376 



RECREATION 



Elsewhere, in every city or town of 

 the Republic, the churches are not less 

 impressive. On every side they raise 

 their storied towers, throw out their 

 massive buttresses. The clamor of their 



with drawnwork or artificial flowers: 

 woman's work, and speaking to your 

 heart of woman's love and faith. The 

 effect is not always beautiful ; indeed 

 in some of the finest interiors there is 





POPOCATEPETL 



bells is with you always. Richly carved 

 doors, brought from Spain in earlier 

 days, stand open. You enter, to be 

 awed by the magnificence of some 

 great altar like that of the Cathedral 

 of Pueblo, the "City of Angels," or that 

 of the great Cathedral in Mexico City, 

 or are startled by some realistic carved 

 and painted effigy of souls in pur- 

 gatory, or are charmed by the mellow 

 tones of a set of pictures in gilded 

 frames attributed to some early Span- 

 ish master, that adorn the walls. Or, 

 again, in some bare rural interior, one 

 comes upon an altar quaintly decorated 



much that strikes your taste as bizarre ; 

 but you never lose sight of the fact 

 that it all means something, and has 

 a place in the daily life of those you see 

 coming and going about you. And 

 somehow you are never amused, even 

 when in the effort to bring the facts 

 of their religion home to the under- 

 standing of the people, the priests have 

 approached near to the dividing line 

 that a sense of humor is supposed to 

 draw. For instance, in a remote dis- 

 trict, at one time overrun with bandits, 

 there is said to be in the parish' church 

 a life-sized figure of our Lord dressed 



