Jamestown weekly alert. [volume] (Jamestown, Stutsman County, D.T. [N.D.]) 1882-1925, 1910-04-07
in IN OLD MEXICO VI !: J 1
sTUTsNIAN COUNTY CORES.
PONDENT WRITES LETTER
ABOUT HISTORIC CITY

T . :
is worth seeing. One can get a gen
eral idea of it and its handsome sur
burbssin few days, but If one wish.
Sess to get we'll acquainted with it
and acquire more extended know
ledge of its history, there is food
along that line for months of studying
and sightseeing. Its altitude is about
75OO:sfe above the sea level-suf-
ficiently elevated to render the clim-
ate equable, with warm days and
cool nights. After leaving Laredo,
on the Rio Grande, our way lay across
a level, desert country, with scanty
vegetation, for two or three hundred
miles. Then the engine begins to
trailits long train up the mountain
sides and gorges, putting laboriously,
slowing up and putting the harder
under its herculean task, through
long stretches thick with several
sorts of cacti Of luxurious growth;
and an occasional area improved and
fairly well cultivated, and two or
three cities of note, San Louis, Po-
tosi and Monterey, the chief ones, un-
TIL the high tableland is reached, on
which, in a basin or valley, of more
than 1000 square miles, encircled by
mountains, in which is located the
City of Mexico, of 100000 or 600,-
900 people, one of the Oldest, most
unique cities of the western world.
1t Is crowded with a notable history
fascinating in it's reading by reason Of
its recital Of the movements Of his
toric and prehistoric people, their ap-
5pearances and disappearances, their
struggles, their strange mixtures of
variant elements Of barbarism and
civilization, the one challenging our
interest and the other our admiration.
As early as 648 A. D., the Toltees
came into this great basin on the top
of the smountains, and FIVE or six hun
dred years. later came the Aztecs.
The Aztecs possess 9 peculiar charm
fer the American reader Of history.
Long centuries before; the Pilgrims
stepped out on the Plymouth Rock.
they were a nation and working out
their destiny when Cortez led his
warriors against them a century be-
fore our forefathers settled New Eng
land. This Anahnac basin had no
drainage and was largely covered
with water-lakes as they are spok-5
en- Of shallow they were but ex-.
tensive and their depths was sub
ject to fluctuations, as indicated by
a downpour in 1929, which drowned
10000 people and fewer at other
times.
x It thus happened when Cortez
reached the city,, he found the Az
tees some hundreds of thousands
strong living in a city Of $4,000 hous-.
es on an island, in a great lake, ap-
preached by six causeways. Such
were the conditions he had to contend
with. M He led his small force across
these small causeways and possessed
the city. The natives afterwards
drove him and his men out back over
them. The spaniards were ultimate
,ly successful.
It is easy for us now to understand
why centuries Of sewage and gar
bage and stagnation, the death rate
in the City OF Mexico became the
greatest OF any city in the world.
For centuries the subject OF drain
age has been engaging the serious at
.tention Of the people of the citys
Millions of money and host Of lives
have been given to II. Canals have
been constructed and q tunnel has
been bored more than 10000 feet
through q mountain and lined with
brick into d river which dumps the
filth of the city into the Gulf Of
Mexico. Now the city is y dry and
fairly healthful. The historic places.
where these escauseways were during:
the Spanish conquest. are now point;
ed ont, 10 the tourist. n the best