Page:Pictures of life in Mexico Vol 1.djvu/265

Rh rather comely and well attired, however, and by far the most peaceable and orderly member of the fraternity.

Close beside these sat a dirty, frowsy man, with blanket old and soiled, hat crushed and adust, leathern pantaloons faded, boots thick and unused to friction, and linen almost as sombre as his complexion. Yet he was a genuine town-councillor, and his opinion was received with as much consideration as another's;—he was a rich man, and well known to be such, though considering it to be no part of his duty to his neighbour, to keep himself outwardly clean and respectable.

The end of the table was graced by a tall, gaunt, and scowling individual, who evidently lived and breathed in an atmosphere of injury; his life had been a martyrdom to the injustice of other people! He did not endure the oppression of mankind without raising his voice in self-defence, however; but exclaimed against human nature generally, and the dealings of the government especially, with the utmost energy and vehemence. That man must have helped to originate a score of pronunciamientos and rebellions in a few years; and his spirit was unsated yet. Still his