1894 
Orizaba 
(Vera Cruz) 
January 
The father of these girls is of evident Indian extraction (also the 
mother) but they now speak pityingly of the ignorant Indiana of the 
villages and are counted as Mexicans* He is a wood dealer and an honest, 
hard working man who, with little or no education himself, is anxious 
that his children should have education. As a result, two of his daughters 
are school teachers, getting #25. a month which is considered to be good 
pay. The home life of these people is very simple. The daughters and 
a cousin living with the family do the work each having a specified task 
to attend to. The table is set in an open corridor and as we pass out 
to oar meals and salute the family, each t im e we are asked with the usual 
polite formula if we would like something with them. The family retire 
early and rise at about 8 to S *50. The daughters have very plain common 
calico house dresses which are exclusively worn at home and no effort is 
made to dress for the mere sake of being neatly clad about the house. All 
effort of this kind is reserved exclusively for the street and this is 
apparently an almost universal custom. They are accustomed to powder and 
dress to a certain extent when they prepare to sit by the open window at 
the street to see and be seen, also) but this is the same as going abroad. 
While at Orizaba I looked up a resident collector named Toro who was 
said to have lived here many years and to know about the country, I found 
him to be a very ignorant fellow with no energy and a surprisingly small 
amount of information. 
Fortin 
(Vera Cruz) 
January 
January 30s Left; Orizaba and went down to Fortin about 8 miles east 
and a few hundred feet lower. At this latter place the mountains already 
open out and a long slope with for hills extends down toward the hot 
country. Here ooffee docs very well and some fine fields were soon. We 
were told that the coffee bushes here have a life of about 15 years. 
The Hacienda of Fortin is a fine well-kept plaoe in charge of an American. 
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