The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-04-15

NEEXICo CITY, April 15.-Some
1YA of the "little" things about
Mexico City:
Street car motormen don't wear
uniforms. They wear regular street
clothes, and keep their hats on, and
look as though they were just out
for the ride.
Traffic cop signals are the reverse
of ours. If the cops side is toward
you, you stop. If his face Cor back
is toward you. you go.
And how traffic goes in Mexico
City! It's wild. A space two feet
wide between cars looks like an
empty street to a Mexican taxi
driver.
Taxis swarm the downtown see
ton like flies. They're just ordinary
small sedans, with a colored line
drawn clear around on the moldin9.
On one taxi line will be blue, on
another red, another green and so
on. Here's the reason: There are
5000 cabs here, which is too many.
So the drivers divided themselves
into seven sections, each section
with its own color. One day off a
week is assigned to each color.
Work on your day off and it's as25-
peso fine.
COME people dncluding mel SUI
~ fer from Mexico City's 75OO-foot
altitude. Some don't. Some have
headaches, nose bleeds and storri-
ach aches. Some get tired and
sleepy. Some want to leap around
doing things like a wild man. It
makes some people very irritable.
Some can't get their breath. Some
get completely sick. 1t did all these
things to me.
Spring weather in Mexico City is
good-and bad. The temperature is
good. 1t is cool at night, but not
quite topcoat weather. In the
middle of the day the sun beats
down fiercely, and you'd better be
careful.
But every afternoon a wind comes
up. And with it the dust. It comes
from the dry bed of nearby Lake
Texcoco. BY p. m. the air is
saturated with sand, and you can
hardly breathe. This dust has been
the most annoying thing about
Mexico City to me. My lips are dry
and parched,. and my hands are
chapped as from a New England
frost. This Gust season lasts a
month or so.
And at night, One night I awak-
ened, along toward 8 o'clock and
the city was as quiet as solitary
cloud. And as I lay there, just one
block from the center of this mod
ern city of a million and quarter
people, could hear, far away, coy
otes yelping!
THOUGHT Mexico City was
= slow city, but it isn't. AS far as
I can see, the tempo of street traf-
f1c is as fast as New York's. And
the people on the sidewalks move
no slower than in the states.
But here's the nice part. The
city absolutely closes up at l in the
afternoon. Everybody goes home
for lunch. Nobody eats downtown.
People come back, and the stores
open again, at 4. Working hours
are to /, and to $50.
People ride street cars and buses.
There are thousands of buses here
small, noisy, roaring contraptions.
They hardly ever make a complete
stop, except at traffic lights. People
have learned to hop them on the
run.
They say there is not in all
Mexico a statue of Cortez, who
captured Mexico for Spain. Nor OF
Santa Anna, the famous president
and dictator, of Texas indepen-
dence fame. They consider him a
traitor for selling North Mexico to
the United States. But every time
you turn around there's statue of
Benito Juarez, the Indian liberia
tor
The daily papers print one page
in English. But it has only one or
two news stories, and all the restsis
filler, about three-legged chicken
IN McCoOk, Neb., and so on.