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Initt.it*itadIIieiti.enbnyisA SUMMERLESS LAND.£I.1Ii1e0titrrr'»)‘I.IMexico and Her Great, Flat, Even Tern-Iks red Table Land.[Special Oonfwpoodenee.lHotel Itlrbide, i City of Mexico, April 30. \Up to the year 1SS4 those who knew anti those who did not know agreed in not recommending a tour to the “Paris of America,” the weird City of Mexico, in the spring or summer. The average Yankee thought of the far south in summer as a mixture of external heat and internal fever. The American colony at the American Paris know that this is true of the tierra caliente, or hot lands of the coast, which had then to lie traversed to gain the capital, lying in the tierra fria, or cold lands; unless, indeed, the tourist intended to enter over the Rio Grande and go over the whole length of the country by stage. Now, the Mexican diligence was never inviting, and the oddness of seeing the driver's assistant pound the mules with stones was a poor compensation for starting at 3 o’clock in the morning, to reach nothing more inviting after the day’s fatigue than the inconvenient squalor of the next hotel diligencias.On that tremendous table land, the flat top of the most enormous mountain on the glol**, where the great cities of Mexico are situated, there is no summer. At the City of Mexico the temperature never goes above 7(1 degs. at any period of the entire year. Woolen underclothing is worn all the year round, and a blanket wherewith to supplement his overcoat is essential to the tourist's comfort. And now', since March 8, 1884, to thus wintry city of the tropics—being 7,347 feet alsive the sea level—goes an American railroad built all the way on the great plateau, giving the traveler a constant picnic at an altitude higher thanthe summits of some of theAl)»s.The barriers are broken and nothing remains to keep the most fastidious lady, the most delicate invalid, from visiting, winter or summer, the “Italy of the Occident—glorious, gory Mexico.” Since all the conductorsand trainmen are Americans, and the proprietors of the l**st hotels and restaurants are American or French, while our own negroes have turned hack drivers in Mexico, even the Spanish language is not at all essential in this “New* Spain.”The Hotel Iturbide is named from the combination of lilierator, emjieror and victim, whose |*alatial residence it was. Its restaurant, under a French proprietor, is excellent,but not cheap, though one should remember in connection with the prices that a Mexican dollar is bought for eighty-five of our cents.It is a constant source of surprise and wonder that the largest and finest gallery of paintings on the western continent is here on the site of the Aztec Venice. To see priceless works of the Euro}iean “old masters”—Murillo, Rultens, Corregio, Velasquez, etc.—we need not cross the ocean; here they are inclose proximity to such indigenous outgrowths of religion as the Sacrificial rock, on which more than (50,000 living human beings were immolated by piercing the breast w ith a razor of volcanic glass ami tearing out the still lieating heart to throw at the feet of the god.It is very hard for us to realize cannibalism, yet these victims were actually cooked and eaten.The unmixed descendants of these cannibals still swarm aliout us in this city of morethan 235,000 inhabitants, for everywhere inMexico the natives, without the slightest admixture of European blood, are vastly in the majority.The greatest Mexican who ever lived,Benito Juarez, was a pure Tzapotec, a race ruled both temporally and spiritually by an Indian pope infallible and sacred. Thus the rule which succeeded them, that of our popes of Rome, was finally broken by one of their hereditary subjects.The man who started as a revolutionist against Juarez, and who now runs all Mexico, Porfirio Diaz, is a Mestizo, as the mixed race from whites and natives are called. But [er-haps the pleasantest way to get an idea of the three great castes is from the women. As typical of the whites, look first at this sweet young lady in the rich black silk dress, a perfect Spanish creole. Why! you exclaim, she is out without her hat! Yes, but in all probability she never had one. That costly bit of black lace, her mantilla, goes witchingly over her lustrous black hair, is far more romantic than any hut, and gives you a feminine hint of the luscious