The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1926, Page 106

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106

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

test and the head-tax, which ordinarily applies to
-all immigrants. We are speaking of the Mexicans
who are living within our borders, who have pene-
trated as far north as Idaho and as far east as New
York, and who may be found in large colonies in
certain of the Middle Western States.

The census shows that in five of our South-
western States, California, Colorado, New Mexico,
Nevada, and Texas, there are over one and a half
million Mexicans. Most of these immigrants never
knew what it meant to live under decent conditions
in their own country, and in our country we offer
them little better. Those working in rural com-
munities live in tents; while those who work in our
industrial centers are often compelled to live in
rooms measuring eight by ten with one window and
a door. We somewhere read that 79 per cent. of
the houses in which these people live have no baths,
and 28 per cent. have even no proper water supplies.
Fight and ten families are obliged to use the same
toilet and the same water faucet. Men, women,
and children sleep in the same room.

Assurance is given us that many, many of these
Latin-Americans have no beds to sleep on and no
stoves to cook their food. This way of living is bad
enough for adults, but is surely far worse for the
children, who are thus growing up without any
memory of real home-life. Just suppose that you
had been raised without knowing any of the decen-
cies of life and that “home” to you meant no more
than an old freight-car or a dilapidated tent.

Many of the Mexican girls marry when they are
only thirteen or fourteen years old, and by the time
they are twenty-five, they may be the mothers of ten
or more children and, possibly, already grand-
. mothers! Babies are not seldom born into a world

which has no clothes for them, and it is a common
thing to see the older children running about almost
naked.

The Mexican men are largely employed at sea-
sonal work — in the harvest-fields, sugar-beet fields,
mines, on larger construction jobs, and in the build-
ing of railroads. Such being the case, they do not
stay long at one place, but lead the life of nomads.

; Superstition and ignorance among them are
great. Drunkenness and gambling are common
vices. Impurity is prevalent.

The Church is doing very little for these people.
Though many of them are nominally Catholics,
that Church is giving them but very little attention.
But the streets, the movies, the dance-halls, and
other places are always working! EJ.L.

The Blond Eskimos.

The first time the writer ever heard of these
Blond Eskimos was about twelve years ago. At
that time the papers brought the gruesome report
that two Catholic priests had been murdered by
several members of this strange race. It was stated
in the account that after eating the livers of their
victims, the savages had pronounced them “very
good.”

The habits and customs of these backward
people are such that those who have had the courage
to visit them stamp them as the most backward race
on the continent. Their home is along the Arctic
shores of extreme Northwestern Canada, from
Coronation Gulf westward. Their customs are
said to be altogether unlike those of other Eskimos.

In the dark winter months they make their
homes in their houses of ice, called igloos, which
they shape with snow-knives in a few hours’ time.
In the summer months they travel southward to
get feathers of wild birds, willows, moss, caribou,
and river fish.

They are short and stocky in body, and their
hands, feet, and nose are very small. Their strength
and endurance is said to be remarkable, but ex-
posure and their hard struggle for existence makes
them short-lived. They have their food in common,
but all other things are regarded as individual
possessions. They recognize no authority but
custom.

The bodies of their dead, fully dressed, are de-
posited in some exposed place along the coast. If
it is a man, he is surrounded by his hunting-tools;
in case it is a woman, she is given some pots and
sewing-material; in case of a dead child some play-
things are placed near the body. Wolves and foxes
divide the dead body among themselves, picking
the larger bones clean and leaving them scattered
on the snow.

As is generally the case with primitive peoples,
their girls are married when they are very young.
They have no marriage ceremony, but married
women are tattooed on their foreheads, cheeks,
and chins.

Their food is made up almost entirely of meat.
They: eat the livers and kidneys of animals warm
from the body. ‘The fat from the back of the
caribou is a highly prized article of food. It is
given to guests as a special treat, and children
prize it as children among us would prize candy..

In the winter the Blond Eskimos live in snow