THE BOOK OF BRYAN
by Walter Glanville Ough circa 1978
Russell Ritchie Bryan,
Metallurgist, General Mill Superintendet
Cia de Real del Monte y Pachuca
Pachuca, Hidalgo MEXICO
Picture to yourself a short and heavy set man with large head, whose freckled dome is thinly covered with fairish hair and whose face is marked by freckles and blemishes caused by skin cancer. A kindly man, father of six and husband of a loud voiced assertively critical woman of gaunt appearance, who had developed a habit of contradicting his every statement over thirty odd years of marriage. This man, while deriving a methodical and painstaking approach to problems, from his part German ancestry possessed a capacity for working long hours on a problem regardless of hunger or lack of sleep, also he had an explosive temper which manifested itself to startled subordinates, who had failed him in some way, in an abrupt and terrifying manner.
His birth and education through university in the State of Colorado have given him degrees in Mining and Metallurgical Engineering which have enabled him to fol1ow his profession in the United States, the Philippines and Mexico principally in precious and non-ferrous metals, and the brief sketches that follow concern some of his activities when filling the post of General Supt. of Mills for the Real del Monte Company in Pachuca, Mexico during the middle years of the 20th. century.
The first adventure that comes to mind concerns an ore bin which was located on one side of the narrow road between the walled enclosure of the San Juan Mine and the equally walled enclosure of the large Loreto Mill of the mining company. This particular ore bin was reserved for lots of purchased delivered by truck usually in sacks because these were of high grade and also because it was physical1y impossible to use a dump truck due to the restricted space and awkward chute arrangements. This feature led to obstruction of the road during the time required to unload a truck and gave rise to stringent orders to post a signal flag at the far entrance of the narrow road to warn motorists that there was no thoroughfare for a while and to seek a detour which involved passing through the mine patio, which was inconvenient.
It so happened that our choleric boss habitually used the road between mine and the mill to and from his dwelling up on the hill, and upon a certain day at noon when hurrying home to his beans and tacos he saw no flag posted so drove his car into the obstructed road to find progress barred by a pile of ore. The truck had off loaded and departed but the driver had neglected to shovel the ore into the chute. His temper now at boiling point found release at the presence of two men and he vented his feelings in fractured Spanish about the iniquity of leaving ore like that to block a thoroughfare and ended his oration with orders to the men to shovel the ore into the bin and have it completed before he should return from lunch.
Sure enough, about 1 p.m. he returned to the spot, the pile of ore was gone and one panting, sweating man leaning on his shovel confronted him, the other having decamped. Much pleased and with his radiator now off the boil he addressed the man and shaking his finger at him indicated that he hoped it would be a lesson to him not to block the road in future. To which the man replied 'But I don't work here, I was merely passing by' - Visible deflation, shame facedness. full apologies and the transfer of a $5 dollar bill mitigated the circumstances and peace was finally restored.
Mining for silver and gold in the Pachuca district has been a local industry for over four centuries, from shortly after the Spanish conquest of Mexico and possibly even before that. Activity has fluctuated, dependent upon many factors such as political stability, discovery of workable lodes, labour supply, search for a suitable treatment process and ways of dewatering the mines, especially during rainy weather. Lack of good roads and remoteness from the coast also governed the supply of tools and materials for exploiting the argentiferous veins and hindered export of metal once these were obtained from the ore.
The mining enterprise of the Spaniards after the conquest, stimulated by the greed for gold, led them to penetrate many remote regions of the countty and almost all the main mineralised areas were identified by them, if not immediately exploited Pachuca, the richest district of them all for silver was also one of the most accessible, being a scant sixty miles north of present Mexico City. Tenochtitlan of the Aztecs and activity there and in nearby Real del Monte has been virtually continuous by Spaniards for three hundred years and after the war of independence, by others; British, American, German, Mexican and ftnally the Mexican Government, who now own all mines and equipment.
During the first three and a half centuries only shallow high grade veins were worked and tonnage of ore benificiated was small, so there was no problem over disposal of tailings from the different reduction works. These were merely washed down the creeks and carried away by rains to form a delta out on the plains, or lost in ravines on the western side of the ranges. However, with the completion of the war of independence from Spain with the reduction of their last foothold in Mexico at the fort of San Juan de Ulua in Vera Cruz, foreign capital was attracted by invitation and by inclination to reopen closed mines, apply modem methods for drainage and generally rehabilitate the industry.
