The Washington herald., 1910-02-27
FOOD PRICES ARE LOWERED
Mckee, Taking Time by the Foreock, Brings About the
Desired Result by Legislative Action

Guillermo de Landa y Escandon. How
ever, the police department Is under the
direct supervision of the inspector gen
eral, Brig. Gen. Felix Diaz.
Mexico City is divided into eight "com-
isarias,' each of which is presided over
by a "comisario." whose duties are
equivalent to those of police judge In
the United States. The comisario con-
signs prisoners to the general prison,
better known as Belen, where they are
placed at the disposal of such courts as
possess Jurisdiction over their cases.
The police force consists OF foot and
| mounted gendarmes. firemen and secret
service men. There is a total of 1912 men
in the foot gendarmerie. of whom 90 are
officers. The mounted police number but
400. with an additional number of 80 Off
GERS. The fire service is extremely small
there being but Y men and Il officers.
while the number OF detectives in the
secret service department is not known
Besides the 1850 police in active service
F, In Mexico City. there are $50 more who
patrol the ueighboring towns and villages
OF the federal district. The total sum
apDortioned by the national budget for
the policing of the federal district dur
ing the fiscal year 1SO9-19lO was 2.459.974
pesos. Allowing Mexico City and its sub
urbs population Of 10000 the sum paid
per capita for police protection would
amount to approximately 1915 This seems
exorbitant, but results amply Justify the
expenditure. Basing ones figures on the
aforementioned population Of Mexico
] City, il is seen that for every thousand
inhabitants there are 7.S5 gendarmes
looking after the morals and behavior OF
that thousand. These police are inyari-
ably courteous, and usually make a good
| impression on strangers in the city by
their efforts to answer their uninteligible
questions asked in guide-book Spanish.
| A member of the Bureau Of Ethnology
| in Washington, in speaking the Mexican
language. said: THE worst feature of all
this is that every now and then some per-
son who has interests in Mexico prepares
himself for the journey by taking lessons
| in Spanish. Now, the Spanish which is
taught in the schools of the East is not
the vernacular Of Mexico OF Cuba, but
the language OF Spain. Usually It is
taught by a Spaniard fresh from Madrid
or CadiZ, so that when one arrives I'm
Mexico he finds that his Spanish is we'll
night worthless. You see q great many
words in the Mexican Spanish are Aztec
or Indian, such as coyote. metate. sacate.
Besides this, the spelling and pronuncla-
ton are altogether different. Some years
ago / was obliged TO take trip into
Mexico. and began preparations for the
Journey by taking lessons from a Spanish
teacher from Valencia. Spain, ar one OF
the best schools in Washington At the
same time there were two young Texans
who had come to the National Capital to
learn Spanish, which they expected to
use in trading with the Mexicans. They
had not been in the school long before
they discovered their teacher had never
heard of the word chile" One day the
teacher asked one of these young men
for the Spanish name for pepper. where
upon the Texan replied chile At this
the teacher demurred. Oh. no. he said;
1t is pimento.' Well. that is true: rimen-
10 is the proper term for pepper in Spain,
but in Mexico all pepper is known as
chile These two Texans discovered that
the Spanish of old Spain was not what
they wanted, and returning home, en-
pioyed a Mexican who taught them the
common language of the country. I could
name several thousand words that are
used in Mexico but which a Spanard
would be unable to understand What
few words have not been changed by the
process of time or corruption are pro-
Inounced and oftentimes spelled different
ly in Mexico from the way they are in
Spain For example, If a person went
into Mexico and used the Spanish for
red, colorado they would know what he
meant, but would wonder where on earth
he came from. The Mexican pronouncia-
ton is 'cOlorao.' This in some parts OF
the Southwest has been Anglscized into
'colorow. .