such outright
swindlers as those of their tribe in New York, nor by any means so tidy
and intelligent as those of Boston.

CHAPTER IX.

A City of Vistas.--Want of Proper Drainage.--Unfortunate Site.--Insecure
Foundations.--A Boom in Building Lots.--Pleasant Suburbs.--Night
Watchmen.--The Iturbide Hotel.--A Would-be Emperor.--Domestic
Arrangements.--A New Hotel wanted.--Places of Public Entertainment.
--The Bull Ring.--Repulsive Performance.--Monte de Piedad.--An
English Syndicate purchase it.--The Alameda.--The Inquisition.--
Festal Days.--Pulque Shops.--The Church Party.--Gilded Bar-Rooms.
--Mexican Marriages.--Mothers and Infants.--A Family Group.

Mexico is a city of vistas. One looks down the long perspective of a
thoroughfare north, south, east, or west, and at the end he sees the
purple mountains, some far away, some quite near to view, some
apparently three miles off, some sixty; but the air is so transparent
that even the most distant objects seem to be very near at hand. Beneath
the plain which immediately surrounds the city is a dry marsh which was
a broad lake in Cortez's day,--indeed, it is a lake still, four or five
feet below the surface of the ground, containing the accumulated
drainage of centuries. The site of the national capital was formerly an
island, only a trifle above the level of Lake Texcoco; hence there are
no cellars possible beneath the dwelling-houses of the populace. Herein
lies the secret of the want of drainage, and of the unpleasant and
unwholesome odors which are constantly saluting the senses and
challenging the remarks of strangers. Were it not for the absence of
atmospheric moisture in this high altitude, where perishable articles of
food dry up and do not spoil by mould or putrefaction, the capital would
be swept by pestilence annually, being underlaid by a soil reeking with
pollution. As it is, typhoid fever prevails, and the average duration of
life in the city is recorded at a fraction over twenty-six years! Lung
and malarial diseases hold a very prominent place among the given causes
of mortality. Owing to the proximity of the mountains, the rains
sometimes assume the character of floods. A resident friend of the
author's told him that he had seen the surrounding streets and the Plaza
Mayor covered with two feet of water, extending a quarter of a mile up
San Francisco Street after a sharp summer shower, which did not continue
much more than