The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-10-02

rotos. The farm hands of Chile are called
rotos. They are the cross formed by the
union of the Indians and Spaniards. They
are the laboring class Of the country and
correspond to the poems of Peru. They are.
however, of a different make from the
Peruvian laborers, although fully as drunk
en- and shiftless as to money-making and
money-saving. They are brave to excess
and viii not tolerate abuse nor insult You
can kick Peruvian peon and he will smile,
the Bolivian servant in afraid that his mas
ter is angry with him II he does not thrash
him once or twice month, but the Chilean
would be likely to resent such treatment
with stab or a blow. These men all carry
knives and they do not hesitate to use
item. They care little for life, and, am
told, many of them would kill a man for a
dollar. On the other hand, they are fond OF
the men they work for, and it is hard TO
get them away from The estates where they
were born. Most of them are in debt to
their masters. They live on the estate, get
ting a hut and couple of acres of ground
for themselves and being paid from 40 to so
cents a day for their work. This is in Chill
can silver, so that their wages are really
food in addition to their wages, but this
is only for themselves. Their first meal is
usually double handful of toasted wheat
flour, which they mix with water to form
a mush or bake in a cake At noon they
have a bowl of hot beans, and for supper.
or dinner as they call it here. they get a
second bowl of beans with, perhaps, some
more toasted meal added The last two
<hoxr oof in what k
tras their wives bring from home. They
sit down on the ground to eat. and their
only eating utensil is an iron spoon or, what
is more common a mussel shell. Still, on
such food they will work from sunrise to
sunset and will carry enormous burdens
and do the heaviest work.
The huts which form their homes are lit
tie better than our pig pens. They are
usually just high enough to get into and
not over fifteen feet square Their walls
are of waited twigs, sun-dried bricks, or
in the south of boards, and the roofs are
usually of thatch. The dirt forms the floor
and in many cases the bed of the family.
box or two and table is about all the
furniture There are seldom partitions in
this one room. The people herd together
like pigs and several families often occupy
the same room.
THEY ALL GET DRUNK.
The chief end of the Chilean rotos' life is
to get drunk He works only for this, and
nine-tenths of his kind are in state of
beastly intoxication at least once week.
He stays drunk and will not work as long
as his money lasts. For this reason Mon
day is called the ''rotos' holy day. for he
is SO drunk on Sunday that he has to take
Monday to taper off. The men, women and
children of this class all drink together.
None of them seem to have any desire to
better their condition and all seem to con-
tinue in this state till they die. The liquor
they use is the vlest alcohol. made of pota-
toes and rotten vegetables. 1t would, as one
of their employers says, kill the ordinary
man at a thousand yards. They gulp this
down in great quantities and drink, not for
the pleasure of drinking, but to get drunk
The result of their excuses, of their poor
food and the unsanitary condition of their
houses is that the mortality among them
is very great. They breed like Australian
rabbits and their babies die like flies The
children who live are only the strongest.
The peon child who has constitution enough
to grow up in Chile has constitution enough
for anything. 1t is perhaps for this reason
any people of the world 1 have seen them
all day carrying bags of nitrate, each weigh
ing 300 pounds, and tossing them about like
bags of feathers. -Four of them will lift up
piano and trot off with it, and in the
mines peon will carry bag of ore weigh
ing $50 pounds up notched stick that serves
as a ladder all day long. Comparatively few
OF them l am told, have gone through the
marriage ceremony, but nearly all have
wives, and they are, as rule, true to them.
They are kind to their old people and al
ways ready to help one another when in
trouble. They have the humor of the Irish
and the superstition of the Chinese. They
are as great fatalists as the Turks. They
are as treacherous in their enmity as the
Spaniards, from whom they are descended,
and will stab you in the back If they are
offered the chance. 1t was thought that the
system of common schools inaugurated by
the Chilean government might attract the
peon 1t has not done so to any extent, and
to-day of the COO people in Chile less
than one in four can read and write.
FRANK G. CARPENTER.