Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1886-10-20
THE PLAZAS-


THE PLAZAS-
are square blocks, void of buildings, gene
rally in the center of the city, not even
fence or fountain adorning them, sur
rounded on all four sides by tall business
houses. and almost always a church. Re-
move, for example, all the buildings, trees,
sidewalks, fences and Court house from the
block of ground forming the Court house
square in Staunton, allowing all the ether
buildings to remain, bare the ground, COM
petely, and you would then have some idea
of the plazas in these Mexican cities. The
plazas are public grounds, and are often
found very convenient in war, but are used
more frequently for the "Fiestas," Qeasts
or fairs), which occur frequently in this
land Of holydays. Every night on these
plazas you can buy at any hour coffee,
chocolate and dulcies (sweetmeets) from
the foot pedlers. who, each furnished with
a small table. sells his wares and CANDLES
most of the night away.
THE PARKS
are squares like the plazas, only they are
fenced, and have fine stone sidewalks sur
rounding them next to the streets, and are
beautifully ornamented with fountains and
orange, and lemon trees, which bloom and
bear fruit continually, together with all
other kinds of shade trees, grass and flow
ers, and neatly carved and arranged rustic
seats, all reminding one of the oft imagined
and never described garden of Eden, and
also that these people of fierce passions,
and immoral habits, have taste to arrange
the beauty that adorns nature and art, so
as to call forth from the observer thoughts
of the pure, the beautiful and the true.
THE HOUSES
of Monterey are made to stay, and no doubt
are centuries old, and unless an earthquake
should visit that place will last for centu-
ries to come in fact, they are built so sub
stantial and strong that nothing less than
an opening of the earth's surface could do
them much harm. They are most of them
one-story and ''are built from the ground
up" as a Texan would say, speaking of
anything solid, and seem to be built for
strength, the walls all of stone, and very
thick, the doors of double wood, filled with
nails or spikes, and are often of iron, and
the windows, if they can be called windows,
are made the same as the doors, only they
are guarded on the outside with iron bars,
like the cages in our mordern jails, no glass
or window panes, the houses set up to the
street, no yards in front in fact, they diff
fer from the American, who, if he has a
fine fower-bed or garden he desires to
show it, while the Mexican, having his
yard behind, desires to keep from view his
fine flowers and fruits, if he is able to own
them. The houses are more like our jails
than anything the writer has ever SEEN
fiat roof, iron doors, barred windows, dark
rooms and swarthy inmates, and are re-
pugnant to any one who loves freedom,
sunshine and pure air. These houses
| and frequently only one, where the man
| and wife and a dozt children and often the
| four grand parents reside altogether.
THE BISHOP s PALACE
on the side of the mountain, on west of the
city, overlooking the same, is built like
the castles of old, with tower and wings.
Where it got its name we can only sur
mise, or take hearsay for it-that is, that a
century or so ago, Bishop resided there
in all the pomp and splendor of the fuedal
lords of the past ages. The building and
Court, outer and inner, cover an acre or
two of ground, and is stronghold. The
mountain or eminence upon which this
fort and castle is situated is shaped like an
old fashioned sleeve button, flat on top,
sloping from the city upward, round at
both ends. and about twice as long as it is
wide, and is about five hundred feet above
the level of the city. The lower end of the
hill OF eminenee upon which the fort is
situated rather steeply, but gradually slopes
/ upward towards the other end. In front
! and on she west side is strong FORT. where