Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1896-08-28


railway centre. But living is cheap in
such cities as Guadaaiara, San Luis
Potosi and Oaxaca. Thousands of re-
spectacle families are living comfortably
in those cities on $1,000 year, silver.
They are well clothed, and more abund-
anty nourished than the inhabitants Of
the great American pie belt.
notice that the Mexican people live
well. They have always plenty of food
on the table and enough for a guest
who may unexpectedly arrive. They
are not giving lunches and teas and re-
ceptions and all that sort of thing, but
they have money for the table! In any
well-to-do middle class family here the
arrival, unexpectedly, of a couple of
people to dinner does not set the house
hold in CONSERVATION. There is always
enough. People do not, in New Eng
gland phrase, "pinch and scrmp' to
make outside show. The money the head
of the house earns goes into said things
the family is well clothed, inside and out,
and there is always good education for
the children in respectable schools.
1t is true that gregarious, con petitive
social life does not exist here. Nobody
cares a rap for Mrs. Grundy, or any
other fool neighbor There Is no series
of money-consumlng clubs, no straning
after entertaining" no fads which walk
over pocketbooks with elephantine tread.
| am inclined to think the prosperity of
Mexico is due largely to the absence of
strenuous social life. The reformer.in-
the-land, unknown here, but pest i'm the
United States, is on unctuous chap VINO
must eat and drink and wear fine linen.
He extracts nothing from our pockets
down here. There are no brazen palmists,
drawing-rOom teachers of esoteric Wis
dom, lying mediums, spook makers.
and men and women with a cause"
that devours greenbacks sans cOmpunc-
ton. Everybody in this land of comfort
and leisurey living finds all the
"causes" he wants inside his own doors.
Thank heaven, This land has escaped the
perambuldting taddlst,
1t Is alleged against Mexico that the
church sucks the life-blood of the poor,
This is sheer rubbish. The majority of
the priests, who, by he way, don't know
any too much. live simply, and, if there
is any complaint to be lodged, let it be
against the laity who contribute parsl.
moniously. rs a rule, to the maintenance
of their religion. There are exceptions
among rich Catholics who nowadays ale
rebuilding and repairing churches, but
the masses of the people do not do any
thing like as much for the church as
American Protestants for their preachers
and churches.
As | have said before, the Catholic
church tends to make women domestic,
sweet, loving and frugal. There is no
doubt about it, although some a. p. \.
donkey may deny it. | am speaking
from facts as observed by nOn-Catho-
lie. | look at the matter with entire
impartality of mind. 1t may be that the
church stunts the growth of the mind
among women devotees, but ! notice
that, if they are not up to the demands
of the American parlor conversational
competition, they create the most de-
lightful domestic atmosphere in the
world. a Mexican home is a home it is
not neighborhOod club, Bible society,
an Intellectual symposium, a palm-read-
ing society, or a populist convention. 1t
is merely plain, simple, everyday
home, where a tired man may smoke
and take his ease and be surrounded
with love and attention from his women
kind.
Sweet, generous and altogether Iowa
BILE women of Mexico. They are models
of womanly virtues. They have enough
goodness to float their not always i'm
peccable husbands into safe heavenly
port. They are the salt of this sad
earth and when they die they go straight
to glory.
Home, in all the meaning of that
word, MeXicans have, and they owe it
to women brought up in the ancient
church, models of piety and kindness,
examples of wifely and motherly quail
ties, accomplishing and having the un-
stnted reverence of their husbands and
sons. They haven't a blessed idea on
the lG to l ratio, they have heard of the
Roentgen ray and may mildly discuss
it with you they read the latest books