Page:Pictures of life in Mexico Vol 2.djvu/282

258 the mines and farming haciendas—the little encouragement they have to labour, and the severe treatment they receive at the hands of their employers—have also been alluded to: and the Author would be gratified could his remarks prove serviceable to them by attracting attention to the subject; for there is a very wide field for exertion in ameliorating their helpless and degraded state.

The fine arts as will have been observed in the account of the Art Academy, are at a low ebb in Mexico; but considerable ability exists in the inhabitants (devoid, it is true, of high cultivation) for the art of carving small figures and ornamental work. Scientific music also is in a backward state, though great taste is often evinced in producing harmonies by the ear, and richty-toned voices are very common.

The manner of recruiting the army has been described, with the frauds often practised by officers, the uncertain pay of the soldiers, and the exaggeration of numbers continually made at head-quarters. The insolence, amusing indolence, and sang froid, so often observable in Mexican tradesmen and shopkeepers, have also been glanced at in former chapters.