Page:Mexico, picturesque, political, progressive.djvu/79

Rh of Pompeiian frescos and Greek designs, executed with great purity, both of color and form. This flowery arbor, perfumed and beautiful, thrust up, as it were, into the air, forms the centre around which the rooms of the palace cluster. These are airy, harmonious, fitting for the purpose of summer residence, and contain some marvellous ceilings, wherein Cupids play among tangled flower-wreaths, or blow on conch-shells to weaken sleeping Love. The lower story is hardly as fine as the upper, but the wonderful outlook makes it all royal.

Adjoining the palace, the military academy, a sort of Mexican West Point, gave us a passing opportunity to note the system of instruction provided by Government to prepare its future soldiers and scientists. The course reaches over eight years, and qualifies its graduates, either as officers or engineers. The school seems well conducted, with extreme cleanliness and care; the gymnasium fairly large and well attended, the chemical department supplied with a small but choice apparatus, the drawing-school remarkably good, and the sanitary details in dormitories and dining-halls well carried out. The boys, who enter