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Incremento Acervo Fototeca. Adquisición Martine Chomel. ESTEREOSCOPICA. I.O. Al frente impreso a los extremos y al pie: "Keystine View Company Manufacturers COPYRIGHTED MADE IN U.S.A. Publishers" "Meadville, Pa., New York, N.Y., Chicago, Ill., London, England." "MX88" " 23 666 A. Maguey Plantation, Mexico.". Al reverso: "23666 A MAGUEY PLANTATION, MEXICO. Pulque, pronounced pool-ka, a drink made from the sap of the maguey, a species of cacti, is called the national drink of Mexico. It is a drink so old that the Spanish conquistadores found the Aztecs possessed it and they in turn inherited the vice from the Toltecs. The story runs that a kinsman of the Toltecs, observed a field mouse gnawing a hole in the central bulb of a growing maguey. Securing the curdy liquid chich oozed therefrom he sent it to the king employing as messenger his lovely daughter Xochitl. The king forcibly detained the girl and placed her in his harem. Then was born the "child of the Maguey" or Meconetzin and from this, dated the downfall of the Toltecs. In their thirst for the drink they neglected the arts, agriculture and warlike practices until they were driven out of the valley by a stronger race. In commemoration of this, some of the pulquerias (saloons) are called La Hermosa Xochitl, meaning "beatiful flower." Nearly a million acres of agricultural land is occupied by the cultivated plants of the maguey, such as these, for the making of pulque. It give employment to a million and a half people and pays not less than ten million pesos in taxes to the Government. Pulque may be a national drink but it is also a national menace. Most of the illiterancy and crime of the lower class Mexican may be traced to pulque drinking. Both the evil effects of it. but the abolition of the drink will be only though the slowest kind of evolutionary progress." En letra cursiva dice: "Copyrigth by Keystone View Company".