boys and girls
respectively; Normal Colleges, for men and women respectively. All
these educational institutions are supported by the Federal Government
in the capital, by which it is seen that the Mexican nation is holding
forth good opportunity to its citizens for acquiring knowledge.
Notwithstanding these facilities the education of the lower classes
proceeds but slowly, and at present less than 13 per cent. of the
entire population can read and write. It is to be recollected, however,
that the great bulk of the population consist of the _peones_ and the
Indians, and the conditions of the life of these render the acquisition
of education by them often impossible. Knowledge cannot else but slowly
unfold for the indigenous peoples of Spanish-America, weighed down as
they are by conditions of race, caste, and inherited and imposed social
burdens.

[Illustration: MEXICAN STREET SCENE: A PULQUE SHOP WITH
ARTISTICALLY-PAINTED EXTERIOR.]

Prominent among the literary, scientific, and art institutions of
Mexico City are the Geographical Society, the oldest of all, founded in
1833; the Geological Society; the Association of Engineers and
Architects; Society of Natural History; the five Academies of Medicine,
Jurisprudence, Physical and Natural Science, Spanish Language, Social
Science, respectively; also the Antonio Alzate Scientific Society and
the Pedro Escobedo Medical Society. Of museums and galleries are the
Academy of San Carlos, with fine specimens of European and Mexican art,
among the former of which are works by Velasquez, Murillo, Ribera, and
others attributed to Rubens, Leonardo da Vinci, Van Dyck, &c. The
National Museum, which was founded in 1865, is an important and
interesting institution, in which are preserved the famous
archaeological and ethnological objects and collections illustrative of
prehistoric Mexico. It was founded in 1865, and attracts Mexican and
foreign visitors to the annual number of nearly a quarter of a million.
The famous prehistoric Calendar Stone is preserved here.[30] There are
various other museums devoted to special subjects. Of libraries, the
_Biblioteca Nacional_ ranks first--a handsome building with 365,000
volumes for public use. The building is a massive stone structure, and
was originally built for a church. A garden surrounds it, and upon the
stone pillars of the enclosure are busts of Mexicans and Aztecs famous
in history, as Ixtlilxochitl, Tezozomoc, Nezahualcoyotl, the kin