race characteristic--the closer association
between the members of families which obtains with the Latin race. The
guest in these houses--somewhat to his embarrassment if he be an
Englishman--sometimes finds a glass door, with no means of screening
him from observation, the division between his apartment and that of
some other--possibly a reception-room! Moreover, light and ventilation
often seem quite secondary matters, for as a rule the rooms--in the
case of the interior one--simply open on to the _patio_ gallery above
it if it be the second floor, with glass door and no windows.
Consequently, if light or air are required, it is necessary to keep
these open, and this is, of course, difficult at night. The Mexican
thinks nothing of sleeping in a closed-up room all night, and shuts his
doors and windows--where windows exist--and closes his shutters to the
"dangers" of the outside air!

There are rarely fireplaces or stoves in Mexican houses. Of course, in
the tropics these are not required, but in the cities of the uplands it
is often bitterly cold. There is a popular belief that warming the air
of a room by artificial heat in the rarefied air of the uplands induces
pneumonia, but it is doubtful if this has any real foundation. And the
Mexican prefers to shiver under cover of a _poncho_, rather than to sit
in comfort and warmth, after the European or American fashion. On the
other hand, the Englishman who has experienced the inveterate habit of
overheating of the houses and offices of New York or other parts of the
United States will prefer the Mexican method. Nothing is more trying to
the Briton than the sudden change of temperature from the high-heated
American office or house to the bitter cold of its winter streets, such
conditions as prevail in the United States: or the overheating of
American trains.

The architecture of Mexican cities is often of a solid and enduring
type, especially the buildings of older construction; and many of these
date from the time of the earlier viceroys. All public buildings and
ecclesiastical edifices are of this nature. The modern buildings have,
in some instances, followed out the same style, eminently suitable for
the country, but others have adopted a bastard and incongruous
so-called "modern" type, copied from similar structures in Europe or
the United States, where pure utility of interior has been clothed with
undignified exterior of commercial character, marking a certain spi