1859.]

PEON LABOR IN NEW MEXICO.

239

Western Texas has a poor soil and is very thinly settled. El Paso county is three hundred miles long, and from eighty to two hundred miles in width.

The vocabulary of slang was large and novel. When two friends shook hands the invariable salutation was the Indian 'How?' 'Outfit,' (always familiar on the verge of regions where the traveler must carry every thing he needs on the journey,) might mean one's clothing, his watch, his horse, or even his mistress. One's 'ranch' was his dwelling, office, bed-chamber, or trading-house. To'go under,' or 'go up,' was to die. To 'jump a man' was to attack or kill him. A 'greaser' was a Mexican-originating in the filthy, greasy appearance of the

natives.

Slavery was only nominal in western Texas, as negroes could easily cross the Rio Grande into Mexico, where the natives sheltered them. But here, as throughout old and New Mexico, peon labor was universal. Natives of the lower classes, ignorant and thriftless, were always ready to contract a debt and agree to work it out, receiving from three to ten dollars a month and clothing themselves. As no one else would supply him with goods this placed the peon at his master's mercy, and compelled him to pay most exorbitant prices. But he seemed to like it; and cases where one liquidated his debts and became free were very rare. Just before my arrival, a peon by years of labor had earned his freedom; but in less than a week he bought an eighty-dollar silk dress for his wife, contracting a debt which would make him a slave for life.

The American residents believed in the inalienable right of the white man to bully the inferior race. At Messilla all public records and legal proceedings were in Spanish. A Kentuckian was brought before the alcalde or magistrate for assault and battery. The native judge, with shaggy beard uncombed hair and dirty face, appeared on the bench in a soiled calico shirt and buckskin sandals. He knew no English. Sternly motioning the Kentuckian to rise he ordered the sheriff to ask the prisoner whether he spoke Spanish.

เ

"Nary Spanish."'

'Then,' said the alcalde, he must hire an interpreter.'

240

A KENTUCKIAN IN COURT.

[1859.

The delinquent, shifting his tobacco quid to the other cheek, replied:

'Ask him whether this court is sitting in Mexico or the United States?'

'In the United States!' responded the angry official.

"Then tell him that I understand the United States language, and if he don't I'll see him dd before I hire an interpreter for him.'

The enraged alcalde fined the Kentuckian twenty-five dollars for contempt. The prisoner in return commended the court to the infernal regions, and drawing his revolver strode away, anathematizing any country where Greasers presumed to administer justice to white men!

Hundreds of many-colored sheep and goats graze the valleys and hill-sides. The shepherd dogs which guard them are sometimes left in sole charge for hours. They keep the flocks compact, driving all stragglers back upon the herd, and never leaving their posts.

Immediately west of the Texan El Paso runs the Rio Grande, dividing our possessions from old Mexico. On its west bank is

1859.] STREET PICTURES IN MEXICAN TOWNS.

241

the Mexican city, El Paso Del Norte, thus named by the Spaniards from the pass through the mountains at this point. Coming from the south they called it 'the North Pass.' Long afterward our own pioneers from the east named a mountain-crossing on the Salt Lake road 'the South Pass.' Consequently the latter is a thousand miles further north than the former, to the sore perplexity of travelers and geographers.

The Mexican El Paso contains twelve thousand people, and extends up and down the river for miles. Next to St. Augustine Florida, it is the oldest European settlement on our continent. As essentially un-American as India or China, it is a quaint old city of gardens and corn-fields, orchards and vineyards, shaded by green cottonwoods, with a net-work of ditches crossing the streets spanned by rickety log bridges. A city of swarthy, diminutive, sinister-faced men, and dusky women who permit only their lustrous eyes to be seen in public. Of narrow, crowded thoroughfares through which Mexican carts creak and rumble, half-naked boys and indolent men bear water-kegs suspended from poles between them, women balance huge jars upon their heads, and little donkeys stagger under enormous loads of corn-stalks. Of ancient adobe houses with wooden doors and window shutters, quaintly carved but without a pane of glass; and of a crumbling cathedral erected before the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth rock.

