Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 64, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 April 1909 — SIGN OF DEATH. [ARTICLE]

SIGN OF DEATH.

Mexicans, yvhen 111, Abandon All Hope of Recovery When Dove’s Bong is Heard. what’s the matter? Fever? Die then, die then." That’s the song the doves sing down In Old Mexico when a native has pneumonia, and almost invariably he lies down, refuses to swallow the medicine prescribed by the physician, resigns himself to his fate and in a few weeks he dies. The dove, however, sings the song in Spanish. Dr. Charles M. Cunningham, a dentists of this city, has recently returned from a trip through the domain of President Diaz, and he tells some Interesting things about the quaint customs of the natives. It is a tradition among the Mexicans that once the fever accompanying an attack of pneumonia, seizes them it is necessarily fatal, and because of this all medicine and all physicians are refused and the Mexican usually dies. The dove brings the story of death in its weird cooing, according to the belief of the natives, and many who have —been seized with the fever who otherwise might have recovered have succumbed owing to their belief in the tradition. That is the reason, it is said, why pneumonia is fatal to so many Mexicans.

Dr. Cunningham visited the City of Mexico and was in the National Palace, the seat of government. Although Old Mexico has the name of being a republic its form of government is that in name only, he says, for the entire country is a one-man power, and the one man is President Diaz. - ;■ "Word is given out that certain state and municipal officials have been elected,” says Dr. Cunningham, “but really they have only been appointed, for Diaz and his colleagues see to it that only the friends of the president are chosen for office. The government is more by the military than by the people. They have a good soldiery, and the natives seem to be satisfied to have it thus.” One of the quaint customs to which the natives of Old Mexico still adhere is the practice of wearing blankets about them, even in the heat of summer. On June 24 Dr. Cunningham photographed a group of these ae they sat out in the sun and wrapped themselves in their warm blankets. Oxen are still in use throughout the country as beasts *of burden, and their service is equally as much in demand as are the donkeys, which are also extensively used. The driveways leading up to the National Palace, instead of being paved with cobblestones, as is customary in most places, are lined with the knee joints of goats. These animals are slaughtered for various purposes, and as no one has yet discovered another use for their knee bones they are thrown onto the driveways and form a rude vavement. On a festival day the town band of Etzatlan, a small village, * went through the streets in a wagon drawn by a team of oxen, making a picturesque scene. ——— Dr. Cunningham was called to Hostotipaquillo, where he did some dental work for some Americans interested in a mine near that place. It was for this purpose and to see a portion of the country that he made the trip.—lndianapolis Cor. New York Herald. - -.... =====