The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1877-03-02


The owl was gone, and there lay on the ground tlro
feathers Of chicka-dee-dee
Celia Thdrter, IN 1t. Nicholas for March.
Brave Little Florencia.
Florencia Tomayao is a brave girl-a
brave girl, and only - years old. She
lives in country where there are no
schools, and has not the benefit of such
instruction, nor the enjoyment of such
pleasant surroundings as the children of
this country possess She is an orphan,
and lives with her mother in a
poor little village in Mexico called
Guantla- Morelos. Yet beneath her dark
skin she has heart full of sympathy !;
and, despite her surroundings and
uncultivated life, she is truly a noble
little girl. She is bright and intelligent,
quick to understand, and just such a
companion as You would like to have
join you in game of romps ? She knows
as little about playing tag and croquet as
you do about minding sheep or grinding
corn. Far off in Mexico the little girls
are not of much consequence, the people
think, and they are valued only as they
can do good days work-draw water i'll
buckets from a we'll, and carry it on
their heads in earthen jars, or sit on the
ground all day and turn around a large
flat stone under which the yellow maize,
or Indian corn, is ground into meal.
To vary the occupation, perhaps
she has to carry her little baby
sister or brother in her arms for
hours together, while her mother hoes
the corn in the field, or plows the
ground, holding by the handles a great
wooden pillow, which is drawn across the
field by one or two bullocks. Little
girls in that country work as soon as they
begin to walk, and they never cease
working until they are dead.
Dress? Oh yes they have dresses,
but 1 hardly think you would like
to walk with the best clad
among them for half block in our
streets They have but one garment,
and that is long cotton robe, with a
hole cut in the top, by means of which
they can slip it over their heads and let
it fall gracefully about their bodies.
When they grow up to be women, then
they come out in their full attire-in
gorgeous array for holidays and fiesta
days-by adding petticoat and a shawl
folded across the breast. If they are
very rich, they have ornaments of gold
and silver in their hair, and perhaps
wear finger-rings and necklaces.
As to their houses well, / hardly
think q respectable goat would like to
live in one of them. They are not by
any means as good as a dog-kennel, and
yet these peasant people sleep and
eat in them. The walls are made
of mud, baked hard in the sun,
anl the roofs are matched with the
leaves of the yucca-tree, which are long
and narrow, like sword blade, and have
at the end long black thorn. Some
times the houses are made of large fiat
stones, built low, so that the earthquakes
shall not overthrow them. There is no
such thing as floor to their houses, ex-
cept the earth nor are there any win
dows or chimneys. The fire is built on
the ground, and of course the smoke fills
the hut and blackens the walls, and a
portion of it escapes at the open door.
Perhaps a few of these houses have one
square window cut in the wall under the
roof, but without any glass in it The
family usually eat, dress and sleep in one
room, as well as cook their meals and re-
ceive their friends therein; in fact, as
there is but one room in the dwelling,
they can do naught else. AS for beds,
the leaves of the yucca are plated to-
gether, and make nice mats, which are
rolled up in the daytime, and at night
are spread out on the floor of the hut.
This is the kind of bed used in the East
ern countries, and it is very easy to
"take it up and walk, " as the man did
whom we read about in the Bible.
Food is plentiful, and it would seem
as if the more nature provides for the
people, the less work they do them
selves. Cattle are abundant goats,
. sheep, game and fowl are plentiful.
The Indian corn grows everywhere po-
tatoes, vans, coffee, tobacco, barley and
the like are also cultivated Then in
other parts of Mexico are to be found
the tropical fruits and plants-oranges,
figs. bananas, olives, sugar-cane, palm
trees, apples and guava-so that the
country is rich, but the inhabitants lazy.
The women do the hard work the men
smoke. hunt, and too often plumber trav-
elers. Then there is the great thick
leaved cactus-plant, bristling all over
with thorns; it grows everywhere One
would think il useless; but not serves
two most important ends. You can see
long hedges of it growing in the fields,
for it makes a most impenetrable barrier
no man or beast can pass over, under OF
through it. It's points are like thou.
sand bayonets, turning down, up, side
ways-every way. But the peasants cut
off the leaves, put them on stick, and
hold them in the fire till the thons are
burned off, and then feed their cattle
upon them.
friend Florencia. She had no father, an(