THE OMAHA SUNDAY BEK: MAY 11, 1013.
5-
B
Living High and Wages Low in Mexico
IMJ
(Copyright, 1913. by Frank O. Carpenter.
.BXICO CITY The cost of Uvlng
Is rlslne In Mexico and the
hotels arc now charging
doublo what they did a few
years ago. I am paying 5 a
day for two rooms without
bath at my hotel, and every time 1 at It
costs me SI or more. Ten years ago one
could live almost anywhere In Mexico for
from it to J4 a day, but tho prices have
gone up 60 per cent and hero In Mexleo
City It now costs about as much tor a
room alone as It formerly cost for full
board. Tho same Is true of everything
brought In from abroad and as to miny
things procured In the country.
Rents are exceedingly high. Here at the
capital flats rent for from 0 to 210 a
month, and good houses of from right
to twelve rooms bring about $1,000 to $J,uOO
a year, while In the best residence sec
tions they are even higher than that.
There are families here who live In two
rooms, for which they pay $5 or A i
month, and the very poor are crowded
Into warrens where tho rent la as low
as a dollar. In the latter case the roumi
are often unllghted and without ventila
tion and the common laborers, who Corm
the tenants, get only from 60 to 75 cents
per day. Back In the country the wages
are lower and the accommodations still
worse.
Servant' Wurm,
I am told that the wages of domestics
are rising, but they arc still nothing as
compared .with those of the states. Tho
averago general servant gets from 18 to
20 cents a day, and he Is paid by the
day. In the smaller cities cooks receive
trom $3 to $6 a month and they work
tfrom dawn until far after dark. If the
understand how to use a cook stove they
get double this, but this Is from the
foreigner, who always pays through tin
nose. Housemaids get $3 or $4 a month, i r
deners 60 cents a day and coachmen from
$t to $10 a month without board. Chauf
feurs are skilled laborers' here, and their
wages run as high as $15 or $K, while the
moso or man servant who tends to the
door, carries thn water and does other
odd Jobs, receives from $5 to $12 In silver
a month. Some of these wages Include
board and others an allowance for food.
The latter, however, Is seldom more than
8 cents a day. It consists of 6 cent for
beans and S cents for pulque, or Mexlin
beer.
Ifoasekrrpliiir Efriieimrn.
Notwithstanding these low rates, to
keep house costs considerable money. The
work la carried on differently than with
vs. 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 girl's 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 washing,
and even the moso has limited duties. As
a result, tho average well-to-do family
has four or five servants, and the leaks
from housekeeping are almost as large as
pur own. The cook expects to board her
family out of tho kitchen. She often runs
a sort of Aztec boarding house outside.
In the homes of the wealthy thcro Is
usually a housekeeper who carries the
keys and manages the servants. (She buys
the provisions and takes charge of tho
nurses and children. In such houses there
la also a doorkeeper who Is at the front
Vloor day and night. He opens tho door,
upon knocking, and he usually sleeps on i
the floor Just Inside It.
In n Mexican Kltclirn.
I wish I could show you a Mexican kit
chen. It Is nothing like anything wn
have in the Btates. It Is a little room
with a floor of red bricks; The range Is
a number of oven-llko holes In a ledge
f of brick and clay, which extends two
( or three feet out from the wall and
whose top Is about four feet from the
floor. Each of these holes 'Is ono codk
Ing place. They are filled with charcoal
and the draft comes In from a hole
underneath. The pots, which are some
times of .copper, but moro often of red
clay, are set on the live coals and water
is boiled, soups are made, meats are
tried and. In short, first class meals are
Xrepare,d In this way. The fuel Is com
paratively cheap, and a worklngman's
family can do lts cooking on about 2 cents
a day. Much of the food Is boiled and
fried, and the good cooks make tasty
soups, stews and fries, flavored with pep
per. Almost everything Is hot with con
diments of one kind or other. The cook
ing Is a kind of a mixture of the Span
ish culinary art and that of tho Alters.
The Markets of Monteanma,
The Indians of the days of Montezuma
surprised their white Invadera with their
tables. They had thirty different ways
of dressing meats and It Is said that at
one meal served for Montezuma there
were 300 different dishes and tho servants
who prepared them and waited upon tho
table numbered more than 1,000. They
had chickens, turkeys, pheasants, tamo
and wild geese and a half dozen different
kinds of game. They hod fish from the
lakes and also from the ocean, which
were brought by fast runner over the
mountains, more than 200 miles away.
