Pawtucket tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 1890-189?, 1895-07-08


ped out for himself, may make or NOR IL
learned all this and more one sultry May
day In Mexico fve years ago
had been sent To Mexico as chief Of q
surveying corps to establish the boundaries
of tho Santa Anita grant, which lay along
the Rio Claro just outside tho city Of Chi.
huahua. IL was responsible position for
young man, and held my head high.
IL was tho day of La Fiesta do San Qua.
dalupe. The saint himself had boen dead,
J understood, several hundred years, but
In Mexico that doesn't make any differ
ence. The longer folks are dead there tho
more they seem TO DO thought of and the
bigger birthday party they have. Almost
every other week contains the feast day"
of some dead saint or santcss, and trade
and commerce are suspended To do the oc-
casion justice. The natives of Mexico are
tho most perennially pious people on earth.
Why, i have known them-men In my own
employ-to DO so enthused over the pos
thumous birthday of some long dead saint
that they would get up In the gray dawn
To go about celebrating 1t. This morning,
the morning OF Guadalupe's feast day, the
whole force Of poems under me had struck.
No chainmen, no nagmen, no axmen were
left me. Only Sims and Bailey, my two
u.
/ began abusing them for the customs OF
Mexico, they said while they did not care
even remotely for the saint to whom Ii
was dedicated, still they were glad 1t was
holiday and they thought they would go
up stream and fish awhile. They were
only Indifferent laymen, without any re-
ligious feeling
When was left alone in camp, I spent
M naIH u,h
came over me that was wasting the day
Just outside the chaparral the river was
laughing and murmuring in the open. 1t
seemed to ask me to walk beside it. The
adobe huts along its banks were tenant
less; their inmates had gone to the feast.
But, strange sight, there at the bend Of
the river where the waters were the mer-
riest was solitary worker, and whatever
1t was she was doing, she was doing 1t
with vim. A dark eyed, dark haired,
dark shawled daughter Of Spain she
seemed to be, and yet she was working
and working hard--on "feast day!' A
fit Of curiosity seized me to know what she
was doing and why she was doing 1t.
approached her with the question on my
lips mt what did she work, and porkay U
spell 1t as said it). Softly she raised a
pair of melting Orbs and sweetly and elo-
quently she answered me- From her reply,
In the most musical language in the world,
gathered that she would be at the feast,
but that she must cleanse the sOiled linen
that lay around her on the sand, for the
owner OF 1t, gentleman who was staying
at the United States hotel, wanted it by
noon, and tomorrow would not do (she
said this plaintively). If it were not done
by noon, she finished most pathetically,
she would get no diners, and that she
needed In the superlative degree Dinero! !!
All, tho next most potent thing in Mexico
to saints days Is money!
AS her red lips told me this, her great
black eyes wandered from the soiled
clothes at her feet to the spires of the Ca
thedral In the distance and the waving
foliage of the plaza where the feasting and
merrymakiDg were going on. There was
look of sadness and longing in them as
she gazed. Being tender hearted man, 1
asked her If there was aught could do for
her. In a wonderful mixture Of Anglo
Spanish which invented while in Mex
leo, and which no one could ever master
but myself, 1 assured her was at her serv-
ice If she so desired and asked how I could
assist her.
The black eyes flashed gratitude ere tho
scarlet mouth said, in silvery sweet tones,
"Would you sit on q rock beside me and rub
the shirts of the gentleman on u large rock
with very small rock?'
Looking back now in the light of ma
turer wisdom, can see that should have
declined that job on the grounds that it
was too unBsthetic. Butt didn't. On
the contrary, accepted it effusively
There was touch of romance about it
hot 1a1 fn
to appeal to mo for the first time. began
to feel something of the enthusiasm for
feast days that had taken my men out be-
fore daybreak. l would not be so hard on
them again, thought. Truly it was a
very pretty custom, and began to sympa-
thize with it and to understand it better
If San Guadalupe had not been SO long in
tered, in the gladncss of my heart would
have sent him bouquet. All this tried
to confide to Lucia. 1t touched her; it
sounded, she said like stories she had read
in the convent.
Her name was a poem In itself-Lucia
Eulalia Gracia y Valdez. And miner After
that poem 1t seemed common to say that I
was plain Jack Biggs. But she afticipat-
ed me. She pointed to one of my business
cards that had escaped my vest pocket
when l threw 1t on the sand. "Meester
Beegs, que nor" she lisped, and 1t did not
sound at all badly from her lips
1t was pleasant to know she did not dis
like my name. This was one way Of say
ing, as everybody knows, that It's owner
was not disagreeable to her.
AS we talked we washed, and long be-
| fore noon the gentleman's shirts were all
| floating in the breeze from tho low chapar-
| raj along the river bank.
Lucia Eulalia glanced gratefully and al
ternately at the snowy linen and at me- My
| natural thoughtfulness led me to suggest
| that we might Ms well do the family wash
| ing while we were about It. Her brother
Antonio, the sheep herder, whom she had
mentioned with sistcrly affcction-did not
| his things have need of waterp There
Is no time like the present, said; at
Nay set in tomorrow and rain for months.
| Who knowsP"
Lucia Eulalia looked at the contradict