quality of the climate. Note, if youcan, the world famed Andalusian foot andankle. A highly educated western girl toldme that her classmate could not find in all Monterey, a city of 40,(100 inhabitants, a shoe large enough for her to wear. A glance atthis young creole niay hint the explanation.If C’h nese women were Spanish their feet would not l»e bandaged.Hie creoles in Mexico seem far whiter than the women in .Spain, and have a more delicate look, as of tropic fruit. Notice the rich, pouting lij* of this little lady, her sparkling eyes and airy grace. That she can play,* * * * mf 7dance and sing like a siren goes without saying. The pure, soft, Spanish vowels leave slowly that sweetest mouth.mInvoluntarily you think of guitars, trouba-dors, mandolin, serenade, love, jealousy, pon-iard, stiletto. A new light, permeates the heavy iron liars covering every window, and making every house resemble a lunatic asylum.You determine all at once to learn Spanish ami marry a creole. But here comes a highofficial, a Mestizo, and with him his lovely daughter. The white skin of the creole takes here a richer hue—more blood and more fiesh of that satin fineness which we only see in tiabics we want to bite, they seem so healthy and pure. This blending of the east and west gives here a solid fairy, plump and strong, enjoying life through very perfection of life, caj table of work and sweet contentment. This particular fairy wears a hat, for which I am sorry—sorry to see the dullmonotony of Paris fashions pushing with therailroad into this sweeter fairyland. A society has written pleadingly to the Mexican government from Switzerland, liegging it to save the rarer species of cactus from extinction. I wish they had included in their prayer the charming national costumes. Though certainly solid, and not tall, this girl is very lovely, with her energetic step, quick, intelligent glance, and practical air of accomplishment.But there are plenty of homely women in Mexico, and the pure native, whom most I wish I could descriite, cannot be called typical. She is the handsomest person I have seen in Mexico. Tall, while the nation is short; regal, where many seem marked by ages of oppression; proud, with instinctive grace, she is certainly descended from some princely family of the time of Montezuma. Most of the Indian women have a tint of yellow in their coloring, but tli is unknown princess is pure red and white. Her mouth turns up at the corners in themanner striven after by jiainters. Her manners have all that repose that marks the caste of Vere de Vere. I am peculiarly impressed by a splendid vigor of physical life, such as went with kingship in Arthur, Rollo and Richard Coeur de Lion. This firm, sweet, royal strength could nurse a yellow fever jiatient unhurt. No tultercular baccillus could make lodgment in this perfect life. Fine health is aristocratic. This Mexican princess has the same sort of nobility. I know not her name, but the predecessors of the Aztecs were the Tolte^s. and I will call her Tolta.George Bruce Halstead.iMormon church is growing. In fact, it ha been slowly decaying for thirty years; bu the decay Is a sort of dry rot, not the resui of outbreak or schism. Americans get the id«* that the thing is growing from the fact tha all the Mormons of the world (I mem the orthodox Brighamists) have concentrate* in and near Utah. Once there were 40,0b Mormons in the British Isles—now not 3.01X1 In Scandinavia the church is about extinct Italy, France and Germany once held a few thousand; now there is no Mormon church it them. From the first revelation to tbe las conference only ten Irishmen have joined thii church, and some of them came to Utah bj way of Van Dieman’s Land. The heads oi the church here still claim 1JXX) or mon converts in the Sandwich Islands, and tliejoccasionally exhibit a new arrival from then in the tabernacle stand, and have him teatify in choice Kanaka about the growth ol the saints at his home; but I guess tin supply is aliout exhausted there. I onclt; heard Brigham Young say that of al who had ever joined the church 85 per cent had apostatized; but I now know his estimate was too low. Ninety-five per cent. wouW come nearer to it. Not long liefore Prophet Jlt;e Smith’s death he published an estimate ol his church, placing the total of adult communicants at 20U,IK)0. The world does nol contain half so