riesthood bitterly opposing it. Even the
moneyed mine owners and others who instituted the project had no fixed
idea how to operate a tramway of this sort, and an American overseer was
from the beginning and is to-day in charge. The cars were ordered from
Philadelphia, and while they were building, the steel rails, which came
from Liverpool by way of Vera Cruz, were laid down from one end of the
route to the other. Finally, when the cars arrived from the United
States, it was found that they would not run on the track, the fact
being that the rails had been laid on a gauge three inches narrower than
the cars were designed for. What was to be done? The Mexicans at first
proposed to rebuild the cars,--make the bodies narrower, and cut off the
axle-trees to fit the gauge of the rails. In their hopeless ignorance
this was the only way they could see out of the difficulty. The present
superintendent, a practical American engineer, was at the time in
Zacatecas, and took in the position of affairs at a glance, offering for
five hundred dollars to show the owners how to get out of the trouble
without changing an article upon the cars. The money was paid, and with
twenty men and some suitable tools the American took up a few rods of
the track, made a proper gauge for the rest, and had the cars running
over the short distance in one day. It was the old story of Columbus and
the egg, easy enough when one knew how to do it. The managers of the
road promptly put the American in charge, and he has filled the position
ever since.

Guadalupe is an interesting town of some six thousand inhabitants, not
counting the myriads of dogs, which do much abound in every part of
Mexico. As a rule these are miserable, mangy-looking, half-starved
creatures, with thin bodies and prominent ribs. The poorer the people,
the more dogs they keep, a rule which applies not only here, but
everywhere, especially among semi-barbarous races. The people seem to be
very kind to pet animals,--though they do abuse the burros,--cats
especially being of a plump, handsome species, quite at home, always
sleeping lazily in the sunshine. If they do purr in Spanish, it is so
very like the genuine English article that its purport is quite
unmistakable. The persistency of the beggars here attracted attention,
and on inquiry about the matter, a resident American informed us that
these beggars were actually organized by the priests, to whom they
report daily, and with whom t