Page:Mexico, picturesque, political, progressive.djvu/90

88 customers; such roses as never were known out-side the Persian Gulistan in long-stemmed dewy bunches; such pyramids of pansies and heliotrope; such tropical gorgeousness of glowing hibiscus and scarlet poppy thrown away for a song or a miserly real, which is cheaper than a song itself. Where do you find the bird voice now that will warble for twelve and a half cents? Out of the great doors of the cathedral, and out of the gateways of the other hundreds of churches, the crowd whirls in a maëlstrom of entering and departing waves, as some one of the different services going on within commences or closes. In the bright, warm air, the sunny plaza is radiant with overflowing life; the shrill cries of the merchants make tumult in your unaccustomed ears; every branch of business seems to have received new impulse from eager groups of buyers, in the clean white shirts and stiff skirts that mark holiday raiment. Across through the trees the white tents of "Aguas Nevades" venders advertise the coolness of their frozen waters; the Indian basket-women are dozing in the midst of their mountainous piles of willow ware; the melon and fruit sellers come and go through