304 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of most statements and deductions, he believes he finds ample warrant 

 in the published diplomatic and consular correspondence of the United 

 States during the last decade, and in an extensive personal correspond- 

 ence with railroad and commercial men, who, from continuous resi- 

 dence, have become well acquainted with Mexico.* Making every 

 allowance, however, for differences of opinion respecting minor details, 

 the main facts and deductions that have been presented (which can 

 not well be questioned or disputed) are all that are essential for an 

 intelligent discussion of the possible or desirable relations of the 

 United States to Mexico in the future ; and it is to a consideration of 

 this matter that the attention of the reader is next invited. 



creation of his own. Again, visit with me the village of Amatlan de los Reyes, near Cor- 

 doba, and observe the exquisitely embroidered huipilla of some native woman, surpassing 

 in many respects the designs of the art-needlework societies of New York or Boston ; not 

 to mention the fine filigree-work, figures in clay and wax as executed by the natives in 

 or near the city of Mexico, the art pottery of Guadalajara, the gourds, calabashes, and 

 wooden trays highly embellished by native artists, whose sense or acceptation of art is 

 not acquired by tedious study at some academy of design, but is inborn and spontaneously 

 expressed in such creations. Only yesterday in my walks about town I entered the Na- 

 tional Monte de Piedad, where I heard the sweetest and most melodious strains from a 

 grand piano of American make, and beheld, to my astonishment, that the artist was a 

 native, a cargador, or public porter, clad in cheap sombrero, blouse, white cotton trousers, 

 and sandals, with his brass plate and rope across his shoulders, ready to carry this very 

 instrument on his back to the residence of some better-favored brother from a foreign 

 land. If this is not innate genius, I know not what else to call it." To this it may be 

 replied that the facts as above stated are probably not in the least exaggerated. There 

 is undoubtedly in the Mexican people, inherited from their Spanish ancestry, much of 

 aesthetic taste and an " innate genius " for music, painting, sculpture, embroidery, dress, 

 decoration, and the fine arts generally. But this very fact, in view of the hard, rough 

 work that Mexico has got to do to overcome the natural obstacles in the way of her ma- 

 terial development, is not a matter of encouragement. For it is not genius to carve cruci- 

 fixes, embroider huipillas, or compose and execute music that her people need ; but rather 

 the ability to make and maintain good roads, invent and use machinery, and reform a 

 system of laws that would neutralize all her natural advantages, even though they were 

 many times greater than the most patriotic citizen of the country could claim for it. 



* From one of these latter the following warning against publishing anything in 

 the way of observations or conclusions was received by the writer: 



" City of Mbxico, April 13, 18S6. 

 " The papers are filled with the letters of travelers about Mexico. If you do not con- 

 form to what many people here want you to say, you are put down as having taken a 

 hasty or dyspeptic observation of the country, and had no opportunity to know anything. 

 If you pass one week in an hotel, and should write conformably to what various interests 

 would have you, you are at once quoted as a ' most intelligent and experienced traveler.' 

 A thorough investigation scrapes off all the varnish, and will often expose the motives of 

 not a few people in Mexico, who would have American capital plant itself there under 

 conditions which afford no protection by their Government or ours." 



