Eaton weekly Democrat. [volume] (Eaton, Ohio) 1866-1875, 1872-05-16
EATON, OHIO, THURSDAY, MAY Is, 1872.
webbed life and the glory that should

webbed life and the " glory that should
be revealed ?"
A strange, melodious jargon greeted
my ears musical carambo ~ hissed
between the teeth. This could hardly
be the accent of seraph. Looking
down, L saw a feet of gayly painted
boats, from which a throng of red,
halfnaked islanders climbed like
monkeys up the sides of the ship. They
gesticulated, they chartered, they hur-
ried agile about the ship, chattering
their delicious Spanish-a mellifuous
cornucopia of vowels with angles,
without sharpness-the living express
sion of the strange scene upon which ]
had fallen.
"Porto Rico l'' said Captain David, as
he passed busi'y on his way.
But busy as the captain was, he had
not forgotten me. Before night-falI
snug little d" casa," owned by kindly
Spanish woman, received me. A quiet
place a little way beyond the busy
town, white floors, vast rooms open to
the roof, with here and there in wide
perspective chair, a table, a flower
wreathed niche for the Virgin. Such
was my new home.
Though apart from the town, it was
not isolated. Past its windows, whose
jalousies only veiled, but did not hide,
the outer world, drifted daily the char
acteristic sights of tropic town. Over
laden mules and sleepy Spanish ponies,
bearing panniers of fruit-oranges, ba-
nanas, mammee-apples,a and know not
what of shining and nameless things
moved leisurely down 10 the quay be-
strobe by sullen slaves, their dark faces
set off by now and then a scarlet vest
or a great overshadowing "somb brero -
or lazy, halfnaked native loitered by
with a picturesque load of dried plan
tain leaves for thatching his mountain
hut, where he lived free, independent,
and, in his expressive phrase, " solemn
ly poor"
My landlady, the Sonora Marie, was
great, motherly, kind-hearted woman,
widow with broad of olive-skinped,
wild-eyed little ones to look after. For
them she was very ambitious for their
sakes she made the dainty "pates" of
guava and cocoa-nut, which her slave
Liza took down to market, posing them
on her head after the ancient fashion,
which is the only fashion of things in
Porto Rico for their sa1es she rented
the pleasant rooms in her casa to
whomsoever the tides and winds brought
her from sea; aud for their sakes, no
doubt, had she been an American
woman, she would have set herself to
active industry and labored I" diligently
with her hands," AS it was, she cared
for them and planned for them after
her own sort, and loved them hugely.
She listened delighted while they clus-
tered round me, chattering their dainty
lingo, wondering over my light locks,
my foreign dress, and coaxing me with
a winning witchery to talk to them in
English.
Sometimes the captain dropped in
upon us he was taking in cargo. Great
hogsheads of sugar must have been 6
load on his mind, but he found room
! for me also. Sometimes he took me
out before sunrise for a stroll on the
hills. Sometimes we rode on horseback
to some distant sugar plantation, or we
visited some oleander-hid hacienda
| VIII ose owner he knew. I was getting
| along famously, he said; the sonora hac
| told him with all her fingers, eyes, ano
| tongue how she liked me, how COLDER
my hair was, and how l got on with th'
children. Would 1 like to live in Porte
Rico2
Oh, liked it unspeakably The rec
soil, the hills, the struggling roads, the
cocoa-trees, the far sugar-cane planta
| tions with their tall chimpeys loomin,
against the sky it was all beautiful
even this lazy life that lived itself with
out effort, and seemed to put to shame
| the busy, undignifed scramble we hac
called existence.
" 1 love it all, captain ~ 1 exclaimed
"Well," said the captain, laughing
"we must huLt up our engineer anC
see what can be done about it."
But Sonora Marie had new idea.
"The little senorita is happy here
doubtless some of her people long ag,
| were Spanish, eh? She tells me she i
not rich--money no muehe, Ell? LIE
her stay with me in my casa; 1 will Civ
her plenty mucho to eat and to wear
l will take her to my friends. The.
have haciendas, plantations, plent,
slaves. She shall teach the children
and be happy. Eh, what say you, seno
captain ?''
Senior captain said nothing for som
time. He wiped his forehead with hi
red bandana; he looked over at m
with a searching glance; he knit hi
brows. Finally he rose in his abrup
fashion. IA She might -do-Morse, - b
said, and betook himself to his ship.
The hot day grew hotter it famed +
a close; it died with gorgeous burnin
behind the hills; the sudden blacknes
of tropic night came on but he did no
come again.
l lay awake long that night listenin
to the wash of the surf on the distan
shore, and hearing the lonely cry of tn
watchman calling out the hour in tn
solitary streets of the town. Ho,
strange it would be to grow familis
with all these things, and live in thi
strange land forever
| said nothing more to Sonora Mari
about her proposition. People in thes
! islands are in no such haste for deci
ion. Perhaps I had miscalculated til
captains kindness-it might not pa
him to carry me back. And what di
want to go back, to? To the struggl
for bread again? To the narrow roo
under the roof-to the narrow life
, penury? Here l was rich, or migf
be; even the poorest here had his pla
tain hut and his patch of banana.
7 Yet something in me ached at I'll
: thought that the good ship with its tic
! cabin, its kindly captain and cre'
l would go out from me, sailing throug
l the mists of the great ocean. and lea1
2 ne drifted among the palms and cocoa
worthless, unmissed thing, not wort
/ taking home.
3, | I tried to he sensible to look fl