The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-01-01


hymns, and when the singing stopped for a
bit 1 could hear one of them reading aloud.
1t was clear that they were having some
sort of Protestant religious service, which,
as l knew, was contrary to law, and ever
lastingly contrary to the prejudices of the
inhabitants of Aragua. 1 lost no time in
going to Don Diego, the good old priest 1
have mentioned and in telling him that
thirty-two American female heretics of the
deepest dye were holding a Protestant serv-
ice at the hotel and unless they were ar
rested would probably attempt to convert
every man, woman and child in the town.
But there wasn't a grain of comfort to be
got out of Don Diego. His good old face
frightened up the moment he heard about
the heretics, and he said that this was the
opportunity he had dreamed of for years
He had always longed to convert some Eng
lish or American women to the true faith,
and now this glorious opportunity had been
sent to him. He would not hear for mo-
ment Of the suggestion that the women
ought to be arrested and sent out of SPAIN
but he insisted on going instantly to the
hotel, and converting the entire gang. And
he did make the attempt. For the next week
he was with those women about half the
time and they all said that he was an old
dear Naturally he didn't make the least
progress in converting them, but they were
so friendly with him that he felt sure he
would gather them in before very long.
The next time 1 saw him he was full of
gratitude for me for having given him the
opportunity to do such glorious work for
his church. and he expressed the hope that
I would not let the women leave town until
he had baptized every one of them.
10
send me polite notes asking for a small pay
ment on account. I answered the first one
by reiterating my assurance that 1 would
never pay a single peseta, but the succeed
ing notes were just as polite and cool as
ever. The chief of police was of the opinion
that inasmuch as 1 had not given the land
lord on the day when he received the women
formal notice in writing that 1 would not
be responsible for them, 1 might be held
legally liable At any rate it was the chiefs
opinion that the landlord would swear that
had verbally promised to pay him, and
that the court would probably give him a
verdict for the full amount, besides dam
ages and costs. When L complained to the
chief that the women were openly violating
the law by holding Protestant meetings at
the hotel, and that the chances were that
they would convert Don Diego, which would
be a terrible scandal, he agreed with me
that this constituted a state of things which
ought to justify the expulsion of the women
from the country, but he said that he could
take no action in such a matter except
at the request of the church, and that mas
much as Don Diego was the particular pet
of the archbishop the latter would of
course look at the affair through Don
Diego's spectacles. 1 tell you just longed
for the good old days of the Spanish In
QUESTION, and would have been willing to
subscribe literally for stakes and firewood
for the benefit of those terrible women.
Towards the end of a fortnight there was
a fresh complication. One of the women
began to make love to me. think she was
a little weak-minded, for she wrote poetry
and believed that Shakspeare's plays were
written by his wife. She made a point of
coming alone to my office every afternoon
and sympathizng with me. She said that
the other women were treating me shame
fully, though she did not dare to tell them
so. 1t appeared that they had all signed
what they called a solemn league and COW
enant, binding themselves not to send to
their friends in America for a single dollar,
in order to force me either to pay their ho-
tel bill and send them to Paris or to see
them starve in the street. This woman,
who for purposes of Identification l will call
Miss Brown, said that if | would escort her
to Paris she would cable for enough money
to pay both our fares and to secure me
against any loss that the rest of the women
might put me to- 1t would have been a
tempting offer to some men, but 1 wasn't
that kind Of man. OF course l couldn't
take the womans money without marrying
her, and that was something that / couldn't
see my way to do. However Miss Brown
never lost courage. l don't mean to init
mate that she ever said or did anything
that was unladylike, but she had made up
her mind to marry me, and she followed me
up with an unfaltering determination to
win, Her calculation was that by the time
the rest of the women had ruined me with
hotel bills l would be willing to accept her
terms. AT last 1 had to pretend to have a
fever and to take to my bed, but this didn't
pan out quite as l had expected. The wom-
an insisted on coming to nurse me, and
after L tried the experiment of pretending
to be delirious, which didn't brighten her a
particle, / had to pretend that [ was quite
we'll again. AS for the other women, when
they found that they could not see me, for
my nurse wasn't going to share the privi-
lege of nursing me with anybody, they used
to hold Indignation meetings in my office,
which was next to my bedroom. OF course
/ could hear every word they said, and as
they said about twice as much as they ever
ventured to say to my face, l didn't enjoy
the meetings. 1 could stand being called
brutal and miserly, but it a little hard
to lie on my bed and hear myself charged
with being an habtual drunkard and the
ugliest man in all Spain.
The third Sunday after the arrival of the
women we had our annual bull fight L
don't take very much stock in bull fights
but l suppose that there was no doubt that
our annual bull fight laid over anything of
the kind that could be seen in Spain, out
side of Madrid, or, perhaps, Barcelona.
When 1 first went to Spain 1 was terribly
down on bull fighting, and one day when
the chief of police was sitting in my Office
and reading the last copy of the New York
Herald 1 told him that nation where bull
fights were permitted had no sort of right to
claim to be civilized He didn't attempt to
contradict me, but presently he said:
Il see by this paper that you Americans
have just had a great prize fight, in which
one of the men was killed. Do you have
many prize fights in your country"
l had to admit that we did go in for prize
fighting pretty strong, but explained that it
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