IN THE MARKET-PLACE.
"While in the market we met our acquaintance of the railway-train. His first question was as to whether we had seen how the natives practise gambling, and his second, 'Have you tried euchre?'
"We thought it a singular question, and Frank replied that neither of us played that or any other game of cards.
"He laughed and said, 'I don't mean euchre; I mean yucca.'
"We looked rather puzzled I'm sure, and then with another laugh he pointed to a pile of something that looked very much like 'ruta-baga' turnips, such as cattle are fed with in some parts of the United States.
"'That,' said he, 'is yucca, and it belongs to the same family as the maguey and henequin.' As soon as he said this we remembered to have seen the plant in Mexico. We had just been talking about the fondness of the people for gambling, and hence our misunderstanding.
"We bought a medio's worth of the article and tasted it. The flavor was something like that of a sweet turnip, and not at all disagreeable. I can readily understand that one might become fond of it, and our friend said that it was quite nutritious. The root is eaten by the natives, the fibres furnish a textile fabric like henequin, and soap is made from the stalk and leaves. Recently an enterprising American has manufactured a preparation for the hair from the yucca plant, and it is said to possess remarkable powers for restoring hair to heads that for years have been as smooth as an ostrich-egg.
"While on the subject of gambling we will mention the popular amusement of la loteria, or 'the lottery.'
"Our guide took us into a large hall, which is open to the public, or rather to anybody who can force his way through the dense crowd at the door. All classes seemed to have assembled there; rich and poor were seated at the same tables, and their object seemed to be amusement rather than gain. The stakes were very small, ordinarily a medio, and in a few instances dos reales. The room was hot as an oven, brilliantly lighted, every foot of standing and sitting room was occupied, and white people of all grades in life, gentlemen as well as ladies, negroes, Indians, and mestizos crowded together at the tables, which were in two rows the whole length of the hall.