When Fred read aloud the foregoing account of the Mexican servants and their ways, Doctor Bronson suggested that he might add something about the lavanderas, or laundresses.
"That's so," replied the youth; "I had forgotten about them for the moment." Then he sat down and wrote as follows:
"Some of the houses have laundries, where the washing is done; but many dwellings are not thus provided, and the clothes are taken outside to be cleansed. In the smaller cities the washing is done on the banks of a stream or lake; the clothes being first put into a tub or box and soaked in water in which soap has been dissolved; then they are pounded with sticks or stones and rubbed with the hands. The work is not done with gentleness, and a few trips to the laundry generally wear out garments made of ordinary material. Some of the lavanderas undertake to wash, starch, and iron the clothes, while others attend only to the washing, and leave the other work as a separate contract with the planchadora. The employer is generally expected to furnish soap for washing clothes, and very often the servants are supplied with it for their own use, in addition to their wages."
A MEXICAN WASH-HOUSE.