Show MEXICO ij 1 J I XIV A A A LAND OF IAN ROl ROMANCE E. E 1 Y Y Frederic J. J Haskin By CITY with its capitol capitolI MEXICO built on the thc site of an ancient I VI Aztec capitol with its cathedral standing on the identical spot snot where once stood an aboriginal inal temple with evidences eve everywhere everywhere- where of prehistoric tone c civilizations datin dating back so far that thi oven even tradition is mute muto concerning them with tone past and Ji Jiin Jiving in ing present commingled com corn 4 4 mingled lell in the 1 blood of it its people peo pea pie pIc united in tho the names of its cities its mountains an anti and its lakes with no 00 middle class class amon among its people Mexico from tho Rio Rip Grande to the Su- Su S Suchiate chiate chinte from Yucatan Yuca Yuca- tan to Lower California Cali Call forn fornia a is indeed 1 n land of romance a countr country of or con contraste Uncounted centuries parade parado their re roo ro- ro tn types es before tho the traveler of the Mexican hi highways When here ho he re reaches bes Mexico Cit City in a modern electric elec Pullman he is met at the c train by Ly a car ador who carries his ba baggage a e on his back exactly as tho the Aztec forefather carried his burden inthe inthe in inthe the days when neither the horse northe northe nor northe the ox were at his command The c car car- r. r Radar gader carries carric tho the ba baggage n c to a hotel which was as built huilt b bv by Spanish a grandee and afterward became the palace of an emperor The sleepy donkey of or the past trots along alone alon the tho same street with the tho motor car of the present Tho palace palace palace pal pal- ace of imperial Montezuma i is now the theca ca castle catIc of republican Diaz Din and overlooks a modern Yankee amusement palace Effi Effigies eg of Judas Iscariot to be crunched to pieces blown to atoms or hanged by bv the thc neck till tm dead are aro sold in in the same stores as R Paris gowns and American art ware The fhe hull bun r ring D built of concrete and American steel is within within with with- in in earshot of the magnificent American Ameri Amen sound of perfervid can colon and the cheering as the favorite fa matador executes ex cx band hand and the ecu es a brilliant pass pals bo be wafted r responds with ith a n diana may into th the very erv precincts of the embassy I of oC the United Unit States Tho The sacred mountain mountain moun moun- tain lain of Amecameca casts its benediction n over a modern American railroad yard Ignorant n Indians who than know less of Benjamin Franklin of their sorrowful looking logs docs know Mexican cal cal- calendar on the th tb holidays the street on the peddle newspapers newspaPer Often ono one beholds behold all human pro progress of tho the eye eye n a mod read modern modern at nt a single in le weep sweep railroad train a carriage car car- automobile a ern era r t an ox cart a caravan of donkeys and anel n Zt band hand of laden ladel Indians s all I. I within the distance of a in f single Je city block blOCK Mexico is ancient Centuries Cen Cen- And then tIlen tunes before Christopher Columbus hi his upon the world he was opened eyes oyeR in the destined to enlarge there was in cit city of tit Palenque- Palenque a marble prehistoric tablet depicting a cross crots with ith worship worship- worshipers Generations before oro Europe Eu Eu- Europe Europe it ers era b before dreamed there was a land beyond rope inscriptions wore being hoing be ho- tho sea Chinese ea ing int placed on pyramids in Mexico r xh o which are aro half as M lar large e as R those thoM o of E Egypt of design which tolls toll of tho kinship kinship kin kin- and a ship hip of their builders to the tho pt people of tho tim marl land of the Pharaohs Pharaoh These pyramids Pyramid pyra lon long mid were built buill by hy the tho compass compass' before Aristotle 11 hail had ll proven that the earth is round rO Cities had bad been heen built flourishing centuries before and were Eric the Tied Red si sighted Cane Farewell observatory Aztec astronomers had bad built 1 an tho Mill JIm of tho the Star at C Churn Churn- atory dorY lUSCO on where w Americans no now play golf and tennis lon long before before- Europe boasted Malinche Malinche Ma- Ma at nt a- a of tho fir first t on ono one the Indian slave girl irl who was mistress mistress mis mis- his hs presented to Cortez Cortex and antI became tress and noll interpreter had borne him a ason ason little Virginia before son Mn m many uy a year ear Darns Dares first small C cry was lYns heard on IJ flu Ro- Mexico hart hari a university before Elihu Elihn Yale John Harvard Har or ot William and Mary Marv worn cro horn born and a hospital before Jamestown and Plymouth Ply mouth month Rock ap appeared upon the map uncharted past How JIow far back into th the tho the existence of Mexico dates mortal no does not know There Them rn i is a grow grow- growing man nina in leg ing belief to tho the effect that tho the cr llo in the southern south south- of the race is iA to tn bo be found part Dart of ot Mexico o. o It is if conceded gen gen- ern cnn eran th that t. t there ther were c civilizations 1 in before the and it ii is illa is ill Mexico advent agreed reed that the they merle their into a the land about about- A. A I D. D Tho rho capital cap cap- ital itah of the Toltec nation i aid to have b. b boen bren n uno th the site ite itc of the tho present ent straggling tra Tula Indian village 0 known as z gin gling which is only two hours' hours ride from thi this city It It- was ns here that Quetzal Quetzal- Qu Quetzalcoatl conti the fair god Jod app appeared ared amoo among the rind and taught ht th them m the arts of fail sailed cd husbandry and Avar var rare and then away y in a boat built of snake skins kins Tradition Tra Tm- promising to r return turn some fomo day says the fair god gad was the reincarnation re- re reincarnation re rc incarnation of St. St Thomas while his his- I t try believes he wa was sorno rn ship wrecked I Viking rr who had b been n hl blown lown wn across s cro o tho the sea After his departure he wAs wb