Our sister republic: a gala trip through tropical Mexico in 1869-70. Adventure and sight-seeing in the land of the Aztecs, with picturesque descriptions of the country and the people, and reminiscences of the empire and its downfall. By Col. Albert S. Evans ...

THE CHILDREN OF MEXICO. 369
if I were a young American, unmarried, and "fancy
free," I would prefer the wider field of enterprise open
to me in the United States, to the narrower field in
Mexico; but if I had been born in Mexico, I would
marry among my own people, settle down; and labor
with all my heart and soul for the regeneration of my
country. Mexico is a country well worthy the love and
self-sacrifice of all her sons.
The children in Mexico strike you with surprise and
admiration. You see no idle, vicious, saucy boys running around on the streets, annoying decent people by
their vile language and rude behavior. All the boys
you see have earnest faces, and walk with a sedate and
grave demeanor like grown up men. I never saw a
badly behaved child in Mexico. In the family circle
the people are models for the world. The young always treat the old with the deepest respect, and the affection displayed by parents for their children and children for their parents, is most admirable. The daughter
of a good family in Mexico, though grown to womanhood, will kiss the hand of her father when she meets
him on the street, and always kisses her parents,
brothers, and sisters at morning and evening, and many
times during the day, with the greatest warmth, and
earnestness. When the children marry, they usually
remain under the parental roof as long as the parents
live, and the parents control the house.
The people of Mexico are, to-day, very poor. Among
the very lowest classes there is less suffering than among
the class who have once been rich, and are now laboring to keep up appearances after all actual prosperity
has gone, and their available resources are exhausted.
Beggars lounge around everywhere, and accost you
24