The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-08-17
First Fort Taken by Ex-President Diaz

able events have made Brownsville
famous. 1t was there that General
Diaz secretly planned the revolution
with which he overthrow the Mexican
government ard gained his first cleo
ton to the presidency of the republic.
The more recent event IS the shoot
ing uE> of the town by some negro SOL
oilers resulting in the discharge of the
entire regiment by President Roosevelt.
From Brownsville we made a side
trip up the Rio Grande as far as Sam
Fordyce the present railway terminus.
Here I had a good opportunity to see
and learn about this valley which like
a magnet, is drawing so many northern
people to it. That it has d great future
is unquestionable. Five years ago 1t
was a wilderness, a semi-arid district
covered with scrub mesquit, ebony trees
and cactus, inhabited only by the scat
tered MexicanS who crossed the Rio
Grande and raised 1ong-horn Mexican
cattle, a few ponies and goats Today
hundreds of acres are under irrigating
cultivation, producing immense crops
OF cotton, sugar cane, corn, kaff1r corn
and other vegetables.
Two and three crops year are
raised. On one farm 1 saw corn that
had ripened and was in shock, next a
field just coming to the roasting stage
and beyond another field about six
inches high with the owner planning to
plant the first field in corn that would
ere of this valley can organize so as to
market their crops they will certainly
make fortunes. This organization is
already on foot. Cotton however is
king in the valley as we'll as in all
Texas The climate surprised US, I'M
dcubtedly the, finest all-year climate in
the world The temperature never goes
above 80. The nights are cool and de-
nghtful The famous trade-winds of
the gulf sweep across this country
continually.
Just outside our door pair of mock
ing birds We're rearing a family Hardly
an hour of the day or night is not made
cheerful by these sweete It of all Amer
lean song birds
Our stop was at Donna in the very
hearr OF the richest part of the VAL
ley. From here We dropped back to
San Benito and down to Brownsville.
There are several good little towns on
this branch, all of them built within
I'VE years and the enterprise and pres
perlty they show is surprising
brownsville, too, is waking up as are
all of the Gulf coast cities All are
counting much on the completion of
the Panama canal. From Browns
Vile We planned trip into the in
terror of Old Mexico. We learned.
however, that railroad conditions were
pad, so spent a couple of DAYS in
Matamoras instead. 1t is one of the
oldest and most interesting cities of
the republic.
We were certainly impressed with
the fact that we were in a foreign
land. Very few of the Mexicans. even
the better class can speak a word of
English This is true in the shops as
we'll as on the streets You must have
an interpreter. Three-fourths of the
population of Mexico are part Indian
but everywhere we went we were I'M
pressed with the courtesy of the peo-
pie The poorest "peon'' greets YOU
politely. My observation both in
Mexico and in the Rio Grande valley
on the American side leads me to be-
1ieve that the Mexican people, mean
the working people, are far from be-
ing the vicious, worthless class they
are often pictured.
The standard wage for a Mexican
farm hand is rs cents day in the
Rio Grande valley and II to Is cents
a day in Mexico and he earns every
cent of it. They have large families
and live in matched roof shacks,
peacefully and apparently as happy as
the average people. Tortilles. kind
of corn pansake, constitute the prin-
cipa1 diet of the Mexican poems The
women spend much of their time
grinding corn into dough with whfe h
TO make tortilles. They are skilled
needle workers. too. Mexican draw