90 THE BRIDLE BITS. 



if he be spoiled in handling. We have seen some very 

 well mouthed mules in Mexico. Most of them were reg- 

 iilar saddle mules belonging to the muleteers who kept 

 pack trains on the roads from the interior to the coasts. 

 These animals were very handsome and well set up in their 

 carriage and style. Prior to the war of 1847 with the 

 United States, mules were driven a great deal to carriages 

 by the wealthy of the ^^ halls of the Montezumas/* and 

 having handsome and peculiar harness, made expressly 

 for carriage mules, they were by no means objectionable 

 as part of the equipage — for, Avith their long ears, well- 

 arched necks and cropped manes, they attracted consid- 

 erable attention from visitors, as they passed in review 

 around the fountains on the Paseos and beneath the 

 shades of the Alamedas. The wealthv vied with each 

 other in selecting and driving the finest mules they could 

 obtain. The severe mule bit was dispensed with after 

 the teams became docile and familiar with the Eno:lish 

 carriage bit, under the influence of which the males 

 made a very handsome appearance. 



But things and fashions don't last always, for at the 

 close of the war American cavalry and artillery horses 

 were disposed of and found their way into cities, where 

 they became substitutes for mules as carriage horses. The 

 mules, however, were retained by those wiio could afford 

 to keep them for theatre-going, and thus spare their 

 horses the chances of taking cold under exposure to the 

 drenching showers that fall during the nocturnal hours 

 in the rainy season, when all is gayety in the Capital, 

 which is often knee-deep in water for the lack of sufficient- 

 drainage. The cut in the mountain, although long, deep* 

 and wide, is not low enough to draw off the filth and im- 

 purities of ages from the city sewers,, and hence the con- 

 dition of things is a disgrace to the nation. We like the 

 Spanish-American people for their good common sense, 

 kind and social dispositions, personal cleanliness, and 



