1899 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
857 
Events of the Week. 
DOMESTIC.—A tidal wave November 22 swept away 550 
feet of the wharf at Bear Harbor, Cal., drowning two 
men. . . The Willingham bill, providing for State pro¬ 
hibition, was passed by the Georgia House of Represen¬ 
tatives November 22. If it passes the Senate and becomes 
a law it means total prohibition in the State of Georgia. 
. . A gas explosion in a railway subway at Canal Street 
and Broadway, New York City, November 23, killed one 
man and injured nine others. The principal property 
damage was broken glass, amounting to about $5,000. The 
explosion was caused by laborers breaking into a four- 
inch gas main. . . All the union men employed on the 
Northwestern Elevated road in Chicago have gone out 
on strike. A fight between strikers and non-union men 
November 23 resulted in the free use of revolvers. . . 
A new farmhouse near Salamanca, N. Y., was destroyed 
by dynamite November 22. The explosive was stored in 
the pantry, in readiness for use in blowing up stumps, 
and it is supposed that the explosion was caused by mice 
gnawing it. The entire building was wrecked while the 
family were absent. . . A destructive fire occurred in 
a wholesale dry goods house at Detroit, Mich., November 
24. The damage amounted to $250,000. . . Sergeant 
William Anthony, the marine who announced to Capt. 
Sigsbee that the Maine was sinking, immediately after 
the explosion, committed suicide in New York November 
24. He had left the Navy, after serving through the 
Cuban campaign, and was out of work and despondent. 
. . W. F. Miller, the “financier,” who has been receiving 
vast sums for investment from poor people, promising 
them returns of 520 per cent, has disappeared, after be¬ 
ing indicted for fraud. He left behind him $8,520 in cash, 
which is held by the police. His safe contained nothing 
but memorandums. Since Miller’s disappearance, 1,5U0 
pieces of mail, including $12,000 in money orders, payable 
to the “syndicate,” have been received at the Brooklyn 
Dost Office. Several other similar concerns in New 
York, Brooklyn, and adjacent cities have been closed by 
the police. One of these, “White’s Bureau,” operating 
In the New York Cotton Exchange, got away with about 
$200,000. . . An epidemic of smallpox has broken out in 
Kentucky; 500 cases are reported from one town. . . 
Claims by American citizens for damages during the 
Spanish War aggregate $25,000,000. . . A portion of the 
town of Cotulia, Tex., was washed away by a cloudburst 
November 24; two lives lost. Much damage was done to 
live stock and ranch property. . . Ingham and Newitl, 
the two Philadelphia lawyers concerned in a vast con¬ 
spiracy to defraud the Government by means of counter¬ 
feit x-evenue stamps, were each sentenced November 24 
to pay a fine of $1, the minimum, and to spend two years 
and six months in jail. . . A street car in Springfield. 
111., was wrecked with dynamite, supposedly by strikers, 
November 24. . . The bending shed at the Charlestown 
Navy Yard, near Boston, Mass., was burned November 
25; loss $75,000. . . A house near Fountain Park, O., was 
wrecked by dynamite and two persons killed November 
25. A stick of dynamite had been placed under the 
kitchen stove to dry. . . Representative Ovei'street, of 
Indiana, acting for the committee appointed by the Re¬ 
publican caucus of the Fifty-fifth Congress, has pre¬ 
pared a new currency bill, to be submitted to the Fifty- 
sixth Congress, which meets December 4. The bill makes 
the gold dollar the legal standard; provides for the parity 
of all forms of money; regulates the issue of subsidiary 
silver coin; changes the tax on bank circulation, and 
permits the establishment of smaller banks. 
PHIDIPPINES.—A force from Iloilo routed the insur¬ 
gents at Jaro November 22, killing 18 and captux-ing seven, 
together with four small cannon and several thousand 
x-ounds of ammunitioxx. . . The Spanish authorities are 
again asking whether efforts are being made for the re¬ 
lease of Spanish captives. . . The wrecked cruiser 
Charleston has slipped out of sight, into deep water, and 
all hope of saving her is abandoned. . . November 25, 
the entire Province of Zamboanga, Minaaxxao, surrendered 
unconditionally; Aguinaldo’s son has been captured. The 
insurgent leader is still in flight. The remnant of the in¬ 
surgent army is short of food and ammunition; Gen. Otis 
thinks that they do not number over 1,000. They are de¬ 
serting fast. Four American deserters are with the 
rebels, one being a captain of insurgent artillery. . . 
