the tortilla-a kind
of hoe-cake-with which they dish up the
soup and eat at the same time each
oDOSiliul u oOhP lNqhll ms "a lGW SpOOiis
Another surprise that Mr. Solomons re-
ceived was the ability of the Indians, in
fact of most of the working people, 20
carry immense loads on their backs by
means of straps across the forehead The
size and weight of these loads are really
phenomenal. he said, and the more 50
when it is considered that the bearers
generally go with them on a trot, even
up inclines.
The donkeys, or burros, of the country,
too, he says, seem to share this ability
of carrying great loads, for it is no I'M
common thing to meet a moving mass of
Cbattals or Of Grain or bav which a flor