ON THE CHINAMPAS CANAL, NEAR MEXICO CITY 



In normal times life is easy in peon Mexico. Four centuries of penury have bred the 

 love of luxury out of the natives' make-up, and they are now inured to hardships that would 

 grind the very soul out of an American. What the average American wastes would seem a 

 princely income to the Mexican peon. 



highway from under umbrageous trees. 

 Flotsam and jetsam in the canal are va- 

 grant bulbs and flowers of water hya- 

 cinth, a wicked, beautiful plant, whose 

 reproductivity makes men work to keep 

 it down, but here it has met its match and 

 is made to be useful. Bridges there are, 

 and most quaint, like that perfect arch of 

 Ixticalco, under which white geese seem 

 to float in the air. 



One feels that this panorama should 

 last forever, especially if he does not have 

 to supply the labor of locomotion. Here 

 at this landing at Xochimilco it must be 

 realized that the mere first leaves of our 



experience, the loveliness of the country 

 of the lake dwellers, are just unfolding. 



HIDDEN BEAUTIES OE XOCHIMILCO 



The town is really built on terra firma. 

 as the seven churches, each well supplied 

 with raucous bells, the streets of quaint 

 houses, and the broad lava-paved prehis- 

 toric market-place, well attest ; but the 

 town disguises and hides away the life of 

 the canals and gardens, and its attrac- 

 tions for the tourist are soon compassed. 



We turn into a narrow lane leading 

 away from the formal streets and emerge 

 into an Indian dooryard, and within a 



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