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Gray says, have larger numbers. As there are sufficient to compel absolute and implicare at least eighty million families in China, it obedience. In foreign countries, where the there must be at least fifty million domestic remedy at law is always at hand, it is never or household slaves. All concubines are sought, and, if proffered, is invariably rejectbought or sold, and are the property of the ed. master; and every man with sufficient means has one or more. In addition to these two classes is the class of women and girls for public purposes, hardly less numerous than either of the other classes. In all, the numbers are enormous, reaching beyond anything known in all other countries in modern times.

How the patria potestas can be enforced to this extreme degree may seem incomprehensible. The whole power of an absolute government is brought to bear to compel obedience to the person who stands in loco parentis for the time being. Several sections of the penal code are devoted to prescribing punishments for disobedience; and the severity of punishment may be measured by that for disrespectful language, which is one hundred blows. All teaching, oral and written, inculcates submission to the head of the family. There is no escape from patriarchal authority. Existence outside of it is impossible. Away from home every person must have a family passport. Without it the highways, by sea and land, and all houses, public and private, are closed. A filius nullius, if such were possible, would be worse than a slave-an outcast and an outlaw.

In addition to all these societary and governmental forces, there is the power of religious superstition-the greatest of them all to the ordinary Chinese mind. Together they

This family system, with its legal, social, and religious force, is stronger than the power of any government where the Chinese have ever migrated.

It defies the law in Australia, India, Hongkong and America. Sir John Smale, Chief Justice of the British Supreme Court for Hong Kong, says that every effort of the British government to prevent slavery during forty years has been futile in that colony; and he estimates that out of a Chinese population of 120,000, there are from 10,000 to 20,000 slaves. I am convinced that Chinese patriarchism is the most permanent and powerful institution on earth. It commands the obedience and veneration of four hundred and fifty million people. It has withstood the changes of governments and dynasties, the havoc of wars, revolutions, and conquests for so many ages, that in contemplating their antiquity we are carried beyond all historic records.

A knowledge of this Chinese patriarchism unveils all the mysteries of their immigration, and reveals the otherwise hidden springs that silently impel, direct, and control, surely and effectively, every individual of immense masses. Whether patriarchism and its brood. of barbaric horrors-slavery, polygamy, and infanticide-shall be welcomed to our country or not, is involved in this Chinese question. H. Latham, M. D.

THROUGH CENTRAL MEXICO.

IMMEDIATELY after the first inauguration of President Lincoln, I left Washington for the city of Mexico, passing through the Southern States. I found the people in these states actively engaged in preparations for the deadly conflict then so close at hand. I was detained, awaiting the semi-monthly steamer,

and so had an opportunity to feel the publi pulse with regard to this all-important topic I found that while the political leaders wer sanguine and aggressive—including the w men, who were ardently in favor of war the bitter end against the aggressive abo tionists—yet a very considerable class in t

population, including the most responsible filled with wonderful incidents-Barnes, who planters and capitalists, were much averse to the arbitrament of arms. In Jackson, Mississippi, I chanced to be present in time to listen to the debates in the convention on the secession constitution. It was only adopted in convention against the opposition of able speakers-Yerger and others.

I was deeply impressed with the prevailing tendency to conservatism; and when many of the conservatives assured me that if a conflict could be avoided at Fort Sumter they would call a convention and organize an effort to settle the matter amicably, I felt that the importance of my observations was sufficient to justify me in writing a letter to a prominent person in Washington, relating what I had heard and seen, and urging him to place the information before the president. I do not know whether the letter was ever received. If it was, it is unlikely that any attention would have been paid to it; for the government had kept the southern commissioners in attendance while it sent the vessel to Charleston to begin the war, and it was already too late for pacific measures. I was not sorry to leave my country, fermenting as it was with the passion incited by political fanatics, both northern and south

ern.

