were offered at one of
the open stands in the market-place fully equal to the Fayal product so
well known in Boston. The very low price demanded for fine linen
handkerchiefs and napkins, representing days of patient labor on each,
showed how cheaply these native women estimate their time. They will
follow the most intricate design which may be given to them as a
pattern, reproducing it with Chinese fidelity, and with as much apparent
ease as though it were their own conception. It seemed to us, as we
examined this delicate product, that art needlework could hardly go
further as to perfection of detail. This work is not that of dainty
fingers and delicate hands, educated and taught embroidery in some
convent school, but the outcome of very humble adobe cabins, and the
instinctive artistic taste of hands accustomed to the severe drudgery of
a semi-barbarous life. It was found that the sales-people, when they
first receive these goods from the natives, are obliged to wash and
bleach them thoroughly, they are so begrimed, but they know very well
how beautifully the work will prove to be executed, and gladly purchase
it even in this soiled condition.

For so restricted a territory, Puebla contains a great aggregate of
valuable resources,--a rich and extensive coal-mine near by on the ranch
of Santa Barbara, inexhaustible stone-quarries on the hill of Guadalupe,
abundant deposits of kaolin close at hand for the manufacture of
porcelain ware, a sufficient supply of material for making lime to last
a hundred years, an iron mine within eight or ten miles which employs a
large foundry, running night and day; while the neighboring foothills
are covered with an almost inexhaustible supply of good merchantable
wood. Certainly, no city in Mexico is better situated as to natural
resources. The state is so located as to embrace a great variety of
climate. In the north it produces wheat, corn, and other cereals, also
affording grazing ground to immense herds of domestic animals, while in
the south it yields liberal crops of cotton, tobacco, sugar, rice, and a
great variety of fruits, together with many rich and beautiful cabinet
and dye woods. Truly, this is a record which few localities can equal in
any zone.

We have said that Puebla is the key to the national capital. This is
proven by the fact that the chief events in its history have been the
battles fought for its possession. A few of those which most readily
occur to the memory