Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 December 1887 — The Great Mexican Cathedral. [ARTICLE]

The Great Mexican Cathedral.

The cathedral, rising conspicuously •bove all the buildings of the city, is ol i great size, and possesses considerable architectural elegance, the facade, in particular, being elaborately decorated With stucco work. The design is Moorish, and the bell towers, from which come a constant clanging of old i Spanish brass, command an extended view of the city, tlie lakes, and the distant mountains. The interior of the spacious house, which was erected by the Spaniards, contains many rare ornaments, and the nave is surmounted by a vnultid roof, supported by handcarveu beams and pillars, among which hover somber shadows. At one time, that during the reign of the Spaniards, the altar was laden with solid objects of gold and silver and precious stones, but to-day it has lost all, or nearly all, of those, and is covered with tawdry images and imitation ornaments, while there is everywhere apparent the extreme ago of t’m building. Entering the nave al almost any hour of the day, „I have never failed to find odd groups ’ of Mexic.-ms and Indians tolling theil beads awl lisping their prayers, whil< | at regular n ass tho cc'.d stone floor is covered witti devout worshipers, and the place is filled with the whisperingi of those who pray. And what a heterogeneous crowd one sees. The poor and the rich, tho hungry and the welbfed, ;the half-naked and those clothed it Bilks, are all together. Here an Indian, kneeling by his taßiered sombrero, and With his heavy load near by, prays witl iis soul upon his lips; there a dimpled Benorita, demure but conscious, read* from her gilt-edged book. Incense odors fill the air, the monotonous chant jpgs of the priests are heard, and sil-Very-toned bells ring out the holy com mands of the church, tad send the wo» shipers to crossing themselves and brw» £g in holy penitence. Set into ona d ie outer walls of the cathedral « th« ©ftcrificial or calendar stone of the An ijecß, hewn out of black porous lava and covered with hieroglyphics, reminding, 60 it always seems to me, the ignorant Indians who sell their bits of potterj near by of the greatness of their fore' Others, who had their palaces and temples in the square which is now th« busy center of a great city. Juarez was an Indian, but he became the Lincoin of Mexico, and in good time the other descendants of Montezuma maj yet regain their old-time power.— of Mexico Cor. San Francisco Chron ide.