usiness of all men and all nations;
for the patient _peon_ lives in happiness without it. You may scorn
him, but he is one of Nature's object-lessons.

Singularly un-American--that is if United States and Canadian manners
and customs shall be considered typical of America--are the customs of
the Mexican. The influence and romance of the long years of Spanish
domination and character have been crystallised upon the Mexican soil.
The mien and character of the race created here in New Spain is marked
for all time as a distinctive type, which may possess more for the
future than the votary of Anglo-Saxon civilisation and strenuous
commercialism may yet suspect. Whatever critical comparison may be
applied to these people, the foreigner will acknowledge the pleasing
trait of courtesy they invariably show. The elegance and grace of
Spanish manners, wafted across the Atlantic in the days of ocean
chivalry, were budded to the gentle courtesy of the native; and the
brusque Anglo-Saxon is almost ashamed of his seeming or intended
brusqueness before the graceful salutation of the poorest _peon_. Hat
in hand, and with courteous or devout wish for your welfare on his
lips, the poor Mexican seems almost a reproach to the harbinger of an
outside world which seemingly grows more hard and commercial as time
goes on.

The picturesque and the simple are, of course, bought at the expense,
too often, of hygiene and comfort, and Mexico does not escape this
present law. Yet it is remarkable how soon the Briton or the American
in Mexico adapts himself to his surroundings, and grows to regard them
with affection. It is true that the government of the country is
practically a military despotism, yet the foreigner is respected, and
none interfere with him. On the contrary, he is often looked up to as a
representative of a superior State, and if he be worthy he acquires
some of the demeanour of race-_noblesse oblige_.

There are cities set on steep hill-sides, which we shall enter. Terrace
after terrace climb the rocky ribs of arid hills. Houses, interspersed
with gardens; communities backed by the soft outlines of distant
ranges, seen adown the widening valley; and walls, houses, streets,
people, landscape; all are of that distinctive colour and character of
the Mexican upland, over-arched by the cloudless azure of its sky.
Clustered upon these same steep mineral-bearing hills--and, indeed,
they are the _raison d'etre_ of the town at all in tha