hour, that is
all they desire, and is all about which they seriously concern
themselves. The next score of years, while they will probably do much
for the country as regards commercial and intellectual improvement, will
prove fatal in a degree to the picturesqueness which now renders Mexico
so attractive. Radical progress in one direction must needs be
destructive in another, and while some of the allurements of her strong
individuality will disappear, her moral and physical status will be
greatly improved. Her ragged, half-naked people will don proper attire,
sacrificing the gaudy colors which now make every out-door scene
kaleidoscopic; a modern grain thresher will take the place of weary
animals plodding in a circle, treading out the grain; half-clad women at
the fountains will disappear, and iron pipes will convey water for
domestic use to the place of consumption. The awkward branch of crooked
wood now used to turn the soil will be replaced by the modern plough,
and reaping machines will relieve the weary backs of men, women, and
children, who slowly grub beneath a burning sun through the broad grain
fields. Irrigating streams will be made to flow by their own
gravitation, while the wooden bucket and well-sweep will become idle and
useless. Still, we are not among those who see only a bright side for
the future of the republic, nor do we believe so confidently as some
writers in her great natural resources. They are abundant, but not so
very exceptional as enthusiasts would have us believe. Aside from the
production of silver, which all must admit to be inexhaustible, she has
very little to boast of. It is doubtful if any other equal area in the
world possesses larger deposits of the precious metals, or has already
yielded to man more bountifully of them. We have seen it asserted by
careful and experienced writers, that one half of all the silver now in
use among the nations originally came from Mexico. Her real and
permanent progress is inevitable; but it will be very gradual, coming
not through her rich mines of gold and silver, but by the growth of her
agricultural and manufacturing interests; and if in a score of years she
can assume a position of respect and importance in the line of nations,
it is all that can reasonably be expected. If Mexico can but advance in
progressive ideas as rapidly during the next ten years as she has done
during the decade just past, the period we have named will be
abbreviated, and