At 11 o'clock the doors are flung open and people come in slowly. The
two bands play alternately the Spanish danza and the waltz. The women
come in dressed in all the styles ever invented. One beautiful woman
wore a blue satin dress, embroidered with pink rose buds. Another
wore blue, trimmed with beaded lace, which glittered like hundreds of
diamonds in the gas-light. Two came together, one in black, the other
in crimson velvet, profusely and gayly embroidered. Some were dressed
after the style of the male dudes of the States, but the majority wore
nothing but a comic-opera outfit, dotted with silver or gold spangles,
according to the color. The men, with the exception of a half dozen,
wore their common suits, and never removed their hats. Nearly all the
women wore their hair short, which they had powdered.
At first they wore masks, but in a short time they were removed, and
by 3 o'clock everybody was drunk. When a man refused to dance with a
woman, a fight was the result, and everybody would quit dancing until
it was settled. One year fifteen men were killed during the week it
lasted. This year but one has met his death. The actions and dancing
of this mob will bear no description, and at 7 o'clock the performance
ended. The manager of the National Theater has promised that his house
shall never be used for this purpose again.
The carnival was celebrated in fine style at Amecameca, right at the
foot of the White Lady. Indians came from all parts of the country
and paraded the entire week around the church and temple with lighted
candles. At Puebla they had egg battles, and in all little places the
feast was carried on as in former days.
Sights in the city have begun to assume a familiar look, although one
never tires of them, and I begin to think of moving elsewhere.
The buried city is slowly being unearthed at San Juan. Already they
have brought to light a house of magnificent size and finish, and in a
few days it will be well worth a visit. Tourists have been going down
regularly, but beyond a few men at work, little was to be seen. What
they missed they furnished with their imagination, as did also some
correspondents who would not wait to get legitimate news.
The mint, which is situated in the suburbs of the city, is turning out
fifty thousand dollars in silver per day. The first coin struck was in
1535, and in three hundred years they coined $2,200,000,000. The men
employed get from one to two dollars a day. In a month from now the
government is going to make fifteen million cents. Gold coin, although
in use here, is not made more than once a month.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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