El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-08-09
ODDITIES OF
MEXICANS
Mr.. e. D. Wolfe Relates An
Amusing Story.-NdtiVe
Mental Obliquity.


II Mental Obliquity. Z
Mr.. E. D. Wolfe, travelling passen-
ger and freight agent of the Nashville,
Chattanooga and st. Louis rail- W ay Z,
head ouarters in Dallas, has butfetted
about the world bit and has had some
curious adventures. His railroad
duties have not frequently taken him
to Mexico where he found the study OF
native idiosyncrasies fruitful source
of diversion. Mr.. Wolfe, being in q
retrospective mood yesterday afternoon
was entertaining q NUMBER OF Ms
| friends in the rear room OF the Houston
and Texas Central ticket Office with q
choice assortment of Mexican reminis-
| cences.
| Yes" he resumed, after pause,
s'the average native Mexican is. a
curious compounds big bunch of Cd
dities, so to speak. l have seen mar
types and each presents material for
study. Their deficiency in the sense
of humor is almost pitiable in the eyes
of anlAmerican, while their hardness
of thought is simply staggering.
"My wife and l were spending q
while at a picturesque little Mexican
town not long ago, and it was here that
1 had an amazing experience with this
species of mental obliquity. Our rooms
| at the antiquated hotel were satisfac-
tory in every respect but one, and that
| was the lamp in my room. 1t was out
| of gear and would not burn. The lamp
| was quite primitive in structure, It's
| body being fat piece OF metal which
was screwed to the wall. 1t occurred
to me that one of the better lamps in an
upper room could be transferred to my
room and the worthless lamp thrown
| out.
"Acting upon this suggestion, I sum-
moned one of the dOmesticS and after q
great many words and gestures and
Precipitation finally, as 1 thought, made
nv meaning clear. Saluting me cere-
the hand that he understood the domes-
tic withdrew. Then I eat down and
smoked.
"Pretty soon was aware OF trunk
being removed from the office. Not
dreaming of the true state OF affairs,
and thinking another stranger had ar :
rived. I walked into the office to see
who it was. Imagine my surprise
when sawItwo Mexicars wlthmy trunk
on their shoulders, together with all
my other personal effects, soiemnly
marching upstairs, the ceremonious
domestic leading the way.
"'Look here" expOstulated,
| that trunk is to remain down here.
Our rooms are not upstairs
"But the senior said he wanted the
room where is the good lamp. There
| do we take the senor's trunk
&. 1 do not want to go to the room l
said, but l wan. you to bring down the
good lamp from that room and place it
in the lower room. Don't you under
stand? I want the lamp that burns put
in the place of the one that does not
| burn
''These words plunged them all into
deep thought. They were plainly
! wrestling with q knotty problem. Pres
emily the leader of the trio, who had
| been resting his head in his hands,
frightened up.
sFI understand the senor,' he said
The seoor wishes this indicating the
| trunk and baegage) taken to re room
with re light, while he, the senior. re-
mains in re room, in which is re lamp
| with no burn saying which the trio
once more began the ascent with the
baggage:
'By this time 1 was reduced to
despef alton. appealed to the hotel
proprietor, who had fair knowledge
| of English, to act as interpreter and
| led the way upstairs, the others follow
ing. 1 then deliberately unscrewed
the lamp in the upper room, to the
evident wonderment of those about me.
Then, with equal deliberation. |
unscrewed the bad lamp, set it out in
the hall and put good lamp in
it's place on the wall. AS would per-
form each act the interpreter would
explain to the others, who nodded
their heads approvingly. But it WAS
easy to see that they did not
yet quite understand why I was
not willing to go, upstairs
simply amounted to this. The Ameri-
cano wanted the lamp that would burn;
that lamp was already fixed upstairs.
How foolish it was to bring that lamp
down to him when it was up there al
ready waiting for him. To them it
seemed far simpler to transfer me and
my baggage up there. But thought
otherwise and there was the trouble.
Your Mexican will get there if you
only give him a little time.
"On another occasion, in an evil
moment, l bought huge roll of native
mating for 20 cents. l fairly chuckled
over the great financial stroke. When
learned, however, what it would cost
me to get that mating to the United
States I sang different tune. 1 had
certainly got hold of an elephant un-
awares. What should I do?
Then happy thought struck me.
1 had some of the Mexicans of the
hotel in my room looking at the mat
ting. In few more minutes l was
again in trouble.
81 have never to this day been able to
understand it, but the moment 1 told
them they could have the mating they
unrolled the stuff and prepared to tack