that prevail among negroes regarding such matters as "getting religion," what constitutes a proper funeral, and what qualifies one to inhabit the kingdom of heaven.

"A Daughter of the Revolution" narrates in a pleasing way the brave deed of a young French officer who belonged to the military family of General Rochambeau. He was nerved to the endeavor by his love for the heroine, Eleanor Page, whose birth, beauty, and devotion to the wounded and dying were such "that her very name was as a bugle's blast to numbers of brave souls"; and at the last moment he was strengthened and fortified for his perilous undertaking by the knowledge that his love was reciprocated. We will not detract from the reader's interest by giving an outline of the story. Suffice it to say that the story is well told and ends as it should.

The book is illustrated by V. A. Garber and Margaret May Dashiell. The illustrations are appropriate. The type and the binding are attractive specimens of art.

THE ARENA.

No. LXXVII.

APRIL, 1896.

THE LAND OF THE NOONDAY SUN-MEXICO IN MIDWINTER.

BY JUSTICE WALTER CLARK, LL. D.

Zacatecas is just within the tropics, as we passed the line of Cancer a few miles back near Calera, but the city is over eight thousand feet above sea level. This combination of low latitude and high elevation gives Mexico that magnificent climate which, never cold and never sultry, seems perpetual May.

In all the Mexican towns of any size there is a Plaza de Armas or Central Plaza in which the band plays nearly every night and whither everyone goes. On one side of this plaza is invariably the cathedral; on two of the other sides, if the town is a state capital, the governor's palace and the palace of the state legislature and supreme court, and on the fourth side large stores or handsome private residences. This was the case at Zacatecas, where on the night of January 2, in the open air, without overcoats or shawls, large crowds filled the seats ranged around the square, and while the band was playing the young men and maidens were promenading but never in company with each other.

According to the custom of the country, there was “an endless chain" of girls, in groups of two, three, or four, promenading in one direction, with a similar chain of young men going in the opposite direction, while the older people sat on the benches and seats. Thus every girl can be seen in succession by every young man in the other chain, and both parties make good use of their eyes. Where any mutual liking is evinced, or any encouragement shown, the girl's home is ascertained and then the smitten youth takes to "playing bear," as it is called. That is, he promenades at certain hours back and forth beneath the narrow balcony on which, in this delightful climate, the inamorata sits in Copyrighted 1896, by the Arena Publishing Co.

697

front of her apartment. He casts from time to time amorous glances, for he is not allowed to call at the house.

If he receives encouragement, or thinks he does (for there are vain youths and feminine flirts in Mexico as elsewhere), he contrives in some indirect way to transmit a letter. The first letter is never noticed; it would be contrary to the female sense of propriety to capitulate so easily. The second letter is answered by means of the same underground route, and in a non-committal way is calculated to terminate or to encourage his suit. If the courtship proceeds favorably after a proper season of delay and hesitation, the matter is "referred to papa." If he approves, the youthful parties are then permitted to meet in the presence of some discreet elderly person, but it would be deemed a great scandal if they should be seen in public together, either riding or walking, until the marriage has taken place or at least until the preliminaries have been settled and the engagement announced. The marriage is not valid in law unless celebrated before the civil authorities, and as the women usually insist on being married by a priest, the hymeneal knot is thus usually twice tied in Mexico, as in France, and for the

same reason.

In Guadalajara, there is a double walk way around the plaza. By tacit consent, on the outer one of these the young men and maidens of the lower classes, the wearers