Across the Andes . it is cut open and graded, the history maybe read in the successive layers; this days sapwas gathered in the rain, the paler, sourer colorshowing that water had trickled down the barkand into the little cups; the dirt and tiny chipsshow that this day was windy; and there in thedarker oxidization of the layer, is revealed thefact of a Sunday, a fiesta or drunken rest beforethe succeeding layer was added. Sometimes as the batalon of the patron makesits regular trip for collection, nothing will be THROUGH RUBBER COUNTRY 333 found but a gummy residue of burned rubber,a rectangle
Across the Andes . it is cut open and graded, the history maybe read in the successive layers; this days sapwas gathered in the rain, the paler, sourer colorshowing that water had trickled down the barkand into the little cups; the dirt and tiny chipsshow that this day was windy; and there in thedarker oxidization of the layer, is revealed thefact of a Sunday, a fiesta or drunken rest beforethe succeeding layer was added. Sometimes as the batalon of the patron makesits regular trip for collection, nothing will be THROUGH RUBBER COUNTRY 333 found but a gummy residue of burned rubber,a rectangle of black ashes where the hut hadbeen, and near by broken and mutilated remainsof the picker; for the feeble trade-gun is onlyone degree better than the enemies with whichthe rubber-picker has to contend. In such anevent the patron curses the savages and, whenthese losses become too frequent, may return ona punitive expedition; for labor is scarce in theseremote districts, and the loss is economic, JUSTICE IS ADMINISTERED ACCORDING TO THE STANDARDS OP HISSUBMISSIVE DOMAIN. 334 ACROSS THE ANDES Farther down the river is the barraca of thepatron, a large clearing in the forest back fromthe bank of the river. Here survives feudalism,and justice is administered according to therough standards of his submissive you will find the stocks, with therows of leg-holes meeting in a pair of greatmahogany beams. A pile of chain-and-barleg-irons lie in a near-by corner, and a twistedbull-hide whip hanging from the thatch an open, unguarded shed beyond was piledthirty thousand dollars worth of rubber,—it isonly a fraction of the crop,—awaiting shipment,and in the early moonlight we sat with the pat-ron himself, a bare-footed, cotton-dressed over-lord who was scarcely distinguishable from hisown debt-slaves. And he, in his turn, was in al-most hopeless debt to the commission-houses,who hold him by their yearly advances in trade. Rarely now did the
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookpublishernewyo, bookyear1912
