Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1886-08-28

numerous brood and sends them fortE
into the world to depredate for Their
living. His habitation is devoid OF the
simplest articles OF furniture. Nc
chairs, no table, no benches, and only
one or two earthern vessels as cooking
utensils. His little fire within, on the
ground, around which his numerous
progeny huddle TO measurably protect
them from the wintry storms without,
Two articles chiefly compose his sub,
sistence; "frigoles" (beans) and "tortil-
las, /" the latter species Of corn cake
The former is the national dish and nc
meal is complete without them, eaten
by the better class from choice and
habit and by the others from necessity
The tortillas are made from corn ground
by hand between stones. Such, doubt
less, as Abraham used upon the plains
mamre. He had some excuse for such
an expedient in the twilight of history
when milling facilities were limited
bat these people have none, persisting
in such methods from a contempt for
the new and Indifferent to change.
Strong drink is their curse. Mezcal, a
liquor made from the maguey plant, a
yillianous compound, is almost univer-
sally drank. 1t is the chief article OF
retail in the little stores and, at times,
scores may be seen drunk, reeling on
the street, down Oh the sidewalk and in
the cutters sad spectacle indeed. The
authorities do not seem to discourage
such disgraceful exhibitions but look
upon them as the legitimate offspring
OF well-patronized business houses.
The poems morality is of the lowest
standard. Incest is often known.
With him public spirit does not exist.
In no sense is he fitted for self-govern-
ment, having neither intelligence nor
public virtue. His emancipation from
his present condition, il it ever comes,
must be slow and necessarily long
ways off. Education may do some
thing but new blood and new life must
come into new generations ere the peon
OF to-day will become better type of
manhood and become the freeman in
the decades to come of a higher and
better civilization. He is great
churchman, most devout Catholic.
Has, If miner, the crucifx and the
image OF cur Saviour at the entrance to
the mine, before which he pays his de-
votions ere he commences his days
work. When this is finished, with its
perquisites Of stealing, he bows him.
self in thankfulness that he has been
delivered from the perils above and
around him. II opportunity offers,
when there is probability OF gain and
he may 60 unsuspected, he does not
hesitate, while protesting attachment,
with his friendly knife stealthily to
turn his friend into victim. His
gratitude for fayors is measured by his
self-interest. Saints and images of the
crudest design he worships and seems
stimulated to the further prosecution OF
hisimmoralities and infamies by the
faith that these will give him absolu-
ton in the great reckoning of the fu-
ture. / do not mean that the church
inculcates such doctrines but that these
Williams with bloody hands and bloodier
hearts believe in the vicegerency of the
priest and that they are encouraged to
find safety alone with its portals. Such
is a portraiture of the Mexican peon OF
to-day; imperfectly drawn it may be,
yet thinning his most salient features.
He has dark past, forbidding pres
ent and a shadewy future. He is YER
table political orphan without a guar
dian, for him freedom has no song and
the voice Of liberty no enchantment.
His fate is yet wrapped up in the mys-
teries OF Providence, doubtless to be
revealed when in the far future, in bet
ter times, when better men will arrive
as instrumentalities of God who will
unroll the chart of the -peon's destiny.
The foregoing is description OF the
Mexican peon given by the Judge after
three years of actual observation.
GREAsER.