Page:Our Sister Republic - Mexico.djvu/399

Rh that you throw yourself upon her protection, and you may be sure that she will risk her own life, honor, everything in fact, to protect you.

In this fact is found the ready explanation of the escape of so many revolutionists after their defeat by the Government. The most detested wretch on the earth can appeal to the women of Mexico for food and shelter, and it will be given him. To refuse either, would be in the eyes of a Mexican woman, an unpardonable sin against God and humanity, and thus it is that men like Marguez, who have committed murders and other crimes without number, almost invariably escape justice, and succeed in reaching a foreign shore. A prisoner sentenced for a long term, applied to me to say a good word for him to the authorities, and a Mexican lady, who accompanied me at the moment, urged me to comply.

"But he is a rascal and an enemy of your family!" I said.

"Oh Señor, that is true, but he is sick and in prison, pobrecito!" was the only reply.

She is a better Christian than I.

The Mexican servants in the City of Mexico are a peculiar class. They earn but a fraction of what we in the United States would call a salary—say from three to fifteen dollars per month, five or six dollars being a fair average. They often remain several years in a family, and many of them, in fact, are born, raised, and die in the same house, and in the family of their first master. With foreigners, they are generally a little less reliable than when serving native masters, probably, because they are less closely watched, and their employers, being less familiar with their habits and peculiarities, are less able to protect themselves from their