Dinner calls are not customary, but upon rising from the table the guest thanks his host for the entertainment. Mexican gentlemen remove their hats as scrupulously on entering a business office as in a private residence. If in riding costume one must remove one’s spurs—this applies more especially to government offices. Often on entering a house the owner will ask you to keep on your hat (this, however, you are not supposed to agree to), and this is meant to make you feel as much at home as if you were the owner. After a dance a gentleman returns his partner to the seat beside her parents or chaperon and at once leaves her side. Never allow a caller to carry a package of any size from your house; always send it to his home: Mexicans do not carry parcels. If you change your residence you must notify your Mexican friends by card, otherwise they will not feel at liberty to enter your new home. The fashionable call of a few minutes is unknown. A lady who arrives at four o’clock will remain until six or seven. The calls of intimate friends are half-day visits. Gentlemen raise their hats to each other, or at least salute in passing, and shake hands both at meeting and parting, though the interview may have lasted only two minutes. I have been in contact with the police department a good deal, owing to our men getting into trouble, or to other people causing us trouble in our work. Paving was such a new thing that the people would congregate in crowds to see the work progress and how Gringoes did things. Thus they would not only block up the side-walks but crowd into the street so that we could hardly work. The first year, when I was rolling, I had to ask for police protection to keep the people out of my way so that I should not run over any one. (Our rollerman in Mexico City did run over and kill a man who slipped and fell in front of the roller when trying to get out of the way.) But as the police were as much interested as any one else, and spent most of the time gaping themselves, they were not of much use. There are said to be over 900 police (including detectives and mounted men) in this city, and they are certainly to be found at every street corner except in the “Colonias,” or foreign colonies. But they are a bedraggled lot, undersized, with ill-fitting uniforms, armed with clubs, and pistols of every size and calibre. The mounted men who, as a rule, are a better built lot, have no club, but carry a sabre and a rifle (of very antiquated pattern) as well as a pistol. Nobody pays much attention to the foot police, but the mounted men make themselves respected, as the following instance will show. On the 16th of September 1905 (the great national holiday) some of the mounted men were clearing the streets by the simple expedient of backing their horses into the crowds. The horse of one of these was crowding a big burly peon (farm labourer) and occasionally stepping on his feet, till in desperation the