In due time the steamer arrived to take me to Vera Cruz. It proved to be the last trip she made, for she was appropriated on her return by the Confederacy. At Vera Cruz-the humid and pestilential hot-bed of yellow fever-I met a Mr. Barnes, who had Formerly lived in California, and was able to give me a good deal of valuable information about the journey before me. He told a good story of an old mountaineer whom he once had in charge of a stock-ranch in Texs; the story, in slightly different forms, has een in print before, but he told his version s the original one. A couple of Englishen had come in to this Texas ranch from hunt in the mountains, and were telling ›ng narratives of their adventures. The d mountaineer, after the fashion of his ass, sat a silent listener. When the tourts had ended their accounts-which were

was present, urged him to tell some of his
adventures. He demurred, protesting that
he "didn't know any like they had told," but
yielded at last to urgency as follows:
"Wa-al, I do remember something rather
queer that happened to me once.
We was
in the Injin country-among them cussed
ones that always killed every white man they
see. One morning my hoss strayed off, and
I, thinking he was clost by, went after him
without taking my rifle. I follered the track
a long way, though, and didn't find him,
and at last it took me up on to a high hill—
and thar the bloodthirsty redskins bounced
me.

"I run for dear life toward camp, they arter me. All to once I come to a high bluff, hundreds o' feet perpendicular. Thar I was- -death before me, an' the devils behint."

He hesitated, and did not go on with his story, until the Englishmen urged him: "What then? How did you escape? We want to know, you know."

They

"Escape?" he repeated, as if surprised at such a question; “I didn't escape. killed me!"

The difficulties and dangers of traveling in Mexico, estimated by the commercial standard-and I suppose that is the correct one-proved to be just thirteen per cent. exchange in my favor between Vera Cruz and the city of Mexico. The robbers made that difference.

A sweet female voice awakened me from refreshing slumbers on the morning our stage ride was to begin. We were soon up and out, and up on the Concord coach, in a seat behind and above the drivers. The drivers, I say, for there were two of them; one holds the lines, and the other a bag of stones, with which he pelts the tardy leaders. The coach is run on a platform and that on rails; but twenty-one miles terminated this horse-railroad. At the terminus we descended, took our chocolate, and met our fellow-passengers. These fellow-passengers proved to be a very respectable set of foreign merchants, besides a consul and one lady.

"Are you prepared for the road?" I was asked.

"Yes, I am armed."

"O, you must not carry pistols," protested one of the merchants. "You vill endanger all of our lives. We lif in dis country and know how to travel. We takes noshing, no, noshing. You must put away de pistols."

I assured him that he might set his mind at ease, I would not endanger their lives; but reserved to myself the privilege of quietly keeping my pistols ready for prompt use. I had heard that the robbers frequently treated travelers barbarously, beating them and stripping them of everything, to their very garments; and I did not care to submit myself to the chance of facing the climate thus destitute.

Our first station was a small hamlet at the base of the Sierra Gorda-that strong, strategetical place where General Santa Ana met the American forces under General Scott. A redoubt on a hill to the left, commanding the road that approaches the formidable sierra, makes it a very hard place to turn or take. Here we were served a dinner in which soup, fish, and roast beef were followed by three other regular courses, and sweetmeats, coffee, and the like, after them all -an elaborate menu which was quite unexpected to my inexperience, and put me in the embarrassing position of having exhausted my appetite on the first half of the meal.

On our way to Jalapa next day we passed several fine haciendas that had belonged to General Santa Ana. We stayed over night at Jalapa, and went on in the morning with a small escort of mounted men. The country through which we were now passing was populous; villages dotted hill, plain, and mountain; when I looked back from my high seat as we crossed a high mountain I saw a charming view outspread, sprinkled with innumerable villages as far as the vision extended. The ever-present cathedral was a prominent feature in all these villages; down to the smallest Indian hamlet, there was always one of these toll-gates on the road to heaven, through which the simple native passes

at the cost of one-tenth of all he produces, and many exactions besides.