The Mexican is pre-eminently social. If an American enters the saloon where he is drinking, with endless bows he insists that the new-comer shall taste from his glass. If another Mexican enters, he even takes the cigar from his mouth and hands it to his friend, who after a few whiffs passes it to a neighbor. Thus it goes around the company before returning to the owner's lips.

His idea of heaven seems to be a maze of long-robed priests, gorgeous paintings and wax candles; a blessed asylum where cigarettes, wine and brandy never fail, where there is no work, much gossip, and a fandango every night.

By the gift of Nature,' he is a wine connoisseur, a dancer, and a walking cigar manufactory. While earnestly talking, he produces a square bit of corn-husk or paper from one pocket, a box of finecut tobacco from another, and rolls up and lights a cigar without once looking at it.

242

A NATIVE MEG MERRILIES.

[1859. The large and delicious El Paso grape grows abundantly. For a few pennies one is allowed to enter any vineyard and eat his fill. The wine though a little heavy is rich and unctuous. I do not covet my Mexican neighbor's house nor his wife, his manservant nor his maid-servant, his ox nor his ass; but I confess to twinges of envy that he can enjoy throughout the year the glowing vintage of El Paso.

The first evening's duty was to attend a fandango. When we entered, the dancing had begun. Several Texan whites, all armed, were present. One while dancing dropped his enormous revolver and bowie knife-a display which excited no attention. There were black spirits and white, red spirits and gray. The faces of dancers and spectators in the low basement, lighted by tallow candles, made up a medley of hues from dark Indian to fairest

Saxon. On the platform at one end, three musicians without coats were hard at work. All entered into the amusement with enthusiasm; and participants and lookers on of both sexes were smok ing. When a woman rose to dance she handed her cigarette to a neighbor to smoke until she returned. A demented old hag whose hideous face would have made her fortune as Meg Merrilies or the chief of Macbeth's witches, was raving about the room

1859.] AN ARISTOCRATIC CASTILIAN GATHERING.

243

wearing no clothing except a chemise. The women were coarsefeatured and homely, but their voices low and pleasing as they chattered in liquid Spanish. Many had beautiful, luminous eyes, and all a grace of motion rarely seen in their English or American sisters.

At ten o'clock we left the lively fandango for a ball of 'the first society'-a few families who claim that their pure Castilian blood has never mingled with that of the native Indians. They were not wont to associate with Americans, but to-night a few Texans were invited.

I found this patrician baile in an ancient family mansion, built around a hollow court after the old Moorish mode, for protection against attack. The servants recognizing my companion opened the great barred gate, and conducted us through the court to a spacious well-lighted saloon. Its earth floor was covered with plain hemp matting. There were no chairs, but stationary benches against the walls.

The dancing had already begun, but it was listless; and like most aristocratic affairs this proved heavy and stupid. Among the thirty or forty guests I saw no Indian features. The ladies. were no darker than our own brunettes. own brunettes. Some had faces regular and almost classic; but not one showed intelligence and vivacity. Their movements were languid and graceful. Wine was frequently passed, each lady taking a dainty sip and then replacing the glass upon the waiter for twenty or thirty others to drink from. Only a few were smoking.

The next morning (Sunday) the market on the great plaza was crowded and the stores open, for this is the grand gala and business day of the week. A harsh, cracked bell from the old cathedral summoned the people to worship. The shaky tower of the crumbling edifice had contained a bell brought from Spain, nearly as ancient as the building itself. A few months before my visit an old friend, Edward E. Cross, surreptitiously pocketed the tongue and carried it to 'the States' as a curiosity. The natives so resented this sacrilege that Cross's life would not have been safe for a moment among them. He had been an editor in Cincinnati, and a rover through every State in the Union; and was now publishing a newspaper in the wilds of Arizona. After