Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-06-19

fold his history; its lights and shadows
its delusive joys and its eternal shadows.
And he would lie down on the camp-cot
and shut his eyes, and clasp his crime
stined hands across his forehead, and talk
about his boyhood and his mother and
his two little sisters and about the old
New Hampshire side-hill with its white
daisies, and its yellow butter-cups and
its struggling rows of apple trees, and
the sluggish cows grazing there in the
summertime; and the old, dingy, red
painted school-house, where the three
roads met, and where he had learned out
of the scrawled and tattered old books
his first vague lessons of the great world
beyond the little valley of his home; that
world that had so wronged and wrecked
his later life, and made such mockery
of his manhood. Then he would tell his
"reminiscences of the war how he lay in
the deadly bitches of Port Hudson;
whence he could see New Hampshire
battle-flags that waved oyer his kith and
kin, in the besieging trenches over across
the narrow plateau that no messenger
but those of lead and iron might trav-
erse how then he wrote the captive
months away at JohpsOn's Island, pre-
fering for his Mississippi love TO for
swear his kindred; how at last he got
away, and then within week after he
, had reioined his regiment, he lay breath
ing up great spouts of blood from his
torn lung in the ravine at Chickamauga
and, then
at was all for her." he would growl
between his locked jaws, land she scorn-
ed me at the end"
And then he was the same desperate
| devil again, and away he would go TO
drink and gamble and carouse and kill,
! TO escape the memories that Knocked and
craZed him.
One day steamer anchored in the
stream opposite the Fort, and her cap
tain came up to town in his gig. He
brought big bag of doubloons along to
fight or feed Sales tiger with, according
Don Jose Joaquin Herren, the, ,,dashingest
bravo on the Gulf coast, a Tampico con-
trabandist, and these doubloons were the
profits of his last voyage. The national
| game in Mexico is monte. But whether
| it NAV be taken as illustrative of the ira
! ditional Anglo-Saxon superiority or not,
it is fact that the Spaniard deserts his
native monte in utter contempt when he
can get at jill Ailltll lCdl ldIO-SlAllC-
| However, as there seems to be something
dominant and compulsory about every
! thing that is Anglo Saxon, forcing the
inferior races to bend to it everywhere, it
! is presumed that the rule holds good
when applied to its vices as well as to
| its virtues. At all events the dashing
Castilian was ready to lavish his doub-
! looms upon the Anglo-Saxon game, and
I hin, 1,
| the frolics of her pet tiger. So when
she heard that Captain Herren would be
! the guest of her establishment that even
ing, she put on all her diamonds, and
| fecked her inky flood of hair with all
| her spangles and her ribbons, and put on
| her lowest-necled black silk gown and
her bewitchingest little lace cape and
! sleeves. and completing her toilet with a
pair of pearl derringer-butts and silver
! stiletto-hilt peeping daintly ont Of her
/ bosom. she vowed she would deal the
/ game for the gallant Captain her own
/ inimitahle self. This was great mark
\ of favor, for she had never presided at
! the table but once before, and that was
/ when she had entertained a French
/ BriGadier and two Federal Major-Gen-
/ erals. On ordinary occ lsions she en-
( ployed obscure manipulators of the paste
/ boards at a meagre salary, TO levy con-
! tributions upon on the every day-or
! every night-herd of plebians, while she
/ amused herself in her bizarre little par
/ lor across the way way with the devoted
| officers of the garrison, whom she en-
! dured because she was in their power, or
/ with Eoltaire. whom she adored for bis
Escoffinp. or with her bandola and her
songs, because they made her forgettul
and happy, or with her lover, whom she
petted for his superlative wickedness
and for the melancholy beauty OF his
face.
This was the second visit of the
| swarthy Captain to- Brownsville. On his
former visit he had fed Sales tiger to
the tune of about three hundred doub-
/ looms but if he had lost his doubloons
he had won a good share of Sales af.
fectious. for she thought him fully as
wicked and a trifie handsomer than
Budd. The latter knew all about this
state of things. and his affection for Dor
JOAQUIN was by no means gushing. Con
seouently he was moody all the after
noon after he saw the smugglers giE
null up at the the dilapidated old wharf
and il was as easy to imagine that there
/
The smuggler was no exception TO the
rule of his race in the matter of su
perstition. Like all Mexicans he was al
implicit believer in luck. The Mexican
idea of that. is a curious psychological
study. Sometimes you would see three
or four greasers, who had robbed
some solitary way-farer down on the
Monterey road or up in the dcfiles of th'
Salinas, come over to Brownsville Will
no insignificant pile of doubloons. Ot
course they would come to gamble, anC
the first thing to be ascertained was upol
whose head the benson of luck Nigh
have descended. So they would get TO
gether in dark room, station themselve
one in each corner, toss a doubloon ul
aginst the ceiling. and then crop
around the floor for it on all fours. Th
one who happened to find it was . il
luck" beyond all dispute, and him the!
would .sstake" to theirlast milled dollar
their last rag of clothes-to the eXten
indeed of utter bankruptcy save thei
saddles and spurs; these the Mexican
never surrenders. Well, something lil1
this was the .smuggler's conception o
Luck.
About nine o'clock Sale took her sea
| 'DGlllu IuC lay Ohl ehA 9o=5e~1 -
the cards for Don Joaquin. 1t was wha
you call merry" game. There wa
no limit really, and the betting ranges
, mostly between ten and.twenty dou1
looms on the turn. The layout wa
pretty well ''yellowed, and if any tur
was neglected it was a pure oversight
At first the smuggler seemed to be i
partnership with Luck itself, and Sail
/. had twice sent for another keg of dout
looms to meet the pasteboard sight-draft
/ that were ever and anon presented to he
bank Don joaquin sat admirlng IN
/ dealer over stack of about tYe huno
, red doubloons. And as Sales losse
| grew heavier her smile grew sweeter, an
J the dancing steel-blue glitter OF her ey
) intenser. The handsome outlaw wa
: winning her heart faster than her dout
= looms. About eleven or half-past, Budo
) who had been up at the officers quarter
speculating in drawpoker for an hour O
= two, salntered into the bank, lounge
j up. to the table languidly, and surveye
{ the situation. Don. Joaquin had nv