Page:Pictures of life in Mexico Vol 1.djvu/211

Rh thronged with felons. The condition of numbers of the population is utterly hopeless. Without an opportunity of employment, it is not surprising that they are excessively indolent. Wanting in self-respect and all motive to cleanliness, what wonder that they are offensively dirty in their appearance and habits. With no possibility for earning an honest meal, or of creditably supporting existence for a single day, it is not strange that they are dishonest. Having little comfort beside the momentary forgetfulness procured by intoxication, they must needs become quarrelsome. And the Accordada being regarded as a refuge and a resource—a place offering the food and shelter they cannot procure elsewhere—they are not very solicitous to keep out of it. Thus the more intelligent and industrious portions of the community are continually taxed beyond their means, to support a gigantic receptacle of vice, in which criminals of every stamp and degree of villany are herded together, to their mutual deterioration—an exhibition of recklessness, crime, and misery unparalleled.

At one end of the court-yard, in the midst of the utmost riot and blasphemy, is the chapel—against the wall of which the prisoners