The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1917-02-03
Continued from page -
The Republic of Mexico and
its People.

book entitled, "Old Mexico and Her
Lost Provinces" This book was writ
ten by William Henry Bishop, a sChol-
ar and Iitterateur who has written
many works of distinction. On page
116 ct seq. Mr.. Bishop says:
Though SO much more be still pro-
posed, there. are certainly some
reasons for self-complacency in the
country even from the American point
! of view. Education is found to be pro-
vided for in a manner that awakenS
admiration and surprise. The primary
schools are least looked after, but the
pupils who pass through these with a
disposition to so farther have an array
of advantages open to them at the cap
ital superior to anything of a parallel
sort in the United States. The Gov.
eminent maintains national schools re-
spectively of engineering, law, medi-
cine, agriculture, mechanic arts, and
trades (for both seXes), a conservatory
of music, an academy of fine arts, and
library, provided with an edifice that
New York might well envy. 1t main
| tains a museum, institutions for blind,
deaf and dumb, and insane, for or
phans, and young criminals, and long
list besides of the usual charities of
enlightened communities. The schools
are open without money and without
price to all, and there are even funds
to provide board, lodging, and pocket
| money for students from a distance,
who are selected on certain easy condi-
tions.
"The students in agriculture pass
some months of the year at the hacien-
das to observe different crops and eli
mates. The graduates of the School
of Arts and Measures go out into the
world prepared to make their living as
carpenters, masons, photographers,
electro-platers, and at numerous other
| trades. Before an opinion is passed
upon Mexican civilization the accom-
modations and neat uniforms of the
pupils of the blind institute should be
seen; the noble building erected in the
last century for the School of Mines;
the beautifully clean, wide corridors,
sunny class-rooms, embroidery
dormitories, and drawing-rooms of the
Viscaynas, the national college for
girls; and the arcades and charming
garden of the National Preparatory
School Tin the professions) for young
men.
1.-THE principal textbooks are studied
| in French or English, in which Ian
guages they are apt to be written, and
| the recitations are conducted in the
same languages; SO that, what is so
rare with us, graduates emerge from
these schools very tolerable linguists
without ever having been out of their
own country. Each state of the re-
| public, again, has it's free college.
THE liberality toward education
spoken of is the more creditable since
the Mexican treasury is not f1ourishing.
and yearly deficit is more common
than surplus. These expenses ap-
pear to be regarded as essential, what
ever else may suffer. 1t is the more
creditable, too, since the heads of the
government do not indulge themselves
in expensive surroundings. The Amer
lean legislator is not himself without
his marble colonnades and his furni-
ture of black walnut upholstered in
Russia leather; but President and Cab
met ministers here walk upon thread
bare carpets in the National Palace.
The chamber of the Senate is modest
| little hall. and the IDENTITIES elf in
shabby quarters in another part Of