| Show TRIP TO zhi MEXICO EXICO INCIDENTS AND SCENES ON THE JOURNEY CITY OF MEXICO july 10 1885 1883 editor deseret mews mems on the morning of the uit after many a heart hearty good bye and god bless you grom gron fron fro n our relatives and friends f elder W W cluff claff jr and I 1 boarded the D R G train at salt sait lake city being BOUND FOR 31 MEXICO EXICO in which country we had been appointed to labor as missionaries our lourney journey was one of great pleasure and interest though the rapid speed of the train over the short and frequent curves of the scenic routed route aused caused such an incessant swinging motion ot the cars that I 1 became duite bulte quite seasick sea sick during the second day and once or twice I 1 was obi obliged ed to thrust my head from the car window w adow and surrender the meal of which I 1 imagined I 1 had undisputed possession fa to the fowls of tile tiie air my companion fortunately was not troubled in that way th this 1 s h however 0 wever was about the only unpleasantness utness which occurred d during arin the th e whole N gs le journey letourney we passed through castlo gate black canon callon and the royal gorge in the day time and were provided with open observation cars that we might see to better advantage ad vantage the I 1 drag magnificent SCENERY through which we passed the rugged grandeur and of this route have been so frequently and ably described through the press that I 1 will content myself by simply saying that the great praise and admiration which they have received are justly and ana my prove inadequate to the task were I 1 to attempt to describe what we saw just before reaching pueblo colorado we passed overlarge over large tracts of farmin farming land which had been inundated and the crops greatly damaged by the overflow of the arkansas river different lines of railroads near the stream including the one on which we were traveling had also suffered from washouts wa shouts of a more or less disastrous character our train however was not much delayed on account of them and we arrived at pueblo in time to connect with the A T S F train for la junta a small town toyn in the southeastern part of colorado arriving here late in ute uie afternoon we were obliged to wait until about 10 in th the e evening alen wt cn we took tooka a sleeper for las vegas where we arrived in time for brea kest the next morning here we were forc fore forced ed to lay over until evening for the train which goes to el elpaso paso texas and having nothing better to do we amused ourselves by wandering about the city and taking in the sh sights lits LAS VEGAS Is one of the largest and oldest towns of new mexico and is said to contain 0 oooo 00 american and WO mexican inhabit aub auh it in ili home homb what situated near a small branch of the rio pecos but is almost entirely destitute of the beautiful trees f foliage and rivulets thau that may be seen in any of our utah towns of quarter its she the city is divided into two parts the old town and the new town and a few one horse street cars ply between them the streets are narrow crooked and irregular though generally clean and f free tree ree f from rom filth most of the houses in the old town are very quaint and ancient in appearance being low mud structures with witti flat dirt roofs probably elected py by the spaniards t two wo or three centuries ago they are now occupied by the lower classes who are noted lor tor neith neither e r cleanliness nor virtue one would think that their mud roofs would leak and that the walls would wash down during the first heavy rain but a close examination dispels that idea and shows that the mud which was originally mixed with straw has now become almost as hard as stone and will doubtless endure for forages agas to come although the weather was extremely warm every woman wilom we met had her head and shoulders enveloped in what appeared to be a heavy black shawl this is an almost universal custom among the mexican women and I 1 imagine it originated in a desire to imitate the appearance pe arance of the catholic nuns as most of ulle ulie mexicans are catholics the new town which is near the depot and about half a mile from the old one has some elegant residences sup supplied with water gas and other othen modern conveniences A courthouse which will cost is in c ourse course of erection as well as a neat and substantial stone jail there are several churches in las vegas but I 1 noticed only one school house hoube liany many stores were empty and business seemed to be very dull in the evenin evening r we took the train for EL laso PASO a town situated on the line behwen texas and old mexico where we arrived tha next afternoon and exchanged our U S currency for mexican money at premium of 18 per cent we then crossed the rio grande to 10 pasa del norte which is in mexico and atter alter some little difficulty succeeded in securing I 1 a through ticket to the capital of this republic over the blex mexican ican central Rall rali railway way here the custom house officers examined carefully all our baggage to see that it contained nothing on which they could coma levy after alter which it ic was weighed and checked through we T received excellent treatment along this road and enjoyed this portion of our journey very much ye lve would travel f for or hours at a time over a track which was perfectly straight and almost level and free from irregularities on penetrating mexico a short distance we were made to realize that the annual RAINY SEASON which begins early in june in this tropical climate was upon us as it rained almost incessantly especially in the afternoon and during the night on arriving arri vina vint at jimulco Jim we were obliged to lay over thirteen hours on account of a bad vash washout ahead of us caused by the heavy fall of rain this delay seemed very irksome as our journey despite the strange appearance of the country with its tropical plants and pleasant plea piea saut scenery was becoming monotonous and we longed to reach its end at lenth length the tle necessary repairs were made and we sped on our way another day a and 1 rid tid a half without further interruption until we reached the tiie city of mexico we wc were met at the depot by elder isaac conducted us to the house where he was sto slopping P aing and we I 1 were kindly received by friends rie ric ads all of whom we found enjoying joy ng excellent health and spirits 88 since n ce our arrival we have spent several days in seeing the many strange and interesting sights hights in and near the city of 31 mexico exico and visiting several places around which cluster the memory of some of the tho most interesting events of american history in a future communication I 1 may describe some of these places paces respectfully llor HORACE CE CUMMINGS |
