The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-04-20
Ixtaccihuatl, old Popo's Wife
copyright, 1918, by Frank G. Carpenter.
MEXICO CITY.


copyright, 1913 by Frank G. Carpenter)
MEXICO CITY.
~ o YOU want to buy volcano?
If so, come to Mexico and size
~ up Popocatapetl. You may have
to take your life in your hands on ac-
count of the zapatistas and other rebels
camped near it's foot, but you will be
moderately safe at the top. Popocatapetl
is the highest smoking volcano on the
North American continent, and 1 am told
that as soon as matters are quiet it can
be made to pay big dividends on the
price now asked for it. The old noun
/ tain has been for sale, off and on, for
the last 25 years. 1t was bought in
1904 by a syndicate of Americans, headed
by Capt. Charles Holt of New York. The
consideration was $10,0OO,Ooo in Mexican
money, and the American company had
an authorized capital of S10,000OO0 in gold.
The plan was to work the enormous sui
phur resources of the volcano and at the
same time to supply ice to Mexico City
| from the ice fields which cover the peak.
The principal forests about the base of
the mountain were also to be converted
into a beautiful park and an inclined
railway to the top was to bring tourists
here from all over the world. This sale
was relf consummated. The title
wa d an the Mexicans could not
de trrr Ha F-a After several years
y alc-t gr abandoned and the
Jluu CAMS back to Gen. Sanchez
tichc an1 lie great mining engineers
~ Ea VIZ has owned it these many
ggfl old that the Pearson syn
oafs aas by Lord cowdray, has
a. c1s red the purchase, and that
Pes lnns iclude cogged railroads, not
'i so IT,, top of old "Popo." but also
a'sco uau. OF '"rhe White Woman"
f'sz Epls .ity extinct volcano which rises
ease sbe clouds only few miles away.
Ilphur for All the World
gatapetl itself is live volcano or,
~ i, 1t is only sleeping. Since the
tfna OF Cortez 1t has had 10 mighty
efn ions. 1t is the Vesuvius of America,
is liable to break out at any time
In another great burst of fire and lava
Its last eruption was in 1902, but 1t is
still breathing birthstone fumes from the
great holes in its crater. These holes are
rom z to u inches in diameter, and
they ooze liquid sulphur making the
crater a great birthstone factory.
The crater of old Popo is about a mile
wide at the top and something like a
thousand feet deep. 1t is shaped like q
Dell, the diameter at the bottom being
one-fourth of a mile and the <loor which
is pure sulphur, going down, it is said,
thousand feet deeper. The mountain is
splitting out sulphur at the rate of more
than million tons per annum Since the
conquest of Mexico moro than 0,OO0 900
tons have been taken out of 1t, and it is
estimated that there is half as much
more on the floor of the crater, running
down to a depth of 500 feet
The supply is far beyond the demands
of all the world, and If it could be mar
keted it represents wealth beyond the
: dreams of avarice. The annual consump-
ton of sulphur in the United States and
Europe is perhaps six or seven hundred
thousand tons. The most of the product
comes from Italy, and it sells for s25
ton. IF it could be supplied by Mexico.
IL would mean gross income of $14 900, 900
q Gar, and the sulphur in sight at half
the above rate would be worth a billion
and a half of dollars. AS Colonel Sellers
said OF his famous eye water: There's
millions in it."
Mining the Sulphur
In case the mountain is sold, the min
ing of this sulphur will be by modern
machinery, and the cost of bringing it
: to the market will be comparatively small
The millions of tons already produced
hox dt,o Ia, ha Ind
carried in bags by means of rope ladders
cut of the crater to a point where it could
be drawn UP with windlees and rope,
worked from the rim.
AS soon as the sulphur comes to the
top it is handed over to men who place
it on stray mats and slide with it down
over the snow to the timber line, from
where 1t is carried by horses and mules
to the cars.
Although the crater is exceedingly hot,
II is three miles above the sea and its rim
is bordered with perpetual snow. With
the exception of the holes. its floor is
solid. and ths workmen can move about
freely over Il. Now and tnen water
bursts in, and this, striking the floor.
causes steam, which rises high over the
mountain.
The Worlds Greatest Volcanoes
Popocatapetl is next to the highest point
on the Mexican uplands, beirg only sur
passed by Mount Olizaba 1t is the
Fourth highest mountain in North Amer
lea, kissing the clouds at 1850 feet above
the sea. The only mountains On our con-
tinent that are higher are Mount st. Elias
and Mount Mckinley in Alaska the lat
ter being over 20,JsO feet. Pixies Peak
is more than 5000 feet lower and Mount
washington not much more than one
third as high.
have seen most of the worlds great
Volcanoes. One of the best known is
stromboli. called the lighthouse of the
Mediterranean sSsa, down the ide of which
lava is continually pouring. II is not
FER from Sicily, where Etna is now in
3nild eruption, and near Vesuyius. whose
smoky cone is less than cne-fourth as
tall as old Popo. l have been on NNesu
vius during a mild eruption and have
feen the golden lava flowing down IN
narrow streams One could cook an egg
over them by holding it in Il wire basket.
The Island Of Java is made up Of 30