/^exico 
 
 litical 
 
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 CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LP.RARY 
 
 Shelf No. 
 
 Lccct-uct 
 
Mexicoipjcturesque, political, progressi 
 
 3 1924 006 438 752 
 
 All books are subject to recall after two weeks 
 Olin/Kroch Library 
 
 
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 I 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 GAYLORD 
 
 
 
 PRINTED IN U.S.A. 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
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 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924006438752 
 
MEXICO /! \i 
 
 
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 Picturesque • Political ■ Progressive 
 
 BY 
 
 MARY ELIZABETH BLAKE 
 
 AUTHOR OF "ON THE WING " " POEMS " ETC. 
 AND 
 
 MARGARET F. SULLIVAN 
 
 AUTHOR OF "IRELAND OF TO-DAY" 
 
 " Pais querido y hermoso, cuya belleza es conocido solo 
 por sus hijos ! Como mereces ser conocido y estimado per 
 todos ! " — Anonimo. 
 
 BOSTON 1888 
 LEE AND SHEPARD Publishers 
 
 10 MILK STREET NEXT *' THE OLD SOUTH MEETING-H(i«SE " 
 
 / , 
 
 NEW YORK CHARLES T DILLINGHAM 
 
 718 AND 720 BROADWAY 
 
The authors desire to return thanks to the 
 editors of the "Boston Journal," and the "Cath- 
 olic World " of New York, for their courtesy in 
 allowing the use of articles which had formerly 
 
 appeared in their columns. 
 
 M. E. B. 
 
 M. F. S. 
 
 Copyright, 1888, by Lee and Shepard. 
 
 All rights reserved. 
 Mexico: Picturesque, Political, Progressive. 
 
/9/ 
 
 ■'•J i 100,) 
 
 [ I ' U u (J 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PART I 
 
 PICTURESQUE MEXICO 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I — Into the Sun Land 7 
 
 II — Glimpses of a New World 27 
 
 III — The City of Mexico 54 
 
 IV — Through Lanes and Highways 76 
 
 V — On the Southern Slope 95 
 
 VI — Shrines and Pilgrimages 117 
 
 VII — Literary Mexico : a Group of Novels ... 133 
 
 VIII — Blossoms of Verse 159 
 
 PART II 
 POLITICAL AND PROGRESSIVE MEXICO 
 
 IX — From Conquest to Independence 173 
 
 X — Constitution and Government 191 
 
 XI — Religion and Education 199 
 
 XII — Revenue and its Application 213 
 
PART I 
 
 PICTURESQUE MEXICO 
 
 BY 
 
 MARY E. BLAKE 
 
MEXICO 
 
 PICTURESQUE POLITICAL PROGRESSIVE 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 INTO THE SUN LAND 
 
 In these days, when a passion for travelling has 
 become one of the manias of American civiliza- 
 tion, and people seek the excitement of novelty 
 in despite of difficulty and danger, it is not 
 strange to find that fashion so tempers fancy as 
 to set the tides of desire flowing in special direc- 
 tions, while equal or greater attractions are left 
 high and dry outside the current of sentimental 
 regard. Thus it comes to pass, that, where thou- 
 sands cross the seas to gain a more or less 
 superficial acquaintance with the main points of 
 European scenery, one could reckon within the 
 limits of as many hundreds those who become in 
 any degree familiar with the wonderful beauty 
 
8 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 which Nature has lavished upon our own land. 
 It is evident that many instincts of love, of 
 remembrance, and of affection naturally go to 
 increase pilgrimages to the shrines of the Old 
 World. But, when every allowance has been 
 made, there still remains an unaccountable lack 
 of curiosity and knowledge concerning that por- 
 tion of the world which is essentially ours. 
 
 This being so, it is small cause for surprise to 
 find near us, united to portions of our southern 
 country by ties of common origin, customs, and 
 language, a land almost unknown, much mis- 
 understood, and wholly misrepresented. A coun- 
 try picturesque beyond description, and beautiful 
 beyond belief ; with traditions of the past to 
 interest the antiquarian, and problems of the 
 future to occupy the progressionist ; with the 
 fascinations of a strange tongue and a strange 
 people, and with that indefinable charm which 
 those indolent, lotos-eating lands exercise always 
 over the sterner and colder nature of the north- 
 man, — Mexico lies among her mountains, almost 
 as far removed from human ken as the Enchanted 
 Beauty before the Prince kissed her sleeping eyes. 
 
 Separated from Texas at El Paso only by the 
 
ACROSS THE RIVER 9 
 
 narrow waters of the Rio Grande, one enters 
 Mexico with no more consciousness of change 
 than in passing from one portion of a frontier 
 town to another. Until within a few years the 
 passage was made by means of a primitive rope 
 ferry, with a delicious slowness and uncertainty 
 which were partial preparation for the strange- 
 ness beyond. Some taint (or shall we call it 
 tonic ?) of Bohemianism there is in most healthy 
 human natures, which creates delight in the 
 unconventional, and makes the pulse throb with 
 excitement at the first escape from routine. At 
 the entrance to a new world, one craves something 
 beyond the practical methods of commonplace, 
 but to-day the triteness of a hackneyed civiliza- 
 tion follows one to the very threshold. A jingling 
 little tramway crosses a wooden bridge, and the 
 traveller steps into the streets of El Paso del 
 Norte with the straws and dust of a familiar 
 world still clinging to him. But in a moment it 
 is as if a magician's wand had been raised. He 
 left on the other side of the river the busy, bus- 
 tling American settlement, thriving but ugly ; he 
 enters upon enchantment here. A soft, caressing 
 air woos like mild breath of welcome after the 
 
lO MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 sharpness of a northern February ; linnets sing 
 deliciously to the morning; willow withes are 
 turning yellow by the narrow ditches of clear 
 water. Through the brown, dusty plains stretch 
 winding lanes, outlined by high walls of dried 
 mud, behind which shine the rosy glow of peach- 
 blooms, or scarlet-tipped hedges of cactus spikes. 
 Low, fiat-roofed, adobe houses fit into the blank 
 wall, relieved occasionally by a heavily barred 
 door, or stand in the midst of bare, dry fields, as 
 cheerless and desolate as they. On each side, 
 shallow streams, brought from the hills or from 
 hidden springs, run in sluiceways which at inter- 
 vals cross the roadway. Here and there a carpet 
 of delicate green, the drooping grace of a plan- 
 tation of young cottonwoods, or the checkered 
 squares of a thriving market garden show where 
 the precious water has been freely used ; for 
 here, as elsewhere, the most barren tract blos- 
 soms at touch of moisture. The field laborers are 
 usually dressed in white cotton, fashioned into r 
 short trousers and sleeveless shirts. The women 
 move shyly, covered to the eyes in the long blue 
 scarf, or reboso, which is part of the national cos- 
 tume. Half-naked children, with dark skins and 
 
A MOUNTED CABALLERO II 
 
 glorious eyes, play about grated door-yards, which 
 open into small patios, or courtyards, beyond, 
 bright sometimes with shrubs and flowers. The 
 men, with wide-rimmed sombrero and gay zarape, 
 lounge or work or walk about with a grave, dark- 
 eyed imperturbability which contrasts strangely 
 with the inquiring vivacity' of their class at home. 
 The blank white walls of the old cathedral, with 
 its broken belfry of adobe, rise across the fields ; 
 down one narrow lane comes a caravan of enor- 
 mous covered wagons, each drawn by sixteen 
 mules in bright trappings, and driven by swarth 
 muleteers in costumes that seem borrowed from 
 Carmen. Around another corner dashes a 
 mounted caballero, sitting his small but fiery 
 horse as if the two made but a single creature 
 full of superb motion. The man wears a broad 
 sombrero, brilliant with silver braid ; his short, 
 loose velvet jacket is bright with rows of silver 
 buttons, as are also the wide velvet trousers 
 which lose themselves in stirrups of fringed 
 leather. The animal is resplendent in silver- 
 mounted harness, with embroidered saddle heavy 
 with inlaid work ; across his neck is thrown a 
 folded blanket of scarlet wool ; over his flanks 
 
12 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 falls a long fleece of silky black fur. And the 
 Centaur-like grace of steed and rider flashes 
 before one's delighted eyes, to disappear as mys- 
 teriously again behind the jealous hedges. 
 
 Under a mesquite-bush by the wayside one may 
 see an Indian woman scouring a tall earthen jar, 
 preparatory to swinging it, fresh filled from the 
 well, upon her shoulder in the old biblical fash- 
 ion ; under another, a couple of wrinkled crones 
 are washing clothes in a shallow ditch, and spread- 
 ing the wet pieces upon the cactus plants to dry. 
 Now and again a drowsy little tienda shows one 
 or two unhurried customers at its narrow counter ; 
 or a corner cantine has its inevitable handful of 
 quiet pulque-drinkers ; or a silent brown group, 
 their glowing eyes alone showing trace of excite- 
 ment, gathers around a pair of fighting cocks. 
 The sky above is as blue as Colorado ; the air 
 is pure and sweet, with the softness of a late May 
 day ; and between you and the matter-of-fact, 
 work-a-day world you left a few hours ago, are 
 a thousand miles of distance and a lifetime of 
 difference. 
 
 Every step into the new territory to the south- 
 ward deepens the impression which this first 
 
VIEWS BY THE WAY 1 3 
 
 glimpse at people and country makes upon one. 
 The table-lands, separated by long, parallel moun- 
 tain chains, now approaching and now receding, 
 are full of infinite variety. Aside from the love- 
 liness of the heights themselves, which, rich in 
 mineral dyes and exquisite in outline, make a 
 fresh beauty for eager eyes at each opening of 
 the landscape, a hundred forms of interest and 
 novelty offer a constant series of surprises. It 
 may be a hacienda, — one of those enormous prop- 
 erties covering square miles of country, divided 
 into villages and hamlets, rich in corrals and 
 sheepfolds, watered by streams, luxuriant in gar- 
 dens and fields of springing wheat. Across the 
 plains, mounted shepherds drive flocks of white 
 silken-fleeced goats and immense droves of cattle ; 
 long lines of trees follow the curves of the water- 
 courses ; the dome of a church rises amid the 
 foliage ; groups of burros and horses follow their 
 Indian keepers through the fields ; and the mani- 
 fold industries belonging to a great and rich 
 estate gather about the central courtyard, with 
 its hollow square surrounded by massive stone 
 buildings. Or it is a break in the hills, through 
 which one looks down into some exquisite valley. 
 
14 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 deep with purple shadow, faintly luminous with 
 dreamy light, and a glint of water shooting like 
 a silver arrow through the pale green foliage. 
 Or it is a silent city far away on the horizon, its 
 domes and towers tinted in soft shades of pink 
 and blue and warm amber ; its tiled roofs flashing ; 
 its low gray walls, with masses of drooping trees 
 behind, barely rising from the white level of the 
 plain, like an oasis in the desert. Or it is a forest 
 of cactus stretching for miles in every form of 
 contortion known to this reptile of the vegetable 
 world ; or a waste of Yucca palms, each stem 
 tipped by a Hercules club, four feet in height, of 
 waxen lilies ; or a plain of unfamiliar flowers, 
 gorgeous but scentless, stretching like a Persian 
 rug to the base of the wonderful heights beyond. 
 Always a sudden change, and each change as 
 splendid as the one before which seemed 
 perfection. 
 
 With unceasing difference of detail in color 
 and outline, but the same general peculiarities, 
 these scenes repeat themselves, until the approach 
 to Chihuahua across the wide plain brings us near 
 the first distinctively Mexican city. It lies below 
 the deep purple mountains in the distance • the 
 
TOUCHES OF THE ORIENT 1 5 
 
 two tall campanile of the cathedral dominating 
 the landscape, and the low, flat-roofed houses 
 lying upon the terra-cotta surface of the valley 
 with a most Oriental effect. Indeed, every thing 
 about the spot is distinctly Eastern. Across the 
 plain, as one rides from the station to the town, 
 the scrapes of the horsemen recall the burnous of 
 the Arab. So does the magnificent horsemanship, 
 as the riders fly over the open country. Inside 
 the city streets, long colonnades of rude Moorish 
 arches outside the houses, offer grateful shelter 
 from the mid-day sun ; the outer walls are fres- 
 coed in bright blue, yellow, or red ; there is a 
 mosque-life effect about the great central domes 
 of the churches. Broad stone seats with high 
 backs, like those in Alma-Tadema's pictures, line 
 the principal streets under soft shadows of fan- 
 like trees ; clumps of Mexican aloe and prickly 
 cactus hedge the roadways. There is a barbaric 
 richness of ornamentation about the facade of 
 the principal church, carved in solid stone by 
 native artists from native designs ; but it loses 
 somewhat, upon closer inspection, from its crude 
 conception of art. It is, however, greatly superior 
 to the more tawdry and more insincere decora- 
 
l6 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 tion of machine-turned woods, to which we are 
 unfortunately too well used in church architecture 
 at home. From the flat roof, a beautiful prospect 
 opens on all sides. A fine row of gray stone 
 arches marks the path of the aqueduct built more 
 than two hundred years ago to convey water from 
 the mountains beyond. A bird's-eye view into 
 the inner portion of the adobe houses near gave 
 an added touch of strange interest to the scenes. 
 A courtyard almost immediately below had a tiled 
 floor, surrounding a garden bright with peach- 
 bloom and century plants. Two shaggy burros 
 and a group of picturesque children played in and 
 out among the heavy stone arches of the open 
 gallery leading to the rooms of the house, which 
 were lightened by vivid frescos of brilliant white 
 and blue. One or two shadowy forms lounged 
 against the pillars of the wall; a woman's voice 
 came singing from the rooms beyond ; and a flock 
 of gray doves rose and fell like a soft cloud above 
 the flat roof. Outside, down the long cottonwood- 
 fringed street, three horsemen, one all in white, 
 one draped in deep red, and a third with flying 
 parti-colored sashes, shone like blotches of color 
 against the pale sky. 
 
A GREAT HACIENDA 1 7 
 
 On the route between Chihuahua and the Plains 
 of Zacatecas, the beautiful mountains continue, 
 now nearing and now departing from the table- 
 like valley between. An entire tract of country 
 at one place is covered thickly with pale purple 
 blossoms exhaling a faint, sweet odor. The great 
 haciendas, lying near the route, have portions of 
 their ranches near the line. It may not be under- 
 stood, so it is well to explain here, that a hacienda 
 is the large estate of which numerous ranches 
 form part. The owner is supposed to exercise a 
 kindly care over all his assistants and dependants ; 
 churches and schools are provided within the 
 limits ; in many cases a hospital is conducted for 
 the health and comfort of the laborers, and a 
 somewhat patriarchal system obtains. The peon, 
 or laborer, cannot leave one hacienda for another 
 without the consent of his master, and the pledg- 
 ing of some portion — usually a quarter — of his 
 wages, until his obligation is paid. It is a rem- 
 nant of an old system of bondage, and will prob- 
 ably give way to progress and time. Some of 
 these haciendas are of immense size ; one was 
 pointed out enclosing two hundred and forty 
 square miles. 
 
1 8 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 Across the low, green, rolling foothills the moun- 
 tains still keep their dusky heights stained with 
 mineral dyes ; mines rich in copper, iron, and silver 
 honeycomb the entire country ; fine, fertile valleys 
 fill every atom of space that has the blessed luxury 
 of water; and even this is being brought exten- 
 sively at present, through the medium of artesian 
 wells and springs, from the hills. When one 
 remembers the ditches and flumes extending 
 thirty and forty miles in the California districts, 
 it seems an easy matter to convey it here, from so 
 much nearer sources. 
 
 At one or two points, the train stopped to let us 
 load the cars with flowers. A tall cluster of bare 
 rods, each tipped with a vivid scarlet blossom, 
 fine white and purple bells that were found at 
 the root of mesquite bushes, bright little yellow 
 cups like small jasmine buds, and quantities of 
 delicate green soon made our rooms like a travel- 
 ling greenhouse, and we revelled in bloom and 
 insects until we tired of both. Soon after leaving 
 San Juan de Gaudeloupe, flat, table-topped moun- 
 tains began to make a change in the landscape. 
 They looked not unlike the old Aztec Teocalli, 
 and might, perhaps, have served the sun wor- 
 
ON AN UP-GRADE 1 9 
 
 shippers with the idea of their temples. Lofty, 
 terraced sides and level summits extended far 
 enough to allow room for the imposing ceremonial 
 of their worship. 
 
 Sometimes for hours, fields green with spring- 
 ing corn, or the soft verdure of young wheat, 
 lined each side of the road ; sometimes a herd of 
 sheep gathered about the rare water-courses, or 
 were grouped under great roofs of thatch, held 
 up by forked poles without any side coverings. 
 
 Nine miles below the city of Zacatecas, the 
 railroad begins to rise, by a triumph of magnifi- 
 cent engineering, up a grade of one hundred and 
 seventy-five feet to the mile, making on the pas- 
 sage some of the most abrupt curves conceivable. 
 It recalled the old Colorado canons, only that 
 here we went around the hillside instead of 
 plunging over precipices and bridging gorges with 
 trestles. The powerful engine panted like some 
 hard-pressed animal, and the train of heavy cars 
 dragged wearily up after it. We forgot fatigue, 
 forgot fear, forgot — what is harder to forget 
 than either — supper, and crowded the narrow 
 platforms with an excitement almost painful. At 
 last, with one mighty, final effort, we turned the 
 
20 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 last sharp mountain spur, and with the Biifa 
 rising high on the left, its enormous crest of rock 
 above like the dorsal fin of some fossil monster, 
 with a glow of red gold over all the western sky, 
 and the evening star shining palely in the east, 
 we rested on the crest of the hill above the dark, 
 little, sleeping town, with only three faint points of 
 light to indicate its location or give any sign of life. 
 
 When we passed next morning down the steep 
 slope into the city, a long line of convicts, under 
 direction of an armed guard, were carrying earth 
 upon their backs, in bags, up the side of a long 
 embankment, and into a fortified place above, 
 which was being repaired. Grouped about, and 
 giving the grave attention of idle people to each 
 detail, were a number of Mexican men, women, 
 and children, picturesque in rags and brilliant 
 scarfs. In recognition of a bow in passing, the 
 convicts lifted their hats and showed so many sets 
 of white teeth and gleaming eyes ; such a careless, 
 easy-going set of criminals it would be hard to 
 find elsewhere. 
 
 The narrow streets were well paved, wonder- 
 fully clean, and furnished on one side with raised 
 pavements ; open archways looked into little 
 
AT THE FOUNTAIN 21 
 
 courtyards glowing with sunshine and flowers ; 
 cobblers, tinkers, tailors, and jewellers sat at 
 work on raised stone platforms outside their 
 houses ; and in the central one of the many- 
 market -places, around the great circular stone 
 fountain, a mass of women, girls, and boys 
 dipped the water into great red earthen jars, in 
 little gourd-shaped cups with handles like ladles. 
 Of all the many strange sights so far met, this 
 was by far the strangest. Each one, as her 
 laborious work ended, lifted herself for a moment 
 to straighten the cramped muscles, and then with 
 marvellous ease, for what must haVe been a real 
 effort of strength, swung the tall jar to its place 
 on the left shoulder, held it in position with the 
 bare right arm, and walked off with as much ease 
 as a ball-room belle in the mazes of a country 
 dance. The clamor, the crowd, the utter absorp- 
 tion of each one in her own work, and the 
 strange impression of life it left upon us, it was 
 impossible to describe. Whether the knot of 
 lounging youths was made up of so many Jacobs 
 waiting for these Rachels at the well, was another 
 question. They showed the true Eastern imper- 
 turbability, while the women did the work. 
 
22 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 Down a steep side street — every street climbs 
 up or runs down a hill — to the beautiful old 
 church with its monstrous fagade of carved free- 
 stone and three unique spires, and the covered 
 market with its double rows of open Moorish 
 arches, we passed with new delight at every step. 
 Every thing is glowing with color — the sky deep 
 as Italy, the frescos, the flowers, the fine ash- 
 trees, the brightly dressed people, the broad white 
 stone seats. The inner court of the governor's 
 palace — patio is a prettier word, so we will use 
 it hereafter — was finished with dado and frieze 
 of blue and yellow ; the slender pillars, rising in a 
 double flight of columns between the arches of the 
 first and second floors, were gay with stencilled 
 wreaths of bright flowers ; the broad gray stone 
 steps, curving in wide sweeps to the upper gal- 
 leries, were dressed with fanciful large pots full 
 of tropical plants. From a corner of one of these 
 shaded upper galleries, a most beautiful picture 
 was made by the three red sandstone towers of 
 the cathedral, — one with the round, flat dome 
 of the mosque, one a slender campanile, and one 
 a solid square, but each a mass of most wonderful 
 stone carving, almost barbaric in splendor, and 
 
A MEXICAN DINNER 23 
 
 still kept within the bounds of harmony. Against 
 the glowing depth of sapphire sky, it was superb. 
 
 In and out, up and down, there was no end of 
 novelty. One market-place was devoted entirely 
 to the coarse potteries of the place, — jars for 
 water and cooking, table articles and kitchen 
 utensils, all good in shape, with an excellent glaze, 
 and some attempt at decoration. Their fire-proof 
 qualities were tested by hundreds of small fires 
 of mesquite and cedar, which kept them bubbling 
 here and there with boiling soup and vegetables. 
 At the Zacatecano Hotel, for dinner, we had our 
 first experience of real Mexican cookery. A very 
 good onion soup was succeeded in regular courses 
 by steak dressed with mint ; a good omelet ; rice, 
 prepared with curry, tomatoes and garlic ; chicken, 
 in a sort of fricassee ; cold tongue, with a dressing 
 of lettuce and eggs; cauliflower; sweet custards; 
 and good but bitter coffee. 
 
 We entered this country so incased in barbed 
 points of prejudice that we are, like hedgehogs, 
 bristling all over, and ready to prick against 
 every thing. We have found the people courteous 
 beyond expression. The poorest laborer as 
 gracefully lifts his hat as the high-bred gentle- 
 
24 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 man ; and the kindliness of unassuming hospital- 
 ity opens every house, rich and poor, to the 
 visitor. It is amusing to think what scant polite- 
 ness a company of strange tourists, curious, 
 eager, and almost impertinent, would receive in 
 Boston and New York. And still, with all our 
 good-breeding, it is so hard to keep New-England 
 noses from curving superciliously at the degraded 
 Mejicano. Are we beyond taking a lesson ? 
 
 There are a good many that we might take, 
 without hurting ourselves. There is the good, 
 honest building, without sham or pretence, which 
 looks as if it were made for eternity. There 
 is the power of restfulness and leisure, which, 
 though unhappily a crying evil here, would be 
 one of the cardinal virtues if we could only 
 ingraft it on our stubborn, rushing, un,easy ner- 
 vousness. There is their way of holding the 
 dear, dark little babies, with a long fold of the 
 nurse's rebozo, or scarf, wound around the little 
 creature from mouth to hips, supporting the back 
 and neck well, and throwing the child's weight 
 on the bearer's shoulder instead of her arms and 
 hips. And there are the exquisitely clean streets, 
 which would make us blush hot with shame, 
 
THE LUXURY OF TRAVEL 2$ 
 
 remembering the filth of Chicago and New York, 
 if our sallow Eastern skins could ever show so 
 beneficent a change of color. 
 
 The plan of spending our days visiting or sight- 
 seeing, passing to the next important point in 
 the cool of the evening, and resting luxuriously 
 for the night drawn up on some quiet ' side- 
 track, works wonderfully well. There is some- 
 thing gorgeous in the idea of a special train, that 
 moves when one pleases and rests when one de- 
 sires ; that goes on like an obedient carriage- 
 horse, stopping here to let you pick flowers, and 
 there for fear of disturbing your after-dinner 
 coffee ; that meets you with welcome, homelike 
 face after each new pilgrimage into the strange, 
 unknown country ; that offers you plenty of plump 
 pillows and soft cushions to poultice the bruises 
 of fatigue. It is a little nest of such comfort 
 and luxury as these Mexican cities, enchanting as 
 tliey are as studies and full of brilliant novelty, 
 have not as yet the slightest conception. To come 
 back from a tiresome and exciting ride in quest of 
 pleasure or information ; to find your quarters 
 swept and garnished; your neighbors in their 
 customary places ; the judge's pretty wards at their 
 
26 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 knitting or crochet ; the blonde-haired Vassar girl 
 sharpening her clever pencil ; and Peter, your man- 
 of-all-work, waiting with smiling welcome and a 
 helping hand at the door, — is to know something 
 still of home feeling in the midst of strangeness, 
 and to thank Heaven silently, but emphatically, 
 for the Pullman. Ice-water in the tank, and your 
 slippers on your feet ; your books on the table, and 
 a good bright light under which to read them, 
 — these look like trifles to you, O easy-going 
 devourers of the corpulent good things of beloved 
 Boston, but wait till they come to you in Mdjico ! 
 
WARM BATHS 27 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 GLIMPSES OF A NEW WORLD 
 
 Under a long avenue of superb cottonwoods, 
 the largest we have yet seen in the country, the 
 warm waters which give Aguas Calientes its 
 name flow through a series of really fine baths, 
 well built of a soft red stone, and out again into 
 wide ditches in which the common people wash 
 themselves and their family linen. Irreverent 
 members of the party affected to believe that this 
 order was reversed ; but I do not credit it, arid so 
 my readers need not. A better class, or a larger 
 number of a better class, than we had found in any 
 town before, made the streets interesting. The 
 moment the people are lifted into the dignity of 
 self-support, that moment they become joyous 
 and hopeful. We saw new birds in the trees of 
 the plaza ; a species of large black crow, with a 
 short but pleasant song. The frescos of the 
 houses were more "elaborate and brilliant, the 
 
28 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 fountains better supplied, the squares enclosed in 
 fine stone balustrades, and the stone seats softly- 
 tinted. Chance, or perhaps some longing mem- 
 ory of the family doctor at home, led us into a 
 doctor's office here. Imagine a small door set in 
 a large carved gateway leading through a stone 
 archway into a broad, sunny patio. Under an 
 arch at the right, a pair of fine horses champing 
 in their cool stone stalls ; under an arch at the 
 left, some pet birds, a couple of tame ducks, a 
 green and gold parrot on the wall, a silver-trimmed 
 saddle with sharp spurs, and a gay riding-blanket 
 hanging beneath it ; through an open door, the 
 clean stone kitchen ; through another, a stone bed- 
 room with fresh, clean beds ; through a third, the 
 office,—^ stone, too, like the others, — and all open- 
 ing on the warm, silent courtyard. The room 
 was cool and dusky, tiled, as were the rest ; there 
 were bamboo chairs and lounge, a professional- 
 looking desk, a small pharmacy at one end, a table 
 covered with the wonderful feather-work for which 
 the town is noted, in the centre, and a few en- 
 gravings on the wall. The shuttered and grated 
 window was closed ; light and air came through 
 the great inner door, which stood always open. 
 
A DREAM OF REST 29 
 
 A feeling of repose and coolness, in delicious 
 contrast to the dusty, glaring, adobe-lined streets 
 outside, stole pleasantly through our travel-worn 
 senses ; and one remembered with new pleasure 
 the sentiment of Longfellow in his lines to Mad 
 River, — 
 
 " Do you not know that what is best 
 In all this restless world is rest 
 From turmoil and from worry ? " 
 
 Before the Governor's Palace a brace of trum- 
 peters ushered noon in with a blare of silver 
 bugles ; in the market-place the fruit-venders were 
 selling baskets of Indian straw with a hundred 
 oranges for seventy-five cents, and tropical fruits 
 of every description from the agricultural districts 
 on the other side of the hills. The air was hot, 
 but pleasant, always delightful in the shade ; and 
 between the months of November and April the 
 changes in temperature had been only fifteen to 
 seventeen degrees. If a stirring, competent 
 Northern company should take it into their heads 
 to build a good hotel, and utilize the mineral 
 waters and superb climate, there is no reason why 
 Aguas Calientes should not become one of the 
 
30 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 great health resorts of the world. It only needs 
 enterprise and steadfastness, — two qualities not 
 uncommon in the East or West of our own 
 country. 
 
 Leon, a city of seventy-five thousand or a hun- 
 dred thousand people, better supplied with water 
 from the numerous wells, and therefore more 
 beautiful with trees and shade, is extremely 
 interesting, as showing the immense stride which 
 steady employment of any form enables the people 
 to make. Almost every house has its hand-loom, 
 worked as in the old scriptural times, — heavy, 
 cumbrous, and slow, but capable of producing 
 wonderfully good results. One part of the city is 
 given to the manufacture of zarapes, the other to 
 that of rebosos. As nine-tenths of the population 
 wear one or the other, the industry is well estab- 
 lished. Although one sees telegraph-wires and 
 telephones, sewing-machines and street-cars, even 
 gas and electric lights, the people still cling to 
 the old-fashioned methods of hand-work. How the 
 amount of time and labor represented can be af- 
 forded for the small amount asked for the wares, 
 is hard to understand. We found here, also, some 
 good forms of pottery in the market-place. The 
 
STREET SCENES 3 1 
 
 beautiful Calzado — ra triple avenue of magnificent 
 trees, floored with broad red flagstones, and lined 
 with low hedges of orange-trees in fruit and 
 blossom — was a delightful promenade. Figs, 
 pomegranates, and oleanders, of larger size than 
 those even of California, made every inch of 
 ground beautiful, and the warm air was sweet 
 with fragrance. 
 
 In the streets here we began to see the mantilla, 
 — the graceful black scarf, either of lace or fine 
 wool, which is pinned over the hair and allowed 
 to fall loosely above the shoulders. The women 
 of all grades have an erect and graceful carriage. 
 The dress for the street among the better classes 
 is almost uniformly black ; the Indian women 
 wear any and every thing, but usually an em- 
 broidered white chemise and colored cotton skirt, 
 surmounted by the inevitable blue reboso. The 
 large market-place, with its collection of cool 
 arches, and great splashing fountains in the centre, 
 is always an attraction. Green pease, fresh fruits, 
 young beets, small tomatoes, and potatoes the size 
 of marbles, were spread about in what seemed to 
 us interminable confusion, but which no doubt had 
 a method of its own. We could forgive much to a 
 
32 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 place where we could buy roses in bunches as large 
 as one's head for six-and-a-quarter cents. 
 
 The plazas were gorgeous with flowers, and on 
 one side street we found a theatre which read us 
 a moral lesson, — a fine edifice of stone, with a 
 great open vestibule sixty feet square as entrance, 
 filled with flower-beds, a fountain in the centre, 
 and domed with glass, into which opened the 
 wide galleries by four separate flights of broad 
 stone steps. Behind every group of eight seats 
 a latticed door gave egress to the gallery on each 
 of the four stories, so that no possible panic could 
 produce more than a momentary result. 
 
