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HAPULTEPEC CASTLE occupies the most commanding position in the great rock-hemmed valley in which the City of Mexico is built. Tenochtitlan was the name given to the city by the wandering warrior tribe that built it on piles in the marshlands of Lake Texcoco, for here they found the sign for which they long had lookedthe golden eagle perched on a cactus, with a serpent in its claws.

The Mexicans of to-day, in having Chapultepec the summer home of their ruler, President Diaz, are but utilizing a place whose natural attractions appealed to the tribes of old. In former times it was an island in Lake Texcoco, though now the lake has withdrawn itself fully four miles.

The Aztecs, who christened it Chapultepec (the hill of the grasshopper), occupied it some two hundred years before America was discovered. Yet it was only after the most bitter struggles with other tribes that the Aztecs gained permanent possession of this eminence and built a temple on its summit. These warrior braves did not wish their deeds to be forgotten, for on the outcropping rock at the eastern base of the hill they carved their effigies. Here the imperial Montezuma and his proud courtiers deliberated on what course to take when the intrepid Cortes, fresh from the slaughter at Cholula, was rapidly approaching the gates of their city. What a sight must have burst upon the conqueror's eyes as he reigned his horse on

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Chapultepec Castle, Mexico City. the mountain road and looked from afar at the fair cities and shimmering lakes that lay unfolded beneath the turquoise blue of matchless skies. And when the clangAnd when the clanging battles had been fought, when the quiver had been emptied against the stubborn steel, Cortes chose Chapultepec as his own.

Even at that time, the towering cypress trees that dignify the castle grounds were probably centuries old. Many of them have lived to see the Castle of Chapultepec pass from ruler to ruler. They have whispered softly to one another as at twilight the shadowy form of the gentle Marina, the Indian mistress of Cortes, went flitting

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through the woods and gardens that she loved; they have seen the caterpillar-like aqueducts wind their sinuous course off to the city, bearing the pure waters from the springs of the Montezumas; and from Alameda, the heart of that city, they have seen the imperial boulevard, the Paseo de la Reforma, with its stately statues and glorietas, extended to the base of this crag. They have trembled with the roar of American cannonading at Molino del Rey; they have spread their mournful branches over the graves of the Mexican boy-cadets who fell at the foot of Chapultepec, while struggling to defend it against foreign troops. They have nodded a sad welcome to the ill-fated Empress Carlotta and the dreamer Maximilian; they have seen the old order of things changing and yielding to the new, under the far-sighted, firm-handed Porfirio Diaz, a ruler of integrity, dignity and courage. President Diaz, like many other previous rulers of Mexico, has Indian blood in his veins. But he surely feels no shame for this when on the Paseo he contem

plates the heroic statue of a former leader, Cuauhtemoctzin, or "The "Tzin." This chief, a nephew of Montezuma, reorgan ized the native troops and strengthened the defenses of the city after the expulsion of Cortes on the "Dismal Night." When the conqueror returned and laid siege to the place, it was famine that forced open the gates, not the Spaniards. Immediaately on rendering thanks for the victorious entrance, Cortes demanded the royal treasure, but being refused, he subjected Cucuhtemactzin to a cunningly graduated series of tortures. He bound "The "Tzin" with his feet but a few inches from a brazier of glowing coals, and then waited in vain for the young chieftain to reveal the secret.

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Notable Statuary of the Seattle Exposition.-Base of the Alaska Monument.

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NOTABLE STATUARY OF THE SEATTLE EXPOSITION.-Chief Seattle, the remarkable aborigine after whom the metropolis of the Northwest was named.

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