tique_, vol. ii. p. 61.

CHAPTER XVII.

The gambling Festival of San Augustine.--Suppressed by Government.--The
Losses of the Saint by the Suppression of Gambling.--How Travelers live
in the Interior.--A Visit to the Palace.

GAMBLING AT TLALPAN.

I have already said that my first entry into the valley of Mexico was
from the south, through the suburban city of Tlalpan, where in good old
times was held the great gambling festival of San Augustine. The
advancing morality of our day has put an extinguisher on this noted
festival, which was one of the most noted days in the Mexican calendar.
Crowds flocked to it to gamble, to dance, and to adore the most holy
Saint Augustine. To a looker-on it was hard to say whether it was the
devil or the saint whom the people had come to worship. The chief
business of high-born dames seemed to be to make a display of their
taste in dress, and to set off the whole contents of their wardrobe;
for five times in each day was their entire wardrobe changed, and so
often did they appear in a new set of jewels. To this festival came
also noblemen and highway robbers, to gamble and to rob each other, and
to be robbed by the women at the _monte_ table. In honor of the saint,
the city was crowded with monks, and thieves, and Magdalens, and the
dignitaries of the Church and state. The rich and the poor came
together to enjoy the saturnalia in honor of the most blessed Saint
Augustine. Gambling was here duly sanctified by the participation of
the priests, who were here, as they are every where in Mexico, the most
expert gamblers at the tables. While this festival continued, money
changed hands more rapidly than in California in her worst days. Five
dances a day were the pastime; but at the monte table was the solid
sport. This was the great attraction that had called all the crowd
together. It was an exciting scene to see the ounces piled up as men
got excited in the game. What is there left of woman's virtue, when
the highest ladies of the court stake their ounces at a public
gaming-table, and poorer ones eagerly throw down their last piece of
silver? Woman's rights have not yet reached that point with us that she
may gamble and get drunk without losing caste; and God grant they never
may.

It is a consolation to be able to add that the late government of the
State of Mexico had sufficient firmness to suppress this abominable
festival of the Church, much to the pecuniary disadvantage o