The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1914-05-16
QUEER CONTRASTS
MEXICO ONE OF THE RICHEST
COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD
POVERTY STRICKEN.

Washington, May 16.-'Perhaps
nowhere else in the world is there a
country so full of contrasts as Mexi-
co." writes William Joseph Showalter
to the National Geographic society, at
Washington, ID. c.. with a univer-
sity established before John Harvard,
Elihu Yale, or William and Mary
were born, the masses of its people
are hopelessly ignorant. With a hos
pital founded before jamestown "a
even dreamed of, it is one of the
most backward regions of the earth
in a medical way. With natural
riches greater than those of a thou
sand Midas's, it's masses are just as
poor as the proverbial church mouse
With a constitution as perfect as any
organic law in the civilized world, it
is a nation whose rulers always have
been a law unto themselves.
Here you will find a Mexican half
breed, b~arefooted, wearing a dollar
pair of trousers, a fifty-cent shirt,
and a ten dollar sombrero. There, at
a single glance and within the length
of a single city block, you may see
an'Indian cargador, a donkey, an OK
cart, a carriage, a railroad train, a
street car, and an automobile-al-
most every type of loeomotion since
Adam. You may tread the burning
sands of a tropical desert with the
wet of perpetual snow of towering
mountains still upon your shoes. You
may take a single railway journey of
SO hours in which the people you see
at the railroad station will be dress
ed in four different weights of cloth
ing. Everywhere you turn there is
contrast, high lights and deep shad-
ows.
Mexico probably has a greater
range of remarkable vegetation than
any other country in the world. The
parrot fruit tree produces IN odd
shaped fruit, bearing a close resem.
blance to green parakeets. Wher
the parakeet is frightened it makes
a dash for the parrot tree, where il
assumes a position which makes II
look like the fruit itself. So close i:
the resemblance that their enemies
the hawks, occasionally fly by a tree
on which a dozen or more of these
birds are sitting, apparently unaware
of their presence. Another remark
able tree is 'Arbol de Dinamite'-dy
Mantle tree-whose fruit, If kept il
a warm place. bursts with consider
able force and a loud report, scatter
ing its fiat seeds to a surprising dis
lance. One of the most interesting
fruits in Mexico is known as the mel
on xapote, or papaya. 1t contains
considerable pepsin, which react
against both acid and alkaline condi
tions of the stomach, and ii is sait
that a diet which includes papay;
precludes dyspepsia. Both the frui
and the leaves possess the singula.
property of rendering tough mea
tender. When the pulp of the frui
is rubbed over a piece of tough mea
the juice attacks the fiber and soft
ems il.
mo other country south of the Ri
Grande is so we'll supplied with rail
roads. Prior to the Madero revolu
ton, it had 10000 miles of up-to
date American railroad, which cal
ried IL .000.0 600 passengers annual
and handled about 100000 ton
OF freight. Their total revenue
amounted to about $40, 900, 00(
The government owns a ~controllin
interest in the major portion of tn
mileage of the railroads.
Mexico produces %one-third of tn
worlds silver, a considerable percenI
age of its gold, one-ninth of its leat
and one-twentieth of its copper. TIL
!. country's mineral production, excll
sive of iron, coal and petroleum
amounted to s15S,000,0 900 in 1917
The famous iron mountain at Duran
: go is estimated to contain 500, 900
/ 900 tons of iron ore, which is wort
: seven times the value of all the gol
!. and silver mined in Mexico in tw
T centuries. The Santa Maria graphit
mines are the largest and most in
|, portant in the western world. Tn
region around the Gulf of Mexico
very rich in petroleum. One con
pany at Poteri del Llano struck
gusher which flowed loo, 900 barre.
Of oil a day.