The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-04-20

wnen ne pleaSes, IN search OF odd stories
about this and that.
CUERNAvACA. Mexico. April 20.
~ Il guess you'd be jealous if you
could see where I am now. Boy, oh
boy, oh boy!
My room is like a penthouse. It's
all windows on three sides. and the
floor is big red tiles, and the chairs
are wicker, made by Indians.
leave the door open all the time.
And when step out the door. step
right outdoors on to a tiled terrace.
It's about Is feet wide, and has a
grilled railing around it, and the roof
goes out halfway over the terrace.
There is a deck chair out there,
and there isn't soul around. I
write little while, and then go out
and sit in the deck chair and look
at the housetopS and the mountains,
and then I come back and write
some more
1t is hot. probably 90. 1t is nearly
sunset, and that makes my terrace
shady. and it also makes the long
shadows out over town look as
though a painter had put them
there-sharp dark shadows all over
the white walls of Cuernavaca.
IRON my porch can look north
n toward Mexico City, and east
toward Tepoztlan, the primitive
community that Stuart Chase took
for his cease village" of Mexico. I
can't see Tepoztlan from here, but
can see the big peak of solid brown
rock this side of the mountain range,
and Tepoztlan is right between the
peak and the range.
Nobody could describe the rear
side of this place I'm in. The front
is three stories high, but the back
is about six stories. And the whole
descent is a conglomeration of bal
comics, set-backs, porches, grill rail-
ings and little tiled roofs, clear
down to the ground, with no even
ness about it at all.
And down below is the garden Of
gardens. There is a pool in the
middle, and then the widest pro-
fusion of flowers and tropical trees
and stone walls and high iron fences
you ever saw.
And then as you raise your eyes,
there is Cuernavaca, for about a
s~ .e-
built at the bottom of a cup, with
mountains absolutely encircling it,
and the bottom of the cup isn't level,
but rises and falls all over the place.
A ND it isn't all roof tops see
L y either. It is half FRESHMAN
go and banana and palm, and
some that bloom red all over like
flowers, and dozen others that I
don't know.
The roof. and the parts of the
buildings you can see, are red and
dark brown and faint blue and
green and orange, and there are
| lou Oh WIllU6 Walls. Over d COuIJS
of blocks to the north, standing
up above the other buildings is an
old, old church
Out beyond the church are more
roof tops and trees, and when the
land begins to rise steadily, and
you see just few houses and some
clear up to the green forested ridge,
up to 5000 feet above Cuernavaca-
and Cuernavaca itself is 5000 feet
high.
There Is no sound at all, ex-
cept the constant Growing of roost-
ers all over the city.
BOOSTERS crow louder and often
er in Mexico than any place I have
ever visited. And at dusk the dogs
will start. Millions of mongrel dogs
bark all night all over Mexico
Cuernavaca is Mexico City's
week-ending place. The rich peo-
pie come here to relax from the al
titude. Dwight Morrow owned a
nome here, and put Cuernavaca on
the map for Americans. You might
think it would be spoiled by now.
1t does have nice hotels, but the
spelling" hasn't gone much further
than that.