The Green Forest tribune., 1909-09-10

Leaving Mexico City and travelling eastward on the great plateau of Mexico some 150 miles to Esperanza, you reach an elevation of 5000 feet Here begins the descent toward the coast, and while you are lunch1ng, the train takes on an engine which, when you see it, makes you begin to ex' pect something, and you are not dis appointed. This engine is marVef ous piece of machinery built in Eng land especially for this road. It IS a double engine with four cylinders and two smokestacks, one at either end One huge frame holds all the ma chinery. The engineer stands in the middle and operates both engines with one lever.
 A few moments after leaving Els peranza, one of the most beautlful landscapes on earth spreads out be fore you. On the right, the mountains rise up in gigantic columns of basaitle rock, on the left one looks down 4,ool feet upon the vale of La Jolla (the Gem) with it's tropical vegetation, and beyond, to the fertile fields of Nal trata.
 Your train clings to the side of the mountain; revines and gorges in their wild and awful grandeur meet the gaze at every turn. You cross bridges ap- parently stuck into the mountainside One, "El Infiernillo," carries you across a veritable caldron 1000 feet below. Here and there one catches glimpse of shaded glens where eX uuisite ferns and flowers of dazzling brilliancy grow beside the tinkling streams and the brown trunks of fal len trees are covered with brilliant parasitic flowers.
 Winding in and out of tunnels, the train crawls like a serpent along the steep mountain passes until, after a three hours ride, the first stop is made at Maltrata, which, from the top of the mountain, looks, with its cultivated fields, like a checker-board Here you find yourself on the border of the temperate zone, and different class of people entirely are the In dians who swarm about the train, of fering for sale mangoes, zapotes chirimoyas and all kinds of tropical fruits and flowers.
 Leaving Maltrata, the train rumbles on through the mountains. Every time the whistle blows, the echo thunders and reverberates like the charge of heavy artillery. Reaching the town of Orizaba about five o'clock, you are at the edge of the 'tierra caliente"
 Orizaba is quaint old Spanish city of some 50,000 inhabitants, nestling in the foothills that form the eastern slope of the great volcano from which it takes it's name. Orizaba, the an cient Citlatepetl of the AZtecs, the Star mountain, it's crystal cone spark ling like star, may be seen more than 100 miles at sea, and it is the first glimpse the traveller by sea has of this land of romance. It was called by the Spaniards who first landed at Vera Cruz, La Estrella del Mar" The city of Orizaba is one of the oldest in Mixeco, and retains it's old Spanish atmosphere almost more than any other town in the republic. The houses are mostly adobe, though some are of stone and all the windows are covered by iron bars like cages, which stand out over the narrow sidewalks Often the interiors are very beautiful Many people of wealth make this their home, for it is the center of the great coffee, sugar and tobacco country.
 There are several interestine churches here. The Cathedral, which occupies square in the center of the city, has several oil paintings of un