On Grasshopper Hill

Into the hamlet of Ruiz, State of Nayarit, there glided to a stop last week a funeral train from Los Angeles, Calif., and the Presidential Special from Mexico City. Deft, the engineers of these trains brought them to a halt in such a way that the salon car in which rode President Plutarco Elias Calles came to rest exactly opposite the funeral car in which the body of his late wife had been brought from Los Angeles, guarded by the President's trusted friend, onetime President Alvaro Obregon (TIME, June 13). The President and one-armed Veteran Fighter Obregon embraced solemnly, then boarded the funeral car, sped toward Mexico City.

Meanwhile the staffs of General Obregon and President Calles discussed with animation in an adjoining coach the details of an attempt upon the President's life, early last fortnight. A crazed woman, Maria Luisa Jauregui, had fired six shots at him, all of which went wild.

At Mexico City next morning a huge crowd awaited the bier of Senora Calles which was transferred from the train to a hearse by members of the Cabinet and high army officers. President Calles entered his limousine, which followed the hearse at a walking pace as it passed along the magnificent Paseo de la Reforma, a tree-lined boulevard extending in an absolutely straight line for over a mile from the centre of the City to Grasshopper Hill.

At the sumptuous Castillo de Chapultepec (Castle of Grasshopper Hill), an edifice of imperial magnificence, begun by the Spanish Viceroy Don Matias de Galvez (1783), the coffin of Senora Calles was lifted from the hearse and borne into one of the huge, resplendent grand salons. An airplane droned overhead, scattering roses; and through a blue haze the sacred mountains Iztaccihuatl (White Woman) and Popocatepetl (Smoke Mountain) seemed brooding. Simple peons, kneeling in the lovely, verdant Bosque de Chapultepec, muttered prayers half pagan, half Roman Catholic to Iztaccihuatl who they fancy resembles the white, reclining form of a pagan goddess --now somewhat confused with the Virgin Mary.

Within, near the catafalque, Senora Torre Calles B 1 a n c a watched beside her mother's bier until, overcome, she fainted and was carried to one of the small, tastefully and delicately furnished apartments of the presidential family. Another daughter, Senora Ernestina Calles Robinson, recently, married to a Manhattan businessman, was en route to Mexico City from the U. S. The President stood for a long time beside the bier with three of his sons. His son, Rodolfo, is still suffering from the wound which he received when shot at by a policeman who bore him a grudge (TIME, May 30).

A few hours later the coffin of Senora Calles was conveyed to the neighboring Panteon de Dolores, the national cemetery. There a battery of artillery fired the presidential salute. Minister of Education Puig Casauranc pronounced a brief, non-religious address, alluding matter-of-factly to the future life. This was deemed fitting because of the anti-religious views and policy of Senor Calles and his Cabinet (TIME, Feb. 22, 1926, et seq.). Because Senora Calles was a devout Roman Catholic, persons of that faith rejoiced to hear that a priest had performed appropriate last rites before the body left Los Angeles.