deified man monuments were erected to his many memory rind nr altar fires B kept burning for him One OM o of th the first thin things Cortez learned was t the e story lOt of Quetzalcoatl and ho lie immediately imm assumed tho role of the departed god od dwelt in the country countr- of Th Th T until tho the eleventh century and md then like the Arabs folded folded their their tents and stole au There i is a tradition however that in the reign of ci eighth kin king of the Lh n. n hi bi kinsman having lla f seen fen en a field mouse gnaw a hole bole in tithe the center of a growing maguey or or u plant tasted the juice that flowed from front tho the plant Ho lIe was so 80 delighted with it that ho hoBent sent Bent some Borne of it to his imperial kinsman l by hr his beautiful daughter Xochitl The Iho king was wa-s BO so o del delighted l tc with the tho pulque and PO so pt pleased with tho thin girl i l that ho he placed her in big bis harem To fo this day there are Me f saloons saloons loons for tho to bo be found in in dispensing of pulque to every town and city wh wb where ru ro pulque is La I La lIer sold which bear tho the name a mosa Xochitl which means beautiful flower Aft After r the came the tho the north north- from I a barbaric horde west cst It is generally believed behoved that the they to the Mexican lexi were tho the people who gave I 0 can ean Indian his distinctly Mongolian on cast of oC f feature The They were followed by tho the thoA A Aztecs nail and oth other r peoples anti and hero began be began be- be of tho tb Monte Montc- lont gan Jan the rise of or a it nation umas that wonderful people who met friend welcomed him to to ortez as IS a their capital then drove him out and were we-re afterward ajl al but annihilated h ny hy The of hote hoso terrible times ISa is isa isa him bini story stor those a thrilling chapter in tho the book of human history Who these Aztecs were no Duo knows To them Mexico owes her coat of or arms and th the tha design lesiga of of her r money They saw aw a golden ca eagle lo lot with witha t tb a snake in his hg bill perched on a prickly In obedience to that Ri sign the they built pear their capital of there thero and afterward chan changed ed its s name to Mexico after their war god Although h engaging nging- nging in the practice pf of idol worship and 1 bein being the greatest t practitioners of human sacrifice in all history the Aztecs Aztec were yet a n people who reco recognized a Lord of the universe and addressed ed him in their prayers as the God Godby by whom we live that all nil thou thoughts hb and all nil gifts ift It the the invisible incorporeal one God of perfection and purity under whose whole wings wo we find our sure defense rho They had a n feast in which tho they mixed blood with flour Jour and ana baked it into cakes which they passed sed to all the people who vrho at ate it with eviden evidences cs of repentance and humility declaring larin it to be tho the flesh or of the tho deity Tho The head bead and lips of thc their r children tou touched hed with ith water ater as tho thoS were given cn their names Their from finds find a n parallel 1 in the exodus of tho the Israelites Israelites Israel Israel- ites from Egypt Eg The They as RS well as many other people in Mexico had their story of Eve Evo an and the serpent of Noah and the deluge e. e of f the immaculate conception con eon and other Biblical beliefs belief differing differing dif- dif fering only q i much mitch as ono one would cx ex expect them to differ in a n thousand years of retelling The Conquistadors arc responsible for tho loss Joss of tho the history of the tho remarkable who inhabited Mexico in the centuries e before G Cartez came ame His his his- s torian declares that they found the me Mayas MIas poss possessed of many historical works books relating to Fuch such sciences as astronomy medicine geology chronology chronology chro chro- nolo r and theology r and of a n spoken and written lan language which bien permitted them to express the tho most delicate shades of thought ht What treasures have perished when a bi bigots bigot's torch burned may tho the literature of Mayan Mavan c civilization civili 7 One is ever and antI anon stumbling upon reminders that some things were done dono by the prehistoric Mexicans that cannot cannot can not riot bo ho done clone in the tho boasted lays days of en en- enlightenment Ii of the twentieth century Tempering copper opper was an art that flint perished perished per per- with ith them They made ee work wit without out soldering to a perfection t no not now approached Jt It was WI the Mexican cx Indian who discovered that the can an female cochineal cochineal- could be bo used in making mak ing ng indi indigo o rivaling tho the Tyrian purple barrel of tho the modern mo and nd only oni- the tar synthetic chemist has 9 produced a la a sub substitute ml for it The Indians of central contral Mexico texico were able ahle to make wooden scrapes crapes that would turn any tropical shower I The fhe quaintness of or the country countr adds much to its charm and its romance At 1 Cuautla one ono ali alights at the oldest railroad station in n the world worM K U once was vas a church At Jalapa ho he may set his lis watch hy by tho the oldest clock dock in Am Amer r- r r- r ho lie may see a 1 ica ca In Cuernavaca aca dynamite tree trel whose t seeds eeds burst with witha 1 a t loud report and t mako make it dangerous for Cor nr the bystander h At Lake Lako Texcoco he IC finds the natives nat catching catchin and eating eat eat- in ing the repulsive ive looking larval lizard ag known cnown n as tho ajolote which becomes I sexually mature matur butt but n never ver pa passes g R outI out I of if the larval state a state a condition existent still nowhere else eIRe raDiI find also alRo a n condition et unexplained At other rIM places R ho finds the he natives Dl gather a species of fl fly eggs H 3 and md make ml caviar from froni them flies s themselves are caught mashed up and wrapped in corn husks and sold as 38 a sort ort of chili con Brn Tomorrow Tomorrow- Tomorrow I XV XV Research |