The Morrills and reminiscences . at majority of the people cannot pay thesame. The peons and poor classes are not legallymarried. Their parents announce them to be manand wife, and they are so considered. The peons are generally clad in thin white garmentsor in calico. A dress is sufficient for the women, witha cheap shawl for their heads, and they are either bare-footed or wear thin sandals. The men wear thin whitepants and a shirt to match, and, like the women, theyare generally barefooted. Every Mexican man wearsa sombrero. These hats cost from twenty cents tofifty or even a hundred dollars
The Morrills and reminiscences . at majority of the people cannot pay thesame. The peons and poor classes are not legallymarried. Their parents announce them to be manand wife, and they are so considered. The peons are generally clad in thin white garmentsor in calico. A dress is sufficient for the women, witha cheap shawl for their heads, and they are either bare-footed or wear thin sandals. The men wear thin whitepants and a shirt to match, and, like the women, theyare generally barefooted. Every Mexican man wearsa sombrero. These hats cost from twenty cents tofifty or even a hundred dollars. A prominent merchantin Mexico City informed me that an entire outfit ofclothing for a Mexican peon and his wife could bepurchased for five dollars in American money. On every hacienda, or farm, the owner sets apartabout five acres which is used by the peons for theirquarters. This land is generally enclosed by a highfence or stone wall. Inside of this enclosure there aresometimes five or six hundred peons, including their [no]. THE MORRILLS AND REMINISCENCES families. The owner of the land erects no buildings,he simply gives the peons the right to occupy enoughground upon which to put their houses. The peongenerally begins with a brush house, consisting of onesmall room, just large enough in which to sleep. Thecooking is all done over charcoal fires and the familysit on the ground while eating. Beds are also made onthe ground, which is covered with straw; as the weatheris warm they require only one or two cotton land owner contributes nothing toward the sup-port of the peon and his family but the wages the wage is fifteen cents per day, and is not sufficientto support him, the peon must ask advances of hisemployer and every advance makes it more impossiblefor him to ever free himself from peonage. I met aparty of Americans who were the owners of mines andstock ranches in Mexico. They informed me thatMexican laborers in their employ performed about thesame
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookidmorrillsremi, bookyear1918
