accompaniment of clinking billiard-balls, the clatter of
drinking-glasses, the shaking up of iced mixtures, and the sharp voices
of disputants at the card-tables. However, a thoroughly tired person can
sleep under almost any circumstances; and after many hours each day
devoted to sight-seeing, the writer did not spend much time in
moralizing over the doings in the spacious apartment beneath him.

Regarding places of public entertainment, the city contains several
theatres and a permanent circus, but only one of the theatres seemed to
be patronized by the best people; namely, the Teatro Nacional, built so
late as 1844, and having seating capacity for three thousand persons.
The commencement exercises of the military school of Chapultepec are
given annually in this house. Here, at least one good opera company is
engaged for a brief season annually; indeed, there is some kind of
opera, French, Spanish, or Italian, nearly all the year round. Smoking
of cigarettes between the acts is freely indulged in by the audience;
and though the ladies do not smoke in public, at least not generally,
they are known to be free users of the weed at home. Three other
theatres, the Coliseo Viejo, the Arbeu, and the Hidalgo, are respectably
good; there are three or four others, minor establishments, all open on
Sundays, but they are to be avoided.

There is a spacious bull-ring at the northern end of the paseo, on the
left of the roadway as we drive towards Chapultepec, where exhibitions
are given to crowded assemblies every Sunday and on festal days. Of all
the public sports the bull-fight is the most cruel, being without one
redeeming feature to excuse its indulgence, while its evil moral effect
upon the people at large is clearly manifest. There is certainly a close
affinity between the Spanish language and the Latin, as well as a strong
resemblance between the old Roman masses and the modern Spanish people.
In the olden days the Roman populace cried, _Panem et circenses_ (bread
and circuses); so to-day the Spanish people shout, _Pan y toros_ (bread
and bulls). The bull-fight is a national institution here, as it is in
continental Spain and in Cuba, and is strongly indicative of the
character of the people. While we were in the country a bull-fight
performance was given on a Sunday in one of the large cities, as a
"benefit" towards paying for a new altar-rail to be placed in one of the
Romish churches. Only among a semi-barbarous people a