Mexico weekly ledger., 1904-03-31

49,
agara falls. l was worked up to the
highest state OF excitement and could
scarcely walt for the crowd to clear
the way that / might see with my own
eyes the great wonder. 1t was with
much the same feeling that ] stepped
of the cars at the foot of Popo, only
that now l was about thirty years old
er than / was then.
Niagara was a great disappointment
10 me, SO was st. Peters, Rome; and SO
now was Popol l speak of first i'm
pressions, but Niagara grew rapidly
on me as / fingered around the thumb
ering waters, and st. Peters gradually
grew into gigantic proportions, as /
wandered from aisle to aisle and from
chapel to chapel, filed with the finest
statuary the world has produced, un-
til l came and stood under the dome,
reared by the geniusof Michael Ange-
10, and gazed upward upon a view so
transcendently beautiful and grand
that / can find nothing with which 70
compare it.
But not so with Popo. For three
months almost every day | had stood
forty miles away and gazed upon bis
s~now-capped summit, rising away
above the clouds and standing out
against the sky like a mysterious SEN
tinel guarding the way from earth to
heaven. This distant view had in
vested him with mysterious sacred
ness that seemed to throw a spell Of
reverence and awe oyer me as l came
into his immediate presence. But
when l stepped of the cars at Amaca-
mecca amid the immense throng OF
poems and Indians and looked about
me for the grand old monarch Of
mountains, the enchantment was
gone. There was a mountain to be
sure, two OF them, and covered with
snow and somewhat larger and higher
than those surrounding the City of
Mexico, but how diminutiye in COM
parisOn with what my imagination
had pictured. My Disappointment was
great and / left my companion and
wandered through the curious
adobe village so get a nearer view and
II possible work up the enthusiasm l
had expected to experience. l walked
TO the extreme edge Of the village I'M
til there was nothing between me and
Popo but the narrow unobStructed
plain.
II seemed 10 me that / could step
across this narrow plain and walk to
the top Of that little mountain and
back by train time, three or four
hours off. The disappointment deep
ly troubled me and as | saw the hun
dreds Of pilgrims winding their way
up the scared hill on the opposite side
OF the town where stood the old church
and In 1t the sacred shrine to which
they came to do homage, l determin-
ed 10 Join in the procession, and get
the view from that standpoint, and
at the same time witness the cere-
mony OF these pilgrims. l was well
repaid for the long, steep climb. The
sacred hill stands out in the open
plain and gives a fine view In all
directions, and the very best can be
hadJof Popocatepetl and Ixtaccihuatt.
l sat there and took in the situation,
in imagination running back over the
centuries in which these two silent
sentinels had kept watch over noun
tain and valley and plain and gen.
Grafton after generation of changing
races, and remembered that, within
historic dates, Chiekemecs, and Toll
tees, and Aztecs, had succeeded each
other in this town OF Amacamecca,
and succeeding them Cortes and his
brave brand Of Spaniards had passed
between the twin mountains on their
way to conquest and in quest Of gold
and later still, Gen. Winfield Scott and
Lieut.. U. S. Grant passed in sight of
this spot On their victorious way to
the Capitol City which gave TO US the
empire state OF Texas. And then ]
began to remember some data and to
make some calculations in regard to
old Popo that had the effect Of cor
recting first Impressions, and the
illusions under which l had been
laboring. / remembered that 1t took
two days and two nights TO make the
trip from the little town up Popo and
back, and that the height reached at
the crater was 17,7s4 feet above sea
level, and that very few persons were
able TO make the trip at all, and that
1 dare not make the attempt And so
| concluded 10 let it go at that, and
am satisfied now, from past expert
ences, that had ! tried TO climb old
Popo be would have grown on me in
size and height every step of the way
until ] should have been willing to
coneede that he was the biggest and
grandest mountain | had ever seen.
After enjoying the grand view to our
hearts content and witnessing tile
curious religious dance at the shrine
Of the dead Christ, life size, made q
cork, and weighing only two and a
half pounds, we descended the sacred
bin and hurried back TO the depot for
our train, then due, but for which we
waited three hours. What happened
in the meantime before we got aboard
our train | leave my readers to gather
from my wife and Mr.. Steele when she
gets home. l promised not to tell on
him, and must keep my promisel For
two or three days after our trip my
daughter noticed her mother search
ing diligently in the pockets OF her
dresses as II she had lost something,
and upon close questioning she ad-
mitted that she had two Mexican
quarters In her pocket the day she
went 10 Amacsmecca, which had mis-
teriously disappeared! And Mr..
Steele, well, ask him what ''ratero''
means, and II be has any recollection
OF being damned in a crowd at ANA
camecca, and II he still occasionally
finds himself feeling in his side pocket
for something that appears to be alb
sent
March Is, 1904.
Mexico City, 1910 Gale Roma