rifice themselves to their children, nor
endeavour to preserve their youth much beyond its allotted span. Also,
lack of hygienic measures--as that of active exercise--and the too
excessive use of paint and powder in the toilette seem to bring on an
early middle age. But apart from this it is a natural condition of the
race that it matures early--the Mexican girl is ripe for marriage long
before her Anglo-Saxon sisters--and then pays the penalty of an earlier
fading. When there is an admixture of the aboriginal strain--and in few
families this is absent--a tendency to extreme stoutness exists as
middle age approaches, especially among women of the leisure class,
whose life calls for no active labour as among their poorer sisters.
Sweet, soft, and melancholy, yet often vivacious and always
_simpatica_--such is the impression of the Mexican girl which remains
upon the mind of the foreigner who has known her. It is always evident
to the foreign observer that a too exaggerated habit of seclusion and
reserve between the sexes, such as prevails in Spanish-American
countries, defeats its own ends to some extent. The men of these
countries, whilst outwardly courteous and _correcto_ towards their
women, to an almost excessive degree, have not the real respect towards
them which the less polite Anglo-Saxon entertains towards his feminine
world. Nor does this too artificial barrier conduce to any rigid
condition of morality. It rather tends to encourage clandestine
courtship and amours.

But the Mexican girl's nature calls for admiration and notice. Behold
the main street of the city during the fashionable shopping hours,
lined with admiring young men, who make audible remarks as to the
beauty of eyes, hair, or figure of the passing _senoritas_--remarks
which would give grave offence in cold-blooded England, but which are
heard with inward gratification by their recipients. These young men of
fashion make it an event of the day to line up in this way, attired in
fashionable garb, with an exaggerated height of collar and length of
cuff! _Largartijos_--lizards--they are dubbed in the language of the
country.

In the social life of Mexican cities religion plays an important part.
Indeed, religion is the basis of politics--that is to say, the two
political parties of the country are divided upon questions of
religious control. Mexico, although the State divorced itself long ago
from the Church, is, nevertheless, one of the firmest st