BarbarousMexico JOHN KENNETH TURNER

64 BARBAROUS MEXICO
"Besides that we get only corn and black beans and not
half enough of either of them."
"We are like hogs; we are fed on corn," put in the
old woman. "In Sonora we made our tortillas of wheat."
"How long will they starve you?" I asked.
"Until we marry Chinamen," flashed the old woman,
unexpectedly.
"Yes," confirmed the home-like one. "Twice they have
brought the Chinamen before us, lined them up, and
said: 'Choose a man.' Twice."
"And why didn't you choose?"
This question several of the women answered in chorus.
In words and wry faces they expressed their abhorrence
of the Chinamen, and with tremulous earnestness
assured us that they had not yet forgotten their
own husbands.
"I begged them," said the old woman, "to let me off.
I told them I was too old, that it was no use, that I was
a woman no longer, but they said I must choose, too.
They will not let me off; they say I will have to choose
with the rest."
"Twice they have lined us up," reiterated the homelike
one, "and said we must choose. But we wouldn't
choose. One woman chose, but when she saw the rest
hang back she pushed the man away from her. They
threatened us with the rope, but still we hung back.
They will give us but one more chance, they say. Then
if we do not choose, they will choose for us. And if we
do not consent we will be put in the field and worked and
whipped like the men."
"And get twelve centavos a day (six cents American)
to live on," said the old woman. "Twelve centavos a
day with food at the store twice as clear as in Sonora!"
"Next Sunday morning they will make us choose," re-