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THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN.

band; not one that did not have from one to four plazas or public squares, ornamented with trees, flowers and fountains; and many of them also paseos of greater or less length, corresponding with our boulevards, consisting of double drives, bridle-paths and walks, separated by narrow patches of ground planted like a park with trees, grass and flowers, and frequently ornamented with fountains.

In the city of Pueblo the old paseo has no less than nine passage-ways for car­riages, horsemen and pedestrians, alternating, with the little parks between.

The shortness of the paseo in general has given rise to the fashion of riding and driving slowly, or on a walk, backward and forward many times in order to see and be seen, as in Hyde Park, London. The Grand Paseo in the City of Mexico, however, is an exception to this rule, owing to its greater length. A more brilliant or pictur­esque scene could scarcely be imagined than it presents at about 5 o’clock in the afternoon, especially on Sundays and holidays, with its glittering array of fine car­riages freighted with beauty and fashion, and gaily caparisoned horses whose riders are frequently arrayed in the national garb with embroidered jackets and trousers, or at least leggings decorated with silver or gilt braid and buttons, or rows of small silver bells, and broad sombreros heavy with gold or silver cord.

Mexico, for the most part, it will be remembered, consists of a great mountain plateau ranging from about 4,000 to 8,000 or 9,000 feet above the level of the sea.

The climate, except in the Tierra Caliente, is charming, and even the Hot Land affords great variety of climate, owing to local causes. That portion bordering on the Gulf of Mexico is generally heavily timbered, humid and unhealthful, whereas that part on the Pacific Ocean and the coast of the Gulf of California has a dry and healthful climate, yellow fever, the pest of the eastern coast, and kindred diseases being practically unknown. Owdng to the trend of the mountain ranges, and the direc­tion of the prevailing winds in summer, the climate is not nearly so hot there as on the eastern coast.

The temperature on the table-land varies according to the altitude, from the semi­tropic to the temperate, but in the main is most delightful, neither too hot nor too cold; in neither respect being subject to the extremes of our western states and terri­tories. The greater altitude, the frequent showers and the narrowing of the continent, which permits of effects from the ocean breezes on both coasts reaching far into the interior, render the climate on the central plateau much more moderate than in the adjoining portions of the United States, and on the whole one of the most delightful on earth.

The rainy season is really the most charming portion of the year, a season resem­bling, somewhat, our April weather. As irrigation is necessary during all other por­tions of the year, and that can be applied only to limited sections on account of an insufficient water supply for the whole country, it will readily be seen that Mexico is never so attractive as during the rainy season. The dust is effectually laid, rendering travel more pleasant Most travelers go to Mexico in March—a disagreeable month everywhere in the world, and one of the hottest in Mexico.

My greatest surprise in Mexico was in the people themselves. We are too apt to condemn what is strange or unaccustomed, and I must confess to having had more or less prejudice against the Mexican people, derived, probably, from casual contact on the borders-with so-called •* Greasers.” They are not idle and lazy per se, as they are generally represented to be, but only idle and lazy as compared with Americans. Cradled in the lap of a luxurious and generous nature, they lake life pretty much as they find it, while we Americans are an epitome of the age of steam, doing the work of centuries in a decade, but lacking all the sweet repose of calm content which charac­terizes our brethren across the border. Who shall say which life is the more divine; or is the charm of the one a mere matter of contrast, a grateful change from what we know and are weary of? They are industrious and faithful when they do work, but their activity is one of ebb and flow. They don’t work when it isn’t necessary. They love holidays and sitting in the sun. They act on the principle that they have all