Doctor Bronson had telegraphed for a courier from the Hotel del Jardin to meet them at the station, and the man was there in accordance with his request. The key of one of the trunks was given up to meet the requirements of the local custom-house, after the manner of the octroi of Paris and other Continental cities. Our friends had found this regulation at all the towns where they had stopped on their route, but the trunks had invariably been passed without being opened, on the assurance that they contained no merchandise.
The Hotel del Jardin proved to be quite satisfactory, so far as the rooms were concerned, but there was not much to be said in favor of the supper to which the travellers sat down, after removing the dust from their garments and making themselves generally presentable. The boys ascertained on inquiry that the hotel was built around the garden of an old convent, and that a portion of it was really the convent edifice. Some of the rooms are the former cells of the monks, and the youths concluded that the monks were very comfortably lodged.
A MEMBER OF THE CHURCH PARTY.
If all stories, or even a quarter of those that are told, are true, the Mexican monks had an easy life of it whenever so inclined. No one doubts that there were many honest and conscientious men among them, but there is also little, if any, room for doubt that a great many men entered the monasteries with hardly a spark of religious feeling about them, solely for the purpose of getting a living without working for it. The number of idlers among them was fully equal to the proportion to be found in the ministry of the Church of England. A union of Church and State, whether Protestant or Catholic, is certain to develop a large number of adherents, who live in idleness at the expense of others, and bring discredit upon honest and zealous workers.
During their stay in the city of Mexico our friends found that it was the better plan not to stipulate to take their meals in the hotel where they had their rooms. They breakfasted, dined, and supped wherever they pleased, and found the arrangement very satisfactory. In this way they tried all the restaurants, from the most pretentious to those of the second and third grades, and found the experiment an interesting one. Here are Fred's notes upon hotel life in the capital:
"We have visited all the hotels, and find them pretty much alike. As far as we can ascertain, we could not improve our condition by changing from the Hotel del Jardin, and so have concluded to stay where we are. We have dropped somewhat into the fashion of the country—you know we always do so when it is at all possible—but not altogether. We rise about six in the morning, and have chocolate and a roll or two at seven, and then we go out sight-seeing, shopping, or write letters until eleven, when we have almuerzo, which is a solid meal corresponding to the French déjeûner à la fourchette. So far we are in the line of the Mexicans; this is their only solid meal, and late in the day they have chocolate and some light refreshment just before going to theatre or opera. We have so long been accustomed to at least two meals a day that we take a second one similar to the almuerzo somewhere about six o'clock. They tell us that it would not have been easy to obtain this second meal ten or fifteen years ago, but so many foreigners have come here of late that the restaurants are accustomed to it, especially those patronized by foreigners.
