26 



ENTERTAINMENTS LEPEROS. 



compliment he can receive from the meritorious classes. It is not 

 alone with public affairs or purely intellectual discussions that we 

 are entertained in such re-unions of cultivated society. In the free 

 conversation of the intimate circle there is always a cordial display 

 of sincere interest for the welfare of each other. The aspirations 

 of the rich or the hopes of the poor, are always tenderly discussed. 

 There is abundant evidence of heart; and, even after years have 

 elapsed, and the sojourner in Mexico has returned to his home, he 

 will find by his correspondence that he is still remembered by the 

 intelligent friends, who made him forget that he was " a stranger 

 in a strange land." 



The Mexicans have generally supposed that it was impossible to 

 entertain their friends without an extravagant expenditure which 

 was perhaps the standard that measured the value of their guests. 

 They have still to learn that a simple style and a cordial welcome 

 together with the refined conversational intercourse are more val- 

 ued than imported champagne and " pate defoie gras." As soon 

 as their society becomes less old fashioned and formal, they will 

 find themselves more comfortable in the presence of strangers. In 

 Mexico, as in all countries, there are notorious specimens of ego- 

 tism, haughtiness, ill-breeding, and loose morals, both among men 

 and women ; and although we find these worthless elements float- 

 ing like bubbles on the surface of society, they must not be re- 

 garded as exclusive national characteristics. " A nation, in which 

 revolutions and counter-revolutions are events of almost daily oc- 

 currence, is naturally prolific in desperate and crafty political 

 adventurers ;" but the evils that have been begotten by the past, 

 must not be considered as permanent. 



The Lepero is a variety of the Indian, and combines in himself 

 most of the bad qualities of the two classes from whose union he 

 derives his being. He is the inhabitant of cities, towns or vil- 

 lages, and, is in Mexico, what the lazzaroni are in Naples. 

 -Neither white, black nor copper colored ; neither savage nor civi- 

 lized ; neither an agriculturist nor a mechanic, the lepero occupies 

 an equivocal position upon the boundaries of all these charac- 

 ters. His existence is altogether a matter of chance. He has 

 scarcely ever a permanent home. His wife and children, or 

 his amiga, are lodged on the ground floor of a hovel in the out- 

 skirts of the town, from which he is often expelled in consequence 

 either of his poverty, intemperance, or quarrelsome behavior. 

 If unmarried, he finds a resting place, in these delicious climates, 

 on a mat beneath the sky, or within the friendly shelter of a wall 



