News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1885-02-12
OUR SISTER REPUBLIC.
A FEW NOTES ON TUE PECULIARI.
TIES OF THE MEXICANs,
As Viewed by the Critical Eye of n Visit
ing American.

The first thing an American observes
in Mexico is that the men all wear ex-
tremely large hats, and the women no
hats at all. The ordinary sombrero costs
SIS, while those bearing the handsome
ornaments so universally popular run in
price all the way from $25 to $3.50. The
Mexican invests all his surplus in his
hat Men whose wages are not more
than $l2 a month often wear sombreros
which represent a whole quarters in
come. A servant at the house of a
friend was paid off tie other day for the
three months his Employer had been
| absent. H9sgot -$S42s of which he PAID
$35 for hat and gayeS7 to his family.
An amusing and puzzling peculiarly
is that everybody lives over shop.
Even the millionaires rent out the first
floor of their residences for business
purposes and live in the third story.
The handsomest house in all Mexico has
a railway ticket Office on one side of the
entrance and cigar shop on the other.
Everybody smokes; women as we'll as
men. They smoke in the street cars, in
the shops, at the opera, everywhere.
have seen man upon his knees in
chapel muttering his prayers with
lighted cigar in his hand.
Horseback riding is the national
amusement, and the streets are full of
horsemen, particularly in the cooler
hours of the morning and evening. The
proper thing to wear is a wide sombrero,
very tight trousers of leather or cassi-
mere, with rows of silver buttons up. and
down the outer scam handsomely
embroidered velvet jacket, a scarlet
sash, sword and two revolvers, not to
mention spurs of marvellous size and de-
sign, and saddle of SURPRISING magnif-
cence.
A Mexican caballero often spends
81, 900 for an equestrian outfit. His
saddle costs from $50 to $500, his sword
$50, his silver-mounted bride $25, his
silver spurs as much more, the solid sill
yer buttons ON his trousers 800, his
hat $50, and the rest of his rig in pro-
portion.
The Mexican small boy, if he has
wealthy parents, is mounted after
similar fashion, even to the revolver and
sword. An equestrian costume for
boy of ten years can be purchased for
about $50, not including saddle or
bride.
The Mexican ladies do not ride any
more tnan their sisters in the United
States. Social etiquette prohibits this
recreation, unless they have brothers to
go with them. The senoras and senor-
itas take their exercise in closed carri-
ages. You never see phaeton or wagon
in Mexico. When they go shopping
they sit in their carriages and have the
goods ''rae'aht for As then. II is
common thing to sSe row of carriages
before fashionable store with clerk at
the door of each one exhibiting silks or
gloves or ribbons.
In some of the stores are parlors in
which sonora can sit, if she likes, and
have the goods brought to her. None
but foreigners and the common people
stand at the counters and buy.
Mexican merchants never classify
their goods. They have no system in
arranging them. Silks and cottons are
unfortunately mixed on the shelves.
There is no place for anything, and
nothing is ever in place. Hence, shop
ping requires the exercise of a vast deal
of patience. I went to buy a pair of
gloves the other day. The clerk pulled
open a drawer in which were shoes, COR
sets and ribbons. He found some gloves,
but there being none in the box to fit,
he hunted around on the shelves and in
the drawers until he discovered another
lot.
Nor are goods ever delivered at the
residences of purchasers. Ii your pack
age is too bulky to carry in your hands
or in your carriage, it is sent to your
house by licensed carrier, similar to
the district messenger boy of New York,
to whom you pay fee. Each carrier
has brass badge like policeman's
bearing number, and if he does not de-
liver the goods promptly and in good
order, you report him at police head
quarters, where he is heavily fined. On
the other hand, if he cannot find your
residence, or there is mistake in the
directions, he takes the goods to police
headquarters, and you can find them
there and discover the reasons why they
were not delivered.