Once again the willing horses climbed the hill, and reaching the summit
we inspected the waterworks which have so faithfully supplied the
city for years. A weather-beaten frame house hid the well or spring
that has given such a generous supply. A wooden wheel as large as the
house itself, moved slowly, as if age and rheumatism had stiffened its
joints. The water flowed gently through an open trench into another
building, whence it rushed, white, foaming and sparkling, into the
ground, leaving only high brick air-pipes to mark its course to the
aqueduct.
By the side of the trench a woman was doing her washing, and two little
lads, with poles across their shoulders and buckets suspended from
either end, were carrying water to the houses down in the valley. An
old cow with curly horns gazed at us in astonishment as we invaded her
private meadow to get a view of a paper mill, which is built in the
shape of an old English castle, down in a deep ravine in a nest of
lovely green trees. The old cow had evidently come to the conclusion,
after deliberate reasoning, that we were intruding, and she charged
our horses in a first-class "toro" style. There were no _capeadores_
to attract her attention, no _bourladeras_ for us to hide behind, so
we thought it best to fly, which we did with a Maud S speed. I did not
mention I had lost my hat in the retreat until we were over the trench,
and one of the young men gallantly started to recover it, against the
protestations of the entire crowd. We expected to see him killed, but
the cow stood watching him as he dismounted for the feminine headgear,
gesticulating with head and tail and beating the earth with her fore
legs. Remounting, he saluted her, then putting spurs to his horse he
cleared the ditch, leaving the baffled and angry cow on the other side.
La Castaneda, the great pleasure-garden of the Mexicans, was next
visited. Beautiful flowers, shrubbery and marble statues grace the
well-kept resort. Neat little benches, cunning little vine-draped
nooks, sprinkling-fountains, secluded dancing-stands, deep
bathing-basins, are a few of the many attractions. Shaded walks and
twisting stairways would always bring us to some new beauty. Music
and dancing are always held here every afternoon, and although it was
nearly noon they had not even so much as a cracker in the house. In
Mexico nothing in the line of edibles is kept in the house overnight.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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