Connecticut western news., 1885-01-21
OUR SISTER REPUBLIC. A FEW NOTES ON TUE PECULIARL- TIES OF THE nEXICANs, As Viewed by the Critical Eye of n Visit
 ing American.


 As Viewed by the Critical Rye of n Visit
 ing American.
 The first thing an American observes in Mexico is that the men all wear ex. tremely large hats, and the women no hats at all. The ordinary sombrero costs S15, while those bearing the handsome ornaments so universally popular run in price all the way from S25 to S250. The Mexican invests all his surplus in his hat. Men whose wages are not more than SIP a month often wear sombreros which represent whole quarters in- come. A servant at the house of n friend was paid off the other day for the three months his employer had been absent. He got S42, of which he paid S35 for hat and gave $7 to his family.
 An amusing and puzzling peculiarity is that everybody lives over a shop. Even the millionaires rent out the first floor of their residences for business purposes and live in the third story. The handsomest house in all Mexico has a railway ticket office on one side of the entrance and a cigar shop on tho other. Everybody smokes; women as we'll as men. They smoke in the street cars, in the shops, at the opera, everywhere. l have seen a man upon his knees in a chapel muttering his prayers with a lighted cigar in his hand.
 Horseback riding is the national amusement, and the streets are full of horsemen, particularly in the cooler hours of the morning aud evening. The proper thing to wear is a wide sombrero, very tight trousers of leather or cassi- mere, with rows of silver buttons up and down the outer scam handsomely embroidered velvet jacket, a scarlet sash, a sword and two revolvers, not to mention spurs of marvellous size and de- sign, and saddle of surpassing magni6- cence.
 A Mexican caballero often spends S1 ,OO0 for an equestrian outfit. His saddle costs from $50 to $500, his sword $50, his silver-mounted bridle $25, his silver spurs as much more, the solid sil- yer buttons on his trousers S100, his hat $50, and the rest of his rig in pro- portion.
 The Mexican small boy, if he has wealthy parents, is mounted after a similar fashion, even to the revolver and sword. An equestrian costume for & boy of ten years can be purchased for about $50, not including saddle or bridle.
 The Mexican ladies do not ride any more than their sisters the United States. Social etiquette prohibits this recreation, unless they have brothers to go with them. The senoras and senor. itas take their exercise in closed carri' ages. You never see phaeton or wagon in Mexico. When they go shopping they sit in their carriages and have the goods brought out to them. It is 2 common thing to see row of carriages before a fashionable store with a clerk al the door of each one exhibiting silks ol gloves or ribbons.
 In some of the stores are parlors in which senora can sit, if she likes, and have the goods brought to her. None but foreigners and the common people stand at the counters and buy.
 Mexican merchants never classify their goods. They have no system ir arranging them. Silks and cottons art indiscriminately mixed on the shelves There is no place for anything, and nothing is ever in place. Hence, shop plug requires the exercise of a vast dea of patience. went to buy a pair ot gloves the other day. The clerk pulled open drawer in which were shoes, cor sets and ribbons. Hefound some gloves, but there being none in the box to At, he hunted around on the shelves and in the drawers until he discovered another lot.
 Nor are goods ever delivered at th' residences of purchasers. If your pack age is too bulky to carry in your hands or in your carriage, it is sent to you house by licensed carrier, similar k the district messenger boy of New York to whom you pay fee. Each carrier has brass badge like a policemnn's bearing number, and if he does not de liver the goods promptly and in goot order, you report him at police head quarters, where he is heavily fined. Or the other hand, if he cannot find you residence, or there is a mistake in thu directions, he takes the goods to polio, headquarters, and you can find then there and discover the reasons why they were not delivered.