MEXICO AXD MEXICANS 



493 



ten years down to a baby about a year 

 old. I gave the baby a "cinco centavo" 

 piece, and right before my eyes a little 

 scoundrel about eight grabbed it away 

 from the baby and ran. I tried the same 

 experiment in several other places, with 

 about the same result. Mexico is the only 

 place I have ever visited where they steal 

 from the babies. 



Mexico is a land of holidays. Count- 

 ing Sundays, there are 131 on the Mexi- 

 can calendar, and it is asserted that more 

 than half of the people observe them all. 

 There are 52 saints' days, 15 solemn feast 

 days, 3 holy days, and 6 family feast 

 days. On certain of these days all Mex- 

 ico takes to the festival, and it usually 

 requires from one to three days for the 

 peons to sober up and get back to regular 

 work again. 



A SPLENDID ANCIENT CIVILIZATION 



The monuments left by the Aztecs and 

 their predecessors in Mexico tell of a 

 surprising ancient civilization. Where 

 once the Americans and the Mexicans 

 engaged in deadly combat at Churubusco, 

 and where until recently they fraternized 

 at the beautiful Country Club long years 

 before the astronomical observatory at 

 Uranienborg was built, there arose an 

 Aztec astronomical observatory. The 

 Aztecs fixed their year with a determina- 

 tion of the actual time between the equi- 

 noxes more accurate than that of the 

 Alexandrian scholars who made the Ju- 

 lian calendar. The latter calendar today 

 is some 13 or 14 days out of accord with 

 the seasons, while the Aztec calendar is 

 only a few hours out of agreement with 

 the equinoxes. They wrote their calen- 

 dar on a great circular stone 22 feet in 

 diameter, 3 feet thick, and weighing some 

 24 tons. The inscriptions on it have been 

 worked out and the Aztec system of time 

 reckoning ascertained. 



The Sacrificial Stone, containing a 

 carved portrayal of the rights of sacrifice 

 of the Aztecs, is also to be found in the 

 National Museum, and a copy of it is in 



our own National Museum. Tens of 

 thousands of victims were offered up on 

 this stone to the sun-god of the Aztecs, 

 the principal part of the sacrificial rite 

 being the plucking out of the yet-beating 

 heart of the victim and holding it up to 

 heaven. 



The Pyramids of the Sun and Moon, 

 near Mexico City, while not as large as 

 those of Egypt, bear wonderful inscrip- 

 tions. The Chinese Minister to Mexico 

 declares that one of these inscriptions 

 occurs on the majority of tombs in China. 



From the ruins of Palenque, known to 

 have existed before the coming of Co- 

 lumbus, there was taken some years ago 

 a tablet which shows, in bas-relief, two 

 Indians standing in reverential attitude 

 before a cross. 



The earliest people who seem to have 

 left any trace of their occupancy of the 

 land in Mexico were the Toltecs. They 

 were followed by the Chicemecs, called 

 the barbarians of the North, and be- 

 lieved by some to have been the progeny 

 of a race of people who came to the 

 American continent either by way of the 

 frozen Bering Straits or were borne 

 across the seas by the Japan current. 



Whether viewed from the standpoint 

 of its past, contemplated from the stand- 

 point of its present, or considered from 

 the standpoint of its future, Mexico is 

 now the great question - mark of the 

 Western World. It will be a long, long 

 climb until its population, four-fifths In- 

 dians and half-breeds, will reach that 

 point in their national destiny where they 

 can possess a government like our own. 

 It will be years before the tragic days of 

 the present can be wiped out and before 

 the uncounted riches of its wonderful 

 mineral and agricultural resources can 

 be fully capitalized. 



But somehow, some day, Mexico will 

 find that peace that is based on a united 

 desire for peace and a united purpose to 

 have it, and then Mexico will go forward 

 as our own country has gone forward in 

 the last fifty years. 



