Evening star., 1936-03-11

In silence: when player, angered by
his continual losses. accused him of
dealing from a crooked deck Joaquin
would smilingly toss the deck over to
the grumbler for his inspection and
the play would cease until the player
was satisfied; whereupon Joaquin
would politely ask that man to retire.
Only once until he left Sacramento to
go to Sawmill Flat did he engage in
combat, although often he yearned to.
He deemed it the part of wisdom not
to carry pistol or knife; he had already
discovered that the Gringos, even the
worst of them, had this code-that
they could not shoot an unarmed man
and escape the very imtnent risk of
being lynched. 1t is hard to pick a
quarrel with a man who desires to
evade 1t and who will be polite even
under insult. Often he had to pretend
he did not hear Gringo address him
as Greaser; If the cheap insult was re-
peated the play ceased until that man
left the game, which usually was al
most Immediately. because the other
players demanded it.
BY the Summer Of 1849 the gold
rush was in full swing Among the
Americans Joaquin had made no
friends; life was to terrifically tram
sient for that, even If the Americans
had cared to become friendly with a
Mexican gambler. And Joaquin had
no illusions as to his social standing;
even in Sonora he would have been
socially de trop. He was too intelli-
gent, however, not to sense that, with
the memories of the Mexican war still
very much alive, resentment and con-
tempt for his people was inevitable.
He had never read Epectitus, never
heard of him, but If he had he might
have taken some comfort from that
sage's statement to the effect that we
hate people because we do not know
them and We do not know them be-
cause we hate them. As a pure-bred
Spaniard he regarded himself as vast
ly superior to full-blood or half-blood
Mexican Indians; it was not a matter
OF amaZement to him that Americans
regarded themselves as superior to the
Hispano-Californians, so recently citi-
zens of a country they had conquered.
Conscious Of this racial hatred. he
tried hard not to breed return hatred.
When one taunted him with his race
he would smile lightly and say: "It Is
true that once was a citizen of Mex
leo. But it is also true that, under the
Treaty Of Gaudaloupe Hidalgo, am
now citizen of the United States,
am decended from a proud and an
cient race; am white man; I
bathe daily and only a very impolite
American will refer to me as a Greaser.
1t is stupid to quarrel in an effort to
refute scandal born in the womb of
ignorance and hate, but if your pur-
pose, senior, is to inflict an insult. why
not cast a slur upon my mother? I'm
med1ately will challenge you to a
duel; we will go into the street and
make the fight according to the code
OF the duello-and assure you, senior.
there will be but one funeral and it
will not be mine'
one man, thus addressed, accepted
the challenge; whereupon JOAQUIN had
gone home for his pistol and the duel
had been arranged. They were to
stand Is PAGES apart, with their pistols
In the holsters; at the drop of a hand
kerchief they were to draw and fire
until their pistols were empty. But
one shot had been fired-and JOAQUIN
had fired that Neatly he shot the
top Of his opponents right thumb off:
tnen dropped the barrel of his pistol
ana bowed. Il observe, senor." he
said, that you are unable to cock
your pistol. The great art, my friend,
Is to cock the pistol as you draw IL,
Senor. I await your profound apology.
He received it-and when his on
ponent's seconds had hurried the lat
ter on to doctor to have the unin-
portant wound dressed, an American
walked up to Joaquin Murietta and
thrust out his hand.
"You," he said, ARE the first gen.
tleman have found In California
VIII you honor me by shaking INV
hand? My name is Bill Warren and
II you ever need a friend and I'm
around. be good enough to call upon
me-"
Joaquin, quite overcome, did not
take the proffered hand. After the
manner OF his emotional race, he en-
braced Bill Warren. "And you, senior,
are the most gallant American I have
met. ] will not forget you senior. Some
day you may need a friend and when
you do hope you will summon in
haste-he bowed-your servant, Joa-
quin Murietta.' He took Bill Warren
by the arm, led him inside to the bar