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National Geographic : 1910 Dec
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SOME MEXICAN TRANSPORTATION SCENES I take refuge in the large experience and ripe judgment of Lord Curzon, of Kedle ston, who in July, 1904, was given the freedom of the city of London in Guild hall, and on that occasion used these words: "Depend upon it, you will never rule the East except through the heart, and the moment imagination has gone out of your Asiatic policy your empire will dwindle and decay." I am also impressed with the correct ness of Lord Morley's attitude. Speak ing in support of the Indian reform pro posals two years ago, he said: "The Founder of Christianity arose in an Oriental country, and, when I am told that Orientals always mistake kindness for fear, I must repeat that I do not be lieve it, any more than I believe the stranger saying of Carlyle, that after all the fundamental question between any two beings is, Can I kill thee, or canst thou kill me? I do not agree that any organized society has ever subsisted upon either of those principles, or that brutal ity is always present as a fundamental postulate in the relations between rulers and ruled." And Curzon and Morley have many supporters in their view. In smug com placency, you may close your doors which look toward Asia, while you open wide those which look toward Europe; you may refuse the Oriental admission to your schools, while you accord the privilege to any child of a European; you may pile import duties mountain high, and raise our standards of living to any pitch of extravagance; you may build warships without limit, and you may continue to treat the Asian as legiti mate prey. But I am confident that it will not avail. As a soldier, whether at Omdurman, in the Sudan, or on 203-Metre Hill, at Port Arthur, the man of color has shown himself a right good fighting man; in commerce he has, by his industry, per severance, ingenuity, and frugality, given us pause; and before the eternal throne his temporal and his spiritual welfare are worth as much as yours or mine. SOME MEXICAN TRANSPORTATION SCENES BY WALTER W. BRADLEY With Photographsby the Author IN Mexico one may find all of the modern conveniences of travel and transport, including the Pullman, automobiles, and electric street railways; for, in Mexico City, the capital of our sister Republic, they have quite as com plete and effective a street and suburban system of electric railways as is to be found in any city of the United States. While this is true, it is not the intention of the present sketch to describe any of the above modes of travel; but rather to depict some less familiar scenes, which are in part at least the relic of earlier days. The contrast seen in these ancient and modern methods side by side is striking, at times. The writer one day on the out skirts of Mexico City while riding on an electric car passed a "peon" (laborer) carrying on his shoulder a wooden plow, such as we read of as in use in Palestine in the time of Christ. Picture I shows burros packing straw through the streets of the city, and was taken while passing in front of the cathedral, which fronts on the main plaza. The electric street car tracks may be noted in the fore ground. Picture 2 illustrates the use of oxen for motive power in transportation. The Mexicans do not use a shoulder yoke for oxen, but a single stick of timber is lashed with heavy leather thongs to the 985
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