HHHHHHH0 ll ftetoenteenft THE INTERESTING PROCESS OF MANUFACTURING CANDLES ETWEEN the house of "El Gringo" that ancient structure in which he never went to sleep without picturing in his mind the heroic fight put up in the very room in which he slept, between four brave patriots intrenched therein and upward of 200 enemies, howling on the outside for their blood and his private settee in the shade of the china-berry tree, were several places of business of one kind and another. Among these was one where the stranger often halted to watch the industry therein carried on and to exchange a few words of greet- ing with the genial, gray-haired man who consti- tuted in his own person the proprietor, manager, foreman and entire working force of a candle manufactory. In his younger days in a pioneer community it had been one of "El Gringo's" 100 SEEN IN A MEXICAN PLAZA "chores" to assist in the preparation of the battery of tin molds, the tying of the wicks to the wooden cross pieces, and the pouring of the melted tallow, by which slow and laborious process candles were evolved the only means of illumination known at that time, which was before the "invention" of petroleum as an illuminant. But this Cuatro Cienegas candle manufactory was of a different type. A great empty room, per- haps 20 or 24 feet square, opened off the street with a wide double door. With the exceptions to be described, it was entirely without furniture or ap- pliances of any kind. Into a massive beam over- head at a spot in the exact center of the high ceiling, was fastened an iron swivel hook which turned freely in any direction. From this hook several heavy cords made of ixtli fiber spread in cone- shaped fashion and were attached to a great wooden hoop that completely filled the room, with the exception, of course, of the corners. This hoop was suspended in an exactly horizontal position at a height of about four feet above the floor, and a single motion of the hand could send it spinning around and around until one became dizzy watching it, if he so wished. At intervals of about six inches apart, coarsely Hauling Vegetable Wax Plants to the Factory Guayule Rubber Factory at Cuatro Cienegas MANUFACTURING CANDLES 101 and loosely spun bits of cotton cordage were tied to the hoop, which was of very light material and hung down some 10 inches or thereabouts. On a box in one corner of the room where the curve of the hoop left considerable space, the proprietor- manager-foreman-working force sat. Just in front of him was a brasero with a small charcoal fire supporting an earthen vessel filled with melted tal- low. Any kind of animal fat answered the purpose. With a ladle in one hand, the candle-maker turned the hoop a trifle with the other until one of the de- pendent wicks was exactly over the tallow-filled vessel. Then he filled the ladle and poured it on the upper end of the wick, allowing the liquid to run down into the vessel, during which process a small quantity congealed and remained adhering to the wick. After many operations of this kind the tallow began to assume something of the propor- tions of a candle, but it required hours of patient toil, and continuous turning and ladling and pour- ing, before candles of proper size were at last pro- duced. These were not symmetrical in shape, as when cast in a mold, but when completed were about the diameter of an ordinary lead pencil at the top, gradually increasing in size until at the lower end they were an inch or so in thickness. The 102 SEEN IN A MEXICAN PLAZA melted tallow, being hot when applied at the upper extremity of the candle, ran rapidly downward, but cooled quickly in the process, thus causing the candle to become much thicker at the base than at the top. After the candles had attained a sufficient size they were detached from the hoop, the base was cut off squarely with a sharp knife, and then they were ready for sale in the market. As these brought a very low price by comparison with the imported articles made of paraffin or other sub- stances, it was very plain to me that the pathway to wealth followed so earnestly by this gray-haired manager-proprietor-foreman-working force would be a very long one. It is possible that he may have realized a profit of as much as a dollar daily, but of this I have serious doubts, as the entire output of the factory for a day could have been easily carried away in a man's arms. Many weary hours were required in order to produce a single batch of candles, but the jolly manufacturer never seemed to tire of his task, while his friends happened along with regularity and halted for a bit of gossip or to smoke a cigarette with him, thus helping the time to pass. MANUFACTURING CANDLES 103 SOMETHING ABOUT MATCHES Of cognate character was a match manufactory. Mexican-made matches, as most people are perhaps not aware, are an entirely different thing from the ordinary match of the rest of the world. The aver- age Mexican match is an inch to an