Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1906-08-07

Each surveyor had from fifteen to
twenty horses and mules and about the
same number of poems. My mission
was to superintend the work
Guerrero is so rough, rugged and
sparsely settled that it is difficult and
sometimes almost impossible to procure
food fol either man or beast. Roads in
the mountains are something unknown,
everything being transported on
animals backs over crude trails.
Some of the mines we visited had very
expensive and heavy machinery which
had been transported to the works by
the above method, piece-meal, and put
together again when they had reached
their destination. From five to eight
days were consumed in making one of
these trips. | have seen them trans
porting a mile of wire cable in this
way. Almost anyone living in our
country would think such thing i'm
possible. The cable is put up in coil
of $50 lbs and loaded on mules back.
Then another coil is made up, there be-
ing five or six feet of slack wire be-
tween the two, and in this way the
whole cable can be loaded on mules
backs without cutting the wire. When
the mules are all loaded they are strung
together, reminding me of one of the
tricks we used to do when boys
stringing horse flies on a needle and
thread
'Iguala is the largest and most
important city of the state, and is the
natural gateway going and coming. 1t
has population of $4,000 people and
lies in the centre of very rich mining
and agricultural district and has a
daily train to the national capital.
The shade of its giant tamarinds fur
nish an excellent place of recuperation
for the invalid 1t was here that the
real independence of Mexico was pro-
claimed in 1921.
'The governor of the state of
Guerrero, Manuel CULLEN, is man of
high position and great intellectual
culture. He was formerly in charge of
the Mexican consulate in SanFrancisco,
Cal, and later representative to the
national congress. He has greatly
aided the government in stamping out
two attempted revolutions recently,
and enjoys great prestige and influence
an,Onn tho ,aanvlo of biC state
I'm conclusion | wish to say some
thing about the people of the country
The natives food consists almost en-
tirely of tortillas (corn pan cakes) and
frigoles (Mexican beans) A peon
always carries his bed with him, either
when working or at leisure. The bed
consists of but one blanket or zerapa.
In the centre of this is a hole, through
which the native thrusts his head, the
folds of the blanket dropping down
over his body. He then lies down on
the ground and is not particular in
selecting .soft spot He is a good,
faithful laborer and | have always
found him hosa;t.s On the trip, we
carried bag of silver which we
invariably left in camp, together with
our provisions, and we never found
anything missing. His requirements
are few and he therefore sells his labor
for little money Where we boarded a
native, we paid him the equivalent of
about 25c in U. S. money. If he
boarded himself we paid him about SIC
for his days labor.
when you ask native how far it is
from one point to another, instead of
telling you it is so many miles, he will
answer by saying it is so many hours
travel, and it is really the best method
of calculating a journeys distance in
that country, for the fleetest horse in
the universe can make no better time
than can scrub mule, over the noun
tain trails of Mexico.
Zone of the features about the coun-
try, which did not strike me as very
commendable, is in reference to laun-
dry work. When you desire to have
your clothes washed you give the work
to native woman. She goes down to
a creek and scrubs the clothes over a
rough stone, and during the scrubbing
process the buttons are all rubbed off.
She then hangs the clothes on bushes
to dry and a burro comes along and
makes a meal off them The woman
then presents a bill for the whole
amount of the washing and you pay it.
Remonstrances are out of order. You
hand her the amount of the bill, and
the only consolation you have is in
knowning where your clothes are.
The southeast corner of some mule s
stomach is furnishing a repository for
them"