Photograph by John H. Hall 



A PUBLIC SCRIBE: MEXICO 



For four centuries the Spaniards and their descendants have ruled Mexico, but the ratio 

 of illiteracy to literacy is little changed since Cortez brought the Indians under the yoke of 

 Castile and Aragon. 



still known among the Indians by their 

 ancient names. 



Yet an Aztec of the days of Monte- 

 zuma, could he behold the modern me- 

 tropolis, which has risen with such phoe- 

 nix-like splendor from the ashes of the 

 old, would not recognize its site as that 

 of his own Tenochtitlan ; for the latter 

 was encompassed by the salt floods of 

 Tezcuco, which flowed in ample canals 

 through every part of the city, while the 

 Mexico of our day stands high and dry 

 on the main land, nearly a league distant 

 at its center from the water. The cause 

 of this apparent change in its position is 

 the diminution of the lake, which, from 

 the rapidity of evaporation in these ele- 

 vated regions, had become perceptible be- 

 fore the Conquest, but which has since 

 been greatlv accelerated bv artificial 



causes. 



THE CITY IMMACULATE 



A careful police provided for the health 

 and cleanliness of the city. A numerous 

 retinue are said to have been daily em- 



ployed in watering and sweeping the 

 streets, so that a man — to borrow the lan- 

 guage of an old Spaniard — "could walk 

 through them with as little danger of soil- 

 ing his feet as his hands." The water, in 

 a city washed on all sides by the salt 

 floods, was extremely brackish. A lib- 

 eral supply of the pure element, however, 

 was brought from Chapultepec, "the 

 grasshopper's hill," less than a league dis- 

 tant. It was brought through an earthen 

 pipe, along a dike constructed for the 

 purpose. That there might be no failure 

 in so essential an article when repairs 

 were going on, a double course of pipes 

 was laid. In this way a column of water 

 of the size of a man's body was con- 

 ducted into the heart of the capital, where 

 it fed the fountains and reservoirs of the 

 principal mansions. Openings were made 

 in the aqueduct as it crossed the bridges, 

 and thus a supply was furnished to the 

 canoes below, by means of which it was 

 transported to all parts of the city. 

 While Montezuma encouraged a taste 



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