The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1914-05-14
MEXICO A LAND FULL OF
REMARK ABLE CONTRASTS

Washington. ID. G., May l3.-"Per-
haps nowhere else in the world is the'c
| a country so fun of contrasts as MeXi-
| co." writes William Joseph Shnwalt"r
| To the National Geographic Society, n;
Washington, ID. G.. with "a university
established before John Harvard f,lihl
Yale, or William and Mary were born,
the masses of it's people are hopeless
| Is ignorant. With a hospital founded
| before jamestown was even dreamed
| of. il is one of the most backward re-
gions of the earth In medical way.
with natural ricnes greater than those
of thousand Midas's, its masses are
! just as poor as the proverbial church
mouse. With constitution as per
feet as any organic law in the civilized
world. il is Il nation ahose rulers al
ways have been law unto them
selves.
Here YOU will see a Mexican half
breed, barefooted. wearing IA dollar
pair of trousers, nfty-ccnt shht, ana
a ten dollar sombrer0. There, at Il sin
gle glance and within the length of ri
single city block you may see an In
dian cargador,- a donkey, an oX-caft,
a carriage, a railroad train, a stree
car. and an automobile almost every
type of locomutiOn since Adam. You
may tread the burning sands OF n
tropical desert with the wet OF the
perpetual snow of towering mountains
still upon your shoes Yea may take
"a single railway journey # % hours
i'm which the people You see at the rail-
road station will he dressed in four diff
ferent weights of clothins. Every
where you turn there is contrast, high
lights and deep shadows
Great Range of Vegetation.
Mexico probably has a greater range
of remarkable vegetation than any
other country in the world. The parrot
fruit tree produces an odd-shapcd
fruit, bearing n close resemblance 10
green parakeets. When the parakeet
is frightened il makes dash for the
parrot tree, where it assumes a posi-
ton which makes it look like the fruit
itself. So close is the resemblance that
their enemies, the hawks. occasionally
fly by tree on which a dozen or more
of these birds are sitting, apparently
unaware of their presence. Another re-
markable tree is the 'ArbOl de Dina
mite'-dynamitc trec-whosc fruit, if
kept in "a warm place. bursts with con-
siderable force and loud repo"
scattering its Hat rec Is Ia surpris-
ing distance. one of the most Interest
ing fruits in Mexico is known as the
melon zapote, or papaya. 1T contains
considerable pepsin, which reacts
against both acid and alkaline condi-
tons of the stomach. and il is said that
"A diet which includes papaya pre-
! cludes dyspepsia. Both the fruit aud
the leaves possess the singular prop
erty of rendering tough meat tender.
! When the pulp of the fruit is rubbed
, over "a piece of tough meat the juice
attacks the fiber and softens It,
Well Supplied With Railroads.
NO other country south of the R'o
Grande is so well supplied with rail-
| roads. Prior to the Madero revolu-
/ ton IL had 10000 miles Of up-to-da:e
r American railroad. which carried H.
O0O, 600 passengers annually and han
died about 11,OOo,000 tons of freight.
Their total revenues amounted Ia about
, $40. zoe. 900. The government owns a
controlling interest in the major por-
; ton of the mileage Of the railroads
Mexico produces one-third of the
( worlds silver. a considerable percent
! age of its gold one ninth of its lead,
: and one twentieth of it's copper. The
country's mineral production. EXCLUSIVE
? of iron. coal and petroleum, amounted
: TO sl5S. OOO.O in 1910. The famous
{ iron mountain at Durango Is estimated
. to contain 600 million tons OF iron ore
| which is worth seven times the value
{ of all the gold and silver mined in
Mexico In two centuries. The Santa
Maria graphite mines are the largest
and most important i'm the western
. world. The region around the Gulf of
I Mexico is very rich in petroleum. one
Y company at Poteri del Llano struck u
e gusher which flowed 100000 barrels oi
{ oil a day.
D "The drawn-w work of the Mexican In
{ dian is justly famed throughout tho
world and deserves To rank with the
finest of Spanish and Italian aces
{ The Indians make all sorts of smal
+ objects to attract the centavos of the
r tourist. The little dolls of Cuernavaca
: a half-inch tall and dressed I'm finely
embroidered raiEment, are the admira-