206 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[April i, 1907. 



of that — the railroad 



but we were in the siimmerland for 

 guide hooks said so. 



' ■ 1 ■ • ■ • ; '""■ ■••>•!' Ml Mn:i;;-'-"y m" I -i t\\ ; 



to the center of the city landed mc at the Windsor llotc 



r rive 

 This 



FiKST GuAvci,i; F.\CT<.RV OF L'Anglo-Mii\ii ANA iiSijSj Ai San 

 Luis Potosi. 



is the best or the worst in the city, and the others are equally so. 

 Still I had a funny little .sheet iron stove the size of a hatbox in 

 my room, and managed to be comfortable. Lideed, as I looked 

 out of the casement and saw the tourists shivering in great coats 

 and furs and the natives muffled to the neck in blankets, I felt 

 pretty well fixed. 



Later, when the clouds rolled away and the lovely situation of 

 the city in a level valley surrounded by hills and lofty mountains 

 unfolded itself, all discomforts were forgotten. There was the 

 Cerro de la Silla, for example, towering more than 4,000 feet 



Pioneer Factory at Jimulco. (L'ANaLo-MEXicAN.\, 1902.) 



above the plain, a perfect Spanish saddle in distinct outline against 

 the sky. Then, too, the Cerro de las Mitras, nearly as high, shows 

 to those who can see it the miter of a bishop. Three miles from 

 the city proper are the Topo Chico hot springs, with their Aztec 

 legends of wonderful cures. Besides, there are faint reminders of 

 the American occupation during the Mexican w-ar, and more pro- 

 nounced evidence of the present occupr.tion in the shape of great 

 smelters and factories, and the ease with which the English even 

 of the American tourist is understood. 



I was fortunate in having a letter to Ernesto Madero. who re- 

 sides in Monterey, and who is of the Madero family whose 



guayule holdings both in vast ranches on which the shrubs grow 

 and in factories for its extraction are very large. A cultured gen- 

 tleman, educated in the United States, he spoke English perfectly, 

 and arranged for me to visit their factories and ranches with the 

 utmost willingness and courtesy. 



GUAYULE FACTORIES AT SALTILLO. 



The nearest Madero factory was at Parras, on the Coahuila al 

 Pacifico, and directly on the way is the city of Saltillo, where are 

 situated two of the factories of the Conipania Explotadora de 

 Caucho Mexicana and one of the Continental Rubber Co. So I 

 left at 2.20 to be sure and catch the 3 o'clock train, which leaves 

 at 3.20, and which actually got away at 5.30. We arrived at Sal- 

 tillo at 9.15 and went to the Coahuila Hotel, .1 really fine modern 

 structure with elevators, electric lights, baths, and so on. The 

 elevator, to be sure, was used as a storeroom for rubbish, the 

 bath was without water, and part of the time I used a candle for 



Present Factory of L'Anclo-Me.xicana at Jimulco. 



light, but I had lest the finicky attitude that Xew York breeds 

 and restfully accepted these little defects as a matter of course. 



The altitude at Saltillo (pronounced, by the way, Sal-tee-yo) is 

 close to 6,000 feet. For the first time in my life I noticed its 

 effect in my breathing, and that only when going to sleep. The 

 second night, however, the feeling disappeared and I had no 

 further trace of it. 



The city, quaint, ancient, once the center of the beautifully col- 

 ored zerape industry, is the capital of the state of Coahuila, which 

 once embraced the whole of Texas. There isn't much of interest 

 except the beautiful carving on the stone front of the cathedral, 

 and the aqueduct that makes life possible by bringing water 

 from the far distant hills. In the morning I visited the American 

 consul, Mr. Victor L. Dahaime, who by letter had already given 

 me information of value. After a chat and a look at his guayule 

 records I told the cnacbnian (so called in courtesy") to drive to 



Piles of Guayule .Shrub at Jimulco. 



