St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-06-30

land-s0 famous, in fact, that it is even
said that the king praised it one even
ing while at dinner. aH
The marquis was proud Of his wine,
but he was prouder still of his good
name; and his pleasant ways and char
liable acts procured for him the love
and esteem of all who knew him. rich
OF poor. His life was one of religious
devotion to his church and God, and
what with health, wealth, education, a
clean conscience and noble name, he
ought to have been, and in fact was. re-
sonably happy.
To be sure, he had never experienced
the blisses attendant upon married lie:
but he had avoided its ills as well. AS
the marquis had remained single he
had, according to the custom Of Spain,
rented the upper portion of the mansion
in which he lived to dodgers, and while
this tended to make the old house lively,
he also derived a small income from the
rents.
No one was more regular at mass and
vesperS, and no one ate less meat on
Friday than the good old Marquis OF
Alcantara, Knight of the Golden Fleece,
whose name and ancestry penetrated
far back into the romantic and medi8-
val CASTLE. But while the marquis
loved to do good to all about him, and
no one could say bad word about him,
he had one fault. for he was very vain.
and it is said that every morning upon
rising he would stand admiring himself
i'm mirror, and ne was heard many
times to eXclaim, with rapture, 'sSebaS-
tan, YOU are handsome! You are noble !
You are Spaniard! What more could
you WantT'
This fault became eXcusable when his
good works and model life were so APP
parent to everybody. The dodgers in
the old mansion seldom saw their land
lord except Oh rent day, when they
were always received kindly and given
glass of some of the marquis rare old
wine, but outside of this they lived in
an entirely different sphere.
The front apartments were let TO
certain Roderigo, who generally spent
the greater part of the days and often
the nights in quarreling with his wife.
When Young man. he had married a
woman of shrewish temperament, who
had, up to the time of her death, which
occurred about two years before the
time of which we are speaking, made
seedlings and angry words. 1t must
be admitted that when she passed
into the other world he did not
mourn for her very much. Not being
possessed of the discernment neces-
sary in the selection OF a good
wife, he had rushed headlong into
matrim0ny again, and two months after
the demise OF his first wife he had mar
ried a second. She was young girl OF
sixteen, and what he had probably mis-
taken for amIablity previous to mar
riage was found lacking after the knot
was tied. She proved to be even worse
than the first one, and in letter he
wrote to a friend he acknowledged that
he loved his first wife far better than he
did the second. -
A gambler named Juan occupied the
rear apartments. He was fair Speei-
men of the second-class Spaniard, a
would-be gentleman who swears many
oaths, and boasts of his personal proWesS
and many conquestS over the fair sex.
Juan curled his black mustache with
fierce tWirl, and lived principally by
cheating at cards. Above all things,
however, Juan loved the bull fight, and
no matter what he might be doing at
the time, when the trumpet sounded the
call for the national sport he would
leave it and go, even il he was obliged
to pawn his embroidered waiStcoat to
get the price of admission.
These apartments covered all OF the
upper floor. but over them was a little
garnet, which was let for very small
sum TO a poor cobbler named Pedro.
Pedro had been poor all his life, and
had worked hard from morning till
night, winter and summer, ever since
he could remember. He never made
enough to save anything, and often had
hard work to get the bare penny'S worth
of bread and meat with which to keep
life in his body. AS his way had been
solitary. he was much given to thought,
and he often unused over the sayings of
the priest, which were great sOlace to
him, for it must be said that these were
the only comforting or encouraging
words he ever heard. 1t gave him cour-
age to hear from the lips of the holy
father that in heaven all men would
be equal, and though he was only
poor cobbler, he would, when in heaven,
be able to walk in eqality with even the
MARQUIS of Alcantara or his majesty of
Spain. as reward for his well conduct
ed life.
At last ne died, alone in his garnet.
with no friend to smooth the pillow of
pain or drop a tear for him after his
spirit had fed, for. although he had al
ways loved his fellow being, his eccen-
tricities had been SO great that he was
thought by many to be partially insane,
and was Stunned accordingly.
Following Pedro'S spirit after it had
left his body, we go from the realms of
mortal existence up the straight and
narrow path which leads to the golden
gate, toward which Pedro was slowly
and painfully trudging. The rocks over
which he was forced to Chamber were
rough and precipit0us. and the road
was steep and scarcely distinguishabIe
in the deep gloom which hung about.
He trndged painfully along until at
last from sheer weakness he had nearly
lost heart, and had almost resolved to
cast himself over precipice; when he
saw some one In the distance coming
down the road at full speed. The man
or angel, whoever he was, seemed to be
weeping and tearing his hair, and he
was gesticulating wildly as he ran.
Seeing misery so apparent as this,
Pedro forgot his own trouble for the
moment, and caught the cloak of the
flying figure, when he found to his utter
establishment that it was no other than
his fellow lodger, Roderigo, who had
died some time previous to himself.
After the latter became Gained a little,
Pedro asked him why he was journey
ing in the wrong direction, for instead
of nearing the inviolate region he was
rapidly approaching the infinite depths.
"Alas! alas!' cried R0derigo. II will
tell you of my experience, and, per-
haps, by a timely warning you may be
saved from similar fate"
He then continued: AFTER leaving
purgatory / climbed up this rugged
path and at last came in sight of the
gates of the Celestial City. Outside
were vast numbers of people OH the
same errand as myself, and st. Peter,
with his keys in one hand and a note
book in the other, leaned out of the lit
tie wicket which served as a booking
Office up there. and glared at the crowd
in a very unfriendly manner, and fire.
quently spoke to them in reference to
the earthly noise they were making"
At last he formed them into a line,
and every man had to pass that little
window and answer such questions as
might be pat to him. If these answers
were satisfactory, the applicant passed
through little side door into the ante
rom of heaven and If not he was givpp