In the evening, as we went up a slippery clay hill some twelve miles from Mier, the pole broke-the second time this accident had happened. The driver told me he would have to send to Mier for help; this would necessitate so long a delay that I concluded to go back to a hamlet we had just passed, and there try to get some sleep.

"Where are you going, California?” called an insider.

"Going back to the shanties. We can't go on to-night."

"Vat, stay here all night!" cried the pas senger who had been so afraid of my pistols. "Dis ish where de robbers ish. Don't leave

us."

"You can come along."

They seemed to think it safest to keep together, and all followed. We found a shanty and entered. Soon there assembled a gang of the best-looking cut-throats, who were before long drinking and yelling their national recitatives to the thrumming of a guitar. All this made the stage company look pretty shaky; and when I went into an adjoining room, followed by the rest, and found myself a plank to lie down upon, my timid friend besought me:

"California, don't go to sleep. de robbers."

Dese ish

The lady of the party also flattered me by asking for a place near me. I was too sleepy however, to stay awake to watch for a chanc to use my pistols; and, as it proved, ther was no need, for we got off before day with out any trouble from the turbulent crow This was somewhat surprising, as our guar had left us before we reached this den highwaymen ; but it was probably due to severe repulse they had suffered shortly b fore at the hands of a party of stage passe gers, among whom was an American office This party had peppered the fellows so fectually that no Mexican fondness for t hot condiment made them anxious to tem another such experience. Two of the r bers had been killed in the encounter and number wounded.

Mier, where we soon found ourselves, is memorable for the massacre of the brave and unfortunate prisoners.

My business in the City of Mexico being ended, I now prepared for departure upon my most eventful yet most successful journey between the city and Acapulco. I could not get a guide, for he demanded not only more money than I was able to pay, but stipulated also that he should have an escort of troops to protect us against the robbers. Although we heard that the robbers had possession of the road, and only a few days before had stripped the stage passengers, leaving them

In time we reached the mountains surrounding the city of Mexico, and swept down them at a swinging pace. It was a delightful sensation and sight; one felt like an eagle swooping down his long curves, as we went sweeping around the curves of the road, with the cathedral city looming up in the plains below. Arrived in the city, I found my friend, Minister Weller, coming a lady among the number-absolutely out of death's portals; he has since succumbed to the common enemy in New Orleans. The historical city was very interesting to me. I looked in vain, however, for the surrounding waters, which locked the Aztecs' stronghold. The débris from the adjacent mountains has replaced it, filling up the lake. The sacrificial tower also has disappeared: that altar on which were immolated the most beautiful and perfect of their young men, consecrated to the deities of Montezuma, is now replaced by the vast structures of a religion which teaches that the sacrifice of one atones for all. I measured some of these great buildings, and found they were 820 feet in extent, occupying two entire blocks with cathedral, monastery, nunnery, and every adjunct.

The sun-dial leaning against the cathedral on the plaza did not seem to me so large or so wonderful as Prescott has made it in his fascinating history. Neither its size nor the problem of its transportation struck me as remarkable, for it was made of the common volcanic scoria of the country, and Popocat apetl rears his snow-capped head quite near enough to have thrown it thus far in one of his most violent eruptions.

The society of the city I found agreeable and refined. An opera troupe was there at he time, which gave me the opportunity to ee a pretty sight-the vast structure of the National Theater, tier after tier, filled with eautiful and well dressed ladies, like a great A lady to onservatory full of flowers. hom I praised their appreciation of music eclared that they were not inferior to the alians in that respect.

naked, I still did not feel that I could importune President Juarez for any further favors in the way of troops. So, as a certain Major Beruben, whose acquaintance I had made during my visit, was shortly to return. to his station at Mazatlan, and would join me at Cuernavaca, where his outfit was, after a few days, I determined to go on alone to that point. I succeeded in buying the guide's horse, who-so his previous owner assured me-would take me through if I would trust to him entirely, for he had been raised near Acapulco; provided the robbers did not get me, as the guide, together with all my friends, felt confident they would. The guide gave me a way-bill for the villages on the road, with memoranda of suitable places to stop at. It was arranged between Major Beruben and. myself that I should start in the afternoon and he would follow by stage the next day. My friend, Governor Weller, gave me a hammock, with the assurance that I could not sleep for pigs and vermin without it.