 Beyond Leon, the mountains, which for some 
 fifty miles had been receding, begin to advance 
 again abruptly. Beautiful with dusky lights and 
 purple shadows, rising majestically into the pure, 
 deep sky, with fertile plains under high cultivation, 
 and groves of magnificent trees, the country has 
 all the elements of great loveliness in its every- 
 day aspect. Soon the hills fall away again, the 
 perfectly flat fields return, and the track begins to 
 wind about the steeply climbing grade which leads 
 to Silao. The organ cactus, a kind of green New- 
 England fence-paling continued upwards to a height 
 
A SPANISH MINING-TOWN 33 
 
 of twenty or thirty feet, becomes more and more 
 common, making almost the only division between 
 the small fields of the natives ; another cactus, 
 tree-shaped and brutally ugly, begins to appear 
 in groves, very repulsive, and with leprous-looking 
 bulbs of pale blossoms on the ends of the spiked, 
 fleshy leaves. Along the sides of the narrow-gauge 
 road leading from the main line to Marfil, whence 
 tram-cars lead to Guanajuata, mines begin to dot 
 the mountain-sides, and the quiet hurry of a 
 Mexican business district creeps into the scene. 
 The roads become alive with herds of burros 
 laden with every product of tropic or temperate 
 zone, and shambling solemnly, earnestly, lop- 
 earedly, toward the distant market town. 
 
 Quaintest spot and most delightful in the wide 
 world! The little city of Guanajuato — may its 
 name be written in letters of gold ! — has suc- 
 ceeded in charming away the small remnant of 
 common-sense which Mexico has left us. Squalor 
 and poverty, open sewers and the highest death- 
 rate on the continent, were powerless to dim 
 its delightsomeness. A walled city among the 
 mountains, a fortified place set upon the side of 
 heights so steep that the houses seem to be fas- 
 
34 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 tened to the- rock rather than resting on it, and 
 that a misstep on the dizzy uppermost level of the 
 narrow, high-pitched streets would precipitate the 
 unlucky one into the midst of some plaza three 
 or four hundred feet below. A lovely, bewildering 
 spot, full of lanes and archways, and winding, 
 twisted market-places ; with a rabble of pictur- 
 esque people, selling every oddity under the sun, 
 and a screen of matting; with a crossing and 
 interlacing of narrow, paved ways, which give at 
 every ten steps the effect of a kaleidoscope, with 
 a vista of infinite beauty and novelty at each 
 turning. The upper balconies of the many really 
 beautiful houses were gay with bright awnings 
 and marvellous flowers ; the old church of the 
 Jesuits was magnificent in fine arches of soft, 
 pink stone, and wonderful carvings fine as strips 
 of lace-work ; the overhanging hills toppled 
 against the deep blue sky wherever one turned, 
 and through a hundred different arches, some 
 vision of softly frescoed, slender-pillared inner 
 courts, bright with blossoms and- fresh with 
 greenery, flashed out, no matter how swiftly one 
 passed. From the flat roof of the castle or 
 citadel, where long ago the beloved head of the 
 
A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW 35 
 
 patriot Hidalgo was perched, ghastly and gory, on 
 the scene of his first triumph, a most exquisite 
 view of the city was to be had. The celebrated 
 reduction works of the fifty mines, which have 
 made the place rich as well as beautiful, — great 
 massive, fortress-like structures of gray stone, 
 perched here and there, far up the mountain-sides, 
 with masses of buttresses and arches and loop- 
 holed, stern walls, — filled the background of each 
 picture, look which way one would. Underneath, 
 and around, and above, — for, high as it was, the 
 climbing city climbed higher still, — the fine net- 
 work of paved streets ran between softly colored 
 masses of buildings, some like pale green mala- 
 chite, some of delicate pink, some of deep red 
 sandstone, some of creamy white. The amphi- 
 theatre of the bull-ring was just beneath us ; a 
 large pottery, where immense piles of red glazed 
 ware caught the sun's rays like so many mounds 
 of rubies, was next ; the small flower - decked 
 plazas shone like emeralds. It was a collection 
 of precious things. 
 
 Down in the busy streets, for it was market- 
 day, a surging crowd of men, women, burros, and 
 mules jostled each other in ceaseless motion. 
 
36 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 Such a mixture of commodities running through 
 every class of merchandise, such a strange group- 
 ing ~of effects, such mingling of sharp cries and 
 liquid voices and strange noises, with the chant 
 of the young boys singing in the prison chapel 
 above all, and the deep, wonderful sky looking 
 down to listen ! While we were in the plaza, a 
 beautiful flight of birds, a thousand swift-winged 
 atoms, with a dash of warm red on the dark 
 breasts, wheeled and dipped and rose through 
 the clear air with a rhythm of motion that set the 
 scene to music, and so I desire to remember it. 
 
 Into this ravishing spot we were whirled with- 
 out any more warning than the corners of a 
 few sharp mountains spurs could give us, by one 
 of the fiery little mule tram-cars, that tore at a 
 swinging gallop up four miles of steep hillside, 
 around curves as sharp as a thin woman's elbow, 
 with a swarthy conductor blowing his horn like 
 a bronze Triton on the front platform. It was 
 partly its unexpectedness that charmed, and we 
 forgive even the smells of its carceleria for the 
 delight it brought us. 
 
 Still the East and always the East ! The mar- 
 vellous resemblance between this tropical world 
 
ORIENTAL EFFECTS 37 
 
 and the Orient is a constantly new surprise. The 
 sandalled feet, the white garments, the bright 
 wrappings, the public fountains, the walled streets 
 and roads, the low, flat houses, the stone balco- 
 nies, the deep sky, the dark, grave, silent people ! 
 Yesterday, at the hotel of Zacetano, the landlady 
 under the upper arches of the inner court clapped 
 her hands thrice, and a dark-eyed muchacho came 
 noiselessly to her side, received her message, and 
 sped away again through the shadows as silently 
 as if he were a shadow himself. For the outer 
 world and the street, there is the blank wall, the 
 grated window, the bolted door; inside, for the 
 household, the sunny courtyard gay with fountains 
 and flowers, the large open arches throwing grate- 
 ful shadows over vast, cool rooms, the cordial 
 family life with its treasures hidden from the 
 prying eyes of the multitude. Street-criers calling 
 their wares ; fruit-sellers with great trays of lus- 
 cious unknown sweetness upon their heads ; water- 
 carriers with earthen jars slung across the backs 
 of shaggy donkeys ; the strange, soft, liquid tones 
 of a foreign language, — is it all near our own 
 land and our own people .■' Is it not Damascus 
 or Syria, or Constantinople, with the muezzin 
 
38 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 ready to call to prayer from the gallery of the 
 mosque, and the wandering veiiders crying through 
 the narrow lanes, " First blush of the hillsides, oh, 
 strawberries ! " Out on the haciendas the labor- 
 ers draw water from shallow wells by means of a 
 long pole balanced across two high-forked sticks, 
 and furnished with a bucket at one end. Poured 
 into the narrow furrows which divide all the land 
 into garden-beds, the water flows at will wherever 
 irrigation is required. The farmer ploughs with 
 a primitive implement that is little more than a 
 sharply pointed stick, fastened to the horns of 
 his oxen by an equally primitive arrangement 
 of ropes. The great lumbering wagons, whether 
 made of wood or of closely joined stems of cactus, 
 roll on solid, cumbrous wheels made from a single 
 round of a tree-trunk, and fashioned into shape 
 by hard labor. The bronze-skinned, bare-legged 
 beggar doling against some crumbling comer of 
 a white adobe wall ; the mule-teams with jingling 
 bells, clattering harness, and shouting driver ; the 
 horsemen dashing across the glaring plains, 
 swarth and picturesque in their brilliant riding- 
 scarfs, — what is there to remind us of the staid, 
 sober American life, as ugly as it is comfortable ? 
 
AN INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL 39 
 
 It is all Oriental, even to the barking dogs that 
 howl through the dark streets by night to quicken 
 the footsteps of the wayfarer. 
 
 Now and again, amid this bewilderment of 
 romantic effects, some fine example of practical 
 prosperity is found, as in the Industrial School of 
 Guadelupe, a suburb of Zacatecas. This institu- 
 tion was designed for the training of orphan boys, 
 and is supplied with the means necessary for turn- 
 ing out finished workmen in any one of sixteen 
 different trades. The two hundred and seventy 
 pupils are given a good common-school education, 
 together with practical instruction which places 
 the means of livelihood in their hands from the 
 moment of leaving school. Masons, bootmakers, 
 tailors, printers, farmers, carpenters, telegraph 
 operators, were being here prepared for active 
 life, under care of the Government ; a primary 
 department, a school for the deaf and dumb, and 
 a general training in music, also entered into the 
 programme of the institution ; and the plan as a 
 whole was in such successful and happy opera- 
 tion, as made it the most satisfactory proof of 
 promise for the future we had yet met in Mexico. 
 The children's faces were bright and animated : 
 
40 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 employment invariably lifts the people out of the 
 sad and resigned aspect which otherwise seems 
 habitual to them. Indeed, a very short time in 
 the country is sufficient to convince one of the 
 falsity of American views regarding it. We have 
 heard of the people as lazy, which is an absolute 
 mistake. They are often idle from want of 
 occupation ; but where idleness may be only a 
 question of circumstances, laziness is an inherent 
 vice. They are not only ready for employment, 
 but anxious to procure it. They work with an 
 earnestness and honesty that shame our slovenly 
 Northern laborers, whose chief anxiety seems to 
 be to accomplish the smallest amount in a given 
 time. Digging in the fields, carrying water, bear- 
 ing burdens, the Mexicans work without ears, 
 eyes, or concern for aught save the object in 
 hand : they spare themselves no more than if 
 they were burros or horses. We were told that 
 they were dirty, and their towns filthy. We 
 found them dirty, as regards personal cleanliness, 
 in towns like Chihuahua and Zacatecas, where 
 water has to be dipped with a gourd from the 
 basin of a stone fountain, with scores awaiting 
 their turr^. or bought from a carrier. But in 
 
PREJUDICE AND REALITY 4I 
 
 Aguas Calientes, where the warm waters which 
 give the place its name run through the ditches, 
 the population was constantly bathing, or washing 
 clothes ; and there was no suspicion of uncleanli- 
 ness. Under the circumstances, a similar leaning 
 toward dirt would be found among our own poor 
 people ; while the bath of the rich Mexican is as 
 much a necessity as his morning coffee. The 
 bare, poor houses and narrow cobble-paved streets 
 are always perfectly clean. Every city of any 
 size in the republic is swept each morning 
 with whisk-brooms and dust-pans. Imagine New- 
 York's Broadway or Boston's Washington Street 
 subjected to a like process ! But there is un- 
 fortunately absolutely no knowledge of sanitary 
 conditions to supplement this fine wholesome 
 sweeping away of abuses. Drainage and health 
 departments are yet in swaddling-clothes. We 
 have been warned about their thieving propensi- 
 ties, and the ingenuity of their devices to obtain 
 unlawful possession of others' goods and chattels. 
 After visiting twenty cities, and wandering at 
 will through strange and crowded quarters ; after 
 displaying in market-place and arcade sums of 
 money, which, though small enough in them^l:^s, 
 
42 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 were relatively large to these primitive people, 
 we have yet to find the first instance of cheating 
 or of theft. Not only this, but some examples 
 of most stubborn and improbable honesty have 
 appeared in our own set of experiences, which 
 in a party of seventy-five must be reasonably 
 large. Is New York or Chicago, where the in- 
 habitants are obliged to chain door-mats to steps, 
 and fasten burglar-alarms to windows, where 
 pickpockets throng the city thoroughfares, and 
 shoplifters prowl about counters under the dazed 
 eyes of detectives, — is New York going to throw 
 the first stone ? Or Boston, where sneak-thieves 
 snatch weekly washings from the lines in back 
 yards, and a bundle left for sixty seconds on the 
 seat of a horse-car is gone from sight forever, as 
 completely as the lost Pleiad .■' Why should we 
 point a blunt moral in Mexico, which could be 
 given a sharper tip in any large city of our own 
 beloved Union ? 
 
 Every thing unforeseen is possible here. We 
 are walking through the days that follow the 
 Arabian Nights. Each class of the population 
 wears the garb which is the uniform of its occupa- 
 tion. The water-carrier, in armor of leather, bears 
 
OPEN-AIR MARKETS 43 
 
 his heavy jar suspended from a band around the 
 forehead ; the ochre-man, stained like a terra-cotta 
 image from head to foot, carries his package of 
 brick-colored clay above his matted, gory locks ; the 
 fruit-vender, crying his luscious wares in sudden, 
 shrill monotone, balances his enormous pannier on 
 his head, and steps as airily as if he were begin- 
 ning a fandango. Under the open arches of the 
 portales the crockery merchant sits before his pile 
 of Guadalajara jars and brightly glazed pottery; 
 Indian women carry their double load of baskets 
 and babies with the superb indifference to fatigue 
 which marks their race ; dealers in "frozen 
 waters " call their sherbets in prolonged, piercing 
 notes like those of a midsummer locust ; sidewalk 
 cooks squat on their haunches beside small fires 
 of mesquite, over which bubble earthen dishes of 
 stewed vegetables, frijoles, or crisp tortillas ; and 
 flower-girls surrounded by piles of glowing pop- 
 pies, pjsramids of heliotrope and pansies, baskets 
 of scarlet cactus blossoms, and tangled heaps of 
 superb roses magnificent in color and perfume, 
 fill the atmosphere with brilliant beauty. No 
 wonder the winter world at home looks pale and 
 cold by contrast ! 
 
44 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 We shall remember Irapuato with love and 
 delight, when the memory of perhaps better places 
 has faded, because there, one hot, dusty midsum- 
 mer afternoon of March, we bought Indian bas- 
 kets of woven grass full of luscious strawberries, 
 and reached refreshment and coolness through the 
 base medium of dos reales, vulgarly known as a 
 quarter. The state of business enterprise in the 
 country may be gauged from the fact, that while 
 the little town and its surrounding district over- 
 flow with this delicious fruit, and are within ten 
 or twelve hours' distance of Mexico, it never has 
 entered any original mind to establish connection 
 between the two points, and bring the country 
 product into the city market. So that while straw- 
 berries go begging for customers at Irapuato, 
 customers go begging for strawberries in the 
 capital, and neither finds what it wants. 
 
 The guide-books speak of Querdtaro as having 
 forty-six churches. If you should chance to be 
 there on Sunday morning, you will think it has at 
 least a hundred and forty-six ; that every church 
 has three towers, every tower three bells, and that 
 every bell is cracked. It would be beyond human 
 endurance elsewhere, but the lighter air of this 
 
ROSE-HEDGES IN THE ALAMEDA 45 
 
 high altitude makes the sound so faint and tin- 
 kling that one is more amused than annoyed. Only 
 the clapper is moved in the act of ringing ; and 
 one is haunted all through Mexico by a constant 
 vibrant clatter from these petulant tongues, that 
 reminds one of the "damnM iteration" of the old 
 poet. 
 
 Outside the city, in the pleasant sabbath silence, 
 the fine trees of the Alameda tempered the hot 
 air with shadows ; and along all the paths, leading 
 as is customary toward the central fountain, 
 hedges of pale pink roses, with the richest per- 
 ' fume we ever found, even in the regal Jacque- 
 minot, lined each side with luxuriant beauty. 
 The courtesy which had made our way easy so far 
 followed us here, and allowed us to revel in great 
 handfuls of these beautiful things, which scarcely 
 showed a gap in their full ranks after the party 
 had satisfied their cravings. We found ourselves, 
 in rambling about, tired enough to rest upon one 
 of the carved stone seats which have been a 
 source of such delight to us in every town and 
 city so far. Soon one of the uniformed police on 
 duty near by approached, saluted, and in voluble, 
 respectful, sweet Spanish, endeavored to make us 
 
46 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 comprehend that we were in some way transgress- 
 ing rules. Unable to reach our understanding 
 through the medium of the tongue, he had re- 
 course to pantomime ; and it dawned slowly upon 
 our night of ignorance, that the kindly little man 
 desired us to walk about under his guidance to 
 look at the attractions of the spot. He loaded 
 himself with our wraps and impedimenta, lifted 
 his hat again with the bow of a born courtier, and, 
 silent but eloquent, drew our attention to this or 
 that effect, led us here and there through shaded 
 alleys, picked for us now and again an unusually 
 gorgeous rose, and followed with persistent help- 
 fulness to the door of the Pullman. Even the 
 natural conclusion of a "tip" had to be forced 
 upon him instead of being waited for, and we 
 spent a half-hour of deep mental introspection in 
 trying to comprehend how this product of a semi- 
 civilized state should so outrank his prototype at 
 home in every outward sign which goes to mark 
 the gentleman. Imagine the manner in which two 
 plainly dressed, travel -worn, and commonplace 
 foreigners would be hustled out of some prohibited 
 spot in New York or New England, — say, for in- 
 stance, a seat on the grass in Boston Common, — 
 
SUNDAY IN QUERETARO 47 
 
 and contrast it with the delicacy which made us 
 appear as if we were conferring a favor instead of 
 infringing a law. Truly we have much to learn. 
 
 Within the city, the sabbath silence was not so 
 apparent. The native shops, booths, and markets 
 were doing their full business ; perhaps a little 
 gayer than usual with branches of flowers and 
 fringes of green palms, but otherwise the same. 
 The crowd on the plazas had a more holiday look ; 
 the men's white trousers and shirts fresh and 
 clean, the women's skirts starched and ironed, 
 and all the humble, contented, happy world chew- 
 ing sticks of fresh sugar-cane, or a tlaco's worth of 
 the small sweet cakes which meet you at every 
 hand's turn through the kingdom. At every door 
 a group of dusky babies, and above it the inevitable 
 mocking-bird in his rustic cage ; from the open 
 church porches, the rolling diapason of the organ, 
 and chanting voices of the choir ; in the small stone 
 balconies of the windows, crowds of mischievous, 
 chattering, bright-eyed senoritas, gay in the lightest 
 summer dresses, floating ends of ribbon, and softly 
 fluttering fans. The same look of thrift and bright 
 cheerfulness that distinguishes here always town 
 from country life, solely, we are now quite con- 
 
48 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 vinced, from its greater opportunities for employ- 
 ment, shows itself clearly. The nature of the people 
 is industrious, but circumstances are against them. 
 We found palms and bananas for the first time 
 growing in the squares, and among the flowers an 
 occasional tree of scarlet hibiscus, like large lilies, 
 absolutely glowing with color. The houses are of 
 more stories and greater architectural pretension 
 on the street side than in any city before ; but, 
 while this adds to the appearance of wealth and 
 comfort, it takes away some of the great novelty 
 which has such a fascination to sentimental trav- 
 ellers. The aqueduct, always a beautiful feature 
 in every town, is finer here than usual ; the arches, 
 as the level plain dips into the valley, being of 
 remarkable height. The celebrated mills of the 
 Rubio family, which are the only ones of any note 
 in the country, are the boast of the town, and 
 really of great interest from the odd combination 
 of business and beauty, of -peaceful employment 
 and martial law, which their walled territory offers. 
 The most notable remembrance they have left 
 with us, however, is that of the young heir of the 
 house, as he came riding across the plain from the 
 town, at sunset, on a beautiful Arabian horse, with 
 
A PRINCE OF THE HOUSE OF RUBIO 49 
 
 saddle and bridle so richly wrought in silver that 
 it scarce belonged to every-day life, and an embar- 
 rassment of luxury in the way of trappings that 
 would have weighed upon a less noble-spirited 
 animal. The boy himself, in silver trimmed som- 
 brero, yellow buckskin costume with its precious 
 tassels and fringes of shining metal, impassive, 
 handsome face, olive skin, great dark eyes, and 
 small foot high arched as a girl's, looked like 
 some young prince riding through a fairy tale in 
 search of adventure. The dagger-hilt in his 
 silken sash, and the swarthy groom with his belt 
 thrust full of pistols and cartridges riding be- 
 hind, gave glimpses of some other happenings 
 which, thank Heaven, are rare as fairy tales in our 
 quiet lives, and well nigh as possible. But, if 
 tradition can be believed, they have been only too 
 common here. 
 
 But chief of all interests to us in Queretaro was 
 the fact of its having been the scene of one of the 
 saddest pages in Mexican history, — the death of 
 Maximilian. A heavy rain which had fallen the 
 night before made the roads almost impassable 
 with deep, clinging mud on the morning of the 
 day we drove out to the sad little hillside of Las 
 
50 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 Campanas. Half way up the stony slope, facing 
 the lovely city which lies on the opposite side 
 of the valley, rich in brilliantly colored domes and 
 towers, with sunny fields and shaded avenues 
 stretching about the course of the small Rio, 
 and the pale, shadowy mountains filling the blue 
 distance, stand the three stone crosses marking 
 the scene of the tragedy whose shadow rests yet 
 on many hearts. On the quiet plain between, in 
 that June dawning, the Mexican army was drawn 
 up to see the last act of the short drama. Even 
 now, twenty years after, one cannot look upon the 
 spot without feeling some faint throb of the 
 intense anguish which must have filled the heart 
 of the chief actor, looking for the last time upon 
 the fair land which had lured him to death. This 
 is neither the time nor the place to enter upon 
 any discussion of the intention or character of 
 Maximilian. He paid for his mistake, if mistake 
 it really were, with his life, as became a man 
 who had the courage of his convictions, and a 
 king who feared dishonor rather than death. 
 But any one who reads the torn leaves of Mexi- 
 can history from his day to ours ; any one who 
 sees the present condition of the timid, patient. 
 
MAXIMILIAN 51 
 
 long-suffering people; the present status of the 
 revolution-tossed, dispirited country, unconscious 
 of its own resources, ignorant of its own strength, 
 must acknowledge that the problem of right 
 and wrong is more easily stated than answered. 
 The simple earnestness of purpose which he 
 brought to the solution of Mexican politics, his 
 wise foresight, his overwhelming desire for the 
 good of the people and advancement of the 
 country, and above all his love for the work to 
 which he believed himself called by that vox 
 populi, which becomes under such circumstances 
 the vox Dei, should claim for him lenient judg- 
 ment and profound pity, even from those at 
 variance with his political creed. With him, 
 beneath the thin veil of imperial power, Mexico 
 would have been likely to feel the protecting 
 warmth of a wise and kind father's love, supple- 
 mented by the best counsel which modern science 
 and wisdom can lend to government ; as it is, 
 under the title of a republic, she is become the 
 battle-ground for a host of needy partisans, 
 greedy for gain, ambitious for power, and openly 
 parading the worst vices of a military despotism 
 under the stolen name of liberty. 
 
52 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 The great advance which has been made during 
 the last few years in the principles and policy 
 of the ruling party, especially since the accession 
 of President Diaz, seems to possess elements of 
 staying power as well as of good judgment ; but 
 one cannot help feeling that such an honorable 
 solution of the problem of self-government would 
 have been possible much sooner if the people had 
 known some earlier training in self-respect and 
 the authority of well-meaning rulers. 
 
 According to the advice of friends, who warned 
 not wisely but too well, we came into this country 
 armed at all points with munitions of war in the 
 shape of insect-powder, pain-killer, and extract of 
 pennyroyal. We expected every thing, from ileas 
 to scorpions, from mosquitoes to tarantulas ; our 
 thoughts by day and our dreams by night were 
 filled with unknown species of Lepidoptera and 
 Coleoptera seeking what they might devour, and 
 usually finding it. But, so far, not a stopple has 
 been touched in any of the bottles provided with 
 such admirable foresight. We have not met more 
 than a fly. We have found absolutely no more 
 vermin than at home, and only a reasonable share 
 of dust; but by way of compensation we have 
 
ODORS OF ARABY 53 
 
 discovered more smells of rare and distinct 
 species than we dreamed this round world could 
 hold. The smells of Mexico are massive and 
 infinitive : they are the only one of her resources 
 which has been worked for all it is worth. 
 According to the principle in natural law, which 
 makes one more readily cognizant of vice than of 
 virtue, we notice the bad odors most now ; but by 
 means of that divine system of compensation which 
 makes the memory of evil fade, while that of 
 good lives forever, it is the scent of her rose- 
 gardens, the sweet, evanescent perfumes of her 
 tangled flower-hedges, and thickets of fragrant 
 shrubs, that we will remember during the long 
 Northern days when all this changeful experience 
 shall seem but a midsummer night's dream. 
 
54 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE CITY OF MEXICO 
 
 The country about Queretaro dimples into a 
 nest of sunny valleys, rounded and curved into 
 great beauty, unlike the long plains to which we 
 have grown accustomed ; and the fields of wheat 
 have the same delicious Irish green which we saw 
 on entering the country, but which had given way 
 for some time to harsher tints. 
 
 At Tula we receive our first introduction to 
 that ancient Mexico which was so strongly 
 impressed upon our minds before being brought 
 face to face with the modern country. To those 
 who have felt the witchery of Prescott's story of 
 its conquest, it is the old world with its shadowy 
 and poetic peoples, its vanished tribes of Toltec 
 and Aztec, its vague, mystical rites, combined of 
 flowers and sacrifice, of tenderness and cruelty, 
 that appeals most strongly to sentiment before 
 entering. But the reality of the present soon 
 
A TOLTEC PYRAMID 55 
 
 asserts its sway ; and, except to those most deeply 
 imbued with the passion of the antiquary, it is the 
 new, strange land, and the exquisite novelty of 
 color and interest in which it is set, that command 
 and hold attention afterward. Even here, with the 
 remains of the old gods standing in the sunshine 
 of the small plaza, and the relics of old barbarism 
 in the dust of the Toltec pyramid beyond, one 
 feels more as if he had stumbled upon a new dis- 
 covery than on the evidence of an old fact. We 
 gathered broken fragments of obsidian razor- 
 blades and flint arrow-heads which had probably 
 known, hundreds of years ago, the baptism of 
 human blood ; we saw, in the pavement of the 
 venerable church, stones covered with hieroglyph- 
 ics belonging to the idolatrous worship of the 
 past. But across the sacrificial hill, flowers were 
 springing, and birds singing in the bright air ; on 
 the carved floor before the altar a group of little 
 children offered loving prayer to the Christian's 
 God, and in the evidences of a simpler and purer 
 faith, the gloom of those ancient mysteries was 
 pushed into the background. 
 
 It was here on a hill by the railroad that we first 
 saw the process of pulque-making going on in a 
 
S6 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 small plantation of maguey, and tried for the first 
 time the national beverage. If any one has ever 
 tasted or smelled the old-fashioned yeast, which 
 was one of the rising powers of the world before 
 Fleischman's compressed tablets wiped it out, 
 they will have a very good example of this delec- 
 table drink. It no doubt has virtues, but they are 
 well hidden ; and if, as they claim, one can become 
 intoxicated by prolonged drinking, it is the sour- 
 est, thinnest, saddest means of reaching exhilara- 
 tion that the mind of man ever conceived. Its 
 introduction into any country as a popular stimu- 
 lant would be better than a Maine liquor-law. It 
 is one of the articles for which that ugly English 
 word "nasty" was intended. 
 
 And here, too, for the second time, we were 
 introduced to the well-bred society of convicts. 
 They were sweeping the streets with the inevi- 
 table small hand-broom, and returned our salute 
 with the same smiling grace as their brothers 
 at Zacatecas. I am not sure but that the Mexi- 
 cans have come nearer than we to a solution of 
 one problem, if they can punish a man satisfac- 
 torily for a breach of law or gospel, and at the 
 same time allow him to retain his self-respect. 
 
APPROACHING THE CAPITAL 57 
 
 For, after all, what should be the test of the amount 
 of coercion or control which law has a right to 
 exert over individual liberty ? Does it desire the 
 moral death of the sinner, or that he be converted 
 and live ? Should the main purpose of punishment 
 be retaliation against a criminal, or reformation ? 
 
 Drawing near any one of the great American 
 cities, the traveller meets little to impress him 
 with his approach to a centre of wealth and 
 power until he reaches the immediate suburbs ; 
 or, if the entrance be lengthened, it is more like 
 that of a back way than a front portal. It is the 
 tattered fringe of the imperial mantle, the spots 
 of blemish and dirt which gather in the wear and 
 tear of mighty interests, that first meet the eye, 
 strained to catch a glimpse of the beauty beyond. 
 A utilitarian age and a business people have 
 neither time nor money to waste on fine settings 
 for the jewelled centres of their wealth and power. 
 Prosperity is the touchstone of beauty ; having 
 that, they care for no other. The Midas touch 
 which transmutes every thing it reaches into gold 
 cannot spare such simple things as hedgerows and 
 lanes, which add only treasures to the soul, and 
 none to the pocket. 
 
5 8 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 Fortunately for the sentimental traveller, — as 
 he who looks through the world for pleasure 
 instead of profit may well be called, — this fair 
 southern country has not yet been aroused to 
 such sense of its importance as to require the 
 sacrifice of its luxurious, unconscious loveliness 
 upon the altar of interest. Twenty years hence, 
 no doubt, there will be smoky piles of manufac- 
 tories and workshops, teeming hives of tenement- 
 houses, noise and confusion of traffic and travail, 
 outside the City of Mexico; and it will be a 
 goodly sight to see, since all these are but out- 
 ward signs of inward thrift. But the glory of 
 Ichabod will have departed. Now the approach 
 to the capital begins thirty miles away. Beautiful 
 and changeful still, in valley and plain and climb- 
 ing mountain-tops, the consciousness of a new 
 influence begins to force itself upon the senses. 
 The country roads become broad avenues, wind- 
 ing between rows of massive cottonwoods through 
 flourishing fields. The boundless tract of level 
 land begins to show signs of more careful cultiva- 
 tion ; water flashes ever3nvhere in the sunlight ; 
 velvety green meadows take the place of parched 
 and dust-covered plains. Hedges of century plants 
 
POPOCATAPETL AND IXTACCIHUATL 59 
 
 and numberless green shrubs divide the different 
 crops in the long panorama of vale and hillside ; 
 great plantations of maguey extend into the far 
 distance and even up to the undulations of the 
 foothills, and everywhere fertility spreads the 
 promise of abundance. Bridges and aqueducts, 
 rivulets and ditches, open flume and covered 
 sluiceway, distribute the bounteous, life-giving 
 power all over the land, which teems with rich 
 harvests in return. Soon across the clear air, 
 beside a mass of soft white cloud, — themselves 
 two snowy clouds lifted into the blue of heaven, 
 — the summits of Popocatapetl and Ixtaccihuatl 
 rise in their sublime beauty. Unlike the great 
 peaks of Colorado and New Mexico, which spring 
 almost invariably from a barren and forbidding 
 country, torn and devastated by the same force 
 which caused the primal upheaving, and bearing 
 still its sombre impress, these beautiful forms, 
 wonderful in color and majesty, tower above a 
 world as beautiful as themselves. The exquisite 
 valley takes now a thousand shapes of loveliness. 
 Tropical vegetation shows itself sufificiently to 
 make the landscape rich and bounteous ; the 
 quaint, unusual architecture of town and village 
 
6o MEXICO— PICTURESQUE 
 
 rising in the midst of strange woods ; the softly- 
 tinted outlines of mosque and tower; the dark- 
 skinned, white-robed people thronging the roads, 
 — all go to enhance a scene which even without 
 those wondrous heights would be one of fascina- 
 tion, but which with them surpasses the power of 
 words. When at length the stately spires and 
 domes of the great city, glowing with varied 
 color, and its rich Oriental mingling of white 
 walls and arches, are set in the foreground, sur- 
 rounded by trees and gardens and fountains, the 
 picture can be compared to nothing else. The 
 world holds few scenes to equal it, and none to 
 surpass. 
 
