The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1884-02-15
THE DARK SIDE OF MEXICO.
UNPLEAsANT PHASES OF LIFE
ACROSS THE BORDER.
Seven Sorts of TaxatiOn-The Rich
and the POOr-Thc SOIdicry-
Houses Built Like JaiIs.

| st. Paul GJOOe, the writer. an Indiana
journalist, says: l have put in an entire
day here studying the Mexican taxing
system, and have barely got into the
rudiments of it. 1t is surely the most
complete system of ingenious malice to
defeat nature, or the greatest triumph of
rciined deviltry to make the rich richer
and the poor poorer, now practiced in
Christendom.
1t appears that there are seven sorts of
taxation, and yet these enormous landed
estates are not assessed and taxed. 1t is
all indirect, and consequently bears hard e
est on the poorest. First it is a heavy
duty at the frontier; then there is a sort
of transfer tax (Which | cannot EXPLAIN
between the States, and contribution
for the municipality. Every box or bale
of goods which comes into chihuahua
city has to pay by weight; every load of
potatoes, beans, must pay. Even burro
| load of wood about eighty pounds) is
taxed a tlaco for being sold in the city.
! Then there are, in various cases, taxes
on sales, and great variety of licenses.
! Beside the regular derichos de boltos
for the municipality, there is $3.50
charged on the half barrel for liquors
! sold, and other special taxes too tedious
to mention. The mines are taxed real
on each mark ($S) of silver taken out.
Last of all, there is a p per cent. tax on
all earnings and salaries over $3.50 per
| year. Add to all this the frightful land
monopoly, wretchedly unscentific system
of irrigation, bad roads and worse trans
! portation, and none need wonder that the
necessities of life are cruelty high.
On the Mexican dollar you will see
rude cameo of a buzzard swallowing a
tapeworm. To the Mexican Imagination
this typifies the Aztec eagle of the north
getting away with the Chichmeo serpent
OF the south, or the founding of the Aztec
empire. But to my mind it seems en-
blematic of the Spaniard attempting to
swallow the Aztec, Toltec, ETC., and be
ing absorbed in the process. The partic-
ular application here is that the local
characteristics of the present Mexicans de
pend largely on the character of the In
dians whom the Spaniards found in that
locality 1t is plain to my eye that these
Mexicans are far inferior to those IN New
Mexico, and travellers tell me that they
are even more inferior to those of Mexico
City and on the lower Rio Grandc.
have seen moro cripples and beggars
here in three days, more infirm, withered
and dried up people, more MANNED and
deformed pitiable objects than can be
seen in all the cities of my own Hoosier
State. The rich are so very rich that
they have no ambition or energy; the
poor so desperately poor that they have
no hope, and there is no middle class to
| speak of. The daughters of the
wealthy pass their lives in complete
vacuity those of the poor are
so poorly fed and dressed that they
nearly all look hunger-bitten or unde-
veloped. There are no lyceums, debat-
ing clubs, dramatic associations, public
lectures, picnics or athletic sports in
which the women can join. They are as
completely without good shape as any
set of wcmen ever saw.
a resident physician tells me that the
health OF the higher-class women is
wretchedly poor. Very few of them can
ever nurse their own children. They US
ually marry at fifteen to seventeen. and
ale carcworn at twenty-five. This physi-
clan attempted t } introduce bicycles. but
/ the young ladies had neither strength to
manage nor persistence to master them
A few hammocks were sold here; but the
/ poor creatures nearly broke their necks in
| getting out of them. A really plump,
vigorous, healthy young woman of the
wealthy classes is a rarity, though many
of them have a sort of languid beauty.
Ponder these things in your heart, and
the next time you see the beautiful Sc
noretta' swinging in voluptuous languor
/ ION the back of IA cigar boX) in a gorgeous
hammock, with delicate wreaths of smoke
circling from her pretty rosebud lips, you
Will know her for the painted humbug
she Is. AS to real beauty, that which sat
isties the heart of the natural man, | can
/ find you more of it in one class Of Indi.
ana High school girls than in the whole
State of chihuahua, if this city is fair
/ specimen, and they say it is.
a platoon of soldiers now 90 along
as guards on nach train, and | must say
that those with us were the most black
and Misunderstanding cut-throats | ever
saw. In all nations of mixed blood the
ruling race is the whitest, and in the
Mexican as i'll the Turkish army, the of
ticers are nearly white, while the pri-
Yates are nearly black The lieutenant
commanding this platoon spoke French
fiuently, but no English, and but few
words of Spanish; so with him and the
soldiers | enjoyed delightful polyglot
interview. The soldiers in chihuahua
are in the main composed of three classes
criminals on leave Migrants and braves
who have - come in " under proclama-
ton Ct amnesty. The discipline is hor-
rible. The officers knock them down or
whack them over the head with the
sword; and when on distant march
wear pistols ready capped to guard
against assassination. In this city the
troops act as a State police, and often
rob prisoners on the way to Jail. Their
commissariat is watched. Here the pr-
vate is allowed real per day to buy his
own provisions. But the lot of pris
oncrs here, aside from insufficient food.
does not strike me as very hard-that is,
as compared with the savage lot.
The Jail looks just like any other
building in this city, or, to be more ex-
act, all the buildings are built like peni-