MEXICO. 



549 



cities. The National Mexican Company was 

 actively at work in 1888 to finish the section 

 of the line that separates Saltillo frou. 

 Miguel Allende, a distance of 565 kiloni 

 and on August 31 the portion of the track 

 coming from the north reached San Luis Po- 

 tosi; the junction of the two portions of the 

 track took place at the Boquillas Viaduct, thus 

 linking together two important cities, and 

 opening a third line of railway from the capi- 

 tal to the American frontier. The Hidalgo 

 Railroad Company finished five kilometres on 

 the Tepa-Tulancingo line, and the thirty kilo- 

 metres, which complete the line from San 

 Auguscin to Teoloyucan ; these works consti- 

 tute a new track connecting Pachusa with the 

 capital on the one hand, while joining the 

 Central and National Railroads on the other 

 Of the Interoceanic Railroad, twenty kilome- 

 tres were finished of the Yantepec and Ama- 

 cusac section, and twenty kilometres of the 

 one between Mazapa and San Martin Texme- 

 lucan. The Yucatan lines have not been behind 

 hand in completing their system. Between 

 Merida and Calkini, six kilometres have gone 

 into operation, and between Merida and Yal- 

 ladolid seven. The aggregate length of lines 

 of railway in running order in Mexico was 

 7,500 kilometres on Sept. 16, 1888. 



Tehnantepee Ship Railway. A meeting was 

 held on June 7, 1888, at Jersey City, of those 

 interested in the project to build a ship-railway 

 across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. The Ead's 

 Concession Company is the organization that 

 secured possession of all rights in the con- 

 cessions made to Capt. Eads by the Mexican 

 Government in 1881. About six months prior 

 to the date of this meeting a construction 

 company was organized in New York, under 

 the title of ' Atlantic and Pacific Ship-Rail- 

 way Company.'' The English civil engineer 

 Benjamin Blake, is to superintend the con- 

 struction, and it is believed it will not be diffi- 

 cult to procure the $50,000,000 of capital that 

 will be necessary. The contract stipulates that 

 the work shall begin within a year, dating 

 from June, and be completed in five years. 

 The scheme is to carry loaded ships across the 

 isthmus in cradles. The distance is about one 

 hundred and fifty miles. 



Telegraphs. During 1888 there were in op- 

 eration 21.453 kilometres of Government lines, 

 6.8S7 kilometres of lines belonging to individ- 

 ual States of the confederation, 6.143 the prop- 

 erty of railroad companies, 4,098 of private 

 lines, and 2,926 of Mexican cable : a grand total 

 of 41.507 kilometres. The Federal Govern- 

 ment had 339 offices in operation. In Decem- 

 ber, 1888, the Mexican Telegraph Company 

 declared a quarterly dividend of 2i per cent. 



The Government has declared free of duty 

 everything entering into the construction of 

 telegraph and telephone lines. 



The steamer "Faraday"' arrived at Coatza- 

 coalcos on Jan. 18, 1889, having on board over 

 900 miles of the most improved heavy cable, 



which was to be laid immediately between that 

 port and Galveston, Tex., for t: :i and 



Central and South American Telegraph < 

 panics. This will duplicate t!= -terns 



of these two companies, providing in< r 

 facilities, and insuring rapid communication by 

 the American route tia Galveston, with Val- 

 paraiso, Buenos Ayres, and other places in 

 South America. 



American Steamship-Line. The sale of the entire 

 plant of the Alexandre line to the New York 

 and Cuba Mail Steamship Company, in the 

 spring, increased the number of steamers run- 

 ning between New York and Mexico rza Ha- 

 vana to five, so that since then a steamer has 

 left New York every Wednesday. 



Land Purchases. In January, 1888, Settor M. 

 Gonzalez, agent for several residents of Coa- 

 huila, closed the sale of 500,000 acres in the State 

 of Coahnila to the representatives of an English 

 syndicate, which already owns 2.000,000 acres 

 in that State. The consideration was $125,000, 

 or twenty-five cents an acre. The purchase 

 comprises much mountain land. English capi- 

 talists now own one quarter of the State of Coa- 

 huila. A large tract in northern Chihuahua, 

 known as '* Las Palomas/' owned by George H. 

 Sisson, of New York, and Louis Huller, of Mex- 

 ico, was sold in January. 1889, to a syndicate 

 of Chicago and Nebraska capitalists. The con- 

 sideration was $1,000.000. These lands are to 

 be colonized with Germans, under the Huller 

 colonization concession from the Mexican Gov- 

 ernment. George Hearst, a California capital- 

 ist, while in the city of Mexico in May, bought 

 over 2,000.000 acres in the State of Vera Cruz, 

 all lying in the " Tierra Caliente," and adapted 

 to the raising of coffee, sugar, and tobacco. 



In July it transpired that a French company 

 had purchased the San Lorenzo estate, one of 

 the best known in northern Mexico. The busi- 

 ness will be managed in Paris and by two di- 

 rectors in the city of Mexico. 



The Mormons have for some years past been 

 quietly buying large tracts of agricultural lands 

 in northern Chihuahua, principally in the valley 

 of the Casas Grandes river, and in 1888 they 

 were negotiating for more. There are several 

 flourishing villages in that neighborhood, the 

 principal one being called Porfirio Diaz ; the 

 colonists (who are probably precursors of much 

 greater bodies in the future) are very quiet 

 and unobtrusive. 



American Enterprise. Before the Mexican 

 Congress adjourned, on Dee. 15, 1888, the 

 Union Light. Fuel, and Gas Company, of 

 America, organized under the laws of Illinois, 

 in which St. Louis, Chicago. New York, and 

 Detroit capitalists are largely interested, ob- 

 tained a concession from the Mexican Govern- 

 ment for the introduction of water, fuel, and 

 gas into the cities and Government buildings 

 throughout the republic. Among the items 

 mentioned in the concession is the free im- 

 portation for fifteen years of all materials 

 necessary for the plant. 



