ly, are liable to be damp and even dangerous to
health, especially in a city which rests upon the surface, as it were,
of a hidden lake. Such facts may seem to be trifles to the casual
reader, but experience will soon teach him their real importance.

The broad, three-story front of the Iturbide Hotel is quite imposing,
and exhibits some very elaborate native carving in stone. We were told
that it was once occupied by a very rich and eccentric mine owner for
the accommodation of himself and family, embracing half a dozen wives
and over sixty children! quite after the style of a Turkish harem or the
establishment of a Utah magnate. A capacious and well-appointed hotel on
the American plan is something which this city greatly needs. It would
be welcomed and well-patronized by the native citizens, and all foreign
travelers would gladly seek its accommodations. It seems that a large
Mexican hotel designed to cost some two million dollars is already under
consideration by an incorporated company of wealthy natives; but this
will not, we believe, fill the requirements of the present time. The
Mexicans do not know how to keep a hotel, and any money expended in the
proposed plan, we suspect, will be next to thrown away. Government has
lent its aid to the purpose of establishing a new hotel on a grand
scale, by passing an act exempting from import duties all furniture and
goods intended for use in the house, to the amount of fifteen per cent,
on the entire capital invested in the enterprise of building and
properly equipping the establishment. This exemption from custom-house
taxes will prove a saving of considerably over two hundred thousand
dollars to the hotel company. Now, if this purpose is consummated and
the owners will put the whole in charge of an experienced American,
something satisfactory may come from it. The best hotels in the world
are kept by Americans,--this not in the spirit of boasting,--and next to
them in this line of business come the Swiss, who have copied us very
closely. The English follow, but rank only third in the line of
progress, while the Mexicans are simply nowhere. The Iturbide has no
ladies' or gentlemen's parlor, that is to say, it has no public
reception-room worthy of the name. The conventionalities here do not
absolutely demand such an arrangement, though it would be appreciated;
nor can one obtain any artificial heat in his apartment, however much it
may be required. There are no fireplaces