The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-07-26
DHE National Bank has closed all
tho branches It had in various
: cities Of the republic. The head

| CltleS OF the republic. The head
Office alone, which Is in this
capital, Is open. What an index to the
condition OF the country!
The National Bank has fifty-seven
branches and agencies scattered through
the principal cities and towns of the
republic. 1t has a capital and reserve
OF S4SOOO,0OO, bank notes in circula-
ton to the amount Of s9O, ZOO. 600, cash
in the vaults Of $4,000 900 and the
total assets of 100000. 900. Its capital
is largely French.
Even more sorrowful is the condition
OF the State banks. on January their
notes were made legal tender and they
were allowed to issue notes for three
| times the value of their cash in hand,
and, as consequence. these notes have
become more common than newspapers,
and as for the speed with which they
circulate It is matched only by the
speed with which money is spent on
Broadway on n Saturday night. asked
a friend az to the value OF BanCo de
Durango bills. He replied Five
minutes Is plenty long enough 70 keep
them"
Consider that formerly Mexican
dollar bought 80 cents United States
money and that for tho past six
months the average rate has been about
80 cents. A poor Chinese laundryman
who has to send home money to his
| family used to be able to buy about
/ 81 Hongkong for 81 Mexican. Now
he has been paying from $50 to $3.50
I for 81 Of HonEkonE money
Gold coins arc bought and sold NJ
| 81 and 40 pcr cent. premium. Silver pesos
command 10 or 1s per cent. premium
and small change has become so scarce
that II is scandal. Street car con-
! ductors sell It at 10 per cent. premium
| and II one offers a conductor a dollar
bill he looks at you keenly, asks II
you haven't change. and may force you
| to buy a sheet of tickets or perhaps
let you have free ride.
| Klpling may be paraphrased thus:
The north is north and the south IL
south and never the twain shall meet"
| for l believe IL not more difficult TO ac-
auire a Chinese or Filipino point Of view
than a Mexican point OF view. Prices are
sky high, factories are closed. taxes are
doubled. relatives and friends are
drafted into the army to be shot down
in this fratricidal strife yet the Mexican
Yields TO II as inevitable and drinks his
pulque as before.
| One sees the same old begEars in the
| Alameda or on their usual street cor
| ners and they take their usual toll OF
one or two cents. rarely more. from
| passersby. Cripples on the sidewalks
sell lottery tickets and there seems 10
be the usual confidence that the Govern
ment will distribute the prizes fairly.
The first prize is $4,000 and the total
amount OF prizes is about s26 900. dis
tributed every Tuesday, the larger
amount being 60 per cent. of the amount
| obtained in sale of tickets.
Services in the cathedral and
churches are attended as we'll as usual.
| Bands play in the parks at the regular
hours. gayly, gldd!ly clad senoritas stroll
around. Society drives out TO Chapulte-
pee and along San Francisco street. Pos
sibly a few faces are missed. but there
IL full quota OF "lagartiJos" Oterally
little lizards), young men about town
who stand along the shop fronts to
look at the girls with their fat, bepow-
dered damas. as they are driven past
some in closed broughams. some in open
coaches and some in limousines. And
quite sighted would the girls be IL they
were not stared at, smiled at and bowed
| TO.
Who would guess that more than half
the country was in rebel hands and
the principal port Of the country held
by gringos? Election day comes and
goes without even the discussion an up
town murder or riot in Chinatown would
create In New York,
Is the Indifference due to climate, ig-
norance, the inevitahcness Of things or
Indian blood? Indulgence might he said
to he n characteristic of the Indian in
all fields in which mankind is ordinarily
Interested From Nome TO Cape Horn
the race has never produced a man of
international prominence and excepting
President Juarez scarcely one OF ma
tional prominence. Considering the In
Vulnerable wrongs the race has been
subjected to how strange that there has
never been an 1ndian Booker T. Wash
lngton!
You may object that the Mexican is
not an Indian, that the true Mexican
should he Spanish-Indian OF two or three
generations. That type makes up only
90 per cent. Of the population OF Mexico
and IL Is difficult to see how Il will In
crease. II II type lndt S'tulS utSNANtu
to remain superior 10 the naive indian
and 10 intermarry or marry with
foreigners. but not TO marry more with
the Indian. In 65 per cent Of the popu-
lation flows Indian blood az pure as that
of Montezuma.
II Is said that an American once asked
a rebel-in Madero's army, | believe
what they were fighting for, Tho peon
answered 1--WE were fighting for
sufragio lbre efectivo"" (suffrage
free and effect!vc) hut we got the
sufragio libre' and now we are fighting
for the effective" They We're mere
words 10 him. effective" also means
cash and therein lies an unconscious
joke.
Another joke, which illustrates the
simple mindedness of the Indians is
told as follows: A club OF women or
glni2cd a woman's exchange whore
cakes and other products Of the kitchen