Mesican Trails. By Stanton Davis Kirkham. (G. P. Putnam's Sons.
7e. 0d. net.)—Mr. Kirkham spent three years in Mexico "wandering over the country from the Border to the Isthmus and from the Atlantic to the Pacific." The result of these wanderings is a book which it is delightful to read, but of which the critic finds little to say. How can he judge these pictures of men and cities ? What can he say of them but that they are vivid in colour, consistent in outline, altogether good to look at ? The best of the portraitures is that of the Indian, not actually unhappy, but without any outlook on life or any hope of the future, except, it may be, an other-world future which the priest is to secure for him. But all are good. Two beliefs about Mexico we find to be delusions. The people are not musical ; the women are not beautiful, except, indeed, in the isthmus of Tehuantepec, where the men are like monkeys, the women have the bearing of Queens. Altogether, this is a book to be read.
Previous page
