lays the foundation for permanent wealth ; for everywhere, the world 

 over, the man who gets the lands and holds on to them is the wealthy 

 man. Speculators and financiers come and go like bubbles on a river, 

 but the landed proprietor keeps a permanent clinch on humanity. 



There is one check to the growth of Spanish influence in Mexico, 

 and that is the climate. All Europeans, no matter what their nation- 

 ality, become physically modified by residence in the new world ; and 

 nowhere is the effect of climate more noticeable than in the tropics. 

 The children of the Spanish residents are less energetic than the parents, 

 and the third generation are altogether Creoles. Just as the Mexican 

 of Spanish descent is, as a rule, less energetic, not so vascular, and less 

 vigorous than the Spaniard, so is the American less full-blooded and 

 leaner than the Englishman. The change that takes place in the hu- 

 man organization, transplanted from the old world to the new, is a pro- 

 found one. 



English and Germans in Mexico. The present century has seen 

 many changes in the commercial world of Mexico ; the great English 

 houses have almost all disappeared ; especially has this been marked in 

 the dry-goods, or draper's business. The Germans, with superior econ- 

 omy, if with no more of enterprise, drove the English out of that pro- 

 fitable business, and in time themselves succumbed to the still closer 

 methods of the Barcelonettes who gained a foothold in the business 

 which they have successfully maintained. The dry-goods business in 

 the Republic is largely in the hands of men who speak the French 

 language. From the great houses of the capital go forth bright young 

 men, trained to business habits who are established over branch con- 

 cerns in the interior and coast towns. Their employers become their 

 backers, and a close intimacy is maintained, to the mutual advantage of 

 older and younger merchants. 



Very few of the foreigners who settle in Mexico, and especially 

 Spaniards, are educated, as most of them hardly know how to read 

 and write. They very seldom become naturalized Mexicans, and almost 

 always keep their allegiance to the country of their origin. That 

 seemed natural when Mexico was in constant turmoil, and many of the 

 foreigners going there expected to make large fortunes by means of 

 diplomatic claims ; but that reason can hardly hold good now, when 

 the country is at peace, and perfect security is extended to every in- 

 habitant. If the foreigners continue keeping their old nationality 

 when they become permanent settlers of Mexico, some changes may 

 be necessary in the legislation of the country affecting their condition. 



Americans in Mexico. It will be very difficult for the fun-loving,, 

 self-indulgent, Anglo-Saxon Englishman of America to compete with 

 these self-denying Spaniards, capable of living with the nose to the 

 grindstone twenty, twenty-five, or thirty years, eating always sparingly, 