Acceleration of the tempo of exploitation led to discovery of new veins of ore and a consequent increase in the tonnage of material treated by amalgamation, and later by cyanidation, in the reduction works or mills. This in turn led to a growing problem over disposal of waste ore or tailings, and eventually led to an agreement between the principal mining interests to purchase land to the south of the town of Pachuca for impounding of tailings in huge piles or dams, which had sand borders and permitted water to disappear by seepage and evaporation leaving the solid materials as a huge bank up to 25 metres high.
Much discussion over the years up to the mid twentieth century concerned possible reworking of these tailings piles to recover some of the residual gold and silver values left in the ore by primitive methods of beneficiation, also minor amounts of lead, copper, zinc and cadmium not hitherto recoverable. The key to the whole argument resided in proposed application of the flotation process; the modem method of winning metals from their ores and, above all the price of silver on the world market being high enough to justify the huge expense of erecting and equipping the large capacity plant required. In the late 1950's, conditions being judged right and capital available, the decision was taken to proceed with construction of a tailings re-treatment unit centrally located to process upwards of 55 mtllion tons contained in four separate dams. It was proposed to mine these tailings by hydraulicing and to extract the recoverable values of base and precious metals by differential flotation.
Our boss having been the prime mover in advocating the project, was also responsible for methods and plant design, so devoted a great deal of time and energy to organising and accelerating the construction phase. Being a keen photographer, he tried early in the proceedings to take a weekly snapshot of progress in construction on the site chosen for the plant, availing himself of one of the adjacent tailings piles which at that point gave an elevation some eighty feet above ground level His equipment consisted of a bellows camera on a tripod and required the use of a black cloth placed over head and camera while focussing the lens.
After several weeks of tramping up the trail to his vantage point toting his ungainly equipment and panting with the effort, he demanded that a saddled horse be provided every Friday morning at 11 a.m. and tethered close to the gateway of the millsite to await his pleasure. This patient animal hired from an adjacent ranch at $5.00 a time served to transport the old man to his elevated perch for a few times until he decided that the sun was too much in the eye of the camera and that it would be more appropriate to take his shots from the opposite side of the works. Unfortunately, in that direction there was no hill or elevation suitable to his purpose of taking a general view, so he demanded a twenty foot wooden tower complete with platform, handrail and ladder. This contrivance duty put together out of 2 x 4's, suitably braced and nailed, although a bit of an eyesore proved to be just what was wanted and entered upon its duties without more ado and the horse was returned to its owner.
Some weeks after the inauguration of the tower a fine morning found the boss at his post happily focussing and snapping with the aid of his black hood, completely oblivious of impending events below. A car driven by a salesman dealing in fire extinguishers had arrived from Mexico City at the plant gate, where a question to the gateman as to who the boss was and where to be found produced a jerk of the thumb in the general direction of the tower. Perceiving a figure on the platform above his head he sprang from his vehicle and proceeded to unload a quantity of cotton waste, cans of accelerator and a selection of extinguishers and fire inhibiting powders which he toted to the foot of the ladder, beginning his sales pitch which was directed to the man above and which gathered speed and intensity as he neared the end of his preparations. A jolt on the ladder appraised the boss of the presence below, which must have been subconsciously perceived on account of the unusual hullabaloo in rapid Spanish and in an area generally peaceful, so he emerged from under the black hood and peered over the balustrade to discover a voluble and busy bloke arranging cotton waste around the uprights of the ladder and dousing same with liquid poured from a can, which he presently ignited with a match.
The sheer audacity and impertinence of the deed struck the boss mute for a second or two, but appearance of flames climbing the ladder broke the spell and he in his turn became voluble, demanding who the devil the salesman thought he was and what in hell he was doing. The latter, continuing his palaver assured his prospective customer that there was nothing whatever to worry about, that he would now demonstrate the unique ability of his pet chemical inhibitor to extinguish any fire, and after a moment or two succeeded in doing so, although not before tongues of flame had reached halfway up the ladder, charring the uprights and lower rungs.
