The Morrills and Reminiscences - C. H. Morrill

in 1692. Tradition says that at about this time the Lady of Guadalupe appeared on the present site, with a halo about her head, showing that she had come direct from Heaven. This temple represents the wealth and splendor of Mexico and the shrine of the Lady of Guadalupe is the holiest in all Mexico. We saw old women crawling up the hill on their knees to visit this shrine. In the City of Mexico, on Sundays, we saw hundreds of well-dressed women kneel on the opposite side of the street from the Church and drag themselves and their garments through the dust and dirt across the street, up the church aisles. to the altar, where they did penance for sins they had committed.
There seemed to be but two classes in Mexico, the very wealthy and the very poor. Most of the poor are known as peons. By the laws of Mexico any Mexican becoming indebted to his employer is, in consequence of that debt, bound to his employer until such time as the debt is paid. By reason of such debts fully one-half of the inhabitants of Mexico are peons. One employer can sell the labor of peons to another, and if the peon runs away, he is brought back and severely punished. The wage paid for labor, at this time, was thirty cents per day in the city, and fifteen cents per day in the country, Mexican money. Human labor was cheaper than animal labor and consequently lumber, brick, stone, and almost all products of agriculture were transported short distances on the backs of men. Railroad grading was done by men carrying sacks or

bags of earth on their backs. Cast iron water piping, a foot or more in diameter, was carried through the streets of Mexico in the same way. When there was a funeral the corpse was carried on a litter five or more miles to the cemetery. Crates of vegetables or fruits were carried on the backs of men for distances of more than one hundred miles to be marketed in the City of Mexico.
From Mexico City we went one hundred miles south to Cuernavaca, a city of about thirty thousand people. This was the home of the unfortunate Maxmillian and his wife, Carlotta. A palace was built here by Cortez. In the year 1525 Charles the Fifth of Spain sent to Cortez a clock for the tower of the palace. This clock still strikes the hour of day. The palace is now used as the capitol building for one of the states of Mexico. In Cuernavaca there is a flower garden containing about twenty acres, surrounded by a wall fifteen feet in height. This garden, tradition says, was built by a Frenchman named Roberts, who became very wealthy as the owner of silver mines near Zacatacus. He conceived the idea of making a beautiful garden to be filled with flowers, trees, and shrubs from every land. For years he devoted all his time and a large amount of money to this work. I was informed that the garden was completed before George Washington was born. Maxmillian and Carlotta occupied the house built for Roberts as a residence for himself. The stone cement walls and fountains were in a poor state of preservation while most of the shrubs and

trees had died for want of care. We remained in Cuernavaca about three months.
I became very much interested in the Mexican people and as I could not speak Spanish I employed a young Mexican as guide. For several years he had been in the employ of a Mr. Brown, a noted artist, whose home was in Boston, Massachusetts. For the services of this guide I paid forty dollars per month, Mexican money. With his aid and assistance I found little difficulty in gaining admittance to the schools and even into the residences of many Mexican families. The schools appeared to be run solely for the benefit of the Catholic Church. In every school I visited, priests were the teachers. The scholars seemed to spend most of their time in repeating the catechism and singing religious songs, but only a few could read or write. One of the priests said to me that it was their main object to save the souls of these children. There were many mission buildings in and about Cuernavaca, and priests by the hundreds. Every evening there was a band concert in the Plaza. The young people gathered there in great numbers, the young men walking by twos around the Plaza like a line of soldiers, while the young women went, by twos, in the opposite direction. The sexes did not mingle and the rules of Mexican society allowed no conversation between them. I was informed that courting by the young folks was done by the expression in the eyes. Marriage is simply the result of a bargain made between the parents of the respective parties. In most cases

the mother of the young man informs her son that he should take a wife, and the young man generally accepts the suggestion without a question, seldom refusing the woman who is the choice of his mother. The parents of the son confer with the parents of the young woman, and if they agree the young woman is so informed. After this the two can meet in the presence of the parents of the bride or the bridegroom to be. In a few days or weeks they are married. Since the fee for performing a marriage ceremony in Mexico is large, a great majority of the people cannot pay the same. The peons and poor classes are not legally married. Their parents announce them to be man and wife, and they are so considered.
The peons are generally clad in thin white garments or in calico. A dress is sufficient for the women, with a cheap shawl for their heads, and they are either barefooted or wear thin sandals. The men wear thin white pants and a shirt to match, and, like the women, they are generally barefooted. Every Mexican man wears a sombrero. These hats cost from twenty cents to fifty or even a hundred dollars. A prominent merchant in Mexico City informed me that an entire outfit of clothing for a Mexican peon and his wife could be purchased for five dollars in American money.
On every hacienda, or farm, the owner sets apart about five acres which is used by the peons for their quarters. This land is generally enclosed by a high fence or stone wall. Inside of this enclosure there are sometimes five or six hundred peons, including their


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