Page:Mexico, picturesque, political, progressive.djvu/121

Rh fields at home, listless, uninterested, careful only to fill the time of their contract; and these earnest, eager, constant laborers become superb. The miraculous shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, six miles outside the City of Mexico, is of great interest, as every spot must be around which centres the hint of spiritual manifestations. This is no place to venture a single comment upon the truth or superstition of the claims made by friends and enemies. To the people of the country it is a real and abiding evidence of the personal intervention of the Divinity in human affairs, and a closer link between the seen and the unseen world. Deluded they may be, and ignorant and absurd; but can a land that believes in spiritualism and faith-cures afford to laugh at them? Are not the crutches and staffs, the votive tablets, and touching simple offerings hung within the silver railing of the shrine at Guadalupe at least as worthy of respectful attention as the voluntary letters and paid advertisements which attest the miracle cures of a more matter-of-fact civilization? "People who live in glass houses should never throw stones;" and I am tired of listening to the audible sneers at so-called