Once the flames were out the salesman proudly suggested that surely his client must now be convinced of the supreme merit of the product, and hopefully suggested an order be sent to his firm for a large quantity of same, but the futility of this gambit was made manifest when the ladder shook under the energetic descent of a choleric, red faced gentleman who was obviously not amused by the proceedings. Confronted with the object of his indignation at close range he berated the bloke bitterly in two languages and such was his ten1fying appearance and flaming blue eyes that the peddler was seized with a sudden desire to be elsewhere as fast as possible, so abandoning the residue of his equipment he sprang to his car, hit the starter and took off in a cloud of dust headed south
I was an inadvertent, but intensely interested spectator from an adjacent structure, and powerless to intervene, but knowing somewhat of the boss's potential for suddenly developed pressures and subsequent explosions awaited the inevitable denouement with malicious glee. The final disappearance at high speed of the second character in the drama was so comical that I was reduced to helpless heavings of mirth, and still find untapped reserves of laughter bottled up inside whenever I recall the incident.
Living and working at an altitude of a mile and a half above sea level on the Mexican Plateau requires initial acclimatisation and occasional sojourns in the low country to maintain one's physical fitness at concert pitch, more so as one grows older. Some residents acquired pieds-a-terre down at sea level with benefit of sea beaches and maritime amenities on either Gulf or Pacific coasts, but our boss elected to purchase land and build himself a country house on the eastern slopes at an elevation of just under 5,000 ft - high enough to eliminate mosquitoes and the humid heat of the coastal belt yet low enough for coffee plantations to thrive.
Having six children and some seventeen grandchildren the old boy planned a house large enough to accommodate all of them, which of course was an impossible dream since his family were widely scattered, so he went ahead and completed a survey of the property, drew all the plans and proceeded with construction - but was wise enough to build two flats accommodating family or
guests apart from the main edifice, in one case at an angle to the building and close enough to provide a breeze way between which made a pleasant shaded cool area in which to relax over a drink and chat. While this house was being built there was a lot going and coming, especially at weekends and many a load of bricks, sand, cement or roof tiles was loaded on the long suffering half ton trailer hitched to the towbar of the Nash and delivered at the site.
An especially heavy consignment of sand was the occasion of an annoying contretemps, which was narrated by the boss as fo11ows :- ' I was driving along the highway at my usual speed and coming to an avenue of trees with the country falling away on either side when I noticed a strange lateral heave of the car which quickly grew worse, so I slowed down to investigate but was forced to stop when a loud scratching, draggy sound developed. I got out and went to the rear to discover the trailer down on the road with the near side wheel missing and a good deal of sand spilled out. A closer look showed the cause of the accident to be a total lack of wheel bolts which must have come loose and been shed along the way, although I did not really notice anything amiss until the wheel fell off - Ah, the wheel, I wonder where it went? Not seeing it anywhere along the shoulder and ditch of the highway, it must have passed through the belt of trees. I traversed them and after penetrating a belt of scrub, emerged in a ploughed field where an ancient crone was doing a bit of weeding. I hailed her and enquired if she knew of a trailer wheel hereabouts and she cried " Si, Si, it came whistling through the air and just missed my head". So I said "Where is it " and she merely pointed south east with an injured look and went on weeding. Followtng the line indicated I eventually located my wheel at the bottom of an arroyo some half mile from the road and was forced to extract it from its resting place and roll it slowly back up the hill humping it in places through the scrub'.
Back on the road there still remained the problem of the missing bolts, to which the old chap addressed himself after resting from his exertions for some ten minutes. Ambling back along the highway he was lucky to spot one bolt in full view about fifty yards behind the car, another at quarter of a mile and a third a mile back, but the remaining two were never found, so eventually he returned and after jacking up the trailer axle replaced the wheel with three bolts, shovelled up the spilt sand and proceeded to the ranch where he was greeted with sarcasm by his consort, having taken four hours for a two hour trip. The engaging lack of reticence or shame facedness with which he subsequently recounted his misadventures was one of his most endearing attributes since most of his troubles were of his own making and many a Monday morning meeting with his staff in his mm office was enlivened by a humorous relation of strange happenings over the weekend
At a critical stage of construction in the ranch house it became necessary to provide storage and safekeeping for expensive tools and some valuable building materials so once a door was hung, locks and handles were needed and the boss decided to make an expedition to Mexico City in order to purchase all door hinges, handles and locks, plus window catches - this in the interest of economy and a possible rebate in price through bulk purchase.
