Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-08-17
THE HOLLAND PEOPLE
Strange Contrasts of Life Presented in
Different Parts Of Mexico.


From Modern Mexico.
There is no country in the world that
presents more strange contrasts of land
and people. habits and customs heat and
cold. than Mexico The table lands of the
country are a mile and a half higher than
the coast lands, and between these there
are to be found all gradations of climate.
This fact lends much of the picturesque
and strange to Mexico. and gives it a va
riety in all things possessed by few, IL any
countries In the world. OF all the inhabi-
tants Of Mexico. the life of the people of
the hot country is the most interesting.
This is. strange to say, due to the fact that
there the people have ever possessed more
of freedom than in the colder localities.
For two centuries or more the great mass
of people of the uplands were slaves. They
toiled in the mines, with guard of soldiers
set over them; they built the public roads,
they worked the ranches. farms and haci-
endas for masters who gave them scarcely
more than the food they ate. The great
farms of the uplands have ever required
sure help. and so each ranchman had his
serfs. Many estates possessed hundreds of
them. Thus all individuality was crushed
out of the lower class, and the terrible eff
feet of this condition of things is still EVIL
dent.
The people of the hollands Jared better.
because there 1T was much easier to make
living and much harder to hold very
large haciendas. For this reason the char
acteriStics of the people are quite distinct
from those of their brethren of the upland
plateaux In the hollands many Indians
still claim to hold in right of inheritance
from remote ancestors portions of land each
in his own individual right There, too, the
mayor of the village or town holds office
SO long as he pdeaSes the mass of the peo-
pie. In the uplands 1T has been the custom
of the rich and powerful to distribute offices
of all kinds part of their prerogative of
birth and wealth. The lower classes of the
uplands, although they now have the ad-
vantage of a fairly good public system of
education and are becoming gradually ed
ucated. are, in the main, distinctively I'M
ambitious people. They were so long in
semi-slavery that they feel that the world
of the middle and upper class-class people
is beyond them. They have, therefore. 10
interest in anything outside their circle of
friends and acquaintances-that is, in a po-
litical way. But not so in many hot-coun-
try villages and communities. There the
Indian has ever been more or less a factor
In the life of the community in which lie
resided.
On the uplands there are long stretches
of more or less bare lands with mountains
rising up boldly in the background. In
many parts during the dry season the lana
is almost barren of vegetation But in the
hot country grow tall and shady trees and
thick underground. Everything grows al
most without the attention from the haho
of man. And yet, strange to say, the peon,
or laboring man, is there more ambitious
and a better worker than the peon OF the
colder uplands. This is not natural, and Is
only explained by the different conditions
in which they have passed the last four
hundred years Serfdom on the uplands
extinguished all ambition in the lower class.
The lower class of the hot-country people
are fond of social life. and almost any
night or early evening. the year through
out, one may find groups of people In 9
little Indian village. gathered together ana
entertaining one another In front OF some
one of the houses or on the public square.
which every Mexican town. however small.
possesses. with music. songs and occasion
ally dancing.