The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1872-06-19
NO. |.


came out and accompanied us in OH
visit to the school. just in the skirt
Of the city, or perhaps little outsid
of them, stands spacious building
once the Convent of Teepan de San
tiago, and this has been taken b,
Sonora Baz for the charitable purpOs'
to which she devotes a large income
and gives her daily care. In thi
school FIVE hundred boys, picked up il
the city, parentless, or neglected by
their parents, utterly friendless, anc
if not taken from the streets certain t.
belong to that miserable class caleC
the ieperos, and to grow up in ignOr
ance and habits of Incidence and vice
are clothed, fed, educated, taught 9
variety of trades and employments
and fitted TO become useful members
of society. We passed from room tc
room, in some Of which the lads were
studying their lessons, and in Others
attending to the occupation in which
they were to be trained. Here were
the future shoemakers Of Mexico
busy over their lasts and lapstones
there the tailors, learning TO sew and
cut out and fit garments, and in an
other place the printers busy at Their
types. "The proceedings and Ordi-
nances Of the Common Council, are
printed here" said Senor Baz, and we
were shown several samples neatly
executed. In one room were the
young cabinetmakers smoothing and
polishing slabs of rosewood; in an
other, carpenters learning to handle
the saw and plane in third several
turning-lathes were humming. The
BOYS were all neatly and comfortably
clad in the garments made by their
own tailors. We passed through the
prodigiously long halls which serve as
dormitories, with their neat beds, nu-
merous enough to lodge regiment of
soldiers, and came last to the kitchen,
where ample preparations were max
ing for their meals.
In this school the course of educa-
ton includes grammar, drawing and
music. The benevolent founder of
the school visits it every day, observes
the progress OF the pupils, sees that
their comfort is not neglected, and
that her plan is faithfully carried cut.
Such an inroad as her institution is
making into the worthless class of
Ieperos must at length reduce their
number and increase the proportion of
those who live in comfortable houses
and follow habits ofregular industry.
/ can hardly imagine fairer omen of
the future peace and prosperity of
Mexico than this noble example of
one of her daughters, who applies her
large fortune and gives the leisure
which her fortune allows her to the
work of rescuing such numbers of her
fellow-creatures from the degradation
and misery to which they seemed to
be doomed by the circumstances of
their birth
There is yet another department Of
this school, which answers to our
House of Refuge, just as the depart
ment which | have already described
answers to our Children's Aid Socie-
ty. There are seventy-fve boys sent
to it from the tribunals for reformation.
These young delinquents are all kept
by themselves, and never see the
other inmates. / fancied / saw in
the faces of some of them, q peculiar
expression, apremature sharpness and
slyness. One of them, and one of the
youngest, was asked for what cause
he had been sent there. His answer
was a little too discreet. He was
charged, he said, with taking some
thing that belonged to another.
The same day we visited the mar
ket which lies beside the canal con-
Meeting the lake of Tezcoco with that
of Chalco. There the fat-bottomed
boats come in loaded with the pro-
duets of the Chinampas, or floating
gardens, as they are sometimes called,
though they are only narrow parable
lograms of fertile soil surrounded by
canals, frou which they are watered
and kept constantly green. Over a
large space of this market we saw
women squatted on the ground in the
dust beside their vegetables, their
fruits and their wares, for at this sea-
son the sunshine is constant and the
showers do not fall till MAY. If any
shelter from the sun is wanted a rude
one is formed by a piece of mating
on poles No season in
Mexico seems to be without its fruits;
the banana may be had in perfection
all the year round +; the orange isnow
as fine as it can be the granadita, or
fruit of the edible passion-hower, is
at this time common in the markets, as
well as the sdpOte priote, or dark col
Ored sapote, a green fruit filled with a
rich jetty pulp, like a sort of marmal-
ade Meantime the agudcdte, or what
in the English West Indies is called
the alligator pear, is reserved for a
later season, and the Manila mango,
the finest variety of mango, is just
putting forth its clusters of red bios
SONS its fruits will not be ripe before
next summer. Other fruits follow in
their order until the year completes Its
circle.
On our return to our hotel we saw
a crowd of people about an open door,
and looking in we saw the drawing Of
a lottery, in which the by-standers
seemed TO be much interested. a
hollow cylinder, full of bits of paper
indicating the blanks and prizes, was
made to revolve a few times u little
bov then thrust in an awl through an
opening among these bits of paper,
and on its point drew out either a
blank or prize, and this determined
the fate of the ticket of which the
was read just before TIM cyl
inder was made to revolve. n large
proportion of the earnings of the
humber class in Mexico is thrown
away in the purchase of lottery tick
cts. and it is not to be wondered at
that where the passion for this sort OF
is SO very common there
should be such extreme poverty.
/ have since visited an institution
.b;oh unt;I tho ora of Mexican in