GUATEMALA CITY. 
187 
am somewhat confused as to the person the image repre¬ 
sented, but was told that she was visiting the holy lady 
(santissima senora) who lived in the church to which the 
procession marched. On arriving at the door the visitor 
was obliged to tip over and go in head first in a horizon¬ 
tal position. It was no doubt all right, but it seemed so 
utterly undignified that we did not care to go into the 
church and see how she got up again. 
At the hippodrome in the plain of Yocotenango, to 
which the horse-cars run from the grand Plaza, horse-races 
are held in May, August, and November, at which times 
prizes are offered by the Government and the Sociedad 
Zootecnica. 
It was interesting to see how the State had occupied 
the buildings of the banished or suppressed communities. 
In the Franciscan convent was the Revenue and Cus¬ 
toms Bureau ; the Post-Office occupied the church and 
convent of the Third Order (of St. Francis); the Treasury 
and Telegraphs divide the fine house formerly the home 
of the suppressed Sociedad Economica ; and the Bureau of 
Liquors and Tobacco holds the splendid building of the 
Dominican friars. Other of the confiscated edifices are 
used as schools, and are most admirably suited to the pur¬ 
pose. There are eight elementary schools for boys, and ten 
for girls; two finishing schools or academies for each sex; 
six night-schools for artisans and others; and two asylums, 
which collect in the morning the young children of poor 
parents, instruct and feed them, and return them at night 
to their homes. There are two establishments for second¬ 
ary instruction, one for each sex, directed by foreign pro¬ 
fessors and well installed; one is the Institute Nacional, 
already mentioned. All these institutions are supported 
