any other country.

Mexico is a land of different civilization from ours, and we know very
little about it. The ruling classes, numbering a few thousands, are
descendants of Spaniards, while the millions of people who are ruled are
descendants of the Aztecs. They are called Indians, but they have
nothing in common with our aborigines. They speak Spanish, but they have
their own tongues as well, and there are said to be a hundred dialects
in use. Some of the most striking men in Mexican history have come from
this class. Juarez was an Indian, and Diaz has Indian blood in his
veins.

It is a land of many climates. Along the coast is the tropics, with all
their rich vegetation, malarial diseases, fevers and poisonous reptiles;
in the higher mountain regions, intense cold and fierce storms prevail,
while between the two, and often within a few hours ride of either, lies
the plateau which constitutes the greater part of Mexico, and there the
climate is like a balmy June day all the year round. Clear skies,
perpetual sunshine and pure air combine to give this favored region the
ideal climate of the world.

This plateau is like a garden, and everything temperate or semi-tropical
grows with very little care. Yet Mexico does not figure as a great
agricultural country, because, like every other land where nature is
kind, man is lazy. Yet the people are picturesque, like all indolent
people.

In every hamlet and town the traveler sees stout, handsome men, their
dark faces shrouded by great sombreros, the crowns of which come to a
point a foot above their heads, and the brims of which seem to be a foot
wide all around.

These hats are gorgeous in their silver and gold trimmings. Some of them
have ropes of silver around them as thick as your finger.

The clothes below them shine with silver buttons and braid. The
pantaloons of some of the men are striped, with silver buckles, while to
the waist of each, fastened by a leather belt filled with cartridges,
hangs a big silver-mounted revolver.

The lower classes of the men of Mexico dress in cotton, but they wear
blankets of all the colors of the rainbow about their shoulders, and
they drape these around themselves in a way that adds dignity and grace
to their bearing.

The women are as peculiar as the men, though their plumage is less gay.
Those of the wealthier classes are dressed in black. In the interior
cities of Mexico the better class of women wear no hats, and their he