Page:Our Sister Republic - Mexico.djvu/197

Rh many white men, descendants of those who suspended the heads of Hidalgo and his companions, on the hooks. A young man, who informed me that he was one of the three judges of the minor criminal court, politely showed me through the building. There were about three hundred men and boys, and thirty, six women in the Carcel. They were in apartments containing from twelve to twenty-five each, all opening on the great court-yard, and light and well ventilated. They were working at boot and shoe making, hatmaking, weaving serapes and coarse blankets, making tallow candles, etc., etc., or attending school. The white blood appeared to predominate among the prisoners, all of whom looked cheerful, clean, well-fed, and comfortable.

All kinds of manufactured goods are hawked about the city on men's shoulders, and you must be careful how you look at anything, or you will be surrounded in a moment with anxious sellers. I asked the price of a pair of blue-steel spurs handsomely inlaid with sterling silver.

"Six dollars, Señor but what will you be pleased to give?"

The same spurs, in California, would bring at least twenty dollars, and I have seen not much finer ones sold at fifty dollars.

I looked at some rebosas, merely to ascertain the price, and was offered good ones for three dollars, and finer ones for six dollars. Remarking, by way of getting rid of the dealer, that they were not fine enough, as my family wore only silk—Heaven forgive me!—I left, and an hour later the dealer was waiting for me at the door of our house, with a dozen costly silk ones in