Land Owner No. 2 possesses more land than No. 1, but his holdings are
very small. He owns a cart, a few yoke of oxen, some cows, sheep, hogs
and poultry. He freights grain, flour, and charcoal for others from
haciendas to the mills or railway stations, thereby adding to his
income. The surplus from his earnings he prudently invests in property.
These farmers are, as a rule, provident, having always food supplies
in their houses, yet they seldom lift their families out of the rut of
poverty. Most members of the family, including the head of the house,
either go barefooted or wear only rawhide sandals upon their feet the
year round, except Sundays, feast days and special occasions. It is
only the women who are permitted to indulge frequently in the luxury of
shoes and clean gowns. The sons work with the father and not as peons
for others. These people associate with Farmers No. 1, and even with
the peons as equals. Not, however, without prideful reflection, for
they consider themselves above their poorer neighbors, although they
do not say so. They are not admitted to the society of Land Owner No.
3, or the hacendados, although they have many interests in common and
commercial relations with those classes. If you are his guest he will
serve you wine or water in a glass tumbler, but he never uses such an
article himself, and perhaps you will be given a knife and fork with
which to eat your food. These middle class farmers constitute the best
element in Chile. They work honestly to gain a livelihood, and ask no
favors from others. They are too poor to engage in politics.
A peculiar feature of the life of this class of people is the methods
they resort to to save money and increase their possessions. They
live solely upon the products of their little farms, and seldom eat
what they can sell. They make bread, but eat very little of it, the
family consumption being limited to the equivalent of the profits on
that which is sold. They keep liquors in the house, but to sell. If an
animal is slaughtered, some kind of a function is arranged, to which
the neighbors are invited and the meat disposed of in a feast, their
guests being served as long as they have money with which to buy. If
a woman desires some article of dress or adornment, and has not the
money with which to purchase it, she gives a feast. She will go to a
neighbor who has a hog and negotiate for the animal on credit: she
also purchases an “arroba” (ten gallons) of “chicha,” for which she
gives her promise to pay, the credit extending until the respective
articles are disposed of. The hog, “chancha,” is slaughtered, and the
feast is announced. There is music and a number of women who dance and
sing are there as a special attraction. These feasts always attract a
crowd and by the time the chancha and the chicha are disposed of, the
woman conducting the affair has made sufficient profit to pay her
indebtedness and to purchase the desired article.