At the better class houses of today the
Mexicans have elaborate luncneons and
dinners, and not a few serve their
eals In European style. The average
family, however, lives a la Mexico, ana
the meals are much the same throughout
the republic
What the Mexicans Kat.
The principal articles of food are tor
tillas, tamales, enchiladas and frUoles.
There are also other forms of chile con
earns and some dishes the -names of
which I cannot give. The tortillas are
a kind of mashed hominy, pounded and
kneaded Into a tough dough. They are
made of Indian corn soaked for twelve
hours In lime water, after which the swol
len grains are mashed by rubbing them
between fetones. The mush or dough thus
made Is kneaded Into cakes as thin as a
knife blade and of about tt)e size of a
saucer. These are baked over the coals,
but are not allowed to brpwn. They are
eaten without salt or ans other season.
tng. Tortillas are always sold about the
markets and you can get them hot from
the fire at 2 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 enclosed In
corn husku. In this form they are boiled
in lard for a quarter of an hou,' and then
served steaming hot
In making enchiladas Indian commea!
is used as the base, but tho cakes are
filled with a kind of hah pf. onjons,
peppers, potatoes and native cheese. An
other favorite dish Is barbacoa, a sort
at barbecued mutton prepared In an oven
ism
.JtllUS.
mndo of a hole n the ground, tho same
being lined with cactus leaves nnd so
covered that the meat cooks nnd steams
away all night.
I'ni'licni nnd I'rljolcs.
Another dish made of mutton Is pu
chero. This Is a sort of stew made
by cooking the mutton In a little water
with carrots, parsnips, green corn, cab
bage and a half dozen other vegetables
as well as onions, apples and squashes.
The stew Is kept on the flro two hours or
so without skimming ,and it romes out
steam cooked. It Is dressed without salt
or other seasoning.
And then there are eggs In a half
dozen different styles, chickens and tur
keys, kids and young pigs and. In short,
almost as many different dishes and ar
ticles of food as wo havo at home,
FrIJoles are served at every meal, ex
cept at the first, breakfast. They are
Mexican black beans very well cooked
and equal to the best baked beans from
Boston. They are usually served the day
after cooking.
A Uuecr Butcher's AVniron.
Moxlco Is a stock-raising country, but
meat Is so high that tho poor man's
house seldom has It There are cook
shops about tho market where tho
shreds and cuttings and scraps are fried
over charcoal and offered for sale. Here
tho Indian customers take up the greasy
morsels In their fingers and consume,
them without knives, forks or plates.
Tho ways of butchering nnd marketing
are different from ours. Every part of
the animal is eaten. A great deal of the
beef Is cut In long strings, and sold al
most by tho yard as It were. luch of
it is Jerked or dried, nnd is used for
stews. In some of the interior cities the
butcher's wagon Is a mule with u frame;
work of hooks on the saddle. This frame
work Is hung with the halves and quar
ters of beeves, and as tho mule moves
along the blood from them drips to the.
ground. Some of the mutes are small, and
tho meat almost touches the roadway,
raising a dust which peppers the meat
Somo such men are meat peddlers, and
they will hack off a slice for you upon
order. The cuargu will be about the same
whether you choose meat from the neck
or the loin.
Mrnls Around the Clock.
I have spoken of the first breakfast.
Tho meals of the day are different from
those we havo In tho United States. Here
Is how ono eats around the clock: When
he rises he has desayuno, or tho first
breakfast. This is so little that it would
hardly form a wedgo to keep tho skin of
an American stomach from tho back
bone.! n is merely a cup of poffee, or
chocolate, and rolls. The coffee Is often
an extract poured from a bottle Into hot
milk. Such breakfasts are served at all
the native hotels, and It you want meat
or eggs you have to pay extra.
The next meal Is almucrzo or comlda.
Almuerzo consists of rolls, moat and eggs,
with coffeo and chocolate, and the
comlda, served between 11 n. m. and 1:30
p. m., Is made up of a soup, eggs, rice,
fish, some kind of meat, with a dessert
and small coffee. Dinner comes after C
o'clock and Is much the same as the
comlda. As a rule the cooking Is fairly
good, save that thero Is too much pepper
and grease to suit the American palate.
You can have your first breakfast In
your bed If you want It. The second
breakfast Is eaten in the dining room
with all of the family at the table. After
this breakfast they take a siesta or rest
of two hours or more. The business hours
are from 8 to about 12 or 1, and from 3 to
Shortly after 6 the stores begin to
close, and after 7 the business parts of
the cities are dead.
