Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 July 1883 — Where the Cost Does Not Exceed the Estimate. [ARTICLE]

Where the Cost Does Not Exceed the Estimate.

The Mexican architect plans his house something after this fashion j The site he selects must be free from any suspicion of verdure or shade; the hotter and drier and sandier it is the better. He then mixes up some mud, stirs in some, rocks, and with the mess proceeds to erect his mansion. .The design is not elaborate— straight up-and-dow walls, witMfut any such nonsense as bay-windows or mansard roofs; a window may or may hot be thrown in, and, when the structure is complete, the owner may stand on the ground and touch the roof, which is of mud also. The interior is sometimes divided into two rooms, and if the owner is a bloated aristocrat—say worth S3O or $10 —he adds a sort of porch across the front, and the thing ia done. A whole village of such edifices is , a very cheerful spectacle. But Mexican architecture is improving. From the cliff and cave dwellings of 500 years Sgo (perhaps a 1,1)00, for all certainty we have of the subject), they have arisen to the present mud huts above ground ; and give the Mexican another 1,000 years, and he may take on some semblance of civilization in the dwelling he inhabits.*— Cor. Boston Transcript.