The bee., 1904-12-01
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 ia viuda de Perez" huge
bulk of woman, weighing perhaps $50
pounds, seated always in a vast arm
chair apparently indolent attended
ever by her maids. Sac inherited
torture from her husband, long dead,
and has treblod her wealth, and 1t is
related of her that, at one time, she
lent great revolutionary chieftain
100000 in good silver dollars, and, in
time. got il back with substantial in
terest.
She is n great reader OF charcter,
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 save by her permission.
II you should attempt II armed men
would drive you away, but show
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 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 inflexibly
Just. No empress ever reigned more
despotically than this Mexican wom-
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 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 It's pre-
cision, logic and creativeness. II you
travel in that region, you must be
approved by the lady regent, and woe
to you II you are forgetful of her
powers. Her word makes all the men,
for leagues around, your humble servi-
tors or else your enemies.
Further north, in the Tehauntepec
country, is woman of the indigenous
race, a character Balzac would have
found to his mind-a woman, rich,
acquisitive, dominating and known to
every white man 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 their
women to do all the outside work of
their ranches while they remain in the
house, mind the babies and do the
cooking!