Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1883-04-25
Mexican Common Life.

You will find the miserable jacals (huts
of the Mexican lower class on the outskirt
of every town. made of mud, sticks, straw
cornstslks, barrel slaves, shoe boxes tn
cases any old drift that will hang togethel
when ouce faster ed INTO place. They are
til htly rooted with tule thatch, which
slopes almost to the ground. Sometime:
they stand IN rows IN the suburbs, some
times Trey are perched on the top OF 1
clay cone. and sometimes tucked away IN
the cracks of dry ravInes. Every jaca
has its garden patch, where the women
cultivate u few onions, red peppers. beans
and sweet potatoes. A little mud over
stands close by. A Mexican family car
live on hill of beans per day. In the
winter five penny soup bone and yam
will satisfy their needs. Nearly every
one keeps a small donkey and few chick.
ems, a couple of goats and blues skinned
dog. with no hair ON except white tuf:
on the top of his head and the tip Of hi:
tail. They SINCE the thorns of the cactus
and feed the pods to the donkey; give the
soup-boDe to the dog and the goats have
what is lef' IN the tean-hill. Other dogs
have they, marvellous in number and va
riety, whose bite dIsturbs no one. but
whose nocturnal baying divides the voices
of the night with the cock growing that
resounds from house to iacal, and from
tsrm 30 ranch, in surges of sound like the
waves of the sea- 3"
OF the interior Of these huts, 1t may be
said that the eartben floors are always
swept, and the gsudily covered bed looks
clean aud neat, thanks TO the house-thrift
of the women, who seem always busy.
There are abundant evidences of extreme
poverty, but not of filth or squalor. As
for pater famIlias, who dozes IN the sun
or shade alternately, according to the sea
son, it costs hlm mighty effort to turn
over, even to light his cigarette is too
great an exeItion. Occasionally, in des-
perate straits, he musters energy enough
to bestride his d 'nkey and ride out to the
chaparral for black load of mesquite
sticks, which he will sell for ''bit' on his
return, driving his beast before him. This
is the most mOmentous event of his life,
aud stimulated with the proud conscious
ness of having earned shilling, he rises
IN his rags and salutes you with the grave
courtesy of Spanish don. 1t Is the eli
max of his ambition, but 1t is painful. His
children are more active, and they vary
their outdoor play by throwing the lasso
at each other, the dogs and the goats; but
they never lasso the old man. He IS too
dlgnIfied to be tri1ed with. And you will
notice that he never demeans himself by
attempting to speak English-he has not
sunk so low as that; but he will accept
American money without question, il pre-
sented TO HIM in q respectful way. Vul-
game diosl
1t q interesting to walk through these
strange purlieus OF the towns and watch
The besgars at the church doors; visit the
coffee stalls on the plazas; note the water
cats ON their mercful crrands; the wo-
men al thtlr spinning wheels or pounding
corn Tor their frugal meal, and the grotes-
que mllkmsn astride his donkey, going
his morning rounds, dipping from one can
OF the other as he serves and sells. 1t is
all very strange and foreign, but not a
whit ike the halls of The MonteZumas or
the Alhambra. | see the accquiOs rum
ming through the streets, and the Irrigat-
ihS utSHCo uuS " VIZ SoiAt SPnHA7H W.
lonlsts. | saunter under the shade OF huge
grape vines with stems as large as a tree,
and hear the clang of the iron bells in the
old stone belfry, built two centuries ago.
recognize sil these traces of an attempted
civilization, ike halt -obliterated footprints
in the mire. it is the imprint OF the
sterling coin upon the basest sort of com
position. | would fain fee in disgust from
the squalor, poverty, ignorance and SEMI
barbarism which has settled in the valley
like missma-out already | behold the
sun of new dispensation; | see that all
these Mexican features are being rapidly
wiped out by the settlements from the
East, which have followed the completion
of the railroads.