tection could be obtained. For these reasons the main structure was built on an elaborate scale. Especially

can this be said of the undertakings of the various religious Orders whose funds were ample and whose plans and purposes were many.

As what is written about the labor system on these estates is sometimes confused, it may be well to quote the words of one who has

becomes part and parcel of the establishment. If he happens to be indebted to another hacienda, and, for his own reasons, is changing employers, his debt being a recommendation, large amounts will be advanced to buy the debt and allow the peon a cash balance. His contract obliges him to work for the hacienda until his debt is cancelled. On the other hand, his prerogatives are such as no other laborer in the world enjoys. Each week, he receives rations sufficient for his maintenance and that of his family. Each year, he and his family receive an ample supply of cloth

seen the system in all its various workings. Discussing this subject, Prince A. de Iturbide says:

"The peon is of the Indian or mixed races. He is bound by debt to the hacienda on which he works, and, regardless of color, he may rise, along the scale of promotion, to the highest employments on the place. The indebtedness is one of the essential features of the peon system, and is contracted by the peons, either directly or by voluntary inheritance. In the former case, a peon presents himself to the Administrator, or manager, and asks for an enganche, that is, a retainer, the amount of which varies between ten and thirty dollars. If the applicant be acceptable, the retainer is paid, and the peon

ing. Medical services are furnished them free of charge, and the sums of money required for baptism, confirmations, marriages, or burials are advanced. Most haciendas have schools to" which the peon man-and often must-send his children. He is furnished space, of course, and material for the construction of his hut, and is entitled to the use of a fair measure of ground, which he cultivates for his own benefit, with the hacienda's stock, implements, and seed. Finally, there are two days in the year on each of which the peon receives extra wages amounting to several dollars. And when, through age or accident, the peon is no longer able to work, he becomes a charge of the hacienda.

"There, then, is a numerous class of human beings who are born, not in poverty, but in debt, and heirs by natural law to

all the misery of the proletariat-to which they would be a prey, if the peon system were not there to solve their problem of life. As it is, from his cradle to his grave the peon will never lack food, raiment or shelter. His wife and children will never know the pinch of hunger. If he has the capacity to rise above his class, he may do so. If he goes through life an insolvent debtor, still at the hacienda he will have an open credit. In a word, he will be

that the fortress-like structure always carries with it the air of magnificence. It is an institution with which the tattered peon likes to identify his interests. He can point with pride to the imposing pile where he has his home, and so he is wide-awake to its welfare and appearance.

serving as beds. As the family live for the most part in the open air, the furniture is also hard to find, but quick to dust. It should be remembered that in most parts of Mexico the change of seasons affects but little the working of the fields. It is not uncommon to see in the same section corn in several stages; ready to husk, knee-high, or being planted. The women are very industrious, and never fail to help in any work they can do. At the end of each day, when the amount of each peon's work is determined,

as well as stables for choice saddlers and drivers. It is interesting to make the rounds of the buildings. and read the quaint entablatures over the entrances. The principal one at the Tepenacasco hacienda in the state of Hidalgo confidently declares: "En aqueste destierro y soledad disfruto del tesoro del paz." (In this retirement and solitude I enjoy the treasure of peace.) The hopes of the builder never saw fulfillment, for during the Wars of Independence the whole region was a stamping ground for marauders.

Photo by C. B. Waite.

IN A QUIET CORNER OF THE MAIN BUILDING MEXICAN HACIENDA

Many wealthy planters with their hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in lands and refineries, go extensively into the production of sugar where the region is well adapted to cane raising. The rich man produces the refined white sugar, as well as the various grades of brown sugar, known in Mexico as "Piloncillo," "Panocha," and "Panela," such as the poor renter turns out with his wooden rolls and copper kettle. The sugar industry The sugar industry may be taken up with a limited capital and additions made gradually. A few more acres can be cultivated each year, another "Trapiche" put in, and a kettle or two added to the plant, until the production warrants an investment in refining machinery to produce the better grades. Within the walls of a sugar hacienda the scene always contains plenty of life. The area is strewn with crushed stalks. Long swaying lines of burros are constantly streaming in from the fields, bearing fresh cane to be crushed. Men stripped to the waist, the perspira

tion trickling down their dark backs, drag the cane from the burros, bind it to swinging derricks that convey it to the crushers, or heap the carts high with refuse. No one lounges around. The black-eyed boys lash the mules and hiss at them, apparently deriving their unwonted energy from the incessant whirring of the mill machinery. Down from the crusher pours a steady stream of sweet sap that creeps down the trough to the boiling vats; clouds of steam rise from the boilers; round and round whirl the big centrifugals, plastering the walls with molasses; the melted sugar is hurried to the moulds that cast conical loaves of twenty-five pounds each; these are then taken to the great drying rooms where they are stood in rows like beehives; and finally they reach the shipping room where the results are most evident and gratifying.

To inspect such an establishment an old suit of clothes should be worn, for after groping about in dark passages, slipping on sticky floors, sprinkled by the centrifugals, one emerges dazed with the din and saturated with the the sweetness. What with the overpowering air and the sweetness that come along unbidden, the craving for sugar is satisfied for at least a month to

come.

And the power behind the throne, or the mill in this instance, is one man; his presence makes the mule carts go racing off hub to hub in one direction and the little burros in another; his presence makes the overseers shout and the barefooted peons scoot around, the wheels grind, the presses stream, and the big loaves form. High in a filthy sort of coop that commands a view of the yard sits Salvador Fernandez,