Nostromo - A Tale of the Seaboard.pdf - Planet eBook

checked shirt and red sash of a Mediterranean sailor, bawlingorders from the end of the jetty in a stentorian voice. Afellow in a thousand!The material apparatus of perfected civilization whichobliterates the individuality of old towns under the stereotypedconveniences of modern life had not intruded as yet;but over the worn-out antiquity of Sulaco, so characteristicwith its stuccoed houses and barred windows, with thegreat yellowy-white walls of abandoned convents behindthe rows of sombre green cypresses, that fact—very modernin its spirit—the San Tome mine had already thrownits subtle influence. It had altered, too, the outward characterof the crowds on feast days on the plaza before the openportal of the cathedral, by the number of white ponchoswith a green stripe affected as holiday wear by the San Tomeminers. They had also adopted white hats with green cordand braid—articles of good quality, which could be obtainedin the storehouse of the administration for very littlemoney. A peaceable Cholo wearing these colours (unusualin Costaguana) was somehow very seldom beaten to withinan inch of his life on a charge of disrespect to the townpolice; neither ran he much risk of being suddenly lassoedon the road by a recruiting party of lanceros—a methodof voluntary enlistment looked upon as almost legal in theRepublic. Whole villages were known to have volunteeredfor the army in that way; but, as Don Pepe would say witha hopeless shrug to Mrs. Gould, ‘What would you! Poorpeople! Pobrecitos! Pobrecitos! But the State must have itssoldiers.’