experiment once, she never hesitated again. She said that tie offer of a peso or a half peso brought tears of gratitude to the eyes of the recipient and often a confession of not having tasted food for twenty-four hours or longer. These were teachers coming from the respectable middle class, and even in some cases, from former wealthy families of the upper classes, and only extreme necessity would have brought them to the point of accepting alms.
"In the state of Zacatecas months passed without the school teachers being paid and during the teachers' convention at the state capital, for the purpose of registering a general protest, statements were made that teachers had pawned all their furniture and other household goods, and in many cases, actually were on the verge of starvation. One man teacher stated that he had just lost a child because he could not by any possible means obtain money to buy certain foods which the attending physician had declared were necessary to save the child's life.
"In the states and in the capital teachers of many years' experience have abandoned their positions and sought other means of making a living, often being forced into menial employment.
"In travelling from Mexico City to the American border one cannot fail to be impressed with the number of beggars at the stations as the train proceeds through the central Mexican states and, with the added fact that, as the American border is approached, the beggars are less numerous and finally disappear altogether.
"A typical condition is described in the following note from the San Luis Potosi correspondent of