The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1884-02-13
DOMESTIC LlRE IN MEXICO.
Homo Scene. in the southern RepnDl..


Home Scenes In the Southern Repubiis.
| wish could paint you right here pic
ture of the room which for many weeks has
been my especial sanctum. AS one guest
chamber is fair type of the majority, per
NIT ME TO describe it to You. Its ancient
doors, carved by hands which have been
dust for more than century, are of course
guiltless of paint and garnished with
enormous hinges and staples like the fas-
Jennings of a barn. One of them opens into
the sdl6 de reci60 and the other into the hall
If we may so call the main entrance to q
Mexican casa through which carts, guests
and donkeys alike find ingress. My one
wide window looks out into the fowery
court and is indeed g a thing of beauty
the pale gray of its wooden bars frightened
by few vines clambering up outside and q
fne-leaved Mesquit branch swnying useless
ly across one corner, and its wide adobe
ledge serving for bookcase and writing
desk, and curiosity shop in general. | am
blessed with the rare luxury of two yards OF
wool carpet, and a long goat skin rug be-
tween my slippers and this pretty pink
stones. Here are chairs enough to seat the
Mexican army, ranged in funeral rows
against the walls, the triangular corner
table loaded with glass lamps and empty
vases, and quaint articles of furniture in
solid mahogany which would delight the
heart of an antiquarian. But the greatest
treasures which would adorn any collection
of ceramics in any land, is the great water
jar and bowl of native pottery from Guada-
lahara-dark red, with strange figures paint
ed upon them, which it would be no sin to
worship, they being not " in the likeness of
anything in the heavens above, the earth
beneath, or the waters under the earth. y
My brass bedstead, whose slender Frame
work is polished to the glitter of gold, Is
canopied like a French woman's. We have
no springs in Mexico, mattresses to which
good soft boards would be blessing, and
no "quiltsn or blankets. Each bed is
decked in a single spread of gorgeously
Powered damask, generally crimson and
green, fringed all around, aud SO disposed
as not to conceal the hne linen sheets which
trail far below It on all sides. Mexican
pillows are not the soft, fat, square ones of
Yankeedom, but are fiat and narrow, each
exactly as long as the bed Is wide, like our
holsters. Their crimson ticks nre stuffed
hard as rocks with cotton, and the cases are
the especial pride Of the housewife, of finest
linen, with broad strips of crocheted or lace
insertion set in at the sides and running the
length of them, and much dainty needle
work. and lace putting at the ends. Over
the various species of animals who occupy
that couch conformity with myself, disput.
ing its possession and often gaining the day,
or the night rather, it is well to I" draw tho
veil, )" merely remarking, in scriptural Ian
sllage, that other creatures than +" the
wicked fiea,p abound when no man pur-
sueth," ia this tropical crime. Very sensi-
lily trunks in this country are never placed
fat upon the floor, and left to the tender
nereies of mice and cockroaehes, but are
elevated upon racks rnntle for the tsurposs.
Every room in every casa has its reminders
more or less numerous of the all-prevailing
faith in crosses and pictured saints, and
generally somewhere about the premises in
family altar, containing an image of the
Virgin aud the blood-stained Christ in pes
petual crucifxion, before which young and
old daily tell their beads and whisper their
prayers. The chief beauty of this Home,
sweet hope," and of thousands of similar
ones in Mexico, is its garden, though one
would never mistrust its existence without
q guide to first find it out. Past kitchen
and dining room (Which we shall visit
later, and numberless other rooms-for
storage and heaven knows marlborough
an arci,ed passage and barred door we
emerge from the court into the corral.
This latter big bare space, which answers
all the purposes of New England barn, is
surrounded by wall as high as the house
itself, and is in reality continuation of the
casa. Here are the goats which supply the
family dairy, pools Of greenish mud for the
delectation of the swine, and arches hollow
cd into one side of the wall wherein the
donkeys feed. No sign of our beautiful
garden here but climb some high adobe
steps, open couple of heavy doors, wan
der through walled passage, and, presto
1.-The scene is changed as by magic Hero
are acres of roses in perpetual bloom, the
greenest of verdure, and the old apple trees
like those at home-under whose branches
one might forget the weary leagues that lie
between, did not growing oranges, figs and
sbuacates remind Of :. stern realities"
completely isolated from the world and
dnds it hard to realize that all around lies q
city which was hoary with age before Uncle
6amuers Justly infant, the United States
was born. 56
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