Norwich bulletin., 1916-04-20
THE WAR PRIMER

"Chihuahua City is figuring with all most as much persistence in the news dispatches of today as did Very Cruz during the 'Tampico incident yet the average Americans only mental asSo- citation with the name of the capital of the largest state in the Mexican repub- lie is that it's the place the funny lit tie dogs come from" says a primer, is sued today by the National Geographic society of Washington, which tells of the importance of this city of 10000 inhabitants whose history antedates by more than a quarter of a century the first permanent settlement made by Europeans in the United States, at St. Augustine, Fa., in 1865.
 The march of tfener;1 PershiPgS punitive expeditionery force marks the third visit of a 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 Me4i- can war, that unique Missouri lawyer. Col. A. w. Donip iphln, captured the city with a force of less than 1000 men in 1847, and in the same war it fell again before the Americans under General Price.
 Chihuahua is more accustomed, however, to seeing it's people engaged in internecine strife than in opposing foreign foe. It was here, for example, that the patriot priest, Hidalgo, was executed in 1911, following bhe 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 na- | tional 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 1 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 l blessings among the members of the l 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 over his heart against the black robe, so that they could locate the vital spot.
 "Of the 23,191 mining properties listed in Mexico in 1906, five-sixtlls of them produce silver, and of these the Santa Eulalie, F miles outside Chi huahua, is the most famous. It has l produced as high as 10000 tons of sill | ver-bearing ore a month. The hand l some parish church in the capital
 which was in the course of construc- l tion for three-quarters of a century | was built from a tax levied on the out
 put Of this mine.
 When the Aztecs worked the Chi
 huahua mines their skilled artifcerS
 used reed blowpipes in melting the
 metals. They also made a bronze
 much the same as that used in Europe
 but they did not know the uses O.
 iron, even though there was before
 them that mountain of almost soliC iron only a few miles outside the city
 of Durango, a mountain nearly a mile
 long, a third of a mile wide at tht base and nearly TOO feet high, worth
 it is estimated, as much as all the golC
 and silver produced in the mines O
 Mexico in two centuries.
 Tt seems practically certain tha
 some Of General Pershing's soldier
 will spend Easter week in Chihuahua
 where they will have an opportunity t,
 witness one of the oldest custom practiced in any civilized country 3 the hanging of Judas on Saturday be ) fore Easter Sunday. This ceremon
 is performed in many cities, and usu
 ally takes place before a pulque sa g loon. A rope is stretched from an up V per window of the saloon to buildin , across the street. It is lowered and a N effigy, curious affair, usually with
 grotesque nose, like our comic valen
 tines, a high hat and long tail coa, u is tied to it. Then the rope is draw taut as soon as a match has been ap = piled to the coat-tail fuse. The crow l dSSSlIlOlSS as lIlo lS uI6 DUTIES. SuOQen 1 ly there is a loud explosion as the fus
 burns to the center of the figure, an - a wild scramble follows for the ha a or the shoes, or perhaps the coat V prize for some lucky onlooker''
 While the mining industry in tn d territory contiguous to Chihuahu
 City is four times as important as th
 agricultural interests, nevertheless It the raising of corn, fruits and cotto ,- is important and an interesting fee
 fV1T~o ~f4 Ir-. - Its manufacture into cloth dates bac
 to the days of Cortez, who sent
 his sovereign, the king of Spain, son
 of the finely woven material from u I'd land which utilized cotton for clotI 10 ing even before Europe knew its use re Legends of the Toltecs, recorded i'd their sacred books, tell us that Que Ia zalcohuatl, god of the air, grew co
 ton of all colors in his garden, al
 taught it's many uses. As to colort
 cotton, the Mexicans have never fe L. the pinch of a dyestuff famine, tn least red dyestuff, for this country G. the home of the cochineaI, that o( no insect, whose dried bodies furni n- such a wonderful and lasting scarl
 coloring matter. It was not until 17C
 the very year in which the Spani
 settlers reached the present site at Chihuahua City and discovered t )0. Santa Eulalie mine, that it becar yn known that cochineal was not a SC siS or DlcCn OE a plant atCaCheQ to t yh cochineal fig, but a bug.
 'Tn some parts of Chihuahua colt
 Is perennial and 1t Is unnecessary
 plant 1t oftener than once every t IT. years.
 on '"Fhe spinning of woolen yarn a ar. weaving or Woo!en cloth Is one Of t np industries of Chihuahua City, dati l.e back to the importation of tue mari 1e sheep by the Spaniards in 1851.
 should be remembered, incidental
 that all the domestic animals of Me ho leo date from the Spanish conqut at and the herds of cattle, goats, she ed and swine which now find excelle re pasturage on the plateau surroundi ,e+ Chihuahua have sprung from the ori ina1 Spanish stock, except for the f ne new strains introduced within We lId recent years in an effort to imprc
 the standard.