The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1893-08-19
HENNESSYS ESCAPE.
How He Avoided the Penalty OF
Flirting with a Mexican Girl.


A sunburned, athletic-loolSing man
With a broad-brimmed felt hat showed
on the back Of his head, sat in the cor
ridor of the Metropolitan the other
night swapping stories with some New
York drummers. lie was Walter Grove,
of Monte Vista, Col, who was in town
working up some irrigation schemes
for eastern capital to be invested down
in Mexico.
you very often hear It said that the
revengefulness and treachery of the
lower class of Mexicans is overrated,"
said Grove, "but TO one who has lived
In that country and studied the people
carefully there are very few tales that
can be told of them too remarkable for
belief I recollect particularly one case
Of a young fellow who is working with
me down in old Mexico now who came
very near passing in his checks through
not appreeiating the kind of people he
was dealing with.
Tin the state of Chihuahua, on the
western edge of Mapimi desert, we had
put in big dam for a storage reser-
voir to irrigate the mesaland lying
above the level of the Rio Conchos val
/ ley.
''It was right at the entrance of a
big box canyon running up to the bar
rem hills that run along the edge of the
desert. The only things that grow
there are pinon trees and jack rabbits,
with small sprinAling of chalmisa
and grease weed. But there are peri
odic rains, when the water comes down
through those bare canyons In a wall
ten feet high, and enough water goes
to waste in twenty-four hours to irri-
gate whole county for a season.
"We got In our dams all right and
about twenty miles of main ditch, and
everything went very we'll, considering
the fact that we were working new
venture in country where it usually
takes an innovation a couple of centu-
ries to settle down and feel at home.
81 put this young fellow, Nick Hen
messy, in charge of the dam. He had
his Office of couple of rooms there,
with a Mexican to cook for him and to
help around and about. All he had to
do was to ride the line of the ditch and
look after the state of things at the
dam which he had helped to build.
There was little telegraph line from
the Office down to the land companys
home ranch, about ten miles below the
dam, the nearest settlement of any
sort, and Nick used to take signal serv-
ice observations to help pass away the
time But, as l said, he didn't know
the people.
'In the first place, he got himself
/ 4a,. ,,eA,-e
Mexicans for loading two hundred and
fifty pound Of stuff or thereabouts on
their poor little burros They haven't
any humane societies in that country.
Then he got into unpleasant relations
with the sheep herders, all of whom
are embryo murderers by nature, by
chipping into a fight and helping a
couple of lonely cattlemen the herders
were trying to bushwhaclx up in the
hills one evening. That was all right,
of course, for the cow-punchers hap
pened to be Americans, but Nick
winged a couple of the sheep men, and
they naturally had It in for him after
ward. Finally he did the business for
himself by flirting with the alcade's
daughter over in the adjoining plaza.
She was the only marriageable girl IN
the county, and he couldn't have found
a better way to get loco in his coffee, or
to secure some other of the delicate at
tentions in order in such case.
"The dam was big masonry one,
built pretty much after the Roman
model, with securing sluices at the bot.
tom and lateral passageway through
{ the center, with valve doors at each
sluice gate to shut when the dan
is full, while the passage that ran into
the length of the dam opened up to the
top through a man hole at each end
one of these right by the door of the Of
flee and the other on the abutment
across the river.
"Well, by the time Nick had beer
down there three months and got thes,
? three separate fights on his hands, hi
q paid-up life insurance policy woult
have been a good speculation. He die
not appreciate that, of course, for tn,
Mexieans were polite, knowing the
1 would soon have their innings
y There was always more or less o
them that had nothing to do save hang
ing around the dam, chinning witt
Hennessy's man. Their time came on
K evening when there was big thunder
storm coming mp in the mountains. /
was on toward the end of summer
J. when nearly all Of the bed of the dau
p was dry except little trickle of wate
D turned of into the main ditch, an
Nick was in the habit of taking a boo
and blanket in the afternoon an
t crawling into one of the slIices, wher
it was only about half as hot as it wa
a outside
N "He told me afterwurd that he haI
/. sasu it getting dark as the storm cam
mp, and looking up toward the noun
tains saw the upper edges getting O.
indigo blue and melting up into tn
" black part of the Sky. He knew
b, cloudburst was likely and was Jus
1r thinking Of crawling ont and loolSin
or after corralling the water when it cam
n- down, and all of a sudden he heard th
"a windlass rafting upon the dam and th
" valves came down with bang, caginI
he him up inside the dam
r. 1T flashed upon him in a minut
al what the Mexicnns had doue-Tappe
I'd him in the dam and were going TO Il
I'd the water back up and then flush hii
out down stream.
He thought minute, and then e
4 up and stenped into the lateral passagO
"a closing th- sluice door after him. il
' went along the passage till he came I
the we'll at the end, climbed up the Ia,
I'll der 10 the manhole, and heard the Me-
leans in the Office talking. He eased u
the cover little crack and saw then
much to his disgust, drinking out OF h
private whisky bottle, rolling cigarett,
out Of his Turkish tobacco and congra
ulating themselves on the good job the
es had done. He had no gun on him.
IT he waited, and pretty soon the stor
broke, II struck the hills first, shu
in ting them in with a veil of mist. Tn,
be the torrent came roaring down the ca
yon four or five feet high, tearing 1
sticks and logs in front Of it
1T backed up at the foot Of the da
"a and commenced tapping up the wa
", creeping higher and higher, Aft
i'. awhile, when it had covered ia thef'
of the sluice doors, the MeXicans rolli
ma themselves some fresh cigarettes az
I'M went over for the grand finale Thl
,U got a combined pull on the win
nd lasses and threw the gates an wi,
NV open. The water went bowling o
s- down the valley below, with sticks az
rubbish tossing about The fello'
caught the sight of Nioks blanket
al the water and took Few shots at IL
luck surprising he was under IT,
'e by that time night bad come dow
and they went into the office ont Of q
ne rain aud sat down for an all-nig
kes 0rgie. NlolS heard them coaching ea