Tho (Jreat Mexican Drink.
As to what Mexico drinks, the text
would" make a whole letter. The rich
havo all kinds of wines, and the poor
have their aguardiente, or Mexican
brandy, and pulque, or the native beer
made from the cactus. Aguardiente Is
dlBtllled from the Juice of the sugar cane.
It Is n brandy, so hot that a rag wet
with It and laid on the skin will soon
raise a blister, and I have been told It
is good for sore throat. In Guatemala It
Is called "white eye," and several glances
from it will make the foreigner drunk.
Pulque is about the cheapest beer of
the world. You can buy it all over Mexico
for a cent a glass, and. ' the wholesale
price Is about a cent a quart Ie is said
that over 200.000 gallons of it are con
sumed dally In Mexico City. This makes
about six tumblerfuls per day for every
man, woman and child in the capital, and
the consumption Is proportionately large
in many other parts of the republic. The
beer Is brought here by the tralnload, and
It comes in also on carts and wagons. It
yields thousands of dollars, and the tax
upon It forms an lmpartant item In the
government's reyenucs. Even during the
times of the Spaniards! more than 100
years ago, the annual - consumption of
this beer In Mexico' City was about-100,-CXi.OOO
pounds, and - the .net revenues to
the crown were 800,000 Mexican dollers.
Nature' Own Beer.
This beer nature's own product- It
comes from the sap of a cactus of the
same species as the century plant. This
j Is called the maguey, and it may be seen
uy tne tens or mousanas. running :n
rows back and forth upon the plantations
of the high tablelands. Near Puebla Is
the plain of wVpam, which Is entirely given
up to the production of pulque. The
plants there cover tens of thousands of
acres, making forests of cacti. The leaves
of tho plants sprout from the ground
around a green cone, which U a foot
ML
-.Hi
oiv jey r?c?A& 6eer? ffetfco
thick at the base and which rises high
above the leaves, ending in a point like
a needle. This cone Is the stalk and it
takes about ten years before It flowers
out, at which time the plant dies.
I It Is Just before the flowering that tho
Plant Is ready for pulque. The cone of
flower stalk Is then cut out of the baso
of the plant, leaving there a great hole
or bowl, Into which the sap from tho
leaves runB down. Tho sap runs so fast
that a plant will yield ten or fifteen plntH
every day and continue its flow for three
or four months, yielding barrels and
sometimes hogsheads of liquor.
This sap, when fermented, forms a nat
ural beer. As It flows into the bowl it la
as sweet as sugar and as clear as pure
alcohol. After twenty-four hours Its color
turns to that of sklin milk, and It tastes
not unllko buttermilk. It then begins to
glvo forth an odor, and tills odor grows
stronger as the pulque grows older. In
deed, I believe that ono could shut his
eyes and find the pulque saloons by his
nose.
I havo tried some of this beer. It has
about tho same effect as strong German
bock. It makes one feel comfortable', 'and
If you take a little too much It will go
to your head. It acts upon the liver and
kidneys, and Is an excellent tonic. If
taken before retiring at night, ono need
havo no fear of Insomnia. He soon goes
to sleep and his rest Is without dreams.
On the Pnlqnr Plantations.
I have traveled for miles through these
pulque plantations and have seen dirty
Indian peons at work gathering tho
liquor. Each carries with him a sack
made of untanned pigskin, and he draws
tho Juice from the plants Into this by
means of a gourd. He first sucks the
gourd full of sap and then pours tho sap
into the bag. When the bog Is full it Is
emptied Into a cask, where the, liquor Is
allowed to ferment. It sometimes fer
ments in the bag and the fermentation
Is hastened by throwing In a little old
pulque which has become rank and sour.
It takes only twenty-four hours to turn
the sap Into benr, and tho beer Is mar
keted the day It Is made. If It gets very
old It spoils, and grows flat. The pulque
saloonlsts are compelled by law to sell
none of the liquor which has been brewed
for moro than twenty-four hours.
There are about a thousand pulque sa
loons at the capital. You find them on
almost every block and you can tell them
by the florid-faced Indians who hang
around them. They have none of the
ornamentation and glitter of our beer sa
loons, and the drinkers are almost Invar
iably of the lower classes. Pulque does
not seem to excite the drinker. It is
rather quieting than otherwise, and It Is
said to have medicinal value.
