Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1907-05-08

The waiter comes with two pots with
side delivery, one with coffee, the
other with hot milk. He says 'coffee
coffee conleche,'' meaning with milk
If you stop him at half and have
con leche you have bitter milk. I
could not get them to fill it with
water. The rolls are so hard that our
travelling companion after soaking in
coffee had broken tooth to remember
them by.
ment ON the lunch before described,
only it has lots of meat. A descrip-
tion of dinner, which is served at
seven, will suffice for both. Our first
course is OK tail soup. next calf brains
with dirty slime over them. Each
course has some Ito me) disgusting
dressing. The next course is fried
kidneys; this is followed by hot
tomales. then fried chicken, but it is
not warmed through the skin, we
can't eat it, This is followed by some
unnamed meat; six changes of plates,
and we have had nothing. Not much
else is served. / soak French roll
and call it desert and call the meal
off. l did not see any bread in
Mexico. We are invited to Jeffries,
the manager of the woolen mills. We
spend the afternoon with them. We
take a trip through his flower garden
the roses are beautiful, but what are
these pesky ants doing? A string of
moving leaves; there will not be a
leaf left by Monday. He keeps two
men constantly at work in this garden
but Sunday is a holiday and the ver-
min are getting in their work Our
Iowa frost would work wonders on
much of their vermin. Let us be
thankful we live in country of frost
and not in one where the "ermin will
even eat the railroad ties. The ma
chinery in these mills looks twenty
years behind that used in our mills
1t is all English make. The mill has
q private street car line to the city.
The mules are harnessed and we go.
down to church. AS we ride notice
two large revolvers hanging to Mr..
Jeffries' waist. When we get near
the church he tells me there will be
few at church, as the natives have
threatened to dynamite it, (By the
way the crv with the native here is to
exterminate the foreigner There
are only eleven at church. Mr..
Jeffries seats himself facing the door.
l remember little of Mr. Bassett's
sermon. We go up to the park, it is
a moving mass in promenade. What
is this tent on the other side? l
elbow my way through; in the tent
are seated perhaps three thousand
people Men with boxes are passing
them through the audience. They
hand the solicitor some money, take
hold of a string, number is pulled
mp, it is registered on the box and
soon all numbers are sold. Duplicates
are placed in shot bag. A man gets
up on platform, shakes the bag.
reaches in, takes a number, shouts
the number and prize. He keeps this
up until all the prizes are drawn and
then the same thing is repeated. This
continues all night These lotteries
are recognized by the government and
they draw large revenue from them.
In the city of Mexico you cannot walk
block without meeting persistent
peddler of tickets.
We return to the hotel On the way
we wonder at the fine decorations in
this patio. 1t is a wreath OF roses.
They are soon to commence dancing.
heard their music until morning.
The following morning We are to go
to Vera Cruz. Mrs. Baker is not
feeling we'll, and decides TO stay at
the hotel and meet me on my return
that evening. 1t is about one hundred
miles to Vera Cruz We are SOON
going down steep grades; what won
ucIiui SCcucIS Tar uctOW Us Is tiic
beautiful city of Cordoba. Is it pos
sible that this train can get down
there? We are fast descending, every
thing is looking more tropical. What,
fine coffee plantations, filled with red
berries. The cocoa for the first time
appears in its full height: we are at
Cordoba and for the first time are
really in tropical country. Though
we have travelled eight hundred miles
south since crossing the tropic of can
Ger, the elevation has not allowed real
tropical conditions. We pass from
the cement to the thatched hut. This
hut is built with the floor at least six
feet from the ground to avoid the
miasma The roof is covered deep
with sugar cane stalks. We are soon
in Vera Cruz. This town has thirty
thousand people and is the chief port
Of Mexico. Its buildings are well
Concluded on sixth page.