Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
era. On further inspection I found a small, transparent, torpedo-shaped insect, and putting it
between my nails I crushed its hard shell, which gave way with the classical crack. Revising
all the seams and possible hiding places, I discovered quite a number of these little crawlers,
and soon found a way of exterminating them.
I saw a crowd of horsemen coming from Laredo in our direction and rightly guessed that
they had come out to meet us. Soon members of the border police, a few
charros
, and others
camedashingtowardsus,headedbythechiefofthecustomshouse.Notonlyhadthethought-
ful and considerate gentleman brought the official welcome with him, but being well acquain-
ted with the poor and practically uninhabited region we had just passed, he had with him a
basket full of excellent food, and a bale of alfalfa for the hungry horses. When we had eagerly
stuffed down as much as we could hold, we started towards the near town, accompanied by
two long lines of horsemen. The military band played us into the place and later, after a few
speecheshadbeenmade,wesatdowntoabanquetandeverybodymademerry.Thebestplace
thatcouldbefoundforthehorseswasthebullring,wheretheywereallbythemselvesandhad
ample room for rolling and moving about, but had my two pals realised what kind of a place
they were in, they would surely have felt like a person sitting down to a champagne dinner in
a place of execution. I was lodged in a neat little cottage where I was left to rest undisturbed,
an act of consideration on the part of the authorities which I much appreciated.
Sitting in a comfortable armchair, whilst smoking a cigar, my thoughts wandered back to
many strange places; I laughed at some of my old misfortunes, and a regular review of pan-
oramas and faces passed before me. Before retiring to my comfortable bed I could not help
going for a walk down to the river, where the international bridge leads across to U.S. territ-
ory. I could hardly believe it to be true that we had won our way through. I went down to the
muddy bank and sat down to look at the lights of the high buildings on the other side of the
river. Again I watched people and cars crossing the bridge to and fro; merry American revel-
lers who came across into Mexico to go to the cabarets and dance halls where it is 'wet,' and
others returning back to 'The Land of the Free', hoping the flask they were hiding 'for luck'
would not be discovered by the border officials who are there to search for them. When my
eyelidsbecameheavyIgotupandreturnedtothebullring,whereManchaandGatowerehav-
ing a good time among the fodder they had scattered all over the place, and when they came
to rub their noses against me I patted them, saying, 'Well done, old boys' and they seemed to
understand that I was happy and very pleased with them
MyridethroughMexicohadbeenmostinteresting,butinspiteofallthehospitalityandsplen-
did receptions, I must admit that I crossed over the international bridge at Laredo with mixed
