Sharp County record., 1903-11-27
.JUANITO
Ey A. L. UNGER.

TUANlIO was discouraged and sui
III len, not to say vengeful.
Here he had lain for nearly three
days With only little jerky to eat.
and OILY an occasional mouthful OF
water, aAd now his canteen was
empty
"Madre de Dios," he muttered to
himself will those miserable Grin
go's never, never go away so that
pobre Juanito can get some fresh
aqua"
Yes, pobre Juanito (poor Juanito)
1t was nearly three days before.
when, just as he had finished filling
his canteen at the water hole, his
sharp ears caught the click OF steel
on @ rock as party of cowboys ap-
preached, and Juanito lost no time
in hiding himself in q dense thicket
of mesquite little farther up tho
canyon.
At that time Juanito WAS very
tired; ne had tramped 20 miles after
Ills hOISS nbu Ahtcn dHu DEokCh Ilh
leg, and he thought 1t best to wait
q day and rest, for 1t was nearly 40
miles to the nearest water in any di-
rection. and Jusnito knew quite well
that it would be hazardous trip for
a man on foot, and with but one can
teen Of water, even II he was fresh
when ne started.
He kuaw very well that the cow
boys we're looking for him, but it
never cniered his mind that they
would stay there at the water hole
in any such senseless way; 80 he took
good drink, ate some Of his jerky,
and, after concealing himself so moth
ing but the closest search would dis
cover him, he went to sleep rs calmly
as though his life had been spotless.
But Juanito's life had not been
spotlesS; far from it, In fact, he had
been an exceedingly bad Juanito;
though perhaps. it was not SO much
his own fault.
bad start in life. His father had been
a Chinaman at that, while his mother
had been a low cast Mexican woman,
whose veins were largely filed with
Apache Hood, so Juanito was rather
handica,ped by his parentage to
start with.
Then events had been rather
against him.
When he was about three years old
his father came home to their abode
earl one morning In an unpleasant
frut6' uf mind, due TO the loss of all
his money at the gambling dens, and
q skin rnll of bad Tombstone whisky,
and in the quarrel that followed
Juanito's mother received several
more knife wounds than is conducive
TO longevity, and passed out of the
game.
Juanito's father was found asleep
with the bloody knife still in his
harD. and lie crowd that soon gath
ered ,o~t i,tle time in arranging q
"ncrNt,c" IArty, with the result that
l.. .r, 'lRn 5 minutes Tonhstone's
popuia,iuu vas decreased by one
"chiuu" and Juanito was au urphan.
luanto had been chirstened Juan,
b., a- Ny prew to manhood and did
no. traw vrry much in length, his
namc uecome heightened to Juenito
-e1uiyaient to Little John" in Eng
lisf
Alas, 300 Juanito; life did not deal
yery gtnlly with him, and his in
bervr5 uainess had the best OF
chm, ror development, snd-it did
not ,ali ,p develop.
He lpcHme sort OF common
char, unong a half dozen OF so OF
the lowest of the Mexican families;
eatiua as the adobe hut of the family
that larnened to be honored by his
prc>rlrc az meal time, and sleeping
wFel cr le happened to be when
sl."nr; hut after few years he be-
G. a. - lad that Juanito's presence
/. w;5 st ooked upon with favor by
ua Ii, foster fathers, and Juan
4 80 e Hl began to "rustle" for HIM
sci. dNnp pdd jobs around the sa-
looms. ana morning errands for the
gamblers.
j Af..4f :-An-.taH ~ u,,u,rad