The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1889-12-20
THE USEFUL CACTUS.
Without 1T the Average Mexican Would
Lead a Sorry Existence.


The remark has been made that s'the
cactus has many good points and will
not be sat down upon" The remark is
a true one, for, as is the reindeer to the
Laplander, so is the cactus to the poor
Mexican. 1t furnishes him with home,
such as it Is. His food in many ways is
prepared from the cactus. Sit down to
a meal in wretched Mexican jacal, and
if you do not wish to spread your length
upon the floor, you will be offered a
small wicker stool made from the tough
fibre of the cactus. The mating spread
upon the dirt floor, which serves as a
table, is woven from the same material.
Corn-meal cakes (tortillas), boiled
beans, great fat fellows, and pleasant
and wholesome dish of stewed cactus cut
into small squares, about the size of a
pea, will constitute your repast of solids.
The fruit, without which no Mexican
meal is complete, will be the luscious
tuna, which grows around the edges Of
the prickly leaves of the cactus, and
which, when growing, resembles huge
green shield surrounded by crescent
of thorny knobs about the size of small
apple, as if serving as protection for
the tender edges of the leaves. In a
Mexican dinner, sweets always occupy
conspicuous part, and on this occasion
the dulce will be the preserved roots or
leaves Of this same cactus.
Though the Mexican people are not a
race of hard drinkers, yet at meal times
the wine or other fermented liquors are
inevitable, and, as the lower class of
Mexicans can not we'll afford wine, you
are invited to partake once more of this
much abused cactus, this time in the
form of tequila, most atrocious drink,
which looks like gin, harmless enough
to all appearances, but which goes down
70 lr throat like a wave of fire, and a
few glasses of which will make you
drunk clear to your finger tips. Should
this prove too much for you, you are at
liberty to partake of another beverage
derived from the same source, but not
quite as ardent, i. e., mescal. This iq-
uid leaves delicate suggestion of tar
and red pepper in your mouth, and, if
drunk after eating a certain kind of do
nestle fruit, it is very dangerous, and
in many cases results very disastrously
for the imbiber.-Mexico Letter.
"A native of India residing in Lon
don expressed wish lately to send by
parcel post to India the ashes of his
cremated brother, to be dropped into
the sacred Ganges. He was informed
that unless he could limit the weight
of the parcel to eleven pounds the
post-ofice could offer him no facilities,
and he sadly withdrew.
Although a telegraph system has
been in operation in England for so
many years, it is only recently that
facilities for telegraphing money have
been afforded the country. Now in
eighteen of the largest cities a money
order can be telegraphed from or paid
at the post-ofice, but already there are
complaints that no saving is effected
by the new system. Telegraphing is
such slow work in the old country, and
the mail service is so exceptionally
rapid, that letter often beats tele-
gram in fair race.
The folk lore of Southern Russia
can be partially imagined from case
which came before a judge at Odessa.
A man applied for a writ to compel
his daughter to leave the house, be-
cause when she saluted her parents
she did not bow to them. He said he
Would withdraw his application if she
would ask pardon and make the regu-
lar obeisance. The girl agreed. She
asked pardon; but when she bowed the
father cried: Lower. Down with
your head; down below the girdleP"
She replied: II won't bend as low as
that. not if / have to leave the house. !"
The judge therefore ordered her to
leave, but she gave in finally and
bowed her head to the girdle.