s person a scrap of the valuable
material. That they are thieves is not to be wondered at when their
catechism teaches them "that a theft that does not exceed a certain
amount is not a grave offense."[55]

LOW STATE OF MECHANIC ARTS.

With us, a mechanic is associated with the idea of a person occupying a
respectable position in life; but at Mexico he still belongs to a
degraded class, as men are there esteemed; he is a _peon_, on a footing
with a common laborer. The highest wages are three shillings a day,
while at least two days in the week he is kept from his usual
employment by "days of obligation," that is, festival days on which it
is unlawful to work. _Tortillas_, Indian griddle-cakes, with black
beans (_frijoles_) and red peppers (_chilie_), are his daily food; and
his lodgings are a palm-leaf mat upon a stone or earthen floor, while
his _serapa_ does duty for a blanket at night. The greasy friar does
not forget him as he goes his rounds in search of Peter's pence; and
the priest sets before him the horrid consequences of entering
Purgatory without first discharging the debt he still owes for his
baptism. He and his "wife" still remain unmarried; for how can they
ever raise the money to pay the priest? And if by chance he gets
involved in debt, or for the debt of one of his kindred, one third part
of his daily labor is embargoed by the creditor.

When the Mexican mechanic has a small kit of uncouth tools, he works
upon his own account, but at the smallest possible profit. When he has
finished a pair of shoes, if he be a shoemaker, he or his wife starts
out to dispose of them to some passer-by in the street before a new
pair is undertaken. When the tinman has finished a sprinkling pot, he
or his boy walks the street till it is sold, and then perhaps a tin
bath is made; and if, luckily, from a chance customer he has obtained
an extra price, a _fiesta_ is proclaimed to the family connection, and
maybe the additional luxury of buying a ticket in the lottery of the
Virgin of Guadalupe is indulged in, and a vow is made that if he wins a
prize, one half of the profits of the stake shall be deposited as a
gift at her shrine. In this way a week is passed, and it is terminated
with the entire exhaustion of the little fortune of the poor mechanic.
The kindred have had a time; _pulque_ and liquor have been passed
around freely; the women have enjoyed "equal rights" with the men; they
have drunk their full share, and sm