After all these preparations, I bade adieu in the afternoon to admonishing friendswho all protested that it was simply foolhardy to try to get through. I passed by the village in the foothills where I had been instructed to stay over night, and applied at the next village after for lodgings. I was rudely repulsed here, however, and began to fear that I should pay the penalty of my haste by being compelled to keep the road all night. At last I was fortunate enough to find a man who kindly took me in. My horse was placed in a corral not far distant; and when I went to see how he was faring, I found two men there well in liquor, and of

the regular brigand type, doubtless making mented juice of the agave). I could, of estimates of the value of horse and personal course, do no less than take this opportunieffects-which they felt pretty sure of getting ty to treat my gallant command, and the sta when they learned I was traveling alone to- tioned soldier as well. ward Cuernavaca.

I had only ridden a short distance next morning when I was stopped by some friendly Indians, with the warning of "plenty robbers up mountain." I could go no further. There were three other men detained on the same account. I asked them if there was any way of getting around the robbers.

They said there was, but it was a difficult

one.

I wished to hasten on faster than my guides and the rest of my command were disposed to do; so when we came to a point where the trail was plain, I left them and went on down by myself. The trail led me into an Indian village, where I created a lively stampede among the women and children. I saw a man asleep on a stone bench

himself stone drunk, to all appearance. Then I met an Indian, of whom I enquired

I offered to pay them liberally if they the road to Cuernavaca. He pointed, indiwould guide me by.

At first they refused; but after holding a council apart, they came and asked me if I were a Catholic.

I pulled out a little Catholic medal, attached to the string on which my wife's miniature was suspended, and opened the locket, revealing what they took for a picture of the Virgin. The picture and the Catholic medal together satisfied them without my saying a word.

"Si, señor, Catholic."

The medal had been given me by a lady friend in Washington who was a devout Catholic, and, fortunately for my safety in this instance, I had worn it to gratify her. For its sake they agreed to guide me around the robbers.

We started around the mountain, and soon fell in with a small party, who were intent upon the same object as ourselves. They went into a cottage and evidently held a council of war, for at the end of it they announced that I was chosen captain. Our way up the mountain was tedious and circuitous; we wound around, sending scouts out and ahead to spy out the robbers-this last precaution not being under my orders as captain, however. Our course around the mountain, to the south of the main road, gave me one gain-a view of an active volcano, which I would otherwise have missed, for it was a low peak. On the top of the mountain we found a soldier stationed as sentinel, and a peon with a hog-skin full of mescal (the fer

cating that I should go straight ahead; but when I obeyed this direction I found no other road than cattle-trails, and returned to the village for better guidance. I found the sleeper this time wide awake and very officious: he would guide me on my way. He was a bad-looking customer-altogether different in type from the Indians—and had an ugly scar over his retreating forehead; so 1 thought safest to decline his civilities, and asked to be directed to the patron and al calde. I found this person a very courteou and kind Castilian; he told me my suspic ions of the officious fellow I had met wer doubtless well-founded, for he did not belon there, and did, in all probability, belong t the very band of robbers that I had so fa circumvented; and that if I had accepte his offered services, I should have been ta en in and lost. The fellow stuck to m however, doubtless in the hope of bei allowed to guide me next morning, until hopes were dissipated by the arrival of faithful but tardy guides.

We arranged to spend the night in t little village, and I was placed in a sm chapel to sleep. A very pleasant fragra pervaded it, which I thought must be incense used in the services still linger around and saturating the whole interior. was told afterward that it was due to the w used in the joists and timbers of the building an aromatic kind which grows in the nei boring mountains. The wooden saints sta ing about me with their swords, and the

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