 The streets of Mexico are, in a measure, unlike 
 those of any other city we have so far visited. 
 Straight, wide, and lined with handsome houses 
 two or three stories high, almost invariably built 
 of stone, and lighted by large windows opening 
 upon small stone balconies, it loses something of 
 the Eastern character which their narrow lanes 
 of blank adobe walls give to the lesser towns ; but 
 it gains a corresponding richness. These little 
 balconies, ornamented often by carvings and 
 always by balustrades of wrought iron, brightened 
 
MEXICAN COURTSHIP 6l 
 
 by gilding and color, and shaded by linen awnings, 
 make a feature in themselves. Here on Sunday 
 and /S(e day, as well as toward evening, the youth 
 of the city gathers, in the full dress of private 
 life ; and the stolen glances, which form the only 
 intercourse allowed between the sexes, flash back 
 and forward between youth and maiden. Even 
 deprived of the opportunity for interchange of 
 vows, for hand-clasping, and tender greeting, it is 
 self-evident that a young Mejicana, true to the 
 traditions of her Castilian forebears, can make as 
 much havoc with her languishing dark eyes, and 
 the softly fluttering fan which supplements them, 
 as any other girl arrayed in the full rational outfit 
 of courtship. This is true, of course, only when 
 she, as she always should be, but less frequently 
 is, happens to be beautiful. The pretty girls 
 are exquisite : the slender oval of the face, the 
 rich olive of the cheek, the long, sweeping dark 
 lashes over superb eyes glowing at once with 
 passion and tenderness, the low forehead with its 
 rippling mass of dusky hair, the slender neck, the 
 lithe form, the springing step, and the dainty foot, 
 make them like a poet's dream of darkly brilliant 
 loveliness, not to be measured by any type with 
 
62 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 which we have been heretofore familiar. But 
 Nature is never over-lavish, and the number of 
 these splendid creatures is as few as their per- 
 fections are many. Remembering the streets at 
 home after the Friday-afternoon rehearsal, filled 
 with the fragile, flowerlike bloom of winsome but 
 delicate girlhood, its brave eyes looking the world 
 full in the face with that mixture of innocence 
 and boldness which is the hybrid blossom of 
 modern civilization, these shy but rich specimens, 
 as rare as they are wonderful, look few indeed. 
 Their perfection is offset by an equally -pro- 
 nounced ugliness on the part of the many ; and 
 young womanhood changes into faded middle age 
 even sooner than with us, — which is saying a 
 great deal. Nevertheless, the graceful lace man- 
 tilla, which is yet almost universally worn in the 
 street, but which unfortunately is beginning to 
 give way among the better classes to the ugly 
 stiffness of the French hat and bonnet, gives to 
 many a plain face such a soft and effective back- 
 ground that one brings back from a walk only a 
 piquant and pleasing impression. If the Mexican 
 women knew what they were about, they would 
 cling to this becoming head-dress as they do to 
 
THE PORTALES 63 
 
 their faith ; the sex has no right to set aside such 
 a charming accessory. 
 
 The large and well-paved avenues cross the city 
 at right angles, overflowing with shops of every 
 description, well stocked, and for the most part 
 conducted by French and Germans. Native 
 traders offer their wares under the portales and 
 ii; the open market-places, which are to be found in 
 every quarter. Nothing in the city is of greater 
 interest to the stranger than these crowded and 
 seemingly disordered piles of merchandise, at- 
 tended by groups of swarthy merchants, men and 
 women, who regard with the indifference of entire 
 disinterestedness your attempts at barter, and 
 show their contempt for ordinary business princi- 
 ples by charging a tlaco or two more at wholesale 
 than at retail. You may take up every article in 
 their stock, and pass the treasures about from 
 hand to hand, without the least sign of apprehen- 
 sion or importunity on their part. The bright 
 foreign air gives to even the smallest lane an 
 interest and novelty. Every occupation has its 
 distinctive mark in dress, which is like a class 
 badge ; and this, with the varying costumes of 
 Indian, Spaniard, Mexican, Frenchman, and 
 
64 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 American filling the narrow pavements, gives 
 constant variety to the swaying crowd. Any- 
 where along the curbstone, native men or women 
 sit down to rest with basket or bundle ; and some 
 of the groups thus made are exceedingly pictur- 
 esque. Each long vista, gay with color and life, is 
 closed at last by some towering mountain height, 
 which frowns or smiles as sun or shadow rests 
 upon it. There are fewer burros, those pariahs 
 among civilized beasts of burden, but more horses 
 and elaborately equipped private carriages. A 
 host of hacks, marked by small red, green, or 
 white flags for convenience in hiring, are in the 
 plazas and at street-corners ; and a much larger 
 proportion of people use them than in American 
 cities. Small wonder, when a carriage for four 
 people need cost but fifty cents an hour. 
 
 The Iturbide is a good specimen of the best 
 Mexican hotels, — larger and finer than most, on 
 account of its original use as the palace of the old 
 emperor, but following the same general plan. 
 Entered from the street by a large archway, the 
 house rises around a fine courtyard, upon which 
 each of the four stories opens in a succession of 
 galleries, supported by arches and pillars of stone. 
 
THE ITURBIDE 65 
 
 Every room has a great hinged window opening 
 to the floor, and entering directly on these airy, 
 shaded balconies. Over the casements and corri- 
 dors leading to the state apartments, elaborate 
 carvings ornament the heavy stone trimmings ; 
 and projecting from the flat roof, with long gutter 
 pipes of metal protruding from their grinning 
 mouths, a row of grotesque gargoyles, of great 
 size and striking artistic effect, surround the four 
 sides. Other arches open in three directions on 
 other courts, and broad stone stairways lead to 
 the upper stories. The rooms, opening usually by 
 one great balconied window on the street, as well 
 as on the inner courts, were large, charmingly 
 cool, well furnished, and scrupulously clean ; the 
 beds, which frightened us at first, being laid 
 Mexican fashion on two-inch planks for springs, 
 vindicated themselves by giving nights of restful 
 sleep ; and the chambermaids, who were all cham- 
 ber men, were the most helpful, kindly, attentive, 
 delightful set, without any exception, it was ever 
 our happy lot to know. We had grown used to 
 the usual American article, who answers the bell 
 with the look of a martyr, and does your bidding 
 with the air of a churl ; who sourly fills the letter 
 
66 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 of his contract, and patronizingly accepts the 
 timid douceur you offer as a sop to Cerberus. We 
 were amazed by meeting a race of beings who 
 anticipated needs, and suggested luxuries ; who 
 were interested in your night's sleep and your 
 morning aspect ; who were grieved over your ail- 
 ments, and sympathized with your loneliness ; who 
 were always within call, and whose bright, dark 
 eyes showed that they had a joy in the service 
 they rendered. Open doors, and the careless 
 disorder of forgetful travellers in leaving money 
 and valuables about, offered no temptations to an 
 integrity as incorruptible as their other virtues. 
 Over and over again we were met by such evi- 
 dence of this as would call for special mention in 
 other places, but which here was an every-day 
 occurrence. The lost art of honesty seems to 
 have been found again in Mexico. And this was 
 among the people against whom we had been 
 warned as a race of born thieves, and specialists 
 in the profession of robbery and trickery. We 
 were a party of seventy-four; we had come, as 
 most people do, with preconceived notions gath- 
 ered from men and books ; so that I am the more 
 happy in being able to record this total difference 
 
THE LAND OF TO-MORROW 6j 
 
 between our experiences and expectations. It is 
 a simple act of justice that it should be placed at 
 least side by side with opposing statements. And 
 the cameristes of the Iturbide — be their memory 
 blessed — were the last straws that broke down 
 our camel's hump of prejudice. In my special 
 case, even the shock of finding my maid a man, 
 and the man's name Jesus, could not shake my 
 comfort and delight in him. 
 
 So far, in this country, society seems to have 
 builded with the ruins of its old institutions : the 
 stones of broken monarchies have been used to 
 raise the edifice of the new republic, which has, as 
 yet, added little fresh material of its own. It is 
 still, as its enemies sneeringly call it, the land of 
 to-morrow ; the attempt at progress is constantly 
 nullified by the habit of procrastination ; and 
 the best-laid plans for improvement in business 
 are frustrated through ignorance of the value of 
 present action. Unhappily, those in authority 
 lend themselves to this weakness, instead of com- 
 bating it by precept and example. The methods 
 of government are as uncertain as those of trade : 
 it is no more likely that a law which has been 
 placed on record will be enforced, than that your 
 
68 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 merchant will fill his contract within a specified 
 time, — which, indeed, is a small accident, that 
 happens occasionally in better regulated communi- 
 ties. But here uncertainty seems to be the one 
 fixed principle : it is only the unforeseen that ever 
 happens. 
 
 During one of the early days of our stay we 
 drove out to an old Carmelite convent, deserted 
 since the action of the Government, twenty or 
 twenty-five years ago, which confiscated all church 
 property to the State. It was the Feast of St. 
 Joseph ; and wayside shrines were bright with 
 flowers, laid before the beloved feet of the Virgin 
 by reverent hands. These little nooks, which 
 bring a thought of heaven and heaven's rest into 
 the midst of the busy streets and the hurry of 
 every-day life, seem to me a gracious and beau- 
 tiful thought. Why would not an occasional one 
 be a good exchange for Coggswell fountains and 
 similar ornaments in the world at home .' The 
 celebrated tree of the Noche Triste, under which 
 Cortez passed that " Sad Night " so memorable 
 in the History of the Conquest, was one of the 
 landmarks, with the small church close by, which 
 was among the earliest buildings erected by 
 
IN THE CARMELITE CONVENT 69 
 
 the Spaniards. Across the lovely, dusty country, 
 the faint line of blue mountains rose through the 
 unusual mist of a foggy day, with Popocatapetl 
 like a restful shadow beyond. Farther yet, the 
 white lady Ixtaccihuatl lay sleeping in her dream- 
 land of clouds. Up and down the long, shaded 
 alleys inside the convent walls, with water run- 
 ning through stone aqueducts, and springing 
 through small fountains at the side ; with roses, 
 tangled and fragrant, making hedges under the 
 trees, and a pair of tame goats gambolling through 
 them, — we walked for hours through the ruins of 
 a once splendid property. The fine old building, 
 with its long corridors and frescoed walls, had 
 been turned into a carelessly kept barn and gran- 
 ary; a couple of horses had their stalls under 
 the painted ceiling of the refectory, and in the 
 cloisters still remained the presses and vats used 
 for making oil and wine. Outside, an Italian 
 terraced walk of faint pink stone surrounded a 
 small artificial lake, reflecting a long colonnade 
 of light columns supporting an elevated prom- 
 enade above. Great clustering bushes of pink 
 roses bent above the water at each few feet ; 
 apples, peaches, quinces, and pears grew side by 
 
•JO MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 side with oranges, lemons, figs, and olives ; and 
 we wandered about for hours, filling ourselves 
 with fancies faint and sweet as the perfume of 
 faded flowers, and gathered armsful of bloom, 
 until we looked like visitors at a country fair. 
 And we could not help speculating upon the 
 common-sense of a nation, which, having taken 
 the very positive step of expelling religious com- 
 munities in order to increase the revenues of 
 the State by utilizing their properties, should 
 leave these same properties go to ruin for twenty 
 years, without any further effort to make them 
 available. It is another one of the hieroglyphics 
 of this untranslatable country. 
 
 There is no end to pleasant surprises. We 
 wandered into a pleasant corner one day. It was a 
 long, narrow garden, with oleander-bordered paths, 
 and a row of rustic pavilions on one side, holding 
 baths of clear water upon floors of shining marble, 
 into which one descended by a couple of broad 
 steps like those in a Pompeiian picture. The 
 walls were covered with a network of fragrant 
 growing plants ; and outside, in the trellised arbors, 
 birds were singing, as if harmony and beauty 
 were the only laws of life. On the other side, 
 
ON THE PASEO 71 
 
 an archway led to baths for horses, which were 
 novel and pretty enough. Think of equine aris- 
 tocrats, who have first a courtyard full of clean 
 dust to roll in ; a preliminary swimming-tank to 
 flounder about in ; careful attendants, with soap 
 and brushes, to shampoo mane and tail, and to 
 wash teeth and ears as if they were caring for 
 babies ; and a regal pond of clean water to finish 
 their ablutions, from which they emerge shining, 
 sleek, and beautiful as the winged steeds of Par- 
 nassus. Good horses, when they die, must go to 
 Mexico. 
 
 If the journey through the country, with its 
 immense preponderance of poor dwellings and 
 adobe huts, should have tended to make you 
 believe that this is the native land of poverty, 
 take a drive any evening, from five to seven, 
 along the Paseo which Maximilian planned from 
 the walls of the city to the Castle of Chapultepec. 
 A boulevard three miles in length, and two hun- 
 dred feet in width ; with double avenues of fine 
 trees shading wide stone sidewalks ; with seven 
 great circles, each three hundred feet in diameter, 
 breaking its long, level straightness, — it makes a 
 fit setting for the brilliant display it holds. The 
 
^2 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 centre of each circle is to be filled with a monu- 
 ment or statue, surrounded by a garden with 
 fountains and flowers, around which on each 
 side the avenue sweeps superbly. But a land 
 cannot have too many pastimes ; and the favorite 
 one here, of revolution, checks such minor mat- 
 ters as internal improvement and decoration, so 
 that only three of these pretty pleasure-grounds 
 have been finished in twenty years : the other 
 four are as yet in outline. Through this mag- 
 nificent driveway hundreds and hundreds of bril- 
 liant equipages pass and repass in the late 
 afternoon, — the carriages full of brightly dressed 
 ladies, the servants in splendid but showy livery, 
 and the jetmesse dorie, more gilded than ever 
 under this Oriental sun, dashing on their small, 
 fiery steeds through the central space. The 
 young girls wear flowers in their dark hair; the 
 elders drape head and shoulders in the soft black 
 lace of the mantilla, which adds a new grace to 
 even a homely woman; the cavaliers are valiant 
 in all the picturesque bravery that youth can dare 
 or money purchase ; and a gay whirlwind of nods 
 and smiles, and that fascinating little Mexican 
 greeting which is spoken with the fingers, blows 
 
THE PALACE OF CHAPULTEPEC 73 
 
 away forever your idea of undiluted misery. For 
 two hours, at least, each day, the world of fashion, 
 of folly, and perhaps of pleasure, has its own 
 way ; and it is as giddy a way as wealth can make 
 it. On Sundays and fite days a band adds very 
 good music to the other attractions of the place, 
 the reckless riders dash between the lines of 
 carriages more madly than ever, the air is heavy 
 with the perfume of flowers carried in every 
 hand, and nothing more brilliant can be well 
 imagined. 
 
 At the farther end of the Paseo, on the road to 
 Tacubuya, rise the hill and palace of Chapulte- 
 pec. The favorite pleasure-garden of Montezu- 
 ma, this lovely spot owes its mixture of wildness 
 and beauty as much to art as to nature. Rising 
 abruptly on the side toward the city from the per- 
 fect level of the plain, it is surrounded by a forest 
 of cypress, which is not surpassed for magnificence 
 on this continent. The grand old trees, most of 
 which must date back over twenty centuries, rise 
 in sombre majesty above those of ordinary growth, 
 interspersed among them, like a race of giants 
 towering amid pygmies ; and the dim aisles beneath 
 their lower branches are made still more beautiful 
 
74 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 by the almost intangible softness of draperies of 
 gray moss, festooned and swaying from limb to 
 limb. Through this wood, shadowy as twilight 
 even at midday, the carriage - road winds and 
 mounts to the summit, whereon the castle and 
 military academy are built. And standing on the 
 terrace from which these arise, one looks for 
 the first time across the Valley of Mexico. 
 
 In the natural order, there is nothing more won- 
 derful than this scene for loveliness in the wide 
 world, — nothing more calculated to intoxicate the 
 soul with the simple glory of living, since earth 
 still holds such beauty for eyes of man. How 
 can one ever hope to bring before the sense that 
 has not known it that fair green plain stretch- 
 ing from the marble terraces of Chapultepec forty 
 miles away to the dim horizon ? How paint that 
 foreground of majestic cypress-trees, draped in 
 shadowy moss, which adds an intangible softness 
 to the dim forest aisles beneath ; the long, bright 
 fields of a valley fair as a dream of paradise, 
 divided by hedges of shrubbery or walls of cactus, 
 until the surface resembles an inwrought tapestry 
 of emerald interwoven in myriad gradations of 
 tint ; the waving hedges, outlining country roads 
 
THE VALLEY BEAUTIFUL 75 
 
 that fade in the azure distance ; the magnificent 
 avenues of stately trees, converging from every 
 point toward the walls of the great city ? The 
 city itself, a mass of towers and spires and glow- 
 ing, richly tinted domes ; the scores of villages 
 embowered in leafage, and nestling within shadow 
 of the foothills ; the sparkle of water on the dis- 
 tant lake ; the grand stone arches of gray aque- 
 ducts crossing the country from the heights 
 beyond ; the wonderful encircling line of moun- 
 tains, deep with amethystine shadow, that stand 
 like guardians of the happy valley's peace ; and 
 farthest away, but most omnipresent of all, the 
 eternal majesty of Popocatapetl and Iztaccihuatl, 
 cleaving the blue and silent air, lifting their 
 radiant white summits like luminous clouds up to 
 the very gates of heaven, awful in sublimity, as if 
 belonging to the supernatural world, yet tempered 
 with the tenderness of earthly beauty, — who can 
 paint the surpassing glory of this entrancing 
 scene for eyes which have not been touched by 
 itself with the anointing chrism of vision ? If no 
 more of beauty than this one view can give were 
 added to one's inner consciousness, the journey to 
 Mexico would be fully requited. _ 
 
^6 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THROUGH LANES AND HIGHWAYS 
 
 The hill of Chapultepec, abrupt enough to 
 assure one of its partly artificial origin, rises some 
 two hundred feet from the valley, crowned by a 
 marble castle, first built under the direction of 
 Maximilian, and now restored for the occupancy 
 of the presidents. Rather tawdry in aspect as 
 one looks up from below, it develops into great 
 beauty on nearer approach. A double row of 
 light and elegant arches in white and pale-tinted 
 marbles supports broad colonnades, from which the 
 main body of the palace springs into the air with 
 an effect of great delicacy and beauty. All the 
 rooms open on these marble balconies ; and on 
 the very upper flight, reached by an exquisite 
 stairway with gilded balustrades, have been built 
 fountains and terraced gardens, enchanting as the 
 hanging gardens of Babylon. Around under the 
 arches, the walls have been painted in fine copies 
 
THE MII,ITARY ACADEMY TJ 
 
 of Pompeiian frescos and Greek designs, exe- 
 cuted with great purity, both of color and form. 
 This flowery arbor, perfumed and beautiful, thrust 
 up, as it were, into the air, forms the centre 
 around which the rooms of the palace cluster. 
 These are airy, harmonious, fitting for the purpose 
 of summer residence, and contain some marvel- 
 lous ceilings, wherein Cupids play among tangled 
 flower-wreaths, or blow on conch-shells to waken 
 sleeping Love. The lower story is hardly as fine 
 as the upper, but the wonderful outlook makes it 
 all royal. 
 
 Adjoining the palace, the military' academy, a 
 sort of Mexican West Point, gave us a passing 
 opportunity to note the system of instruction 
 provided by Government to prepare its future 
 soldiers and scientists. The course reaches over 
 eight years, and qualifies its graduates, either as 
 officers or engineers. The school seems well con- 
 ducted, with extreme cleanliness and care ; the 
 gymnasium fairly large and well attended, the 
 chemical department supplied with a small but 
 choice apparatus, the drawing-school remarkably 
 good, and the sanitary details in dormitories and 
 dining-halls well carried out. The boys, who enter 
 
78 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 at fourteen or sixteen, were bright, active fellows, 
 proud of the school, self-respecting without being 
 conceited, and as well bred as young gentlemen 
 anjrvvhere could be. Nearly all spoke more or 
 less English ; but, as the last four years' courses 
 are conducted entirely in French, they use that 
 language with an ease and perfection of accent 
 that leaves one in doubt as to their nationality. 
 Perhaps some tacit jealousy prevents their honor- 
 ing the speech of their next neighbor and whilom 
 conqueror with a place in the curriculum ; but it 
 will be strange if this little pique long outlasts the 
 advent of the railroad. The pleasure of the young 
 men in showing their school was only equalled by 
 their enjoyment of our appreciation, and both 
 made a happy mixture of genuine enthusiasm. A 
 fencing-bout given for our entertainment showed 
 extraordinary skill, and I couldn't help wishing 
 the dear sophomore at home might see what 
 Southern vivacity could ingraft on Northern sci- 
 ence. It is hard to confess, but — Harvard would 
 be obliged to go to the wall. 
 
 The world here, the novel, picturesque world, 
 which seems to belong to some other solar system 
 than ours, leaves such an impression of absolute 
 
ANACHRONISMS 79 
 
 difference on the mind that even familiar objects 
 put on an unusual expression. You see French 
 bonnets and dresses as unmistakably Parisian as 
 if Felix's monogram were embroidered on the 
 side panel; but the olive cheeks, flashing eyes, and 
 slender figures they adorn change the well-known 
 costumes as if they were disguises at a masquer- 
 ade. You see gentlemen in the ugly attire which 
 fickle fashion has made the exponent of modern 
 civilization ; but they look as unlike matter-of-fact 
 English or business-built Americans as the water- 
 carrier in his leather harness, or the mozo in 
 zarape and sandals. Is that a commonplace 
 horse-car dashing around the sharp corner yon- 
 der, with two mules on a jingling gallop, swarthy 
 Indian women smoking at the windows, and a 
 conductor blowing his tin fish-horn like a mad- 
 man ? What is the time-annihilating telephone 
 doing in the corner of this drowsy courtyard 
 under the gray quiet of arches that shadow the 
 unbroken rest of centuries, in this land of pro- 
 crastination and delay.' And of all conceivable 
 anachronisms, what brings a nineteenth-century 
 steam-roller into these fifteenth-century streets, 
 where the paving-stones are still brought in from 
 
8o MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 the quarries on men's backs, and the gravel 
 carried from the pits in sacks on men's shoulders ? 
 Even the electric lights at night have an eerie 
 look. They were always unnatural, with their 
 cold white glare and frozen sparkle ; but they are 
 a thousand times more unnatural here, glittering 
 above a people and a country as primitive as if 
 the world were a thousand years younger. Those 
 pale candles, like farthing rushlights, that dis- 
 turb the dark no more than so many glow-worms 
 — they are the Lights o' Mexico for the present. 
 
 It is the common people who are the principal 
 interest to the traveller. Clinging yet with Indian 
 pertinacity to ancient customs, following, even in 
 dress, traditions two or three hundred years old, 
 they seem as removed from the pressure of 
 changeful events as the fossil remains of another 
 age brought into the light of day. They work 
 with what might be called passion, so intense is 
 their application to any assigned task. But that 
 over, the relapse into stolid indifference is as com- 
 plete as before. Good or bad, the gentle, trust- 
 ing, superstitious, timid, easily yielding nature of 
 the ancestors is continued in the descendants. 
 They could be led to noble ends : they have been 
 
THE AZTEC NATURE 8 1 
 
 driven to base uses. Ages of misrule and oppres- 
 sion have not broken their sweet kindliness of 
 soul, or dulled the instinctive courtesy of loyal 
 devotion to a superior. There is every thing to 
 hope for when this people can be roused to a 
 proper understanding of its own importance, and 
 of the threads of advancement lying useless now 
 in their idle hands, but ready to be woven into 
 strong warp and woof of progress. 
 
 The seeming unconcern which makes life, both 
 in and out of doors, as open to observation as 
 the air or the sunshine makes them a constant 
 study. One may contemplate manners and habits 
 as if there were no human interests beneath. But, 
 in spite of this outward indifference, a very strong 
 vein of national spirit runs through the people. 
 Hidalgo, Morellos, Guerrero, Juarez, only names to 
 us, are to them living embodiments of vital truths 
 never to be forgotten, brave lights of patriotism 
 and principle that no rain of blood or terror can 
 quench. It is a pity of pities that seventy years 
 of struggle have brought them no nearer freedom 
 of thought and action than they are to-day ; still, 
 to have kept alive the impulse of liberty is an 
 immortality for the brave men who died at its 
 
82 MEXICO— PICTURESQUE 
 
 altar. In the plazas of many towns rise the 
 monuments to their memory, and the cause they 
 championed: "Tacubuya a sus Martiros," "Chi- 
 huahua a Hidalgo;" and the eagerness with which 
 these are pointed out to-day makes the moral 
 plainer. 
 
 The city overflows with public buildings of rare 
 interest, both intrinsically and for association's 
 sake. The National Palace contains among its 
 treasures the portraits of the earlier patriots, and 
 the State apartments of Maximilian and Carlotta. 
 Republican and Imperialist alike fell before the 
 fortunes of war, and it is fitting that their relics 
 should be preserved together. An attempt at a 
 practical illustration of liberty is made by allowing 
 every one to enter certain rooms freely. We saw 
 two old women utilizing the principle by smoking 
 very bad cigarettes in the outer reception parlor. 
 In the pretty patio of the museum, the Aztec 
 stone of sacrifice, and some fairly preserved speci- 
 mens of the ancient gods, move you to a faint 
 understanding of what the far-away, shadowy age 
 meant. The art -gallery held a few really great 
 pictures, among many of less repute. Among the 
 native artists, imagination as yet seems to have 
 
A RICH MAN'S HOUSE 83 
 
 taken hold of nothing characteristic of the time 
 or country. This is the more to be regretted, 
 since the land overflows with lavish beauty, and 
 offers wonderful opportunities. So far, the genius 
 of the place has made no particular impression ; 
 and the treasures of nature have been passed 
 by for conventional representations of Scriptural 
 subjects of no value. When will a Fortuny or a 
 Gerome arise for Mexico ? 
 
 Puebla and Mexico, the two principal centres 
 of the country, share more than other places the 
 cosmopolitan character of European cities, as well 
 as the extremes of riches and poverty. While 
 nothing is more superb than their palaces, few 
 things are more squalid than the huts of the poor. 
 The homes of the rich are on a magnificent scale 
 of luxury. An arched driveway leads from the 
 street to the central courtyard tiled with marbles, 
 bright with flowers, statues, and splashing foun- 
 tains, surrounded by all the appliances which 
 wealth can suggest to indolence. Around this 
 inner pleasaunce the house rises in a series of 
 light-arched galleries resting on carved pillars, 
 communicating by broad outer stairways of stone, 
 and opening into every room by windows and doors 
 
84 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 of plain or stained glass. Vines and hanging- 
 plants cover the low stone balustrades ; gilded 
 cages of mocking-birds and parrots snare the sun- 
 shine under the cool arches ; and inside the broad, 
 dimly lighted salons and chambers, whatever luxu- 
 rious taste can bring to aid comfort is lavishly sup- 
 plied. A host of servants divide among them those 
 more personal services which our rigid aristocrats 
 prefer to render themselves, and a clap of the 
 hands brings instantly a swift and silent attendant. 
 Below, under the arches, on the ground floor, 
 horses stand in their open stalls ; there are car- 
 riage-rooms, storehouses, and servants' quarters : 
 so that, when the great gates leading to the street 
 are closed, all the elements of luxurious living are 
 complete within. And yet not all the elements : 
 these lavish establishments lack many things 
 which we have been taught to consider necessary 
 for even moderate comfort. Neither grates for 
 fire in the tingling mornings and nights, nor hot- 
 water pipes, nor set-bowls, nor spring-beds, nor 
 kitchen-ranges, nor scores of other common helps, 
 belong to the magnificent manage of a Mexican 
 nabob. As a partial recompense, their women 
 do not break down before thirty-five with nervous 
 
THE POOR MAN'S HOVEL 85 
 
 prostration. There is no cloud without its silver 
 lining. 
 
 The very poor live within four walls of dried 
 mud, on a floor of the same material. Anywhere 
 upon this a fire of mesquite fagots may be kindled, 
 to cook the universal tortilla, which forms almost 
 the sole food of a large class. A few crockery 
 utensils for cooking and eating, a handbrush for 
 sweeping, some water-jars and baskets, perhaps a 
 bundle of maguey fibres for a bed, and the furni- 
 ture is complete. The zarape is cloak by day, and 
 covering by night ; the smoke flies out of open 
 door or four-paned window, as it listeth ; the floor 
 is at once chair and table ; and that is all, — or 
 rather, it is not all ; for with it stay patience, 
 kindliness, and content, three graces hard to 
 account for with such meagre plenishing. 
 
 The churches of the country are always a 
 delight in their outer elevations. A strange mix- 
 ture of the Italian, Moorish, and Gothic, they 
 still preserve a quaint harmony of design, which 
 greatly assists in accenting the picturesque beauty 
 of the country. The loving labor which makes 
 the facades almost invariably exquisite with fine 
 carving, the delicate hues of the softly tinted 
 
86 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 stone, the domes covered with burnished tiles of 
 pale or brilliant color, the fretted and soaring 
 shafts of belfry and tower, set like mosaics against 
 the sapphire sky, are revelations to the artistic 
 sense. The interiors rarely carry out the promise 
 of the exteriors. A crudity of color in the glar- 
 ing decorations makes itself felt within, which is 
 dissipated by the largeness and glow of the out- 
 side atmosphere. In many cases some false canon 
 of art has caused the original stone carving of 
 the walls to be covered by wretched prettinesses 
 of stucco ; but the revival of better taste is begin- 
 ning to demand a return to the earlier purity of 
 design. Silver railings and candelabra about the 
 sanctuaries, rare tapestries, and paintings by the 
 old Spanish masters, enrich many ; but their effect 
 is often spoiled by the immediate neighborhood 
 of poor and tawdry ornamentation. Still, with 
 all its incongruities, the ensemble is forcible and 
 picturesque. The high altar rises always under 
 the great central dome. Connected with it by 
 a wide central aisle is the choir-room, placed in 
 the nave between two great organs, rich in carven 
 woods, and screens of wrought metal. A dim 
 light filters down from small windows, set high 
 
A CHURCH INTERIOR 8/ 
 
 in the lofty walls. From dawn to dark the slow 
 monotone of the Gregorian chant floats in alter- 
 nate antiphon and response between the robed 
 priests within the sanctuary, and scarlet-gowned, 
 shrill-voiced choristers, half hidden behind tall 
 music-stands. The people, reverent and silent, 
 glide in for a moment's prayer in the pauses of 
 the day's duties ; and a certain mystical atmos- 
 phere of religious solemnity, which seems to 
 belong by right to the place, forces itself upon 
 the most material nature. The great cathedrals 
 of Puebla and Mexico reach naturally the highest 
 expression of artistic merit, being magnificent in 
 proportion, and richer even than usual in carving 
 and bas-reliefs. 
 
