Excerpt from A Quaint Corner in Old Mexico One may curse - under the breath and always mildly, of course - the dirt, the discomforts, the lack of good cooks and conveniences, and all that, yet there is that in Old Mexico which takes hold of the heart-strings and will not let go. It is the artistic, I suppose, the great patches of color everywhere, the softness and sweetness of the air, the superb views between mountain ranges, the broken and ever varying line of rugged hills against a matchless sky, the care-free life, the manna spirit pervading everything. Dirt there is, a plenty, but it is of the most artistic sort; and poverty may be found without searching, but even that is far removed from the common-place by the brilliant color on every hand, and the politeness and gentleness of the people. And the charm of all Mexico amounts fairly to intoxication in the capital of the State of Morelos, the little city of Cuernavaca. We all but stumbled upon the place one day, knowing only its name, that it had an altitude of five thousand feet, and a hotel kept by an American. To get to it one must first get to Mexico City, and from there start out some morning on a little train, drawn by a little engine, which winds and puffs its way up the mountains for fifty miles, through picturesque villages and a superb landscape. The fascination of this journey began with us in the railroad station in Mexico City, where we bought our breakfast of a Mexican woman with a kindly face and generous heart, and ate from a table set out in the station yard. Then we floated out into the Mexican sunshine - and there is no sunshine - in all the world just like it - and became part of the gentle Mexican life about us. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.