inch and a quarter in length. It is made with a cotton cord coated with melted wax and is about one-sixteenth of an inch in diameter. It is double-headed, that is, has phosphorus at each end, and every match may be used twice. One can light a cigarette or a cigar, or start a fire, then extinguish the flame, return the match to the box and preserve it for the next time. Being constituted as they are, these matches can be used in the open air with much more assurance than the ordinary imported wooden match. They can be lighted and will remain burning in the face of a very strong wind, which with the other variety of match would be impossible. In the majority of factories these matches are made by machines, but in small towns everything is done by hand. The raw cotton is spun into threads and dozen of girls and boys are employed in the slow and laborious work of molding and tipping the matches. 104 SEEN IN A MEXICAN PLAZA Speaking of matches, by the way, it is within the memory of people still living that such things were not known, and the old-fashioned flint and steel were the sole dependence for starting a fire. The story is told that when matches were first imported an enterprising storekeeper laid in a supply and endeavored to introduce them to his customers. One day an old chap from a ranch some 20 or 25 miles distant dropped in and the dealer produced some of the wonderful novelties. He emphasized the ease with which a light could be obtained in comparison with the slow process of flint and steel, and as an illustration casually scratched a match on the leg of his trousers, saying: "See how easily you can get a light with one of these matches!" But the ranchero demurred and could not be per- suaded. "You say it will save time? Not so! How could I come to town and have you make a light on your trousers leg every time I wanted a fire ? No, no ; I will use my flint and steel !" Jtopil Ctgtjteentfj A HOT-WATER BATH IN A BOTTOMLESS PIT us go for a bath!" To "El Gringo," sitting in the shade of the china- berry tree in the plaza at Cuatro Cienegas, came two friends with this proposal. Now, an invitation of that kind may seem a trifle odd and mystifying to the stranger. Ask- ing an acquaintance to "take a drink" or "have a smoke" is common enough in any portion of the world, but to invite one to take a bath might seem to open the way to some invidious comment, or possibly it might even be resented! Especially if a bath really were needed! Not so in Cuatro Cienegas, as will be seen! It is getting late in the fall. The torrid heat of the summer sun is tempered by the delightful breezes that blow up and down the valley in one uniform direction by day and in the opposite course 105 106 SEEN IN A MEXICAN PLAZA aiter nightfall. The delicious grapes and other fruits produced here in abundance are at their best and we revel in them day after day. Such juicy fruit of the vine, such luscious figs, such pears and plums and peaches, and what not ! A few leaves are falling but only a few. In a land where comes not either frost or hail or snow, and only on rare occasions any rain or if it does it is so gentle as not to be unwelcome there are no sharp changes of the seasons. They melt into one another so gradually that the summer is past and gone, the har- vest is over and done, autumn is in full tide, the "winter" even comes, and we only know it by the calendar and by the advent of All Souls' Day Mexico's national Decoration Day and by the coming of Noche Buena, or Christmas, later on. It is a lovely, genial mid-October forenoon, and the invitation to a bath comes to willing ears. But the reader must not be mistaken about it ! A bath in the United States and one in Cuatro Ciene- gas are vastly different things. About the only simi- larity is that both are wet! In other respects it would be difficult to imagine anything at greater variance from the rule in such matters than the bath there. First, we hustle about for towels, then start on a Municipal Building in Cuatro Cienegas Picturesque Canyon on Railway from Monclova to Cuatro Cienegas A HOT WATER BATH 107 little journey of a dozen or so miles out into the barren valley, hiring a "coach" and a couple of tough little mules for the occasion. "Machines" are an unknown quantity at this time and in this region. Then we drive through the vineyard-covered out- skirts of the town, raising several coveys of fat quail as we pass ; but we do not stop for the tempt- ing shot, as we are intent on bathing and not on hunting. Then rapidly through a belt of fertile farming land, and then finally out into the unsettled valley prairies, where thousands of acres are cov- ered with a snow-white efflorescence interspersed with "sinks" heavily encrusted with varicolored crystallizations. We cross the "Salon de las Brujas" which, being interpreted, resolves itself into "The Dancing Place of the Witches" an appropriate designation, as will be explained. It being broad daylight, none of