Having enlisted the cooperation of his spouse, who was an interested party, he provided himself with a strong gunnysack, gassed up the Nash and took off for the metropolis, some sixty miles away, a journey taking about an hour and a half including the search for a suitable car park in the narrow streets of the inner city area.
A sensible ordnance from the office of local government requires the owners of any property in the crowded business section of Mexico City where demolition occurs, to make the site thus cleared available as a temporary car park. All that is required of the property developer is that he fence in, provide access from the street, set up a small ticket office, have watchmen, advertise the tariff and arrange insurance coverage. Thus he may make a small income while the city benefits from lower street traffic congestion during the time that the site is idle before construction begins. The boss, aware of this convenience, penetrated the area south of the Alameda Park and turning into La Violeta Street cruised along until he spotted a vacant lot with the sign ESTACIONAMIENTO with a large arrow indicating the entrance. Once inside, his car was parked by one of the boys while he accepted a ticket stamped with the date and his checking in time, but no further particulars. Collecting his gunny sack from the car boot and his wife he flagged down a passing taxi and drove to the block on Av. de 1a Independencia where a number of hardware stores exist and proceeded to complete his trust of door and window fastenings.
The result of his foraging being cached away in the faithful gunny sack, the two old people did a stroke of business in a convenient bar and thereafter refreshed, commandeered a cruising cab with instructions to the driver to take them to a car park in Alameda La Violeta, which he did. A cursory' inspection of the yard failed to reveal the Nash so the taxi driver was accused of having lost his way and come to the wrong place and this he took as a reflection on both his knowledge of his city and his eyesight, so with a few frank comments concerning his clients he refused to play anymore and slamming the doors, took off. The boss left to his own devices began to realise that perhaps he had been a bit hasty and reflection drove him to the conclusion that there could be another car park on this avenue, so humping the sack and prodding his lady wife he stepped out manfully to a chatter of protest and in due course arrived at another car yard into which he strode and a look round assuring him that now he had come to the right place, in he went to the window of the box office to request his vehicle. The bloke in charge said he didn't recall having a Nash parked in his patch, looked up the record and found no indication of it so demanded the ticket. This was produced and of course proved. The wrong colour and street number which slowed. the old man down who by now had begun to generate a head of steam and to cast aspersions on the head of the bloke, accusing him of having mislaid his vehicle or allowing to be taken, even threatening him with a lawsuit. Finally convinced that his posture of injured party was untenable he gruffly apologised and set off once again toting the gunny sack whose weight seemed to grow with every stride in the noonday heat.
A few more blocks produced another car park and this time he struck gold for on the farther side, shining in the sun was his beloved Nash patiently waiting in the spot where it had been placed originally. Marching up to the office he tapped on the window and enquired of the man within how much he owed for rental of the space his car occupied. Production of the ticket and consultation of the clock enabled the operator to perform some calculations and demand payment of 2:50 pesos which was nothing if not exorbitant. Annoyance at this farm of exploitation, coupled with a fuming sense of wrong produced by his previous labours and frustrations resulted in an alarming rise of temperature and the old man exploded. Availing himself of a few choice Spanish cuss words he called his opponent a bandit for overcharging and trying to take advantage of an American citizen and took him to task for not printing his name and address on the parking ticket, making it impossible for a car owner to find the place where he had left his car. The main defence that he had only just taken over the vacant lot and had not yet had time to print proper tickets was trampled upon and he got withered by the blast. Not being of a mind to put up with this sort of abuse the bandit uncoiled himself, stood up and upon emerging proved to be about six feet tall and towering over the old man began his own form of Billingsgate. In time, as the red mist faded, the boss understood that his whipping boy was a free born Mexican gentleman, that he had been insulted by a foreigner, that he was not about to put up with that sort of thing. Furthermore that his 'Pariente' was a powerful politician and also that he would immediately send for the police and have him arrested as a pernicious foreigner.
The crowd that always seems to gather where a noisy argument shows promise of developing into a physical confrontation having been fanned of the loafing element nearby brought home to the old man the inadvisability of seeking to come out on top in a situation where allies might be hard to come by, so he surrendered the coins demanded with an ill grace, manhandled his better half and climbing into his car departed for home conscious that his conjugal image was somewhat impaired.
