Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-08-08
IHELD UP A MEXICAN DOLLAR.

Mexico City is perhaps the best place in the
world for the purchase of antique books, and
the second hand book stores contain hundreds
OF old volumes bound in vellum and musty
with the age of hundreds Of years. l bought a
rare old volume which was printed in the wear
1903 for dollar. 1t was Latin book, beauti-
fully printed and illustrated, and it would bring
q high price at any antiquarian in America.
found it in book stall under the long arcades
that run around the Plaza in Mexico City, and
the dark-faced book peddler asked me S10 for
It, 1 pulled out a bright new Mexican dollar
and held 1t up before his eyes. He ct first
scorned ii, but as l started to put it back into
my pocket he handed me the book and held out
his hand for the dollar. You find all kinds Of
old and rare volumes here Two-thirds of the
wealth OF the whole country belonged to the
priests at the time that their property was con-
hscated some years ago by the government.
They had vast libraries in their monasteries
and their converts were filed with old books
Since then great many of these have been
sold and stolen, and you find them in every
language and some Of them date back Of the in
ventlon of printing and were made by the
monks of the middle ages with the pen.
visited the national library Of Mexico. It il in
the big church of San Augustin, which was
confscated and devoted to this purpose and it
contains nearly 200, 900 volumes, or about one
third as many as our national library at WASH
ington. The walls Of the church have been
lined with shelves and its naves and its chapels
are nilec with books i walked through long
aisles of old volumes bound in vellum, and no
one Of which 1 was told was less than one hun
dred years old, and saw that there were hun
dreds Of men and boys sitting at the tables in
the reading room and porting over
books and making notes from them.
Some of these were school boys others
were students of the many colleges of the capt.
tai and others, / was told, belonged to the
Mexican congress and we're getting up speeches
which they would soon spout in the senate and
house.
CULTIVATED CAPITAL.
Mexico City is, in fact, far more cultivated
capital than is generally supposed. You may
have as good schools here as anywhere. There
are colleges for women and men. there is
great national museum, q fine art gallery,
which contains q number of the old masters.
and the people have their social clubs and
their literary societies. Mexico has its poets
and while 1 have been here its poet laureate
has recited patriotic poem at public cele-
bration. 1t has its novelists and its historians,
and nowhere in the world will you find q more
general love for music among all classes of the
people. Every Mexican city has its plaza or
central park, containing flowers trees, seats
and band stand, and several times a week the
government and other bands give here free
open-alr concerts. In Mexico City every Sun
day morning you may hear delicious music by
one of the best bands of the world in the Plaza
Mayor. From IL o'clock to the whole city
turns out and takes q promenade In the Ala
media. another great park, and here also an
excellent band plays at this time. In
the evening there is more music in the