Mexico -- History -- 1910-1946; Mexico City (Mexico) -- Social life and customs
Instead of dining with Mr. Weitzel we all had a very pleasant dinner
at the Embassy last night. Everything exceedingly well done. A Belgian
_maître d'hôtel_ has brought his Brussels ways with him, and it might
have been a pleasant dinner anywhere. The Embassy is very handsomely
equipped throughout with the furnishings of Mr. Wilson's Brussels
Legation, and the rooms are all large and high-ceilinged and generally
ambassadorial-looking. Mr. Wilson has a very complex situation well in
hand, but says he has ample reason to fear that if Diaz goes it will
be an embarking on unknown seas in a rudderless ship. Personally I
have not got any of the points of the compass yet, but something seems
brewing in all directions.
_Later._
We took the charming dwelling I spoke of yesterday--not too large, and
thoroughly furnished by comfortably living, cultured people--42 Calle
Humboldt. The name of the street itself is in the proper Mexican note.
I want to keep the house, which is built in the dignified, solid way
of half a century ago, on the basis of the former masters, so I looked
over the accounts, which in themselves give a picture of Mexican life.
The servants get fifteen cents a day for their food, consisting largely
of frijoles, and their everlasting pulque, which my nose is no longer a
stranger to, and their wages range from seven to nine dollars a month.
There is a dear little flower-planted corridor--pink geraniums and
calla-lilies--running around the four sides of the _patio_, on which
all the rooms open, and there is a second brick veranda, with various
shrubs and flowers and oleander-trees, out beyond the dining-room,
where Elim can play in the flooding sun. Four of the servants have been
many years with the Americans to whom the house belongs, Mrs. Seeger
and her daughter departing only last week on the Ward Line _Merida_.
The house has never been rented before. Its only drawback is that it
is in the center of the town, though it is at the end of the street
near the broad Paseo. The Embassy is some distance out, in one of the
new "Colonias." We can move in immediately. Everything is in apple-pie
order. I have seen two smiling, black-dressed, white-collared,
white-aproned maids, who said they wouldn't stay if I got a butler.
It sounds so promising that I certainly won't introduce any possibly
disturbing element into this paradise.
42 Calle Humboldt.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account