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Show of IMfocic " CAN LA3. A TYPICAL WE.5T COAST TOWN EVEll since Cortez came, and wrote such graphic letters home to King Philip, the Mexican Mex-ican west coast has lured the restless pioneer. First it was the adventurer, ad-venturer, scattering his bones over the trackless hills; then the gold hunter and miner and finally the farmer and cowman, building up homes and fortunes. for-tunes. It is one of the world's garden spots, this rich west coast; a country of singular charm, of striking contrasts and varied opportunity. Nowhere on earth is life more easy. As one idler cleverly phrased it, "You can kick your breakfast off a tree, any morning in the year." Here, with the advent of peace, far-reaching far-reaching progress must inevitably dawn. Linked with California by rail and sail, and with two hundred American Ameri-can millions already invested, the future fu-ture of the west coast is peculiarly tied up with that of the United States a question of big trade and mutual human betterment, says a contributor to the Los Angeles Times. It is a kaleidoscopic, colorful trip the train ride from the border south, into West Mexico. Scenic, startling and full of bright, buoyant life it is, Some of the American-owned mine and plantation homes are models of tropical comfort, spacious and elegant. Motoring, tennis, golf, pleasure launches and the west coast's incom parable hunting grounds are enjoyed the year around. For shooting and fishing, the Guay-mas Guay-mas coast waters are unexcelled. Trolling for toro, skip-jacks, Spanish mackerel, yellowtail, Cabrillo, and other oth-er fighting fish affords unparalleled sport. Ducks? By the thousand! For the west coast is right on one of the great wild fowl migration routes. Last March in the Taqui valley, standing in a flooded rice field, I got 22 "redheads" "red-heads" in less than an hour, working my 16-gauge as the evening flight came in. Here is this world's happy hunting ground for those who love the rod and gun. Some day when its charms are known to tourists Guaynias must become be-come a famed winter resort, balmy, healthful and healing, a garden spot of soft breezes, blue seas and ideal January Jan-uary outdoor days. At Agua Fria Kanch, in Sonora, the Americans keep a professional lion-hunter, lion-hunter, with a pack of trained dogs. Unless their prowling-raids were resisted, re-sisted, the lions and "spotted tigers" would soon overrun the ranches. Last year the lion-slayer on the ranch just named killed over 50 wild beasts, including in-cluding lions, tigers and wild cats. Singular Plant Life. Even in vegetation this is a land of odd contrasts. Weird and sinister-looking sinister-looking plants there are, like the strange "creeping cactus" of the Mag-dalena Mag-dalena bay country. Lying flat and oddly resembling giant caterpillars, this singular cactus grows forward and dies behind, thus actually traveling in the course of time a considerable distance. dis-tance. Mr. B. TV. Nelson of the United States department of agriculture said after exploring the north section of the west coast : "Here is the most extraordinary ex-traordinary desert flora in the world. The combinations of species were wonderfully won-derfully picturesque, giving the landscape land-scape an individuality unlike anything to be found elsewhere. Many of these strange scenes seemed fit abiding places for the animal life of an earlier age." From such inhospitable wastes, the descent into the green, fragrant, watered wa-tered coastal plain is a welcome change. Here is cane, corn, rice, fruit, wheat, beans, melons, garbanzos the food of millions. Down this historic West coast from St. Xavier and Tucumcari in Arizona to Guadalajara, there stretches a string of picturesque massive old churches churches built by adventurous adventur-ous Jesuits, churches standing in loop-holed loop-holed compounds for Indian defense. Inside cisterns stored water for use during sieges. The thrifty padres grew their own grain, vegetables and fruit, using Indian labor. Near some of these ruined churches built 300 years ago traces of old irrigation works are plainly discernible. As late as 1879, Apaches attacked the old church of San Ignaeio, in Sonora; Its scarred walls still show plainly where Indian bullets chipped angrily at the fervent defenders. The women and girls of Mexico are deeply religious. Five masses a day are celebrated in some of the larger churches, and often the music is excellent. ex-cellent. One bright moonlight night I sat in the palm-shaded plaza before the old cathedral of Magdalena ; Inside In-side a woman soloist lifted a voice strong, clear and wonderfully sweet such a voice as must have given pause to even a Melba or a Farrar, "undiscovered" "undis-covered" though this woman was. after you have passed Guaymas and plunged into the primitive Yaqui country. coun-try. Flocks of screeching, squawking parrots par-rots flap noisily overhead. Skulking coyotes twist oddly away into the palo verde thickets. In smoky, scattered camps along the railway, Yaqui troops patrolling the line against their wild brothers of the hills are on duty. You see them making sandals from green cowhide, or cutting up a beef into shreds and hanging the meat on stunted mesquite trees to dry. From their outposts comes the dull rattle of the tomtom. "That Yaqui drum," one Mexican officer told me, "always gives the enemy an earache." At the crowded adobe stations, where your train halts leisurely to load beans, hides and crated chickens, a horde of tattered, but bewitching bright-smiling ninas come shyly up, peddling tamales, oranges and odd native na-tive dulces. American Influence Grows. Not so long ago the Spanish impress lay strong on the west coast a survival sur-vival of that romantic age when treasure-laden galleons sailed between Acapulco and Manila. But now the boats that drop anchor and unload at Acapulco, Mazatlan and Guaymas come from San Francisco or Seattle. And the trains that crawl down the long coastline from the Arizona border are loaded with American machinery, and American miners, cattlemen and farmers. Only of late has this been true the rail-head reaching Tepic less than ten years ago. But already Yankee Yan-kee customs, habits, Influence and implements im-plements are making themselves felt; slowly, but hopefully. Even certain reform waves, popular In the United States of America, have swept over the border and engulfed the Mexicans. Licensed gambling on the west coast is practically abolished. Bull fights are giving way to baseball. One day in Hermosillo I saw soldiers carrying demijohns of tequila the once universal alcoholic drink carrying carry-ing them into the street, and smashing them in the gutter. Pungent smells floated in the air. "What is it you do?" I asked a native sergeant. "El Estado es seco" (the state is dry) he said, punching his bayonet into another an-other demijohn. Prohibition had been decreed. Today you can't legally buy a drink from Nogales to Mazatlan (nor illegally, either, without risk of prison.) pris-on.) It is so in some other parts of the republic. Order is better, drunken brawls a thing of the past. Tequila, the old curse of the land, is effectively effective-ly suppressed. Life and Sports. Daily life among foreign merchants and planters on this west coast is not unlike that of the. colonials in India, China or the Philippines. Servants are numerous and cheap. Fruits and vegetables grow in abundance. Nobody No-body hurries. Nervous breakdowns and "worry" headaches are unheard-of. |