Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-08-16

rushes, which the women moved vigorously
! to and fro during the operation. Both on
| the plateau and in the hot country saw
many huts which had several rooms and
the homes of the better classes of the poor
had now and then table and chair.
In the cities l find the majority of the
| poor living in tenement houses and here in
Mexico City there are streets where the
! people fairly swarm, and where whole fami-
lies and several of them are crowded at
night in one damp, ill-smelling room, with
nothing but this foulest of sewerage-laden
ground to sleep upon. On the outskirts of
the city you may see the homes of the
squatters made of all kinds of refuse ma
terlals, from tin cans to storeboxes and SUM-
dried bricks, and some of the huts are so
low that the people have to get down on all
fours to get into them. Such places are oc-
cupled by the poorest of the poor of this
great city. Their inhabitants live by beg
glng, odd jobs and often by stealing, and
they constitute what might be called the
residences of the ive-points element of the
capital
THEIR DRESS AND FOOD.
The Mexican Indians are not the blanket
savages of our Western territories. They
do not cut the seats out of their pantaloons
before they wear them as our Indians do.
They are in fact as cleanly and particular
about thei- clothes as any people in similar
circumstances the world over The poorest
man has his white shirt and white-legged
pantaloons, and the Indian girl wearD a
white chemise and skirt. She has, it is
true, not the corset, the hip-pads or the
hustle of our advanced civilization, and the
covering of her long black hair is only
shell as costly as her meager purse can buy,
still she looks neat and tidy in her simple
raiment and when young she has straight
ness and roundness of form and feature,
which many of our bellies might envy.
The feet of both sexes are bare and are
half clad in sandals made of two pieces of
sole leather about the size of the bottom of
your foot one bound on the top and the
other on the sole Of the foot when worn.
These sandals cost about % cents a pair,
and you could dress an Indian woman SO
that she would look respectable here for
s. so: 1t would cost considerably more to
fit out the man, and the clothes Of a Mexi-
can Peon are one of the big items of the
family. His blanket or serape, which he
wraps picturesquely about his shoulders
and which he wears when not working both
day and night, costs all the way from 50 as
high as he can afford to 60. I have seen
some worth 500, but these were handmade
and very fine
HIS HAT IS USUALLY COSTLY.
His hat, broad -brimmed and of straw or
felt may cost less than dollar or it may
cost fifty, and his pantaloons or coat like
amount If, however, he is the ordinary
Indian he will confne himself to a cheap
serape and his cottons, and he will march
around under his big straw hat with all the
airs Of the brigand of the stage. Neither
he nor his wife will wear underclcthing,
and they will sleep at night in the same out
fit that they wear during the day.
The cost of their food will not be proper
tionately greater than the cost Of their
clothing. Three-fourths of Mexico lives al
most entirely on black beans and cakes
made of Indian corn, and the frijoles and
the tortilias sauced with red pepper make
up the diet of the Mexican Indians. Baking
tOrtillas forms the chief occupation of the
Mexican housewife. Every woman is her
own miller and cook. A rough, fiat stone
a foot wide and is inches long is her mill,
and she soaks the grains of corn in Lime