A succession of vehicles passed. through the boss's hands over the years of his association with the Real del Monte company, not excluding a Fordson tractor which he acquired for his own use down at the ranch and which saved. him much exertion on that hilly section. It proved. a wonderful toy which afforded. him much satisfaction hauling loads of building material around the site and feed for the hogs in the piggery that he established across the valley, but mostly for joyriding and. paying visits of inspection to outlying projects on the ranch. The workhorse of those days was of course the faithful Nash whose green and white uniform and beetle shape made it a familiar presence along the highway between Pachuca and Villa Juarez at weekends mostly. It was a commodious and powerful brute of a car, ruggedly constructed, as it needed to be with its owner at the wheel who usually seemed to be in a hurry and whose business frequently necessitated travel on secondary or non existent roads.
With a view to convenience and good housekeeping on such trips as required absence from home he gave a great deal of thought and ingenuity to the design of a cupboard to hold his pots, pans, cooking utensils and stores and such was its resulting size that it could not be accommodated in the boot of the car so a clever arrangement of a hinged slide enabled him to attach it across the roof. The base of the frame was rigidly attached. by suction cups and the cupboard itself face upwards travelled snugly gripped by toggles. When camp was set up the cupboard was released from its holder, drawn forward and rotating on its hinge dropped down the side of the car and thus hanging was ready for business. The whole assembly being made of aluminium was light and easy to manipulate so when the Colman stove had been set up to cook a meal and the necessary implements and food stores were ready and convenient to hand. This contrivance had its baptism on a certain memorable three day trip to Malanga down in the Huastecas over a precipitous road still under construction which was destined to connect towns in the State of Hidalgo with the coast of northern Veracruz and the gulf town of Tampico. We gathered that the invention had performed nobly and proved a boon in every respect. It was simply unfortunate that a low hanging tree branch had intervened. and twisted the cupboard slide and base out of shape so as to render it inoperable.
Thereafter it was removed from the car and languished in a dark comer - forgotten and by the world forgot.
Most cars owned or driven by the boss bore scars of combat at one time or another. Not that he was a specially bad driver, merely unfortunate in being a man of impulse when seized by a new idea and an aggressive determination to give effect to it as soon as possible. His short stature contributed to poor all round visibility from the driver's seat and occasional lapses of memory might black out some known hazard in the vicinity.
The badly fractured grille of his previous Ford which required special zinc welding electrodes and about eight hours work of a skilled welder to repair testified to miscalculation of speed or distance, as also the rear mudguard of the company Chrysler that was tom off completely as a result of his cutting in front of a slow vehicle on a trip to the city in the borrowed vehicle, such incidents illustrating his affinity for collisions.
The memory is with me yet of a certain day in 1949 when the Boss and I had occasion to pay an urgent visit to the site of a pilot plant we were erecting down at the headquarters of the tailings dams. The road penetrated into a dead end or cul-de-sac between the building housing the precipitation plant and the main ditch. He was driving the Nash and came to a standstill after passing the shipping point where precipitate containers were loaded. This had a chain hoist mounted on an I beam, whose extremity rested on a steel column. Having completed our business in connection with the hydro - separator we got back into the car, slammed the doors and took off in reverse. Speed had climbed to about 25 mph when we hit the steel post square on the nose. It was fortunate that the I beam remained in its place or worse might have befallen; as it was the beam rebounded and I just about swallowed my teeth with the unexpected shock, biting my tongue in the process. The stiff neck I suffered during the ensuing week did not vanish with his categorical statement that the column he hit was not there when he drove in!
Up on the hillside above the San Juan mine beside the road leading to Xotol, San Rafael and Santa Ana mines, is the Casa de San Regis, a rambling conglomeration of stone structures on different levels originally used variously as store houses, mews and dwellings during earlier years but converted to a commodious unit suitable for living quarters for one of their higher bosses by the American company that purchased the mines in 1906. These were pleasant, airy rooms, some with excellent views over the town and over the plains beyond, towards Mexico City. There were gardens, patios and an orchard all surrounded by a high wall dating from the turbulent years following the colonial period. The charm of the place so impressed the old man that he put his name down for the first vacancy that might arise and being chief metallurgist and an old company hand in due course had his wish. Being keen gardeners he and his wife made a number of improvements resulting in shady nooks, pleasant alleys and a wealth of flowers. Their interest extending also to the orchard and vegetable garden and his passion for experimentation, coupled with his knowledge of chemistry lead to considerable enrichment of the soil, control of Ph and reduction of crop damage from insect pests.
