"We were told that the city has an excellent system of public education, and many of its people think it is the best in the whole country. There are twenty primary day schools, five evening schools, and two high-schools or liceos, one for boys and one for girls. The girls' high-school is in an old convent which was confiscated at the time of the Reform, and is admirably adapted to its uses. The boys' high-school is in an equally spacious building, and the two schools have each four or five hundred pupils, with a proportionate number of teachers. The boys' school has a library of 30,000 volumes, gathered mainly from the monasteries and convents. Then there are a School of Arts and Industries and a School of Painting similar to that of San Carlos, though somewhat smaller.
MEXICANS PLANTING CORN.
"They have an opera-house and theatre here, and of course such an enlightened city as Guadalajara must have a bull-ring. This ring is equal to the principal one at the capital, and the 'sport' in it is liberally patronized. There are four large cotton-factories here, and there is a considerable industry in making pottery. We have mentioned elsewhere the pottery of Guadalajara, which is famous throughout the country and largely exported. We have bought a considerable number of the clay statuettes that are sold here; they represent all the industries and characters of Mexico, the prominent men of the country, and in fact of the whole world. Statuettes twelve inches in height and well modelled and colored are worth about twenty-five cents each, and you can buy smaller ones as low down as a cent or even half a cent apiece. They offered to make busts or statuettes of Frank and myself for three dollars each, and have them ready in two days, but we declined the proposal.
"As for the people and the sights and scenes of the streets, they are so much like what we have described elsewhere that I will not venture upon an account for fear of repetition. We will say good-by to this interesting city, and return to the capital, stopping a day at the hacienda of Señor Sanchez."
A RODEO.
They kept their promise and visited that hospitable gentleman, who organized a rodeo, or cattle-muster, for their benefit. The vaqueros, or herdsmen, rode away in different directions, and after an absence of an hour or two reappeared driving numbers of cattle before them. These cattle were assembled in a large drove, and there was a continuous pawing, bellowing, and dashing here and there as long as they were together. The vaqueros showed their skill in lassoing the animals, seizing them by the leg or horn according to previous announcements of their intentions. The performance ended with a contest of skill in picking up hats or other objects on the ground. Frank placed a silver dollar edgewise on the ground, and half a dozen vaqueros, one after the other, endeavored to secure it.