p. 15 | JUAN ROBLES by Juan Robles

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 2, 1909

JUAN ROBLES

By Juan Robles

Mexico

SAN LUIS POTOSI.—We have twenty-two adult Sabbath-keepers at this place, and this does not include my family, nor Brother Julius Paulson’s. Three of these Sabbath-keepers live twenty-two miles west of San Luis, twelve live sixteen miles northwest, and seven reside here in the city. Every two or three weeks I visit these people, having to walk the distance, as there are no railroads to these places. The roads are so rough and rocky that they are unfit for carriages and wagons, and all the traffic is done by mules and horses. I usually spend from one to three days with these isolated brethren.

Elder G. W. Reaser and I went to see the brethren at Mexquitic, and the Tapona

brethren, walking nine miles to the meetings. The company at Mexquitic desires to build a chapel, and have already purchased a lot.

Prof. G. W. Caviness and I went to Mexquitic, and he preached six nights. In these meetings, which were held in a hut made of brush and maguey plant, fourteen feet by ten feet in size, and situated one mile out of town, we had an audience of from twenty-four to thirty-five. Even the judge, the treasurer, and the secretary came to our meetings the last three nights of our stay there. On Sabbath, October 23, Professor Caviness buried with the Lord in baptism sixteen persons, the youngest being seventeen years old, and the oldest seventy-four years old. Two are paying tithe, and others have expressed their desire to do so.

San Luis is a city of sixty thousand inhabitants, and but little has been accomplished by the other three denominations here during the last twenty years. The people are inclined to be very superstitious. The twenty-second of November is the “Day of the Dead,” according to the Roman Catholic belief. They visit the three cemeteries every year, taking with them from one to six candles, flowers, crowns, and other things, to the graves of their dead.

In order to find out more concerning this peculiar custom, I visited the large, new cemetery of this place. There were thirty mule street-cars in motion between the city and the cemetery, and as many people walking as were on the cars. When I reached the cemetery, I found about four thousand people gathered; and on one of the graves I saw a piece of cloth spread out nicely, on which was laid a deck of playing cards, some small pieces of money, a cigar, a box of cigarettes, and a small bottle of strong drink. A woman was there, and when asked what it was for, she told us her husband had been a gambler, a drunkard, and a smoker. “He will come to-night, sure, and all the dead, too. This which you see here is my offering to my dead.”