The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1904-02-05
AZTEC RACE LIVES ON.
REPRESENTS oNE-ElGHTH THE
PRESENT POPULATION OF
MEXICO.
These Indians Still Look for the Day
When the Montezumas viii Resume
Their Scepter in the south-Their
Famous SacrIficial Stone.

'HSH OSSPCcT III tHS SS0t" tHSh
Famous SacrIficial Stone.
Jesse Huber writes as follows from
the City OF Mexico to the Pittsburg
Dispatch: Aztecs are in this city to-
day, as they were nearly four centur-
les ago, when Cortez and his soldiers
created CONSERVATION among them by
the free use of the firebrand and
sword. They are every whit Indian
and cling to their old-time traditions
with the tenacity of the Chinese.
Though they have been conquered and
their national existence merged into
the present Republican form of gov
eminent, yet they still cherish the
belief that Montezuma will return and
their kin will be restored to the pos
session and control of the land over
which their forefathers once ruled
with undisputed sway.
These primitive people number L.
100000, representing one-eighth of the
total population of Mexico. You can
see them every day on the streets,
along the country roads or in their
mountain retreats, some of them
speaking the Manhattan language
and wearing plain garments of home
spun, just as their ancestors did be-
fore the eye of Columbus sighted the
shore of the western world.
The Aztecs were in some respects
an advanced people when they were
first surprised by European invaders.
They had acquired wonderful skill in
working in metals. Their process of
temperfng copper to the hardness of
steel is lost art. | was shown a cop
per AK among collection of Aztec rel
les that was SO finely tempered that
file drawn firmly across it's polished
surface failed to leave even a trace.
They knew how to extract gold and
silver from the ore and work them in
to fine ornaments. They could cut
and polish the hardest gems, and their
skill in making baskets, pottery and
feather pictures and in working out
quaint and artistic designs in leather,
woven fabrics and wood carvings is
practiced by their descendants today.
1t is astonishing what skill and
taste these primitive people display in
the articles they supply for the curio
market. Take their feather pictures
as sample of what they can do.
These works of art awaken the admir-
alton of travellers today, as they did Of
Cortez and his followers They rep
resent animals, birds, buildings or
sweeping landscapes. Nearly every
detail is brought out, with exquisite
nicely, not with paint and brush. but
by deftly combining feathers plucked
from birds of brilliant plumage and
fastened on the white surface of card
board.
In striking contrast with the artis-
tic skill Of the AZtecs are their sloven-
ly habits of life. They are careless in
dress and content with any kind of
hut for shelter. They are not amphi
bious by nature, and will cheerfully go
for weeks without the application OF
water even to their hands or faces. AS
parents, they are affectionate to their
children. To domestic animals they
are cruel.
The Aztecs take keen delight in
music. They will stand entranced
while listening to the soft melody of
the guitar or the flood of harmonious
strains from a military band.
They venerate the memory of the
heroes of their race. Guatemotzin,
the last of the Aztec kings, is their
ideal because of the indomitable re-
brought against the invading
Spaniards under his heroic leadership.
The colossal statue erected to his mem
DRY in this city is masterpiece of
art. In August of each
year crowds of Aztecs gather around
this monument and hold an all-day
celebration, praising their departed
ruler in speech and song and honoring
his memory by reverently entwining
the monument with garlands of flow
ers.
The Aztecs are inclined toward reIi-
gion and are most devoted worshippers
at the shrine Of the Virgin Guadalupe
In the villages they seldom pass a
without removing their hats.
| have seen groups of these natives
standing at street corners in the quiet
Of evening and just as the vesper bells
begin to peal forth from the church
tower, each would quietly remove his
pointed sombrero and hold it over his
shoulder until the last soft reverbera-
lions ceased to float on the balmy twi-
light air.
The stone images before which the
ancestors of these people once stood in
abject fear have lost their power over
them and are viewed only as objects