the "witches" are in evidence ! It is only after nightfall that they disport themselves ! Then, across the solidly encrusted ice-like surface of the salon, the brisk wind brings little twisting columns of the loose white salts, which flit hither and yon over the rolling valley surface and require little enough imagination on the part of the super- stitious natives to become endowed with super- 108 SEEN IN A MEXICAN PLAZA natural and malicious life. Especially if the native be returning home after a day spent among the wine cellars or cantinas of Cuatro Cienegas and many "copitas" have been absorbed of the heady, but it must be confessed in many cases appetizingly seductive, products of the vineyards. Beyond the resort of the putative witches the road winds endlessly on and on toward the distant purple hills, which do not seem to become one whit nearer even after an hour or two of steady jogging travel. Mesquite thickets line the road and give shelter to a frequent rabbit or a bunch of quail or cooing doves, while from some overflowed land in the distance rise swarms of ducks and geese, which promise "good hunting" when the occasion offers. Then out from the thickets we pass onto a level plain covered with coarse clumps of sedge grass, through which we wind our way until the bathing place is reached. If it be the first visit of a stranger, it is an odd enough experience. If, however, he be familiar with the wonderful natural phenomenon that greets the eye, it still is of interest. One never tires of it. Suddenly and without any sort of warning the coach halts on the brink of as strange and wonder- ful a pool as can be imagined. All around is dry A HOT WATER BATH 109 and barren, yet here is a circular basin, some 150 feet in diameter, rounded as if laid out by an en- gineer. The brown sedge grass hangs heavy over the brim, and there is a straight drop of three or four feet to the surface of the water. And that water! Blue it is as the sky! Blue as indigo! And as the wind ruffles across its surface, if it be a cool day, light clouds of vapor arise and are borne hither and thither, for the water is hot hot as blazes! At the edges the pool is two or three feet in depth, but the bottom slopes with the most perfect regularity at an angle of about forty- five degrees to the center, and it is snow white! A pure dazzling white, which, with the deep blue of the water, presents a most entrancing picture. Away down deep in the center, many, many feet be- low the surface, is a ragged crater-like opening through which pours a constant supply of water from the depths below, whose extent can be gauged by the fact that through an open cut at one side a ditch passes which is some six feet in width and carries a flow two feet deep. The bottom and sides of the pool are, as stated, snow white in color. The substance of which they are composed is smooth and greasy to the touch, and upon examination is found to consist largely 110 SEEN IN A MEXICAN PLAZA of minute spiral shells, many of microscopic dimen- sions. In some places the deposit has a beautiful light salmon color of the most delicate hue. There is not a particle of grit and the material may be used instead of soap, possessing remarkable deter- gent qualities. One plasters it liberally upon his entire body, and then plunges into the hot water of the pool, the result being a most satisfactory and beneficial bath. There is only one drawback; one never knows when to quit! The whole sensation is so agreeable and so different from anything of the sort ever before encountered, that it is with reluctance you finally, after playing about in the water for an hour or more, emerge, don your clothes and regretfully turn Cuatro Cienegasward. While no analysis of this water has ever been made, so far at least as the writer knows, it has been demonstrated to possess curative properties of value. The famous General Escobedo, one of Benito Juarez's most valiant and valuable aids, in his revolutionary war, sought refuge at one time in this valley, and remained there for a considerable period. Being afflicted with a severe attack of in- flammatory rheumatism, and hearing the fame pos- sessed among the natives by the pool, he established a camp on the bank of the basin. A rude stone hut A HOT WATER BATH 111 (still standing, by the way, in a ruinous condition) was thrown up, and a channel was excavated from the pool to the building, in order to conduct the water thither. In the floor of the hut a deep basin was hollowed out in the solid rock, and into this a constant stream of the hot water passed. The sufferer was accustomed to recline in this basin for hours at a time, in fact the entire day being passed in this manner, thus soaking his pain-racked body until it must have been completed saturated. The result was that in a few weeks the military leader was entirely restored to health and was again able to take the field. Since that time the pool has been generally known as the "Baths