The arsenal is in a fine old building directly in the opposite
direction from the mint. All departments are not running--for the lack
of money, so they say. They make but three hundred and fifty entire
guns a day, but have one million dollars' worth in stock. In one room
they have a fine collection of arms, such as are used by every nation
in the world. The iron and wood used is Mexican, the latter a superb
walnut, which requires no oil or varnish. The people here employed
get from one real (twelve and a half cents) to two dollars a day, the
highest that is paid.
The tourists who have such a mania for mementos have brought disgrace
on themselves and others also. The governor has been very kind, and
has thrown open the embassadors' hall, without reserve, for their
inspection. It is a beautiful place, containing life-size paintings of
Washington, Juarez, Hidalgo and other illustrious men. The chandeliers,
hung with brilliant cut-glass pendants, terra cotta and alabaster vases
and handsome clocks, were once the property of Maximilian. At either
end of the long hall are crimson velvet and gold-hung thrones, where
the president receives his guests. Some trophy fiend, most probably
some girl with the thought of a crazy patch, cut a large piece out of
one of these damask curtains; consequently the governor has issued
orders that no visitors shall be admitted, and the Yankees have gone
down one notch further in the scale where they already, by their own
conduct, hold a low position. It is to be hoped that those who come in
the future may act so that no more shame will fall on us.
CHAPTER XI.
CUPID'S WORK IN SUNNYLAND.
Love! That wonderful something--the source of bliss, the cause of
maddened anguish! Love and marriage form the basis of every plot, play,
comedy, tragedy, story, and, let it be whispered, swell the lawyer's
purse with breach of promise and divorce case fees. Yet it blooms with
a new-found beauty in every clime, and as there is no land in all the
world more suitable for romance than Mexico, it is pertinent to show
how love is planted, cultivated and reaped in this paradise, so as to
let our single readers in the States compare the system here with home
customs and benefit thereby, whether by making good use of their own
free style or cultivating a new, those interested must decide.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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