The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-05-06
IA, when he was obliged to have her car

again and again, what property means,
when he went without shoes to work on
the land that was now his own; and he had
experienced what it is to earn three tart
day, in the month of July, to keep the back
bent for fourteen hours, with the overseer
on horseback after you, that takes you with
his whip if you straighten up for a mo-
ment. For this he had not let pass
minute of his life that was not employed in
getting riches, and now his plows were
numerous as the long line of crows that
arrive in November, and other lines of
mules, that seemed endless, carried seed for
sowing The women who crouched in the
mud from October to March to gather his
olives were countless, as countless as the
magpies that came to steal the olives; and
at the time of the vintage whole villages
gathered about his vines, and as far as
singing was heard, in the country, it was
for the grape gathering of Mazzaro.
At harvest the reapers of Mazzaro seemed
like an army of soldiers. To maintain all
those people with biscuit in the morning
and bread and bitter orange at breakfast,
and the luncheon, and the lasagne in the
evening, there was needed money by
handfuls, and the lasange were dished in
when he rode behind the line of his now
ers with whip in hand, he did rot lose one
of them from sight, and kept repeating,
Bend to it. boysp'
He had his hands in his pockets the
whole year long, spending. and for the
mere territory the king took so much that
it threw Mazzaro into fever every time.
However, each year all those storehouses
Ia l.
that it was necessary to raise the roofs to
contain it all; and every time that Mazzaro
sold the wine it took more than day to
count the money, all IN silver pieces of
twelve lari, for he would not have dirty
paper money for his goods, and went to
buy the dirty paper only when he had to
pay the king or other persons; and at the
fairs the herds of Mazzaro covered the
whole field and crowded the roads, so that
it took half day to let them pass, and the
image of the sainV, with the band of music,
had to change their road and yield the way
to him.
All this property he had earned for him
self with his own hands and head, with
losing sleep at night, with taking fevers
from the malaria, with labor from dawn
to darkness. When one is like that it
means that he is made for property.
And also property was made for him, SO
that he seemed to draw it like a loadstone;
because property will stay with him who
knows how to keep it, and does not waste
it like that baron who had been formerly
the master of Mazzaro, and had picked him
up, homeless and naked, in the field of
charity, and had been master of all those
meadows. and all those woods, and all
those vines, and all those iocks; who, when
he came riding on horseback into his lands
with men behind him, seemed like the
and dinner-for that simpleton, so that
every one knew the hour and the moment
in which he was to arrive, and they did not
let themselves be caught with their hands
in the bag.
"That man is bound to be robbedr' said |
and burst out laughing when the |
baron gave him kicks behind, and rubbed |
his back with his hands, murmuring, LET |
keep at home" and property |
does not belong to him who has it, but to |
him who knows how to get it,"
He, on the contrary, after he had gotten |
riches, certainly did not send word whether |
he were coming to look after the reaping |
Or the vintage, and when and how; but he |
suddenly, on foot or riding his |
mule, without his men, with piece of |
bread in his pocket; and he slept beside his |
sheaves, with his eyes open and his gun be- |
tween his legs.
In this way, little by little MazZaro be-
came master of all the barons property, |
and the latter parted first with the olive
grove, then with the vines, fen with the
pasture, and then with the farm and final |
ally with his palace itself, so that day did |
not pass in which he did not sign legal
paper, and MaZZaro put below his worthy
X mark. The baron had nothing left but
the stone shield that formerly was over his
door, and it was the only thing that he had
not been willing to sell, saying to Mazzaro,
This only, of all my property, will not do
for thee" And it was true; MaZzaro did |
not know what to do with it, and would
not have paid twopence for it.
"This is a fine thing, to have the fortune
hat Mazzaro hasW people said; and they
lid not know what it had taken to grasp
hat fortune; how many thoughts, how
many fatigues, how many falsehoods, how
many perls of going to the galleys, and
how that head that was a jewel had worked
lay and night, steader than a milestone,
10 get riches; and if the owner of neigh
boring field persisted in not giving it up
20 him, and wanted TO take Mazzaro by
5he neck, he had to find a stratagem to
the owner to sell, and make him
TALL into the trap, despite of the distrust of
,he peasant nature. He would 90 and
boast, for example, of the fertility of r
and rent which did not even produce lu-
1ines, and succeeded in making the Door
elbow believe it to be a promised land, so
hat he let himself be induced to hire it,
Is speculation, and afterward lost his
rent, his house and his field, which MAJ
faro took-for piece of bread. And how
many annoyances Mazzaro had to bear!
The mezzadri who came to complain of the
bad years, the debtors who sent their
wives in procession to tear their hair and
beat their breasts, conjuring him not to
put them into the road, by taking away
heir mule or their donkey, for they had
lothing to eat.
do you see what l eat'" he would re-
bly,. Bread and an onioni And | have
'torehouses brimful, and am master of all
his property"
And If they asked for a penny he an
wered that he had none
And indeed he had not, for he never kept
welve tart in his pocket. 1t took so many
o make all that property profitable, and
he money entered and passed out of his
house like river. Moreover, he did not
are for money. He said it was not prop
rty, and as soon as he put together GER
ain sum he at once bought piece OF land.
because he wished TO succeed in having as
nuch land as the king has, and 10 be bet