Temperate climate fruits throve on the other side of the mountain range including cherries, plums and apples at approximately the same altitude of 8,000 feet in the area which includes, the towns of Atotonilico, El Grande and El Olpico, but on that side there was greater rainfall Pachuca being on the more arid side of the Sierra has a climate suitable for peaches, apricots and figs and the trees in the San Regis garden, espedally the peaches bore succulent fruit in abundance.
It so happened that the progeny of one of the miners whose house was a short distance up the road included a small boy who had a fondness for peaches and on his way to and from school he cast eyes of desire upon the fruit hanging above his head, visible over the wall and sought ways and means of obtaining a sample from time to time by escalade of the masonry using cracks between the stones for insertion of fingers and toes. His depredations of choicest lucious fruits did not go unnoticed when the old man made inventory, which he did every day or so and after a specially impudent raid in which one particular fruit which its owner had mentally reserved for his own delectation, disappeared. He swore that enough was enough and let it be known that he was not going to put up with the situation any longer. His determination was circulated in the bosom of his family and communicated to the servants and through them to the immediate neighbourhood and a feeling prevalled that dread and awful events would be set in train by any further disappearances.
I had been apprised of the general situation earlier when the fruit trees first began to bear and was dimly aware of the animosities latent in the bosom of the owner of the orchard owing to muted mutterings concerning "little bastards" and "bloody thieves", but was not directly concerned until a certain evening after work while relaxing over a cup of tea. The insistent jangle of the telephone bell which usually presaged a message of doom from the plant concerning some breakdown or other which required advice or my personal intervention, interrupted enjoyment of the radio news bulletin. The call came from the local goal via the duty sergeant at the desk to inform me that a certain foreigner, probably a norte americano was detained in the building and was vociferously demanding to speak with me right away, so the sergeant asked if I could come down and help him sort things out
Resigning myself to a lost evening of tranquillity, I got the car and proceeded to the municipal bul1ding which inter alia, housed the Criminal Investigation Department and the local lockup, which last was not overly clean, the cells having to deal daily with a procession of drunks, rioters and prostitutes. The furnishings of these chambers were spartan to a degree with naked light bulbs, a bench or two and the odd spittoon, plus flyblown calenders on the walls as sole ornamentation. The salubrity of the atmosphere was offended by many ancient smells plus a few new ones lurking in comers. The complex was draughty, the guests noisy and the presence of vermin not unknown. Having presented myself to the sergeant and told where to go, I penetrated a gloomy inner room where I found the old man seated dejectedly on a form, much subdued and opposite him across the floor a militant angular female with shawl occupying a bench, together with a boy of some eight years who was unable to sit. The scene being regarded by a bored uniformed policeman with lack lustre eye who lounged against the wall. The old man was very pleased to see me and explained the circumstances leading up to his arrest which were simple - he had caught the small boy in the act of scaling his orchard wall, rushed into the house for his twelve bore and was just in time to insert a cartridge and loose off at the rapidly vanishing target at a distance of 75 yards. A perfectly legitimate defence of home and possessions in his view and if the brat had got a pellet in his backside - so much the better - teach him that stealing is wrong and anyway, what the hell was all the fuss about?
He had offered compensation to the mother but this had been rejected with contumely. Just about then the woman broke in with a tirade of abuse at the horrible foreigner who was a murderer and obviously should be locked up and severely dealt with and expelled from the country for hurting her little angel but as soon as she mentioned that she had been insulted I got the picture. What the old man had offered her was a $20 bill and it was not enough. Her bandit instincts came to the fore and she shouted that it would cost thousands to repair the damage in doctors' and hospital charges, which actually under social security would cost her nothing. However, it was getting late and all parties to the affair were about ready to call it a day and go home so there was not much of a trick to pacifying the woman and getting her to accept a further $S in full quittance of the injury to her family pride and, of obviously of lesser importance the perforation of her son's hide. It was getting on for ten o'clock that night when I decanted the old chap at his doorstep and delivered him to the bosom of his family.
