MONKS AT THEIR MUSICAL EXERCISE.
Mention has already been made of the San Carlos Academy of Fine Arts, the Conservatory of Music, the Military Academy, and the Medical College. To these should be added the Law School and the preparatory schools and colleges of Architecture, Theology, Commerce, and Astronomy. Some of these have been founded by the Government in recent times, while others are descended from those established by the Catholic Church in its days of prosperity.
Of some twenty hospitals and asylums of different names and kinds, fully two-thirds are the successors of benevolent institutions founded by the Church. The oldest is the hospital of Jesus Nazareno, and was founded by Cortez; he left a large endowment for it, and the hospital is still supported by it in spite of many attempts by governments and individuals to break his will. The last effort in this direction was in 1885, when the will was sustained by the Mexican courts. The bad management of the hospital in its early days led to the founding of the San Hipolito hospital by Bernardo Alvarez in 1567. The pious people that joined him became a regular monastic order under the name of Brothers of Charity. The order was suppressed in 1820; the hospital fund passed into the hands of the municipality, and afterwards went to the general government. Since that time the city has managed the hospital, and provided the necessary funds for it.
A BELLE OF THE OPERA.
One of the theatres in the city (the Teatro Principal) owes its beginning to the necessity for money to support the Hospital Real, which was in the hands of the Brothers of Charity during the seventeenth century. The first theatre was in the hospital building, and the players were hired by the Brothers. Tradition says that the noise made by the performers and audiences seriously disturbed the sick, while the management of a theatre by a religious order caused a great scandal among pious people. The Brothers argued that, no matter what the origin of the money was, it was used for a good purpose, and they continued to enjoy the revenues of the theatre until the hospital was discontinued. The theatre, and with it part of the hospital, was burned one night in 1722, after the performance of "The Ruin and Burning of Jerusalem." The common people regarded the conflagration as a sign of heavenly disapproval, but the Brothers rebuilt immediately. A few years later they rebuilt again; and in 1752 they laid the foundation of the present theatre, and finished it in the following year. It has been changed so much since that time that very little now remains of the original edifice.
A STAGE BRIGAND.