Show nn 19 1 public letter writers writer in guadalajara Prep arcil by national nil society D C service T DAWN comes the clan clang and AT A peal of countless bells the din Is 19 startling in its unexpectedness it sounds like it ft battle callor call or an alarm that guadalajara Is burning hurriedly you get up and go out on the hotel balcony all these churches says a voice at your elbow and every bell with nith a different tone it Is the man from the room next nest to yours a spanish friend from the r ugar sugar plantations in pajamas and straw sandals 1 I first came here more than 40 years ago from spain lie adds we made the last stretch in a four mile stagecoach on leather springs after a night battle bandits we got in just at dawn with these same bells ringing nothing here has changed much the same people habits churches and bells even the bats are still here read at night and your tour light draws the moths turn out the light and the bats fly in to eat cat the moths but ghey dont eat their wings next morning moth wings are all ja over ever your floor in the street below now black garbed women their heads covered are walking quietly to mass women of all classes peon and aristocrat but hardly any men rattling Katt ling heavily a water cart turns the corner sprinkling the streets and raising that ammonia smell of old adobe towns where humans and beast have long crowded the absorbent soil too closely you vou meet that same smell mixed with the scent of roasting coffee when at early morning men wot wet the dusty streets of aden or baghdad ice bread morning paper 1 all voices of the awakening city as truly as cackles crows grunts and squeals are the alarm clocks of the farmer before the doorway halts an old man on a mule carrying two big cans A sleepy girl with a clay jar comes out and buys some milk and the mau man rides on calling his singsong leche leche milk milk in a despairing sp epal ring wall more like a cry of pain than an invitation to buy turkeys for sale now a country boy in a ragged straw lint hat comes driving a flock of turkeys lie he carries a long stick with a piece of string on one end for flicking any errant turkey on the neck ile he urges them on by hissing sounds his tongue against his upper teeth in the familiar indian warning they market thousands of turkeys on foot here as in parts of texas the induisi tive shapely birds marching with quick graceful strides necks jerking bliar sharply ply with each step one strutting gobbler with pendent red wattles long as a prophets beard ruffled his bronze plumage and dragged drug ged his wings by the time you dress clap cl your hands tor for coffee and read a mexican paper still damp and smelling of fresh ink all guadalajara Is swarming tramcars Tram Tra mears cars are crowded so are busses bobbed haired senoritas seno ritas in bright or gandie gandle silk hose and high heels beels chatter iatter cl and giggle their cheerful way to work in stores beauty and curio shops at switchboards Itch boards or typewriters many are pure A types with blue eyes and blond hair small shapely hands bands and feet the ease and joy with which man may look upon womankind in guadalajara are proverbial in all mexico no others are so fair surely st peter must have opened the gates of heaven to let down such a beautiful damsel mexicans say when a maid of pulchritude Is passing along with the crowd ogling egling the girls come sleek young bank clerks clerics bookkeepers in the brewery the factories motorcar and other agencies epick and span in flannels wood cut carrying sticks smoking pungent native cigarettes the sidewalks of guadalajara I 1 walk them at this hour and you see the city eye high and close up tip workmen idly dig up the pavements as always traffic police in white gloves blow whistles and wave cars to stop and they do stop for one cue dispute with an alert guadalajara traffic cop and the big jail lawns for you on an open space soldiers are drilling and women wait before the colossal prison to get in nt at i hours they built the jail big enough to hold everybody in town as a warning Is a local saying workers worker in clay through tl tj e suburbs you meet more mor groups coming to work in a flower garden a sandal footed man Is 19 setting out young plants to make a fancy pattern of birds and flags from the tall of his bis big black dog asleep beside him an od ocl fit indian d 1 a n artist artl t plucks a few hairs twists s them deftly into his tiny frayed brush and resumes painting eyebrows on a clay bead ot of pancho villa master outlaw other heads new and shiny stand on a board obregon carranza george washington henry ford arid and an american shriner in a red fez pose for your own bust if you like and watch your nose and ears form swiftly from the mud in half an hour old Pari pandura dura ilard hard dread bread famed indian sculptor makes a fair likeness this guadalajara clay art Is fragile and hard to ship says a buyer from the states hut but it sells well not the busts so much but these urns urn vases and water bottles in old aztec patterns these dancing girls are good too in their wide skirts and big sombreros sombre ros around donala village and the suburb of san pedro tlaquepaque indians have worked in clay from time immemorial the spaniards found them at at it making dishes for domestic uses making idols images and figurines of men and beasts untaught and working far from the patter of studios and talks on art these indians produce excellent sculpture tiny pack mules street ha hawkers kw market women with chickens and baskets of fruit vaqueros ros on rearing horses all are formed and painted with fidelity to life sophisticated and erotic pieces also appear with minla miniatures tures ornaments and vessels carrying a raised fretwork of deer rabbits ferns or palms A fat clay pig hollow with a slit in his back through which coins can pass Is much sold as a childs savings gs bank flap for the child these figures break easily all you have to do Is drop them san pedro tlaquepaque once the retreat of spanish wealth and fashion Is linked mth the city proper by tram through an old customs gateway country people taking things into town to sell had to pay a tax in the old days to pass this gate A tiny bright eyed nurse girl not more than ten comes by carrying a big fat baby you feel the baby should get down for a change and carry the tired little girl gambling Is prevalent on the curbs edge three soldiers are playing cards with a greasy deck one man deals calling ocho de espadas eight of spades and other faces as they turn up gambling Is not thought a vice men accost you holding up yard long strips of colored lottery tickets you can buy a whole or part ticket such stich peddlers work on a commission for the official lottery which holds regular drawings Is run in a strictly business manner and devotes net profits to charities police appear dragging two disorderly men one badly cut in a street fight certain knives here are made to fight with any battle scarred mining or cow ranch veteran will tell you hed rather face a gun fighter than a mexican trained with the knife this business of knife fighting Is full of fancy tricks one Is to throw the knife another Is suddenly to hit bit your opponent in the face with your hat and then stick him while hes olt oft guard defense work Is equally skillful the trained fighter wraps his bis serape scrape around his left arm or even grasps his big hat bat by the inside of the crown cron using serape or hat as a shield while thrusting with the knife in old mother mexico harry carr tells of a mexican knife battle fought to a draw in which the heavy wool scrapes were cut to shreds but neither nan man hurt after the comes a boy leading a very skinny horse borse play us a tune on your harp shouts a clerk a mexican v elsin implying that the hie horse Is so bony his ribs look like harp strings up the street past your hotel late in the night comes a squealing orchestra preceded by three young men one of this trio Is celebrating his birthday hiring musicians to play in ones odes lionor honor Is good form in keeping with established social practice it you write a poem win a horse borse race or vanquish a rival it Is customary to hire a hand band and stroll from one ona cantina cant lna or saloon to another or past the homes of your friends with the music playing here auble seldom ceases and most of it Is good tills this makes you wonder how the many organ g grinders earn a till one explains they are subsidized by a fund willed to tho the city to insure free handorgan hand organ music in perpetuity |