 It is Sunday morning in the City of Mexico. 
 The air is filled with the thin tinkling of innu- 
 merable bells ; and, guided by their stridulous call, 
 the streets swarm in every direction with a 
 church-going multitude. The strange, overpower- 
 ing smells of the sewerless city are masked for 
 the time by the fragrance of flowers in the hands of 
 every passing woman and child, — flowers massed 
 in the arms of street-sellers, flowers stacked on 
 the corners and gateways of courts waiting for 
 
88 ■ MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 customers ; such roses as never were known out- 
 side the Persian Gulistan in long-stemmed dewy- 
 bunches ; such pyramids of pansies and helio- 
 trope ; such tropical gorgeousness of glowing 
 hibiscus and scarlet poppy thrown away for a 
 song or a miserly real, which is cheaper than a 
 song itself. Where do you find the bird voice 
 now that will warble for twelve and a half cents ? 
 Out of the great doors of the cathedral, and out 
 of the gateways of the other hundreds of churches, 
 the crowd whirls in a maelstrom of entering and 
 departing waves, as some one of the different ser- 
 vices going on within commences or closes. In 
 the bright, warm air, the sunny plaza is radiant 
 with overflowing life ; the shrill cries of the mer- 
 chants make tumult in your unaccustomed ears ; 
 every branch of business seems to have received 
 new impulse from eager groups of buyers, in the 
 clean white shirts and stiff skirts that mark 
 holiday raiment. Across through the trees the 
 white tents of " Aguas Nevades " venders adver- 
 tise the coolness of their frozen waters ; the 
 Indian basket -women are dozing in the midst 
 of their mountainous piles of willow ware ; the 
 melon and fruit sellers come and go through 
 
ON SUNDAY AFTERNOON 89 
 
 shaded paths, with trays of luscious sweetness and 
 color balanced upon their erect heads ; and even 
 the dark, solemn-faced children dimple into sub- 
 dued laughter as they munch the dukes which no 
 one is too poor to buy. Here and there a mozo 
 and his sweetheart walk contentedly hand in 
 hand through the broiling sun, or nestle closely 
 together in the corner of one of the great high- 
 backed stone seats, always either eating or smok- 
 ing. From the stand in the centre, the band plays 
 its gayest strains ; for music here seems to be 
 one of the component elements of happiness. The 
 giddy, dashing small mule-cars, which make up in 
 speed the slow gravity of the rest of the world, 
 spin around one corner to Tacubaya, and another 
 to San Cosmo, and a third to Los Angels : the 
 first class filled with respectable commonplace; 
 the second with a picturesque medley of gleam- 
 ing teeth and eyes, of bright zarapes and blue 
 rebosos, of positive dirt and superlative happiness. 
 Both classes smoke ; all classes smoke ; high and 
 low, old and young, clean and filthy, in door and 
 out, every one, everywhere, and always. Perhaps 
 it is because they are carried away by the ruling 
 passion for smoke, that they persist in making 
 
go MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 their little fires of mesquite on the floors of their 
 huts, and ignore chimneys. The city seems alive 
 with humanity. In open window and balcony, in 
 door and arch way, in plaza and lane and court- 
 yard, the every-day numbers are increased three- 
 fold, and the houses have emptied themselves into 
 the streets. The larger shops, being principally 
 conducted by French or Germans, are closed ; but 
 the native tiendas, the markets, the cantines and 
 pulquerias, and the omnipresent candaleria are 
 widely open. After mass in the morning is the 
 approved time for shopping among the Indians. 
 The man buys his new sandals, and the woman 
 her new veil ; and around each purchaser gather 
 the sisters, the brothers, the uncles, and the 
 cousins, to barter, to haggle, and to enjoy the dear 
 delight of bargaining. Now and again the dark 
 funeral cars pass on the way to the cemetery, — 
 a new treatment of an old subject to which one 
 does not easily grow accustomed. A coffin on an 
 open horse-car, with the traditional bravado of the 
 driver thinly diluted to a weak show of respect by 
 a weed on a plug hat ; and a more or less indifferent 
 crowd in the covered cars behind, including every 
 grade of grief, from that of simple acquaintance 
 
THE FLOATING GARDENS 9 1 
 
 to chief mourner — is worse even than the dreadful 
 funerals at home, with their long string of hired 
 carriages,, which yet have some faint semblance of 
 privacy. In strong contrast come the inexpres- 
 sibly sad burial processions through the country ; 
 the coffin borne on the shoulders of friends, and 
 the little handful of sorrowing people walking 
 behind. This has about it the pathos of homely 
 sincerity, that the bathos of vulgar display ; and 
 yet one may be as heartfelt as the other. 
 
 Along the Viga Canal, leading to the floating 
 gardens, which are now more a name than a 
 reality, the green, slimy water is covered with flat 
 boats and barges, on their way to and from the 
 markets. These are sometimes very beautiful, 
 with masses of vegetables and flowers piled high 
 in fantastic shapes ; sometimes as ugly as garbage 
 and offal can make them. Historians of ancient 
 Mexico paint an exquisite picture of the light 
 peroque of the Aztec, floating with the dawn down 
 the shining water toward the Venice-like city on 
 the lake, wreathed in bloom, its flower-crowned 
 crew chanting hymns to the sun god, and the 
 atmosphere of peace and innocence brightening 
 the scene. But time has played havoc with this, 
 
92 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 as it has with most poetry ; and the passage up 
 and down the Viga is very sober prose indeed. 
 Still it is not without interest ; and if one's liver 
 is right, and the stomach in perfect order, it is an 
 experience that should by no means be omitted. 
 But do not go with too strong an idea of the 
 Venetian gondola and the gay gondolier. 
 
 Although as a rule the exterior is unprepossess- 
 ing, yet here and there through the city one comes 
 across palaces equally gorgeous inside and out. 
 That of Gonzales, ex-President of the Republic, is 
 of this latter kind. Frescoed on the street fronts 
 in elaborate decoration of red and gold ; the finely 
 wrought balconies and screens gilded ; the win- 
 dows glowing with stained glass and carved frames ; 
 and the great trellised gates giving glimpses under 
 the archway of a ravishing courtyard, paved in 
 colored marbles, of arbors and Moorish kiosks, 
 of flowers and fountains and gay awnings, — it 
 looks like the pleasure dome of Kubla Khan, the 
 House of Delight of good Haroun Alraschid, 
 the Palace of Pleasure of Prince Fortunatus, or 
 some magical garden stolen bodily from the Ara- 
 bian Nights, rather than a real home for real 
 every-day living. If the floating rumors of a 
 
POLITICAL JOBBERY 93 
 
 country mean any thing at all, the retired official 
 who owns it understands financiering to a degree 
 which makes Boss Tweed a bungler, and Eno a 
 child in petticoats. During the few years of his 
 administration, he is credited with personal sub- 
 sidies on the national treasury, so continued, so 
 enormous, and so splendidly audacious, as to lift 
 them into the region of high art. On the prin- 
 ciple that the man who kills another man is 
 called a murderer, while the one who kills ten 
 thousand others becomes a hero, his transactions, 
 which would seem to belong of right to the New- 
 gate Calendar, are considered in the light of 
 diplomatic triumphs ; and, to all appearances, his 
 people are proud of his repute. The only differ- 
 ence of opinion we found in his regard was as 
 to whether he had taken out three millions of 
 dollars or twenty-three. If, as is reported, he 
 has built other palaces and other properties as 
 beautiful as this, he has probably done as much 
 good with the money as if it were left to sink 
 in internecine squabbles, or be stolen by other 
 revolutionary communists ; and no doubt he salves 
 his battered conscience with this moral reflection. 
 The present incumbent is made of better stuff. 
 
94 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 The custom of naming the shops after some 
 fact or fancy has been a constant source of 
 amusement to us all through the country, but it 
 reaches the climax of ludicrous perfection here. 
 It is not altogether new, even at home, to meet 
 a saloon or corner grocery with some such fan- 
 ciful appellation as " The Arbor," " The Abbey," 
 or "The Golden Lion." But this universal bap- 
 tism without rhyme or reason, and the utter 
 absurdity to which the limitless tropical imagina- 
 tion has led the sponsors of every business house, 
 from a two-foot-square pulque stand, to a gilded 
 emporium of fashion, would make the framer of 
 the Connecticut Blue Laws laugh out in meeting- 
 time. " The Fountain of Love," " The Triumph of 
 Dynamite," "The FHght of Time," "The Tem- 
 pest of the Soul," are some of those I find in my 
 note-book, taken indiscriminately along the street. 
 "The Tail of the Devil" and "The Little Hell" 
 might have been placed over their respective 
 liquor counters by a temperance lecturer looking 
 toward the eternal fitness of things ; but would 
 he consent to "The Spirit of Purity" and "The 
 Balm of Sorrow," over two similar grog-shops a 
 little farther on .' 
 
EN ROUTE TO TOLUCA 95 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 ON THE SOUTHERN SLOPE 
 
 Passing away from the city on the way to 
 Toluca, a landscape of enchanting loveliness, 
 with some new features both in vegetation and 
 architecture, unfolds itself. The mesquite takes 
 the shape of our apple-trees, only with a more 
 delicious green ; the vegetable gardens are as 
 delicate and fresh as flower patches ; the houses 
 look like Swiss chalets, or the huts built along 
 the Norwegian Alps, with broad overhanging 
 roofs held down by great stones. The hills be- 
 come remarkably steep ; and the sudden down- 
 dropped valleys stretch their cultivated fields to 
 the very summits. The poorest house has its 
 plat of flowers, and cage or two of mocking-birds 
 at the door. Most exquisite views open at each 
 new curve of the climbing road ; grand as those 
 of Colorado, but with a picturesque entourage 
 that gives a subtle foreign aroma which that wild 
 
96 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 beauty lacks. Hills, mountain-sides, deep cup- 
 like valleys, all are glowing with verdure; and 
 the loving touch of humanity softens the rugged 
 grandeur of Nature. The odd, pretty, miserable 
 houses, with walls of adobe, and roof of thatch or 
 fluted scales of red tiles ; the lofty, deep-domed 
 sky, clear and dazzling ; the clouds resting ever 
 on far-off mountain-tops ; the marshy meadows, 
 with innumerable herds of cattle and swarthy 
 shepherds standing knee-deep in the water, are 
 another and a newer page of fascination. Wild, 
 rocky gorges open sometimes suddenly at the 
 road-side ; abrupt canons drop between the hills ; 
 deep chasms and sheer precipices leap to unknown 
 depths ; but always beyond, the peaceful valleys 
 smile, and the blue mountains keep guard against 
 sense of strife or danger. Wretchedly poor as 
 its inhabitants seem to be, there are compensa- 
 tions. Ignorant of care, untroubled by longing, 
 untortured by ambition, their lot may have more 
 of blessing than we imagine. 
 
 On the crest of one hill we looked down a deep 
 ravine to . the City of Mexico, thirty-two hundred 
 feet below, and forty miles away. An ocean of 
 overlapping mountains, tossed together like wind- 
 
ACROSS A RAVINE 97 
 
 swept billows, surrounded a nest of small valleys, 
 that dimpled in a thousand forms of picturesque 
 beauty as far as the eye could reach. Divided 
 only by brilliant green hedges of the maguey, 
 the climbing fields of rich brown soil, fresh 
 ploughed for tillage, crept to the topmost point 
 of the nearer heights ; a rapid mountain stream, 
 fringed with drooping willows, crossed here and 
 there by rude bridges, ran through the centre, and 
 fell like an arrow of light into the depths below. 
 A steep mountain-path, up which a train of burros 
 were painfully climbing, passed over the crest of 
 the nearest hill to some farther valley beyond. 
 The pink towers of an old church, half hidden in 
 trees, rose in bold relief on the summit of one 
 hill ; on the slope of another, a ranche of adobe, 
 with dull red roof, made a glorious bit of color ; 
 and over the most distant peak of all, the dense 
 shadow of a departing thunder-cloud was smitten 
 by one strong beam of brilliant sunshine, which 
 broke, like Ithuriel's spear, into a thousand spark- 
 ling points below. 
 
 Now and again a whirling sandspout rose in an 
 airy column, far off on some gray desert-like plain, 
 as we passed. A motionless fisher with his net. 
 
98 MEXICO— PICTURESQUE 
 
 standing in a shallow pool, rested like a fine 
 statue-like figure against the sky; the drooping 
 scarlet flowers of a wilderness of pepper-trees 
 stretched away on either side ; and far on the hill- 
 side, a silent village, its pale clay walls shining 
 behind adobe hedges, lifted its ruined church- 
 tower amid a sombre grove of cypress. Enormous 
 heaps of corn-stalks for fodder, and grain gath- 
 ered into piles as large as a New-England barn, 
 showed how the resources of the country are 
 being husbanded to prevent a repetition of the 
 famine which devasted its homes a few years ago. 
 Still farther on begins the winding, limpid river, 
 which runs between its high clay banks, down 
 the different terraces of table-lands in this lovely 
 region, and makes the valley of Toluca, with its 
 two or three crops a year, one of the most fertile 
 and valuable in all Mexico. 
 
 At Flor de Maria, on the shady side of the 
 station platform, we found the most primitive 
 form of industry we had yet encountered. Indian 
 women were spinning yarn from the wool of the 
 black sheep of that region, by means of a short 
 wooden rod likea thick knitting-needle, with a little 
 button slipped above the tip to keep the thread 
 
A PRIMITIVE HAND-LOOM 99 
 
 from sliding off. One pointed tip rested in a 
 small gourd placed upon the ground, and the stick 
 was made to revolve upon this by a swift whirling 
 motion of the fingers. The left hand, meantime, 
 drew the long soft strips of carded wool with a 
 slow movement, into a sufficient tenuity to allow 
 of its being twisted in a strong but rough yarn, 
 around the twirling impromptu spinning-wheel. 
 The rapidity with which the thread gathered upon 
 the reel seemed little short of miraculous, in view 
 of the very original method used in producing 
 it. We bought one of the primitive implements 
 for , twenty-five cents. But when we desired to 
 add a yard of narrow cloth woven from the same 
 thread upon a hand loom, the weaver demanded 
 the goodly sum of eight dollars ; which shows, if 
 it shows any thing, that even the untutored child 
 of the Mexican plains, as well as the pampered 
 product of nineteenth-century civilization, knows 
 the difference between the manufactured article 
 and the raw material. 
 
 One who travels by rail the descending slope 
 from the capital toward Vera Cruz passes in a 
 few hours through all the gradations of altitude 
 which required days to scale on the other side. 
 
lOO MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 This entails some altogether novel experiences. 
 At Esperanza, in the early dawn, one leaves frost 
 by the roadside, and a bracing air blown from the 
 snowy brow of Orizaba, seven miles distant. A 
 little tract of country outside the town reminds 
 one of New England in June, but instantly the 
 glimpse of home vanishes. At El Boca del Monte, 
 or "The Mouth of the Mountain," after passing 
 for some time through a rocky gorge, the train 
 emerges upon what we would call a trestle-bridge, 
 but which has been christened by these imagina- 
 tive people in a phrase which explains itself, — El 
 Balcon del Diabolo. The steeply sloping moun- 
 tain-side leaps at one swift bound into the valley 
 of La Joya, the Gem, three thousand feet below. 
 A miracle of loveliness, full of deep, verdant 
 beauty; its rich fields stretching far up the 
 precipitous sides of the opposite heights, with 
 the tiny village of Maltrata, a mass of softly tinted 
 walls and tiled roofs gathered around the spire of 
 the parish church, — it glows like a jewel in the 
 sunshine. Down the spurs of the hills, cataracts 
 of stunted pines and grizzly cactus-bushes sweep 
 like dark avalanches, broken in their course by 
 splintered rocks ; and Orizaba, a fillet of white 
 
DOWN A MOUNTAIN SIDE lOI 
 
 cloud bound beneath its shining brow, fills the 
 eastern sky with glory. Every moment of descent 
 changes the scene. Now it is a deep ravine 
 sweeping downward a thousand feet, filled with 
 pine and oak, mesquite and pepper trees ; now a 
 sudden leap into space, as if the solid earth had 
 lapsed beneath one's feet and left one suspended 
 in air, so slight is the frail supporting trestle- 
 work; now a rocky, cloven gorge sweeping to 
 dizzy heights and depths, while the crawling train 
 clings to its rugged side like a fly creeping across 
 a church wall. New kinds of vegetation bloom 
 in clusters of scarlet bells in the crevices, and 
 strange ferns in shaded spots ; sparkling mountain 
 water leaps in cascades,' or plays hide and seek 
 amid the shrubbery ; and the swift-climbing moun- 
 tains interlace in a network of spurs and slopes, 
 around which the sturdy double-headed engine 
 twists and turns, bounding down a grade that 
 descends three thousand feet in twelve miles. 
 Somewhere, always, the white height of Orizaba 
 crowns the scene ; but the curves of the road bring 
 it first on one side, then on the other, until, 
 "And the mountains skipped like lambs" be- 
 comes a fact instead of a figure in one's mind. 
 
I02 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 Down and down we drop to the valley level, and 
 the awful beauty of the descent is marked like a 
 cobweb thread across the mountain-sides. Fields 
 of pale yellow sugar-cane, bound for the harvest, 
 like sheaves of golden spears, occasional clumps 
 of banana-trees, and the deep green of tobacco- 
 leaves begin to alternate with the usual crops. 
 At the pretty station, a crowd of shy women hold 
 up odd woven baskets of straw, filled with oranges, 
 limes, lemons, baked meats, fresh eggs, cakes, 
 dulces, any thing to find a customer. We pass 
 the " Little Hell," a black chasm in which a mad 
 river foams and frets through riven walls, and stop 
 beyond in a paradise of flowers ; for this luxurious 
 mode of travelling allows us to stop where we 
 will, for flowers, or sights, or dinner, or hot boxes. 
 By the side of the little stream which runs 
 through the valley, we find maiden-hair ferns, and 
 a wall of small Scotch roses growing like wreaths 
 on tendrils ten feet long ; we find gigantic hibis- 
 cus like masses of flame and fire, and waxen Yucca 
 lilies, and pale purple bells with the smell of wild 
 violets, and wood-anemones, frail but exquisite. 
 The cars grow drowsy with bloom and fragrance, 
 and we throw the beautiful evanescent things 
 
IN THE TIERRA CALIENTE IO3 
 
 away a few miles beyond, for the pleasure of pick- 
 ing more. It is a feast of flowers. We go on 
 through a series of enchanting valleys, where small 
 cottages, with enormous sloping cone-shaped roofs 
 of thatch, nestle in the midst of lavish beauty, 
 and fields where every product of the temperate 
 zone alternates with every product of the tropics. 
 We pass fields of yellow squash blossoms and 
 tomato plants, of pease, beans, corn, lettuce, and 
 radishes, side by side with mamae and pawpaw, 
 limes and pomegranates. The mountains change 
 from bare summits, stained with rare mineral dyes, 
 to masses of luxuriant green from base to crown ; 
 a wealth of rich color and fragrance spreads over 
 field and height ; a luscious, rank magnificence 
 of growth, which bewilders while it charms. 
 
 And before noontime of that same frosty morn- 
 ing you will probably be walking about a coffee 
 plantation ; the beautiful plants or trees, from ten 
 to fifteen feet in height, covered with small, shiny 
 leaves, dark and burnished like holly, with bright red 
 fruit similar to our cranberry both in color and 
 size. All around the garden the long, banner-like 
 leaf of the banana is waving above great clusters 
 of fruit. The air is heavy with odors of orange- 
 
I04 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 blossoms, shining like waxen stars through glossy 
 green leaves, by the side of glowing golden fruit. 
 Immense pineapples are ripening within whorls of 
 spear-like foliage, with a rich musky fragrance. 
 The peasant huts, with conical thatched roofs reach- 
 ing nearly to the ground, are half hidden in lux- 
 urious masses of unknown but beautiful bushes ; 
 and the large sculptured leaves of the palmetto 
 emphasize the strangeness that surrounds you. 
 If you are fortunate as we, you wiU find an olive- 
 skinned group under the overhanging veranda of 
 the overseer's house ; the children swinging in 
 palm-leaf hammocks ; the withered grandmother 
 crooning to a baby, on the corner of the wide 
 wooden bench ; and the graceful matron ready to 
 draw a gourd full of fresh water for you from the 
 scriptural-looking well under the tamarind -tree. 
 In her long white robe, loosely gathered about the 
 waist by a sash, great rings in her small ears, and 
 a triple necklace falling down on the dusky bosom, 
 she was not unlike Rebecca. The whole atmos- 
 phere was redolent of a world new, strange, and 
 untried ; and the Mexico we had learned to know 
 looked strangely familiar compared with this one. 
 The heat was something terrific, as if it smould- 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE ATOYAC lOJ 
 
 ered in silent intensity ; the castor-plants, grown 
 to large trees, with long spikes of blossoms and 
 pendant sheaths of berries, looked as if they 
 needed no further refinement of furnace to reduce 
 them to oil ; yet the laborers worked on, in sun or 
 shade, as the case might be, as if a temperature of 
 a hundred and twenty-five degrees was a normal 
 condition. 
 
 The fervor and glow of this tropical country is 
 incredible to one who has never experienced it. 
 Earth seems to have revelled in a thousand fantas- 
 tic forms of frolic life in mere wantonness. Every 
 hair's-breadth of soil is covered with a tangle of 
 rare and strange forms ; interlacing vines leap 
 from tree to tree, and luxuriant parasites cling to 
 the boughs as if jealous of filling every open 
 space. Lavish blossoms, in gorgeous masses of 
 red and yellow, glow alike on tree and shrub, until 
 one almost fancies the forests filled with the 
 gaudy plumage of birds, so large and striking are 
 the separate blossoms. Here and there, as in the 
 falls of the Atoyac, the water breaks through 
 some mountain-gap, to bury itself in a fathomless 
 depth of verdure below, and a rich, sensuous 
 delight holds one enthralled in a delicious languor. 
 
I06 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 It is paradise for the body, but it is too much for 
 the soul. Spiritual strength weakens before this 
 luxurious mass of material force. I cannot con- 
 ceive of great work being done in this seductive 
 world. Beautiful as Circe, it is the mortal, and 
 not the immortal, to whom its fascinations 
 appeal. 
 
 This memorable day, which began at a tempera- 
 ture of thirty-two degrees, and climaxed at noon 
 with a white heat of ninety-seven degrees in the 
 shade ; with its unequalled experience of temper- 
 ate zones and tropic ; with its gallery of pictures, 
 which stamped themselves like instantaneous 
 photographs on tenacious memory, — was made 
 more memorable yet by the most wonderful suc- 
 cession of cloud effects about Orizaba in the early 
 eventide. While the valley through which we 
 were passing was dark with night shadows, the 
 dome-like summit, radiant with crimson sunset- 
 glow, lifted its glorious, shining head into the 
 pure, pale air, while a dense mass of cloud swept 
 between it and the lordly base, lost already in 
 the growing darkness. It transcended all we had 
 yet known of mountain scenery, and its nearness 
 made the towering height stupendous. 
 
A MUSICAL CONDUCTOR 107 
 
 We stopped at length on the brink of a preci- 
 pice on the summit of the hills, in a white radiance 
 of moonlight that made the world almost unearthly. 
 The snow-covered dome of the mountain looked 
 as if bathed in molten silver; faint home-lights 
 glanced here and there, like fire-flies, from the 
 obscure depths of the valley, three thousand feet 
 below ; a long, wavering line of forest fires ran like 
 a glowing red snake up the opposite hillside. On 
 the back platform of the rear car, the dark-eyed 
 Spanish conductor sang Castilian love-songs and 
 Italian airs to the accompaniment of his guitar ; 
 and, as the full, liquid tones rolled out upon the 
 night, the doors of wayside cabins opened softly, 
 and groups of silent, dark-eyed Indians gathered 
 near to listen. The people seem to love music as 
 they love flowers and birds, intuitively ; and we 
 were not surprised to learn that a conservatory for 
 the education of promising voices was established 
 in Mexico. The perfect simplicity and kindness 
 with which this handsome young fellow enter- 
 tained us through the long midsummer evening 
 could only be possible in a country like this ; and 
 it was as charming as it was new in conductors. 
 
 On the journey toward Vera Cruz, the traveller. 
 
Io8 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 entering from the north, is brought for the first 
 time into close contact with those immense plan- 
 tations of the maguey, which form one of the 
 largest industries of the country at present. Here 
 for hundreds of miles the plains and hillsides are 
 covered with long, close lines of agave in every 
 stage, from the strong, large, generous beauty of 
 the full-grown plant, to the small, tender green of 
 the newly transplanted shoots. If one can con- 
 ceive the syhimetry of these regular forms, with the 
 spiked, fleshy leaves, eight or ten feet long, falling 
 in a whorl around the central blossom-stalk with 
 the regularity of sculpture, and conceive also the 
 effect of seeing them spread over such vast tracts 
 of country, he will have before him one of the 
 most novel pictures in this land of novelty. The 
 plant is to the native what the cocoa-palm is to 
 the South-Sea Islander; it combines within itself 
 a dozen different materials for comfort and use. 
 Growing on an absolutely dry soil, with no help 
 from irrigation, it has a property of condensing 
 moisture and coolness about its roots, which 
 makes it yield at full growth an incredible amount 
 of liquid. The difficulty of finding certain infor- 
 mation regarding any thing here, where the usual 
 
PULQUE. 109 
 
 answer to inquiry is a shrug and a " Quien sabe ? " 
 has kept us from finding definitely the facts 
 regarding pulque-making up to the present time. 
 The plant, after from six to eight years' growth, 
 develops in the centre a large circular cone, which, 
 if allowed to increase, would become a thick stalk, 
 bearing the blossom atop. The cone being 
 removed at this early stage, leaves a deep, bowl- 
 like hollow, into which the juice pours at the 
 rate of four to six quarts daily for two or three 
 months. The slightly acrid fluid is drawn off by 
 means of rude siphons, and left from ten to 
 fourteen days in enormous vats, covered inside 
 with hides, the hairy side out, for some chemical 
 reason. A slight froth rises during the process 
 of fermentation, which is skimmed off ; and the 
 pulque is drawn into casks or pig-skins ready for 
 transportation. What attraction to taste, sight, 
 or smell this thin, sticky, sour, pale beverage can 
 have, is one of the mysteries a stranger can never 
 hope to elucidate. Still, as nearly every luxury 
 in every land is an acquired taste, from the de- 
 cayed fish and birdsnest of the Chinese, to the 
 Roquefort cheese and olive of Western civiliza- 
 tion, we ought not to quarrel with this manifes- 
 
I lO MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 tation. Throughout the length and breadth of 
 this country, the slimy, yeasty, sorrowful stuff 
 has an enthusiastic success. 
 
 With this common drink, which is to the Mexi- 
 can what beer is to the German, or light wine to the 
 Frenchman, the maguey furnishes two others, not 
 unlike our brandy and whiskey, very intoxicating, 
 but, thank goodness ! very little used. We saw 
 but two drunken men during our entire journey. 
 It supplies the natives, besides, with a primitive 
 needle and thread, by tearing off one of the sharp 
 spikes and a long thread of fibre ; it gives a species 
 of hempen cloth from the coarser tissue, and of 
 paper from the fine inner pulp ; it provides a good 
 thatch for houses ; and the debris, dried, makes 
 fuel in regions where wood is scarce. So that it 
 fills every want, like a general utility man in a 
 small theatre company, and brings its owner a good 
 income besides. It is hard for one to see where 
 the profit comes, when a glass of pulque can be sold 
 so cheaply ; but they say that each plant brings 
 an average of about fifty dollars for its six or eight 
 years of life, and its hundred square feet or so of 
 ground room. New cuttings are immediately 
 planted in the places of the exhausted crop, so 
 that a regular rotation of harvests is insured. 
 
A QUEEN OF SHEBA III 
 
 On the same southern route is Puebla, the 
 second largest city of the republic, — beautiful, 
 with airy, wholesome streets, and clean, fine 
 houses ; with a wilderness of old churches, rich 
 in bronzes, tapestries, and valuable pictures ; with 
 fine fagades glittering in blue and yellow tiles, 
 and a forest of spires and towers in every soft 
 tint under the sun, purple, pink, amber, and azure. 
 We found new products in the market-places ; 
 queer mats of pineapple and maguey fibre, 
 pottery decorated in bold relief, brooms and 
 sombreros, and onyx worked into a thousand 
 ornamental shapes. And presiding over a tawny 
 heap of oranges and a fragrant mass of pineapples, 
 we found the Queen of Sheba, her great eyes 
 shining under a broad straw hat, her plump, dusky 
 shoulders rising from the richly embroidered 
 recesses of her white camisa, her bare, small feet 
 and ankles showing under the short scarlet skirt 
 with its barbaric trimming, and a soft, floating 
 sash of vivid colors loosely knotted about her 
 supple waist. She was walking, with a superb 
 step, through the shadows of the arched portales 
 as I first saw her, and her gait revealed the 
 goddess. I am ,sorry to say she was walking 
 
112 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 toward a pulque counter, and that she tossed ofiE 
 a pint tumbler full with as much sang-froid as 
 you would show in taking a glass of ice-water. 
 But she did it with so airy a grace, and with an 
 abandon so different from the usual timid aspect 
 of her sex, that it was irresistible. 
 
 The people were better dressed here, the scrapes 
 finer, the sandals more like proper foot-cover- 
 ings, than in any place we had so far reached. 
 There were fewer of the very poor, fewer cripples 
 and beggars and unemployed, than even in the 
 City of Mexico ; consequently the general air of 
 content and happiness was greater. The churches 
 offered an embarrassment of riches, and both 
 public buildings and plazas were exceptionally well 
 kept. Its cleanliness was marked, and a corre- 
 sponding degree of healthfulness made it doubly 
 attractive. At the Hotel de Diligencias, where 
 we had our second purely Mexican dinner, the 
 tables were laid under the arches of the upper 
 gallery of the inner court, under hanging baskets 
 of flowers, with climbing vines and strange 
 shrubs rising from pots of deep blue pottery 
 placed closely around the light balustrade which 
 separated us from the open air. The deep sky. 
 
ON THE HOUSE-TOP II3 
 
 with an occasional fleecy cloud rolling across it, 
 looked down upon us ; the deep go,den sunshine 
 broke through the delicate green hedge behind 
 us ; strange birds in odd wicker cages answered 
 each other in bursts of melody ; it was as lovely 
 a decoration as art could conceive. We had a 
 spicy, hot soup, of flavor unknown to us ; ome- 
 lette, with green herbs ; rice, with tomato and 
 red peppers ; beef a la mode ; oyster patties ; 
 curry of chicken ; jellies, delicate and deliciously 
 moulded ; fruits, coffee, cakes, and tea. From 
 the promenade on the flat roof above, we could 
 look down into the court and the pretty 
 impromptu dining-room, like some strange for- 
 eign picture. And we could look at something 
 better still, — at the two mysterious and beautiful 
 creatures rising into the serene sky only twenty 
 miles away. Lightly veiled by a transparent 
 silver cloud, which wound about them in a thou- 
 sand graceful forms, while exquisite lights and 
 shadows stained their rifted sides with deep ame- 
 thyst and royal purples worthy the mantle of a 
 king, — Ixtaccihuatl and Popocatapetl, brought 
 startlingly near from our change of position, 
 looked down upon us through all the changing 
 
114 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 hours of one memorable day. Far away on the 
 other side, like a pale shadow, the beautiful peak 
 of Orizaba showed upon the horizon ; and fainter 
 yet, the outline of Malinche made itself visible 
 beyond. 
 
