More Excerpts from Nellie Bly’s Six Months in Mexico
On Sundays, the streets and parks are thronged with men and women selling ice cream, pulque, candies, cakes, and other dainties. They carry their stock on their heads while moving, and when they stop, they set it on a tripod, which they carry in their arms.
–Chapter VI
I don’t think one would ever tire of the gayly-colored pictures Mexico is ever presenting. Though in Mexico two months, I can find something new every time I glance at the queer people. The little basket vender is but one of thousands, but we find he is the first one to wear his white shirt without tying the two sides together in a knot in front.
–Chapter XII
Nellie says of the museum of the city of Mexico:
The little idols perhaps attract more attention than anything else at the museum. In two long rooms, the cases lining the walls are filled with idols of all sizes and shapes, made of stone, onyx, and marble. Some of the pottery is horribly exquisite. Beads used by the Indians, made of stones, teeth, and bones, are numerous. The large objects on the pedestals come in for a share of wonder. They are adorned with names of wondrous length and non-pronounceable, and stories of horror.
–Chapter IX
The fruit venders have beautiful voices and sing out their wares in such a charming manner that one is sorry when they disappear around the corner. They are sometimes quite picturesque with the fruit and vegetables tied up on their rebozo and baskets in their hands.
–Chapter XII
Wealthy Americans who have a desire to invest in land should come to Mexico. There is surely no other place in the world where one could get so much out of a piece of property. One end of a field can be tilled while the other is being harvested, and one can have as many crops a year as he has energy and time to plant. There is no doubt that anything can be cultivated here.
–Chapter XII
And we’ll leave Nellie Bly for the time being with this one, final thought, still valid today:
People who have any desire to see Mexico in all its splendor should come soon, for civilization’s curse or blessing, whichever it may be, has surely set a firm foot here, and in a few years, yielding to its influence, all will be changed. Already the dark-eyed señora has changed the lovely, graceful mantilla for stiff, ugly bonnets and hats; the poor Indian woman is replacing the fascinating reboza [sic] with a horrid shawl; the Indian man is changing sandals for torturing shoes and the cool linen pantaloons and serape for American pantaloons and coat. Civilization and its twin sister, style, have caught them in their grasp, and unless you come soon, Mexico will cease to be attractive except as a new California.
–Chapter X
Nellie Bly sources and resources:
“Nellie Bly: The Pioneer Woman Journalist.” A resource website put together by Arthur Fritz, http://www.nellieblyonline.com
“Elizabeth Jane Cochrane Seaman.” 2014. The Biography.com website. May 06 2014. http://www.biography.com/people/nellie-bly-9216680
“Nellie Bly,” PBS Online, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/world/peopleevents/pande01.html