The Pensacola journal., May 31, 1914, SECTION TWO, Page 5, Image 15

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Section Two
THE PENSACOLA JOURNAL, SUNDAY MORNING, MAY 31, 1914.
THE RANSOMING OF THE
RICHARD A. BINGHAM
A Story
of Mexico
1 1 Years Ago
By F. F. Bingham.
: (Continued from last Sunday.)
t
v Mexico City. October 12, 1903.
! From conversations and from -what
i I have read about Mexico City since
crossing: the Rio Grande, I was some
what prepared to see a fine city, but
It exceeds all representations.
It was a city of a tolerably civilized
people, the- Aztecs, years and years
before Columbus discovered America.
It was destroyed by the Spaniards
one hundred years before the Pilgrims
landed at Plymouth. It was at once
rebuilt, on a scale four times as large
and was a city of palaces, paved
atreerts and marble baths while Xew
York was yet New Amsterdam.
In the United States th develop
Tnent has always been from the sea
toward the. interior. We fesl that all
development must be that way. In
Mexico, however, it is the other way.
Mexico City was a grand city before
railroads were thought of, and con
tinued as such without more than
mountain trails to the sea, until the
year I was born 1872, when the
. "Queen's Own," to Vera Cruz -was
i completed.
From the foregoing you might ex-
pect to see a city covered with moss
and cobwebs, but not so. Many of
;the things you see buildings, cathe
drals, etc.. while of great age, do not
show It dn the least, which is due,
I suppose, to two things.
Substantlalness of construction and
high altitude.
' These buildings have walls of in
credible thickness (from our Ameri
can standpoint) and at an elevation of
jseven thousand feet above the sea.
decay Is extremely slow
The architecture, Spanish and
.FVench, under a strong- Aztec influ
ence, Is most pleasing to the eye.
The streets are regularly laid off.
many of them wide and asphalted, and
' the parks are thing's of beauty.
The influence of the United Sta.tes
' Is seen in the hurrying trollcv cars,
the electric lights and the flying au
' tomobiles.
What you see. in short. Is a mag
nificent, well-ordered, well-kept, mod
ern city of flue public buildings, busi
ness buildings and residences, lying
In a broad valley seven thousand "feet
above the sea and surrounded by
rugged mountains whose peaks rang
from fifteen to seventeen thousand
feet above th sea.
i It wm a beautiful, clear morning,
j'ust cool enough to keep us on the
'trove. We walked well over the bus-i-!
:iess pert of town and then through
I the Dig- Cathedral, said to be the finest
' In America. It is enormous. Half a
'dozen services were in progress and
none Interfered with the other. Peo
ple were arriving and leaving in great
numbers all the time. There w;ls
enough gold and silver in aright to
I plate a ship.
Three things struck me forcibly:
The great wealth of gold and" silver,
of course, was one of them. The in
side supporting columns of the struc
ture was another; these columns are
5f
i r ? . z C-r, ..11
tw, rj'iWA"
$1 k. ,$Jt
f - 4
to
in
as i
F. F. BINGHAM.
twelve or fifteen feet in diajneter, one
solid ston on top of another, and go
straight up until they look to le no
larger around than a candle: Put the
point is. how in the world did they
ever get those great stones up there?
The third thing, was the floor of this
building, costing manv millions. Tt
was of rough, twelve 'inch, yellow pine
plank !
I sav at oncfi that there was no
sense in my worrying about the gold
and silver, or getting excited about
how they built those columns, but
that cheap. chfap floor, set me afire,
and. as noon as I could do so de
cently, I demanded an explanation of
Mr. T.ittsey.
Jlis explanation was that under the
Mexican law churches become subject
to taxation .mst as ynnn as thoy are
finished .and, that, consequently, there
is not a finished chi:rh in Mexico
today. The floors are rough boards.
How simple!
For o,uer laws, and odd ways of
getting around them, us Americans
might learn something from the Mex
icans. Then we took the eiectrie car for the
famous Castle of Chapultepec. about
two miles from the city.
It is President Pis'st paJace. It used
to be Maximilian?-. Boawrtlme before
that (three hunciraOt ta4 fvrty-eight
years nefc-re. to be v&.wa,s Cor
tes'. Preceding Cooo . 'It, celong to
Montezuma.
Back of Montezuma, Mr. Tittsey
would not go, though I pressed iim.
He argued that it was not necessary
to go back of Mr. Montezuma.
The castle is a great fortress-like
affair, perched on a mass of rock t."iat
ri-ses probably COO feet al.ove h.-- vai
jfy plain. The irws. i- re.nuHncular
in form, and three of the sidt-s are
timot up and down. The fourth side i
rises at an angle of about forty-!
degrees, j he castle wail overlaps this
sittnung side.
