r woman, because they were not able to pay
the priest to get legally married. Her eldest son was seized and taken
to the wars, where he was compelled to stand up to shoot and be shot
at, to settle the question which of two sets of white men should enjoy
the right of plundering the people. Whether he should hereafter be
discharged honorably, or run away, or be killed in battle, it was the
same to her, for the man that recruited the soldiers would know that he
had once been a soldier, and would be sure to seize him first when
ordered to furnish recruits; and, let what will be the course of
political events, he is certainly lost to her forever.

Her eldest daughter had been a help to her. She ground corn for the
_tortillas_, and could guard the house door while the old woman went to
the public wash-house to wash a few shirts which gentlemen had
occasionally intrusted to her care. But a chance shot in one of the
street battles had hit her, and she too was gone. Her second son had
stopped too long in front of the _pulque_-shop after his day's work was
finished, and was involved in a street affray, in which knives were
drawn, and a man killed. Whether he was the guilty one or not, it
mattered little, as he was the first to fall into the hands of the
officers. For a long time he had been kept in the chain-gang, but
lately he had been sent to the silver mines, where he would probably
end his days carrying ore on his back like a beast of burden, a
thousand feet under ground.

She had a second daughter, old enough to carry food to her son while he
was in prison, and to lighten his misery by a daily visit while he
belonged to the chain-gang. But since he has been taken from the city,
they two are left alone in the world. She has now no money, or she
would get her daughter married, as the priest would trust her if she
would only pay a small part of the fee. Still she is considered
fortunate; for, having the reputation of an honest women, she has got a
portress's situation, and little means are thrown in her way by which
she obtains a comfortable living. But her relatives, who are poorer
than herself, sympathize with her, and come and eat up her _tortillas_.

Such is the substance of many a tale of misery, if you will stop and
listen to the pictures which the lowly draw of their condition in any
of the Mexican cities. Often they are fabricated, but very often they
are true. The old woman who tells you a tale to excite your sympath