The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-07-11
HENNESSY'S ESCAPE.
How He Avoided the Penalty of
Flirting with Mexican Girl

A sunburned. athletic-looking man.
with broadbrimmed 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 He 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
''9ou 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 remark able for
belief. [ recollect particularly one case
of young fellow who is working with
me down in old Mexico now who came
very near passing in his checks through
| not approaching the kind Of people he
was dealing with.
I'm the state of Chihuahua, on the
western edge Of Mapimi desert, we had
put in big dam for storage reser-
voir to irrigate the mesaland lying
above the level of the Rio Conchos val
ley.
sit was right at the entrance of
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 sprinkling 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 season
I'VE got in our dams all right and
about twenty miles Of main ditch, and
everything went very well. considering
the fact that we were working new
venture in country where it usually
takes an innovation couple of centu-
ries to settle down and feel at home.
Il put this young fellow, Nick Hen
messy. in charge of the dam. He had
his office of a 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 companv's
home ranch, about ten miles below the
dam, the nearest settlement of anv
sort. and Nick used to take signal serv-
ice observations to help pass away the
time. But, as I said, he didn't know
the people.
in the first place. he got himself
disliked for demonstrating with the
Mexicans for loading two hundred and
fifty pound of stuff or Whereabouts 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
We're trying to bushwhack up in the
hills one evening. That was all right,
of course, for the cow-punchers hap
pened to be Americans, but Nick
winged 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
better way to get loco in his coffee, or
TO secure some other of the delicate at
tentions in order in such a case
The dam was a big masonry one,
built pretty much after the Roman
model, with securing sluices at the bot
tom and lateral passagewav through
the center, with valve doors at each
sluice gate to shut when the dam
is full, while the passage that ran into
the length of the dam opened up to the
top through man hole at each end |
one OF these right by the door OF the Of |
fee and the other on the abutment |
across the river.
well, by the time Nick had been |
down there three months and got these |
three separate fights on his hands, his /
paid-up life insurance policy would /!
have been good speculation He did /
not appreciate that, OF course, for the 4
Mexicans were polite, knowing they /.
would soon have their innings
There was always more or less OF /
them that had nothing TO do save hang /
ing around the dam, Ginning with 4
Heunessy's man Their time came one /
evening when there was a big thunder 1
storm coming up IN the mountains Ii
was on toward the end Of summer,
when nearly all Of the bed Of the ds n
was dry except little triebie Of water
turned of into the main ditch, and 1
Nick was in the habit Of taking book
and blanket IN the afternoon and
crawling into one of the SLICES. where
il was only about half as hoi Is It was
outside
'He told ne afterward tha. be had
seen il getting dark as the storm came
up, and looking mp toward the noun
tains saw the upper edges getting al
indigo blue and melting up into the
black part of the SKY. He knew
was likely and was inst
Of crawling out and locking
after corralliug the water when i cane
down. and al OF = sndGen nc heard tie
wiR4lass rafting upon the d2la AID tie