. A glimpse of old Mexico; being the observations and reflections of a tenderfoot editor while on a journey in the land of Montezuma . s lasemana santa, or holy week, the last of lent, during which, forall good Mexicans, the commandment runneth Thou shalt notwork. I am not quite certain whether this prolonged holiday is ob-served from a spirit of profound piety so much as from the deeplyfounded belief that divine punishment will surely follow its you attempt to argue against it, you will be simply overwhelmedby instances of impious wretches who have dared to labor on theseforbidden d
. A glimpse of old Mexico; being the observations and reflections of a tenderfoot editor while on a journey in the land of Montezuma . s lasemana santa, or holy week, the last of lent, during which, forall good Mexicans, the commandment runneth Thou shalt notwork. I am not quite certain whether this prolonged holiday is ob-served from a spirit of profound piety so much as from the deeplyfounded belief that divine punishment will surely follow its you attempt to argue against it, you will be simply overwhelmedby instances of impious wretches who have dared to labor on theseforbidden days and have suffered some awful death in conse- A GLIMPSE OF OLD MEXICO 61 quence. \\e are crowding work on our mill with all speed, andyesterday we prevailed on some carpenters to turn out and seasonable work. About noon, one of them banged histhumb nail with a hammer. That was enough. Clearly the inci-dent was a sign of divine displeasure, a timely Avarning to the rest,which none should presume to disregard. Doubtless this instancewill go down to history as an illustration of the perils of toilingduring holy -.^ \ Johnny-on-the-Spot. There is one class of the population, however, not averse to-work during holy week, or any other time. These are the Chil- 62 A GLIMPSE OF OLD MEXICO ergs, a kind of Mexican Highlanders. They are born and bred inthe lofty Sierra region, are sinewy and athletic of frame, frugal ofhabit, of marvelous indurance, and inspired mighty little by re-ligious scruples. Added to this, they are the most cheerful andimperturbably good natured fellows that the sun shines on. Theyare further noteworthy from the circumstance that they actuallyseem to enjoy work, the tougher the better, a characteristic that Ihave not often encountered in this imperfect world. They are notbackward, either, in bragging about their appetite for toil, whichat first is apt to convey the impression that they belong to the famil-iar blowhard genus, but experience ge
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