many now'. Of the 175,00C people, more or less, in Utah, at least 20,(XX are Gentiles, 30,(XX) “Hickories” and 40.00C too young to know what they believe about divine things. Indeed, a very surprising [tercentage of the adults do not know enough to start a theological academy in the brush.The other error is in regard to the young men and women reared in tbe Mormon church; they are with scarcely an exception infidels. I personallyknow hundreds of them, and do not know one w ho n ally believes tbe doctrine. In fact, I cannot just now recall one Mormon family of note, from Brigham Young to John D. Lee, which has produced one devout Mormon. The most “cantankerous ant i-Mormons m Utah are the scions of the Pratts, Youngsand other patriarchs of jxaygamy. uid Mormons die, young ones grow up infidels; there can be but one result—extinction by dry deeay. Thousands of tla-se young folks call themselves Mormons, of course, just as I call myself a Quaker, though 1 have not seen the inside of a meeting house for twenty years, and just as my chum calls himself a Pennsylvania Dutchman, though his ancestors left the Palatine for Luzerne, Pa., in the reign of Queen Anne. It is simply an ethnic title; buthere of late they seem to prefer being called “Utah lioys,” “Utonians” and “Valley-tans.” It is nonsense to suppose that these fellows will maintain the organization. Utah will cease to be Mormon just as Philadelphia ceased to lie Quaker; but no one will be able to fix the year in which it will happen. If the local troubles were all, we could well afford to drop the matter and let tbe Mormons go to tbe devil by their own rood, but there is another view. The United IStutes is a nation and has a character to sustain among the nations of the earth. It therefore cannot afford to all w a little squad of malcontents, however contemptible, to take |Mk«eNsion of a territory, defy the laws and set up a new marriage system. Even if we ktiew M or monism would lt;iie of itself in twenty years (and it may last fifty), we should still liear down onit w ith (lie law. It is a little tiling, but a bigdisgrace to us as a nation. It Is a blot on our sbiekl, and tin* American people are going to S|Hnge it oil—thut's all.Robert A. Barclay.THE WAY TO ADVERTISE.A Master of tlie Art Discusses It Somewhat Exhaustively.[Special Correspondence. JNew York, April 22.Business calks] me away from tbe metropolis for a day or two not long ago. On myway Iwu-k I fell in with a portly gentleman,who offered a light for my cigar when 1 went into the sleeping car smoking room. Conversation followed, and I soon learned thathe wastlie big advertiser. His bobby isadvertising, for be lias made a fortune outof it. He said:“You want to know some of the secrets of the art of advertising? Well, 1 11 tell you the first requisite to success. Be sure that you’vo a good thing to sell. Don’t l*e afraid to claim all tbe virtues for your ware*, but lie sure that they posses* them first. For if you don'ttbe JHlblie w ill soon find it out, and then, ofcourse, your sales will stop.“Newspaper advertising is the liest in tbe long run, of course, though I’ve flt;und an occasional medium outside the new-qiajiers thatbrought good returns. But whatever medium you chose make the *ad.’ plain. That is, don’t hide the name of your glt;»ods or your firm under an artistic design. For instance, if you are advertising crackers for coachmen's whips make the most prominent }arl of the advertisement the word ‘whip lashes’ or something of the kind, and have it printed in bold faced, plain tyj*e, without any nonsense, so plain that a man chii read it across a railroad car or further. Don’t cover up the word in an elaliorately designed picture of w hi[»s. My success lies in the fact that I’ve always stated what I had to say plainly, lioldly ami directly.“Then don’t le afraid to stick to it. It will take months sometimes for an advertisement to‘catch cm.’ But if it is plain, always appears in the same place in the same pajier, it is sure to sell goods sooner or later.“Reading notices? They are very valuable if you can get an artist to do them. But they must l»e well done, or they will hurt you rather than help you. I stick to tbe pim‘ad.’ Another thing: don’t try to cover too much territory at once. Take a city at a time. Advertise thoroughly in all its news-papers. A big trade in one city is betterthan a verv small trade in half a dozen.