120 SHOPPING MANIA. 
except ina business way, or with a certain 
class of the former, at the gambling-table. 
This want of hospitable feelings is one of the 
worst traits in the character of dhe Chihua- 
huefios, and when placed in Contrast with 
the kind and courteous treatment those who 
visit the United States invariably experience 
from the lawgivers of fashion among us, their 
illiberality will appear a hundred fold more 
ungracious. These exclusive laws are the 
more severely felt in Chihuahua, because 
in that city there are no cafés, nor reading 
rooms, nor in short any favorite public resorts, 
except of a gambling character, at which gen- 
tlemen can meet to lounge or amuse them- 
selves. 
Besides the cock-pit, the gaming-table, and 
the Alameda, which is the popular promenade 
for the wealthy and the indolent, one of the 
most favorite pastimes of the females gene- 
rally is shopping; and the most fashionable 
time for this is by candle-light, after they have 
partaken of their chocolate and their cgarritos. 
The streets and shops are literally filled from 
dusk till nine or ten o’clock ; and many a time 
have I seen the counter of a store actually 
lined till a late hour, with the fairest and most 
fashionable seforitas of the city. On such oc- 
casions it is not a little painful as well as 
troublesome to be compelled to keep a strict 
eye to the rights of property, not that the deal- 
ers are all dishonest, but because there never 
fail to be some present who are painfully 
afflicted with the self-appropriating mania, 
