, 1896-10-12

cents, women and children rs to 37h
cents per day. In the cotton mills, seed
oil mills and soap factories at Torreon,
men are paid Az to SO cents, women
and children rs cents per day. A car
cador public carrier) has a rate of
12k ent per hour, but you can hire
him for from 25 to 37k cents per day.
SHOEMAKERS' PAY.
"At Leon, where nearly all the leath-
er goods in Mexico are manufactured,
the peon gets his leather cut for shoes,
or other goods to be made by him, and
takes the material to his hut, where the
whole family assists him, the same as
in the sweat shops of Chicago. For
making shoes he receives 81 and up
wards per dozen pairs; on the other
goods he receives 371a to so cents per
day for his labor, working as long as
daylight lasts. averaging ~ to IA hours
per day. Common laborers can be hired
from IS to so cents per day. I4ouse
servants. male or female, receive from
So to S. per month and board them
selves. In or nea cities poems live in
adobe houses and pay a rental Of SO a
year for the ground hal the house
stands on. When leaving this for an
other location, all improvements the
peon has made go to the landlord or
owner Of the land. who pays no taxes
whatever on the land.
His chief article of dress is his
sombrero. often costing as much as $35
(which is bought on the installment
pian). while the balance Of his clothing
would make a crazy quilt turn green
with envy. owing to IT'S variety Of col
ors and assortment of patches, making
1t a hard problem to solve as to which
is the original garment and which the
patch. No stockings are wcr by either
sex, and only about one-third wear
sandals, which are made from a piece
Of sole leather and tied to the foot with
straps. These sandals cost from IL to
20 cents per pair. The average cost OF
the accessories of life for a peon family
Of five is rs cents a day, and clothing
for the same costs about $40 per year.
WORK MANY HOURS.
The days work in Mexico runs from
10 to IA hours. The bakers work 20
hours and workmen who take work to
their homes work Is many hours as
they please. The Mexican 1aborer
works easy as compared with the
American laborer, except those carriers
who bear enormous burdens OF their
backs all day without mainfestfng IA
tigue. The question of shorter hours to
Mexico is a long ways of for a country
in which labor 10 SO cheap and plenti-
full that It is offered as an fnducement
to bring foreign capital IN, and its toll
ers will be compelled to work as many
hours as they are physically able. and
thanks to organized labor, or the
American workingman would be IN the
same condition today as his Mexican
brother.
1.-THE haciendas Tor plantations) are
owned by the very rich and cover an
area OF from 10 to 100 square miles.
Farming and agricultural implements
are very primitive. The pillow is a
| crooked stick or beam and scratches
the ground to a depth Of three or four
inches. This 'plow' Is drawn by two
oxen and the harness Is a broad strap
or rope passing over the forehead in.
stead of the shoulders of the oxen
Planting is done by poking a hole into
the ground with a stick, dropping the
corn into it, and the seed is covered
by the peon in stepping from hole tc
hole. On these immense tracts Of
land the natives. or poems. have lived
for centuries and are forced to buy al
their necessities of life at the hacien'
dado's Gland owner's) truck store. Or
the hacienda the peon gets from IS t.
so cents per day for his work and a hui
10 live in. II he builds It himself. Thu
peon gets NO money except on feas'
days, and dor religious offerings. By
this system he Is always in debt to thu
haciendado. This form Of slavery hal
been forbidden by law for a number o.
years. but two-thirds Of the poems de-
not know It, as they can neither reat