A few years earlier, before our boss assumed the mantle of General Superintendent with its operational responsibilities, his function of chemist and metallurgist was concerned with ordinary office hours and this left him free at weekends to indulge his interests of photography, exploration and investigation of some of the remoter regions of the State of Hidalgo and contiguous states of Queretaro, Vera Cruz, TIaxcala and Puebla. This was done mostly by car and his companion on many a jaunt was his laboratory assistant of Cornish ancestry who lacked an eye and was commonly known as 'Cap' owing to his having fought in the Boor War as a very young man, also in the first German war of 1914. Both men enjoyed their ale which it was customary to pack in a compartmented wooden box with space for ice and store in the boot of the car, but it is not suggested that they drank when driving - not so ; the foamy liquid was partaken of with the luncheon sandwiches or to grace the evening leisure period when the days driving was done, usually on the verandah of some remote village Casa de Huespedes' where cold beer might be hard to come by and the sticky heat of lower altitude on the slopes and valleys descending from the central plateau compelled rest and refreshment for weary wayfarers more accustomed to the chilly evenings up at 8,000 feet.
Upon a certain Saturday late in the year the adventurous pair having bypassed Mexico City and taken the right fork from the Puebla highway at Santa Barbara where Gen. Plintano Elias Calles had an opulent ranch, before he was forced to leave the country by the leftist Gen. Lazaro Cardenas who had succeeded him as president of Mexico; pursued the winding asphalt road that bisects the town of
Amecameca on the lower slopes of the dormant volcano Popacatepetl. Thence the. highway begins its preliminary descent from the central plateau to the sugar growing regions near Cuautla in the state of Morelos, and winding down the slopes frequently crosses the narrow gauge steam operated railway, once a vital link between Mexico City at San Lazaro and Cuautla and now merely a tourist. attraction.
Cuautla was not far enough from the City to warrant an over night stop, so steady progress brought them to the main boulevard of the town of Cuernavaca, capital of the state of Morelos and which is on the main highway from Mexico Qty to Acapulco on the Pacific coast. In those days Cuernavaca was a very pleasant community and popular as a weekend resort with those compelled to earn their l1ving on the high lands. Its benign climate and altitude of 5,000 feet attracted Herman Cortez the original conquistador, who built himself a substantial palace there in the 1530's which survives to the present day, located adjacent to the main plaza on the East side.
Another personage, possibly less well known who decided to become a citizen was 'Butch', who also saw Cuernavaca as a potential paradise and eke a source of income. Butch whose real name was wrapped in the mystery of his origin was a black man. A huge amiable, travelled, knowledgeable and self-made negro from the Southern American states who had spent many profitable years wearing the white jacket and unifonn cap of Pullman attendant on the Northern Mexican lines. After retiring from this activity he went into the catering business opening up a popular restaurant in the arcade adjacent to Sanborns under the name of 'Butch's Manhattan Cafe'. This venture was much patronised by Americans, tourists and residents and so in due course the proprietor expanded the business and established a branch on the principle avenue in Cuernavaca which in addition to serving food, provided overnight accommodation to a limited. number of guests. This then was the Saturday destination of the boss and his henchman, both of whom were well acquainted with Butch.
Having put up the car in the courtyard, registered and partaken of their host's evening meal, they sought the comfort of basket chairs in the ground floor bedroom assigned to them which had windows giving on the street and after a chat over a pipe or two, turned in. The night was balmy, the air was filled with the shrilling of cicadas and illuminated by vagrant fireflies and sleep came so easily and so deeply that the stealthy activities of an enterprising prowler went unnoticed.
To be sure, the windows, wide open for maximum ventilation, were protected by iron rods to their full height, but it was not difficult for a thin youth to squeeze himself between them to locate the piles of discarded. clothing which has promise of loot. Emboldened by a duet of snores he methodically proceeded. to examine his find. He quickly decided to appropriate sandals and trousers, due to the excellent quality of the cloth, as well as the contents of an pockets, both men contributing to the spoils. As silently as he had come he faded. away into the night with none to remark his passing and the despoiled pair denuded of pants, purses, papers and passports slumbered on.
