Oakes Republican. (Oakes, N.D.) 1898-1906, 1904-03-25
BRIDGING CENTURIES
Mexico Waking from a Sleep Of
Three Hundred Years

Under the Masterful Rulership Of President Diaz
the Country is Taking Wonderful Strides
Forward. Mexico and Cuernavaca
The Mexican Central railroad is
sentineled the greater part of it's way
by mountains piled in majestic folds
upon both sides of the line. 1t wends
it's way to the capital thru chihuahua
(N,09S), Parral Q6,ss2), Torreon
Q5,s45). Zacatecas (34,43s), Aguasca-
lientes (27,sl6), Leon (63. 3.263,) Ira
puata Q9,64O), Celaya (25,565, Quere-
taro (Ss,Ol6). The population of
these cities is mentioned merely to
give an idea of the country traversed
by the railroad. Zacatecas is noted
for its large silver mines. Aguasca-
lientes for it's hot springs and drawn
work, and Irapuata as the place
where Strawberries can be bought
cheaply every day in the year. The
car, Marissa, was we'll supplied with
the fruit-sweet, luscious and deli
cious. In getting a casual glance of
these cities it is hard to believe that
any of them contains the number of
inhabitants credited to them. This
was especially noticeable by we Da-
kotans, who are accustomed to look
at the prairie city. Zacatecas, for
instance, is a place of over $4,000.
inhabitants and situated in the valley
beneath us looked to be place of
only a few thousand. This is mainly
due to the fact that the buildings are
nearly all of one story, built of adobe,
and set in back ground of the same
dirty, brown color. Churches and
cathedrals are usually the only con-
spicuous places, being white with
high towering steeples. The other
buildings are nearly of uniform
height, flat rooted, and rarely exceed
two stories. But this week we pro-
missed something of the City of
Mexico itself.
This ancient city certainly presents
many interesting things to the
American. Here he can study, side
by side, the conditions of a modern
city and of the customs and condi-
tions that existed in the sixteenth
century. The electric railway and
the narrow trainway run by mules;
the snorting automobile and the
heavy, clums cart with solid wheels
drawn by oxen; the steel, skyscrap-
ing buildings and the brown mud
house; the four wheeled cab drawn
by stately horses and the old convey
ances strapped to the backs of poems,
Modern improvements and inventions
we're discountenanced until few
years ago, but thru the influence Of
the grand old man of Mexico, Porfrio
Diaz, the door was thrown open and
the ira nsfolmation since the begin
ming of the present century is some
thing wonderful. The main portion
of the city is we'll lighted by electric.
ity, and an excellent street car SER
vice is in operation day and night
The streets are we'll laid out and
made of asphalt-and an army of
laborers keep them entirely free from
any kind of dirt or rubbish.
No matter which way you turn you
are brushing up against Americans
and to them is due the credit for the
wonderful and rapid Development Of
Mexico. A person from the United
States is looked up to, and it does
not take long in the republic before
a common scrub from the states car
sport silk tile and gold headed
cane. The place is getting to be 9
veritable pleasure resort for those
who want to get away from the rigort
of a northern winter cline, and The
names of people from the New Eng
land states are quite numerous or
the hotel registers. A colony of five
thousand Americans haye already
established themselves in the city
and the floating tourists numbe
about twenty-five thousand more
This in a city of nearly half q milliol