The transport Manauense arrived at Manila November 
28, after an adventurous voyage from San Francisco. 
For the last 12 days the soldiers of the Thirty-first Vol¬ 
unteers were compelled to work day and night in water 
waist deep, bailing the ship to keep her afloat. The en 
gines broke down, lights went out, and food was limited. 
CUBA.—The workingmen's clubs of Puerto Principe 
have addressed r petition to the Civil Governor, asking 
for work. They beg that the Government supply work 
to keep 2,000 men and their families from starvation. . . 
Disquieting rumors are published concernixxg the attitude 
of many Cubans, who are said to be planning a revolt 
against American authority. The Government, however, 
does not attach any importance to such rumors. Many 
Americans think that the threatened revolt will occur 
unless Congress gives definite assurance of Cuban in¬ 
dependence. 
GENERAL FOREIGN NEWS.—The German farmers in 
the Greytown district of Natal have rejected the Boer 
ultimatum to swear allegiance or to quit their farms, 
and have defied the Boers to oust them from their home¬ 
steads. The Boers are looting property wherever they 
go. Gen. Lord Methuen’s column, advancing to the re- 
lief of Kimberley, attacked the Boers at Belmont No¬ 
vember 23. The Boers wei'e strongly intrenched, but 
were defeated with heavy loss, the British loss being 58 
killed and 150 wounded. There was the usual heavy loss 
of British officers, three being killed and 22 wounded. 
November 25 Gen. Methuen again defeated the Boei-s ne» 
yond Belmont. . . The rising of the Dervishes in the 
Soudan resulted in a fierce battle at Omdebrikat Novem¬ 
ber 25. The Anglo-Egyptian troops, under Col. Win¬ 
gate, won an important victoi'y. The Khalifa, who has 
held sway since the death of the Mahdi in 1885, was 
killed. All his principal emirs were killed or captured 
except Osman Digna, and 9,000 men, women and children 
surrendered. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—An official report to the Ger¬ 
man government denounces charges against the Ameri¬ 
can system of trichinae inspection, as carried out in Chi¬ 
cago and elsewhere, which it declares reliable. 
In Routt County, Col., 3,000 sheep were clubbed to death 
on the range by cattlemen November 19. Several years 
ago the sheep and cattlemen fixed the Wyoming-Colo- 
rado line as a boundary that the sheep were not to cross. 
This flock had been driven across the line in violation of 
the agreement, and 50 masked men, taking the law into 
their own hands, destroyed the sheep, after putting the 
herders under guard. The sheep owners have no redress, 
as it will fie impossible to get testimony in their favor. 
At the Delaware State Fair, F. W. Soper, of Magnolia, 
received The R. N.-Y. special premium offered for the 
best specimens of the commercial fruits of the Maryland 
and Delaware peninsula. 
A meeting of the Williamson County (Texas) Farmers’ 
Institute was held November 15, for the purpose of per¬ 
fecting plans for the establishment of a cotton factory 
in that county. The prominent farmers are uniting with 
business men to further this project. 
A sugar-beet factory is to be erected near Rocky Ford. 
Col., and farmers in that vicinity are said to be enthusi¬ 
astic over the project. 
The Warren County (Pa.) Poultry and Pet Stock As¬ 
sociation will hold its first annual exhibition at Warren 
January 9-13, 1900. F. B. Zimmer and Theo. Johnson will 
place awards. 
W. H. Moore, of St. Louis, Mo., president of the Inter¬ 
state Good Roads’ Association, has been making a tour 
of Texas in the interests of the good roads’ movement. 
It is understood that the reason the United States Post 
Office Department has established but two rural mail 
delivery routes in Texas is the generally bad condition 
of the country roads. 
