Page:Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans.djvu/363

Rh that is now removed. Quick transit is now afforded to all parts of the city; while, keeping pace with the growth of the colony, the immense trunk lines of Mexico will bring passengers from the North, and land them at the very doors of their winter homes. At the entrance to the Paseo, a year ago, a great tower was begun, to be 175 feet in height and 25 feet square at the base, from the summit of which an electric light of 16,000 candle capacity is to dart its rays over the city and its suburbs.

Imagine a winter residence in this charming triangle, with an aqueduct three hundred years old in the back yard, and a view from the front of the loveliest valley and the grandest snowcapped volcanoes on the continent! Try to imagine the perfect climate here, with its delicious nights, and warm, bright days. If the possessors of this royal domain act wisely, it will be possible for many of our people to own here perfect gardens of delight, where they may reside in security and happiness.

Terminating the vista down the avenue, rise the hill and castle of Chapultepec. Historic Chapultepec! From the days when Montezuma wandered beneath its shades and built his palace here, to those of the head of the last dead empire, it has been the chosen resort of successive rulers of Mexico. A glorious grove of giant trees surrounds the hill,—grand old cypresses hung with masses of Spanish moss, like those of the cypress swamps of Florida. Beneath them are traced walks and avenues, which are crowded on Sunday afternoons and on feast days, and are seldom solitary any day in the year. Chapultepec, the Hill of the Grasshopper, has the only grove, and presents the nearest point for recreation, about the city, from which it is distant less than two miles.

Though now used as an astronomical observatory, the castle retains much that Maximilian added for the purpose of making it a royal residence. The corridor was adorned with voluptuous paintings, after the style of a Pompeian villa, but these the prudish Mexicans have draped with a sort of sarape, willing to avail themselves of the genius of the artist, but greatly marring the beauty of his figures. The improvements the Emperor designed have never been finished, but it is hoped that the enlightened