vants, while the family are domiciled in the second floor, and in fine weather betake themselves to the roof.
All the substantial buildings in Mexico are bright with color. Those which are not white stucco are tinted in gray, buff or pale green enlivened with various shades of red. Some of the churches could be called pink. With blocks built with one solid front, it is quite a relief to the eye to see a gray house adjoining one faced with blue encaustic tiles or pale green. Massive carvings and decorations in mosaic-work, balconies and latticed windows are also quite effective and do much to vary the otherwise sombre architecture.
The houses in the suburbs are gay with flowering vines, and almost any open doorway in the city will give a glimpse of the patio, or courtyard, with its cool verandas and bright flowers and shrubbery around a plashing fountain.
Among the improvements projected by Maximilian was the rebuilding of Mexico on a more healthful site. The city is still growing westward, according to his wise plan, and the high grounds in the suburbs have quite a modern appearance. Thousands of new houses are going up and old ones have been remodeled, while real estate has almost doubled its value since the life-blood from the world's great centres began to pulsate through the railroads—those great continental arteries.
The lumbering diligence will soon disappear from city and country, with the picturesque brigand, and the multitude of beggars who from time immemorial have infested the capital will vanish in that happy day when Yankee ploughs and Protestant Sunday-schools shall be domesticated throughout the land. These paupers have already been set to work on railroads and other public
