Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1896-03-19

A Telegraph Operator Tries to Hire .
Horse In Mexico.


"It's strange how contrary things go
sometimes" said u telegraph operator who
has travelled and seen many things.
"Some years back, whom ! was roaming
around in the southwest, / went down to
old Mexico with man named Clements.
We didn't have any particular business
down there, but 1t was not difficult to get
job at telegraphing in those days, and
we worked around from one place to IN
other to sec the country.
We fou, Il the climate agreeable and
everything lovely except the eatables. The
fact is, the satabes were all right, too, but
we couldn'. get them 'Tamales' was the
only thing we could say In greaser lam
guage when we wanted something to eat,
and tamales was all we could get. These
tamales that the Mexicans make, you
know, are one-eighth corn husk, one
eighth meat and cornmeal and the re-
mainder red pepper that tastes like con-
centrated extract of future damnation.
Now, tamalcs are good things by way Of
relish in small quantities, but as steady
diet they pail on persons appetite, moro
or less. But, as l remarked, the only
thing we could call for was 'tamales.'
That's just 10 show that we couldn't DO
understood when il was desirable.
We'll, one day we proposed taking q
ride and went 10 a stable TO engage some
horses. There were horses In plenty, but
the fool people couldn't understand that
we wanted To hire them. Clements had
little red book with some common express
sions in the greaser language for ready
reference, but it either wasn't printed cor
rectly or Clements didn't have the correct
pronunciation, for the stable folks didn't
sabe his talk worth cent Clements then
tried sort of sign language, and they be-
came suspicious that he was crazy, and
when lie attempted TO saddle IA horse they
threatened To shoot him.
While Clements was in the midst OF
these demonstrations man dressed in the
height OF Mexican style rode in. His
sombrero and saddle carried enough silver
To buy mine. He entered the courtyard,
said "a few words in Spanish 10 an attend
ant, and, seating himself near us, began
rolling cigarette. 1t vexed Clements to
see how readily this greaser could COM
municate with the people, while he
couldn't make himself understood.
Look at that yellow faced rustlerl See
how easy IL is for him to talk 7 said Glenn
ents. His experience had shown him that
there was 10 danger of being understood
w any bHO bub anu IN SpohO licciys
perhaps that blamed bow legged horse
thief can understand me, he added. Then
turning to the stranger and bowling defer
entially Clements pulled out his little red
book, and following the text with his fin
ger, began TO read in Spanish that he
wanted horse. He had only begun when
the man who looked like greaser said in
good English:
~ gather from what you have been
saying TO your friend that you desire to
hire two horses. Am i correctY
He was correct, but Clements was SO
frightened that some time elapsed before
he could answer and make a few necessary
explanations TO the hidalgo, who proved
TO be MCxicanized American, who owned
"a minc down there.
"That WAS an instance where we were
understood when we didn't expect it. -
Washington Star.