This was the last s trough !.!
was necessary for (be A -tiT ; n arm-
uncier uenerais trort anl Taylor
oepturc in our war with Mexic,
1S47.
They gave it a heavy fire ith their
mountain howitzers and then 'h-.rged
ui iiia i. rocity cmr idat !;- twi
steep as the ordinary roof.
I p they went with a. galling rifie
fire pouring down on them, from near
ly overhead.
Up. up. At last, but mricklv, thev
reached the base of the over-lapping
castle. Did .they hesitate? No.
The climbed on each other; pr:r.s--ing
upward, they clung tr the wall and
such indentures ir, it as the cannon
balls has made. Steadilv unward al-
wsys upward, all along the wall' in
the ,rer;zy of battle not hiding the
leaden hail nor the tumbling bodies of
dead comrades.
IP, up '
And Good Cod. 1 don't
they did it they poured over the v.-.-tl:
in an avalanche and bayonetted the
defender.-i before they could even run. ;
The spots where the Mexicans fell j
are marked with small tomhston.
a great number showing their names j
ami rarm. ana tne words. "Killed in
the invasion of the North Americans."
It does not seem possible that so
small a number of troops, about three
thousand, could have taken such a
stronghold, so gallantly defended; but.
for that matter, it is marveslous that
our little army was able lo invade this
country at all, ;ind carry on the fight
hundreds of miles from its base of
supplies.
Surely we had sturdy fighters.
We saw considerable of the Castle,
viewed the beautiful gardens, inspect
ed the marbw baths and wondered
at the giant Montezuma cypress trees
the biggest trees I have ever seen.
One of tiie trees is railed "The Tree of
the Sorrowful Knight." Mavbe it
should be spelled "Night." Under this
tree, Maximilian spent his last night.
or maybe it was Cortes, or Montezu
ma. t?o much raw history, at one
time, is confusing.
Then we oauzht the trolley for the
Iturhede, to keen oar dinner annoint-
ment.
At a considerable distance- we espied
! the brewery machinery man. pacing
I up and flown in front of the hotel.
slipping his hips, his breast and his
groins, and we commenced to laugh.
Not only had the ,,.n.-i!t reeves;"
taken his watch, hut t hey had taken
about everything else tbi- he had of
value. And. having Mr. l,itlseys
warning in mind. h- declared that he
had allowed n- one to g.-t w ilhirt five
feet of hirn.
We all la;: ghed tn the ver-e of hvs-
1" j t erics, except the brewery machinery
man. and tne fun lasted ail t h afrer-
j noon, for w e stayed together the bnl-
' ance of the (i3v. os t 't si T
. O H"pp
the brewery machinery man from be
ing robbed of his business cards and
his occupation. Every half hour one
of us would ask h'.m innocently what
time it was. when he would reach for
his watch, and start us off again.
During the day we saw the Pride
and Groom several times.
It grieved me, almost, to see how
happy the Bride continues to be. Her
excited exc'aniat ion. "Look, look!" still
rings i;i my ears, mockingly.
Ha-ve about concluded that 1 have
beeji i nd-jJs -r r in a lot of unnecessary
'as well ao unasked) svmpaiivy. She
:oes not nerd it. Evidently she is
o::e of those rare individuals that pos
sess, withm herrself. the quality of
hanpiress.
!b. Br:d. kep thst quality, if you
can; you will find it worth more t"
you than husband, or riches, or any- JhutA the machinery. How can T do
thing else on earth. ot!7Vrwise than to wish so good a soul.
Our little band brenk" up tonight 'success in all his lawful undertakings?
The ex-attache has his mission " ueli j (Continued next Sunday
started. Mr. J.ittsey pro'veds to ( a. - !
aca. The brewery machinery man and Til Ore IS more Ot lllim.in
:i "an east iit S',nen Cioy;v ;:i i.ie , . .
j ir.ornir.g-. We will travel together as ; 1 i 1 1 ei"C 111 lllC JOUma' i?
:faras Orix.iha, where he stops, and iUu'nnf A ,t 'nv" n1ff(, h'1'1
i will so on to Vera Cru;:. u,!nl u a) Pac
A church at Orizaba is to be con
certed into a brewery, and the brew
i ery machinery man hopes to contri-
in any otlier part of the pa-oer.
(Paid Advertisement.)
County Commissioner
District No. 1
T am a candidate for
re-election as County
Commissioner and I in
vite the support and
vote of every democrat
who believes in good
service and conscien
tious devotion to dutv.
The support of all will
be appreciated.
1
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BLOUNT BUILDING
PHOM "I
Low Round
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p Fares
via
'SAFETY FIRST"
anon r9, oiieooan
a
Candidate for Re-e?ectfon
iuim.ajji.-a.'ij-i, nil im iinagg
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ensacoia
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