Page:Mexico, picturesque, political, progressive.djvu/119

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DAY LABORERS
117

CHAPTER VI

SHRINES AND PILGRIMAGES

There is something at once inspiring and dreadful in the intensity with which these men work. Where or how the fallacy concerning their laziness has gained ground, it is hard to understand. Whatever they do is done as if salvation depended upon it, and the exertion demanded where manual labor takes the place of steam or horse power is so bitterly hard that it makes their continuous application the more wonderful. We have yet to see the first instance of shirking or of carelessness. Slight of frame, small in stature, with every appearance of delicacy in physique, they will take upon the shoulders as much as five or six men can lift, and carry it an indefinite distance. Under these immense burdens, they trot instead of walking. To see a mozo climbing five or six flights of stairs, and traversing acres of corridors, at this