Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1892-03-03

lcat4nE waves SefN1nlS are az your DECK
and call Every want is anticipated. every
desire fulfilled. The family which calls
this lovely place home is cultured and re-
fined They are far removed from the con-
fines Of average civilization, out surrounded
by all the comforts that wealth can buy,
they live an ideal life.
| With such contrasts the peculiarities Of
the lower classes are all tie more notice
able. They diner in every respect, in every
characteristic. They have ground into
their very beings the Ignorance and super
stition of ages.
The native of the Texas border of the
| Rio Grande is the embodiment of super
stition and religious fervor. he has more
religion TO the square inch than any other
| blind follower of faith who ever trod IN
falteringly and unqueStiouingIy il the paths
where his priest might lead. Let iacal
be ever SO poor it Is never so destitute but
it may
BOAST CKUCIFIx
in every corner and oftentimes images and
pictures CT the Virgin Mary and various OF
| the saints. The cross is something which
| the representative OF this class always
reverences, though he may seldom know
! why. 1t is the symbol OF his religious
! faith, the anchor of his simple belief In
prosperity he bows down before it, in af-
Fiction, when the angel of death enters be-
meath his roof, he invokes its holy spell,
and the black cross rudely drawn on the
| door of many an hum Die home shows where
! the Reaper has set his mark Rough
| crosses set by the roadside, or carved into
| the trunks of trees, show where violent
| deaths have occurred and all believers pass
| ing by cast a stone at the foot of the cross
| until the heap often assumes imposing pro-
/ portions.
Hobgoblins, witchcraft, spellsand charms
| hold firm hold on the minds of the simple
| people, and all manner OF weird num-
meries are INDUCED in, thoegh straners sell
! dom or never get an Opportunity to see any
| of the fantastic performances. Especially
| strong is their belief in the 'loco." It Is
! asserted that many of those who have ac-
| quired the friendship of the powers of evil
| have knowledge Of q plant which, once
| taken into the system robs the unfortunate
| victim of that divine spark which elevaJes
man above the brutes, and drivelng,
senseless, soulles thing he wanderS about
until death comes to his relief. This belief
in the existence of the ''loco plant is by
| no means confined to the ignorant. have
had well-informed citizens tell me they
| knew of instances where animals and, IN
| some rare cases, even men, had been To-
coed. One of the ranger companies now in
! this country has even recorded with the
Acknowledgement, not very long ago, re-
\ port telling of the loss of q pack-mule which
had been locoed. That poisonous weeds
do exist in all hot countries is.a ;Tel-kuown
fact, and that the INSCRIPTIONS often make
evil uses of them is also true. II needs but
little ignorance and little superstition
to weave shroud of mystery around such
cases which shall serve to give them all
the attributes of the supernatural
Churches are infrequent and schools are
almost uphe2rd of. I doubt if 4 thought
even of education ever shimmers through
the intellect of a vast majority OF these
people. Itinerate priests, or, as they are
often called, travelling padres, make their
about once in three months, and by the them
people are kept supplied with talismans
and other religious relics. BY them masses
are said for the dead, and by them those
who would wed are united for veal or for
woe.
The young couple who have decided to go
through life together await with impaticnce
the coming of the padre, and even when he
comes their patience must be further.
tested, for having obtained from them all
the particulars, they must wait still three
months longer while he makes a trip to the
county seat, makes all his regular rounds
and returns to them again. Then the WSG-
ding takes place, and the festivities az the :.
occasion are in keeping with the condfefon
OF the couple and the degree of poverty in
which they enter upon life together. They
are always poor. Some, however, are
poorer than others, and there the difference
lies.
And thus the people live and die. They j
know no other life: their world is bounded
by their immediate surroundings, and that
far-distant horizon where the fringe or
chapparal and cactus circles all around,
where earth and heaven meet, shuts them
out from the werld of which they know but
little and care less.
Born in the midst Of
POVERTY AND PRIvATIoN,
ignorant of the world and by the world I'M
known, they are people by themselves.
teristics are peculiar. Even to the Next
cans themselves who live in the interior of
Mexico, they are strange class. Indeed,
the Mexican of Central Mexico looks upon
the inhabitants of all that borderland be-
tween Mexico and the United States as
little better than barbarians. Those of
whom I have told have not been resident
contiguous to the dividing line between
these two countries.
In fact, the chief interest feel in their
peculiarities arises from the fact that find
them within the borders Of Texas, hun
dred miles and often more, from the Rio
Grande. They dc not seem to be a
degraded class, and when is taken into con-
sheraton all the circumstances by which
they are surrounded, all the evil influences
to which those circumstances subject them,
they may be regarded as far from degener
ate, though even then, with their super
stitions, their lax notions on many points,
their light regard for life and property, their
utter indifference to their by no means ele-
waited sphere of existence and their evident
indisposition to better their condition, they
may hardly be looked upon as desirable
6oor-yard neighbors.
Along the banks of the Rio Grande itself
many elements enter into the composition
of the population which tend to give it a
character distinctive even from that which
backs it up closely on either border. The
more frequent location Of large towns, the
constant engaging of considerable class in
the precarious but profitable occupation of
smuggling, the temptation for sperate
characters of all kinds to seek territory
so wild and so accessible to a dividing line
which can be easily crossed, leaving behind
the laws which have been broken, and the
presence of numerous custom officials and
deputies all combine to render the river
country itself al and with its own distinct
i've peculiarites. Indeed so much is this
the case that the people among whom the |
patience of the readers of THE GAZETTE has |
permitted me to carry them are almost as
ignorant of the country south Of them as
they are of that which stretches away to |
their north, and 1 think all will agree with |
me that they are class by themselves, |
separate and distinct; peculiar people.
ROBERT j. BRoTS.
EXCEPTIONAL OFFER.