| OCR Text |
Show FORTY YEARS AMONG THE INDIANS. 3/ 9 hold of the other side: " Here is our work. Mexico as it is today is peopled mainly by descendants of the races we found here. Now show us your work." The question is which are the greater people, Americans or Mexicans? The question should be, which are the greatest the Mexican or American Indians? If Mexico continues to improve and the people to advance in the future as they have for a few years past, the question may yet become, which people are the most advanced ? The Mexicans have many national characteristics that might be copied to advantage by Americans. Whether national contact will destroy some of these nobler qualities or not is a question. They are hospitable, polite, faithful to a trust, true to their friends, respectful to their superiors and parents. When they have the means they are ambitious to make home and everything around pleasant; and of late years are ambitious to advance and educate the people. They are tolerant to all religious denominations. Many suppose that priests still reign in Mexico. The Catholic priest who has helped to preserve the life of a nation has no more privileges in Mexico today than the Protestant minister who has helped to exterminate the natives on his domain. In many respects Mexico is far behind other civilized countries. Their system of giving out their lands in large grants has left the country in many places com-paratively unsettled. It is no uncommon thing for one man to own from a hundred thousand to a million acres of land. In fact, on the very start, all valuable lands not given as municipal grants were given to individual favor-ites. So there is no such conditions as in our country, where a poor man can go and locate a homestead. |
