LETTER X. 
THE CITY OF MEXICO. 
SENTIMENTAL BUTCHER AND PKOFESSIONAL BEGGARS. 
It is the custom for most of the small dealers to hawk their wares about 
the streets, and indeed, you may thus be supplied with all the necessaries 
of life. The aguador brings you water. The butcher sends his ass with 
meat. The Indians bring butter, eggs, fruit, and vegetables ; the boat- 
men, fresh fish from the lake ; and cakes and sweetmeats are carried daily 
in travs to your door. There are, nevertheless, a market and stalls, or 
small shops in the streets. In a large and poor population like this the 
compethion must necessarily be very great. 
One of the butchers in the Calle Taenia always amused me. His 
shop is about the size of a stall, the whole front being open to the street, 
with a fine game-cock, tied by the leg on the sill. Suspended from the ceil- 
ing, and but two or three feet from the doorway, hangs the entire carcass 
of 1 beef; at a short distance behind is the counter ; and, in the rear of 
this aaain, is a row of kids and delicate morsels, festooned with gilt pa- 
per and yards of sausages, hung in the most tasteful lines and curves. 
In the centre of this carnal show rests an image of the " Holy Virgm of 
Guadalupe," under whose protection he thus places his larder and his 
" custom." ■ . V v. 
The most interesting figure, however, in the picture, is the butcher 
himself; a sentimental-looking fellow, with black eyes, curhng locks, 
and altogether a most captivating personage, barring a sort of oily lustre 
that polishes his skin. I invariably find him lounging romantically over 
his saw and cleaver, strumming his guitar to half-a-dozen housemaids, 
who, doubtless, are attracted to his steaks by his amorous staves. It is 
rare to see such a mixture of meat and music. What would be said with 
us at home, to see the celebrated Jones or Smith, in the Fulton market, 
mounted on his block, with a blue ribbon about his neck, and a dozen 
damsels grouped around him, listening, with rapt air, to the pet morceau 
of the last opera! Yet the suggestion might be useful m these days, 
when invention is taxed to the utmost for new modes of attracting the 
people. la Mexico at any rate it is characteristic, and I have, therefore, 
note i it. 
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