Page:Mexico as it was and as it is.djvu/82

 all sides, perfectly screened from the street and sun. On the second floor, (on which we lodged,) a corridor runs round the walls, covered with a roof to protect it from the weather, and filled with orange and lemon trees, and a variety of flowering shrubs, planted in vases of rare old India china, that would delight the heart of a London fancier.

Here my days were passed in the fulfillment of my official duties, and my evenings, when not at the theatre, (which I found a great aid in acquiring the language,) in the midst of this pleasant family. The excellent lady at the head of it had once belonged to one of the wealthiest establishments in the Republic. The revolutions, and a series of mishaps, had broken her fortunes; yet they could not deprive her of her talents, her accomplishments, her vivacity, or the kindness of her heart and temper. Qualities like these were sure to endear the friends of her better days, and, in truth, they had not deserted her. It was thus, that in her apartments, over a quiet game of monte, where a thousand nuts were the highest stake; I made many of my pleasantest acquaintances, both male and female, in Mexico. Here too I saw the better phases of Mexican character, in private life. The respect for age—the sincerity of friendship—the results of reading and education—and the honest, unpretending unaturalness of character for which, over all other people I have ever met with, I think the best of them are remarkable.

It has been taxed upon people who live in fine climates—where the warm sun and the teeming fields woo constantly to the open air—that they want the social virtues. They possess no fireside—that focus into which the family affections are gathered and cherished. I will not pretend that the Mexicans are a home people, like the Germans, the English, and, perhaps, ourselves; but it is equally certain, that they are not without those social tastes and reunions, which make their dwellings a favorite resort. It is true, that much time is devoted by fashionable society to the morning mass, the evening drive, and to the theatre; but, in a population of 200,000, these should not be regarded as the characteristics of the whole people. It is this partial examination of a class, and an identification of its peculiarities, habits or tastes, with those of the whole nation, that is the error of English tourists in their descriptions of our own country. It is neither by the most fashionable society—which is always the most corrupt, deceitful and unsubstantial; nor by the very lowest class, which is always the most vicious—that we are to characterize nations. In the sober, patient, patriotic, toilsome, well taught, frugal, middle ranks of lifethe true virtues, and noblest features of a people are most evident; and, although these characteristics may be found both among the very highest and the very lowest, yet it is alone in this class that they may be sought with certainty.

The houses of the Mexicans are usually built of the strongest materials, either brick or stone, and without much architectural pretension. They are erected around patios, or court-yards, and are from 30 to 40 feet front