within the portal--

"Para que te mire, mujer divina;
Para que contemple tu faz hermosa?
Y tu labio encendido, cual rosa
Es mi delirio ..."

* * * * *

Otherwise, the distractions of the Mexican women are few. Yet our sweet
damsel of the dark eyes and demure lips who daily enters her temple,
applauds with her little gloved hands--with the approval and
accompaniment of her mamma--the onslaught of the fierce bull at the
bull-fight, and sees the torturing of the unfortunate horses as, their
life-blood rushing forth, they expire in the arena before her. And the
populace--ha! the populace of holiday _peones_--how frenziedly they
shout! And the band plays a soft air, and the blue Mexican sky shimmers
overhead. Love, blood, wine, dust--_O tempora! O mores!_ This is
Mexico; carrying into the twentieth century the romance of the Middle
Ages, tinging her new civilisation still with the strong passions of
the old, and refusing--whether unwisely, whether wisely, time shall
show--to assimilate the doctrines of sheer commercialism whose votaries
are hammering at her gates. But it is time now to review the cities and
homes of this picturesque and developing people.

CHAPTER X
THE CITIES AND INSTITUTIONS OF MEXICO

Character of Mexican cities--Value of Mexican civilisation--Types of
Mexican architecture--Mexican homes and buildings--The _Plaza_--Social
relations of classes--The City of Mexico--Valley of Mexico--Latitude,
elevation, and temperature--Buildings--Bird's-eye view--The lakes--
Drainage works--Viga canal and floating gardens--General description--
The cathedral--Art treasures--Religious orders--Chapultepec--Pasco de
la Reforma--The President--Description of a bull-fight--Country homes
and suburbs--Colleges, clubs, literary institutions--Churches and
public buildings--Army and Navy--Cost of living--Police--Lighting and
tramways--Canadian enterprise--British commercial relations--The
American--United States influence--A general impression of Mexico.

Mexico is a land of numerous capital cities--far more numerous than
those of any South American country. These cities are entirely distinct
in type to the centres of population of Anglo-Saxon North America.
Their structure, environment, atmosphere, are those of the Old World
rather than the New--that is to say, if the cities of the United States
and Canada are to be taken as American types.

Their character is that di