INTERIOR COURT-YARD OF A MEXICAN HOTEL.
"All the chamber-maids here are men; we have an Indian mozo to look after our rooms, and have not seen a woman about the house since we came here, either as house-keeper, chamber-maid, or laundress. On each floor there is a muchacho, who takes charge of the keys and is supposed to be responsible for the safety of our belongings; and I'm glad to say we have lost nothing during our stay. The mozo and muchacho both expect a financial remembrance, and so do the waiters in the restaurants. Their expectations are very reasonable, and they receive their gratuities with a quiet dignity that is far preferable to the manner of the attendants of hotels and restaurants in London or Paris.
STREET VIEW IN THE CAPITAL.
"The almuerzo, which I mentioned as the heavy meal of the day, is so important that the business houses and banks close from noon till half-past two or three o'clock,' when everybody is taking breakfast, dinner, and supper all in one. It is necessary to transact in the forenoon any business that you have to do, as it is not at all certain that men will get back to their offices again in the afternoon. The leisurely ways of the Mexicans are not at all satisfactory to the impetuous citizen from the Northern States of the Union.
"The prices of the restaurants seem to us not much, if any, behind those of Europe and of New York and Chicago. The table-d'hôte dinner at the best restaurants is one dollar, and sometimes more; but we have found a restaurant, the Café Anglais, where the head-waiter speaks English, and the manager seems to be specially desirous of attracting American custom. At this restaurant the charge is one real for the seven o'clock breakfast of chocolate and bread, and five reals for the eleven o'clock breakfast; dinner is five reals; and all three of the meals are furnished for thirty dollars a month, or one dollar a day. Of course we do not want board by the month, nor to go among Americans, whom we did not come here to see; we have been eating Mexican dishes at the fondas, and for four reals have had excellent meals. Fonda means restaurant, and fondita means café; fonda also means hotel, and a hotel for travellers only. There is another kind of hotel or inn, for horned cattle and horses as well as for human beings; establishments of this kind are called mesones or posadas."
ON THE WAY TO MORNING MASS.