Awakened. by familiar sounds of early morning movement in the street and in dining room and kitchen of the hoteL the occupants of number 3 arose to begin their ablution with a view issuing forth to a leisurely Mexican breakfast of tropical fruit, pan dulce and coffee on the shady terrace surrounding the fountain of the inner patio. In very rapid succession the absence of the one essential garment, trousers, led to a frantic search, realisation of the predicament they were now in, shouts for Butch and a vociferous demand for police and pursuit of the prowler: but first and foremost the loan of nether garments to cover their nakedness. It was perhaps unfortunate that the only male inhabitant of the hotel was Butch himself and his girth as befits mine hosts the world over was generous in the extreme so that the pants produced as loan material circumscribed the equators of the two men with a foot to spare and had to be gripped and gathered with a short length of rope. The resulting ensemble of Panama hat, flowered tourist shirt, snuff coloured wrap¬around coulottes and bare feet, was a trifle exotic and when an interview with the chief of police was obtained later in the morning this dignitary found it difficult to reconcile the improbable appearance of the two comedians with the gravity of the charges they bought.
Officialdom having consented to treat the complaint with some seriousness, detectives were detailed and within an hour the passports, papers and empty purses were located on the town dump, but money and trousers not and further efforts to trace these proved fruitless.
Reluctantly the pair decided not to play anymore, but to pick up their marbles and go home and since the purchase of pants proved impossible in Cuemavaca on a Sunday afternoon negotiated with their host for an extension of the period the trousers would be on loan and curtailing their sojourn, packed their remaining gear and drove back to Pachuca. The maliciousIy amused welcome accorded the old man by his unsympathetic family was duly referred to when the funny narration of the events of his sad weekend was afforded to his acutely interested subordinates.
The old man was greatly addicted to tobacco, finding much balm and solace for his ruffled spirit when his pipe was well alight and the fragrant cloud of smoke from Christian Pepper's Pouch Mixture pervaded the room This particular blend included Virginia, Burley and Perique tobaccos and was cured in rum, which mellowed the leaf and produced a most attractive aroma which appealed to all and sundry. When smoked out in the open a pipe is at a disadvantage in the high wind; glowing coals are apt to scatter from the bowel and find a resting place in the folds of one's garments but this contingency had been foreseen and when he happened to remember it, a hinged perorated spark arrester was clipped on with happy effect. I do not really think that this invention was an aid to the smoker in that it eventually reduced the draught in the pipe and prevented the user from inserting his forefinger to tamp the tobacco but it was held in high regard by his wife who was responsible for mending burnt holes in his shirt front, so the old chap was badgered to use it when she happened to be present and got himself into trouble if the gadget misbehaved at all.
Pipe smoking being the prime favourite comforter, a selection of two part and three part pipes were scattered amongst his possessions in home and office, often dismantled and reassembled when bowl scraping and conduit cleaning operations became necessary, the units frequently did not match each other and the large number of chewed mouth pieces and charred bowls sculling around in desk drawers and filing cabinets testified to his addiction. A pipe once broken in draws well until such time as the air passage becomes restricted, usually at the 'gurgly’ stage, but while in full blast it can be become overheated with detrimental effects to both hand and mouth, so has to be discarded until it has cooled This circumstance was the main reason why so many pipes were present and the variety of shapes encountered attested to their owners' curiosity and delight in experimentation ; friar, clay, meerschaum; metal or corncob; top draught, bottom draught, with moisture trap or without - about the only type missing was the hookah.
Early in our association he discovered that I habitually smoked cigarettes and was apt to consume between two and three packs a day depending upon pressure of work and degree of annoyance engendered by lazy, obstreperous or disobedient workmen. Whatever the occasion and regardless of the time of day, or night, I never failed to have some Elegantes, Cumbres, No. 12's or Supremos Negros in my shirt pocket, so every time our friend found himself tobacco less he would cadge a fag with the formula - "Lets have one of those excellent cigarettes of yours", the result of his foraging being split up and the contents stuffed into a pipe less the paper, which was discarded. He always maintained that the flavour of the dark aromatic Mexican tobacco such as I enjoyed was just right for him and superior to most imported blends. He had no use at all for cigarettes as such, but was not averse to other ways of enjoying tobacco such as "Snuff" or snuff drawn into the
nostrils or a wad of chewing tobacco in the cheek which produced a corrosive juice in the course of mastication and had to be ejected periodically into a cuspidor
nearby.
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