Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1916-04-16

Chihuahua City is figuring with al
most as much persistence in the news
dispatches of today as did Vera Cruz
during the Tampico incident yet
the average Americans only mental
association with the name of the cap
ital of the largest state in the Mexican
republic is that "it's the place the
funny little dogs come FROM says a
primer, issued today by the National
Geographic Society of Washington,
which tells of the importance of this
city of 10000 inhabitants whose his
tory antedates by more than a quarter
of a century the first permanent set
tlement made by Europeans in the
United States, at St. Augustine, Fla, in
1865.
The march of General Perishing's
punitive expeditionary force marks the
third visit of body of United States
soldiers to this center of the mining
/ industry of the state of Chihuahua,
which is as large as the combined
areas of Ohio and Pennsylvania" con-
tinues the bulletin. During the Mex
lean war that unique Missouri lawyer,
Col. A. w. Doniphan, captured the city
with a force of less than a thousand
men in 1S47, and in the same war it
fell again before the Americans under
General Price.
chihuahua is more accustomed,
however, to seeing its people engaged
in internal strife than in opposing
foreign foe. 1t was here, for example,
that the patriot priest, Hidalgo was
executed in 1911, following the failure
Of the revolution which he led in an
effort to throw off the Spanish yoke.
The most imposing monument in the
city is in memory of this beloved ma
| tlonal hero the incidents of whose
death are as pathetic as the passing of
any martyr since the days of Joan Of
Arc. The priest was condemned to
die at dawn. While being led to the
place of execution he remembered that
he had left some sweetmeats under his
pillow. He asked one of the soldiers
to return for them and when they
were brought he distributed them with
his blessing among the members of the
firing squad. Knowing that the misty
light of dawn would make it difficult
for the soldiers to aim accurately, the
priest calmly placed his hand owe:
his heart against the black robe, so
that they could locate the vital SPOT.
while the mining industry in the
territory contiguous to chihuahua City
is four times as important as the agri-
cultural interests, nevertheless the
raising of corn, fruits, and cotton is
important and an interesting feature
OF the last named product is that its
manufacture into cloth dates back to
the days of Cortez, who sent to his
sovereign, the King of Spain, some of
the finely woven material from the
land which utilized cotton for clothing
even before Europe knew its uses.
Legends of the Toltecs, recorded in
their sacred books, tell us that Duet
zalcohutal, god of the air, grew cotton
OF all colors in his garden, and taught
its many uses. AS to colored cotton.
the MeXlcans have never felt the pinch
OF a dyestuff famine, at least red dye
stuff, for this country is the home Of
the cochineal, that odd insect, whose
dried bodies furnish such a wonderful
and lasting scarlet coloring matter. It
was not until 1903, the very year in
which the Spanish settlers reached the
present site of Chihuahua City and
discovered the Santa Eulalie mine that
it became known that cochineal was
not seed or bloom of a plant attached
to the cochineal fig, but a bug.
In some parts of Chihuahua cotton
IS perennial and it is unnecessary to
plant it oftener than once every ten
years.
The spinning of wooden yarn and
| yJnaUinC Of