 It is impossible yet to reconcile the personal 
 dirt of the lower classes, which is indisputable, 
 with the cleanliness of their clothes. Few, even 
 of the poorest, but have a very respectable white- 
 ness in their cotton shirts and drawers ; and the 
 towels and napkins, which they use abundantly 
 about their baskets of cakes and dulces, are as 
 snowy as laundry work can make them. They 
 are, besides, beautifully embroidered with the 
 exquisite fine drawn-work for which the women 
 of Mexico are celebrated. It was astonishing to 
 see the beauty and value which had often been 
 added to coarse or common material in this way. 
 The bodices and short-sleeved chemises of the 
 young girls, and even the woollen petticoats of 
 the Indians, were almost invariably ornamented, 
 either in colors or in white. The ease and accu- 
 racy with which intricate designs were conceived, 
 or followed from some minute strips of pattern, 
 were astonishing. The recent " crazes " of civil- 
 
CLEANLINESS II5 
 
 ization for art needlework have shown nothing 
 more delicate or more refined than the specimens 
 of work to be seen everywhere here from the 
 hands of the common people. The celebrated 
 embroideries of Fayal look coarse and mechanical 
 in comparison ; as soon as their worth is under- 
 stood by strangers, there will certainly be a legit- 
 imate and profitable occupation opened to the 
 women of the country. Much of the skill shown 
 is no doubt due to the teaching of the convent 
 schools, which have always been famous for their 
 training in fine needlework. The gentleness and 
 extreme patience of the popular character lend 
 themselves with especial adaptability to the care 
 required in such manipulation ; and the renown 
 which has followed the lace-makers of Belgium 
 may be repeated again for the beautiful work of 
 their southern sisters. 
 
 We have been more surprised throughout at 
 the neatness in the country than at the filth. It 
 is easy to see where carelessness creeps in, when 
 water can only be dipped by the saucerful from 
 the narrow trough of a fountain in the smaller 
 towns, or at best be carried in jars from the 
 aqueducts. But it is harder to explain the 
 
1 16 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 clean-swept streets and floors, the clean-washed 
 garments, when one reflects that nine times out 
 of ten the one suit, noonday and night, forms 
 the entire stock of wearing apparel, and that 
 cleaning it means the temporary retirement of 
 the family, either publicly of privately. Judging 
 from the number of primitive bathing and wash- 
 ing establishments we met by country brooks and 
 city ditches, wherein father, mother, children, and 
 clothes were all being cleaned together, I am 
 inclined to think they prefer the public demon- 
 stration. And why should they not, if it be simpler 
 and easier.' Is it their dovelike innocence that 
 is to be condemned, or our prudish wisdom ? 
 
DAY LABORERS II7 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 SHRINES AND PILGRIMAGES 
 
 There is something at once inspiring and 
 dreadful in the intensity with which these men 
 work. Where or how the fallacy concerning 
 their laziness has gained ground, it is hard to 
 understand. Whatever they do is done as if 
 salvation depended upon it, and the exertion 
 demanded .where manual labor takes the place 
 of steam or horse power is so bitterly hard that 
 it makes their continuous application the more 
 wonderful. We have yet to see the first instance 
 of shirking or of carelessness. Slight of frame, 
 small in stature, with every appearance of deli- 
 cacy in physique, they will take upon the 
 shoulders as much as five or six men can lift, 
 and carry it an indefinite distance. Under these 
 immense burdens, they trot instead of walking. 
 To see a mozo climbing five or six flights of 
 stairs, and traversing acres of corridors, at this 
 
Il8 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 swift pace, with a heavy Saratoga trank on his 
 back ; or to meet four laborers rushing through 
 the city streets with a Chickering piano on their 
 shoulders, is a sight to which we are becom- 
 ing so well used that familiarity robs it of its 
 first painfulness. These brave workers are so 
 surprised and unprepared for either pity or sym- 
 pathy that we begin to cover both with the 
 negative quality of indifference. Still, to look 
 day after day at street pavers and sweepers, 
 working as if fame or fortune depended on de- 
 spatch ; porters hurrying under the weight of 
 their enormous burdens ; farm laborers ploughing, 
 reaping, gathering wood, drawing water, hour after 
 hour, without a turn of the head or lifting of an eye- 
 lash for the world outside, decidedly upsets one's 
 preconceived notions, and leaves one in a maze of 
 reflections. This utter absorption of self in his 
 occupation gives a certain dignity to the man ; 
 and one finds here often, amid the most menial 
 surroundings, something of that fine spirit — that 
 in-breathing of purpose into action — that makes 
 Millett's Sower a heroic figure. Think of the men 
 lifted above these by every accident of education 
 and fortune, whom we so often see in the fair 
 
OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE IIQ 
 
 fields at home, listless, uninterested, careful only to 
 fill the time of their contract ; and these earnest, 
 eager, constant laborers become superb. 
 
 The miraculous shrine of Our Lady of Gua- 
 dalupe, six miles outside the City of Mexico, is 
 of great interest, as every spot must be around 
 which centres the hint of spiritual manifestations. 
 This is no place to venture a single comment 
 upon the truth or superstition of the claims made 
 by friends and enemies. To the people of the 
 country it is a real and abiding evidence of the 
 personal intervention of the Divinity in human 
 affairs, and a closer link between the seen and 
 the unseen world. Deluded they may be, and 
 ignorant and absurd ; but can a land that believes 
 in spiritualism and faith - cures afford to laugh 
 at them > Are not the crutches and staffs, the 
 votive tablets, and touching simple offerings hung 
 within the silver railing of the shrine at Guada- 
 lupe at least as worthy of respectful attention 
 as the voluntary letters and paid advertisements 
 which attest the miracle cures of a more matter- 
 of-fact civilization .' " People who live in glass 
 houses should never throw stones ; " and I am 
 tired of listening to the audible sneers at so-called 
 
120 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 Catholic superstition, when we preserve in our 
 midst to-day a score of myths and delusions 
 equally as vague and less dignified. 
 
 From the height upon which the upper chapel is 
 perched, which is reached by such interminable 
 flights of stone steps ! a lovely view of the valley 
 of Mexico, only less beautiful than that of Chapul- 
 tepec, is obtained. The shrunken outline of Lake 
 Texcoco, in the midst of its carbonate plains, shows 
 more clearly than from the other eminence ; and 
 piles of shining white chemical matter, like that 
 of the alkali fields of Nevada, glisten in the sun, 
 waiting refining in the reduction works beyond. 
 One understands from this outlook the enormous 
 change that must have taken place in the natural 
 aspect of this vicinity since Cortes and his warlike 
 band crossed the narrow causeway that formed the 
 only communication between the mainland and 
 the city built in the lake, and only a few elevated 
 points like this of Guadalupe lifted themselves 
 above the shining waste of water which stretched 
 for ten miles about. The present condition makes 
 the question of drainage for Mexico a most com- 
 plex problem. Its surroundings to-day make it 
 not unlike a vast sewer, made possible to live in. 
 
A PICTURE OF THE HOLY FAMILY 121 
 
 or rather not to die in, by the wonderful air and 
 sunshine, and the purity of atmosphere caused 
 by great elevation. Coming from the north, the 
 smooth tablelands rise by such gentle gradations, 
 that one is not conscious of being lifted above the 
 sea-level ; but the eight thousand feet are actually 
 there to separate one from the lower world, and 
 bear him into at least comparative security. If it 
 were not for this blessed altitude, and the purity 
 which belongs to it, the city would be a simple 
 death-trap. As it is, matters are bad enough. 
 
 It was on the road to Guadalupe that we once 
 saw a picture, which has since become common, 
 but which looked then like a scriptural illustra- 
 tion made real. A young woman, decently and 
 simply dressed, with a sleeping infant in her arms, 
 sitting upon a small, patient burro, passed down a 
 dusty lane under the shadow of a hedge of yuccas, 
 which looked not unlike the Eastern palm. Her 
 long, blue reboso was wound modestly about the 
 head, and covered the form of the little child, 
 whom she was regarding as fondly as the most 
 tender mother could desire. By her side walked, 
 bare-headed for the time being, a handsome, 
 middle-aged man, with a magnificent shock of 
 
122 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 coal-black hair, and a full, waving beard. A long 
 staff in his hand, and a dull red zarape wound 
 about the body, he looked as much like St. Joseph 
 in the pictures of the Holy Family and the Flight 
 into Egypt as if some artist had assisted at his 
 reproduction. It was a living tableau. We have 
 seen many similar ones since. 
 
 As the time comes for leaving this lovely coun- 
 try, its attractions increase, and its discomforts 
 diminish in geometrical progression. The dust, 
 the smells, the heat, the fatigue — what are they 
 now, compared with the full measure of delight 
 which memory has heaped with treasures .' What, 
 indeed, have they ever been but passing hinder- 
 ances, interfering no more with the ultimate sum 
 of happiness, than the fluttering of a swallow's 
 wing breaks the beauty of his swift flight ? These 
 two months, taken from the dreariest portion of 
 the Christian year, from sleet and snow and mar- 
 row-chilling winds, and given up to largesse of 
 sunshine and flowers, to the superb abundance 
 of a richer summer than we had ever dreamed of 
 before, are something to have lived for. So many 
 unnoted strange excellences clamor now for men- 
 tion before this most inadequate record closes, 
 
THE SOUTHERN ATMOSPHERE I23 
 
 that one scarce knows where to begin, — the 
 faint, spicy smell of cedar-wood which perfumes 
 the warm air through the entire kingdom ; the 
 twitter of small bird voices, sweeter but not so 
 loud as our sparrows at home, in the dawning ; 
 the lifting of palm branches knotted with clusters 
 of scarlet poppies in the nave of the great cathe- 
 dral on Palm Sunday, as the priest's hands were 
 uplifted, in blessed remembrance of the entrance 
 of Christ into Jerusalem ; the novelty of waking 
 morning after morning to the delicious certainty 
 of bright skies and warm air, as if some clear- 
 eyed, silver-tongued angel were calling the weather 
 record, instead of the tricksy sprite that presides 
 over New England. And yet I am more con- 
 vinced than ever of the superiority of our own 
 climate, impish as it often is, for all purposes of 
 progress and advancement. Weak human nature 
 needs the impulse of re-action : it needs sting of 
 cold to spur toward effort. The warm kisses 
 of this southern air would relax the energy of 
 Alaric the Goth. You might transplant a model 
 Vermont household, where the mother rises be- 
 fore dawn, and has hot doughnuts every morning 
 for breakfast ; where the children dress by candle- 
 
124 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 light, and do their chores like clockwork ; where 
 the father works like an automaton from cock- 
 crow to dusk, without taking time to eat, prefer- 
 ring wicked dyspepsia to unholy leisure, — you 
 might transplant a colony of these just but sad 
 souls, and in one generation they would be reclin- 
 ing in hammocks, looking at the world through 
 great, contented sleepy eyes, and overpowered by 
 the exertion of clapping their hands in order to 
 call mozo or maid to their side with chocolate and 
 cigarettes. The mother might not smoke, but 
 her daughters probably would. The sharp voices 
 would have lowered three full tones, and fallen 
 into a tender minor key ; the swift jerkiness of 
 motion would have subsided to a languid, swaying 
 glide ; and the whole family would have succumbed 
 to the inertia of this luxurious atmosphere. For, 
 unhappily, laws of nature are stronger than laws 
 of grace ; and the law of climatic limitations is 
 strongest of all. 
 
 One of the last days we passed in the City of 
 Mexico we had ridden out by Tacubuya to see 
 one of the cemeteries, surrounded by the high 
 walls and stern gates which enclose those silent 
 resting-places throughout the country. Strangely 
 
A LAST GLIMPSE 12$ 
 
 enough, these are always called Pantheons, per- 
 haps with some reverent idea that all who enter 
 within this temple are gods, since they have put 
 on immortality. As we turned into the lovely 
 Paseo, a thunder-cloud which had swept down 
 into the valley lifted enough to show the pale 
 white peaks, while its ragged edges still trailed 
 across the plain. Over the city a hand's-breadth 
 of blue sky shone on a bit of water near it with a 
 cold, steely sparkle ; while the soft, hazy darkness 
 still enveloped the mass of trees and buildings 
 beyond. The beautiful stone arches of the aque- 
 ducts, bringing water from the hills, shone in the 
 half light with a dignity even greater than that 
 added by radiant sunlight ; and the small white 
 villages, each an indistinct mass of walls and 
 towers, nestled into the background of mountains, 
 vague yet beautiful, as adding human interest to 
 the distant scene. Elegance and wealth crowded 
 the long avenue with loveliness and life, poverty 
 and rags crouched by the wayside ; and it seemed 
 a type of the country, beautiful, but gloomy ; 
 strong with contrasts of light and shadow; rich 
 in plenitude of resources, but poor in opportuni- 
 ties of utilizing them ; at once picturesque and 
 pathetic. 
 
126 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 The great improvement which statistics show 
 to have taken place since the advent of rail- 
 roads, and in direct proportion to their use, is 
 one of the most encourageing signs of the times. 
 Already the states have grown to see the enormity 
 of placing barriers between their own free inter- 
 course ; and the law has thrown down the petty 
 system of customs which prevailed on each bound- 
 ary line, as well as the differences in currency 
 which made a cent taken at Zacatecas useless in 
 Querdtaro. A common coinage and common 
 laws are to be put in operation throughout the 
 republic. Equally blind is the present system 
 of duties between it and our own country, placing 
 an insurmountable obstacle between free inter- 
 change of products and manufactures, and shut- 
 ting two great nations out of mutual advantages. 
 On our side especially there would be every thing 
 to gain, and nothing to lose, by abolishing the pro- 
 tective tariff. Business is conducted now upon 
 a most unhealthy basis. Credits of a year are 
 given with interest of at least one per cent a 
 month meantime ; an unfair taxation makes landed 
 property and incomes free, and leaves the entire 
 burden to fall on the already overladen shoulders 
 
THE MISSION OF THE RAILROAD 12/ 
 
 of the poor man ; and the national school system, 
 which would naturally, by education, open the 
 eyes of the people to these absurdities, is made 
 available by only ten per cent of the population. 
 The railroad has already accomplished much to 
 secure permanence of government, and protec- 
 tion for business ventures, by breaking up the 
 organized bands of robbers which infested some 
 of the richest districts ; by bringing newer and 
 more wholesome customs into the slovenly ways 
 of trade ; and by minimizing the opportunities 
 for revolt and revolution, which used constantly 
 to threaten permanence of government, by bring- 
 ing all parts of the country into close and swift 
 connection with the heads of departments at the 
 capital. The next ten years will do wonders to 
 help progress and utilize resources ; but, alas ! it 
 will change the beautiful, picturesque, unpractical 
 world we have rejoiced in. There is no rose 
 without its thorn. 
 
 You will be tempted to think, when you return 
 to El Paso, that you have gotten hold of a 
 very thorny rose indeed, by the time the consci- 
 entious officials have turned your trunks upside 
 down, and upset your bundles on the station 
 
128 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 platform, in search of contraband goods ; that 
 is, unless you travel as we did, in a party, and 
 under such honorable auspices that they take 
 your honesty for granted, and pass your luggage 
 untouched. The enormous rate of duty charged 
 between this country and Mexico is something 
 stupendous. Naturally, in a strange land, one 
 likes to pick up here and there some memento 
 of the new people, some trifles of dress or adorn- 
 ing, to make large the wondering eyes of the little 
 tribe at home, and dissipate a little of the obscurity 
 hanging about this far-away world. You gather a 
 penny bit of pottery here, and a shilling vase there. 
 You negotiate for a zarape at Leon, and a pair of 
 coarse leather sandals at Zacatecas. You buy a 
 broken idol at Cholula, a reboso at Silao, a basket 
 at Guanajuato, an onyx paper-weight at Puebla, a 
 handful of opals at Quer^taro. And, of course, 
 yj3u get a Guadalahara water-jar, some Aguas Ca- 
 lientes feather-work, a cotton image at Chihuahua, 
 a Guadalupe duck, and a living, breathing, delicious 
 Mexican mocking-bird. Thus much, at least ; 
 with probably some of the very cheap trifles 
 which belong distinctively to each little town ; 
 so that in the end you have a practical exposition 
 
A WOMAN'S TARIFF VIEWS 1 29 
 
 of Mexican life, which is excessively small, en- 
 tirely valueless except after a sentimental fashion, 
 but intensely satisfactory to yourself. Then your 
 mind begins to be harrowed by dark hints about 
 duties, and whispered suspicions about right of 
 search. Stories are told of this one who had 
 to leave his goods in bond, and that one who had 
 to forfeit them altogether. At last you are con- 
 fronted by a formidable legal document, as vague 
 and stilted as legal documents always are, which 
 demands in the usual solemn and priggish manner 
 to know whether you declare on oath that you 
 have or haven't such or such manufactures of 
 wool, etc., subject to such and such laws and 
 by-laws. Being a woman, you treat this with 
 the contempt it deserves, and cut the Gordian 
 knot by declining to read it at all. Likewise, 
 being a woman, you are a consistent and conser- 
 vative free trader (unless your husband happen 
 to be a manufacturer), and you would scorn to 
 yield your principles to any such base persuasion. 
 Shall you, forsooth, strike your colors because 
 there are some paltry odds and ends in your 
 trunk in danger of confiscation ? The spirit which 
 animated the Revolutionary heroes animates you. 
 
I30 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 That the tyrants in this case are of your own 
 race, makes it but the more harrowing. If they 
 can be mean enough, or absurd enough, with 
 their nonsense about protection and tariff, to hunt 
 through all your possessions, and pick out your 
 armful of poor, dear, pretty things, why let them. 
 You, at least, will not help them to make out the 
 list. If they take them, they shall do so without 
 leave or license. And so, having seized the bull 
 by the horns, you wait to see whether it is going 
 to toss, or leave you alone. In our case it proved 
 to be the mildest-mannered animal possible ; we 
 entered into our kingdom again as untouched by 
 scathe of customs-man or duty as we left it ; and 
 so home, without trial or tribulation. 
 
 I wonder, if we ever are happy enough to go to 
 Mexico again, whether the long brown fields, with 
 their tufts of strong green grass, will stretch away 
 to the brilliant mountains in the distance ; and here 
 and there a water-course gather about it its small 
 oasis of beauty, with the great unsheltered corn- 
 bins looking like high-peaked Arab tents on 
 the horizon ; whether the picturesque shepherds 
 with their long wands will guide their wander- 
 ing flocks of sheep and goats across the brown 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE NAME OF GOD 13I 
 
 desert slopes, and the veiled women will gather 
 about the great gray stone fountains, dipping 
 their red jars full from the shallow water within. 
 I wonder whether the clatter of the tinkling 
 church-bells will steal across the land from softly 
 tinted towers ; and reptile forests of cactus snare 
 the sun in shining, prickly leaf and glowing blos- 
 som; and hundreds of miles away, past walled 
 town and domed city, the shining peaks of the 
 old volcanoes lift themselves into the bright air 
 against the glowing sky of dawn or sunset. And 
 places like this little valley of Nombre de Dios, 
 which we are passing to-day, lying under the 
 mountains by the river-side, its poor cottagers 
 riding home on tired horses to the desolate, small 
 adobe huts, and the evening meal of tortillas, or 
 walking across the pretty fields, husband holding 
 the hand of wife and child, — I wonder whether, 
 with its Name of God changed to the name of 
 some bustling American manufacturer who will 
 develop the silver and copper of its background 
 of mineral hills, its huts replaced by comfortable 
 frame-houses, its scant mesquite fires changed to 
 labor-saving stoves, its rags discarded for decent 
 clothes, and its ruined towers rebuilt into trim 
 
132 MEXICO— PICTURESQUE 
 
 Steeples, it will be as lovely, as contented, or as 
 happy as it is to-day. May Heaven grant it ! and 
 as to this, so to every other spot in Mexico. But 
 how glad one should be to have seen it before 
 improvement stepped in to civilize and 'Spbil! 
 Just as it is, strange mixture of industry and 
 unthrift, of sweetness and impurity, of barrenness 
 and luxurious richness, of poverty and wealth, of 
 repulsiveness and fascination, has the world to- 
 day any thing better to offer than a Mexican 
 holiday .' 
 
LITERARY TRAITS 1 33 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 LITERARY MEXICO : A GROUP OF NOVELS 
 
 Before leaving that domain of the picturesque 
 to which its natural scenery and poetic expression 
 belong, it may not be out of place to take a 
 passing glance at the lighter literature of Mexico, 
 as represented in the works of its better known 
 novelists. Choosing, then, as specimens, three 
 or four books from the somewhat limited list at 
 the service of the reader, one is first struck by 
 a certain number of general traits which form a 
 foundation for the superstructures of differing 
 styles and authors. There is, to begin with, an 
 almost universal absence of the finer analytic and 
 subjective writing. Character is painted broadly 
 rather than by delicate touches of detail, and 
 the motives of action are only suggested by the 
 accomplishment of the act. There is a tendency 
 towards epigrammatic terseness in sentence and 
 paragraph ; and, except in very rare cases, any 
 
134 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 close study of psychological phenomena m con- 
 nection with the conduct of personages is left to 
 the reader himself. -He may form his own con- 
 clusions, or he may read his tale without drawing 
 therefrom any moral. One finds invariably a 
 deep admiration for nature, expressed in delicate 
 word-painting of scenery, and loving reminiscences 
 of favorite spots. The material environment is 
 always luminous and forceful ; there can never be 
 any doubt, in this fine glow of local color, as to 
 where the action of the drama is laid. And there 
 is an immense impulse of patriotic spirit which 
 seems, in spite of time and distance, to propel the 
 author toward the days of revolution and struggle 
 for his mise en seine. In the twelve novels we 
 have chosen as a basis for observation, eleven are 
 placed, as to time, amid the complications arising 
 from the events of the years between i860 and 
 1867. They might all be historic as well as the 
 two which bear this distinctive title. The single 
 exception is a chronicle of life and customs more 
 than a hundred years ago. 
 
 For many reasons this exceptional story is of 
 interest. Purporting to be the garrulous narrative 
 of a man drawing near the limit of extreme age, 
 
AN HUNDRED YEARS AGO 135 
 
 and relating to children and grandchildren the 
 history of his earlier career, it is as remarkable 
 for minuteness of detail, as are its companion 
 volumes for large generalizations. After the 
 fashion of " Gil Bias," it is interspersed with ac- 
 counts of the adventures of this or that comrade 
 whom chance has brought into contact with the 
 hero. With much less elegance of style than the 
 celebrated story of Le Sage, it more than repairs 
 this shortcoming by the purity of incident and 
 superior moral tone which pervades its many 
 chapters. With utmost exactness it relates the 
 trivial incidents of infancy, childhood, and youth ; 
 each passing event is made the subject of a new 
 disquisition. Mistakes of the time regarding the 
 rearing of children, the sending out of the in- 
 fant to nurse, the relegating of early training to 
 servants and irresponsible persons, the absurd 
 ignorance of the village schoolmaster, all receive 
 their share of castigation. Laxness of discipline 
 in seminary and college, the strange mingling of 
 trivialities and superstitions which finally assumed 
 the place of education, the mis-usages of society 
 which condemned the offspring of well-to-do 
 parents to the temptations of idleness, each has 
 
136 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 its own long chapter in the nine hundred pages 
 of this interesting but endless volume. Life on 
 the haciendas, with its private bull-ring, and 
 slow recurring village festas ; life in the city, its 
 sole idea of amusement centering about the gam- 
 bling-table, and the disgraceful orgy of the public 
 ball ; life in the home, languid, dull, unoccupied 
 by sense of duty beyond the sluggish routine of 
 domestic affairs, or elevation of purpose save the 
 endeavor to uphold traditions of caste at expense 
 of probity and comfort, all these are delineated with 
 affecting realism. Compared with this picture of 
 customs and manners a century ago, the Mexico 
 of to-day is a land of impetuous progress ; but, at 
 the same time, one is surprised to find amid the 
 old-fashioned moralizing of the venerable penitent 
 some of the most approved modern ideas concern- 
 ing social problems. He declaims against round 
 dancing ; he scourges the fashion of wearing 
 mourning graded to express the infinitesimal 
 steps in the passage from deep black grief to pale 
 mauve melancholy ; he criticises prison discipline 
 as means of reformation ; he castigates the misrule 
 and ignorance of ordinary hospital management. 
 And so through a series of homilies upon affairs 
 
AN EDITOR'S STORY 1 37 
 
 of Church and State ; of groanings over his own 
 wickedness, tempered by mild senile enjoyment of 
 these youthful escapades ; of love and marriage ; of 
 vivid inter] ectional description ; and of quotations 
 from Livy, from Horace, from Pliny, from Cicero, 
 from Tacitus and Marcus Aurelius, — the old phi- 
 losopher gossips over infirmities of time, and hope 
 of immortality. He carries minutiae of detail even 
 beyond the grave, and leaves behind a Latin in- 
 scription to adorn his tomb. The photographic 
 minuteness with which life in those earlier days 
 is depicted makes " El Periquillo Sarniento " an 
 admirable yardstick by which to measure reform. 
 
 Among more modern stories, "Guadalupe," by 
 Irenio Paz, editor of the daily paper " La Patria," 
 may be taken as a fair example of the popular 
 novel. Senor Paz is a voluminous writer. The 
 series of bulky volumes bearing his name on the 
 titlepage must tantalize his Northern editorial 
 brother with suggestions of possibilities of leisure 
 with which the latter is perforce unacquainted. 
 Fancy the managing head of the " New-York 
 Herald " indulging in literary distractions which 
 should result in a score of books ! The style of 
 this author is simple and direct. The characters 
 
138 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 are introduced at once in their true colors, with 
 an amiable frankness which precludes possibility 
 of mistake. There can be no doubt as to the 
 identity of polished villain, or poor but virtuous 
 hero. There is no complication of mixed . person- 
 ality in which good and evil struggle for the 
 mastery, and sympathy swings like a pendulum 
 between disgust and admiration. The narrative 
 moves through quiet regions of commonplace until 
 some lofty trait or some deep wickedness needs 
 illustration, when it suddenly bounds into the 
 mazes of melodrama, and the reader finds himself 
 tossed upon stormy billows of heroism, passion, 
 or remorse, as the case may be. In justice, it 
 must be acknowledged that these transitions are 
 infrequent ; otherwise the sensation would be too 
 much that of mental seasickness. The quiet, 
 homely life which "Guadalupe" depicts, speaks 
 well for the people who furnish such a record ; 
 and the popular taste which accepts such placid 
 chronicles of gentle love and religiously tempered 
 hate is, at least, evidence of a purer and more 
 wholesome temperament than that which subsists 
 upon the vicious sensationalism of the American 
 dime-novel or the outrageous vulgarity of " Peck's 
 
HOME LIFE IN THE MIDDLE CLASS 1 39 
 
 Bad Boy." The interpolated heroics are too 
 obviously constructed for effect to be capable 
 of producing any. They are like the crashing 
 and flashing of a stage thunderstorm. One 
 acknowledges their worth as settings, but they 
 would never perturb the spirit nor turn milk 
 sour. 
 
 The picture of home-life among the middle 
 classes, as gathered from this and other works 
 of the same author, is sound and healthy. There 
 is deference to parental authority ; there are 
 simple amusements, and close guardianship which 
 watches over intercourse between the sexes ; 
 there is naive expression of opinion in matters 
 of faith and philosophy; and, permeating all, 
 the serenity of easy, unhurried existence, which 
 gently bears rich and poor upon its placid sur- 
 face. Extremely pleasing are these after the 
 turbid and motley variations which are required 
 to spice parallel histories in our own progressive 
 centres. It is food for pride, as well as patriot- 
 ism, to observe that a commission of importance 
 to los Estados Unidos, and a subsequent tour 
 through that region of high civilization, is the 
 reward reserved for the brave young man who 
 
I40 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 has raised himself by his own efforts from poverty 
 to the position of colonel in "the Army of the 
 Republic," — that Mexican Legion of Honor. 
 
 The plot of "Guadalupe" is simple in the 
 extreme, and the dramatis personce old friends, 
 in spite of Spanish mantilla and reboso, — the 
 adopted daughter of a pious widow, who loves 
 in silence and secret the artist son of her bene- 
 factress ; the youth who in turn worships the 
 heartless sister of his false friend ; the futile 
 machinations of the latter to move the orphan 
 girl from the path of duty ; the triumph of her 
 fervent and lovely spirit, and the foregone con- 
 clusion which changes brotherly affection into 
 devotion of the lover. The incidental glimpses 
 are full of local traits : the pompous pride of 
 the newly rich, as opposed to the graceful virtue 
 of the poor household ; the quaint worldliness and 
 naive reflections of the foolish little worldly maid 
 Amelia, and the equally quaint sweetness of the 
 wild-rose Guadalupe, — are all charming. A cer- 
 tain sketchiness leaves an after-effect of having 
 been introduced to silhouettes, rather than solid 
 figures ; still the sense of vagueness only helps 
 that of pleasure. The atmosphere is pure, if 
 
RIVA PALACIO 141 
 
 not bracing. The heroine reminds one somewhat 
 of Octave Feuillet's "Sybilla;" but she lacks that 
 breath of life which stirs in the veins, and ani- 
 mates the action, of the beloved French girl. 
 Nor has the Mexican author more than a hint 
 of the exquisiteness and verve of the Frenchman. 
 He has, however, the cleverness to win popular- 
 ity, and each of his twenty books runs through 
 two to five editions. 
 
 Vicente Riva Palacio, who holds a first place 
 by the elegance and purity of his language, has 
 been also a prolific writer. His prose is imbued 
 with the spirit of poetry. Many of his paragraphs 
 are full of delicate imagery and rhythmic force ; 
 with the essence, but without the material form, of 
 the poem. Yet, in an even more marked degree 
 than those of Paz, his books present to a stranger 
 a startling combination of diverse traits. To a 
 loving and tender sympathy with nature, which 
 overflows in descriptive passages of great beauty, 
 and to a spirit of gentle revery, developed with 
 genuine delicacy through a thousand light touches, 
 he adds at times an almost rabid exuberance of 
 melodramatic intensity. These baleful and lurid 
 periods are in strange antithesis to his limpid and 
 
142 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 earnest utterances. They are like an alarm-fire 
 kindled upon a quiet hillside on a peaceful summer 
 evening. In his " Calvario y Tabor " the remi- 
 niscences of the suffering of the people through 
 the years of struggle which culminated in the 
 overthrow of foreign intervention, and the fall of 
 Maximilian, are given with a clear directness that 
 forces them upon the consciousness of the reader 
 as realities. But to this heroic portrayal of 
 suffering and misfortune he attaches so many 
 impossible episodes, and such a climax of roman- 
 tic and unreal horrors, that the genuine emotion 
 aroused by the simplicity of truth and the touch- 
 ing events of history is in danger of being lost 
 in repulsion. There is something so incongruous 
 in this combination, which can trace the most 
 refined and wholesome impressions, and an imagi- 
 nation which can conceive and revel in a delirium 
 of horrors, that the result is a series of shocks. 
 To a foreigner, at least, it is like touching the 
 two poles of a battery at irregular intervals. The 
 current of admiration and sympathy is being con- 
 stantly broken up, and as constantly renewed. 
 In the seven hundred pages of this particular 
 book there is a climax of death-scenes which are 
 
SIMPLICITY AND AFFECTATION I43 
 
 veritable nightmares. Foreseeing that a certain 
 number of dangerous and unnecessary personages 
 must be gotten rid of, one stands appalled at the 
 ingenuity displayed in making the first taking off 
 so circumstantially terrible. But the author's 
 power is equal to the strain. With magnificent 
 audacity he proceeds and runs through a rising 
 scale of accident^ suicide, and murder, which 
 swells on triumphantly to the perfect artistic 
 end. Yet this is but one view of the picture. 
 Side by side with this dark and tragic story 
 moves the peaceful and tender tale of village 
 life and quiet homes and humble affection. It 
 is as if the same hind could write at the same 
 time " Monte Cristo " and the " Vicar of Wake- 
 field," and the frenzied outbursts of the one 
 revenge themselves for the gentle serenity of 
 the other. 
 
