DESCRIPTION OF IT LIFE IN MEXICO. 



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Passeo Nuevo. It occupies a space of ten or twelve acres, enclosed 

 by a substantial stone wall, which is surrounded by a deep and 

 flooded moat. The gates are closed daily at the Oracion ; and the 

 spot is thus protected carefully from all improper uses as well as from 

 wanton destruction. Around the whole of the inner wall, lines of 

 substantial stone seats are erected, and, in front of them, an excellent 

 carriage road affords a drive for those who are not disposed to min- 

 gle in the gayer circle of the passeos. Within this highway the 

 plantations begin. Paved paths cross and recross the dense groves 

 in a labyrinth of lines, while, at intervals, fountains and secluded 

 benches break the uniform solemnity and quietness of the spot. In 

 the centre of the enclosure a massive fountain, surmounted by a 

 gilded statue of Liberty, rises nobly in the midst of a broad area, 

 whose top is almost domed with the arching branches of the trees, 

 which admit a scant but lovely light through a narrow aperture, like 

 the sky-light of the pantheon at Rome. The birds, unassailed for 

 years within this grove, have flown to it as a sanctuary, and the 

 branches are forever vocal with their natural music. Situated as it 

 is on the edge of the town, and surrounded by houses, it neverthe- 

 less seems buried in the depths of a forest ; and perhaps no spot, in 

 America, is so fitted for the enjoyment of a quiet man, who can 

 either take his exercise on foot or horseback, beneath the sheltering 

 trees, or wile away his hours with book and pencil on the com- 

 fortable seats in the shady woods. It is the favorite resort in the 

 morning of all classes who are obliged to rise betimes and go abroad 

 for health. Students, priests, monks, lovers, loungers, dyspeptics, 

 consumptives, nurses, and troops of lovely children resort to the 

 Jllameda as soon as the gates are opened, and study, meditate, pray, 

 flirt, exercise, or romp, until their appetites or the sun warn them 

 of the flight of time. 



In these drives, in dress, dining, domestic duties, mass, and thea- 

 tre the hours of a Mexican's day are chiefly consumed. This cata- 

 logue of " idle occupations," does not, of course comprise all 

 classes, but includes that portion of the aristocracy which is every 

 where set apart by its fortunate exemption from necessary toil. In 

 a country so rich as Mexico this class must necessarily be large ; 

 and, if it begins the day in plain black, and on its knees in chapels, 

 it ends its waking hours amid the blaze of dress and jewels in the 

 family box in the theatre. In most of the countries of southern 

 Europe, and in all their old colonial possessions, the theatre is one 

 of the necessaries of life, and a box is as indispensable as a dwell- 

 ing. It forms a neutral ground upon which all can meet without the 



