Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1914-07-31
Why They Gamble Down in Old
Mexico.
Local "Feria,' When Every Gambler
Lets Instincts Revei and Plays His
Favorite Game-Quiek Changes
In . Day.


pyramids and as young as Broadway,
ia one Of the chief features of life In
present-day Mexico, the New York
Evening Telegram remarks.
And the philosophy OF gambling
among our southern neighbors beyond
the Rio Grande is given by Henry
Baerlein in his Mexico, the Land Of
Unrest" as .m rt#
And now we come to the philoso.
ply of all this matter" writes Mr..
Baerlein. One may argue that there
is none, and that people gamble in the
Mexican republic for the same reasons
as they gamble elsewhere.
But, according to certain school.
the Mexicans demand consideration
that is quite peculiar.
They are given, so tbs said, to gam
bling on account of imperfections IN
their agricultural economy. Wide
stretches of the land are always rush
ing from one extreme into the other,
from extreme fertility to unproductive-
ness. s7 rE.a F" ..- *
In four and twenty hours the people
pass from wealth to misery. Their
wheat Is all destroyed, their flocks are
dying, and underneath the wheel OF
fortune they are helpless If 1t does not
take another turn, which consumma-
ton is not to be brought about except
by gambling.
Mexico is vast, and on the one hand
there are tracts of country which un-
roll savage fruitfulness-such as the
part OF Coahuila where it is sufficient
for the cotton to be planted once in
ten years, and the district near to Ira
puato where, q mile or more above
the sea, one has throughout the year
crop after crop of strawberries; and
so the jungle. round a rubber clear
ing, where the tentacles Of the vege-
tation try to choke all human effort,
and If they are cut will grow again,
and at: the rate of half an inch a day.
Then, on the other hand, we have
the desert places where the summers
heat or CHASTITY whirlwinds or the dust
goes dancing, but where cactus grows
and nothing else.
in either sort OF territory you know
what is to be expected; it will surely
happen, but q great deal of the land
is subject to the vacillations we have
mentioned. And the causes are less
difficult to find than to prevent. .
What a country! Portions of 1t
change so little that we have the tale
of a Chicago woman who came down
to live in this eternal spring, and as
the mercury Of the barometer did not
SO much az tremble she was certain
that the instrument was out Of order,
and she broke 1t! r. ~ 49, ~
in those other regions that we have
described laborer would formerly
have chosen one of three professions
-brigandage, rebellion, gambling. g
Now the former has been more or
less blotted out by the rurales, rebel
lion does not always offer the antique
inducements, and the disappointed Ia
borer falls back on gambling. He Is
not restricted to the lottery.
There is said to be time for all
things, and in Mexico it is the local
feria (the fair) when every gambler
is supposed to let his instincts revel.
He can start to play soon after sun
rise, and II he should be unfortunate,
can visit, now and then, the image in
whose honor all the festival Is being
held.
Monte, roulette and lotto are the
chief games. 1t is curious to see q
circle Of adults, thought Of the poorer
classes, solemnly seated at their lotto
cards and wait until the fish or bird
is called. $50. r. .f'.t
There is demand for fighting
cocks. The cock fight in itself
is unattractive, being but matter Of
some seconds. AS the one bird flies
across the other be brings into play
the fearful spur that has been fastened
to his leg. A mass of feathers
tumbles down and many pesos change
their owner"