The stranger who comes to Mexico with
the expectation of enjoying his visit must bring with him a liberal and
tolerant spirit. He must be prepared to encounter a marked difference of race,
of social and business life, together with the absence of many of such domestic
comforts as habit has rendered almost necessities. The exercise of a little
philosophy will reconcile him to the exigencies of the case, and render
endurable here what would be inadmissible at home. A coarse, ill-cooked dinner,
untidy service, and an unappeased appetite must be compensated by active
interest in grand and peculiar scenery; a hard bed and a sleepless night, by
the intelligent enjoyment of famous places clothed with historic interest; foul
smells and rank odors, by the charming study of a unique people,
extraordinarily interesting in their wretched squalor and nakedness. Though the
stranger is brought but little in contact therewith, owing to the briefness of
his visit to the country, quite enough is casually seen and experienced to show
that there is no lack of culture and refinement, no absence of warmth of heart
and gracious hospitality, among the more favored classes of Mexico, both in the
northern and southern sections of the country. Underneath the exaggerated
expressions so common to Spanish etiquette, there is yet a real cordiality
which the discriminating visitor will not fail to recognize. If, on a first
introduction and visit, he is told that the house and all it contains is his
own, and that the proprietor is entirely at his service, he will neither take
this literally nor as a burlesque, but will receive the assurance for what it
really signifies, that is, as conveying a spirit of cordiality. These
expressions are as purely conventional as though the host asked simply and
pleasantly after his guest's health, and mean no more.
If progress is and has been slow in
Mexico, it must be remembered that every advance has been consummated under
most discouraging circumstances, and yet that the charitable, educational,
artistic, and technological institutions already firmly established, are
quietly revolutionizing the people through the most peaceful but effective
agencies.
As to government organization, the
several states are represented in congress by two senators each, with one
representative to the lower house from each section comprising a population of
forty thousand. The federal district is under the exclusive jurisdiction of
congress. The division of power as accorded to the several states is almost
precisely like that of our own government. The federal authority is
administered by a president, aided by six cabinet ministers at the head of the
several departments of state, such as the minister of foreign affairs, of the
treasury, secretary of war, and so on. Thus it will be seen that the republic
of Mexico has adopted our own constitution as her model throughout.
As long as heavy and almost
prohibitory duties exist in Mexico, and are exacted on nearly everything except
the production of the precious metals, the development of her other resources
must be circumscribed. With a rich soil and plenty of cheap labor, she ought to
be able to export many staples which would command our markets, especially as
regards coffee, cotton, and wool. If the custom-houses on each side of the
boundary between this country and Mexico could be abolished, both would reap an
immense pecuniary benefit, while the sister republic would realize an impetus
in every desirable respect which nothing else could so quickly bring about.
Wealth and population would rapidly flow into this southern land, whose
agriculture would thrive as it has never yet done, and its manufactories would
double in number as well as in pecuniary gain. It requires no argument to show
that our neighbors could not be thus largely benefited without our own country
also reaping an equivalent advantage.
The very name of Mexico has been for
years the synonym of barbarism; but the traveled and reading public have
gradually come to realize that it is a country embracing many large and
populous cities, where the amenities of modern civilization abound, where
elegance and culture are freely manifested, and where great wealth has been
accumulated in the pursuit of legitimate business by the leading citizens. The
national capital will ere-long contain a population of half a million, while
the many new and costly edifices now erecting in the immediate environs are of
a spacious and elegant character, adapted, of course, to the climate, but yet
combining many European and American elements of advanced domestic
architecture.
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