did two years ago, gray,
streaked, and inhospitable. The unwashed houses are filled with
unwashed people; and the streets swarm with filthy beggars, and monks
asking for alms in the name of the most blessed Virgin. The streets,
thanks to the male and female chain-gangs, are kept quite clean. But
all else is dirty. If the angels, when they finished their work on the
Cathedral, had left a whitewash brush behind them, they would have done
the city a real service. The houses, inside and out, and occupants too,
and the reputation of its men from olden time, all need whitewashing.

CHARACTER OF THE POBLANAS.

Perhaps I could not present a more deplorable picture of the moral
condition of the ladies of Puebla, who are celebrated for being so very
devout, "but not very virtuous," than by copying the following from
Madame Calderon de la Barca's "Life in Mexico:"

"Yesterday (Sunday), a great day here for visiting after mass is over.
We had a concourse of Spaniards, all of whom seemed anxious to know
whether or not I intended to wear a Poblana dress at the fancy ball,
and seemed wonderfully interested about it. Two young ladies or women
of Puebla, introduced by Senor ----, came to proffer their services in
giving me all the necessary particulars, and dressed the hair of
Josefa, a little Mexican girl, to show me how it should be arranged;
mentioned several things still wanting, and told me that every one was
much pleased at the idea of my going in a Poblana dress. I was rather
surprised that _every one_ should trouble themselves about it. About
twelve o'clock the President, in full uniform, attended by his
aids-de-camp, paid me a visit, and sat about half an hour, very amiable
as usual. Shortly after came more visits, and just as we had supposed
they were all concluded, and we were going to dinner, we were told that
the Secretary of State, the Ministers of War and of the Interior, and
others, were in the drawing-room. And what do you think was the purport
of their visit? To adjure me by all that was most alarming, to discard
the idea of making my appearance in a Poblana dress! They assured us
that Poblanas generally were _femmes de rien_, that they wore no
stockings, and that the wife of the Spanish Minister should by no means
assume, even for one evening, such a costume. I brought in my dresses,
showed their length and their propriety, but in vain; and, in fact, as
to their being in the right, there could be no doubt, and not