Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1891-09-18
MEXIC0'S PE0NS.
SOME OF THEIR PECULIARITlES
AND CHARACTERISr TICS.
They Resemble japanese in Looks
and Customs-Their Works OF
Art in Pottery, Straw
and Lacquer.

North America is in Mexico, says Frank
G. Carpenter in the New York World.
The United States contains only about a
Quarter of million Indians. Mexico
has four millions, whose blood has the
bluest of aboriginal tints, and her mezi-
tos, or people who have come from the
intermixture of the whites and the In.
dams, are five millions more. There are
about eleven millions of people in Mexico
and two millions of these are pure white.
These and the mezitos govern the
country. The Indian who originally
owned the land is only the silent partner
whose name is not on the business sign
and receives none of the proceeds. The
Indians of Mexico are unknown to the
world. The term Mexican as it is gen
erally used describes only the ruling
class, and the books that have been
written about the country have left out
the most interesting part of the pOpula-
ton.
The Indians of Mexico are not at all
like our savages. 1t is a question
whether they come of the same race,
and they look more like the offspring of
the Egyptians or the japanese than of
the Mongolians, who are in face and
form much like the Indians of the United
States. Mexico is more like the Orient
than the Occident. Its common people
live in huts like those You see to-day on
the banks OF the Nile, and they are OF
the same type as those used by their fore
fathers in the days of the Montezumas.
Their dress is not unlike that OF the
people of India and Egypt, and their
customs and habits are in many respects
the same. see here every day features
that make me think of the japanese, aud
the skill shown by these Mexican Indians
in pottery aud art work indicates that
they are of mixed japanese origin. Some
of the pottery of Guadelajara is beauti-
fully decorated and artistically shaped,
and the most famous of Mexican sculp-
tors has japanese features. This mans
name is Penduro and he lives a, Guadela-
lara, which, by the way is city OF
100, 900 people, situated in the western
part of the country and in the centre oI
art and culture in Mexico. 1t is the
Athens of the republic and the finest arr
works of all kinds of Mexican make are
turned out there.
Pandura is a wonder. He can take O
piece of black clay, and in one sitting OF
several hours he will model for you a
bust of yourself which is a perfect like
ness, and which will not be more THAI
three or four inches high if you so de-
sire. have been in his studio. 1t is a
hut of burned brick, aud he squats
cross-legged on the floor just like a
japanese. His only tools are his hands
and a little knife, much like caseknife
He has lump of clay on board in
front of him, and he works away as he
talks, turning out his wonderful photo
graphs in clay.
He made a remarkable statuette oi
Emma Juch, the actress, when she was
here, and his types of Mexican life fairly
speak and act. He will, l am told, 60
to the Chicago Exposition an1 if he does
I predict for him that his fame will be
international. speak of him here, how
ever, as type of class OF Mexican In
dians. He has the features of japan
ese.
Asa class the Mexican Indians arc
perhaps the poorest people on this con
tinent. Three hundred years ago they
were the richest, and Montezuma gave
Cortez plates of gold and silver as big a
wagon wheels, and these people made
his soldiers spurs Of gold for their horses
Since then they have been the slaves of
their conquerors. They have been op-
messed and beaten and worked for gen.
erations, and it is only within a few
years that they have had the chance to be
anything else. As they are to-day, hun
dreds OF thousands OF them are hopelessly
in debt, and are as much debt-slaves as
arc the debtors of Siam.
Millions of them live from hand to
mouth, and only the fewest have what
the American negro of the South would
consider competency. Peonage o.
debt-slavery was abolished in Mexico in
1873, but in practice it still prevails.
These Indians-many of them-are hon-
orable, and all of them are great lovers
Of home and the locality in which they
live. The huts which they occupy OF
the farms of their master-creditors have
been the homes Of their families for gen.
cratious, and though they are not bound
by law to work out their debts they do
so and incur others, so that they kecr
themselves and their families in bondage
for years to come. They have no hesi-
fancy about going again into debt when
once free, and Americans who are try ns
10 farm here oa our methods tell me it Is
almost impossible to keep their men ua-
less they are their debtors.
The Mexican, however, spends bu
little upon himself or his house. The
houses Of the poor are huts CT novels
differing according to the locality. o.
the Mexican plateau, where there is
little wotd, the Indians live in low
square, one. story hut, Of sun-drie