The tramway facilities are so complete in the city of Mexico that one has very little occasion to employ hackney coaches. Sometimes, however, these will be found, if not absolutely necessary, yet a great convenience. The legal charges are very moderate, and may well be so, for the entire turnout is usually of a most broken-down character,--poor horses, or mules, a stupid driver, and a dirty interior, with such a variety of offensive smells as to cause one to enter into an analysis to decide which predominates. One dollar an hour is the average charge made for these vehicles, the driver expecting, as in similar cases in Paris, Berlin, or elsewhere, a trifle as a _pourboire_ at the end of the service for which he is engaged. Where these ruinous structures which pass for public carriages originally came from is a conundrum; but there can be no possible doubt as to their antiquity. Mexican fleas, like those of Naples and continental Spain, are both omnivorous and carnivorous, and these vehicles are apt to be itinerant asylums for this pest of the low latitudes. There are three grades of hackney coaches in the capital, those comparatively decent, another class one degree less desirable, and a third into which one will get when compelled to do so, not otherwise. Each of these grades is designated by a small metal sign in the shape of a flag, of a certain color, and the charges are graduated accordingly. As to the drivers, they are not such outright swindlers as those of their tribe in New York, nor by any means so tidy and intelligent as those of Boston.
A City of Vistas.--Want of Proper Drainage.--Unfortunate Site.--Insecure Foundations.--A Boom in Building Lots.--Pleasant Suburbs.--Night Watchmen.--The Iturbide Hotel.--A Would-be Emperor.--Domestic Arrangements.--A New Hotel wanted.--Places of Public Entertainment. --The Bull Ring.--Repulsive Performance.--Monte de Piedad.--An English Syndicate purchase it.--The Alameda.--The Inquisition.-- Festal Days.--Pulque Shops.--The Church Party.--Gilded Bar-Rooms. --Mexican Marriages.--Mothers and Infants.--A Family Group.