Show Aston ishill 0 mexico co G git 1 0 ar 4 14 1 AVA TJ 4 I 1 41 k t r f 4 IV J t 1 4 fa r M 0 r OWA U professional letter writers in mexico C fly rod br by G ofle fl 11 elear 1 D a awn WN city north americas ma M oldest metropolis metro polls recently hailed a new president almost ai as suddenly as pascual ortiz bublo resigned gen abel abelardo lardo rodrigues became the new master of medicos white house mexico city la Is an astonishing place things haw have happened here so strange and unusual that were they not let set down in authentic records they would tax all belief better it loom looms ut gest in the mind of the ar american because of its BU su dremely important diplomatic acl tlona lions with washington Washl neton growing oua of the many old unsolved questions between the two rep ibliss but in modern superficial aspects it li is not unlike lome some other latin american capitals it has old palaces parka parks palatines pala palti tines tinga and libraries colleges convents treat great newspapers papers and broadcasting elation stations likewise dip loraite lo soldiers traffic jama jame and alls it buy buys and sells and makes soap soda water shoe shirts candy cigarettes clear ettee furniture ma chines and textiles sit in one of its theaters and watch a news reel swim dance play golf or tennis at a it club or land at albuena fl ild in to a passenger plane from el pasi pas anu exempt that you hear spanish instead of yankee chatter chatt eryou you might as well be in denver in fact the high light and nearby now snow peaks much resemble the scenic settings of col orado nut but under all tills this standardized modernism la Is much morea more a blend of spanish nud and aztec forces thit coca goes bach back 00 4 years you see signs of this now and then in flat flats three cornera corner abt aits c faces moving stolid ly in et crowd crowds probe the mys tic tie pait and you find end that certain historic events staged here swayed the destiny of hiir ur coutin continent ent forcen aurles afore christianity cot got its first foothold in north america when idols were turned into altars and a glittering but cruel paean pagan culture yielded stubbornly to european civilization civil here americas first sheet music and first book were published here its first money was coined and I 1 ere too appeared the flying 1 A I r cury some have styled it amer 1 as first newspaper but more likely it was vas but a pamphlet on history or political when cortez cortex came carvie imagine yourself in plexico city that fateful day in when cor var tex came you remember ills his first arrival was peaceful pence ful the dreadful 03 days of lighting tift litin often lian han I 1 to hand come on a later visit men glittering with jewels and golden decoration decorations gorgeous in bis his rodal 1 role end pad gold soled sandr mandalu ils came to aret coite and escort him into the filand land city till th n by any hite anns eye the greatest city in north anier lea Is astir with pagan life ou have hoen there walking and talking with cortes cortez and the rm geror montezuma Montez iima you too would have marveled as the spaniards did down a brond broad fifth alenne like thorough fire tire cortez and his amazed men followed te tile altee emperor throughout the kenlie like city ran canals crowded with ands of huny canoes laden with alth fluitt fowl fl flowers owera grain an ani fuel stone building lined both paved and ceils cn ils and on a great plaza the palace of ionic futher father faced by a great tco teo calif or temple here la in 1 1121 the ahti aiti s s flent MW the snake and eacle eagle and built their first temples ten pies here in 1121 was one or of the mo mot mott tt bloody of all combats corn hats between th tween at az tec tm and spaniard when spanish onera of war were sacrificed fim to the idols un more pen pie were executed here than at any other spot nn an earth herf was cm ern tn in here the american iren ren enil pral winfield scott r rinsed the icare md rind in idt anil and here twenty ars tars the or finx hurte hade iiii 1 farewell tn to chiq hl hodore he faced the firing iima squid id so rn on through the giai madero Clar Oarra ranza oza obregon dalles calles and other regimes this blood blod area has seen mexican history made palaces pawnshops churches and other anu tiit tIlt lons iOns face it now and I 1 into 3 to it run no fewer than ten thoroughfares in eluding the stately avenues of an cin co tie de mayo alayo madaro Ifa clero and the 10 da old markt market and little shops on tram tramcars cars on foot toot and in motor moter tor cars an incredible traffic stream pour pours through this plaza every day and on its west hide aide there flourishes what Is perhaps the oldest market since 1524 when city oali dais claim gave merchants permission to build porticoes to shelter goods displayed on the sidewalk dewalk I la front 0 of their at res retail trade his gone on n here per for years the public let ter writers piled plied their pens h hrc re helping many love lovesick alck indians indiana to woo by MAIL A few still do dobusz bust ness walking by the plaza market now you pass under arcades whose old walls are plastered with bullfight posters and notices of lottery araw ines ings blow slow moving mexican street crowds loiter letter before the litt little to shops these sell toys sweet meats news papers cheap jewelry and odds and ends of hardware and ashes eyeglasses postcards and other triv lal wares for the city a large department part ment stores and finest shops are out on fashionable avenues here also und r these arcade arcades sti stick ek away in tiny nooks are men running little hand printing presses anti making cheap calling cards and stationery nid aher Ir indolent dolent artl sans who mend clocks guitars tell cortines fort for tines tines with canary birds 11 and ad ped die lottery tickets and here too Is in the beggar known in mexican slang as the losero or liters literally lly the for forged s cat er on the south side of the plaza li id a section known as the portal de las la diores this was the old flower market in days when counts still led to the plaza the valley of mexico sheer theatrical geography that 1 Is the historic valley of bl mexico exico or anahuac A vast mountain fringed oval it Is of 1758 square miles it tops the mexican highlands as a treat natural colosseum a dra matic matte sun drenched setting for all the stirring events it has staged though la in places more than 8 feet above tile sea flood waters ions long menaced its lower areas lakes and marshes were once more buur numerous robis than BOW now to protect ancient ten och titian the aztecs built many dikes lu in the salty lake texcoco te coco three great causeways connected their venice venlee like city of water streets with mainland and a wa for canoes and barges ran out to 1 lake texcoco floods were so tie aad even eye n before the spaniards erds came that tile ay tees had built darns dams and fia as early as IW the tile viceroy luls luis dc do struggled with the problem one gigantic trench the still fa tajo do was begun bi in 1007 in task thou ands of 0 overworked indiana indian per ashod it was first opened ns as a tunnel tu drain the valley lales then closed in a it dispute flood wa rose three feet deep in the city streets changed later front a tun full nel net into a great trench in places reel feet deep and M feet wide the tajo wo de remains an amazing example of what early spaniards could do with indian slave labor from fron your train yon you can see this historic man made mountain pass now as you ride title into mexico city from the north one of c the strangest stran Rest aspects or if mexico city Is that though perched so up near n continental divide it long diled and drained itself 11 like ke a beralde town in linlia holland nL II 11 was not net till low arter centuries of study and work that the city wa wot made safe when the great canal del IM de tague ns vis on it thousands of men worked for years with teams trams ani an stein ste in shovel 1 t it I 1 if P 11 tho the most mos spec modern engineering 11 a re feni nt from he the nw sevelt dam to f tha pitt ama arna canil |