June i, 1903.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



297 



"LA FLORENCIA. FINE STAND OF RUBBER TWO In FOUR VEARS OLD. 



skilful within certain narrow limits, but ignorant, superstitious, 

 and childlike. For instance, he can carry on his back almost 

 as much as an able bodied burro, but if he were to reach with 

 both hands up the branch of a tree over his head, he would find 

 it almost impossible to pull his chin up even with it. On the 

 other hand, he can use his machete, his constant companion, 

 in the most skilful manner, and tirelessly. For example, he 

 knows so thoroughly the texture and density of all tropical 

 vegetation, that he can cut his way through the forest with 

 scarcely a sound, grading each blow so as to exactly sever vine. 

 stalk, or limb, without waste of strength ; or if given a stint of 

 work in clearing weeds, or undergrowth with the machete, can 

 do more in half a day than any other laborer can in a day. The 

 axe men among them are not as common as the machete men, 

 but they too are exceeding skilful, wielding the straight han- 

 dled, broad bladed axe with marvelous ease, and felling a tree, 

 no matter how large it is, exactly where they wish. 



As a rule the natives are not well nourished, and seem to 

 have more sickness than do the foreign residents. Indeed, the 

 stories of yellow fever that come to us relate more to the native 

 workman than to any other people. Strange as it may seem also- 

 the workmen from the hill country when they get down in the 

 hot countriesare very apt to die of pneumonia. The mozo with- 

 al is an unpractical sort of a chap, and whiie he knows it, he 

 doesn't seem to care to change. I heard a planter point out to 

 one of them that if he stayed on his own allotment, and worked, 

 he would in three months raise $15 worth of corn ; on the other 

 hand if he worked that three months for the planter, he would 

 get $60 and all the corn he wanted. The native acknowledged 

 the force of the argument, hut didn't see his way clear to change 

 his habits. Thev are a very serious people, as a rule, except 

 when full of aguardiente; then they become rather boastful, 

 and are sometimes quarrelsome. 



A pretty custom of the country is the greeting that they al- 

 ways give the traveler, and usually each other when they meet. 

 In the morning it is " buenos dias," and in the afternoon " buenos 

 tarde," and in the evening, " buenos noches." 



The mozo is essentially a religious being, and his impulses 

 find ample scope in the thirty- five Jiestas, or feast days, that have 

 been provided for him. He usually patronizes at least two of 

 these, and oftentimes many more, and spends every cent he has 

 on aguardiente and mescal. The result is he gets conspicuous- 

 ly drunk and stays so as long as he can. Such a thing as a 

 mozo having money ahead is unknown. On the contrary he is 

 usually in debt. The planters therefore, when they hire them, 

 purchase this debt, which sometimes runs as high as $200. and 

 also promise the man a certain advance to be spent at the next 

 fiesta. The average wage is from 62 1 . cents a day up to about 



A PLANTATION 

 VILLAGE. 



75 cents a day, and found. This as a rule includesthree drinks 

 of aguardiente a day. Some of the planters have secured 

 negroes direct from the United States and from Jamaica. These 

 get about 75 cents a day, and found, except when railroad con- 

 tractors tempt them off by offering them from $2 to $5 a day. 

 But to return to " La Junta." 



We rode for a long distance through the rubber, and finally, 

 ascending a steep hill, found ourselves in the main street of the 

 plantation village. Here was concentrated the 

 life of the place, and the scene certainly was a 

 busy one. Of the thirty or more native houses 

 of bamboo and palm thatched, several were rapidly being 

 turned into frame dwellings with tiled roofs, and built to stay. 

 Beyond these was the long one story dwelling house of the 

 general manager and his baker's dozen of active young Ameri- 

 can assistants. Then came the store, stocked with as large a 

 variety of goods as any village emporium could boast, and then a 

 two story building, the lower part of which was the general din- 

 ing hall, and the upper the office of general manager and field 

 superintendent. On the opposite side of the street was the 

 carpenter's and blacksmith's shop, the stables, etc. 



The active head of affairs, Mr. George Mann, caught sight of 

 us almost as soon as we arrived, and not only bade us to sup- 

 per, but insisted that we stay over night. This we decided to 

 do, rather than to ride the trai 1 after nightfall. He then intro- 

 duced us to his staff, or such of them as were not absent, and 

 Messrs. Kramer, Hill, Zimmerman, Shufeldt, Sleister, and Dr. 

 Erwin, all young, active, and friendly, who, together with their 

 capable chief, will long linger in my memory as types of Amer- 

 icans that are so effectually conquering the tropical wilderness. 

 Dr. Erwin, by the way, is physician and surgeon for the planta- 

 tion, and Mr. Shufeldt is the son of Commodore Shufeldt of the 

 United States navy, who surveyed the route for the Tehuante- 

 pec ship canal (or the United States government some years 

 ago. Mr. S'eister I bad already met, as he was on the train 

 that bore me to Achotal. I did not see much of him, however, 

 as he had a carload of Tennessee negroes in charge to deliver 

 to " La Junta ; " and as one or two of them were " bad coons," 

 and as liquor was abundant at every stopping place, his hands 

 were full most of the time. Bv the exercise of much patience 

 and tact, and by wearing a huge Mauser revolver while in their 

 company, he finally got them all safely there. 



There was still enough of daylight to have a look around, so 

 we visited the various shops, together with the sawmill, brick- 

 yard, and waterworks, inspected the native quarters, and got 

 back just as supper was announced. We spent the evening in 

 the assembly room of the officers, smoking big black Mexican 

 cigars that have no harmful effect in that climate, but would be 



