Page:Face to Face With the Mexicans.djvu/437

Rh be compelled to tell me such absolute truths. A sharp neuralgic pain in her face brought forth a moan and a sigh, when she explained that for a whole year she had never been able to go for one day without the handkerchief on her head.

I asked her if she knew President Diaz.

"Who? Porfirio? I don't know him personally, but he has the reputation of being a very good and brave man; but—he has already been married twice."

I could only infer that his bravery and courage would vanish, if he should ever try matrimony again. I never found either a man or woman of that class, who spoke of the president by any other than his Christian name.

The lavandera is an important outside servant. Owing to the construction of the houses, in part, and to the fact of the water being conveyed to them from the city fountains, washing is rarely done on the premises.

The lavanderas also have their own rules and regulations, and are as rigid in exacting the observance of them by their subordinates and satellites as any other class.

In some cities and towns the lavandera is not also the planchadora. She does not even starch the clothes, but is supplied with soap for the washing. At those places presided over by a patrona, the contract is taken for all, but the custom is to charge by the piece and never by the dozen. But in the smaller towns and cities she will receive a real a dozen for washing alone, having soap furnished.

When she returns them, the planchadora comes, counts, and, on being supplied with starch and coal or wood, again takes them away to finish the job. There is, however, an agreeable offset to all this—the planchadora is also the apuntar; she mends carefully every article requiring it before taking her work home. At the capital there are laundries inside the houses where lavanderas may go and rent, for a medio a day, a compartment of brick in which the water flows from a fountain.