 " Calvario y Tabor," as the name implies, is a 
 story of suffering and triumph, — the death-agony 
 of the old empire, and the transfiguration of the 
 new republic. With the vivid and thrilling record 
 of sacrifice and heroism, which forces the reader 
 into profound sympathy with the purpose of the 
 people, are interwoven two love-stories, — one 
 
144 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 dark with passion and intrigue, the other as 
 touching and gentle as the soft beauty of the 
 sylvan landscape in which it is set. Here is 
 the opening note of the pastoral symphony. The 
 scene is laid in the tierra caliente on the shore 
 of the Pacific. 
 
 " It was an evening in January ; and the sun, 
 slowly sinking behind the immense mass of 
 waters, shone like a globe of burning gold 
 through the luminous haze which filled the 
 atmosphere with glory. It appeared to float 
 upon the surface of the waves, which, 'ifted in 
 long, swelling billows on the high seas, broke 
 in undulations on the sand, bearing into shore 
 curving ripples of shining foam, white as the 
 petals of a lily and brilliant as the stars in the sky 
 of the tropics. Along the banks of a small inlet, 
 running deep into the land, the night air gently 
 bent the graceful crowns of palm-trees, and the 
 feather - like leaves swayed gently over their 
 reflections in the tranquil water beneath, broken 
 by the slow ripples into a thousand mirrored 
 splinters of flower and foliage. From time to 
 time the sinister form of a crocodile glided 
 slowly by, without disturbing the silence. At 
 
THE SONG OF NATURE I4S 
 
 the entrance to the wood, where the little strand 
 lost itself in a soft carpet of moss, a few huts built 
 of branches, and thatched with leaves, showed 
 through the deeper shadow. Farther back slen- 
 der columns of smoke, outlined against the paling 
 sky, showed the vicinity of an Indian village ; and 
 a murmur of voices, mingled with snatches of 
 song and tinkle of music, blended confusedly, like 
 the notes of a wind-harp. 
 
 " By the seaside all the world sings. The 
 deep undertone of the waves fills in the back- 
 ground of harmony. It is impossible to listen 
 to its ceaseless pulsation without feeling the 
 desire to mingle one's voice with the concert 
 which immensity eternally offers to God. The 
 breaking of the billows against the rocks, the 
 lisping of the ripples against the beach, weave 
 the strands of melody; and the soul, by them 
 moved to remembrance, falls into reveries of 
 the past which are either prayers or aspirations, 
 which are like the memory of the lullabies of 
 our mother over the child at her breast, or the 
 lingering notes of the favorite air of the woman 
 one first loved. 
 
 "As if in unison with this universal impulse 
 
146 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 towards harmony, a young girl of fifteen years 
 emerged, singing, from one of the wood-paths, 
 and turned in the direction of a spring of pure 
 water which bubbled up from a tangle of shrub- 
 bery beyond. She was a slight and graceful 
 brunette, wearing the common dress of the 
 women of the coast ; her great eyes, dark and 
 brilliant, shone under long, curving lashes ; her 
 white teeth and small red lips made enchanting 
 contrast with the pale olive of her cheek ; and 
 in the perfect oval of her face was that blended 
 expression of purity and sensitiveness which 
 marks the temperament of a painter or a poet. 
 A loose white camisa, covered with the delicate 
 embroidery in which the gentler sex delight to 
 satisfy their love of adornment, and a simple blue 
 petticoat, formed her attire. But around her 
 throat hung necklaces of gold and coral, on her 
 arms were bracelets of shells and pearls, and 
 her slender fingers bore a profusion of glittering 
 rings. She was doubtless the daughter of a rich 
 house ; but among this simple people every woman 
 works, and she bore upon her head one of the 
 huge water-jars of the country, balanced without 
 aid from her hands, and without impairing the 
 
A PASTORAL IDYL I47 
 
 dignity and elegance of her carriage. An artist 
 looking upon her might have imagined a new 
 Rebecca ; for nothing is more faithful to the 
 biblical idea than the young girls of the coast 
 who come to the wells for water, poising tjieir 
 great red jars upon the head without disturbing 
 in the least their lightness or freedom of motion." 
 Thus Alejandra, the beautiful brown girl of 
 Acapulco, enters upon the scene of her future 
 trials and triumphs. The idyllic story of homely 
 country life, wherein rich differs from poor only 
 in that the bounty of one supplies the need of 
 the other; the benignant village padre and his 
 almost puritanic sister; the loves of Alejandra 
 and Jorge ; and the family of strolling players, 
 poor and despised, but happy in virtue, — make 
 a story full of refined sentiment in the midst 
 of the most sensational and forbidding realism. 
 One is introduced to the intimate habits of the 
 people ; to the hospitality which makes every 
 house an inn for the stranger ; to the charity 
 which adopts the orphan, comforts the unfortu- 
 nate, and looks upon the idiot as "beloved of 
 God." But there is at the same time an awful 
 picture of corrupt law, distorted justice, and 
 
1 48 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 almost absolute want of fixed principle in the 
 government of society. 
 
 The historical portion of the novel is superb. 
 We who profess admiration for the qualities of 
 valor and perseverance, who consider ourselves 
 allied in bonds of brotherhood with the oppressed 
 of every land, should be ashamed of our ignorance 
 in regard to the Mexican struggle for independ- 
 ence. The vicissitudes of our own Revolution 
 are tame, the sufferings even of the winter at 
 Valley Forge sink into insignificance, compared 
 with the events of 1864 and 1865, in this tragedy 
 of dolor and endurance. Whole towns were swept 
 out of existence. The population, flying through 
 night and storm, sought asylum in unbroken 
 forests, filled with wild beasts and noxious rep- 
 tiles, or amid the rocks and caves of desert places. 
 " Ashes marked the location of homes ; the direc- 
 tion of roads was outlined by corpses." Menaced 
 by hunger and thirst, decimated by pestilence, the 
 small and lessening band of Republicans melted 
 like smoke before the advancing Imperialists, 
 whose conquering forces carried all before them. 
 Buffeted by every rudeness of fortune, they still 
 persevered in the unequal struggle, and snatched 
 
MARTYRS OF LIBERTY I49 
 
 victory at last from the very jaws of death. Like 
 eagles who build their nests upon inaccessible 
 peaks, " the apostles of liberty fled to the moun- 
 tain tops, to fight and to wait; and too often 
 upon the summits these martyrs found their 
 Calvary." Sometimes, impelled by a sudden fury 
 of passion, a band of devoted men crept down 
 from their fastnesses, cut their way through the 
 midst of the enemy, and perished to a man, joyful 
 in the destruction they dealt in dying. Without 
 money, without clothes, without other arms than 
 the guns in their hands, they fell by the roadside 
 in forced marches, tortured by fatigue and famine, 
 " and were left unburied, for beasts of the field 
 and birds of the air. ... If a laurel or a palm had 
 been planted to commemorate the memory of each 
 of these, the land would be one impenetrable 
 jungle from end to end." Still they continued 
 on, "a new man stepping into the place of the 
 comrade who had dropped before him, hurrying 
 to new strife, to new sacrifice, in order to convince 
 Napoleon and Maximilian, France and the world, 
 that a people who could so struggle for independ- 
 ence was a people invincible and worthy of 
 being free." 
 
I50 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 The book, as one might expect from the repu- 
 tation of its author, is full of fine, sonorous 
 Spanish, glowing with descriptive eloquence and 
 declamatory force. 
 
 " Liberty is like the sun. Its first rays are for 
 the mountains ; its dying splendor falls likewise 
 upon them. No cry for freedom has first arisen 
 from the plains, as in no landscape is the valley 
 illumined before the heights which surround it. 
 The remnant of the defenders of a free people flies 
 ever to the crags and hills for final security, as 
 the last light of the sun lingers upon the summits 
 when the lowlands are veiled in obscurity." 
 " Never were there heard, after these annihilating 
 combats, the groans and cries of the wounded, 
 which so often find a place in descriptions of 
 deserted battle-fields. Our soldiers suffered and 
 died without appeals for aid or lamentation over 
 life ; as heroes expire, valiant and resigned." 
 " Toward the east, only a labyrinth of mountains, 
 which, arid and desolate,' lost themselves in the dis- 
 tance ; infinite in form, suggesting inexpressible 
 and awful contortions ; full of deep, sad shadows, 
 lonely, terrifying, like a sombre and tempestuous 
 ocean, suddenly petrified with awe at the whisper 
 
IGNACIO MANUEL ALTAMIRANO 151 
 
 of God." " Nations, like Christ, have their Tabor 
 and Calvary. Only, while the Son of God passed 
 first to transfiguration and thence to the cross, it 
 is the contrary with them. For nations are com- 
 posed of mortals ; the Spirit of God can alone 
 support the sorrow of Calvary after the glory of 
 Tabor." " Our wars have been like the bloody 
 but beneficent operations of the surgeon, who 
 amputates the gangrenous member through kind- 
 ness to the sufferer; not like the wounds given 
 by an assassin, who seeks to destroy his victim. 
 Europe condemns without understanding us ; 
 America understands without condemning, but 
 she remains silent. God, history, and the future 
 will acknowledge our purpose and our triumph." 
 
 Ignacio Manuel Altamirano is equally well 
 known as orator and author. His "Paisajes y 
 Leyendes," records of the customs and traditions 
 of Mexico, is as marked for its temperate and 
 even style as Palacio's work for vehemence and 
 contrast. Confining himself principally to the 
 religious festivals of the country, with their 
 earlier as well as later observances, he gives us 
 charming pictures of the fervor of a primitive 
 race, carrying into their observance of Christian 
 
152 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 rites many suggestions of the more innocent 
 forms of their old worship. He is evidently as 
 widely read in the modern classics as El Peri- 
 quillo Sarniento was in the ancient. French, 
 English, German — all literatures have laid their 
 flowers at his feet, and his versatile fancy culls 
 from each in turn to adorn his page. But it is 
 when he relies upon himself that he is most 
 attractive. The legend of "Our Lord of the 
 Holy Mountain " is enriched by a sketch of the 
 holy friar, Father Martin de Valencia, of whom it 
 is recorded, that " every morning, as he went out 
 of his cave, after passing the night in prayer and 
 meditation, the little birds did gather in the trees 
 above his head, making gracious harmony, and 
 helping in praise of the Creator. And as he 
 moved from place to place, the birds did follow ; 
 nor, since his death, have any been ever seen 
 there." 
 
 Reminiscences of the author's boyhood in the 
 little city of Tixtla, with the entire population 
 following the procession of Corpus Christi through 
 streets arched with green boughs, and garlanded 
 with blossoms, remind one of the Passion Play 
 of Oberammergau. Such ardor of devotion, such 
 
JUAN MATEOS. 153 
 
 reverent silence, such echo of sweetness from the 
 low -chanting Indian choristers, flower -crowned, 
 and bearing branches of new-budded orchard 
 trees, in order that their fruits might find favor 
 in the eyes of God, form an ideal picture of 
 religious enthusiasm. It reads like a sketch of 
 the Middle Ages. So does the description of the 
 houses, decorated with every treasured atom of 
 color and drapery ; and the generalissimo march- 
 ing at the head with his band of native troops. 
 So, too, does the story of Holy Week, beginning 
 before dawn on Palm Sunday with young men 
 and maidens scouring fields and woods for the 
 first wild-flowers, with which to decorate their 
 palm-branches. The account of the lifting up 
 of these palms, braided and knotted with flowers, 
 during the canon of the mass, corresponds pre- 
 cisely with what we saw in the Cathedral of 
 Mexico last year. 
 
 Juan Mateos is famous not only at home, but 
 abroad. He has reached the point at which a 
 man becomes a prophet in his own country. His 
 brother authors quote him as they would Goethe 
 or Lord Byron. His novels are mainly historical. 
 The style irresistibly recalls the elder Dumas ; 
 
1 54 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 even the look of the page has that abrupt brevity 
 of sentence which is so characteristic of the 
 French novelist. In " El Cerro de las Campanas " 
 he gives intense and dramatic expression again 
 to the story of the " Usurpation." With only a 
 thread of narrative to sustain interest, he places 
 before us a careful risumd of the " episode of 
 Maximilian." It is pleasant to note, that, in spite 
 of evident and deep sympathy with the republic 
 and the leaders of the people, he speaks of the 
 hapless emperor more with sorrow than anger, 
 and gives a touching pathos to the death-scene 
 on the lonely "Hill of the Bells," which has so 
 often moved the sympathy of strangers. His 
 hatred and scorn are reserved for the Cassar 
 of the Tuileries, " who sacrificed on the altar of 
 ambition an unfortunate and lovely princess, as 
 well as the young Archduke of Austria, whose 
 ensanguined corpse cries yet for vengeance from 
 the imperial tomb at Vienna, wherein it waits 
 the vivifying breath of the resurrection." Dram- 
 atist as well as artist, his actors naturally group 
 themselves upon the stage of history or fiction ; 
 and each succession of scenes culminates in a 
 tableau. The rush and power of his expression 
 
THE MEXICAN NOVEL 1$$ 
 
 sweep one most eloquently toward the author's 
 conclusions. 
 
 In outward appearance, the Mexican novel is 
 exceedingly unattractive. Like the French and 
 German brochure, it is usually unbound ; like 
 many of our own, it is printed in poor type, on 
 miserable paper. It has ragged edges; and it 
 stretches beyond any normal limit, reaching from 
 seven hundred to a thousand pages in almost 
 every case. The books are evidently not in- 
 tended for summer reading, nor for a people 
 living on the high-pressure principle that obtains 
 in America, which makes the incessant and furi- 
 ous activity of the steam-engine the highest ex- 
 ample for human imitation. When illustrated, the 
 cuts are so poor, and of such ludicrous horror, 
 that they would turn the deepest sentiment into 
 ridicule. Above all, they are enormously dear. 
 Such a scale of prices would not be possible in a 
 country which counted a large number of readers 
 of fiction among its population. With the appetite 
 for such intellectual refection comes a garnishing 
 of the dish in which it is served, as well as a 
 cheapening of the cost of refreshment. I am not 
 altogether sure but that the demand for these 
 
156 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 books, although so small in proportion to the num- 
 ber of individuals, does not show a higher degree 
 of appreciation than our omnivorous devouring of 
 odds and ends. When, in despite of coarse tex- 
 ture, rude letterpress, very low art, and very high 
 prices, a book runs through six or eight editions, 
 it is reasonable to suppose some higher motive 
 in its perusal than the criminal one of killing 
 time. And in the face of melodramatic tendency, 
 and archaic mixture of sentiment and common- 
 place ; in the face of incoherence of action, and 
 want of subtle analytic power ; yet with its defer- 
 ence to the ideal of womanhood, its large love of 
 nature, its tribute to the home virtues, its loyalty 
 to national traits, its admiration for simplicity 
 and purity of character, and its enthusiastic 
 patriotism, — the Mexican novel would seem to 
 have found this more elevated plain, and based 
 upon it a recognized right to existence. 
 
 The list of Mexican authors stretches almost 
 indefinitely. Besides those already mentioned as 
 novelists, Manuel Payno, Pedro Castera, Peon 
 Contreras, Vicente Morales, and Jos6 Maria 
 Esteva are well known as brilliant and forcible 
 writers. Upon more serious topics, whether of 
 
MEXICAN AUTHORS I $7 
 
 political or social importance, one finds the names 
 of Zarco, Prieto, Baranda, Siliceo, Arriaga, 
 Ocampo, Alcardz, Lerdo, Montes, Zamacono, 
 Yanes, Mariscal, and many others, who have 
 contributed largely to the education of the people. 
 As poets, a still greater number of popular and 
 celebrated men and women find honorable place 
 in the ranks. Guillermo Prieto is probably best 
 known in what might be called national songs, 
 full of originality and patriotism. Jos6 Maria 
 Esteva follows him closely in giving expression 
 to the natural traits and habits of the country. 
 Acuna, Luis G. Ortiz, Silva, Gutierrez-Najera, 
 Dias-Miron, Covarrubias, Juan Valle, Eduardo 
 Zdrate, Francisco Colina, Firso de C6rdova, Apa- 
 pite Silva, Manuel Romero, Esther Fapia, Rosa 
 Carreto, Refugio Argumeda de Ortiz, and Miguel 
 Ulloa. Justo Sierra, one of the most virile and 
 forceful singers, and Manuel Flores, by his tender- 
 ness and sweetness, have taken high rank among 
 Spanish poets, even outside their own country. 
 In view of the impression which is now gaining 
 ground among literary people, that the writing 
 of poetry is the best school for the formation of 
 purity of style in prose, it may be interesting to 
 
158 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 note that almost every popular Mexican romancist 
 is also a popular poet. Among famous religious 
 writers are Sister Juana de la Cruz, Sefior Carpio- 
 Pesado, Arango, Bishop Montesdeoca, and others. 
 As dramatists, Gorostiza and Alarcon rank well 
 among Spanish classics; while Calderon, Rodri- 
 guez-Galvan, Chavero, Mateos, Contreras, Acuiia, 
 and others have produced much skilful and re- 
 markable work. Senors Juan de Dios, Pesa, and 
 De las Rosas hold an enviable place as poets of 
 the home and domestic life. As linguists, Senors 
 Altamirano, Yscalbalceta, and Pimentel are best 
 known, the latter having made important studies 
 upon the Indian dialects of the country; while 
 Orozco y Berra, in his " History of Ancient Mex- 
 ico," has excelled all previous writers upon the 
 same subject. The best author upon constitu- 
 tional subjects, or those relating to political econ- 
 omy, is probably Sefior Vallarta ; but each of these 
 lists of authors could be re-enforced by number- 
 less names. These given are, perhaps, enough to 
 disabuse the American mind of any feeling that 
 Mexico lacks the expression of literary tastes, or 
 suffers in comparison with other lands from want 
 of scholarly interpretation. 
 
A GARDEN OF SONG 1 59 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 BLOSSOMS OF VERSE 
 
 Since poetry is the flower of sentiment, and its 
 highest expression of beauty and fragrance, one 
 may be pardoned for closing this very inadequate 
 sketch of picturesque Mexico by a word in its 
 regard. Upon reflection it should not appear 
 strange that a country in which the fiery imagina- 
 tion of the Castilian had been grafted upon the 
 native gentleness of the Aztec, should blossom 
 into verse as naturally as a plant turns toward the 
 light. The love of flowers and birds, which is 
 indigenous here, is always closely allied to that 
 of song, in the heart of a nation ; so that one 
 should not be unprepared to find evidence of very 
 general poetic feeling in a race which both history 
 and tradition have dowered with exceptional quali- 
 ties of sweetness and tenderness, and which since 
 the Conquest has had its native predilections 
 trained into higher literary art by education and 
 
l6o MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 association. Yet it is a pleasant surprise to one 
 unfamiliar with modern authorship in Mexico to 
 find the Muse so entirely at home, as the little 
 volume, from which the subsequent translations 
 are taken, would indicate. Under any circum- 
 stances, a book containing upon its titlepage the 
 names of fifty poets " of reputation and popu- 
 larity " might be considered worthy attention, 
 even without a preface apologizing for the ungra- 
 ciousness of being obliged to choose so few among 
 the ranks of representative writers. A country 
 which can count its native poets in such whole- 
 sale numbers would certainly seem to have more 
 than its average share. 
 
 The plan of the work is unique. Eighty or 
 ninety pen pictures of Mexican women of position, 
 distinguished among their associates for beauty, 
 for talent, or for the higher grace of fascination, 
 form its contents. A prologue, which might 
 better be called a rhapsody, vindicates its motive. 
 "Never has the loveliness or the virtue of woman 
 shone more resplendently than when lifted upon 
 the wings of poetry into the realms of the ideal ; 
 as when proclaimed in rhythmic cadence by the 
 lyre of the poet, whose sensitive and passionate 
 
APPRECIATION OF WOMAN l6l 
 
 soul is alone capable of comprehending her. Her 
 beauty, her tenderness, her smiles, her tears, have 
 been the inspiration of the names that live through 
 ages. It was she who made immortal Dante and 
 Petrarch, Goethe and Alfred de Musset. It is for 
 want of her inspiration that we doubt the right of 
 Cervantes to be called a poet, in spite of his genius, 
 and deny that of Castelar, in spite of his artistic 
 talent. The latter contracted a civil marriage 
 with History and Politics. From this literary 
 polygamy may spring such daughters as Fame, as 
 Glory, even as Immortality, but never one whose 
 name is Poetry. ... To sing the praise of that 
 being, as delicate as beautiful, as loving as re- 
 signed, as generous as tender, as modest as heroic ; 
 of her who is all love and sacrifice, who has come 
 into the world to be the beloved companion of 
 youth, and the sweet consoler of age ; who gives 
 wisdom to science, genius to art, and heroes to 
 the native land, — ah, to sing of woman is for the 
 poet to pay the divine debt of inspiration to the 
 highest work of humanity, and to the being who 
 has brought divinity down to earth ! " 
 
 The verses that follow are in no sense love- 
 songs. There is scarce a tinge of passion or a 
 
l62 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 hint of the glowing sensuousness of tropical ima- 
 gination in the entire book. Indeed, it errs some- 
 what in the other extreme. Its expression is 
 based upon the colder and more formal models 
 of the early English and French writers, with a 
 certain stateliness of diction and fondness for 
 mythological simile which belonged to the con- 
 ception of poetry two centuries ago. But the 
 verse remains, in this case, almost wholly unin- 
 formed by that enthusiastic flame of devotion, 
 which often, in old times, rendered the trans- 
 parent disguise of stilted phraseology incapable 
 of hiding the natural glow within. 
 
 The idea of prefixing to each little poem the 
 full name of its subject has a piquancy altogether 
 Southern. We would choose, under similar cir- 
 cumstances, to shoot our arrows of song in the 
 dark, or at best against a shadowy target of 
 initials, leaving our reader to discover their aim, 
 — half annoyed if he should guess rightly, wholly 
 angry if he went astray. These more sincere, or 
 perhaps more artful, people go straight to the 
 mark. The friend or admirer chants his hymn of 
 praise under his lady's lattice and in the open 
 light of day. If this be too unreserved for love, 
 
A POETIC EPIGRAM 1 63 
 
 it is likewise too personal for friendship. One 
 can judge of the absolute result better by listening 
 to the strain. 
 
 The chief value of the book lies without doubt 
 in the insight it gives concerning a phase of Mexi- 
 can character little credited by the outside world, 
 — the appreciation of woman. The preface might 
 be quoted entire, for the elevation of its sentiment 
 and the purity of its ideal of the sex. Space 
 allows us to choose only one of its lighter and 
 more graceful thoughts, interpolated in the prose 
 text to give the editor's conception of the theme 
 which inspired the volume : — 
 
 " ' And what is Poesy ? ' she said, 
 As laughingly she questioned me. 
 ' The smile upon thy lips ; the red, 
 Ripe bloom upon thy cheek so fairj 
 The glinting of thy golden hairj 
 Those flashing eyes that scorn control ; 
 Thy budding form; thy waking soul — 
 T.hou, thou thyself art Poesy I'" 
 
 The first number is dedicated to Carmen Romero 
 Rubio de Diaz, wife of the president. It is in a 
 more hackneyed vein, and neither so graceful nor 
 so expressive as many of the others. We may 
 
1 64 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 charitably suppose that the exalted rank of the 
 first lady in the land somewhat overshadowed 
 the genius of the writer, or that its insertion was 
 an after-thought suggested by policy, and that 
 desire to curry favor in high places, from which, 
 alas ! even poets are not wholly exempt. This is 
 the more to be regretted, since the dark, bright 
 beauty of Senora Diaz ought to be a prolific 
 source of inspiration to the fortunate mortal who 
 chose it as a text. The best lines are in this 
 simile : — 
 
 " Generous as the stream that spreads 
 Its rich gifts 'mid garden-beds, 
 Yet alike through weed and sand 
 Flows in blessing through the land." 
 
 The translations following are taken entirely 
 at random, and given as literally as diverse 
 rhythms, impossible in English, will permit. I 
 notice in particular one oddity of construction 
 which seems to mark a favorite form. The lines, 
 regular in rhyme and length, begin with a small 
 letter ; but occasionally, at spasmodic intervals, 
 and without any connection with the grammatical 
 division of sentences, a capital is prefixed : — 
 
A PORTRAIT 165 
 
 "to JOSEPHINA ESPERON. 
 
 "From her red lips' chalice fair 
 Flower-like perfume fills the air ; 
 And her voice, like song of bird, 
 Thrills the heart at every word. 
 In her eyes' dark light divine 
 Glories born of sunset shine, 
 And in radiant splendor preach 
 Eloquence that passeth speech. 
 
 If her beauty could but stand 
 Mirrored by an artist's hand, 
 Or inspire a poet's theme, 
 Men would think it but a dream." 
 
 The subject of the next bit of verse has 
 inscribed an odd mixture of sentiment and 
 materialism in her interpreter. The combina- 
 tion of the earthly music-teacher with the many- 
 heavenly benefactors of the beautiful singer is a 
 triumph of realism. In the original, the abrupt 
 transition is even more marked, since the line 
 rendered, "The muse who presides," etc., is 
 
 written, — 
 
 "El gran Melesio 
 
 En el Conservatorio," — 
 
 a much more mythical personage to the world at 
 large than the one by whom I have replaced him. 
 
l66 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 "to VIRGINIA CARRASQUEDO. 
 
 " Not hers are her graces ; 
 To gods they belong I 
 From Venus her charms; 
 Love lent her his arms ; 
 The Muse who presides 
 Over harmony's tides 
 Hath shared with her gladly the sceptre of song I 
 
 Morales, the master, 
 
 Doth list and rejoice. 
 Says: 'More than Ulysses' 
 My fear and my bliss is: 
 He heard but the ringing 
 Of sirens' sweet singing ; 
 I know the full charm of Virginia's voice.'" 
 
 A particularly graceful expression runs through 
 the next lines : — 
 
 "TO VALENTINA GOMEZ FARIAS. 
 
 " If he should chant thy wondrous grace. 
 Dumb would the singer's music be ; 
 If he should strive to picture thee, 
 
 Never a line could artist trace. 
 
 For of a soul so pure as thine, 
 How could the semblance e'er be true, 
 If the glad brush that painted you 
 
 Had not been dipped in tints divine. 
 Or if the poet's lyre had known 
 No tones save those of earth alone ! " 
 
A JEU D'ESPRIT 167 
 
 Many of the lines are brightened by jeux 
 d' esprit, depending for point upon Spanish words 
 in which similarity of sound or spelling covers a 
 totally different meaning. The archness of the 
 little verse which follows is more comprehensible 
 and decidedly epigrammatic : — 
 
 "to GUADALUPE DE LA FUENTE. 
 
 " Once Cupid's eyes were clear, 
 
 Open, and kind; 
 But, alas ! you, my dear. 
 
 He chanced to find; 
 Only one glance he gave, — 
 Since then, who paints the knave 
 
 Must paint him blind." 
 
 Concha is at once the name of a sea-shell, 
 and the pretty Spanish diminutive of the name 
 Concepcion. In sober prose it would be ques- 
 tionable whether a pearl was ever found in 
 any thing more romantic than an oyster -shell. 
 But who would be such an iconoclast as to 
 overthrow a poetic image for the forlorn com- 
 fort of setting up in its place a paltry fact in 
 natural history ? 
 
l68 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 "TO CaNCHA MARTINEZ. 
 
 " Above the white foam and the azure sea 
 A gleaming shell doth float, 
 And the bright sun that glows resplendently 
 Kisseth the fairy boat. 
 
 The world it glads with beauty doth not know 
 
 The treasure in its breast, — 
 The precious pearl, that, radiant as the snow. 
 
 Within its heart doth rest. 
 
 Sweet Concha I on life's sea thy beauty rides. 
 
 And man's applause doth win ; 
 But only we who love thee know it hides 
 
 The fair white soul within." 
 
 "TO MARIA AMELIA ROMO. 
 
 " Earth was a. bower of roses rare and pale. 
 
 And heaven a starry sea; 
 Through the soft shadow sang the nightingale 
 
 His wondrous melody. 
 'Twas springtime, and the dewy dawn was wet. 
 
 When, from its dreaming stirred. 
 The flower's soul, in sweetness rising, met 
 
 The bright soul of the bird; 
 And from that kiss thy loveliness was born. 
 
 Fair shrine that doth enclose 
 The song-bird's voice, the brightness of the mom, 
 
 The perfume of the rose." 
 
A POEM IN PROSE 169 
 
 In some cases the tribute is paid in a prose 
 form, or rather in one which suggests the 
 metrical swing and irregular cadence of Walt 
 Whitman. I transcribe literally a portion of 
 one : — 
 
 "TO MARIA ALFARO. 
 
 " Nature, 
 Splendid in all her manifestations, 
 
 Has offered the poet 
 An infinite number of exquisite forms 
 With which to compare woman. 
 
 But the glowing imaginations of these votaries of Apollo 
 Not content with the enchanting realities 
 Of flowers, of stars, of sunbeams, of birds, 
 Of palm-trees, of pearls, of diamonds — 
 Have flown from the visible world 
 To seek the forms of seraphs and angels, 
 
 Of celestial powers, 
 And of the marvellous visions with which fancy has peopled 
 
 infinite space, 
 To discover new graces 
 With which to adorn their idol. 
 
 Amid this wealth of brilliant and magnificent images, 
 
 From this universe of real or imaginary beauties, 
 
 I, who have now reached in my wandering the frigid and narrow 
 
 zone of old age. 
 Desire to choose from my remembrances 
 A flower, a pearl, a star, 
 
170 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 Which may serve as an emblem of a young girl 
 
 Who has flashed 
 
 Across these later days o£ my life. 
 
 Is she a jasmine, blossom sister of the violet, 
 
 And, like it, hiding 
 
 From profane gaze of the vulgar? 
 
 Is she Modesty, insensible to the allurements of flattery? 
 
 Is she the spirit of cheerfulness? 
 
 Is she angel of the fireside? 
 
 Is she sunshine? 
 
 Is she perfume ? 
 
 Alas, I know not! 
 
 In vain I question my soul; 
 
 Neither in one image 
 
 Nor in all. 
 
 Can I find the counterpart of Maria Alfaro." 
 
 I close with an occasional stanza or two from 
 longer poems : — 
 
 "TO MARIA AUBERT Y DUPONT. 
 
 "If, mid the shades on high, 
 
 They should meet, nor know her name, 
 ' Beatrice I ' would Dante exclaim, 
 ' Leonora r would Tasso sigh." 
 
 "TO ROSARIO' BARREDA. 
 
 "Many a beautiful brown girl, splendid, 
 With eyes of the night and morning blended, 
 Springs from the soil of Vera Cruz; 
 
 * The same word, " Rosario," is at once the name of a girl and a rosary. 
 
