The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1899-07-27

that he really could not see his way to help
me. I had permitted myself to count on
his services in the matter. and when found
that he could give me no assistance went
home feeling about a. . man does who IL
condemned to death and has been refused
| q pardon.
"The next night, as was passing the
hotel. heard singing. / ought to say that
by this time had pretty we'll given up 60
ing out of the house in the day thine for
fear of meeting either Of the 80 women or
some one Of their creditors. and only ven
tured into the street at night. l stopped
to listen to the singing. and then q bril-
liant idea struck me. The women were
singing the most violent sort Of revival
hymns. and when the singing stopped for
bit l could hear one of them reading
aloud 1t was clear that they were having
| some sort OF Protestant religious service,
which. as knew. was contrary to law and
everlasting contrary to the prejudices of
the inhabitants Of Aragua. l lost no time
In going to Don Diego. the good. old priest
have mentioned. and in telling him that
! 80 American female heretics of the deepest
dye were holding a Protestant service at
the hotel. and unless they were arrested
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
lfsh or American women to the true faith,
and now this glorious opportunity had been
sent to him. He would not hear for
| hat no
ought to be arrested and sent out of Spain.
but he insisted on going instantly to the
MOTEL and converting the entire gang. And
ne ola make the attempt; for the next week
ne was with those women about half the
Time. and they all said that he was an
ola 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 l saw him he was
Iuil OF gratitude to me for having given
MIN the opportunity to do such a glorious
work for his church. and he expressed the
hope that l would not let the women leave
town until he had baptised every one of
them.
Meanwhile the landlord had begun to
seno me polite notes asking for a small
payment on account. l answered the first
|
would never pay a single peseta, but the
succeeding 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 landlord, on the day when he re-
celved the women, formal notice in writing
mat would not be responsible for them
l might be held legally liable. At any rate
II was the chiefs opinion that the landlord
would swear that l had verbally promised
to pay him. and that the court would prob
ably give him verdict for the full
amount, besides damages and costs. When
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 con-
stituted 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 inasmuch
as Don Diego was the particular pet of the
archbishop. the latter would of course look
at the affair through Don Diegos spec
tacles 1 tell you, 1 just longed for the
good old days Of the Spanish inquisition,
and would have been willing to subscribe
literally for stakes and frewood for the
DeuellI OI luOSe LerrlDlo women.
Towards the end of a fortnight there
was fresh complication. One of the
women began to make love to me. She
said that If 1 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. OF course 1 couldn't consent to
accepting such generosity unless she were
prepared to adopt as her son, or l were
intending to ask her to become my wife.
However, she never lost courage 1 don't
mean to say she ever said or did anything
that was unladylike, but she had made
up her mind to marry me, and she fol-
lowed me up with an unfaltering deter
mination to win. At last l had to pretend
to have a fever and to take to my bed,
but this didn't pan out quite as l had ex-
pected. The woman insisted on coming to
nurse me, and after I tried the expert
ment of pretending to be delirious which
didn't brighten her a particle, l had to
insist that 1 was quite well again. AS for
the other women, they used to hold in
dignaton meetings in my Office, which was
next to my bedroom. Of course I could
hear every word they said, and as they
said about twice as much as they ever
ventured to say to my face. didn't enjoy
the meetings. I could stand being called
| brutal ana misery, Out IL was 1llIlc udI u
to lie on my bed and hear myself charged
with being a habitual drunkard and the
ugliest man in all Spain.
"The third Sunday after the arrival Of
the women we had our annual bull fight.
don't take very much stock in bull
fights but I suppose that there was no
doubt that our annual bull-fght laid over
everything of the kind that could be seen
in Spain, outside of Madrid, or, perhaps,
Barcelona.
'When 1 first went to Spain was ter
ribly 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, told him that nation where
bull fights we're permitted had no sort Of
right to claim to be civilized He didn't
attempt to contradict me, but presently he
said:
"'I 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
II had to admit that we did go in for
prize fights pretty strong, but 1 explained
that it was a manly pastime, and had its
advantages as we'll as its disadvantages
Then the chief read out an account of the
lynching Of four niggers. that, according
| to the paper, had been burned alive by a
mob of leading citizens somewhere in Mis-
souri,, and when he had finished reading he
asked me If 1t was true, as the Herald men
toned, that there had been over a thousand