The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-07-22
THE CURSE THAT BLIGHTED.
The Crime Of Don Luis DOminsueS and
Its Awful Consequences.

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How Avarice Came to the Heart of
Don Luis and Wrought His Ruin
From the San Francisco Examiner.
A weird legend came with the cargo Of
the Annie Gee to Howard street wharf
this week, and the sailors along shore
listened to the tale with superstitious
awe, as they gazed at the great pile of
bones offered in evidence of the truth of
the uncanny recital.
These bones were the bleached remains
of long-horned steers shipped from Quay
mas to be sold in this port as fertilizing
materials prosaic a sequel to ro-
nance as could well be imagined.
Fifty years ago, as the story runs, there
lived on the broad plateau of the TERRA
templada between Tres Titas and the
from the po< of Guaymas, a very
wealthy Mexican senior Don Luis Do
mingues y Mendez.
Many years before Don Luis, then a
young man, recently enriched by the
death of his father, returned from the
City OF Mexico with a beautiful bride.
1t was whispered that the young ranchero
had not won this woman by fair means.
and there was a vague rumor current in
the huts of the poems of tragedy, fight
in the night and a pursuit by avenginS
enemies who still lurked on the confines
of the plateau-somewhere in the cavern
Gus barrancas of the Sierra Bacalele.
Soon these stories strengthened with
ciroumstaGtiality, and it was told as
truth that the fair Inez had forsaken her
lawfdl spouse TO companion with Don
Luis, that the aged father and husband
of the erfiAg one started in pursuit, and
somewhere in the faStness of the Sierra
Madre held the fugitives at bay. 1t was
told in one story that both father and
husband persisted in the combat, but an
other narrative relates that only the hus-
band was killed by Don Luis-that the
father left for dead on the mountain side
revived and continued the pursuit. This
was the gossip of the plains, and no one
dared to speak it aloud for fear of the
wrath of the master.
The years went by and Don Luis pros
pered His cattle roamed in vast herds
over the broad plains, and there was
much gold in his Golfers Children came
to him, but these were not a comfort or a
hearts ease to the mother. Her counte-
nance was always sorrowful, and great
grief seemed consuming her. The love
that she had 80 wantonly cast aside was
not retrieved in the affection of Don Luis
and she understood, when it was too late,
that the way of the woman who trans
crosses is nara lnueeu.
The nature of Don Luis had changed,
not only toward this woman, but toward
all who bore allegiance to him. 1t was
not the brutality of physical violence that
made him a6hOrIent to those around him,
but subtle influence that seemed to en-
anate from his presence. provoking hatred
and inspiring fear. His scrowl was
more dreaded than another's blow, and
his sneer pierced like knife. The poems
col 70 sod Tor I'll, F.,1
deed, and that as long as that old man
lurked in the barrancas no happiness
could come to the habitation of Don Luis
Uomingues.
But if the curse drove happiness from
that hearthstone it laid no obstacle in
the way of worldly prosperity for Don
Luis, whose herds increased and whose
ventures brought wealth untold.
One day, in the dusk of evening, two
vaqueros rode up to the / cienda and
called the master. They told him that
an old, old man had come out of the ST
ezra and lay dying in the hut of a peon
He had asked for Don Luis, saying he
had important information for him At
this intelligence Don Luis frowned and
then he smiled. and his smile was more
Irightful than his frown, because il be-
toHeped hellish triumph in his soul
He told the vaqueros to hasten back
and say to the old man that he would
come to him. Then he went into the
house and called his wife. She came TO
him trembling and he said to her with a
sneer:
You must come with mel want you
to renew your acquaintance with one
whom you have not met for many years
l hope IL will be an agreeable meeting,
Sonora"
The woman said never word. She
feared this gloomy, dark souIed compdn-
ion of her sin and she dared not even hes
itate when he commanded Wrapping
her mantilla over her head she went forth
into the night, following Don Luis.
They came to the hut where the old
man lay dying ahd as soon as she beheld
him she uttered Shrek and fell prone
upon the floor. The old man, white
haired, haggard and worn to a skeleton
by exposure and disease, but with the
fierce name of unutteraole hatred gleam-
ing in his eyes, raised himself on his
elbow and extending his gaunt finger to.
ward Don'Luis standing there silent and
defiant, uttered a curse so fearful that
words may not describe it--a curse that
was not so much in words as in the tone
and the awful significance of his meaning
Keep what you have got" he
screamed, Keep it forever; never let it
escape YOU until God takes it from you;
and in the keeping suffer-sufer as Ihave
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES ~
The old man fell back exhausted, and
in few moments he was dead.
Such is the story told in the huts of the
herders of El TERRA Templada de la Sono-
ra. and, it is the common belief of the
vaqueros that the old mans curse had its
full effect
Sonora Domingues pined away in a
wasting melancholy until God took her
away. Her two sons went away and
never returned. One was shot to death
standing rgainst white wall looking at
Orizaba's snow-capped peak-the sacri-
nee of MendoAa's insurrection. The other
was hanged in Sinaloa-the last of as
desperate gang of bandits as ever cut
the throat of 0. muleteer or fought the
guards of bullion train.
But Don Luis remained on the rancho
and kept all that he mad accumulated
elutched II with a grip that death alone
could loosen, and death came not to full
MI the old mans curse for many years.
He became more sullen, more silent, more
gloomy as age crept upon him, and avarice
was his sole passion. He denied himself
every luxury; he even curtailed his ne
cessltles to the lowest limit compatible
with bare existence. And still his herds
increased and his gold accumulated, and
1t became his solitary joy to sit and gloat
upon the shining disks of metal as they
shlmmered in the light of a suffering
tallow candle that gave forth a glimmer
SufnCient TO reveal the abiect snualor IF