Page:The Present State of Peru.djvu/97

Rh eternally clad in a wretched poncho ; habituated to a coarse and sparing diet; lodged in wretched huts; and unceasingly exposed to the inclemencies of the weather in climes of unusual rigour:—men, I say, of this description, are stiled prodigals,- if they celebrate their saint's day with the harp and the guittar, or put on decent clothes when they pay a visit to the capital! The times are past, when the flourishing and adventurous miner was wont to stake a bar of silver, of the value of a hundred marks, on the hazard of a die; and when the simple overseer entered the mine with a flute and violins. The passions which in a city absorb a capital, are gratified in a mine by a sack of potatoes, and a jacket of English baize."

REPLY OF THICIO ANTROPOPHOBO.

"I do not know whether I ought to announce myself by saying, I have the honour to be a miner, or whether I should pronounce, with all humility, I am a miner, craving your pardon. By the different degrees of estimation in which the world holds those of my profession, it would appear that the two phrases are equally appropriate. Not an opulent merchant is to be found who does not speak of us with the utmost contempt. The poor envy our lot, and the prospects which lie before us. The man of letters treats us as uncouth rustics. We are flattered by the courtier, and by the ladies. In Europe we are considered as the arbiters of the riches of the earth; while in America we are regarded as a species similar to that of the negroes at the mint, who sweat and grow old in coining for