The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1891-12-10
LIVING IN MEXICO.
Il Costs Much More Than It DOCS
In the United states.
Rents High and Luxuries OF All KINDS
- Very Expensive-A Rich Field
Cor American Enter
prise.

-. Very Expenstve-A htSu
Tor American Enter
prise.
"What does it cost to live in. Mexico?'
was aske d of young American dentist
who was practicing his profession in the
city of San Luis Potosi, by City OF
Mexico correspondent OF the st. Louis
Globe-Democrat This city of about
one hundred thousand people. 1t lies
in the north central part of Mexico and
is in a rich farming country. The
young dentist lives very nicely. Like
all of his kind in Mexico he is making
money, and he is saving enough to
make him rich within the next ten or
fifteen years. Said he: II keep close
account of my expenses, and / figure it
costs me Just about one hundred and
seventeen dollars month. My living
costs me for table expenses two dollars
a day, or sixty dollars month. pay
twenty-five dollars n month for my
house and / have three servants, who
average four dollars month apiece.
might get along with less servants but
aot very well. Here every respectable
fellow has to have q Cook, a man, and
/. chambermaid. The cook won't go
70 outside the kitchen, and you have
,ome trouble making the chamber
maid wait upon the table. My
Joy tends to the front door,
waters the street in front of my
house, and runs my errart'. He sleeps
n front OF the door at night, and does
he most of my marketing. In addition
@ the wages of the servants have to
rive them SO much day for food. Each
If them expects six cents every morning
or tortillas, or the corn cakes which
Constitute the bread of the common
,eople. They claim that they don't like
ny food, but l have sneaking idea
hat they steal it all the same. Then
,very week I have to give six cents
extra to them for soap. This is the
custom; and they want the money and
not the soap. ! once bought twenty
Eve pounds of soap and tried to dole it
out to them, but they wouldn't take it.
Then, in addition to this, / have my
washing and ironing. This is never done
in the house in Mexico. There are pub
lie washerwomen. who pound and rub
the clothes to pieces after wetting them
with cold water, which they get from
the publ tanks or bitches. They
wear out the clothes in one-third the
time that they would be destroyed by
the Chinese laundry. and pay them
five dollars a month for doing it. My
butter costs me seventy-five cents a
pound. my milk seventeen cents day,
and pay about six cents day on the
average for charcoal. All the cooking
in Mexico is done with charcoal, and
there is not cooking stove in a Mexi
can family the country over. Mexican
houses have no chimneys, and our cook
ing utensils are all made OF clay"
"IIow about incidental expenses?"
asked.
''They are very high" was the reply
money slips away here faster thai
you would think, and would like t
give you some of the items" y
Rents are high and Injuries are yer.
expensive. Everything that is import
ed is high, and q great chance TO
money-making is for the American t
go to Mexico, study the needs Of tn
people, and start factories there TO
making the articles that are now s
highly protected by the tariff. TAX
the matter Of nails, for instance. The
cost from sixteen to twenty-five cent
apound, and they are SO expensive tha
agreat part of the building of Mexic
is done with ropes instead OF nail
Here in Mexico city, within a stone
throw Of the Iturbide hotel, an in
mensc building is being erected. TIL
scaffolding about this building is tied't'
gether with ropes, and the rafters bein
spliced in this way. Many of the hut
of the southern part of the countr
have roofs of thatch tied to rafters wit
ropes, and some of these huts have NJ
a nail in them. Few wooden building
are known in Mexico. The averae
house has neither cellar nor garnet, ar
the fastening, which we make wi,
nails, are ingeniously constructed wit
brick and mortar. have seen fenc,
where the boards and poles were tic
to the posts, and crate that l got Il
other day to carry pottery in was MAJ
of rods tied together with strings. A
classes of building material are cost
here. You have to pay thirty-ive
forty dollars a thousand for fiocrin
and glass is very high. A great maj
of the cheaper houses have no wi
dows, in the glass sense of the wor
The openings are covered with iron ba
and are fastened at night with clio
wooden shutters. Iron has during pt
years been largely imported from B
GUM, and there is . good chance
American iron. &g ats tg34
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