OUR NEIGHBOR, MEXICO 



485 



ft 



HI 



peons carrying ore out of a mine: 



While this arduous labor continues in some mines, others are equipped with modern 



economical hoisting and pumping machinery 



The Mexican people are decidedly 

 democratic, living under a republican 

 form of government generally accepted 

 as autocratically administered. Promi- 

 nent national characteristics, met with 

 practically everywhere, are courtesy and 

 politeness, evident equally to foreigners 

 and among the people, independent of 

 social condition. 



The history of Mexico, engrossing 

 whether considered as founded on sub- 

 stantial testimony or tempered by ro- 

 mance ; the country's record of mineral 

 wealth ; its variety of soil products ; the 

 habits and customs of its people, many 

 of them strange to visitors, must be 

 passed in hurried review. 



A COUNTRY OF EXTREMES (SEE ALSO PAGE 



500) 



Mexico may be described as a land of 

 surprises, a country of extremes, a nation 

 of contrasts, a domain of apparent con- 

 tradictions ; where the old and the new, 

 the poor and the rich, the crude and the 

 refined, are near neighbors ; where the 

 sleep of centuries often continues adja- 

 cent to present activities, and where ultra 

 conservatism is elbowed by pronounced 

 evidences of modern progress. Space 

 will permit mentioning but few of the 

 surprises — of conditions influenced by 

 extremes of altitude, temperature, or 

 rainfall ; of contrasts of product, people, 

 methods, environment, and development, 



