d
congratulate themselves on every occasion upon having destroyed past
traditions. But it is easy, in wiping away the evils of the past with
too vigorous a hand, to destroy at the same time much that is of good
report. Mexico possesses traditions, religious influences, historical
and literary associations which are of great value, and possessed by no
other American community upon that continent. These can never be
replaced by the plumed hat of the General and all that it conveys, nor
by the freethinker, nor by the factory whistle and overalled mechanic,
nor, indeed, by the elements of a strenuous commercialism generally. As
time goes on and civil life broadens and develops this attitude will be
moderated--it is but a phase of the country's history, and indeed a
healthy one, to cry for progress and the modern spirit.

Much of this cry for modern things, as well as some other of the
characteristics of the Spanish-American, comes from the desire to be
considered _highly civilised_. This feeling, whether in Mexico or South
America, gives birth at times to a certain feverish spirit of
construction, and is responsible for the existence of railways, but no
roads; electric light in streets without sewers, and
pretentious-looking stucco buildings where solid stone should have been
employed. Buenos Ayres, Lima, Santiago, Mexico--all bear witness to
this tendency, in more or less degree. And under the garish electric
arc at night, or silhouetted against the new white stucco wall of some
costly hygienic institution, or art gallery, or Governor's palace,
glaring in the bright sun, stands the incongruous figure of the
half-naked and sandalled Indian, ignorant and poverty-stricken! These,
indeed, are elements of Spanish-American civilisation which the
philosopher sees and ponders upon. In fact, the character of the Latin
races seems sometimes to tend to run off into ultra-scientific methods
and institutions before the every-day welfare of its citizens is
secured. Elaborate meteorological observations, great schools of
medicine with costly apparatus, and great penitentiaries are to be
found as prominent features in all Spanish-American capitals, where
they have been inaugurated with much fanfare of oratory regarding
civilisation. In Mexico, Lima, Buenos Ayres, and other great centres of
Spanish-American life, the _Penetenciaria_ is always a showplace, or
notable institution to which visitors' attention is drawn. This,
however, seems t