Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1905-09-19
FOUR MONTHS IN MEXICO.
NEW YoRK CRY, Sept. l2, I

Thinking perhaps that my journey
ings, meanderings, triangulations
wanderings, tribulations, lamentations
observations, ETC., Tor a partial history
of them) might find place in the
columns of your valuable and readable
sheet, and might not be uninterestine
reading for the many friends of mine
who are your subscribers, | take the
liberty of scribling a few lines, telling
you briefly as possible, some of my
observations in my travels for the last
four months, realizing that if | live
long enough to get home will be be-
sieged with all kinds of questions rela.
tive to my latest cruise | have SO
many friends, Tor think have) in the
city of Wausau that l don't feel like
expressing myself fully in regard to
opinions | have formed on this trip.
left home lin Wausau) on the 2d OF
May last and have been continually
going ever since. My comrade and |
went viz: Cincinnati, O., Knoxville,
Tenn, Ashville. N. c., Atlanta, Ca,
Montgomery, Ala, New Orleans, La,
San Antonio, Tex, to the city of Mexico
and from there to the Pacific coast.
On our journey we saw great many
queer people, queer objects and land
scapes without end. We tarried in the
city of Mexico twenty-five days and it
is great city. One might stay there
| for month or two and see something
every hour that would be of interest,
but Mexico city has been written up in
song and story by so many eminent
writer's who have welded mighty pens,
that your readers are almost as familiar
with it as they are with Wausau, and
my pen would only give very feeble
description of it, yet ! will venture a
few notes. will first preface them by
saying that one who goes to the city of
Mexico and sojourns there for time
and then comes back and tells his
friends that he knows all about the
republic of Mexico is in error or badly
mistaken
CRY OF MExICO-A city of nearly
half a million of people Nobody
knows how many but nearly half a
miIlion.) Some of the street crossings
during business hours are as bad for
pedestrians as any street crossings in
Chicago and Chicago is said to have
some of the worst crossing in the world.
1t is the capital of our sister republic
and has always been noted for bigotry
and beggars, for robbery and religion,
for lottery ticket peddlers and liars,
for priests and poverty, for dirt and
dirks, for monks and machettes, for
soldiers and slaughter, for parades and
poverty, for mansions and mud huts,
for finery and filth, for police and pick
pockets, and numerous other things
could mention.
A common observer would say that
| it fully bears out its reputation. A
visitor to Mexico city is confronted at
all times by beggars and lottery ticket
peddlers. They will stand right in
your way and are as persistent as a
Wisconsin house fly in the month of
September. The republic of Mexico
depends largely for its revenue on the
sale of lottery tickets. The govern
ment issues them and | don't believe
any of them was ever known to draw a
prize. The way l have it figured is,
if you buy a lottery ticket you are
simply donating 10 per cent. of what
you pay for it to the vendor thereof
and 80 per cent. to the treasury of the
government.
You will meet with lottery Ticket
peddlers first, last and all the time.
Everywhere and always, old bare
footed women (they may have pair of
sandals) will confront you with a fist
full of tickets. If you refuse to buy
she will drop one at your feet as if by
mistake and then insist that you are
fool if you don't buy good luck when it
falls at your feet. Before you get half
block you will meet another of the
same stripe, and still they will keep
coming When you pay street car fare
the conductor gives you a lottery
ticket. That is the way the company
keeps tab on the conductors. The
cathedral grounds are the hub of the
city. From there all the street cars
start and all come back to the starting
point. There are great many objects
of interest in the cathedral and on the
grounds and in the museum. Also in
Chepultepee, where the castle is sit
uated and the presidents mansion, the
White House of Mexico. The West
Point of Mexico is also at Chepultepec.
So much for the city of Mexico. But
one must go outside of the city to
know much about the republic. A
man coming from the eastern states to
the city of Milwaukee and soiourning
there for few months and then going
back east and tell his friends that he
knows all about the state of Wisconsin,
would certainly be incorrect in his
statements.
We travelled west from Mexico city
to the Pacific coast. We went by rail
to Ameca, about 450 miles, and from
there took horses and mules ana noun
tain trails. We had from ten to twenty
one horses and pack mules and as
many men. There were only four
white men in the party, myself in
cluded; the balance were Poems and
Indians. We had a good trip on the
whole, although the latter half of it was
rough and dangerous
Our work was surveying and estimat-
ing timber, and was all in the state of
Jalisco pronounced Hah-liss-co) We
found the Indians very faithful men,
with great powers of endurance very
easy to be taught anything that they
didn't know and most of them could read
and write the Spanish language. That
| 10 tho nnlv 10 a. -