The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1899-11-22
6p llrs. elizabeth G. Winter
Copyright. 1892 and 1893. by ROBERT BoNsERs soSs>
A NOVEL,.
isabella CASTELAR.)

lSSg ray Ol llSuI lulo Iue uai hnSss.
In the midst of scenes too shocking
for her to understand, Alice LINDSAY
grew to womanhood, as pure as the
Gala lilies that now grow IN those
streets, rearing their snowy cups hlgn
above the black earth from which they
spring. Her father, who was a born
bohemian, easy-going, clever, bright,
master OF half dozen languages, and
possessed of a voice that might have
charmed a sitting mavis off its nest,
was soon hail-fellow-well-met with the
widest class of San Franciscans, and
long before Alice had reached woman
hood, he had made and lost half o
dozen fortunes. One night, he was
shot in a row at faro table, and at
the age of eighteen, Alice found her
self an orphan, homeless and pennl-
less. But her fathers death was not
the worst misfortune that happened
to her. She had been seen and loved
by young Spaniard, who had lacked
courage to press his suit, but who
blessed the opportunity her loneliness
and grief now gave him. Alice mar
ried Rafael Mendoza, and, though
from that hour all worldly prosperity
forsook him, his happiness in her
love was so great that he never quite
realized the misfortunes that pursued
him.
At the time of his marriage, Men
doza had been one of the rising men
of the San Francisco of that day-a
city that might then have been called
the Phoenix of the Pacific coast, for it
had risen from the ashes of four San
Franciscos that lad gone before, q
richer, fairer, prouder city than any
that had preceded it, and destined to
be the foundation of the now beautiful
city of the Golden Gate. He was
also rich in focks and herds on dis
tant ranches; rich in gold and bonds;
rich in fabulous wealth .--of treas
ure and of gems said to be
buried in some far canyon of
which he alone held the secret,
and richest of all in the possession of
the one woman he had ever loved.
But from the day of his marriage o
curse pursued him. His focks and
herds died; his gold melted away; his
bonds became waste-paper; and finally
his mind failed, and he sank into
helpless imbecility. From this last
misfortune he only reused OCCASION
ally for few lucid moments, when he
would frantically kiss his young wife
and child, and murmur, helplessly:
'The curse of the Mendozas-the
curse of the wronged and murdered
Indian girl! Why has it come to me?
How have I deserved it,"
The beautiful Sonora Mendoza soon
buried her husband in the lonely can
yon of Santiago, where, in his last
days he had entreated to be taken, in
the forlorn hope of finding the hidden
treasure whose secret he had once
known. But it was too late; his shut
tered brain could no longer think, and
his hand had lost its cunning. His
grave was dug not twenty feet from
the buried treasure, and Alice, with
her child, wandered far away. beggars
in everything save their love for each
other. The Sonora Mendoza, who
spoke English beautifully, thanks to
her Bohemian father, obtained the po-
sition of governess to a Spanish fam
ily who were on the way to the East
ern States; and after hundred vicis-
situdes and a complete breakdown in
the health of the still beautiful senora,
these two lovely women drifted into
New York-harbor for every kind of
human wreck. Dolores, whose Gle
CANT figure had obtained her the posi-
ton of saleswoman in cloak-room,
had been able at first to pay their
way; but when her mothers health
declined so rapidly that her condition
became desperate, she was obliged to
resign her position in order to give
her the necessary care. From that
time the gaunt specter of poverty pur-
sued them, and its terrible eyes met
the eye of Dolores wherever she
looked; but she fought it of. day and
night till her mother kissed and
blessed her for the last time. To buy
the right for that dear, dead form to
lie IN hallowed ground the poor girl
had gathered together every shilling
she yet owned; and that being insult
6cient, she had then sold every article
she possessed of furniture and oi
clothing-and on the day when che
first saw Polly Hamilton she had been
walking to and fro on the earth, face
to face with death by starvation
praying only that it might not be lonn
to wait.