BarbarousMexico JOHN KENNETH TURNER

74 BARBAROUS MEXICO
out, and then they find that they are indeed prisoners.
They are told that the y are in debt and will be held until
they work out their debt. A few clays later the door
opens and they file out. They find that rurales are all
about them. They are marched through a back street
to a railroad station, where they are put upon the train.
They try to get away, but it is no use; they are prisoners.
In a few days they are in Valle Nacional.
Usually the laborer caught in this way is taken through
the formality of signing a contract. He is told that he
is to get a good home, good food, and one, two or three
dollars a (lay wages for a period of six months or a year.
A printed paper is shoved under his nose and the engancizandor
rapidly points out several alluring sentences
written thereon. A pen is put quickly into his hand and
he is told to sign in a hurry. The five dollars advance
fee is given him to clinch the bargain and put him in debt
to the agent. He is usually given a chance to spend this,
or a part of it, usually for clothing or other necessaries
in order that he may be unable to pay it back when he
discovers that he has been trapped. The blanks on the
printed contract—fixing the wages, etc.—are usually
filled out afterwards by the labor agent or the consignee.
In Mexico City and other large centers of population
there are permanently maintained places called casas dc
los enganchadores (houses of the snarers). They are
regularly known to the police and to large slave buyers
of the hot lands. Yet they are nothing more nor less
than private jails into which are enticed laborers, who
are held there against their will until such time as they
are sent away in gangs guarded by the police powers of
the government.
A third method employed by the labor agent is outright
kidnapping. I have heard of many cases of the