"In the market we saw that the poor people of this mining city are compelled to be very economical. When meat is not disposed of fresh, it is dried and sold in that shape. The dried heads of sheep and goats were piled on the ground to be sold as food; dried with the skin and horns on, and the people stood around and haggled for them down to the fraction of a cent. An important article of food here is boiled calabazas, or pumpkins; and another staple of diet is gruel made of coarse corn-meal. The guide said the head of a sheep or goat or the nose of a bullock was added on Sunday to this very meagre diet, and the miners and their families were quite contented with such food. Truly, one half of the world doesn't know how the other half lives.
"We were invited to visit one of the schools, but hadn't time to do so any more than to look at the building as we went past it. A gentleman whom we talked with told us that the State college is in a flourishing condition, and has upwards of three hundred students, many of them of pure Indian blood. Education among the people of Mexico is not very far advanced, but is better than many people suppose. It has made great progress in the last twenty years. Before that time it was very backward, and a considerable part of the population could not read or write.
A LEADING CITIZEN.
"The Government seems to be thoroughly awake to the necessity of having its population intelligent, in order to advance the interests of the country. In all the towns and villages there are free schools supported by the Government or by the local authorities, and in the cities there are advanced schools and colleges and a great number of private schools. Then there are technical and industrial schools, where trades are taught, and military schools for those who desire a military education and intend entering the army. In the cities free night schools for men and women, similar to the night schools of New York and other American cities, have been established. Some of them are well attended, but that is not the case with all.
"All of the Mexican States make liberal appropriations for public primary schools, and they tell us that last year there was an aggregate school attendance of 500,000. There must be an equal number of pupils in the private schools and in schools maintained by churches, missions, and benevolent societies, so that the whole attendance may be set down as an even million. Of course this is not up to the standard of the United States, especially of the northern portion, but it is a great advance for Mexico, where forty years ago not one person in ten could read. It is believed that fully one-half of the Mexican people to-day can read and write, or certainly a large proportion of them.
"Accompanied by our guide we drove to the Rayas Mine, or rather quite near it. The administrador met us at his office near the entrance, and assigned to us a guide who spoke English, though not very well. His English was better than our Spanish, and as he seemed to prefer it, we did not try to talk to him in his own tongue. We expected to descend by a cage in the tiro, but found that the way to the vein was down a stone staircase. The steps were slippery in places, and we had to be careful about placing our feet, as any carelessness might result in a fall. Frank began to quote the old Latin lines about facilis descensus, but our guide said 'chestnoot,' which he said he learned from an American, and Frank had nothing more to say on the subject.
