how many would haste to see the picture, if not the reality. I know not where is a richer bouquet. Other valleys are grander; this is complete. As if to keep the memory green of the great conflict crowned on this spot, some ancient nopals just below the crest still show the holes in their leaves made by the bullets of the besiegers. It is a monument that will not soon die, for nothing seems to live more leisurely than the cactus, and it well adorns the lustrous picture with its rude and strong appropriateness.
The whole scene is placid and lovely as a sleeping babe. How different when blood and fire and vapor of smoke filled all the hollow!
"Death rode upon the sulphury siroc,
Red battle stamped his foot, and nations felt the shock."
This inland town and this tiny hill made sorrow and trembling in the Tuileries and Schönbrunn. Consternation awoke in all courts as the stern decree was executed that announced to all the world that European monarchs must "hands off" to all American nationalities, and ere long to all American soil.
The city, like all in Mexico and everywhere else, has much that will not bear close examination. Its edges are not sweet, any more than those of London or New York. It has but few choice streets, and fewer choice houses. The most are depressingly degrading. Poverty has wrought its perfect work, and the last cent is both often and rarely seen by the pauperized people. Beggars abound, and thrust their offensive winnings into your unwilling ears. The plaza is a pretty garden of tropical delights, more bountiful than that of Mexico, for the land lies lower and warmer.
Other products abound. Under the portal of this plaza, among the shops, I saw a lad generously searching the long, thick, grizzled back hair of his mother as faithfully and as successfully as such mothers in other lands search such sons. It was a good evidence of filial affection.
A factory here deserves notice. It is two miles from the city, in a deep, hot cañon, and is big enough to attract attention, even in England or New England. On its looms it employs fifteen