EPIGRAMS 171 
 
 But amid all the loveliest faces, 
 Show me but one of your height and graces, — 
 If but the gods would let me choose I 
 
 Exquisite rose of perfection I soon 
 
 Yoii can no longer hide ; and then, 
 When your bright face from the balcony shines. 
 Under your window will hang, as at shrines, 
 
 Rosaries — made from the hearts of men." 
 
 "TO ELENA FUENTES. 
 
 "If for beautiful Helen of old. 
 
 Chosen by Paris, a city fell. 
 And heroes of Greece spent life and gold, 
 
 How many Troys, under Fate's grim spell. 
 Would perish by fire and sword for thee, 
 If each one who sees thee might Paris be 1 " 
 
 It will be seen, that, although in these songs 
 there is no very marked degree of originality in 
 thought or sentiment, there is yet a most dexter- 
 ous handling of the similes which have been used 
 to illustrate woman's loveliness through so many 
 centuries, and an aptness of phrasing which often 
 puts them in a new light. There is, besides, a 
 great cleverness in the use of poetical forms, and 
 evidence of much practical experience in their 
 use, — a good stock of tools, and skilful hands 
 
172 MEXICO — PICTURESQUE 
 
 in their management. One may regret the want 
 of that freshness of conception which the mind 
 naturally expects in the productions of a people 
 with whose traditions it is unfamiliar, and whose 
 comparative isolation inspires the hope of indi- 
 viduality. But there is still much to be grateful 
 for. It is doubtful whether a subject so exciting 
 to the imagination, and so opportune for the 
 introduction of warmth and sensuousness of 
 expression, has ever before been treated by a 
 guild of poets with an equal delicacy and purity. 
 And, without claiming any greater credit, I think 
 it must be allowed that the blossoms of this 
 Mexican garden show a higher cultivation and 
 a more refined taste than our ignorance has been 
 led to expect from the every-day products of the 
 Aztec soil; and that for this reason, if for no 
 other, they deserve more than a passing sense 
 of pleasure in their beauty and fragrance. 
 
PART II 
 
 POLITICAL AND PROGRESSIVE 
 MEXICO 
 
 BY 
 
 MARGARET F. SULLIVAN 
 
AN OLD HISTORIAN 1/3 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 FROM CONQUEST TO INDEPENDENCE 
 
 " The art and beauty of historical composition," 
 said Capt. Bemal Diaz del Castillo, a lieutenant 
 of Cortez, "is to write the truth ; " and from the 
 year of our Lord one thousand five hundred and 
 seventy-two, when, " in the residence of the royal 
 court of audience," the Spanish historian finished 
 his narrative, down to our own days, there has 
 been only one story of the pictorial aspects of 
 Mexico. The vivid and accurate description 
 which is given in these pages is not surpassed 
 for precision, for taste, for sympathy, by that of 
 any earlier writer of all who may say with Mrs. 
 Blake, as Bemal Diaz said of himself, "This is 
 no history of distant nations, nor vain reveries : 
 I relate that of which I was an eye-witness, and 
 not idle reports or hearsay ; for truth is sacred." 
 
 But whoever undertakes to write of material 
 Mexico, even though he can say with equal truth 
 
1 74 MEXICO — POLITICAL 
 
 that he was an eye-witness, and holds truth 
 sacred, will find himself falling into vain revery. 
 " Reports " he may procure, but, in more senses 
 than one, they are " vain ; " hearsay he will find 
 copious and contradictory ; and although hun- 
 dreds of authors have travelled the country, and 
 left their impressions on record, out of the mass 
 of their labor little that is of absolute value can 
 be extracted. 
 
 Diaz himself complains of the elegance and 
 untrustworthiness of the earlier work of Fran- 
 cisco Lopez de Gomara. The Abb6 Clavigero, 
 who wrote of Mexico one hundred and fifty 
 years later, enumerates forty Spanish, Italian, and 
 Mexican historians from whose pages he derived 
 his own narrative ; and he alludes somewhat 
 doubtfully to a long catalogue of French, English, 
 Dutch, Flemish, and German writers of whom he 
 is not willing to admit that they held truth 
 sacred. His patience was justly exhausted by 
 one among them who described native princes 
 going on elephants to the court of the Montezu- 
 mas. One is impressed, however, in reading the 
 literature of the past about this strange and 
 still only dimly understood country, with the 
 
IN THE EARLY DAYS I/S 
 
 permanency of nearly every thing in it. Bernal 
 Diaz himself was not less affected than Mrs. 
 Blake by the wondrous beauty of the landscape ; 
 while others, of a later date, have written about 
 the manufactures and customs of the country 
 in phraseology which we, who were there only 
 yesterday, as it seems, would scarcely alter. Don 
 Antonio de Solis, for instance, "secretary and 
 historiographer to his Catholic Majesty," tells us 
 that he saw cotton cloths " well wove, and so fine 
 that they could not be known from silk but by 
 feeling." " A quantity of plumes," he continues, 
 "and other curiosities made of feathers, and 
 whose beauty and natural variety of colors (found 
 on rare birds that country produces) so placed 
 and mixed with wonderful art, distributing the 
 several colors, and shadowing the light with the 
 dark so exactly, that, without making use of 
 artificial colors or of the pencil, they could draw 
 pictures, and would undertake to imitate nature." 
 The same work contains an excellent woodcut of 
 Mexican women making bread. The process, the 
 utensils, the implements, are precisely the same as 
 those which Mrs. Blake describes as now in use. 
 Writers in the present century only repeat the 
 
176 MEXICO — POLITICAL 
 
 narratives of those of the preceding ones. " Notes 
 on Mexico" in 1822, by "A Citizen of the 
 United States," and printed in Philadelphia, might 
 have been written two hundred years ago, or last 
 week. Mexico is in many things the unchan- 
 ging country of this continent. The American 
 acknowledges his debt to the works of Loren- 
 zana, Alzate, Clavigero, Boturini, Mier, Robinson, 
 and Humboldt ; but by far the most interesting 
 portion of his volume is his unadorned tale of 
 what he saw and heard. 
 
 The arcades in the neighborhood of the cathe- 
 dral, in which we spent a good deal of time, 
 existed in his day. "They resemble the bazars 
 of the East, and are furnished with every variety 
 of goods." Costumes have changed no more than 
 the making of intoxicants. 
 
 In 1836 Charles Joseph Latrobe wrote "The 
 Rambler in Mexico." If we should take his 
 account of scenes during Lent, it would be un- 
 necessary to alter a word. Mexican piety is 
 somewhat theatrical and realistic during that holy 
 season. On Maunday Thursday, for instance, 
 they fill the air with the cricket-like sound of 
 rattles, made in all manner of designs, of wood or 
 
EXPERT TESTIMONY \^^ 
 
 silver, the substitute for bells ; and on Good Friday 
 they disport Judases of all shapes and sizes, filled 
 with gunpowder, which at the proper moment 
 explodes. On Palm Sunday they fill the churches 
 in their indescribable variety of gay and striking 
 costumes, bearing in their hands tall, yellow 
 palms, making a much more impressive sight, 
 and closer to the narrative of the Gospels, than 
 our colder climate enables us to have. Capt. 
 G. F. Lyon, who went from England to Mexico in 
 1828, examined closely the labor, especially the 
 mining, of the country. Herdsmen received five 
 dollars per month, and agricultural laborers seven 
 pence per day. Wages have slightly risen since 
 then, but, unfortunately, so have the prices of 
 food and clothing. "Mexico as it was and is," 
 by Brantz Mayer, was written in 1841-42 by the 
 Secretary of the American Legation. He sought 
 especially to collect data from authentic sources 
 upon commerce, agriculture, manufactures, coin- 
 age, mines, church and general government. He 
 is obliged to add : " In many instances I have 
 only been enabled to present estimates." Two 
 recent writers, Thomas A. Janvier' and David 
 
 ' The Mexican Guide, By Thomas A. Janvier. Scribners. 
 
178 MEXICO — POLITICAL 
 
 A. Wells,' have been similarly engaged. They 
 have produced useful, but differing compilations. 
 In many instances they have been able only to 
 present estimates. During our stay in the City 
 of Mexico, we examined all the book-stores, and 
 endeavored to enlist the interest of kind friends 
 there for the procurement of statistical publica- 
 tions upon material Mexico. The result was 
 two books, — one, " Atlas Metodico," by Antonio 
 Garcia Cubas, from the titlepage of which it is 
 apparent that there is a geographical and statis- 
 tical society ; but this atlas contains only local 
 geographical information and maps, with two 
 pages of questions for teachers and students. 
 The other book was " Annuario Universal," editor 
 Philomena Mata, and the issue for 1886 was the 
 eighth annual publication. It is a well-printed 
 duodecimo, two columns to the page, a thousand 
 pages solid nonpareil ; and the total of the statis- 
 tics in it occupies less than four pages. The 
 custom-house claims the rest. 
 
 Partly from observation and partly out of au- 
 thorities selected from various groups, — in an 
 effort to keep clear of partisans against Mexico, — 
 
 ' A study of Mexico. By David A. Wells, LL.D., D.C.R. Appleton. 
 
THE EARLY SPANIARDS 1 79 
 
 and with the understanding that in statistics 
 estimates must be employed often in lieu of 
 ascertained facts, I venture to offer some brief 
 considerations. 
 
 " For the commission was to be extended no 
 farther than barter and obtaining gold." 
 
 In that sentence, written by Bernal Diaz, is 
 compressed the whole story of the Spanish in- 
 vasion of Mexico, its scope, its motive, its object. 
 The part that religion played in it is acknowledged 
 by the same unquestionable witness with like 
 candor. When Cortes was ready to set out upon 
 the expedition, he caused to be made a standard 
 of gold and velvet, with the royal arms, and a 
 cross embroidered thereon, and a Latin motto, 
 the meaning of which was, " Brothers, follow 
 this holy cross with true faith, for with it we 
 shall conquer." The occasional words of the 
 Spanish captains to the natives concerning re- 
 ligion appear to have been called forth more by 
 the shock of seeing human sacrifices, and hearing 
 that children's flesh was served upon the table 
 of Montezuma, than by any earnest desire to 
 induce the Mexicans to embrace Christianity. 
 
1 80 MEXICO — POLITICAL 
 
 If they had any such desire, their own conduct 
 was more than sufficient to account for the re- 
 fusal of Montezuma to act upon their suggestion ; 
 and the letters of Cortes himself, as well as the 
 writings of many of his companions and contem- 
 poraries, show that what defects the visitor in 
 Mexico may see to-day in the social organization 
 are precisely of the kind of Christianity which the 
 Spaniards taught by their example. The vices 
 their chroniclers denounce in the emperor and 
 native princes on one page, they themselves adopt 
 on the next ; and the most revolting practices, 
 abhorrent to faith, and ruinous of the most firmly 
 organized society, find avowals in language inter- 
 mixed with prayers and ejaculations of devotion. 
 They charge the natives with superstition : they 
 were themselves superstitious. They charge the 
 natives with low morals : they added lower ones, 
 if lower were possible. They charge the natives 
 with cruelty : they set up the Inquisition among 
 them to enable the State to be cruel, while the 
 name of the Church was borrowed to wear the 
 responsibility, and carry down to our own time 
 the reproach.' They charge the natives with 
 
 ' Janvier, p. 27. 
 
THE VICEROYS l8l 
 
 treachery: they taught them masterly tactics in 
 that vice, when they procured entrance into the 
 palace and confidence of Montezuma.' 
 
 No matter who, after Cortds, ruled Mexico for 
 Spain, he carried out the original design of the 
 governor of Cuba who planned the invasion. 
 Barter and the obtaining of gold, with the em- 
 ployment of religion as a means to that end, is 
 written over every chapter of Spanish rule ; and 
 the traditions of despotism, the bigotry against 
 commerce, the hostility towards foreigners, the 
 avarice and sloth which politicians infused into 
 the religious orders for their own ends, resulting 
 at last in a great crisis, are all directly traceable 
 to the rapacity, the hypocrisy, and the feudalism 
 of the invaders. 
 
 It would have made no difference if the invader 
 had been England, and the new religion Protes- 
 tantism. The Spanish domination in Mexico 
 lasted for just three hundred years, from 1521 
 to 1 82 1. "The government, or viceroyalty, estab- 
 
 ■ Mr. Wells seems a little unfair to the military character of the 
 Mexicans, when he directs attention to the fact that Cortez conquered 
 the empire with so insignificant a force. Treachery on the part of the 
 invaders, and hospitality on that of the natives, had as much as arms to 
 do with his success. 
 
1 82 MEXICO — POLITICAL 
 
 lished by Spain in Mexico seems to have always 
 regarded the attainment of three things or results 
 as the object for which it was mainly constituted, 
 and to have allowed nothing of sentiment or of 
 humanitarian consideration to stand for one mo- 
 ment in the way of their rigorous prosecution and 
 realization. These were, first, to collect and pay 
 into the royal treasury the largest possible amount 
 of annual revenue ; second, to extend and magnify 
 the authority and work of the established Church ; 
 third, to protect home [i.e. Spanish] industries." ' 
 Is not that the description of the English domina- 
 tion in Ireland .■' The consequences are curiously 
 correspondent. The land in Mexico, like the 
 land in Ireland, is owned by a small number of 
 proprietors. The tillers in Mexico have no more 
 interest in the results of their toil, than had the 
 tenants in Ireland prior to the beginning of the 
 land-reform era forced upon the English Govern- 
 ment by the people of Ireland. The Mexican 
 landlords reside abroad in large numbers, like the 
 absentee landlords of Ireland ; and the money 
 produced by the soil flows out of Mexico in ex- 
 ports of bullion for these absentees and their 
 
 » David A. Wells. 
 
THE POLICY OF CONQUEST 1 83 
 
 creditors, precisely as the crops and money of 
 Ireland are carried from her to replenish the 
 purses of her landlords. The native manufac- 
 tures of Mexico, slight as they were, were dis- 
 couraged by the Spanish administration, for the 
 same reason that England destroyed the more 
 vigorous industries of Ireland as rapidly as they 
 appeared. Mexico was to buy only from the 
 manufacturers and merchants of Spain ; gold and 
 silver, woods, and a few products of soil and labor 
 combined, she was required to give in exchange 
 for what Spain had to sell. Ireland and India 
 have been required to give products of labor and 
 soil combined in exchange for English manufac- 
 tures. Religion in each case was degraded into 
 the uses of the conqueror. Human greed was 
 the passion in both cases. The sleep of Mexico, 
 disturbed at intervals by hideous convulsions, was 
 the result on this continent. A more muscular 
 race made a more persistent resistance to Eng- 
 land, and Ireland has begun the recovery of her 
 complete rights. India's day is not yet at hand. 
 
 It is a droll satire upon political economy, that 
 Spain accomplished her purpose by protection in 
 Mexico, and England by free trade in Ireland and 
 
1 84 MEXICO — POLITICAL 
 
 India. There is no abstract theory yet devised 
 by man superior to natural avarice enforced by 
 arms. 
 
 A patriot priest, the divine instinct of nationality 
 carrying him above the dreaming masses of his 
 fellow-countrymen, at length arose against the 
 Spanish domination. He paid with his life for 
 his devotion to his country, but the death of 
 Hidalgo blew the breath of liberty into Mexico. 
 His country relapsed for a time under the old 
 oppression. In another decade she made another 
 desperate and more successful, but far from suffi- 
 cient, effort ; and, when the flag of the republic 
 was unfurled in 182 1, the symbol upon it was that 
 of the old native race, — the eagle and cactus, 
 the emblems of the Aztecs. A people without 
 means of inter-communication, of different lan- 
 guages, in whom the poetry of paganism was 
 often mingled with a dull understanding of Chris- 
 tian principles ; whose more subdued classes 
 scarcely cared to be awakened to exertion, and 
 whose intellectualized caste was filled with lan- 
 guid selfishness ; a people who had no interest 
 in their land, no manufactures, no education ; 
 whose wants were simple and easily supplied ; 
 
THE CONSEQUENCES OF INVASION 1 85 
 
 who knew little of arms, and possessed none, — 
 it was impossible that such a people should be 
 eager in seizing upon chances for the erection of 
 representative government on the ruins of heredi- 
 tary despotism ; hereditary, that is, not in the 
 line of the Spanish viceroys, but in the ideas by 
 which Mexico was held under foreign rule. It is 
 not wonderful that revolution followed revolution. 
 It is not surprising that province attacked prov- 
 ince, and faction collided with, faction. 
 
 With the expulsion of the Spaniards, new foes 
 came in from without. England, the usurer of 
 the world, advanced money upon what she in- 
 tended to be, as in the case of Egypt, the security 
 of the entire country. The United States was 
 beguiled into an invasion by which Mexican valor 
 was made to stand a superb test against soldiers, 
 who, unlike Cort& and his companions, defeated 
 the Mexicans by arms, but not by treachery. 
 Not the worst misfortune which befell Mexico in 
 consequence of the Northern invasion was the 
 increase of her obligations to England. A direct 
 consequence of her bankruptcy was the intrigue 
 of France, Spain, and England for the invasion of 
 Mexico after the breaking out of our civil war. 
 
1 86 MEXICO — POLITICAL 
 
 The progress of that struggle convinced two of 
 the copartners that the contemplated enterprise 
 would be perilous, with the Monroe Doctrine still 
 vital, and a considerable army of experienced 
 troops. North and South, to answer with equal 
 alacrity the call of their common country to expel 
 European despotism from this continent. Louis 
 Napoleon, desperate for new delusions to postpone 
 his fall, resolved to take the chances ; and the 
 last invasion of Mexico was the child of his 
 ambition. 
 
 It is true that Maximilian was not the designer 
 of his own ruin. It is unquestioned that he was 
 anxious to win the good-will of the Mexican 
 people, and that it would have been the highest 
 happiness to him and his amiable wife to have 
 ruled Mexico for her own good. The earth is not 
 yet ready to dispense with the luxuries of royalty, 
 and large aggregations of the human race are 
 persuaded that it is wise to pay for the glitter and 
 mockery of thrones. And it may be true that a 
 monarchy in Mexico, constitutional and conserva- 
 tive, maintained with just firmness, would have 
 afforded that tranquillity essential to national de- 
 velopment. But experience, human nature, and 
 
EXPERIMENT OF THE EMPIRE 1 8/ 
 
 the re-consolidation of the United States were all 
 opposed to Maximilian, — experience, because 
 there is no instance of genuine or enduring 
 national development under a ruler representing 
 political and industrial interests opposed to those 
 of the people he tried to rule ; human nature, 
 because his own blind and deceitful course ren- 
 dered it certain that he should fail ; and the re- 
 consolidation of the United States, because the 
 spirit of the American people, calm after the con- 
 flict, and purged by the effacement of slavery 
 from their own soil, would not suffer Old-World 
 despotism to repeat in our own day the story of 
 earlier ages. 
 
 Maximilian, and the still more deeply and 
 deservedly pitied Carlotta, have been the cause 
 of much denunciation of the Mexican people. 
 To refuse sympathy to Louis Napoleon's hapless 
 and beautiful victim, whose reason toppled after 
 her heart was broken, is surely beyond human 
 power. The sternest heart cannot tread unmoved 
 the lonely cypress paths of Chapultepec, where 
 her sad feet sought to escape the troop of sor- 
 rows that encompassed her husband. Toussaint 
 rOuverture, the emancipator, dragged from his 
 
1 88 MEXICO — POLITICAL 
 
 farm in Hayti by the treachery of the great 
 Napoleon, and starved to death in the dungeon 
 of Joux on the bleak and snowy Jura, is the 
 companion picture for the demented daughter of 
 the king of the Belgians, widowed and crazed, in 
 a palace of the Montezumas, by the last of the 
 Napoleons. 
 
 Maximilian had the misfortune to follow too 
 closely the example of his patron. His assump- 
 tion of the crown of Mexico was made contingent 
 upon a popular vote of approval ; but the assembly 
 of re-actionaries who went through that ceremony 
 for him no more represented the people of Mexico 
 than the people of any other land. The pretext 
 served its purpose ; but he speedily freed him- 
 self from those who had been the aiders of his 
 fortunes. The spoliation of the Church by 
 the republic, ruthless and undiscriminating, had 
 created a conservative party, not blameless alto- 
 gether, but yet honest ; and to that party Maxi- 
 milian was pledged. To that party he owed his 
 crown. He cast them off in the expectation 
 that he could succeed better by making friends 
 of their enemies. At the same time, acting, it 
 is charged, upon the advice of Bazaine, and 
 
THE REVOLT OF HUMANITY 1 89 
 
 defying the best sentiment of all classes of the 
 people, defying humanity itself, he issued a 
 decree which would have revolted Cortes him- 
 self. He ordered that all persons found in 
 rebellion against his pretensions should be shot 
 as outlaws. This appalling order sealed his own 
 doom. The mercy he showed to Mexico, Mexico 
 showed to him. It was a noble impulse which 
 induced our Government to plead for his life on 
 condition that he should leave the country whose 
 soil, as a pretender to a crown, he had no right 
 to touch. It would have been better heeded 
 had Mexico been able to recall to life those 
 whom, loving their native land, and justified in 
 resisting foreign invasion, he had relentlessly 
 sent to unhonored graves. 
 
 Could Mexico have hoped for much under 
 a ruler who sought to force a monarchy upon a 
 people who had heroically established a republic; 
 from a prince whose exemplars were Napoleons ; 
 whose first step after his enthronement was the 
 betrayal of those who had enthroned him, whose 
 second was an order for the massacre of political 
 opponents ? What is there in the traditions of 
 crowns won by invasion, maintained by treachery. 
 
igo MEXICO — POLITICAL 
 
 and spattered with popular blood, to justify the 
 expectation that Maximilian would have taught 
 the Mexicans self-government ? 
 
 The only way for a nation to learn s«lf-govern- 
 ment is to practise it. 
 
LIBERTY OF THE PRESS I9I 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT 
 
 The present government reflects in form the 
 progress of all nations, and in spirit the troubled 
 past of Mexico. Its constitution is modelled 
 upon that of the United States, and in its pres- 
 ent form was adopted in 1857. All persons born 
 within the republic are free, and, if slaves, become 
 freemen by entering it. Personal liberty, with 
 its full significance, is guaranteed, including 
 liberty of the press, "with this reservation, that 
 private rights and the public peace shall not be 
 violated." ' The press law, many of whose pro- 
 visions are admirable, has been administered in 
 a manner to discourage enterprise. There are, 
 we are told, fifteen daily papers in the capital. 
 Only two of them printed news, as we understand 
 the word ; but an association was being formed 
 to effect a connection with our press associations 
 
 ' Janvier. 
 
192 MEXICO — POLITICAL 
 
 for the procurement of at least a summary of 
 European and the principal American intelli- 
 gence. Financial reasons, traditions, and custom 
 make news important in Mexico in this order : 
 first, English ; second, Spanish and Continental 
 European ; lastly. North American. The papers 
 are very partisan, in that respect imitating the 
 press generally of all countries. The " Times " 
 of London, in its "opinions," is no broader than 
 the narrowest faction print of Mexico ; and the 
 news upon which its editorial utterances are 
 based, in affairs political and religious, is quite 
 as trustworthy as its opinions are unbiassed. 
 Last summer it printed from Rome a story that 
 the Jesuits had poisoned the Pope, and that they 
 alone possessed the antidote by which his life 
 could be saved. They consented to save it on 
 condition that he should issue an encyclical 
 restoring to the order its full privileges, etc. 
 This romance was printed with perfect sober- 
 ness in the telegraphic columns ; and an editorial, 
 ponderous and a column long, declared that the 
 Jesuits ought not to be blamed, but that the 
 vanity of the pontiff in consenting to save his 
 life at such a price was deplorable. We never 
 
GOVERNMENT I93 
 
 saw that matched for fact or philosophy in any 
 publication in Mexico. 
 
 The constitution of Mexico recognizes every 
 right recognized by our own organic law. The 
 federal power is vested in three departments, as 
 with us. The legislature consists of two houses. 
 The members of the Chamber of Deputies are 
 elected every two years, one for each forty thou- 
 sand of the inhabitants. There are two senators 
 for each state, half of them elected every two 
 years. Congress sits from April i to May 31, 
 and from Sept. 16 to Dec. 16. The president, 
 whose term is for four years, is aided by a cabinet 
 composed of ministers of foreign affairs, of inter- 
 nal affairs, of justice and instruction, of public 
 works, of finance, of war and marine. The 
 judicial power resides in the supreme court and 
 in the district and circuit courts. Formerly the 
 chief justice succeeded to the executive office 
 in case of the death or disability of the president. 
 Now the succession passes to the president and 
 vice-president of the Senate, and the chairman 
 of the standing committee of Congress, — a small 
 representative body peculiar to the political organ- 
 ization of Mexico. It sits during the recess of 
 
194 MEXICO — POLITICAL 
 
 the legislature. The justices of the higher courts 
 are elected for a term of six years, and associated 
 with them are an attorney-general and a public 
 prosecutor, similarly selected. The State gov- 
 ernments copy the constitution of the federal 
 government so far as their relative position per- 
 mits. The president is commander-in-chief of the 
 army and navy. The former is composed of 
 three sections, — the active army, nominally sixty- 
 eight thousand men, actually at present less than 
 half that number ; the reserve, twenty-four thou- 
 sand men ; and the general reserve, seventy 
 thousand. The cavalry arm is well equipped, 
 and there is a small artillery branch. The 
 national military school at Chapultepec is one 
 of the best institutions of the kind existing, and 
 receives its students after the example of West 
 Point. The navy is limited to three or four 
 small vessels, incapable of other than coast patrol 
 service. The national sentiment which the gov- 
 ernment seeks to promote is indicated by the 
 national festivals, — Feb. 5, adoption of the fed- 
 eral constitution in 1857; May S, victory over 
 the French in 1862 ; May 8, birthday of the 
 patriot priest Hidalgo ; May 1 5, capture of Maxi- 
 
CAUSES OF DISAFFECTION , 195 
 
 milian in 1867; Sept. 15 and 16, declaration of 
 independence by Hidalgo, 18 10. 
 
 The area of the country is 778,590 square 
 miles, estimated, for there has never been a com- 
 plete survey ; with a population of ten million, 
 estimated, for there has never been an authentic 
 census. The political divisions are four states 
 on the northern frontier, five on the gulf, seven 
 on the " grande oceano," and eleven in the 
 interior; with one territory, and the federal dis- 
 trict corresponding to our District of Columbia, 
 except that the federal district is represented 
 in Congress as a state. 
 
 While the form of the government is thus 
 approvable, the spirit of it is represented as 
 more or less despotic. Nor is it clear how it 
 can be otherwise. I found it everywhere asserted 
 that the masses of the people take no interest 
 in politics, and the official vote for president 
 sustains this. Why, then, should not the admin- 
 istration be despotic ? The fountain will not 
 rise higher than the source. The people are 
 not homogeneous ; their languages serve to keep 
 them from understanding each other ; the mutual 
 hostility of Church and State widens the chasm. 
 
196 MEXICO — POLITICAL 
 
 Free public assemblies for the discussion of 
 political matters are as yet unknown, and must 
 be impracticable for some time longer. "Public 
 opinion" is the expression of class interest; and 
 "class" means now, in Mexico, the landlords, the 
 professional men, the practical politicians (who 
 are generally old soldiers and young lawyers), 
 the students, and the generals of the armies. 
 We were told, by patriotic persons, that the 
 federal government is so unscrupulously central- 
 izing that it practically controls all the state 
 governments. On the contrary, Mr. Wells came 
 to the conclusion that the state governments are 
 less under federal control than in the United 
 States. This contradictoriness embarrasses the 
 visitor at every turn and in every thing. Many of 
 the most intelligent Mexicans we met expressed 
 poignant regret over the fate of Maximilian and 
 the erection of the republic. We put to two 
 gentlemen of equal intelligence and undoubted 
 candor, but of different pursuits, this question : 
 "Which would the people prefer, the empire or 
 a republic?" They answered simultaneously; 
 but one said the empire, and the other said the 
 republic. Each was confident that the other was 
 
CHARGES OF CORRUPTION I97 
 
 mistaken. He who preferred the empire was a 
 German and a manufacturer. The advocate of 
 the republic was a professor of mathematics. 
 
 The fact remains, that the republic was born 
 of Mexican ideas, has been maintained exclusively 
 by Mexican arms, is based upon sound principles, 
 and must gradually awaken the entire people into 
 a healthful and independent interest in its perpet- 
 uation. Charges of dishonesty are freely made 
 against men in high administrative place, as 
 well as against government officials generally. 
 We had no means of ascertaining how much 
 truth might be in these assertions. If they be 
 true, Mexico cannot be accused of isolation in 
 that, at least. No judgment upon the Govern- 
 ment would be reasonable which does not take 
 into account the configuration of the country; 
 its immense foreign debt, for which the present 
 Government should be held not responsible beyond 
 certain moderate limits ; the enormous expenditure 
 required, and the inconsiderable revenue obtain- 
 able ; the sources whence the revenue must for 
 the present be derived ; and the social state, due 
 almost entirely to the effects of foreign misrule. 
 " Barter and the obtaining of gold " for Spain 
 
198 MEXICO — POLITICAL 
 
 has left a stamp upon Mexico which one genera- 
 tion of comparatively tranquil independence cannot 
 be expected to efface. A traveller who passed 
 through the country many years ago saw a face 
 peering out of a window upon a vista of wonderful 
 beauty. Whether prisoner or recluse he knew 
 not, but said through the grating, " How beauti- 
 ful!" " Transeuntibus," was the laconic answer, 
 — "To those who pass by." So has it been with 
 Mexico. Beautiful to those who robbed her, 
 beautiful to the tourist, her real condition is one 
 which depresses her own people, whose poverty, 
 ignorance, and loneliness make them the most 
 pitiable, as they are certainly the most kindly 
 and polite, people on this continent. 
 
THE LAST DECADE 1 99 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 RELIGION AND EDUCATION 
 
 If we look more closely at the Mexico of this 
 century, of this quarter of the century, and of the 
 present decade, it becomes apparent that a change, 
 organic and constitutional, has been silently com- 
 ing upon this ancient and secluded country. It 
 is not a change brought about by war, nor sub- 
 stantially advanced by diplomacy. It is a silent 
 revolution, moving gently in the footsteps of 
 peace. We must seek the evidences of it in 
 education, agriculture, and manufactures, and in 
 the sources and uses of revenue. 
 
 The story of education in Mexico is one of 
 hopelessly tangled threads. As the mystic sym- 
 bols on the monuments of Egypt have only begun 
 to yield their secrets to the archaeologist, we need 
 not despair of yet knowing something of the 
 antiquity of a country whose age is beyond 
 present estimate, and whose earliest civilization. 
 
200 MEXICO — PROGRESSIVE 
 
 as indicated by her superstitions, architecture, 
 costumes, and myths, was Oriental. Of her 
 middle age, that long period following the Span- 
 ish invasion, and preceding authentic accessible 
 accounts by travellers or natives, the vain spirit 
 of exaggeration has been the chief exploring 
 activity. On the one hand, hostile prejudice has 
 charged against the ostensible religion of the Span- 
 iards the results due in large measure to natural 
 causes, which neither political forms nor moral 
 forces could easily overcome. On the other, shal- 
 low religious partisanship has credited the Span- 
 iards with achievements in Mexico, educational 
 and moral, of which there is little material proof. 
 