of Escobedo," and the natives come from far and wide to lave in its waters, as well as to thoroughly cleanse anything of a textile nature that needs renovation, with the least possible outlay of time and labor. And of such is the bath that "El Gringo" was invited to enjoy by his friends in Cuatro Cienegas ! And did enjoy it many times ! It is well worth traveling hundreds of miles ! JJmeteent?) TRAGIC ENDING OF A TRANQUIL SUMMER ND then suddenly, unexpectedly, with no premonition, no warning, like the shock of an earthquake, came the tragic ending of these peaceful, rest- ful months. One whose life has flowed on evenly, steadily, with none but the usual incidents in regu- lar and natural order, can have no idea of what it means to be shocked by the sudden and unheralded announcement of the violent death of one's closest associate, who but a few short days previously had been in the best of health ; had bidden his companion a hearty good-bye; who had a family whom he loved and by whom he was in turn adored; who was comparatively young and who had from every outward indication a long life of business success and happiness before him. And when the truth about that death is a mystery and must always remain so, despite close and careful investigation, 112 TRAGIC ENDING OF A SUMMER 113 the shock is all the greater and its effects all the more lasting. They never pass away, but ever re- main as a dark cloud in the memory. It was on a lovely, peaceful, quiet Sunday after- noon. The plaza was thronged, as the band was about to begin its regular musical program, under the direction, by the way, of an expert musician whose name is attached to some of the most popu- lar airs in Mexico, but whose unfortunate failings the failings of a genius had doomed him to an obscure existence in this out-of-the-way place. I had been sitting ever since the close of the siesta hour on my favorite settee, idly watching the passing throng, receiving and exchanging saluta- tions, and never dreaming that my summer's idyll was close to an abrupt end. Some sudden impulse prompted me to cross the street and pay a call upon Don Martin at his residence something I had never before done on a Sunday in all the time I had resided here. I had not been in the patio five minutes before the telephone bell in the entrance to the house rang, and my host answered it. I heard an exclamation of surprise, then a hurried conversation in agitated tones, and then Don Martin came back to where I was sitting and stood speechless for a moment or 114 SEEN IN A MEXICAN PLAZA two. Glancing at his face, I saw a look of con- sternation upon it and noted that he was greatly disturbed for some reason. He hesitated a few moments and then said: "Oh, Senor Semanas, I have some very bad news for you! I do not know how to tell it. It is shocking." "Tell me quickly," I replied. "Bad news is best told at once. I am used to it." As indeed I was, and was to become even more inured in the com- ing years. "Your partner out on the desert is dead shot! He killed himself or was killed early this morning at his camp on the Fortuna hacienda, a hundred miles out. The Judge at Ocampo has just received the news and asked me to tell you." Further conversation over the telephone with the official in the town named, over forty miles distant, disclosed the fact that the Chinese cook, who was the only person with the dead man at the time, was under arrest, while stoutly maintaining his inno- cence of crime and declaring that it was a case of suicide, though he acknowledged he heard but did not see the fatal shot fired. But there was no reason why the victim should have wished to end his life. Indeed, the reasons were all of an opposite TRAGIC ENDING OF A SUMMER 115 character; he had every inducement to cling closely to existence. No amount of investigation, however, disclosed anything to contradict the story of the Chinaman, and as there were no other witnesses, he was finally discharged from custody at my request, though I was required to give a bond to produce him at any time if further investigation should be deemed de- sirable. Nothing however was ever done in the matter, and the case went into the same category with the many other mysteries of the desert wher- ever there is a desert, in the United States as well as elsewhere. No region is so prolific of the un- solved problems of human life and death. But the tragedy necessitated changes which soon put an end to my stay in Cuatro Cienegas, and it was with genuine regret that I gave up my familiar seat under the china-berry tree, paid farewell visits to my friends, and finally left the place which had so endeared itself to me, and undertook a long and arduous journey via muleback among the fastnesses of the Sierra Madre and the jungles of the West Coast little known regions and which it is in- tended to deal with at length in another volume. 