Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 December 1884 — The Greaser. [ARTICLE]

The Greaser.

The most impressive thing about the “Greaser” —aside from an odor sui generis—• ib his costume; he seems always to have outgrown his garments. Until I myself saw him, I always regarded as an exaggeration that statement by a really honest writer, that the “way-ij 1 down” Mexican, the lepero, puts on his leather breeches at twenty, before;/ he has attained his growth, and never voluntarily removes them übtil he reaches threescore and ten. United in life, death itself does not divide these inseperable companions, who are often buried together. In the north, cotton usually replaces the more dnrable leather, hut the same affectionate attachment is exhibited so long as the material holds together. Simplicity of arrangement and a noble disregard of dirt are also characteristic of the “Greaser's” female partner, who generally wears a sort of skirt, fastened at the waist over* a cotton sack or chemise short in the Bleeves and low in the neck, and over which she draws a rebozo, or long and narrow Bhawl or scarf, constantly falling away and disclosing brown and brawny shoulders. She sometimes wears a folded cloth on her head, Contadina-like, though luxuriant black hair is oftener her only protection from the sun. Slippers or old shoes—no matter of what style, so they be loose and conveinent—encase her little feet, while the legs above, being stockingless, are supposed to be unfettered by garters. In feature the “Greaser” is decidedly Semitic; his skin is brown; his eyes black and beautiful; bis hair black and coarse; his brow black and low; his manners are delightful; his nature indolent, but revengeful. The color Of his integument, I have said, is brown; but more properly it is that of his native soil. He lias not passed through the past century of revolutions without taking heed to make himself as inconspicuous an object in the lanbscape as possible; hence he lives in a mud (adobe) house; he wears mud-colored garments, and. exhibits a decidedly nihcldy countenance. A student of the adaptability of animals to their surroundings would view him with intense interest. We well know •hat N ature, “always in the right,” provides suitable coverings for the lower animals and the varying climatic changes of the seasons; the rabbit, for example, which in summer has a coat of soft gray or brown, admirably harmonizing with the colors of the vegetation in which it hides, in winter is dressed in white. In the colder regions alone, especially in tho artic3, we have cognizance of these changes; but in the warmer south, where there is no radical chatiges in the floral surroundings, w'e find no direct faunal transformation. Hence it is, perhaps, that tho “Gueaser” sees not the necessity for change; a cleansing process, in fact, would expose him to too violent a contrast with his surroundings. It is far from my purpose to slander the “Greaser;” on the contrary, I am striving hard to explain his terrene predilections. Besides an unconscious recognition of the fitness of his mode of life in its essential features, the “Greaser” has tradition to support him in his constitutional aversion to water and liis yearning for dirt, it being the first lesson inculcated in his youtti, that wlioso wastes the precious aqua in personal ablution will surely catch cold and dio, —Outing.