The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-08-25

Quoted by Mexicans-they being most eX-
pert pert IN smuggling and other other
wise evadln9 the enormous duties.
From highest to lowest smuggling is
fine art and pastime, as well as prohta-
BILE occupation, and even the church has
hand in it, as we'll as the custom house otfi-
GERS themselves. This statement is no mere
guess-work on my part, but is undoubtedly
true. As to grocery and provision houses,
which form such an important branch OF
business in the United States, there are none
in Mexico at all like ours at home, or any
thing worth calling "a market as compared
to the elegant ones in all our cities. In every
Mexican town there is plaza public
square) devoted to the sale of national COM
modities, from cheese to jewelry, shoes, veg
etables, dry goods, pulque, pottery and
what not. In the larger cities, like Monterey,
adobe structures are erected to shield buyers
and vendors from the tropical sun, with
solid fiat roofs four feet thick, supported by
pillars, and without sides; but in smaller
towns if anybody wants a shelter he must set
it up himself.
The markets are among the most pictur-
esque sights in Mexico. Not only the tropical
fruits and vegetables, and national wares and
commodities, are strange to US, but the
habitans are stranger still. The seller,
whether man or woman, sits upon the ground
with small blanket or piece of canvass be-
fore him, upon which the wares are ranged.
Ii man, he is silent and taciturn, and wears
a. wide old sombrero pulled over his eyes,
sandals, laced with leathern thongs, upon his
dirty feet, and huge sarape (woolen rug
wrapped closely about his shoulders, how
ever hot the day. If it be a woman, she is
garrulous and coquettish-bare feet
and legs sticking out straight from
the scanty petticoat, loose chemlse,
not in the least Disgusting her figure to the
waist, and her long, matted black locks en-
tirely uncovered. There is always fountain,
all -, ,orlynf rNla
and to it strange Egyptian figures come and go
ncessantly-boys, with long poles over their
shoulders with pals suspended from either
end. and women in short red petticoats their
dark legs bare, one hand upon the nip and
the other long slender arm stretched up to
hold the great red jar firmly upon the
shoulder. If pictures can be relied upon,
jacob Rebecche carried just such pottery, in
similar fashion, centuries ago. In Mexico
nobody goes to market but the servants and
sightseeing tourists. A Mexican gentleman
and lady would no more be seen there than
you would, my dear reader, at the theater
comique.
CURIOUS SOCIAL CUSTOMS.
In travelling in this country, an American
lady finds herself amazingly hampered on
every hand by customs as rigid and I'M
changeable as the laws of the Modes and Per-
slams, which she must conform to if she as
pires to any social standing or respect.
Mexican lady of the better class is seldom
seen upon the street at all, and never unat-
tended. If she walks to church at noon
day a male relative attends her, or a servant
follows close behind, and she may not even
ride in her carriage with the coachman alone.
The pleasures of shopping are unknown
to them. and few have ever seen the inside of
store in their lives. When any article
of dress is required their male relatives pur-
chase it (Which probably accounts for the
CHASTITY com bination of colors and execrable
taste displayed) or a servant is dispatched
for samples, and runs back and forth with
negotiations. A charming senorita COM
planned to me the other day of the difficulty
in matching trimming by this system, be-
cause as she averred, "all men are color
blindp' "Why don't you go yurself?' 1
suggested A look of horror crept over her
face, actually blush under the dark skin,
and with many expressive gestures she ex-
planned how "vergrieuza" (ashamed) she
would be to do such a dreadful thing.
Mexican gentleman would no more
carry bundle of the smallest size than he
would hod upon his shoulders. 1 am in
formed that it is considered no especial
humiliation to carry a book-a small
bock-providing it is not wrapped in
paper! Many gentlemen ,condescend to come
to the postoffice for their mail, but generally
all such duties are delegated to the servants
Therefore the smallest family must maintain
a retinue OF "mozas' or ''creados' (servants)
which, perhaps, is well in the economy of
the whole, for the serfs far outnumber the
masters in Mexico. gentleman never
travels from town to town on business with
out one or more mozas in attendance When
he rides on horseback his moZa rides just so
many PAGES, never more or less, behind him.
and every duty in life which another can posi-
IL 80 hxyh &c 10
The most high-bred IF. f. W in ante bel
lum days was never more waited upon, and
African slavery, in some respects, was better
than this Serfdom, for the slaves were at least
sure of enough to eat and were generally
cared for in sickness and old age. A creado
in Mexico considers himself in receipt of
prncely income if given dos reales''
twenty-five cents) per diem for
his services, out of which he supports
his family and clothes himself. Gentlemen
who are not housekeeping and therefore can
not feed their servants on the refuse of the
table, frequently pay valet SIX cents "a
medio) day, with which he buys all the
tortillas and red beans he required for food,
arrays himself in his masters cast-off gar
ments, depends upon his own light fingers
for 5he indispensable cigarettes, and sleeps
at night rolled up i'll his sarapa, on the stone
paved court, with the blue sky for coun-
terpane. Even a "lone lorn" Mrs. Grum-
mage, like your faithful scribe, must, per
force, defer to popular prejudice and set upa
female creado, to follow her about though
she (the creado, not the scribe) is neither
useful nor ornamental. She is the torment
of my life, pilfering my choicest
possessions, experimenting with my toilet
articles distributing may apparel among her
friends when fits of generosity overtake her.
and when not otherwise engaged sitting
cross-legged upon the floor, suggestively
scratching with both hands among her raven
tresses? At first like st. Paul, l kicked
against the pricks, and declared would not
submit to such an unmitigated nuisance, but
l came to it in time, as you would, my most
fastdious friends, under similar circum-
stances. Aside from the matter of good
taste in conforming to the customs of the