The Washington herald., 1913-09-28
MEXICO STILL LIVES IN THE PAST
Centuries Of Spanish Customs Permeate Country Modern
Business Methods Ignored No Banking Facilities, While
Millions of Dollars Are Buried in Ground.

/ their berths wearing all their cloth
ine, including their boots.
Nothing in Mexico is quite like any
thing In the United States The GUS
Inns of Spain reach back into the
years-they are rooted far and deep in
the social laws and the lives OF the
people. Even the mountains of the
parched north are strange to Northern
eyes-nountains hung in fieeting va
pors. now black, now blue, but always
harsE and Inhospitable.
For hundreds of miles the traveller sees
nothing but cactuses-which look like pill
lars made of immense green pancakes
edge TO edge-and struggling bushes As
one sinks away into the south little round
stacks Of grain appear at the rims of
irrigated fields. Walls three or four feet
high' constructed OF spongy, volcanic
rock, slip over the parched plains ana,
straight as surveyors line. climb the
dreary mountains and are lost beyond.
NRssals, ChapeIs, and Stout Drink.
In front OF huts built of clay or rotten
railroad ties are old tin cans containing
flowers. The Aztecs loved flowers, though
they ate the hearts of their enemies
There are also birds in cages, fashioned
out of reeds. Presently cattle are seen in
great droves and a high hill is made white
with thousands of goats. Wide bitches
are full of muddy water and dark men
in white cotton shirts, their trousers
rolled to the hips, let in the flood or shut
it out with long-handled shovels.
A gray wall is thrown around the clay
houses, barns and other buildings of a
planter. There is a church behind the
wall and the Spanish priest lives on
what the planter and his workmen give
him for marrying them when living and
Nhnvy r1~hA
the fiat acres is a baron. passed into
this from another generation. and he has
his vassals, his chapel and his strong
drink
The train stops. TheEe are a dozen
square huts made of large bricks hard
ened in the sun. Every fioorless hut has
a door and two windows without glass.
Men who work on the railroad and keep
the tracks in repair live Shere. Red pigs.
black pigs, dogs and chickens walk into
the huts and come out again.
Women. men, and boys squat on the
ground and eat something from crude
earthen pots. youth of sixteen, per-
haps, in cotton rags. his brown body
showing through the rips and rents. his
chest almost bare. sits apart from the
rest His eyes are eager with hunger
and desire. The air is chill and the 9TH
ers are warm in their scarlet zarapes.
At least the heart Of an Outcast boy Is
not different in Mexico.
The interviewer in the course of events
found it necessary to transact some busi-
ness at A bank. Push along" said an
American just behind him in the line to
the window of the cashier. BE unman-
nerly." he went on to advise, "or you
will be JOstled out of your turn. Mexi-
e. are swift enough in some things
but they are mighty slow ABOUT others.
Tomorrow, tomorrow. tomorrow they
say 10 me. I reply: No, not tomorrow,
not next week, but at ) o'clock this aft
Where PersOns Not Prices Count.
The pusher and 8 o'clock man was seen
a week later. He was smoking a pipe
and reading book at 10 a. IN. in an out
of-the-way corner of a hotel. when in
Rome" he humbly said. don't think you
can be a Hottentot or a Turk and make
the bluff good. \ stranger has got to fol-
low suit in Mexico or quit the game"
SluggaTd or idealist, the Mexican
changes not with the centuries. He can
not be hurried. His confidence, once
given. is steadfast. II he be a mercha nt
when he renews his stocks.
counts more than prices. commercial
skilled in the habits of the coun-
try, will introduce himself to a mer-
chant and then smoke with him and talk
with him. In three days, or maybe not
for a week. he tells the merchant what |
he has and the cost thereof.
Another man may hustle in, unpack his |
samples, and offer a better bargain. 1t will |
10 no good. II the merchant deals in |
hardware. dry goods, or groceries. he |
will pay his bill in six months: IL he is |
4 druggist he will pay in four months |
No matter his line. he will decline TO
give cash and obtain a discount. Thus |
he buys.
You enter his store and make a small !
purchase, giving him a s. note in pay
nent. He returns the note il he has no |
change. You are free to go out and !
% cancel the purchase and buy else I
where. Thus the merchant sells
A stranger leaves bis laundry with the !
'lerk of the hotel When shall it be |
the clerk asks. Amy time:
am il no need of it," the stranger re-
Dlies. will Thursday do?' the clerk
nqUires- TT will the stranger says.
The laundry comes on Thursday with 30
Der cent added 10 what would have been
he usual charge. The stranger learns
hat he fixed day. and in doing so made
his order special" He hurried the per-
;Ons at the laundry, and haste, when it
$ permitted at all in-Mexico, must be
laid for in cash.
4 Rusy BOstoR Man slows Down.
You tell a Mexican tailor that the
rousers must be done on Saturday." a
ich young Spaniard said to the inter
lever You shall have them on We'd
lesday, the tailor assures you. looking
nto your face with unblinking eye You
10 not get the trousers on Wednesday.
fou do not get them on Saturday. You
wait two weeks"
These cross currents in methods hurry
ng and charging for it. and refusing to
hurry even when there is profit in II,
'onfounds the new American. Boston
nan with deeds for many miles of land
n Lower California appeared suddenly
md energetically in Mexico City. He in
ormed the interviewer he meant to have
he deeds written into the records inside Of
wo weeks. A masterful and managerial
,erson he was, but he remained in Mex
co two months. Furthermore, he paid
II, 900 gold in back taxes and gave his
awyer 4 fee of $500.
Before leaving for Boston he called on
me of the officials who had helped to
elay his case and think up the graft
bout the taxes. You have been courte-