Page:About Mexico - Past and Present.djvu/336

328 of the steeds, rich with trappings of gold and silver and silken embroidery, form one of the finest sights of the metropolis, to be surpassed in splendor only by the dress of their riders. The amount of flashing buttons and gold-lace a Mexican gallant can wear is to be measured only by the size of his person. His wide sombrero, feathered and laced, his spurs and other martial accoutrements, make him a fine object of observation in the row of horsemen who stand together to be gazed at by every passer-by.

The nineteenth century makes itself manifest on some of the roads leading out of the city in the shape of "horse-cars"—which are crowded most of the time—drawn by mules. There are two classes of these cars, with the names on the outside. The conductors blow a horn at the crossings or to hold up.

The present castle of Chapultepec was built in 1785 by the viceroy Galvez on the site of one of the old summer-houses of the luxurious chiefs of Mexico, the foundations of which still remain, and also one of the bathing-pools cut in solid rock. It is approached by an avenue of gigantic cypress trees. The city is in full view from the windows, with its domes and towers, its softly-tinted houses interspersed with forest trees. The great valley with its embracing mountains, whose tall sentinel-peaks rise far to the east, are all reflected in the mirror-lakes below from the very base to the summit. Popocatapetl and Iztaccihuatl are giant gate-posts in the granite wall which surrounds this great plateau. Seen through the wonderfully pure and rarefied atmosphere of this high table-land, these summits seem closer than they really are, being thirty miles apart. Between them Cortez made his way, and centuries later General Scott followed.