ADVENTURING DOWN THE WEST COAST OF MEXICO 



481 



CHARCOAL-BURNERS COMING INTO CULIACAN FROM THE MOUNTAINS 



One of the constant industries throughout Mexico is the burning of charcoal for use in the tiny 

 braziers so well adapted to the needs of the housewife in a semi-tropical climate. 



"We are coming home. Get out," the 

 Yaquis have said to many a Mexican 

 whose family had lived on a Yaqui valley 

 ranch for generations. Usually the Mex- 

 ican gets. 



If he does, the Yaquis give him orders 

 upon the Central Government at Mexico 

 City for the full value of the property, 

 for the Yaquis, according to their lights, 

 are honest and fair. 



If he does not leave — he always leaves. 



Recently the Mexican inhabitants have 

 abandoned the post-office towns of Potam, 

 Vicam, and Torin. Not a person not of 

 Yaqui blood now lives in them. A fourth 

 town. Bacum, is being slowly reclaimed. 



The Yaquis are riding nearer the su- 

 perb rice farms of Cajeme, operated by 

 Americans through sheer grit and stub- 

 bornness, during years when the Mexican 

 Government could not protect them, and 

 their own government would not. The 

 American settlements at Esperanza, 

 where one of the greatest modern irriga- 

 tion works in Mexico is in operation, are 



likewise being visited. Not threatened; 

 just visited. 



SILVER BULLION LEFT UNGUARDED IN THE 

 STREETS OE SAN BLAS 



In San Bias, Sinaloa, a hand-organ be- 

 gan to purvey mournful sounds, and a 

 dry-river prospector and I drifted after 

 it. He really liked the music. He had 

 been up in the hills so long, where the 

 music is that of dawn and dynamite, and 

 the morning stars singing together and 

 evening burros braving, that it sounded 

 like grand opera to him. 



Back in California he has a large house 

 filled with servants and guests in morning, 

 afternoon, and evening clothes. 



The street sights drew me. A very 

 handsome woman sat in the dust, her back 

 against the wall, a little knee-high stand 

 in front of her. She sold oranges at 

 three for a cent, or some such trivial 

 price. One of her eyes had been blacked, 

 her feet were bare, and a rounded shoul- 

 der showed through the rents in her 

 pown. 



