The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1916-03-25

Merida, Yucatan, March 1s.-For the
benefit Of any good people who may
have been misled by my letters from
here so that when they die they will
head for Yucatan instead OF Heaven,
am going to set down a few of the
outs" about this place that make
II easily distinguishable from para
disc.
Although I've never been in Heaven,
from what I've heard about it / am
sure that il does not in the least
resemble Yucatan. II II does, l imsg-
inc that a number OF saints would
wish they had been sinners and got
a sentence 10 the other place.
Now as to the heat
They tell you IL is nothing to con-
slider. for that one can always be cool
by staying in the shade. In other
words. stay out of the heat
So the natives say II it's hot keep
cool. But you can't go to Yucatan and
hibernate in a csvelike house to keep
comfortable. 1t is necessary to go
out in the sun to attend to business
and get food and for many other rea-
sons. So you do get obnormaIIy hot
and pretty near melt People who don't
like hot weather should keep away
from here.
Keep Out of the Kitchen.
Now the natives in Merida are very
clean personally. They all ba the every
day and put on clean. clothes. But
right there their cleanliness blows out
tire and comes to a dead stop. Many
of their habits are disgusting and all
the cooking that I saw was done in a
hlthy way II you have any respect
for your appetite keep out Of a Next
car kitchen. You will see things there
that will set you fasting for forty
days and longer II you live and stiIl
stay in the country
Even though you remain in blissfuI
/ ignorance Of the nastiness Of the
cooking you are not going to like the
food when you do get it. Not a little
bit, for from an American standpoint
they have about the worst food in the
world
To Americans accustomed to the
great abundance and variety and eN-
CellenCe Of food all over the United
States. the scantiness and inferiorily
of edibles in Yucatsn are almost un-
believa bic. What little they do have
they cook atrociously, to an Ameri-
cans taste at least.
OF beef and OF mutton there are
very little and what there Is would be
scOrned by any dog with class to him.
In the Merida market. venison was the
most abundant meat and on many days
the only kind TO be had. There j. a
good deal of ii in the country and il
| is about the only meat the Indians ever
get. There are also a good many pigs
raised and d lot OF ham and bacon
. imported from Chicago, but l don't
recommend YUcatan pork I have seen
/ the pigs around the haCiendss. At
| first, it did not occur to me that they
We're pigs. They seemed more like
wolves.
The chickens are unedible. They are
absolutely nothing but skin and bones
and muscles. Every blessed one OF
them that tackled must have been a
game cock and died fighting. The tur-
KEYS. OF which they raise a lot, are
just al bad. The meat is so tough you
can't chew it. ! ordered some cold
turkey one day for lunch at the Grand
, Hotel 1t was like slices OF dirty white
leather ! couldn't swallow q mouth
full. | told the waiter to take il away
and remarked that it Was tougher than
Villas conscience.
ST senior" he said. You find him
duro: How you say it that tough?
Toughable. durOble 80
He unknowingly got it right. Thai $
what the turkey meat down here is
durable.
OF vegetables there are hardly any,
/ outside of the everlasting black beans
ground up into a paste and fried. They
have a few peas and some small po-
tatoes. Nothing else. Not that they
cant grow them. 1t is just because
they don't
Prime Butter Is Rancid.
Tho butter is nearly all imported
in tins. Its strong and rancid. but