There Is a tradition here that from
pulque comes the origin of the American
cocktail. Tho beer was used by tho Toi
lets, who antedated the Aztecs, and ac
cording to whose legends it was first
named Xochltl, a name which has been
degraded to tho word "cocktail." The
original name came from a beautiful girl
who first discovered tho delights of
pulque. This was Miss Xochltl. She had
tasted tho fermented sap and was so
pleased with It that she sucked out a
gourd full and carried it to tho king of
that day. He drank deep and long, and
as tho fluid ran down his throat and
crawled up to his brain, he threw his
arms around the blushing damsel, and
lifted her to a scat on his throne, say
ing: 1
"Tell me, O molden, the secret of this
drink of pure honey."
Thereupon Miss Xochltl, or. as we
might call her, "Miss Cocktail," replied:
"You are right, mighty king! It is a
honey, Indeed, which the gods have raado
for our drink."
FRANK O. CABPENTER.
PRATTLE OF THE YOUNGSTERS
Harry's mother took him to the denlst
one day to have some teeth extracted.
"Never mind, my boy," said the dentist,
"they will soon grow In again."
"W-wll! they g-grow in a-agaln before
d-dlnner?" sobbed the little fellow.
"Now, Jeannette," said the Sunday
school teacher to a smnll student, "can
you tell me why God gave Moses the
rodT"
"Yes, ma'am." replied Jeannette; "so
he could chastize tho children of Israel
If they didn't get their lessons."
Grandpa Are you getting along nicely
at school, Freddy?
Freddy Yes, grandpa. I got the best
place in claps.
Grandpa And what Is that at the top?
Freddy No; near the fire.
"Johnny," said his mother severely,
"some one has taken a 'big piece of gin
ger cake out of the pantry."
Johnny blushed guiltily.
"Oh. Johnny," she exclaimed, "I didn't
think It was In you."
"It ain't all," replied Johnny. 'Tart
of It's in Elsie."
An American mother was trying to In
stil in her 7-year-old daughter a spirit of
patriotism while tbey were traveling In
Mexico.
"Doris," she said, "this Is George
Washington's birthday."
"Is itr' Doris queried indifferently.
"What'd he get?"
WOMAN'S TRIALS.
The burdens a wpmm has to carry through life are many hut they can bo
lightened ii the will turn to Dr. Pierce Favorite Pretcription. A soothing and
itrenthentng nervine subduing nervous excitability, proitratioo, hysteria, hot
Bathes and the many symptoms which may be caused by distressing ills peculiar
to women. Por those " Jmiiing-down " paint or dittrett and for the derange
menu and irregularitiet the "Favorite Pretcription" bat bad many thousand ol
tettimoniatt from people living in every part of America. Another important
thing to tvery woman It that tbit medicine it made from efficient medicinal roott,
without the uie of alcohol, narcotic, or any injurious agents. Full lilt of Ingredi
ents giren on bottle-wrapper and tworn to by Dr. R. V. Pierce who it President
.... ........ ... .. , ....... n I
ot the invalius iiotci ana aurgicai institute, at uuuaio,
N. Y. Every woman is invited to write to this Institute and
receive confidential and sound medical advice, entirely
without cott from one who makes the discuses of women
his specialty.
"I can cheerfully rccommond your remedies, especially
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rellof until I wn persuaded by a friend to try Dr Plerro's
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I found that It would do Just what it Is recommended to
do- I used In all seven bottle. I cannot speak too highly
of Dr. Pierce's remedies for all female derangoments."
Dr. Pltefs Plenttrnt PelletM rtgulnf Utetr ills.
Hospe says:
TBI
Tho Green Grass Growing All Around is a reminder to YOU!
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Lifotdmo opportunity for
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$485.00
Slightly used
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Player Pianos
$385.00
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NEW PIANOS
Warranted by Vn.
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Telephone:
Doug. 188
for Auto
Delivery
Service
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"The Art Music House the West"
Douglas St. Between 15th and 16th Sts.
Store Open
Saturday
Till 9
O'clock
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Full carload of them juBt received.
May Porch Furniture Sale Now on
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is within an hour's ride of the
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A subscriber within buying distance
of your store is worth a hundred times
as much as one outside of a buying
radius.
Tho Omaha Bee ia delivered to tho
homo by its own carriers. A deliv
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The efforts of Tho Bee circulation
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Today we are able to present an
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Adverti&o in the paper that goes to the homos
m
The paper that goes to the homes
brings results for the advertiser.
wmaemtrvsm
uiSTBMCSe