The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-05-01

for The Times goes where be pleases.
when he pieases. In search Of odd stories
about this and that.
GUATEMALA CITY, May L.
~ Adolfo Fernandez has been
showing me around. Adolfo is not
a guide, but a new-found friend. He
is 10 and fine boy.
Adolfo runs a magazine stand in
the hotel and he saw my name on
the register. After 1t they had
written Washington. D. c. Pc
riodista." That means newspaper
man. Adolfo came up to see me.
For Adolfo has lived IS of his 10
years in Washington. II is more
home to him than his native Guate-
mala. His father was secretary at
the legation there all that time. And
just to polish off the coincidence, it
turned out that Adoho for long
time was a carrier for the Daily
News. the Scripps- Howard paper in
Washington.
So Adolfo closed up his magazine
stand and took me around. We must
have walked five miles. We rode on
buses all over the town.
WE walked through the Plaza.
w and stopped in front of the
National Palace on the other size.
Who's the president of Gaute-
mala?" 1 asked Adolfo.
Jorge Ubico," he said. "And he's
very popular. He has done a great
deal for Guatemala. He has been
president since 1929, and he's been
elected again until 1913. There
aren't likely to be any revolutions
while he's president.
See those paved streets? They
weren't paved before Ubico came
in. just old rough, muddy things.
See these traffic cops in their neat
uniforms? Before we was presi-
dent they were all barefooted."
We went out to the Relief Map"
It's one of the main things in
Guatemala City. It's just like the
relief maps made of clay that you
see in museums, except this one is
made of concrete, and it's about
half block square, and it is OUT
doors, built right on the ground,
with an iron fence around it. You
climb on to a high platform and
look down on it. 1t shows every
peak and river and town in Guate-
mala.
WE went clear to the other end
w of town to the Archaeological
Museum. Here is the stuff they
have dug out of the Magyar ruins in
Guatemala. Huge, grotesque carv-
ings on stone. All kinds of pottery.
and Jade work, and skulls, and old
stone implements.
We went outside of town little
way to a new ruin they started dig
ging In a few weeks ago. But ii
was after 5. and they had closed,
and we didn't get to see it.
We went to the market, and Tn
sorry we went. We saw hundreds
of women, Indian women, sitting on
the pavement, with their baskets Of
merchandise around them. ALI
kinds of vegetables and fruits, wilt
ing and decaying in the sun. And
dirty children all around. 1t wasn't
appetizing.
We saw one woman with basket
of live iguanas-they're dragons or
lizards, with bodies two feet long
and tails equally long. and mean
eyes. They're hideous. People eat
them. These live ones were for sale
TO eat.
WE walked around the business
w section, just two blocks away,
and such contrast you never saw.
Downtown Guatemala is magnifi-
cent.
The people on the streets were all
in American clothes. Downtown,
saw no more than half a dozen In
dians in native garb. In Mexico
City you'd see hundreds,
The streets were smoothly paved.
The sidewalks were narrow, but
smooth and all blocked out in fancy
designs. And the stores-they're as
modern as anything in the States.
The streets are clean as a pin, and
the stores are shining and spotless.
I said to Adolfo: This city is so
modern, it looks as though they had
just wiped out all the old, and
started from scratch, building it up
again new"
And Adolfo said that's exactly
what happened An earthquake de-
stroyed the city in 1917. Hardly a
building left standing. Thousands
of people killed; nobody knows how
many. And 1 didn't even remember
about it.
And I was sort of carried away
with it all, and said I'd like to live
there awhile; but Adolfo says he
likes Washington best and that he
even thinks in English instead of in
Spanish, and that as soon as he can
hes going back there and finish
school.