The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-08-03
LIFE IN TROPICAL MEXICO.
Marry Mexican wiva. sa+.
tie There Contentedly.
OF. r. Guernsey in Boston Herald +,

Of. r. Guernsey in Boston Herald
It is a mistake to think that one 10 al
ways uncomfortably hot in tropical coun
tries. There is heat and there are insects
Just as there are mosquitoes and an oven
like heat in the fortunate city of Boston.
But the young planter in the tropics need
have no fear for his living. He can raise
poultry and vegetables and have we'll
furnished table all the year. The mere
getting something to eat does not worry
the denizens of the tropics; they, in fact,
worry very little about anything That
is what kept them back in the race OF
life, although I am disposed to think that
they are better off for lacking ambition.
Certainly in many towns in the hot
country one sees more of contentment and
quiet ease of life than is observable in a
month of Sundays in New England.
Remove the dread of starvation from a
community and you make it contented
one. All our New England philosophers,
for example, the wise and prudent Elmer
son and the practical Thoreau, who could
work and calculate as we'll as dream and
PHILOSOPHERS, advise curtailing ones
wants, and that is exactly, and without
a bit of generalization on their part, what
the residents of the warm regions are do
ing.
A friend of mine, an American, who
says that he has accumulated $4,000
and a wife and three boys" down in
southernmost Mexico, says he has to
cfr 10 70 bic
wife tells him that he has enough, and
can live without bothering himself; but
he pegs away at one thing and another,
surveying, prospecting, doing odd jobs,
buying for other people, and SO keeps on
adding to his "pile.' He belives in
Mexico, loves the country, has cast in his
lot with it, and will end his days down
by his pleasant river, under the shade of
the tropical trees, surrounded by his
children.
Contentment in foreign country arises
in great measure from becoming accus-
toned to the idea of having made per-
manent home. Then man begins to be
interested in the country, to make valua-
Die friends, and to know something of
the language more than is needed flor
strictly business purposes. My friend
is of a type of Americans who come here,
seem to immerse themselves in the
Spanish language and Mexican customs,
wed a woman of the land and settle down
in good humor for the rest of their days
They are anchored, for no Mexican woman
will ever live out of her own beloved
country. She cannot be happy away
from the blue skies and mountains and
soft airs of her land of sunshine and per-
petual spring. I have known of Mexican
women wearying of Paris and Berlin, of
Washington and New York, and prefer
ing to live in a village here to residence
in a great city abroad. And SO, if the
young American immigrant marries here
he must be ready to stay and become
p art of the population of what is bound
to be a most progressive and wealthy
country.
You can't eat your cake and have it,
too. In other words, you cannot be liv-
ing in Mexico and always hoping to re-
turn to the United States, not if you are
to make mark here. The successful
Americans stay. Prosperity naturally
makes a country attractive to any man.
Rich Spaniards who have made fortunes
here become smitten with the idea of go
ing back to their old homes in Spain to
live, and are secretly DESTROYS of dazzling
their stay -at-home friends of boyhood
days. They begin to depreciate Mexico.
There's no country like Spain," etc.
They return home, and in less than six
months are back here for good Mexico
ACFCI SCOLhCd 81 uollBuUlul 10 tltGlu as
when on their return they sighted It's
shores from the steamers deck. In Spain
they were forgotten; the life of their viii
lage was fiat and Improbable; they
missed business acquaintance and the
more progressive life of this country, and
they became afflicted with homesickness
for the land of their adoption.
A German friend of mine, after many
years here, became ''tired of Mexico.'' 1t
was, he said ''always the same thing
He went back to the fatherland to stay,
to go into business there In four
months he was on the streets of this CITY
again, joy in his eye, his face radiant
with pleasure to find himself once more
in Mexico the tiresome
| have asked many returning friends
why they came back from Europe. They
usually say that things have changed over
there, that life is too parsimoniously con-
Quoted, that the pennies are clutohed
with a vise-like grip, and that life is too
sharp struggle, and then the climate!
The climate is bad, it always rains or is
cloudy; every one has rheumatism, and
there is nothing SO charming as sunshine.
Another German friend. just back from
long trip home, said that he found he
had no longer any taste for the life of
his native land. He had become used t
the tropics, and liked things here better
although he growls and criticises every
thing as. before.