| Show ej mexico s essential charms charm am r correspondence the ne new wine of mexican modernity Is being fr freely frely ely i cure oure ia I 1 into the old bottles and w th the usual i esula to ohp ancient receptacles here to the capital city if tl e tep alic the process is in fullest operation on dec I 1 wl en president diaz was so sno n in for his seventh teim the cornerstones ot of the splendid bew new legislative palace and ot of the superb new national theater were wera laid by the chief magistrate this did not exactly mark marl the new era ot of buildings here for already the new gereral lost office is nearing corn com a noble structure of white stone in the italian style and facing the square where the great theater is to aland stand near at hand the new edifice of the department of corn com and public works will arise still one must hope that in the rage for modern improvement the govern goern ment will not permit the destruction of the still remaining specimens of spanish colonial architecture scattered throughout the city some of these edifices are very notable tor for their elaborate stone carvings their niches and their quaint old world balconies I 1 ih ched ed tor for some years in a very ancient house in don juan manuel street with balconies on which one could sit with a group of friends tor for afternoon talk with ith stone cannon harmless enough projecting from the room and with rooms so vast that one felt almost lost in them an american friend sug that a light carriage might be used in going from room to room on refugio street are many modern buildings one of which is a great ger man hardware store with a tower at the corner it is always a busy street of traffic with coaches and electric cars making their way through it al most every hour of the twenty tour four newsboys haunt it and the vendors of lottery tickets wonderfully quiet the newsboys who are not permitted to cry the news they ha having ving shown at one time a remarkable inventiveness in fabricating sensational cries they may now only call out the names of the papers they sell always a ragged lot but as bright as are everywhere lads of their class and occupation refugio street runs down into inde pendencia pend encia part of which also passes through the grounds of the once exist ent franciscan convent for genuine pleasure give me ind the light and mettlesome yet obedient mexican horse far superior tor for any hard work on road or mountain trail to the heavy english or ameri can horse and of better temper on country roads near the city the big automobiles make the rancheros horses shy and one meets with many a picturesque contrast but rural mexico is still unspoiled and along the great white roads pass the horsemen as in the old days and long may things remain unchanged sin no noved adl charm of mexican capital what is the essential charm of this ancient city despite its putting on an unfamiliar newness one finds it in the genial climate the absence of snow show and ice the general courtesy and an impalpable something which makes life agreeable perhaps the fatalistic microbe in the spanish and the indian blood explains it no one seems bitten by the demon of hurry what is to hap pen will happen and why heat ones one s brain over the futures you find happy faces in the swarm ing tenement houses in the little shops ot of this city of the small corn com merce and in the plazas and lovely little gardens with which the city abounds A western friend who was here a few w ago said I 1 should the there Is a library with man books there Is a bright corridor around the court courtyard vard and caged birds are singing as it if captivity were the tile most del gotful condition ot of bird lite life perhaps a clergyman rome or havana or old seville with a differing accent and not averse to a good cigar with his coffee this Is the kind of 0 life one finds in this city of many shades hades ol 01 life take this contrast A tiny apartment on a loot and remember that roots roofs here are flat it is a root roof house ot of five rooms french people alert hospitable intel inhabit it A little rooted roofed arbor has been built here and vines cover it and so one dines several stories above the busy street the round table set for six some sound claret through which the sun in pass ing lingers and reflects a rosy light on the snowy cloth madame Is gay and full ot of talk and monsieur sniffing a savory odor from the tiny kitchen smacks his lips in anticipation abis Is a bit of france provincial france fra n ce on a mexican mexican rooftop two blocks away downstairs some anglo oldest plaza in city saxons of the serious sort are wrest ling with a tough steak deluging their stomachs with ice water ater and discuss ing how to beform this of otreo peo pie on their dreary lines la Is that civil Iza tion not a bit of it ways of the reformer let us thank the great and genial god that he has made our world so full of diversity le bon dieu loves his french people with the cultivated palate el buen dios finds the dext cans in their pleasant homes most agreeable perhaps he has a use in his inscrutable purpose for lanky re formers of the dismal sort let us ob serve chuckle and question not life Is as we make it the man with the fixed idea Is a disturber of the public peace him we must avold seeking sunny nooks away from his accas tomed haunts I 1 have a french friend he can go to the most commonplace restaurant and by some magic and a talk with the cook produce A lunch or a little dinner that will make the afternoon a slice of nirvana when dining avoid the company of the serious they are demoralizing seek ever the company of the gay and sociable avoid also politics A pest shun the japs and the Ruc russians who would dream of 0 discussing wholesale murder I 1 be longed to a club here some years ago where we had a rule that any one who talked shop politics anything heavy at dinner should pay 10 fine it worked admirably we kept our tern tem 14 2 rustic arav sum lip up the city of mexico as a city of gardens I 1 he was a widely trav aled man and found many points ol 01 comparison between this town and southern european cities yet with the piquant aboriginal addition defects 9 yes plenty of them yet so tar far the ruthless hand of the reformer has spared most things that make life pleasant in this tropical town the trouble with your true reformer Is that he has narrow sympathies he Is im paled on an idea and gives you nor any one a rest I 1 people of the old fashioned sort here complain that the american and some other varieties of the genus foreigner are spoiling the city hardly as yet I 1 can take you to find old mansions of tb ehg colonial days ten minutes and I 1 away from the modern business town so cosmopolitan and up to date in many respects to mansions where around charming dinner tables one finds good company all talking 1 of mat apart from commerce scientific speculation fads tads and the like cosmopolitan society in tn one hospitably hospit ablo home you shall find at 1 odo 0 cloa antiquarians some geral old P ats with a taste for old A th things gs and nd 0 oia ld themes and ladies who wl a wealth are not in society but 11 ih oure as their grandmothers did faithful old family servants wait on 1 ib company and two hours spent nver the table seem to pas in half an griir you tear yourself tour Nour self away regret 0 o i the cen alls ails recall pers and digestions sometimes an in cautious guest from f om north of the kio rio grande or a solemn british member of parliament with a club card violated the rule A shout would go up none fit of that here we dine and are happy nothing serious so life may be lived even in mexico one may dine and in good humor and good company too tog long have the dull a and nd dreary the bor esome faddist dom I 1 in a this world of ours the in should be revived for a few years make a clean sweep and see how the sun ft ill shine all the brighter |
