The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-05-11

leo, and the hotels are now chars-
\ ing double what they did few
years ago. I am paying s. a day for two
rooms, without bath, at my hotel, and
every time l eat it costs me a dollar OF
more. Ten years ago one could live al
most anywhere In Mexico for IRON :
TO 81 day. but the prices have gone up
80 per cent and here in Mexico city
1t now costs about as much for room
alone as it formerly cost for full board
The same is true of everything brought
In from abroad, and as to many things
produced in the country.
Rents are exceedingly high. Here at
the capital flats rent for from $50 to 500
a month, and good houses of from to
~ rooms bring from $1,000 to 5000 a year.
while in the best residence sections they
are even hiSher than that, There are
families here WHO live in two rooms, for
which they p4y s. or S6 month"; and
the very pooI are crowded into warrens
where the raft is as low as a dollar. IN
the latter case the rooms are often un-
lighted and without ventilation. and the
common laborers who form the tenants
get only from 50 to 70 cents per day.
Back in the country the wages are lower
and the accommodations still worse.
Servants Wages
am told that the wages of domestics
are rising, but they are still nothing as
compared with those of the states. The
average general servant gets from IS to
20 cents day, and he is paid by the
day In the smaller cities cooks receive
from SO to Sc a month and they work
from dawn until far after dark If they
understand how to use cook stove and
to do foreign cooking they get double
this, but this is from the foreigner who
always pays through the nose.
Housemadds get So or 81 month, gar
deners 80 cents a day and coachmen from
sc to $40 a month without board. Chauf-
feurs are skilled laborers here. and their
wages run high as SIS or $40, while
the moso or manservant who tends to
the door, carries the water and does other
odd Jobs receives from Sc to $l2 in silver
a month Some of these wages include
board. and others an allowance for food
The latter, however, is seldom more than
q cents a day. 1t consists of fents for
beans and cents for pulque, or Mexican
beer.
Housekeeping Expenses
Notwithstanding these low rates, to
Keen house costs considerable money. The
work is carried on differently than with
ms. and you have to have three times
as many servants to secure the same
end. The labor is divided, and one girl
will never do another girls job. The cook
will not make the bed nor will the cham
bermaid go to the kitchen and she will
often not wait on the table. The cook
would leave if asked to do the wash
Ing and even the moso has limited du-
ties. AS a result, the average well-to-
do family has four or five servants and
the leaks from housekeeping are almost
as large as our own. The cook expects
TO hoard her family out of the kitchen.
She often runs a sort of Aztec boarding
house outside. In the homes of the wealthy
there is usually housekeeper who car
ries the keys and manages the servapts
She buys the provisions and takes charge
of the nurses and children. In such houses
there is also a doorkeeper, who is at the
front door day and night He opens the
door. upon knocking, and he usually
sleeps on the floor just inside it.
In a Mexican Kitchen
I wish / could show you a Mexican
Kitchen 1t is nothing like anything
we have in the states. 1t is little
room with a floor of red bricks. The
range is a number of oven-like holes
in a ledge of brick and clay, which eX-
tends two or three feet out from the
wall and whose top is about four feet
from the floor. Each of these holes
is one cooking place. They are tllled
with charcoal and the draft comes
in from a hole underneath. The pots
which are some times of copper, but
more often red clay, are set on the
live Goals and water is boiled soups are
made. meats are fried and, in short
first class meals are prepared in this
way The fuel is comparatively cheap
and a working mans family can do its
cooking on about cents a day. Much
of the food is boiled and fried, and
the good cooks make tasty soups, stews
end fries Favored with pepper. Almost
everything is hot with condiments OF
one kind or other The cooking is
a kind of mixture of the Spanish Gull
nary art and that of the Aztecs,
r,I NE IL Irofe Df
The Indians of the days of Montezu-
ma surprised their white invaders with
their tables /They had 30 different
ways of dressing meats and it is said
that at one meal served for Montezuma
there were 500 different dishes and
the servants who prepared them and
waited upon the table numbered moro
than 1000. They had chickens. turkeys
pheasants, tame and wild geese and u
half dozen different kinds of game
They had fish from the lakes and also
some from the ocean, which We're
brought by fast runners over the noun
tains. more than 200 miles away. Al
the better class houses of today the
Mexicans have elaborate luncheons and
dinners, and not few serve their
meals in European style. The average
family, however lives la Mexico, and
tine meals are much the same through
Gut the republic.
What the Mexicans Eat
The principal articles of food are tor
rillas, tamales, enchiladas and frijoles
There are also other forms of chile con
carne, and some dishes the names of
(which I cannot give. The tortillas are
n kind of mashed hominy pounded and
kneaded into a tough dough. They are
rlade of Indian corn soaked for IL hours
in lime water after which the swollen
grains are mashed by bbing them
Between stones. The mush or dough
thus made is kneaded into cakes as thin
as a knife blade and of about the size
of a saucer These are baked over the
Goals, but are not allowed TO brown.
They are eaten without salt or any
other seasoning. Torhllas are always
SOLD about the markets. and you can get
them hot from the fire at cents a
dozen.
Tamales are also cakes made of the
same sort of corn, but when they are
finished they are wrapped around
ground pork highly seasoned and in
closed in corn husks. In this form they
are boiled in lard for a quarter of an
hour and then served steaming hot.
In making enchiladas Indian corn
meal is used a base, but the cakes
are filled with kind of hash of onions,
peppers, potatoes and native cheese.
Another favorite dish is barbacoa,
sort of barbecued mutton prepared in
an oven made of hole in the ground,
the same being lined with cactus leaves
and so covered that the meat cooks and
steams away all night
PucherO and Friioles