216 CHRISTIE. 



public market, nor is there any other place where a stock of 

 stone articles is kept for sale. I know of only one person in 

 the town who might be called a broker or middleman in dispos- 

 ing of stone articles. This is a decrepit old woman, widow of 

 a stone worker, who is reported to have done at one time a con- 

 siderable trade in paving stones from San Esteban. Her 

 business is said to have greatly fallen off because of the slack- 

 ness of the demand for these articles. She is said in times past 

 to have sent sailing vessels loaded with them to Vigan and 

 Manila. 



Occasionally a buyer comes to San Esteban with the intention 

 of purchasing stone articles to the value of 50 or 100 pesos, 

 but in such cases he usually has to wait in the town for two or 

 three weeks until the workers have made the required amount. 

 No one keeps a large stock on hand. During the past four 

 months two men have come to the town to buy stone articles 

 wholesale. One was a man from Narvakan, Ilokos Sur, who is 

 reported to buy 50 pesos worth of mortars annually. This year 

 it is said that he intends to take them by boat to Zambales Prov- 

 ince. The other was a man from Pangasinan, whose usual 

 business is said to be horse-dealing. I was told that he pur- 

 chased between 100 and 150 pesos worth of mortars. Each 

 of these men had to wait two or three weeks for the order to be 

 filled. Sometimes a San Esteban man who is going to Panga- 

 sinan to work in the rice-fields takes one or two rice-mortars 

 with him for sale, and there have been cases of corn-mills being 

 taken by San Esteban men to Kagayan. If hearsay is to be be- 

 lieved, small sailing vessels are sometimes sent down the coast 

 with cargoes of stone, but as far as I know, aside from the 

 old woman mentioned above, no one makes a business of dispos- 

 ing of the stone products of San Esteban. 



Stonecutters at San Esteban are not in the habit of working 

 for wages. When a man's other work is slack, he makes an arti- 

 cle or two, the stone for which is brought to his house, where 

 he can work at it intermittently. On completion, the articles 

 are left lying around the yard until a purchaser comes along. 

 When a wholesale buyer, that is, a man who wishes to spend 

 from 50 to 100 pesos, comes to the town, he passes the word 

 ai-ound that he wants to buy such and such articles, and those 

 are made and brought to him by the workers until he has enough. 

 He often advances part of the price to men who state that they 

 will bring him their work. Sometimes he gives a present of 

 a peso or two to the most influential man among the stone 

 workers for the sake of his influence with the others. 



