Page:Pictures of life in Mexico Vol 1.djvu/259

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 Municipal governors.—Chairman of the party.—An important councillor.—A Mexican dandy's costume.—An energetic speaker.—Stolid gentlemen.—A dirty millionaire.—A victim of oppression.—The assembly dissolved.

interested to see how the municipal government of Mexico was carried on, I one day attended a town-council, or ayuntamiento. In this country these officials superintend, in a very dozing; fashion, the government institutions for the education of children of both sexes in connection with their native town; giving the necessary orders respecting books and materials, auditing the accounts, and transacting any similar business belonging to the town besides.

The meeting: of councillors which I witnessed, however, had been convened for no definite purpose—there being nothing whatever for them to do. There was a prodigious din