Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 December 1903 — STRANGE CONTRAST. [ARTICLE]

STRANGE CONTRAST.

BETWEEN UPLAND AND HOT LAND MEXICANS. <Wk7 4 He Characteristics of the People la the Two Sections of Mexico Are So Unlike—Effects of Two Cen- . tonics of Serfdom. There is no country in the world that presents more strange contrasts of land and people, habits anil customs, heat and cold, than Mexico. The tablelandr, of the country are a mile and a half higher than the coast lands, and between these there are to be found all gradations of climate. This fact lends much of the picturesque and atrange to Mexico and gives it a variety in all things possessed by few, if any,- countries in (he world. Of all the inhabitants of Mexico, the life of the people of. the hot country is the most interesting. This is, strange to say, due to the fact that there the people have ever possessed more of freedom than in the colder localities. For two centuries or ttu re the great mass of people of the uplands were slaves. They toiled in the..mines. with a guard of soldiers Bet Over them; they built the public roads; they worked the ranches, farms and haciendas for masters who gave them acarcely more than the food they ate. The great farms of the uplands have ever required sure help, and so each ranchman had his serfs. Many estates possessed hundreds of them. Thus all Individuality was crushed out of the lower class, and the terrible effect of this condition of things is still evident The people of the hot lands fared better, because there it was much easier ito make a living and much harder to hold very large haciendas. For this reason the characteristics of the people are*.quite distinct from those of their brethren of the upland plateaus. In the. hot lands many Indians still claim toehold in right of inheritance from remote ancestors portions of land each in bis own individual right There, too, the mayor of the village or town holds office so long as he pleases the mass of the people. In the uplands tfirhas been the custom of the rich and .powerful to distribute offices of all Binds as part of their prerogative of bixlh and wealth. The lower classes 0t s the uplands, although they now have the advantage of a fairly good public system of education and are becoming gradually educated, are in the .main a distinctively unambitious people. They were so long in semislavery that they feel that the world of the middle and upper class people is beyond them. They have, therefore, no interest in anything outside their circle of friends and acquaintances—that ia. In a political way. But not so in many hot country villages and communities. There the Indian has ever been more or less a factor in the life -of the community in which he resided. On the uplands there are long Stretches of more or less bare lands, with mountains rising up boldly in the background. In many parts during the dry season the land is almost barren of vegetation. But in the hot country grow tail aud shady trees and thick undergrowth. Everything grows almost without attention from the •hand of man, and yet, strange to suy, the peon, or laboring man, is there more ambitious and a better worker than tlie peon of the colder uplands. This is not natural and is ouly explained by the different conditions In which they have passed the last 400 years. Serfdom on the uplands extinguished all ambition in the lower class. The lower clnss of the hot country people are fond of social life, aud allpost any uight or early evening the year throughout oue may find groups of people iu a little Indian village gathered together and entertaining one another in front of some one of the houses or on the public square, which every Mexicau town, however small, possesses, with music, songs and occasionally dancing.—Modern Mexico.