The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1913-02-18

be broken up and loaded on wagons
The clapper of tina, bell is two Ieet
taller than President Taft, II X
weighs 200 pounds more On clear
days it can be heard six miles away.
The church has altogether forty bells,
and when they ring 81 midday the
poems who hear them take of their
hats. Their sound is also the call to
lunch, and the clerks then drop their
work and rush for the street ears TO
go home to eat and to rest
This cathedral is not only the big
gest church on the continent. but 1t
is also the oldest. The orner stone
was laid in 1873, upon the site of the
great Aztec temple which Cortez de-
stroyed. \ small church was erected
there two years later, and then fifty
years afterWard came the foundations
of this mighty building. whose wallis
were completed five years before our
puritan fathers first came to America.
The walls of the cathedral are said
dollars, and when the church was
opened the richest Of the Spaniards
gave UP their Jewels to decorate it.
Something like two million dollars
worth OF ornaments were presented
and among them n chalice covered
with gems valued at $500. 000. his
was given by a rich miner who later.
falling into financial distress, begged
that his gift be returned It is said
that he got back $780, 00, but I doubt
it.
In the Great Plaza.
But let us go down from the tower
and take a walk through the streets:
| The cathedral faces the Plaza Major or
the Plaza de la Constitution upon
| which faces the National Palace, the
new city hall, the Monte de Piedad
Of government pawnbroking shop and
other great buildings. It is just 5
and as we stroll along by the palace
We see that soldiers are massed at
one Of theentrances where a great
| crowd has gathered. We are told
| that the president IS coming. We
| wait q moment and soon see an auto
mobile fly up. The oldiers present
their arms and the bugler gives a
blast in way OF salute. At the same
time the people raise their hats ana
cry viva! viva. Madero!" The au-
tomobile opens and a little lar with
a fiat face covered with a brown beard
takes off his hat and salutes as he
goes into the building.
a Walk Through the Business Section.
We cross the Plaza and go up the
Avenida de a Francisco. The sun
has now set and the electric lights
A1NO GRA Ala OAl AC S(1CNI OxdAC0
with the arc lamps, which, fastened
to posts about fifteen feet high. run
through it from one end to the other.
The lights are SO arranged that each
cluster of five is not more than
twenty-five feet distant from that on
the opposite side Of the way. The
windows Of the shops are also illumi-
mated and the asphalt shines like pol
fshed glass under the electric rays.
0 stop a moment and notice the
people. There are representatives
here from all I'VE Europe-Germans,
Frenchmen, Englishmen and Span
iards, and also many Americans. We
see our goods in h stores. and hear
III English language often spoken as
we walk through the streets. There
are many rich M~exicans, and some
> Of them come in from the country
with the costume Of the old hacienda.
de-. consisting of an immense som
t brero loaded with silver and q sui
OF rich cloth decorated with numerous
3 buttons and braid. There are many
peOn men wearing blankets over theil
shoulders and indian women with
t black rebosaS wrapped round thei1
heads. There are also girls of thu
we'll to do classes, clad in black with
black shawls round their heads ane
others wearing high-heeled shoes ant
far1s mats like those OF our ladies a
4 home. Most of the wemen have
powder n paint upon their darl
a races, but not more, I venture. thar
a Q can see any day on the girls who
r walk up and down the great whit,
e way in New York,
kt Built by Americans.
When I was in Mexico City twen,,
years the new part of the capita
q lylns on botn sides of the Paseo de |;
Reforn1a had just begun to be. 'rh,
q city Their was only half the size it i
q now, and the greater part OF thi
region was covered with wamps IT
possibilities were seen by Anerica,
capitalists, n they organized a syn
e dicate named the American Colon,
IS Company and bought large tracts -
e land, which they laid out in lots rhe,
> drained off the water and put in nave
IL ments n sewers. They also hui,