Page:Mexico, picturesque, political, progressive.djvu/228

224 houses, where hitherto nearly every thing paid high duty:—

Barbed wire for fencing, hoes, bars for mines, fire-engines, hydraulic lime, printed books, all sorts of machinery, powder for mines, printing type, rags for paper, wire rope and cable, church clocks, and many useful chemicals.

Even the cockpit has paid a portion of the national revenue; and to the smiling cynic who may think too little of the politicians who condescend to this lowly and vicious source of moneymaking for national necessities, the reminder may be opportune, that to make the brutal who indulge in such sport pay for their pastime is more tolerable to civilization than some methods of the governments of the Old World. Mexico raises revenue also by lotteries. The most pious of governments raised money in the same way