Norwich bulletin., 1914-05-30

Mexicah highlands is on a par with the opium question in China
 At Ocotlan. in the state of Tlaxcala, the highest point on the line Is reached, S,333 feet. From there the road descends 700 feet to the capital Ocotlan has a most interesting old church. one of the lecture in the country. It embodies the type called Churrigueresque, the Span ish development of the Italian BaroQue style It is so called after Jose Churri- guerra a native of Salamanca, Spain, who lived in the latter part of the seventeenth century.
 Mexico is full of this style of art, both architectural and ornamental It is, in fact, the dominant art note of the coun- try, and with it's audacity of conception and exuberance of detail lends itself enli- nently to the decoration of the Mexican plateau
 It was Tlaxcala, the smallest state of modern Mexico, which at the time Of the Spanish conquest virtually decided the fate of the Aztec empire. The T1axcal- ans were a people who had evolved a form of republicanism which brought them into sharp conflict with the Aztec autocracy. When Cortes arrived on the scene they were at war with the Elm peror Montezuma. and after testing the, prowess of the white invaders they be- Came their stanch allies and thus brought about the eventual downfall Nof the Aztecs.
  long before the spaniards took possession looms in the distance as the traveller speeds down to the Mexican capital-the terraced pyramids of the sun and moon. The place is called Teotihuacan, which in Aztec means the City of the Gods, but it is quite certain that to the Aztecs and probably even to earlier conquerors the two mounds-the largest, by the way, on this continent-were as much a mystery as they were to the invading Spaniards and are to tlis day.
 These tzacualn. as they are called in Aztec annals. inspired both Aztecs and Toltecs with awe. It vas hither that the Aztec sovereigns came to be crowned and Aztec high priests had their abode here. Aztecs and Toltecs knew no more about their origin and early religious purpose than we know; but through theik hoary antiquity the pyramids became he re- ligious center of these successive empires- earth has been removed from the sun pyramid, showing the terraced form which recalls the pyramids of Egypt It is curious fact that many of the little terra cotta heads-probabiy royal and sacerdotal effigies-unearthed around the mounds and i-i the nee -opolis. bear an un- questionable resemblance to the Egyptian race type
 A few more miles along Lake Texcoco. famous in Mexican history, and another great religious monument of the Americas is reached, at the outskirts of Mexico City. It is the famous shrine of Guads- Iupe the Lourdes of Mexico Its psc- turesque tradition of the -Indsan Juan Diego-whose tilma, or cloak, with fhe miraculous image of the Virgin im- pressed on it is seen over the altar of tine sanctuary-is intimately connected with the spread of Christianity in the new world.
 Historically. Guadalupe is of vast sig- nificance. for it was here that the peace treaty between Mexico and the Unite>f States of February 2. 1S4S. was concl1,,7E ed which gave Mexico s15.OOo.UOo and inc United States 522.955 square miles of ter ritorry. WALTER VERNIER