os, but took away a choice collection of
bright colors and of mingled fragrance. Here was an ardent lover, all
eagerness, who would write his words of devotion to his idol in the
alphabet of angels. Now and then an American tourist was seen to carry
away an armful of bouquets to bestow with impartial hand among his lady
friends. Looking on at the suggestive scene is a scantily-clad Indian
girl, with a curious hungry expression upon her face. Is it flowers or
food that she craves? She shall have both. How rich the color of her
cheek; how eloquent the expression of her dark eyes; how grateful her
hesitating smile, as she receives from the stranger a piece of silver
and a cluster of flowers!

On the open space in front of the cathedral a sort of daily fair is
held, where a most incongruous trade is carried on amid great
confusion; but there are no more male and female slaves offered for sale
here, as in the days of the Spanish victors. Slavery existed both under
Aztec and Spanish rule; but it was abolished, as an institution, soon
after the establishment of Mexican independence. The match boys,
lottery-ticket venders, fruit men, ice-cream hawkers, cigar and
cigarette dealers, and candy women (each with a baby tied to her back),
rend the air with their harsh and varied cries, while the stranger is
quickly discovered, and importuned to the verge of endurance. We were
told that this army of hawkers and peddlers were allowed just in the
shadow of the church by special permit, a percentage of the benefit
derived from the sales accruing to the priests, who carry on their
profession inside the walls of the grand and beautiful edifice, where a
less noisy, but quite as commercial a performance is going on all the
while, "indulgences" being bartered and sold to moneyed sinners nearly
every hour of the day.

The principal market-place has always been near the plaza, at its
southwest end, a single block away; but a new and more spacious one is
in course of erection at this writing, progress being made in the usual
_manana_ style. Sunday morning is the great market day of the week, the
same as in all Mexican cities, when there is here a confusion of tongues
that would silence the hubbub of the Paris Bourse. How a legitimate
business can be accomplished under such circumstances is a marvel. Each
line of trade has its special location, but confusion reigns supreme.

In passing through the Calle de San Francisco, we were struck with the