Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1897-09-01

9&SMEA ~ .\SV girl, NelJ pssiA
@SgEES$NS and shapely.
E@gsA@SaAAA The Mexican
!! s.; ;:::::::: s.: !; !: !: II; Il; :;
had block to
go, used to look upon her with amaze
ment as she tramped down their steep
streets with fine, swinging, heel
and-toe gait.
She was picking her way one day
among the vendors in the plaza, stop
ping once in q while to give some
whining beggar or tattered monstrosity
o centavo, when she felt her skirt
pulled. Looking, she saw a tiny hand
held out, aud childish voice piped
the usual formula for aims: The little
creature was no taller than child of
FOUR: But the face! It was old and
#ithered The eyes were sunken and
SO old! Miss Stanley pulled back the
tebozo-the hair was gray,
'sA dwarf" she thought, with a lit
tie feeling of propulsion: Glow old are
you?"
s'Fifty-four;" piped up the wee
thing. Then, true to her sex, '"The
priest will tell you ffty-eight, but I
am not; am only fifty-four. She said
her name was Rosita.
Rosita, it appeared, did nearly any
thing for living, begging preferably,
although that is s,
crowded profession in y -
times she sold chicken
on commission. Sh.. is?e &c
source of income. being ,.e::, go: 2.'.-- .,
the bounty of q young m,a-& ,,,-5-'
% s,weeks-but she COMES
made her jump for the co
held his arn out straigl
jump in vain, she could n; seaca -,
-='HThe brute!'' said NJ :3f-'y-.
Rosita did not know the N,
she looked up, pleased.
good, the English lady was c.-.....o
interest in her. for the expletive
sounded profane. and profanity from
feminine source indicated strong emo
ton, which she construed favorably.
The poor in Mexico are always hun
cry, and Miss Stanley, knowing this
failing, took Rosita to little one
room restaurant. The menu was con-
fined strictly to Mexican dishes.
Miss Stanley noticed that Rosita put
half her dinner to one side, wrapping
the carne and frijoles in tortillas.
When she came to q dulce of some
tropic fruit, boiled in syrup of cane
sugar, her little wrinkled eyes looked
wistful.
"How can I take some to my little
brother?" she asked.
Miss Stanley asked another ques-
tion: "Is this food you have put away
for your brother?"
EYES," answered Rosita, in her
squeaky voice, ST take all the care Of
him. We are alone, and I work for
him. He is locked in the room now,
see," and she held up the massive key
peculiar to Mexican doors.
"Why is he locked in?" asked Miss
Stanley, as she directed the mozo to
put the dinner in couple of ollas for
Rosita to take to her brother.
'sHe has combats with the children
in the street, and anu afraid some one
will get hurt" she answered.
Miss Stanley watched her trot away,
laden with the dinner for her brother.
So little and so old, unlike many
dwarfs not bulky-indeed, pitifully
thin. It was not until she reached
her home that Miss Stanley remem-
bered she had not asked how old the
t1ittle brother" was.
She often met Rosita after that,
sometimes in the Jardin, where the
roses nodded overhead, and yiolets
bloomed underfoot, and the band
played 10y and sweetly, as Mexican
bands do. Rosita would dart from
the circling stream OF pelado into the
inner circle, where the quality walked
under the trees or sat on the iron
benches. Miss Stanley could seldom
resist the little, dirty, badly worked
square of drawn-work held out by the
tiny hand.
Constance Stanley had no father or
mother, and, living with brother
who was endeavoring to effect the
drainage of ssthe richest silver Lime
in the world" she wandered un-
checked through the crowded, narrow
streets of the old town with a young
criada her only safeguard.
She had often longed to explore q
dark street that plunged downward
from the paved and civilized one. It
was damp and murky. A staircase of
stone, with crumbling adobe walls,
two and three stories high. Across the
streets narrow width futtered strings
Of of!washing. The women, with their
red petticoats and blue rebozos, made
bright blots of color. The men loafsd
about, lean and ragged. 1t reminded
her of Naples. The doorways swarmed
with babies and dogs-poverty march
ing always side by side with those in
nocents.
Down she went. The street made
an abruptturn. At the corner she was
startled by seeing, protruding from a
hole cut in squalid doorway, several
long, black fingers. They were with
drawn, and she saw, as she passed the
door, two blood-shot eyes peering out
like beasts eyes.
'fNina, ninital the good mother of
God sent you, and see what gain will
beyoursp' Turning, Miss Stanley be-
held Rosita at her heel. She had q
plate to sell--s coarse, ironatone