Page:Pictures of life in Mexico Vol 1.djvu/160

134 Within a kind of temple, immediately above the altar, there is a smaller one, the door of which opens and shuts whenever the jewelled host is exposed—by supernatural agency, as is believed, but really by means of concealed machinery.

Besides the cathedral, there are above sixty other churches and religious seminaries in the city of Mexico, some of them almost as wealthy as the one described. And the church establishments in the cities of Durango, Guadalajara, Zacatecas, San Louis, Potosi, and Guanajuato, are nearly as remarkable for their riches and endowments. The amount of money and property thus constantly withheld from useful purposes throughout the state of Mexico, is immense; and, if only well applied, might relieve the government from its difficulties, by liquidating the just demands constantly being made upon the State, and lessening the various burdens that press so heavily upon the bulk of the inhabitants.

Very striking appendages of these edifices—for they may be seen upon the doors, and placarded at the corners of the opposite squares—are the characteristic "indulgences," so often published for the benefit of society and the