Page:Barbarous Mexico.djvu/266

234 "At Calle Violeta, however, the door-keeper at first refused the officers admission, only submitting when threatened with the arrest of every person in the house. Here young Juarez was found and was taken to the fifth comisaria for examination. As soon as his statement had been taken the arrest of Hernandez was ordered, and after his identification by the boy, the latter was set at liberty.

"Recounting his own adventure last night, young Juarez described the meeting in the Alameda and the exchange of clothing, and continued:

" 'After I entered the house I learned from one of the men who was already there that I had been fooled in the promise of pay at $1.50 as time-keeper in an alcohol factory, and when I asked the man with whom I had come if his promises were not correct he said that of course they were not and that I was to go to work as a peon on the Oaxaquena plantation at fifty cents per day. Then I asked him to let me go, as I did not want to do such work, but he would not let me leave the house, saying that I owed him five pesos for the clothes he had given me.

" 'Before that I had told him that I would have to ask my mother's permission before I could go. He told me he was in a great hurry, so I wrote her a note and gave it to him to be delivered. Later he told me my mother had read the note and had given her permission, but I have found out since that she never received it and was hunting for me at the time.

" 'I was given a peso and five cents as an advance on my pay and the next morning I was given twenty-five cents with which to buy food, which was sold in the house. All this money was charged up against me, to be paid after I went to work, as I learned before I left the place. Breakfast, which cost thirteen cents, consisted of chile and chicharrones (the crisp residue of dried-out pork fat), while dinner, a bowl of soup, cost twelve cents. There was no supper.

" 'After I was brought into the house there was brought in a man, and a woman who had a year-old baby with her. They are there yet. The people in the house still have my clothes, but I am pretty glad to get out of going to the hot country, anyway. I did not sign any sort of a contract. I did not even see one and I do not know whether the others in the place had signed