 Itemizers of history, for instance, who rush into 
 discussion with an isolated date, and who assume 
 the dignity of the architect with the function of 
 the brick-carrier, have made ado over the fact 
 that the first university on this continent was 
 established in Mexico in 1551. It is not true 
 even as an isolated fact. If it were true, its 
 historical value would consist in the impression 
 it made on the national life, not in its categorical 
 precedence. The ceremonious authority for the 
 creation of a university in Mexico was given by 
 
THE FIRST UNIVERSITY 20I 
 
 Charles V. of Spain in that year ; but the actual 
 beginning was not made until two years later, 
 and then in temporary buildings. The institution 
 could not have known a prosperous infancy, for 
 it had no home -of its own for nearly another 
 half-century. The building which now bears its 
 name was not put up for nearly two centuries 
 later. Very little trustworthy information can 
 be procured concerning its founders. It was a 
 child of Salamanca, and Salamanca in the middle 
 of the sixteenth century was in its glory as the 
 exponent and defender of Thomas Aquinas. His 
 latest biographer, speaking of the Christian 
 Fathers, says, "They did not veil themselves 
 away from the sight of men when they took up 
 their pens to write ; but on the contrary, with 
 beautiful frankness and simplicity, they wove 
 their own portraits in amongst their teachings, 
 and that with a grace and an unconsciousness 
 of self which are amongst the most charming 
 characteristics of single-minded genius." ' The 
 pioneers of Christian learning in Mexico did not 
 follow their example, but nevertheless they were 
 brave and devoted, as well as erudite and pious, 
 
 > Saint Thomas of Aquin. By the Very Rev. Roger Bede Vaughan. 
 
202 MEXICO — PROGRESSIVE 
 
 as is manifest from their abandonment of their 
 native land and the intellectual luxuries of its 
 university society, for the hardships, mental and 
 physical, of a land to be reached by perils of a 
 still strange sea. 
 
 Doubtless the university of Mexico did some- 
 thing for science and art ; but its usefulness was 
 necessarily restricted to those who learned or 
 inherited the Spanish tongue, and were able to 
 acquire the preparatory education requisite for 
 admission. That the area of its usefulness was 
 very narrow, needs no demonstration. It must 
 have had some independence and aggressive 
 energy, for it was several times suppressed by the 
 Spanish Government. In 1822 a visitor found 
 the building very spacious, and the institution well 
 endowed ; " but at present there are very few 
 students." Two hundred is the highest number 
 mentioned as having been in attendance at any 
 time. The library consisted then "of a small 
 collection of books." In the city there were 
 " a few book-shops," and the few books in them 
 "were extravagantly dear." ' " Under the colonial 
 
 * The book-stores are not numerous now ; but books, and uncommon 
 ones, are cheap. I found in a second-hand shop Tom Moore's Odes of 
 
SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES 203 
 
 system liberal studies were discouraged." In 
 1844, when Brantz Mayer was in the capital, the 
 appropriation for the salaries of the professors in 
 the university was ^7,613. There was no appro- 
 priation for elementary schools. Of the colleges 
 he says, " The students who live within the walls 
 are expected to contribute for their education, while 
 others, who only attend the lectures of the profes- 
 sors, are exempt from all costs and charges ; so that 
 about two-thirds of the pupils of every college 
 receive their literary education gratuitously." Col- 
 leges appear to have been then as useless as the 
 university ; for out of a population of seven millions, 
 less than seven hundred thousand could read. 
 
 In a well-known Church history published in 
 1878, it is said, "There is but one university in 
 the country, that of the City of Mexico, founded 
 in 1 55 1, having twenty-two professors and a library 
 of fifty thousand volumes." ' The statement, 
 
 Anacreon (1802) ; Aventuras de Gil Bias, 4 vols., Barcelona, 1817 ; The- 
 saurus Hispano-Latinus, Madrid, 1794 ; La Gerusalemme Liberata, Turin, 
 1830 ; El Nuevo Testamento, London, 1874. The imprimatur is that of the 
 Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster. The volume contains an excellent 
 map and many good illustrations. The translation is approved by the 
 Archbishop of Santiago. 
 
 ' Alzog: Universal Church History. 
 
204 MEXICO — PROGRESSIVE 
 
 whether it refers to the year of the foundation or 
 the year of the publication, is certainly mislead- 
 ing. The reference is probably to the year of 
 publication, but it must have been based on much 
 earlier records ; for there is no university in the 
 country to-day, and there was none in 1878. It 
 was abolished in 1865. The building was first 
 transferred to the Ministry of Public Works ; now 
 it is the National Conservatory of Music. Among 
 the subjects of the paintings in the interior are 
 St. Thomas, St. Paul, St. Catherine, and Duns 
 Scotus. 
 
 The charge that the Spaniards endeavored to 
 prevent the spread of letters, and that the Church 
 has antagonized education, requires careful exami- 
 nation. The printing-press was set up twenty 
 years after the conquest. The natives could be 
 reached by the press only through the extension 
 of the Spanish language. The Spaniards, unlike 
 the English in Ireland, did not make the native 
 tongue penal, and enact special statutes for 
 hanging, disembowelling, exiling, or imprisoning 
 those who employed it for teaching purposes. 
 They kept the printing-press busy turning out 
 dictionaries, by which rulers and ruled were enabled 
 
THE PRINTING-PRESS 205 
 
 to get a little nearer each other. They printed 
 books of devotion, — a fact which irritates some ; 
 but would they have had the Greek classics 
 printed for the natives, and works on metaphysics, 
 science, and natural philosophy ? Who could 
 have read them ? It is true that the printing- 
 press does not seem to have accomplished much. 
 But the obstacles in its way were like their enor- 
 mous mountain-ranges, which kept forever apart, 
 unless they met in war, tribes, if not races, whose 
 dialects were inexchangeable. The printing-press 
 had to make, not one Spanish-Indian or Aztec 
 dictionary, but as many dictionaries as there were 
 tongues. The natives refused the Spanish spell- 
 ing-book, and continued to hate and tease the 
 invaders. To-day this diversity of speech remains 
 to prove that the failure of the printing-press 
 does not constitute good ground for indictment. 
 There are at least five distinct languages in 
 Mexico, and millions of the people remain totally 
 or partially ignorant of the official language of 
 the republic. 
 
 There was, moreover, a political force always at 
 work against the diffusion of education through 
 the agencies of the Church. It was the same 
 
206 MEXICO — PROGRESSIVE 
 
 cause which operated in Ireland : the Church, 
 maintained by the State, was not maintained for 
 the sake of religion or education, but to provide 
 for favored sons of the invaders. The bishoprics 
 were filled with appointees of the Spanish court. 
 The support of their establishments was made a 
 legal burden, and the story of the Established 
 Church in Mexico runs in a parallel with that of 
 the Established Church in Ireland. " It was the 
 policy of the Spanish cabinet to cherish the tem- 
 poralities of the Mexican Church. The rights of 
 primogeniture forced the younger sons either into 
 the profession of arms or of religion, and it was 
 requisite that ample provision should be made 
 for them in secure and splendid establishments. 
 Thus all the lucrative and easy benefices came 
 into the hands of Spaniards or their descendants, 
 and by far the greater portion of the more ele- 
 vated ecclesiastics were persons of high birth or 
 influential connections." ' It was inevitable that 
 the causes and customs which gave princely in- 
 comes to clergymen without congregations in Ire- 
 land ; which enabled bishops of the Establishment, 
 entering as paupers their sparse dioceses, to leave 
 
 ' Brantz Mayer. 
 
RELIGIOUS ESTABLISHMENTS 207 
 
 legacies of thousands of pounds to their personal 
 heirs, while thousands from whom their tithes 
 were wrung died unlettered and in want, — should 
 create in Mexico an ecclesiastical class and con- 
 dition of a corresponding kind. "As long as 
 Mexico was a dependency of Spain, . . . the 
 bishops had very handsome revenues ; the largest 
 being about a hundred and thirty thousand dol- 
 lars, and the smallest about twenty-five thousand 
 dollars." ' The real estate and personal property 
 of the religious establishments accumulated, from 
 an estimate of ninety million dollars in 1844, until, 
 when the revolution arrived, the material wealth 
 of the Church furnished temptations too great to 
 be resisted. 
 
 As late as 1829 the Spanish court disputed 
 with the Pope the right to nominate bishops for 
 Mexico. In that year there was only one see 
 filled in the entire country. The rival parties of 
 the country made the most of the political fac- 
 tiousness which surrounded religious office ; and 
 in 1833 it was proposed to confiscate the Church 
 property, and apply the proceeds to the payment 
 of the national debt. This was slowly and spas- 
 
 ' Brantz Mayer. 
 
208 MEXICO — PROGRESSIVE 
 
 medically done, and was fully accomplished when 
 Maximilian arrived in the capital as emperor. 
 Alzog relates the rest of the chapter : " Directly 
 on his arrival . . . the clerical party demanded 
 the immediate and unconditional restoration of 
 the ecclesiastical property confiscated and sold 
 during the ascendency of Juarez and the French 
 agency. As this amounted to about one-third of 
 the real estate of the empire, and one-half of the 
 immovable property of the municipalities, and had 
 already passed from the first to the second, and in 
 some instances to the third, purchaser, it was 
 plainly impossible for the emperor to satisfy this 
 demand." The papal nuncio avowed his inability 
 to find any satisfactory solution of the question, 
 and resigned. Maximilian instructed his minis- 
 ters to bring in a bill, which was promptly passed, 
 vesting the management and sale of ecclesiastical 
 property in the council of state. 
 
 What Brantz Mayer wrote of the common clergy 
 in 1844 doubtless continued to be true : " Through- 
 out the republic no persons have been more 
 universally the agents of charity, and the ministers 
 of mercy, than the rural clergy. The village curas 
 are the advisers, the friends, and protectors of 
 
THE PRIESTS 209 
 
 their flocks. Their houses have been the hospita- 
 ble retreats of every traveller. Upon all occa- 
 sions they constituted themselves the defenders 
 of the Indians, and contributed toward the main- 
 tenance of institutions of benevolence. They 
 have interposed in all attempts at persecution, 
 and, wherever the people were menaced with 
 injustice, stood forth the champions of their out- 
 raged rights. To this class, however, the wealth 
 of the Church was of small import." That is the 
 testimony of an enemy of the Church. It is cor- 
 roborated by that most imposing fact in Mexican 
 history since the invasion, — that it was a priest 
 who led the people in their first genuine effort to 
 throw off a foreign yoke, and found a national 
 republican government. 
 
 The separation of Church and State, although 
 the mode involved injustice, has had the effect of 
 stimulating both in behalf of popular education. 
 There is no national university, but the people 
 are learning to read. The few princely sees have 
 disappeared, but the people sustain their clergy 
 generously. A foreign political power no longer 
 fills the bishoprics, but Rome has increased their 
 number so as to bring religion more closely to the 
 
2IO MEXICO — PROGRESSIVE 
 
 people. The first and most general result is, that 
 the all but universal illiteracy of fifty years ago is 
 rapidly diminishing. The schools are supported, 
 partly by the national Government, partly by 
 states and municipalities, partly by benevolent 
 societies. Forty years ago the total sum expended 
 on education by the Government could not have 
 exceeded a hundred thousand dollars. Now it is 
 more nearly five million dollars, if we include with 
 the national appropriation the contributions from 
 other sources, public and private. "With very 
 few exceptions," says Janvier, "free schools, sus- 
 tained by the state or municipal governments, 
 the Church or benevolent societies, are found in 
 all towns and villages ; and in all the cities and 
 larger towns, private schools are numerous. In 
 the more important cities, colleges and profes- 
 sional schools are found. . . . Included in the 
 general scheme are free night-schools for men 
 and women, as well as schools in which trades are 
 taught." It must be owned, however, that the 
 history used in the schools gives a version of 
 the American war with Mexico which would 
 somewhat surprise Gen. Scott and the gallant 
 lieutenants who fought with him. 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY 211 
 
 A distinguished American economist,' who saw 
 the country two years ago, says of the recent 
 development of the educational spirit : — 
 
 " It is safe to say that more good, practical 
 work has been done in this direction, within the 
 last ten years, than in all of the preceding three 
 hundred and fifty. At all of the important cen- 
 tres of population, free schools, under the auspices 
 of the national Government, and free from all 
 Church supervision, are reported as established ; 
 while the Catholic Church itself, stimulated, as it 
 were, by its misfortunes, and apparently unwilling 
 to longer rest under the imputation of having 
 neglected education, is also giving much attention 
 to the subject, and is said to be acting upon the 
 principle of immediately establishing two schools 
 wherever, in a given locality, the Government or 
 any of the Protestant denominations establish 
 one." 
 
 The Government also maintains national schools 
 
 ' Mr. David A. Wells, like Mrs. Blake and the writer, was a member 
 of the first Raymond excursion party which went from Boston over the 
 Mexican Central. It would be imprudent, at least for the present, for 
 women, or for men not fond of " roughing it," to make this delightful 
 journey overland, except under experienced management such as we 
 enjoyed, which charges itself with all responsibility for the traveller. 
 
212 MEXICO — PROGRESSIVE 
 
 of agriculture, medicine, law, engineering, military- 
 science, music, and fine arts, as well as a national 
 museum and a national library. The charitable 
 and benevolent institutions, public and private, 
 equal in number and scope, if they do not exceed, 
 our own. 
 
ROAD MAKING 213 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 REVENUE AND ITS APPLICATION 
 
 There is no danger that for many years to 
 come, if ever, the prediction of Baron von Hum- 
 boldt will be fulfilled, — that, with the advantage 
 of good roads and free commerce, the Mexicans 
 will one day undersell us in bread corn in the West 
 Indies and other markets. Mexico has not yet 
 good roads nor free commerce, nor, unless the tariff 
 policy of the country shall be radically changed, 
 can she have either. It is true that road-making 
 in Switzerland is naturally no more difficult than 
 in Mexico, if we omit the water-supply, — a very 
 important factor in all industry. But the Romans 
 and migratory Celts began making roads in Switz- 
 erland before, we may assume, Mexico had sent 
 a sail out on the ocean ; and the services which 
 war rendered to peace in the Alps have been 
 continually supplemented by the enlightened self- 
 ishness of a people who are animated in the 
 
214 MEXICO — PROGRESSIVE 
 
 cultivation of their soil by that highest incentive 
 to industry^ — ownership. No one who has trav- 
 elled through Holland, over the bleak and all 
 but sterile passes of the Juras, and across the 
 Alps, can fail to realize that this incentive has 
 made the agriculture of these countries what it 
 is; while Ireland and Mexico, through millions 
 of unused acres, and other millions under only 
 slight cultivation, testify to the effect which land- 
 lordism, idle and oppressive, exercises over the 
 most beneficent and indispensable among human 
 industries. 
 
 Yet, without free commerce, and with roads, 
 except the railroad lines, perhaps the worst in 
 the world, and without machinery until within 
 very recent times, the agriculture of Mexico 
 under the republic has made extraordinary prog- 
 ress. In the portions of the valley which the 
 Central Mexican traverses, there are regions with 
 sufficient water. As a rule, irrigation is every- 
 where necessary. This fact should be remem- 
 bered always in judging the Mexican people. 
 The tenant who works land rents, not so many 
 acres, but the right to so much water. In spite 
 of this difficulty, the valley literally blossoms ; and 
 
RIGHTS OF LABORERS 215 
 
 along the river-beds, few and not uniformly reli- 
 able, two, and sometimes three, crops a year are 
 produced. The condition of the tenant, compared 
 with what it was in the beginning of the century, 
 has considerably improved. His lot then was like 
 that of tenants elsewhere. The Mexican landlord 
 got the tiller into debt, and then, giving him a 
 little land for his own use, barely enough to raise 
 the corn essential to life, made him and his fam- 
 ily work out the debt in labor on the farm or 
 hacienda. 
 
 It is a relief to find the Spaniards attempting 
 to improve the status of these victims of imported 
 feudalism. Las Casas and others drew the atten- 
 tion of the Spanish court to their sufferings : — 
 
 "The first attempt at amelioration was the 
 repartimientos de Indios, by which they were 
 divided among the Spaniards, who had the prof- 
 its of their labor without a right to their persons ; 
 next the encomiendas, by which they were placed 
 under the superintendence and protection of the 
 Spaniards. The encomendero was bound to live 
 in the district which contained the Indians of 
 his encomienda, to watch over their conduct, in- 
 struct and civilize them, to protect them from 
 
2 1 6 MEXICO — PROGRESSIVE 
 
 all unjust persecutions, and to prevent their being 
 imposed on in trafficking with the Spaniards. 
 In return for these services, they received a 
 tribute in labor or produce." ' 
 
 These protectors, like the zemindars over the 
 ryots in India, did precisely what might have 
 been expected. No men can safely be intrusted 
 with absolute power over the liberty or labor of 
 other men. "The abuse of these protecting reg- 
 ulations followed closely their institution." The 
 peonage, which e}fisted legally in New Mexico 
 until abolished by our Congress, was a relic of 
 the " protecting " eticomiefidas. It actually exists 
 in some parts of Mexico now ; it must practically 
 continue to exist, with varying degrees of enor- 
 mity and oppression, until the idle-landlord system 
 is abolished. 
 
 Over the greater part of the country under 
 cultivation, the mode of farming is primitive. 
 Near the larger cities, and especially on the lines 
 of the railways, English and American machinery 
 is coming into use, chiefly the reaper. But this 
 can be true only of the rich haciendas. The tiller 
 who has no capital, and receives for his share 
 
 ' Notes on Mexjco. 1824. London and Philadelphia. 
 
NATIVE POPULATION 2\^ 
 
 only a small fraction of the harvest, will neither 
 buy machinery, nor, except along the railroads, 
 can he rent it, since its transportation otherwise 
 is next to impossible. Nor are the natives quick 
 in using the railroads for local exchange of com- 
 modities. They continue to gaze upon the loco- 
 motive with awe, and they cling to old customs 
 with a tenacity not free from disdain of the new 
 ones. The men carry extraordinary burdens on 
 their backs, and the small donkey is the favorite 
 draught animal. The idea of raising foods for 
 export has not yet crossed the brain of the vast 
 bulk of the people. They undertake to raise 
 enough for each year's local use ; and so rigorous 
 is the calculation, that, if a bad season come upon 
 them, famine will be the consequence, unless the 
 deficiency is supplied from the public granaries. 
 It is to the credit of the Government that no 
 appeals for aid are sent over the world. That 
 distinction remains the undisputed dishonor of 
 Great Britain. Poor as Mexico is, she has some 
 sense of national decency. 
 
 If Nature has treated the country ill in failing 
 to furnish roads, and in heaping up obstacles 
 against their construction, thus impeding internal 
 
21 8 MEXICO — PROGRESSIVE 
 
 commerce, she has been no less parsimonious in 
 indenting the coasts of Mexico with harbors for 
 foreign trade. An official communication to our 
 Government describes her coasts as broad belts 
 of intolerable heat, disease, and aridity. On the 
 whole coast-line there are but two natural harbors 
 available for first-class modern merchant-vessels. 
 But harbors can be made ; whether natural or 
 artificial, they do not create commerce. If the 
 farmers of Mexico owned the tillable land ; if the 
 burden of taxation were shifted off industry upon 
 land, proportionately to other property ; if the tariff 
 were so modified that commerce might freely 
 seek Mexico, — harbors would not be wanting. 
 
 It is her mines that have kept up the foreign 
 trade of Mexico in spite of her lack of harbors. 
 The total value of her exports of precious metals 
 annually from 1879 to 1884 averaged about twenty- 
 five million dollars. But her total exports in 1885 
 have been estimated as high as forty-five million 
 dollars, the increase being due in large measure 
 to the closer relations brought about between our 
 country and the sister republic by the new rail- 
 road lines. It is estimated that we received about 
 fifty-five per cent of the total. The remainder 
 
MANUFACTURES 219 
 
 was divided about as follows : England, 32.9 ; 
 France, 4.8; Germany, 3; Spain, 2.6. The im- 
 port trade of Mexico is the confession of her 
 organic weakness. Its total value is about thirty- 
 five million dollars, and consists of manufactured 
 articles, which, for the most part, might be pro- 
 duced at home. 
 
 The Spaniards discouraged manufactures in 
 Mexico for the benefit of their home industry; 
 they did not prohibit them. But the want of 
 steam or water power necessarily kept domestic 
 manufacturing within small limits. Mayer records 
 fifty-three cotton factories in 1844, running some- 
 thing more than one hundred and thirty thousand 
 spindles. Mr. Wells found eighty-four factories 
 returned by the tax-collectors in 1883, running 
 something more than two hundred and forty 
 thousand spindles. Mr. Titus Sheard, another 
 of our pioneer party, himself a manufacturer, 
 informed us, that, owing to the crude chemistry 
 and rude methods, cotton costs nearly twice as 
 much a yard in the Mexican mill as in the United 
 States factories. The laborers employed are com- 
 pelled to work from daylight to dark for little pay. 
 Improved machinery and more modern prepenses 
 
220 MEXICO — PROGRESSIVE 
 
 would lower the cost of production materially. 
 Meanwhile, a considerable quantity of manufac- 
 tured cotton is imported, in spite of the excessive 
 tariff. It was imported from Great Britain more 
 largely in the past than from the United States. 
 The railroads will probably alter that in time ; 
 but at present raw cotton may be carried by 
 water from the Gulf to Liverpool, manufactured 
 in Manchester, sent back to Vera Cruz, and 
 thence by expensive rail to the capital, cheaper 
 than from the United States to the same point. 
 Another curious circumstance is, that although 
 the cotton factories in Mexico have quadrupled 
 in twenty years, and although the land around 
 Querdtaro and Orizaba, the chief cotton-making 
 centres, is well suited to the growth of the plant, 
 and it is actually grown there. New Orleans cotton 
 is used exclusively at Orizaba, and one-half of 
 that mai^ufactured at Quer^taro is also American. 
 There is no reason why Mexico should not grow 
 and manufacture all the cotton it requires. 
 
 The other manufactures of the country are 
 trifling. The pottery, which has a reputation in 
 excess of its merits, is at least adequate for the 
 gommon uses of the people, whose culinary and 
 
RAW MATERIAL AND MANUFACTURE 221 
 
 other house habits are extremely primitive. - Each 
 family can be its own potter. The sewing-machine 
 has given some impetus to the leather trade ; but 
 although the Mexican saddle is famous the world 
 over, Mexico pays the United States nearly thirty 
 thousand dollars a year for saddles, notwithstand- 
 ing a duty of fifty-five per cent. This fact is 
 accounted for in the superior mechanical appli- 
 ances used by the American manufacturers. 
 
 It would appear at first sight that the devisors 
 of the Mexican tariff had sought to rival Nature 
 in producing artificial obstacles to match the 
 physical ones. From the moment labor touches 
 any article in Mexico, until it passes to the actual 
 use of the consumer, it has hitherto been taxed. 
 There was a time when it cost Spain forty-four 
 per cent to collect the Crown revenues ; her 
 pernicious example has left this tradition of 
 excessive taxation, and imposed the support of an 
 army of tax-collectors upon the commerce of 
 the country. Take a yard of calico. The land 
 that produced the cotton pays nothing. The 
 landlord has been the law-maker for Mexico, as 
 he has been for Great Britain, Ireland, and India ; 
 as he was for Germany, until Stein and Harden- 
 
222 MEXICO — PROGRESSIVE 
 
 berg released the soil ; as he was in France, until 
 the Revolution. The land that produces the raw- 
 material pays nothing ; but the instant labor 
 touches it, cotton begins to pay taxes. Every 
 thing used in transforming the boll into material 
 is taxed : the dyes used in coloring it are taxed ; 
 the sale of each of them is individually taxed ; 
 the wagon that carts it from the field to the 
 factory is taxed ; the wheel that softens it is 
 taxed ; the animal that turns the wheel is taxed ; 
 the chemicals that enter into its composition are 
 taxed ; its transfer from the factor to the jobber 
 is taxed ; its transfer from the jobber to the 
 retailer is taxed ; its sale to the purchaser is 
 taxed. Is it wonderful that cotton costs more 
 at Orizaba and Queretaro than in Lowell or 
 Manchester .■" It is not strange that more is not 
 grown in Mexico. The merchant finds it more 
 convenient to pay all his burdens at the custom- 
 house, than each of the lot to the internal-revenue 
 collectors. 
 
 This example may be slightly exaggerated, if 
 taken literally. But the principle of Mexican 
 taxation is fairly represented in it. The marvel 
 is that so many blows in succession upon the 
 
TARIFF 223 
 
 arm of industry have not paralyzed it. A study 
 of the Mexican tariff, with the phenomenon of 
 trade increasing in spite of it, justifies the high 
 expectations which sanguine Mexicans hold of 
 the industrial future of their country. They say 
 that this mode of raising national revenue must 
 in time be remedied. They point out that reme- 
 dial changes have already taken place. It was 
 formerly the practice of the States to collect toll 
 on every thing passing their borders, no matter 
 what national taxes had already been paid. This 
 interstate impost was prohibited a few years ago 
 by Congress ; but some of the States continued 
 to enforce it, on the ground of necessity. It has 
 been abolished by constitutional amendment. 
 
 The diminution of the national debt to a total 
 of about one hundred and fifty million dollars, 
 and the reduction of the number of civil servants, 
 with a reduction also of the salaries of those 
 retained, have put the national finances upon a 
 safer and more hope-inspiring basis. The reduc- 
 tion of the tariff, both domestic and foreign, 
 has followed quickly upon these happy achieve- 
 ments of the Diaz administration. The following 
 articles are now on the free list at the custom- 
 
224 MEXICO — PROGRESSIVE 
 
 houses, where hitherto nearly every thing paid 
 high duty : — 
 
 Barbed wire for fencing, hoes, bars for mines, fire-engines, 
 hydraulic lime, printed books, all sorts of machinery, powder for 
 mines, printing type, rags for paper, wire rope and cable, church 
 clocks, and many useful chemicals. 
 
 Even the cockpit has paid a portion of the 
 national revenue ; and to the smiling cynic who 
 may think too little of the politicians who con- 
 descend to this lowly and vicious source of money- 
 making for national necessities, the reminder 
 may be opportune, that to make the brutal who 
 indulge in such sport pay for their pastime ' is 
 more tolerable to civilization than some methods 
 of the governments of the Old World. Mexico 
 raises revenue also by lotteries. The most pious 
 of governments raised money in the same way 
 
 * I smile to recall that we were invited to occupy front seats, as a 
 mark of honor, upon a certain Sunday evening, to witness this cruel and 
 shocking spectacle. We were too timid or too super-refined to go. But 
 when I read the other day the story of the evictions of Bodyke, Ire., 
 where bedridden old women and half-naked children were thrown out 
 into ditches; the roofs that sheltered them — in many cases built by 
 their kindred — torn down, lest they should reclaim their own ; and all 
 this to extort by terror from others rents land and labor combined 
 could not pay if the labor lived, the lottery, the bull-fight, and the cock- 
 pit, as means of making money, became civilized by comparison. 
 
NATIONAL REVENUE 225 
 
 to help carry on the American war ; it was only 
 in 1823 that Great Britain went out of the 
 gambling business. Every nation in Europe has 
 indulged in it, with the exception (I think) of 
 Russia. Paris resorts to a lottery to raise money 
 for the illuminations on the national fite. States 
 of the American Union derive revenue from 
 gambling ; and at least one American city swells 
 its coffers from this source. 
 
 In the uses of the national revenue under the 
 republic lies the clearest proof of the silent revo- 
 lution. In 1808 Spain collected a total revenue 
 of about twenty million dollars. Among the 
 sources, by the way, were the monopoly of the 
 sale of playing-cards, the tobacco monopoly, one- 
 ninth of the tithes, the monopoly of gunpowder, 
 sporting, gambling, the transfer of all kinds of 
 commodities, a tax on the mines, a tax on papal 
 dispensations, a tax on incomes of the inferior 
 clergy, on stamps, and on ice. The portion nomi- 
 nally spent in Mexico, and not conveyed into the 
 hands of the officials of the Crown, was probably 
 one-fourth of the whole. It was expended chiefly 
 on the army. Not a dollar appears to have been 
 devoted to elementary education or useful public 
 
226 MEXICO — PROGRESSIVE 
 
 works. Marine docks were built one year, but 
 they were reserved as arsenals. There were sub- 
 sidies sent out to other Spanish colonies, and 
 there were pensions for Crown favorites. This 
 amount of revenue from a wretched population 
 of about four millions and a half is amazing. 
 
 The revenue of the republic, with a population 
 of at least ten millions, was in 1870, in round 
 numbers, sixteen million dollars. In 1886-87 it 
 reached thirty-two million dollars. The expendi- 
 tures have kept pace with it, and in fact must 
 have exceeded it, and must continue to exceed 
 it for some years, until great public works are 
 constructed, such as the drainage scheme already 
 under contract, canals, bridges, roads, and harbors. 
 The expenditure by departments presents a grati- 
 fying picture of national order and growth. The 
 executive is the smallest item in the budget, only 
 $49,252. Railway subventions have been liberally 
 made ; not as prodigally as in the case of our 
 Pacific railways, but with a certainty of corre- 
 sponding national benefit. Ten years ago Mexico 
 had only four hundred miles of railway. There 
 are now almost ten times as many. New York 
 is distant from the ancient Aztec capital only 
 
MEXICO AND THE UNITED STATES 227 
 
 six and a half days' journey. With the excep- 
 tion of the portion of the national debt which 
 may have been unjustly assumed by the repub- 
 lic, every dollar of the revenue of Mexico is 
 now applied to the development of the country. 
 Progress is visible everywhere ; and in every thing 
 that enters into it, moral, political, and industrial, 
 the influence of neighborhood is manifest. 
 
 It is true that the British bondholder is more 
 successful in collecting interest on Mexican obli- 
 gations than on Southern Confederacy paper, 
 which he did so much to float for the sake of 
 the interest ; and it is true also that the capital 
 invested in banking and in a considerable share 
 of the mining enterprises of Mexico is English. 
 But every day brings the sister republics closer. 
 Every year effaces more of the old antagonism. 
 English is supplanting French in the schools. In 
 time it will make its way through the mountains 
 with Spanish. It is certain that the war with 
 Mexico was fought on a misunderstanding which 
 the calmer sense of a later and more humane 
 period would not repeat. The instincts of national 
 self-interest prompt a policy of kindness and 
 sincerity ; a policy which shall respect the worthy 
 
228 MEXICO — PROGRESSIVE 
 
 traditions of an ancient and severely tried people, 
 while it will promote a commercial communion 
 certain to be mutually advantageous. Such a 
 policy will hasten a commercial treaty just to 
 both countries. The noble sentiment which 
 should animate the nation of Washington, Lin- 
 coln, and Grant ought moreover to emphasize the 
 approval of such a treaty by an act of grace, — 
 the restoration of the flags and cannon captured 
 by us in 1847. Nations not familiar with the 
 precepts of Christianity were wont to make their 
 war trophies, not of marble or metal, but of 
 wood, that they might the more speedily perish. 
 Why should we perpetuate the story of the 
 defeat and humiliation of our sister republic ? 
 
I RENE E J EROME'S .... 
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 19 
 

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