Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1898-02-15

WOAuV1VA AOW 0O 0uOuA0 kCU LIS ACAt
package of brown rice paper for cigarettes.
He had no money, his mother had one
and he had exhausted the generosity of his
friends. Then 1t flashed upon him that
the "treeok" would be of use. He could
get endless packages Of papers by that
method. He went to where a number Of
his friends lounged around the door of the
n store of the town. The least generous
man of them all had a 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" suggested
Benito.
His subject did as he was bid. Benito
released him and sat down to smoke.
The onlOokers were seized with a terri
BILE awe. Benito had a power from the
devil or from heaven, they were not GER
tain which, and it lay with Morales to de.
eide 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 people rose up and blessed
him, and ere long they called him San
Benito, timidly at first, then with growing
conviction.
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 Mo-
rales. When he protested, 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 a landed proprietor. He
married, and n person contributed, all
unwittingly, a chair, another a bed, an
other a table, another a statue Of a 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 tho creek a couple of miles from
Morales rancho had two mules which tho
Mexican coveted. Benito spent the even
ing hanging around the Transfers camp
fire and talking to him. He was a ''grin-
Co." but the ''treeck" had been done to
ssgringos'' before. Why, reasoned Morales,
should not he attempt 1t? He did and
with entire success. When the man was
under his influence, Morales said, s'To-
night at IL o'clock you will come one mile
down the river to where the ford road is,
and you will give me these two mules"
Morales touched the ones he wanted. Then
he awoke the teamstcr and went away.
At midnight he waited by the ford and re-
ceived the mules. He sent the maj back
to his camp and took the animals to a
dump 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 dug aimless-
" In his trawberry patch he saw the sher-
1T and the teamster approaching. The
sheriff was an lrishman who kept tho one
store Of the town, and he did not like Be-
nit0. The Mexican was badly scared.
This man" said the Irishman: ''says
you were loafng around his camp all the
evening yesterday and were watching the
two mules that are missing now He
thinks you stole them"
II did not. / have not got them, = said
San Benito. -&
"You come and help us look for them
just the same. You're a queer lot, and
you've got lots Of things you didn't work
to earn" FsHs
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 q horse thiof at the
next meeting Of the court at the county
aeat, and he was convicted. When the
news reached Tularosa that he had been
sent to jail, the people Of the town turned
agsinst their saint after the manner Of
mankind, which asks nothing better than
to burn what Il has adored. Gutierrez
seized back his house, Ortega reclaimed
his ranch, San Benito's wife and children
were turned out and found refuge where
they might until the padre gave them 4
home.
Afterward, when San Benito came back
to his town, he was met with stones and
curses and driven out upon the prairie.
And his mother went with him across the
burning plain toward the vague north,
from which they had come. He might be
Morales, the horse thief, to his ~ungrateful
psople, but TO her he was Benito still
even San Benito Oyerton in
Argonaut-