Page:Face to Face With the Mexicans.djvu/195

 Universe and those of man never seemed greater than on turning from this celestial view to the mundane scene below. From my point of observation in the Zócalo, where both our modern gas and electric lights flashed their brilliant rays across the wide streets, I could see the sleeping-place of a large proportion of the poorer denizens of the city—their roof, the broad expanse of heaven—their bed, the stone pavement, or at most a petate—the rebozo or serape forming their sole covering. Here, without inconvenience, these contented people



slept, cuddled up, undisturbed by the gay throngs who walked back and forth around and among them.

Everywhere in the republic this out-door life exists. How different in the northern part of the United States! When the people there are shivering from intense cold, and all the avenues of travel are blocked with snow and ice, here are perpetual sunshine and flowers.

Every climate in the world may be experienced between the seashore at Vera Cruz and the capital. Eternal snows lie upon the one