•»When you have won one city over to yourtrade then take another, and liefore you know it you will have built up a rousing business. That is, as I hinted before, if you have tbe goods to back itJ. E. Smai.mahHow They Held the Crowd.The late John T. Raymond and his wifemwere once engaged to ojien the season at Lafayette, Ind., and a company from Chicago was to support them. When the night came the cAmpnny was not there, but the house was crowded and the manager was nearly crazy. Something must bo done, but there was no one to do it but Mr. and Mrs, Raymond. “I went out liefore tbe curtain, said that genial comedian, telling of it in after years, “and frankly told the audience what was the matter. They were good natured and expressed a willingness tlt; put up with anything. What do you think we did? Boys, my wife ami I played five farces for them that night, w it hout proper scenery, costumes, rehearsals or anything else. The performance liegan at 1) o'clock and lasted till after 1 o’clock. I never ucted, I never will act lietfeer in my life than I did that night, and my w ife, she was the greatest dramatic artist oil earth then.”—New York Tribune.DECAY OF MORMONISM.Some Popular Errors Set Kight byCorrespondent.(Special Correspondence. ]Salt Lake City, U. T., April 18.Every day’s mail brings something to agitate the contending factions in this queer place, and almost every day there is a new faction. There is, first, the “blood drinker” Gentile, who wants the government to come down with heavy hand on all Mormons; then the moderate Gentile, who wants a very slight pressure; the “Jack Mormon,” who wants them left entirely alone, ami the much larger class who know little about the issue and care less. Among the Mormons ar# the old hard headed fanatics, w'ho “know this work is of God,” and want to go ahead regardless of congress, courts or the devil; the Limid, who are for yielding, according to a convenient revelation they have on that subject, and the great mass, who have not sense enough to know good from evil in government, and do just as their local bishop tells them. And most important of all are tbe “Hickories”—the young Mormons, mostly skeptics, and they are the class that will prove the death of tbe institution. So diversified are our people that the late acts of congress and the courts set every tongue to wagging in a different tone; Jew, Gentile, saint and sinner, official and “Hickory,” each is ardent in his particular faith, and the gruel of street conversation is “thick and slab” with partisanbate.Of course I do not intend to give yourreaders a history and analysis of Mormon ism—it is a “chestnut.” All I aim at is to correct a few errors now common in the States. Tbe first and greatest is the notion that the’Whims of Cotton Speculators.The whims of speculators are illustrated by a story told by The Atlanta Constitution of some Georgians who were trading in cottonin the New York market: “The market wasfluctuating without apjarent reason, and they were speculating briskly but blindly. They finally selected, so the story goes, engine No.42 on the Third avenue elevated. Uponreaching the office in the morning they would watch for that engine. If, when first seen, it was going down town, they would sell, ami if going up town when first seen they would buv. Bv following this course they made» * ofnearly $300,(XX), hen one fine morning theengine betrayed th *m, and they lost nearlydouble that amount.”Tbedyspeptie, the debilitated. shctblt;•r from excess of work of mind oi y, drink or exposure inmuM alar ial Regionswill find TutCs Pills the most restorative ever offered tbe ai invalid.*genialfflt;eringTry Them Fairly.A vigorous body^jpnre blood, strongnerves and a cheerful ml tid will result.SOLO EVERYWHERE.Now when the bud* beginto *how,Ti* time for young andold to know That Fever*, Lassitude and allThe ills at Indigestion.• call.With every trouble, ache or pain,That follows in the Bilious train,\V ill scatter like the thieves of night Before a draught of SelUer bright.r$9,000 ts LoanON FIRST MORTGAGE IN SUMS OF $1,000 and over. Apply tofl17-lw -ROBERT H. GORDON.*1IA\\\\\
Newspaper Details
Cumberland Daily Times
Cumberland, Maryland, US
Wed, May 18, 1887
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Liza Z.
NA, 02 Sep 2022
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