The Arizona sentinel., 1894-02-03
HENNESSY'S ESCAPE.
low 10 Avoided tho Penalty Of
Flirting with u Moz..cau Curl

4 sunburnctl. athletic. looking man,
with broad brimrncl 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 druI3rler.5. lie was Walter Grove,
Of Monte Vista, Col, who was in town
working up some irrigation schemes
for eastern capital TO be invested down
II Mexico.
You very often hear it said that the
revcnGcfulIicss and trcachcry of the
lower class of Mcxicans is ovcrrated,"
Eaid Grove. but TO one who has lived
in that country ana studied the people
carefully there arc very few tales that
can bc told of them too remarkable for
belief. ] rccollcct particularly ono case
Of Il young fellow who is working with
nc down IN old Mexico now who came
very Ilc;'I passing il his checks through
not aPprcciatIu2 the kind Of people he
was dealing with.
In the state of chihuahua. on :he
western cd;rc Of N.apiini desert. we had
put in Zig dHIl for Il storage rcsrr-
voir 10 irriG&tc the IHc*aland lying
nbovc thc level of the I,io ConchcH val
ley.
1t wc5 right TT the cntrlncc of q
big box CANON running up to the bar
rcn hills that run along the edge of the
desert. The o:ly things that grow
there arc piIIon trees and jlcll rabbits,
with snail spr!nklinF of chalEIiaa
Gnd grease weed. liut there are peri
Ouic rains. TlIcn the water comes down
through those bare canyons III Il Va.
ten feet high. and enough water goes
10 waste IL twenty four hours to iTri
gate Il whole county for Il season.
We got il our dams all right and
about twenty miles Of main ditch. and
everything vcnt very we'll considering
the fact that we were working new
venture iii IL country where it usually
takes an innovation u couple of ccntu-
rirs to settle down and feel at home.
Il put this young fellow, Nick lien
messy. i'll Chaf;-c of the dam. lie had
hIS Office of IL couple of roonlS there.
with EcAican to cook for hiIa and To
help around and about. All he had Ia
10 was to ride the line Of the ditch and
look after the state of things at the
liam witch he had helped TO build
There WAS little telegraph line from
the Office down to the land company's
home ranch. about ten miles below the
daln, the nearest settlement of any
sort. and Nick used to take 81 rnal serv-
icc observations TO help PASS away the
time. Eut, as l SAID, lie didn't l.row
the people.
In the frs: place, he got himself
dlSlikcd for demonstrating with the
MeXicanS for loading two hundred anu
fifty pound Of stuff or thereabouts on
their poor little hurros. They haven't
my humane societies in that country
Then he got into unpleasant relations
with the sheep hcrderS, all of whom
are embryo InurGerers by nature. by
chipping into a f2h5 and helping "a
Conpie Cf lonely cattlcmen the borders
were trying 10 bushwliacI< up ii the
hills one evening. That was all right,
Of course. for the cOv-punchcrs hap
pened To be Americans, but Nick
winged Il compile of the sheep men, and
they naturally had it i'll for HIM after
ward. Finally he did the business for
! himself by flirting with the alcade's
daughter over III The adjoining plaza
She was the only rla?ri;, --eablc girl in
TIC county, and he ;cuiGnl i,2yy .ouiid
& better way To get loco in his cclIry, or
% sccurc some other OF tic d.i.yata at
tentions il order il such Il case
The dam was Dig masonry one,
bult pretty much after the Roman
model, with securing sIui1es at the bot
torn and 9 lateral passagcway through
the center, with valve doors at each
sluicc gate TO shut when the dam
is full, while the passage that raa into
TIC length OF the dam opercd up To the
top through I1an hole at each end
one of these right by the door of the Of
fec and the other on the abutmcnt
across the river.
well, by the time Nick had been
down there three months and got these
three separate fights on his hands, his
raid-1p life insurance policy would
have been a good speculation. He did
not appreciate that, Of course, for the
NcTicans were polite, knowing they
would soon have their innings
There was always aorc or less of
them that had nothing to DO save hang
ing around the dam, chinning with
Iicnncs5y'3 rla2. Their time came one
evening when there was 4 big thunder
Gtori2 coming up il the mountains. 1t
vas on toward the end CT summer,
yThcn nearly all Of the bel Of the dam
was dry except q little triclllc of water
turned OH into the main ditch, and
{ Nick was in the habit of taking book
and blanket. IN the afternoon and