Page:Our Sister Republic - Mexico.djvu/60

54 The servants receive $5 to $8 per month, in extreme cases $10, and are exceedingly respectful and attentive. They come at the clapping of the hands instead of the bell-call, as with us, and always stand bare-headed when addressed, even though the rain be pouring, or the sun scorching hot.

At the invitation of Señor Huarte, the party one evening rode out to the suburbs, and went through his private garden, one of many such in the vicinity. The grounds, enclosed with a high stone wall in front, and a stake and pole fence elsewhere, probably comprise, all told, about ten acres. Trees and plants fill the whole inclosure, the paths only excepted, and the variety and richness of the fruit and foliage are beyond description. Tall cocoa palms, covered with fruit, tower high in air in all parts of the grounds, and the bananas, of which there are four varieties, fill in beneath as an undergrowth, though fifteen to twenty feet in height. Then there are red-berried coffee trees, with bright green leaves; aguacates, or alligator pears; zapotes; cacao, or the chocolate tree; oranges, lemons, peaches, sweet lemons, limes, mangoes, cheremoyas, pineapples, citrons, and an almost endless variety of minor tropical fruits. It would require the space of a full page to name them all. Of flowers, there are many, large and brillianthued, but generally devoid of pleasant odor. It was curious to see the common "lady's-slipper" of the North, here cultivated beside the gaudy flowers of the tropics, and regarded as something very rare and choice. Of creeping plants, there are hundreds. One of these has foliage like the cypress tree, as delicate as lace, and beautiful red blossoms.

In the corner of the garden stands a large brick house