Page:Mexico of the Mexicans.djvu/57

Rh and distress as among the submerged tenth of the lower quarters of Mexican cities and towns. It is only about forty years since Mexico city was infested by some 20,000 leperos or lazzaroni, whose laziness constituted a social pest which had to be done away with by special legislation. It was a truly beneficent law which enacted that all vagrants must work or suffer imprisonment; and if the cure has not proved a radical one, it has at least mitigated the nuisance, to say nothing of the menace, to society of a large unproductive population. But beggars, the maimed, the halt, and the blind still swarm in the cities and make their appeal at every street corner. These wretches seem to be regarded by the comfortable classes as less than human, and the gulf between them is so wide, that in some Mexican towns the central plaza has two paved footpaths—the inner for the upper classes and the outer for the native people!

Trades and callings are almost hereditary in Mexico. As one who has specialised in the subject of Mexican antiquities, I am inclined to believe that this is a remnant of ancient caste practice, for there are signs that such was observed in Ancient Mexico. Thus if a man is a tailor, all his sons usually become tailors. The same thing applies to localities. Nearly every district has its industry—pottery, basket-making, cotton-spinning, or what not; and practically every soul in the community adheres to the local activity. Towns or villages situated close to one another do not compete in trade, but, as if by common consent, adopt separate industries.

Of the standard trades—the carpenters, masons, tailors, butchers—I do not intend to speak, as these display practically the same idiosyncrasies in all lands. It will be more to the purpose to describe those trades which are purely Mexican in character, leaving the more stately "industries" of the country for treatment in the chapter upon "Mexican Commerce and Finance."