The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-04-21

| y NO1E-luls TuFluk reporter
for The Times goes where he pleases.
about this and that.
TAXCO. Mexico. April 21.-You
l. pronounce Taxco like this.
Tahsco.
| It's 100 miles south of Mexico
City. The road is all paved. Part of
the way it's through desert. and in
midday it's so hot you almost get
sick driving.
The last Is miles is through
mountains. Very scenic, and very
crooked. Nearly as crooked as the
bad stretch on the Pan-American
Highway between Texas and Mex
leo City. But not half so frightening,
because if you fall over the edge you
just fall 500 feet instead of 1000.
When you come around a curve
and see Taxco for the first time, you
can hardly believe it's true I asked
man who has lived in Mexico a
long time if there were any other
towns as beautiful as Taxco.
yes" he said. Several of them.
In Jalisco, for instance"
Now I'll have to go to Jalisco.
TAXCO is very old and primitive,
and it's built all over a noun
tainside. A rough mountainside,
with ravines and shelves. The
maps say the town is $3.50 feet high.
But they don't say what part of
town. The upper side must be at
least 800 feet higher than the
| lower
I don't believe any 200 square
feet of Taxco are on the same level.
Or that any street runs straight
more than third of block. Or
that any row of roofs makes a
straight line.
When you arrive, you have to
take a boy on the running board
to show you where to go. There's
no way you could possibly get
through town the first time, without
just trying every open space be-
tween any two buildings.
Some of the streets are Just wide
enough for a car and burro Most
of them look like walking paths
rather than streets-and that's ex-
actly what they are. They were built
for burros and sandaled ynen.
TAXCO is about 5000 people, and
= looks bigger. In the middle of
the town is the most dominating
piece of architecture I have ever
seen-the great cathedral.
1t was built by Jose Borda, 200
years ago. He discovered silver
here, and made more money out of
minerals than any one in the whole
history of Mexico. And then he
spent it all on this church land the
Borda gardens in Cuernavaca), and
when he died he didn't have any,
thing. But it must have been
worth it.
For when you stand and look
across the ravine at the pinkish old
church over there on the mountain
side among the white walls and the
green trees. its two great towers as
cending in massive competition
with the mountain peak, believe
you could stand and just look at it
as long as at any building in the
world
Il Th0ra fa1nT1tA,@a- -, IT,
There is a telegraph station, and
they have electric lights. But gas
stations have to stay outside of
| town.
TAXCO is so perfect that the
L government has made it what;
we in the states cab a national
monument and nobody can build
anything without the governments
approval.
What will become of Taxco, I
wonder, in the next few years, with
tens of thousands of tourists
streaming down over the new PAN
American highway to Mexico City,
and on to Taxco?
Tourists will be so thick they'll,
push the burros off into the ravines,
and you'll hardly be able to see a
hog in the street When there get
to be more tourists than natives
here (Which isn't unlikely and :
when every brown child has learned
to say "allo" in bad English, then
Taxco will be gone.
But why, you ask, should I be
shooting off the mouth about
American sightseers coming to
Taxco? Am I tourist, or am I a
tourist?
Yes, I know. But at least I wear
the same clothes I wear at home,
and don't go around in a pink shirt, :
green jodhpurs. blue specta-les,
brown sun helmet and a pair Of
field glasses just because I happen
to be in Mexico.
And never make any noise.