3La*t of tfte A PEON WOMAN'S PHILOSOPHY AND IDEAS OF WEALTH N connection with the tragic end of my sojourn in Cuatro Cienegas, an in- teresting incident occurred illustrat- ing the character of the despised peon (only despised by those who do not know him or her). During all my stay in the town my laundry work had been -per formed by a poor woman of the peon class the last person to whom any one would credit the possession of any depth of feeling. To her, when turning over at her request the blood-stained effects of the dead man, and which she eagerly wel- comed, I casually remarked in discussing the details of the tragedy, that a sum of money in which I was equal owner had disappeared at the death of my associate. I had no intention whatever of com- plaining or bemoaning the loss, but merely men- tioned it as an interesting and perhaps suspicious 116 A PEON WOMAN'S PHILOSOPHY 117 circumstance in connection with the mystery. But she evidently thought I was lamenting my monetary misfortune, for she looked at me a moment in silence and apparent surprise, not unmixed with re- proach. Then she said: "Why, Sefior, you ought not to complain because you have lost some money, no matter how much! Your companion lost all he had his life!" Could any one equal that for sympathy or philosophy? I hastened to disabuse her mind of the idea that I had any thought of complaining, for even though she was but a peon, I assuredly wished to justify myself in her eyes and not leave her with a wrong impression as to my feelings regarding the death of my associate. This same laundress, Maria was her name, had taken advantage of the fact that she had a "regu- lar" patron who always paid "C. O. D." for her services, and essayed to purchase a sewing machine, that ultima thule of the average Mexican housewife's ambition, obtaining it upon the "installment" plan. This is a serious task for a peon, since the un- conscionable price of $140 was demanded therefor by the agent of the only company of the kind that has obtained much of a foothold in that country. And when it is remembered that at the time of 118 SEEN IN A MEXICAN PLAZA which I write a dollar a day was considered good wages for an able-bodied man, while the average in the Cuatro Cienegas section was not fifty cents a day, one can see what a burden was assumed when an agreement was made to buy a sewing machine on monthly payments of even five dollars. It was Maria's custom to come to me the first of each month when the installment fell due and ask me to advance the five dollars necessary to discharge her liability, the amount so advanced to be deducted from that subsequently earned over, not the wash board, but the wash stone. This went on satisfactorily until she had made a very ma- terial reduction in her indebtedness. But when the time came that I was to leave she was sorely puzzled. It chanced to be just as an installment was due, and Maria came to me about it. I told her that I could not advance the money, as I was only to be in town a week longer and she would not have sufficient opportunity to earn the amount, while I could not afford to lose it. "Oh, but that makes no difference to you, Senor. You are very rich and I am very poor, and you can afford to lose so small an amount as five dollars." "Why, Maria," I replied, "I am not rich. I am poorer than you think. I have very little." A PEON WOMAN'S PHILOSOPHY 119 "Oh, no, Senor," she replied, "I know you are very rich !" "Now, Maria, that is not so. You are very much mistaken. But how rich do you think I am ? How much do you think I gain in a month?" She gave me a long look of appraisal, studied me from head to foot, hesitated for a moment, evi- dently concluded to venture the maximum, and then said: "Very well, Senor. I think you must have as much as a hundred pesos a month!" (The equiva- lent of fifty dollars in American currency.) This was manifestly the uttermost limit of her idea as to what constituted great wealth. And no wonder. For in this town the average public em- ployee or store worker considered himself fortunate indeed if he received from $40 to $50 per month, and the common peon did not average 50 cents a day the year round worth half that in gold. Maria got her five dollars! And so passed the summer's idyll of an idle summer. 120 SEEN IN A MEXICAN PLAZA THE LEAVE-TAKING My friend Don Martin was kind enough to say to me when we parted: "Senor Semanas, I wish to tell you something. Every one of my fellow- countrymen for a hundred miles around Cuatro Cienegas knows you, and they all call you 'El Gringo/ They do not do this to show disrespect, but because you are the only stranger in the place, and your name is difficult for them to pronounce (they spoke it as if it were spelled Huiquis in- deed some wrote it that way). So they content themselves by calling you as I have said. But every one in all this region likes you and is your friend, because you have treated them as if they were men." Incidentally, I may add that this is all any Mexi- can asks. Printed in the United States of America