Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1904-08-11
RUN BUSINESS IN MEXICO.
Women Merchants and Capitalists
Who Have Been Immensely
Successful.

In far southern Mexico, in the real
tropics, there are women who are
looked up to by traders and merchants
and whose will is law. Down on the
lower gulf coast in an important port
town lives "la viuda de Perez" a huge
bulk of a woman, weighing perhaps $50
pounds, seated always in a vast arm
chair, apparently indolent, attended
ever by her maids. she inherited a
fortune from her husband, long dead,
and has trebled her wealth, and 1T is
related of her that, at one time, she
lent a great revolutionary chieftain
$500, 900 in good silver dollars, and, in
time, got 1t back with substantial in
terest.
She is a great reader of character,
and, aided by her woman's intuition,
never makes any mistake in the men
she deals with. Every business man
in town regards her as the arbiter OF
his destiny, for on the river running
up into the interior all the plantations
are hers, and all managed by men she
has selected and governs with an iron
hand, though a liberal one The COM
merce of the river is largely under her
control, and no traveller can land on
her estates ave by her permission.
If you should attempt it armed men
would drive you away, but show a
written permit signed by the Widow
Perez and you are made royalty free
of everything, and will be treated like
a prince.
This great, indolent> body of a wom-
an, forever in repose, has a most act
i've brain. She is a mercantile regis
try of the whole region, knows to a
dollar what every man is worth, has
inventoried his mental abilities and
his physical energy, settles his domes-
tic disputes, makes matches for the
girls, is loyal and kindly, but infiexibly
just. No empress ever reigned more
despotically than this Mexican WON
an who sits always in her house In
the little hot port town, arbiter and
regulator of all things. Her mental
activity is enormous. Her fortune Is
great, and she is possessed of more
ready money than anyone in that
whole region. Her brains have made
her very rich, and her brains hold and
steadily augment her fortune.
Another Mexican queen reigns in a
district of the remote state of Chi
apas, down on the Guatemala border
She owns a great plantation, and her
kingdom Is extensive. All the men
look to this great-brained and execu-
tive woman for orders and counsel
There is no American trust magnate
more absolute in his business. She Is
jolly, %fun-loving, warm-hearted, but
her brain is that of a man in its pre-.
cision, logic and creativeness. If you
travel in that region, you must be
approved by the lady regent, and woe
to you If you are forgetful of hel
powers. Her word makes all the men
for leagues around, your humble servi-
tors or else your enemies.
Further north, in the Tehauntepet
country, is a woman of the indigenous
race, a character Balzac would have
found to his mind-a woman, rich
acquisitive, dominating and known tc
every white mar in that district. II
is with her that contractors must deal
to get a supply Of labor, for the In,
dian men regard her as their ruler
whose word is on no account to be dis.
puted. The Zapotecans, a virile race
are under the rule of Dona Juana, who
belongs to another tribe, whose men
are lazy, housekeeping, and allow theil
women to do all the outside work Of
their ranches while they remain In the
house, mind the babies and do the
cooking!