The National Live Stock Association will meet at Fort 
Worth, Tex., January 16, 1900. A very large meeting is 
expected. Secretary Wilson will deliver an address, and 
L. G. Powers, chief statistician of the Department of 
Agriculture, will discuss The Classified Census of Live 
Stock. 
Australia will, this year, have sufficient wheat to export 
3,000,000 bushels. 
New York State Commissioner of Agriculture Wieting 
seized 16 cases of oleo at Buffalo November 27. It was 
found in the possession of a commission merchant, who 
faid that it had been shipped by a Chicago firm as reno¬ 
vated butter. Chemical analysis showed it to be oleo. 
The commission man was returning the stuff to the 
shippers when it was seized. Conviction would render 
the shipper or seller liable to a fine of $16,000. 
A company with $50,000 capital has been incorporated 
under the laws of Delaware, for the purpose of raising 
fruit in Porto Rico. It has bought a Porto Rico planta¬ 
tion of more than 1,000 acres, to which Florida orange 
trees will be transferred. Oranges, grape fruit, lemons 
and limes will be grown. 
During the week ending November 25 Chicago markets 
received 61,400 cattle, the total number for November be¬ 
ing 226,000, the largest number for this month since 1894. 
Receipts of sheep during the month, 305,000, are lai'ger 
than ever before received during November. Heavy re¬ 
ceipts of half-fed cattle lowered prices, but prime finished 
beeves sold for the highest prices of the year, $7.15 per 
100 pounds, while many loads brought between $6.65 and 
$7 per 100 pounds. _ 
AGRICULTURE IN MEXICO. 
CURIOUS COUNTRY AND CURIOUS PRACTICES. 
The Laborer Settles the Work Question. 
QUEER MIX-UP.—Mexico extends something like 
2,000 miles from north to south, and her agricultural 
planes are from sea level to 8,000 feet above it. 
Where a district should be hot by reason of its 
southerly location, it is perhaps cold in consequence 
of its altitude. Altitude has a more immediate effect 
on vegetation than latitude, and where a valley 
farmer is raising coffee and bananas, with like hot- 
country produce, his three-mile-away neighbor to the 
south is raising grains and fruits that need a breath 
of frost once a year. Frequently one man will own 
a tract so varied in climate that he will raise semi- 
tropical crops aJt one end and fully tropical crops at 
the other. 
POOR FOOD.—Here, no one experiments with what 
will grow; the point is, what crop can be grown the 
cheapest, and then sold easily at a profit. It has not 
yet become the fashion to eat well in Mexico, even 
in families who can afford if. In the States you take 
a bottle of wine (?) to top off a fine meal, while here 
we take it to make good a poor one. I know of gar¬ 
deners here who raise fine vegetables, but it costs so 
much to find customers for them, who will pay the 
extra cost of px*oduction, that many get discouraged 
before a demand is created. 
I once asked a country boy what he had for dinner. 
He thought this a great joke, and repeated it to lus 
companions. The chances are that that boy had 
never dined on anything except beans and corn, with 
chili (red peppers) to taste, since he had taken to 
solid foods. As all marketing throughout the Re¬ 
public is done at the open market stalls, it is an easy 
matter to learn what people live on nere, from the 
tropical levels to the high plateaus. When a bas¬ 
ket passes you at these markets it may have a few 
potatoes, tomatoes, or a cabbage, but is sure to have 
corn, beans anu chili. The “good eating” fashion has 
not struck Mexico yet; not because of lack of taste, 
but because of the lack of good cooks for the dishes 
other than those which all servants know how to 
prepare, and it is infinitely easier to like corn and 
beans than to struggle with peon intelligence. All 
new housewives protest against this slipshod method 
of housekeeping, on their arrival from abroad, but 
the ease with which any servant, man, woman, boy or 
girl that happens along can arrange you a nice (?) 
meal of hot frijoles refritos, with a pile of crisp tor¬ 
tillas (corn and beans), a good seasoning of chili and 
a cup of thick chocolate, makes one feel that there are 
other things to give our time to besides cooking any¬ 
way. 
