Arizona republican., 1922-03-23
Mexican Ox-Cart Drivers
Fear Advent OF Railroad
Will Be Topics RuinatiOn
Capital of West Coast State of Noyorit as a
Whole, HoWeUer, KnolVs the Southern
Pacific of Mexico Will Bring Prosperity to
Harassed District
BY HERBERT COREY.
ARTICLE NO. 10.

around as your head radiating from
a central plaza. 1t is beautifully built
as towns go in Mexico. There are
! scores Of handsome residences of
/ solid stone, through the open gates of
which one catches glimpses of orange
/ trees and Towering shrubs in the
| patio. Most Of the town is of adobe,
| of course, but there are so many little
| PLACES and fine parks that one gets
the impression OF space and greenery
and luxurious case.
During the Spanish occupation the
! road from Guadalajara to the coast
was built. The Spaniard believes in
enduring monuments to his road
building ability. I'll tell about the
road later on, but in passing it may
be remarked that a trip over il by
diligencia in the old days was reck-
oned as equivalent to two shipwrecks
or one fire. There are plenty Of cases
on record of men having died at the
end of the journey, simply from the
unbelievable shocks and displace-
ments of the diligencia trip.
Real Bandits This Time
But the road was practically aban-
doned some time ago for wheel traf-
fic. 1t got too bad for even the much
l.
During the revolution. Of course. no
attempt was made at repairing it
Then came the bandits-sure enough
bandits this time; the last holdup
was staged not so long before we
made the trip over the road-and that
stopped contact with the east except
as occasional daring and well-armed
spirits made their way through in
companies for safetys sake.
Toward the north the railroad had
reached Ruiz, a matter of three days
by mule. Out here no one knows
distances by kilometers. or miles.
They have never been figured that
way. A village is distant from an
other village so many mule hours,
which is equivalent to three miles per
hour when the mule and the road are
both good, and from that on down to
ridiculous minimum when both are
bad. Under the circumstances Tepic
lived on itself, a matter of no great
difficulty, for the state of Nayarit,
of which it Is the capital, is rich as
treasure house. Everything can be
raised here, from wheat to oranges.
There is even an apple tree here. ;"
said one man. ut raises good apples
too, with no need for irrigation. But
there is only one. | have heard ru-
mors of two grapevines in the state.
but the story remains without con-
firmation.'
After the revolution there was a
Bolsheyist government in Nayarit,
and the Bolshevists began to play
thunder with the financial system.
The same thing, it may be recalled,
was done by the Carranza govern
ment. The old First Chief could not
a 70 o,-fy Io4
pretty money, which ultimate tely be-
came completely worthless. Between
the revolutionists and the constitu-
tionalistas and the bandits and a few
little neighborly rows almost all the
livestock was killed or stolen in the
state The patient people lived on
what they could produce in their
fields and gardens by hand power.
They attempted little else. What was
the use of raising food for some one
else to steal? Banks went out of ex-
istence.
For months Tepic and Nayarit lived
practically by system of barter.
Property vallfes here have gone down
almost to nothing. The taxes were
due and payable just the same as
though all owners had been prosper
GUS. They could not pay in many in !
and so the property was Of
fered by the state for sale. Under /
the Mexican law, such sales can only /
be effected for spot cash. Checks, /
drafts, other evidence of Indebtedness /
are not considered. There being al /
most no cash in the country. the few /
which did change hands 1
did so at absurd prices, and these set /
the value for all the rest
Hotel a Massive Structure
The hotel in which am living was
built by Gen. Juan Ponce de Leon.
who almost ruined himself in the
building. 1t has rs feet frontage,
within a stones throw of the plaza.
which is the heart Of the town, and is
constructed throughout of cut stone.
as massively as a fort. The ceilings /
of the two floors are 10 feet high. /
The woodwork is all Of hand carved I
Mexican cedar, which is the only n
wood that resists the Tepic ant
There are great silver handles on the
TWO wings of the immense front door
The bathtub used by the servants
IN itself an evidence Of a Roman
oomp and elegance-is big enough to
soak 2 hnrsA The niuars which I'D