regate of the imports and exports amounted to about thirty million
dollars annually before the completion of the railroads to the national
capital and thence to El Paso, but, as was anticipated, this new
facility for transportation has diverted a large portion of this amount
northward through the United States. The streets of Vera Cruz are still
crowded in business hours with mule carts, porters, half-naked
water-carriers, Indians, and a few negroes, military officers, and
active civilians. Speaking of negroes, there are a less number in all
Mexico than in any one State of this Union. In the plaza pretty
flower-girls with tempting bouquets mingle with fruit venders,
lottery-ticket sellers, and dashing young Mexican dudes, wearing broad
sombreros heavy with cords of silver braid. Occasionally there passes
some dignified senora, whose head and shoulders are covered with a black
lace mantilla, imparting infinite grace to her handsome figure. How
vastly superior is that soft, drooping veil to the tall hats and absurd
bonnets of northern civilization! Broad contrasts present themselves on
all hands, in groups of men, women, and children, half clad in rags,
perhaps, but gay with brilliant colors, sharing the way with some
sober-clad Europeans, or rollicking, half tipsy seamen on shore-leave
from the shipping at anchor in the roadstead.

The Plaza de la Constitucion is small in extent, about two hundred feet
square, but it is very attractive. It is skillfully arranged, having a
handsome bronze fountain in its centre, the gift of Carlotta, the
unfortunate, energetic wife of Maximilian. In the evening the place is
rendered brilliant by a system of electric lights. The flower plots and
marble walks are ornamented with many lovely tropical flowers, cocoanut
palms, and fragrant roses nodding languidly in the hot summer atmosphere
under a sky intensely blue, and nine tenths of the time perfectly
cloudless. The Australian gum-tree and the Chinese laurel were
conspicuous among other exotic varieties. As the twilight approaches, it
is amusing to watch the _habitues_, consisting of both sexes, especially
in shady corners where there is obviously much love-making on the sly,
but not the legitimate article of the Romeo and Juliet sort which has
already been described. Here and there strolls a dude,--a Mexican dude,
with his dark face shaded by his sombrero, his tight trousers flaring at
the bottom and profusely ornamented at the side with