Page:Mexico, picturesque, political, progressive.djvu/29

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WARM BATHS
27

CHAPTER II

GLIMPSES OF A NEW WORLD

Under a long avenue of superb cottonwoods, the largest we have yet seen in the country, the warm waters which give Aguas Calientes its name flow through a series of really fine baths, well built of a soft red stone, and out again into wide ditches in which the common people wash themselves and their family linen. Irreverent members of the party affected to believe that this order was reversed; but I do not credit it, and so my readers need not. A better class, or a larger number of a better class, than we had found in any town before, made the streets interesting. The moment the people are lifted into the dignity of self-support, that moment they become joyous and hopeful. We saw new birds in the trees of the plaza; a species of large black crow, with a short but pleasant song. The frescos of the houses were more elaborate and brilliant, the