On the Mexican highlands, with a passing glimpse of Cuba . ocracy was forever smitten to the deathby civil war. But the bold scheme was done todeath by Juarez, the Aztec, without Sheridanshaving to come further south than the Rio Grande. All these pictures of the past, and many more,crowd thick upon me as I walk the streets andavenues of this now splendid modern city, I have also tried to see what I could of thechurches,—the more important of them—^whichhere abound, but my brain is all in a whirl, andsaints and Madonnas troop by me In confused andInterminable train. Ever since Cortez roasted G
On the Mexican highlands, with a passing glimpse of Cuba . ocracy was forever smitten to the deathby civil war. But the bold scheme was done todeath by Juarez, the Aztec, without Sheridanshaving to come further south than the Rio Grande. All these pictures of the past, and many more,crowd thick upon me as I walk the streets andavenues of this now splendid modern city, I have also tried to see what I could of thechurches,—the more important of them—^whichhere abound, but my brain is all in a whirl, andsaints and Madonnas troop by me In confused andInterminable train. Ever since Cortez roasted Guatemozln upon abed of coals, to hasten his conversion to the Ro-man faith and quicken his memory as to the loca-tion of Montezumas hidden treasure, the Spanishconquerors have been building churches, shrinesand chapels to the glory of the Virgin, the salva-tion of their own souls and the profit of their pri-vate purse. Whenever a Spaniard got In a tightplace, he vowed a church, a chapel or a shrine tothe Virgin or a saint. If luck was with him, he 62. First Impressions of Mexico City hadnt the nerve to back down, but made someshow of keeping his vow and, the work oncestarted, there were enough other vowing sinnersto push the job along. Mexican genius has foundits highest expression in its many and beautifulchurches, and perhaps it has been a good thingfor genius that so many sinners have been readyto gamble on a vow. When Juarez shot Maximilian he also smotethe Roman Church. The Archbishop of Mexico,and the church of which he was virtual primate,had backed the Austrian Invader. Even PopePius IX had shed benedictions on the plot. Whenthe Republic crushed the conspirators, the RomanChurch was at once deprived of all visible foot of land, every church edifice, everymonastery, every convent the church owned in allMexico was confiscated by the Republic. Thelands and many buildings were sold and the moneyput In the National Treasury. Monks and nunswere banished. Pries
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