The Northern Pacific farmer., 1884-02-14
THE MBXICANS.
Features of Life IN New Mexico
Characteristics Of q People.

Correspondence Wheeling Intelligence.
New Mexico is an immense country
and also very peculiar country. It's
largest town is Las Vegas. and sa
place of 5000 people-so the citizens
say at least you know how prone
people are to tell the truth about the
size of their towns. The late Thomas
Carlyle once said that England was q
country of %, ,oo0,0 900 of people, 'smostly
FOOLS" New Mexico isa country OF
100000 square miles, and l35, 900
people, mostly Mexicans. Here the
Mexicans live in all their ancient
primitiveness and good-for-nothingness.
They constitute about two-thirds of the
population. There are possibly $4,000
white peoble in the Territory. Mexicans
are not spoken Of as white people, for
tie very good reason that they are rot
white. They are generally as dark as
mulattos and sometimes as white as
qaadroons. Those of Indian mixture
that is, recent mixture straight
Indian hair. Those of the more pro-
nounced Spanish tyne have dark. curly
hair. And yet, with dark complexlons.
dark eyes. and dark hair, you rarely
see real handsome man or woman.
They live poor and look poor. People
generally look the way they live.
The Mexican masses live IN adobe
houses-called doby houses out
here-that is, houses built out Of brown
mud. They mix this mud with few
small stones sometimes, but not often.
io ny l,
times the size of our bricks, dried in the
sun and laid in the wall two feet thick.
Nearly all of them are one story houses.
Many of them are built, like a fort,
several famili+s living in their different
compartments, and having common
courtyard and placeta.
The Indians call their hamlets puebles,
while the Mex'cans call them placetas.
They live on the floors, of their houses,
aud the floors, like the walls are simply
''doby," or earth. Go in and out where
you will, you nearly always find
the women and children sQuatting
on the floor. | suppose that the
large majority of Mexicans sleep on the
ground and eat on the ground and live
on the ground. AS a race they seem to
people to sit and lie down. In this re-
spect, as we'll in their general stvle and
manner of living, they seem to be near
akin to the Southern negro. They have
but little more get up and get in them.
Very few Of them can speak English.
They have Spanish patois of their OWE.
And yet they are very polite people.
You can venture to 90 into their houses
when visiting places with impunity.
They salute you with nod and smile,
And if you can speak few words OF
Spanish, as for instance, "buenos dias"
good day. they are ever so much pleased.
And when you leave they salute you
with an ''adios'' (goodby):
The Mexican poor, and nearly al OF
them are mighty poor, live on less
than any people in America, not ex-
cepting the Chinese. They can, for
mixed with red peppers. Red Peppers
seem to be a stample article of diet
with them, and You will see strings Of
peppers on the sides OF their t'pooys"
just as you will see strings of garlic in
the French market in New Orleans.
They call then "chilly," and chilly is
omnipresent in their diet. A Mexican
is content to drive three or four barros
into town dittle jacks and jennies
loaded with pinon wood, representing
perhaps week of work-and this he
sells for two bits burro-load-and with (
the proceeds he buys sleeps head or
two or some equivalent In the way OF
meat, and then feasts for a week Oh
chilly soup. Their poor diet is the
reason. so it is sail, why they are so
small, delicate and weak as compared
with the whites. They only get about
half the pay for work that white men do.
A boss carpenter told ma that he paid
Americans 81 and 81 50 per day, and
Mexic ms 1925 and $3.50.
By the way, this boss carpenter ls q
German named Joseph Thielen. from
Guaymas pronounced Wymas), Mexico,
down on the Sonora Railroad, on which
he is division boss, and he is refugee.
ing here from the yellow fever. He
says that the Mexicans are the greatest
gamblers on earth-exceeding the Chin
ESQ if spessible-and that as soon as they
get their pay on paydays they proceed
to spread blanket end bet their money.
Hence theysase AlXaYa hard up, and Ire.
querflY they VII sch 3heir pay
ehsad o o ahaSraf 80 per Cent. to get
Ghmh3in&-m0ney. And you would sup
ppse 16ey NereA yesy reli3ious people.
Evenl herS in New MexEo ths$ have m
adodbe ohdscha in adobe placetas,
And curious old structures these
churches are. There is pfaceta near
here that boasts church two hundred
years old. It hasn't seat in it and new.
er had. The women sit on the ground
during service and the men stand. The
door is very ancient and opens in two
sections. A man goes up ladder to
the roof to ring the bell. The bell is
swung on cross-timber built into a ga