THE “HIRED MAN” BOSS.—As the house-ser¬ 
vant’s knowledge governs the housekeeping methods, 
so does the field-hand’s knowledge, or lack of it, gov¬ 
ern the farm work. Better plowing can be done with 
an all-steel plow 'than with a steel-tipped log dragged 
through the ground a few inches below the surface, 
but it takes but one hand to keep the log from rolling, 
and the laborer’s other hand works the ox-goad. 
Where you use oxen in the States, it takes two men 
to each yoke to do the plowing. Your way is better, 
but in many kinds of soil, is It so much better as to 
offset the expense of extra man and the extra cost of 
plow? A plow that will cost you $10 gold sells here 
for $30 silver, and crops are sold for silver also, while 
yours are sold for gold. You may wonder why we 
don’t use mules or horses, and with the lines over the 
plowman’s neck, let one man do the plowing, but 
draft animals heavy enough to run a plow such as 
you use are too expensive to be considered by most 
farmers. Thousands of steel plows are used in por¬ 
tions of Mexico to good advantage, and animals are 
raised 'in those sections that are suited to do the 
plowing, but I am speaking of the country in general. 
FARM LABOR QUESTION—The farm laborers are 
a migratory set; if not moving far, they move often, 
and the money, work and patience expended on a set 
of men to place one crop by some new method of cul¬ 
tivation might easily offset the profits on it, while the 
next crop would have to be set by another new lot of 
men, and it is seldom that a farmer is possessed with 
the spirit of improvement, and has at the same time 
the cash capital to back it at a loss year after year, 
until his community is fully instructed. On large 
estates, where towns exist on the very premises, and 
families are raised to live and die on them, the mod¬ 
ern improvements can be worked in to advantage, 
and are, but small farming has to take up with cur¬ 
rent labor, which is scarce at 37 cents to 40 cents sil¬ 
ver per day, with working hours generally from 6 
a. m. to 6 p. m., with intermissions amounting to 2 y 2 
hours. The labor question here is the doubtful factor 
of all field work; it is as fickle as your weather. We 
know with certainty what our to-morrow’s weather is 
to be by looking at the calendar, with the same cer¬ 
tainty as you rely on your laborer turning up for 
work, while we can no more rely on our farm hand 
turning up than you can on your weather. 
His condition is so reduced that the loss of a day 
or two’s pay is of little matter to him. He knows that 
your opinion of his stability is so low that one or 
more promise broken cannot matter, and then again, 
he knows that the man you get in his place is pre¬ 
cisely of his opinion and make-up. When ready, he 
comes back, and if you want a man you take him, too. 
His masters for the past hundreds of years have de¬ 
prived him of any home or any semblance of com¬ 
fort, and have found out how much work he can do 
on how few ounces of corn and beans. His blanket 
is his sole protection from the elements, and it little 
matters to him where he spreads it. He believes that 
his future will be as his past has been. He knows 
that he can earn no more, and will die if he gets less, 
so his masters will not give him less, as they need 
him. No implements, no improved seed, no scientific 
knowledge of farming can be considered without con¬ 
sidering first this great factor of the independence of 
the peon labor. His forefathers, having never been 
praised nor paid extra for competent or hard work, 
he is instinctively void of ambition to please. He 
can’t see why he should—why should he? If he has 
money to live a few days without working, he does 
not work. To raise his wages provides him with this 
money to live a few days free after pay-day. Prob¬ 
ably nothing describes his position in the world bet¬ 
ter than to say he has no pockets in his clothes. He 
wears a peaked straw hat, and in this peak he car¬ 
ries his cigarettes and matches, wedged in by his 
bandanna handkerchief; with his blanket over his 
shoulder he is as independant as any millionaire the 
States can boast of. Two cents will buy him a half- 
dozen corn wafers that will keep his sash tight for 
half a day at least. Half-way poverty seems to worry 
and fret, but great wealth and great poverty seem to 
produce the same air of independence. The peon 
labor must be used in all farming, and the man who 
can best handle It succeeds best. Should we contract 
for a laborer to come from the States, his $30 a month 
gold would mean $60 a month silver. For $60 a month 
one can hire a superintendent for his farm, who can 
get more work out of a $12-a-month laborer than we 
could out of the imported laborer for $60 a month. 
MEXYANK. 
