Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-09-12
Mexican Indians.

Writers about Mexico and its pros
poets fall into some curious blunders
through forgetting that the people of
this country do not form 3 homogene-
Gus mass like the white population of
the United States. The Mexicans are.
as it were. either Concord philosophers
or Louisiana negroes. There is no great
middle class like that which gives the
American Union its strength. You meet
rich and aristocratic McXicans and YOU
meet those who live from hand to
mouth. There are almost no others.
The former are rulers, the latter are
subjects. This division of tho inhabi-
tants of the country into mobiles and
serfs must have 3 powerful influence
upon the course of governmental and
commercial affairs. The number OF
people in Mexico is not known.
No census even. approximating accu-
racy was v taken. The great OBJ
stacle to an enumeration is the natural
fear of the lower class that q census
will be followed by a tax. The popu-
lation of no city is known within sew
eral thousands. The Minister of Pub
lie Works, however, reported in 1880
that there were in the Republic 1922
522 Europeans or Spanish-Americans,
3,765,O44 Indians, and 4,26O, AS per-
sons of mixed race. The mixed popu-
lation includes three groupes, viz.
Mestizos. or the offsprings Of Indians
and whites; Zambos, or Indo-Africans
and mullatos. The Mestizos out
number the others of mixed descent
80 to 1. Other estimates rank the MAJ
tive population somewhat higher; but,
without going into details, the white
inhabitants of the Republic may be
set down at 2,000,OO0 and the indian
and mixed at 5000. O0O. The whites
are for the most part Creole, or of
Spanish descent. The mixed r.ce has
produced not a few famous mtn, and
sons Of pure Indian parents have made
their mark. The great Jau:ez, for
instance, was an India1. But
the Indians are for the most part
unprogressive. They neither produce
merchandise for export lor buy
imported goods. They have moth
ing to say about affairs. = They are
born, they live in their picturesque,
semi-barbarous way, and the7 die. For
all purposes of commerce, Mexico is O.
country OF vasteNtent, inhabited byless
than 5,O00,00O souls. All estimates
c~oncernining it, based on the nominal
population Of 10, 900, 900 arr delusive.
The upper class Mexica1s are the
equals IN culture of the best circles in
the United States or Europe. 1t is the
Indians, and they alone, who pique the
curiosity OF strangers, And there are
travellers who come to Mexico and leave
1t again convinced that the population
OF the country consists entirely Of worth
less poems. This is a profound mistake.
But inasmuch as the Inlians fill the
foreground in the everchanging picture
OF Mexican life, let us see what the his
torians have to say about the origin OF
these singular people. We will then
saunter forth and observe some of them
In a state of nature. The name elm
diam then, is misleading. By "In-
dians' Americans of the present day
understand fierce SIOUX, treacherous
Apaches, or grim Comanches, not the
good red men of Cooper's fiction, and
still less the Indians encountered by
Cortes andtheir descendants-the native
races Of the Pacific States, as Bancroft
euphemistically calls them. The people
whom the Spanlards found in Mexico
were at least half civilized. They were,
the San Francisco author tells us, ex-
tremely frugal in their habits, but they
delighted in splendid pageants and
wasted their substance in costly ~feasts.
They were tender and kind to their
children, but punished them severely.
They were mild with their slaves and
Zero sious with their captives. They
We're a most ingenious people, and we're
quick to learn the new arts introduced
among them by the Spaniards. They
We're generous and remarkably free
from avarice. They were physically a
fine ra.e-being tall, well formed and
Of an olive OF light copper color, having
thick, black, coarse, though soft and
glossy hair, regular teeth. low, narrow,
%retreating foreheads, black eyes, scant
boards and very little hair on their
bodies. Their sight was very %rra:ute,
and they were wonderful runners and
leapors. 1t was not uncommon to meet
those who could not be distinguished
from Europeans in oolor.-St.. Louis
Gl06t-D Democrat.
Why His Pork Swelled in the Barrel.