The Van Buren press. [volume] (Van Buren, Ark.) 1859-1914, 1898-02-12

went with the man; and he went again,
night after night. He observed and he
watched, and at last he determined that
he could do The ''treeek" as we'll as the
"gringo.' He experimental and prac-
ticed and became, in course of time,
fairly proficient. For Morales was a
man of brains and will. The "treeck"
served to amuse him and his worthless
friends, but he never thought of turn
ing ii to account. He was sharp enough
to know that he did not do it so well as
the white man.
In course of time he grew weary of
working to live. He did not grow rich,
and he had to labor hard for the rare
dollars that he turned. 1t was better
in Tularosa, where people would give
him friioles and cigarettes, and where
his mother would do the little that was
needed to keep hunger from the door.
Slowly anu leisurely he earned his way
back to Soroeeo, and thence he rode on
burro that he found on the banks of
the Rio Grande to Tularosa. Thus it
was that Benito Morales returned to his
own people, little dreaming of the hon
ors that were in store for him.
One day as he sat in his own doorway
watching the hooking bird that hoped
back and forth in its cage and peel<ed
at the red chill stuck between the bars
he wondered how he should get his
next package of brown rice paper for
cigarettes. He had no money, his
mother had none, he had exhausted the
generosity of his friends. Then it
flashed upon him that the "treeck"
would be of use. He could get endless
packages of paper by that method. He
went to where a number of his friends
lounged around the door of the one
store of the town. The least generous
man of them all had new package. In
seeming playfulness Morales pressed
him upon the brow and gazed into his
eyes. The man grew rigid.
"Give me your cigarette papers and
some tobacco, if you please suggest
ed Benito.
His subject did as he was bid. Benito
released him and sat down to smoke.
The on-lool1ers were seized with ter
rible awe. Benito had power from the
devil or from Heaven, they were not
certain which, and it lay with Morales
to decide that for them. He put his
power to good uses for a time. He
cured those of the sick who seemed
likely to recover, he made men perform
feats of prodigious strength. The peo-
pie rose up and blessed him, and ere
long they called him San Benito, tim
idly at first, then with growing eonvic-
ton.
When his reputation was established,
Morales began to work for his own
ends. Manuel Guitterez awoke from a
trance one day to find that he had, in
the presence of witnesses, signed away
his house to Morales. When he pro-
tested, he was set upon and beaten and
driven off with boots. Jose Ortega, in
the same fashion, gave away his bit of
a ranch at Three Rivers. Morales was
now landed proprietor. He married.
and one person contributed, all unwit-
tingly, a chair, another a bed, another
a table, another a statue of saint, to
furnish the bridegroom's house. The
people feared and almost worshiped
him. His mother, and his wife, and his
children received much honor. But
Morales had too much rope, and in due
time he hanged himself.
A teamster, who was camping upon
the bank of the creek a couple of miles
from Morales rancho, had two mules
which the Mexican coveted. Benito
spent the evening hanging around the
Transfers campfire and talking to him.
He was 'gringo," but the "treeck"
had been done to "gringos" before, why,
reasoned Morales, should not he at
tempt it? He did-and with entire sue
cess. When the man was under his in
fuence, Morales said: "To-night, at 10
o'clock. you will come one mile down
the river to where the ford road is, and
you win give me these two mules 4
Morales touched the ones he wanted.
Then he awoke the teamster and went
away. At midnight he waited by the
ford-and received the mules. He sent
the man back to his camp, and took the
animals to a clump of heavy willows,
where he tied them. He did not want the
man to find them in his corral if it
should occur to him to make trouble
The next day, as Morales digged aim
lessly in his strawberry patch, he saw
the sheriff and the teamster approach
ing. The sheriff was an Irishman, who
kept the one store of the town, and he
did not like Benito. The Mexican was
badly scared.
This man." said the Irishman, "says
you were loafing around his camp all
the evening yesterday, and were watch
ing the two mules that are missing now.
He thinks You stole them"
81 did not. have not got them," said
San Benito.
"You come and help us look for them,
just the same. You're queer lot, and
you've got lots of things you didn't work
to earn"
The mules were found, of course, tied
under the willows on San Benito's own
ground with a piece of San Benito's
own rope, which he had bought of the
Irishman only two days before.
Morales was tried as a horse thief
at the next meeting of the court at the
county seat, and he was convicted.
When the news reached Tularosa that
he had been sent to Jail. the people OF
the town turned against their saint
after the manner of mankind, which
asks nothing better than TO burn what
II hos odora1 Cuit+erez eefzad hoolr n l.