Elizabeth daily monitor. [volume] (Elizabeth, N.J.) 1868-1880, 1873-10-09
DON JosE's SECRET.

baggage wasla large trunk remarkably
light for its size and curiously pierced
III the top with many holes. Instead of
going to hotel his first business upon
landing was to inquire in passably good
| English, at various stores and houses
near the wharf, for information of q
garnet story to rent, as no other abode
would suit his particular need, and he
wished to secure such one immediate
". Thus, by the time he had found a
lofty and comfortless sky-parlor in
building opposite the French market,
and had his huge and unweigbty trunk
transported thither on his own should
ers, many persons in the city were pre-
pared to regard him as an eccentric
mystery and watch bis subsequent pro-
ceedings with interest. This curiosity
increased when the stranger, who paid
his small rent III advance and did not
choose to give any name, fitted histrunk
nto one OF his garnet windows III place
of the removed sashes as an extemporiz-
ed cote for the pigeons, which were pre-
sently seen to fly in and out Of it. What
next ? was the inquisitive feeling of
those taking note OF This pathological
development and bar keeper across
the street made it his critical mission to
watch the sallow garreteer narrowly
thenceforth. But nothing OF particular
Importance ensued. Having establish
ed his pigeonry, the stranger seemingly
adopted reserved, unevenHul lite IN
his lonely lodgings, buying cheap meals
for himself and his feathered charges at
the market, and assuming u poverty of
English words, by which all overtures
for familiar conversation were cffectual-
| " discouraged. All that could be learn.
ed of his habits by ocular observation
was that when the steamerfrom Havana
came i'll he sometimes had Cubanese
guest as reserved as himself, who went
back with the ship; and that occasional
y one OF his birds would be seen return
ing demonstratively to the cote, as from
a longer absence than usual. At last,
after ABOUT year Of these appearances,
the watchers concluded that the man was
some harmless luna ic, with mania for
birds, and was visited at Intervals by
kindred or friends from home. Near
the close of the second year he was alb
sent from his garnet several weeks, and
then, to the exasperating mystitication
of the bar-keeper and other curious
neighbors. reappealed in q gorgeous
carriage, with liveries, to carry off his
trunk of pigeons and return thither no
more. Obviously some great change
had come over the spirit of his life, for
in few weeks more he was occupying
costly rooms in the st. Louis hotel rs
Don Jose Castillo.
In this new aspect he was scarcely re-
cognizable as the late pigeonary of the
torlorn garnet, and to the few of his
former observers who now met him he
conceded the fullest license OF imagina
tive explanation that their fancies chose
to indulge. From the hotel he remov-
ed to stately mansion on Royal street,
where, IN 1856, he gave some of the
finest social entertainments in the city
and maintained servants and equipaue
in extravagant style. County manners
u, d vastly improved English enabled
him to become tho leader OF coterie of
distinguished fashion, and his richly
, furnished hose witnesss2 many a dis
play quite in the Monte Cristo style.
Because he spent money lav'shly it was
thought that he must possess millions,
and the Don tacitly allowed this idea to
exert what influence it might, until an
, episode of one of his dashing entertain.
ments gave cue to invidious suspicion
of his native high degree. Amongst
l the guests on the occasion in question
, was gentleman who had never been
there before and was observed to regard
his host with peculiar attention. Later
on, when somewhat flushed with wine,
> this person ut cred an exclamation o
: surprise and declared emphutically tc
= those near him that he had finally recog
nized in the aristocratic Don Jose Cas-
tillo a former proving foreigner tc
whom be had once sold ticket in the
] Havana lottery which had ultimately
drawn heavy capital prize. The
foreigner had heard of his purchase OF
tho ticket and came to him with al
offer to buy, which he had accepted
Here was scandal at once, since, ac
cording to American ideas, it detracteG
from the present patrician pretentions
of the splendid Cuban, and its rapid
circulation in society led to the elicita
ton of nearly every known fact of the
Don's first year in the city. This alone,
however, might not have troubled Cas-
tillo greatly had his fortune been equal
to report. But he was not millionaire.
His costly style in Royal street was real
, ly exhausting his gold at a fearful rate,
and just as the gossips were concluding
that, whatever his past history and
practices, his final position was imple
nable, the fine house, furniture, and
horses went into the hands of the sheriff.
With the crash he disappeared abruptly
from high life, leaving his late fan
,, weather friends to solve the mystery il
til could but it was not until he had
almost passed from fashionable memory
that the truth about him came out.
OF really respectable though moi
wealthy family in Cuba, he had been in.
fatuated with the lottery business Of
Havana from the dawn of his manhood,
and, after deveting nearly ten years tc
futile schemes for gaining a fortune
' therefrom, suddenly conceived the fol
lowing idea: He would go to New Or
7 leans, where many tickets were reguul,
ly bought, and take thither a brood OF
/ choice carrier pigeons. After the birds
! were duly domesticated and familiariz-
ed, an accomplish should come to him
, by each steamer from Havana, and carry
one or more of them back. Then, when
the drawings of the lottery took place,
the numbers of the tickets drawing
prizes for New Orleans should be semi