A man (in California) lying in bed dying; wife ill in bed in the next
room watching him through the open door; third and last room divided
by sheets into two, one-half with stove in it, the other used by
anyone including seven children all under nine years old. No money.
The man died; money was collected and he was buried; and family sent
back to Europe. S. P. railway made a reduction on fares; train was to
leave at 10 p.m., telegram to say it would be 11 p.m.
The woman, children, and man waited till eleven when another message
came to say the cars would not be in till 2 a.m. So they went over
to the hotel and got a sleep till a quarter to two when the man woke
them up and the procession trailed back and got aboard. Trainman
interested: "Where's she goin'?" "Europe," said the man.
"With all them kids! Never get there alive."
She did though; man nearly went also as he was inside the car putting
a big roll of mattresses through the door and they jammed, cars were
moving and man crawled over the top of the bundle and slid onto
the platform and off the car saying to an astonished conductor who
appeared from somewhere, "you get those mattresses in old man."
[Illustration: The "Cisne" at the Old Wharf Rosario--Santa Fé.]
"THERE WAS A SHIP QUOTH HE."
Coming down the Plata River in the "Cisne" steamer a fellow passenger
asked us to help him when we landed. We said we would. Well, it was
very dark and raining; we landed under a wharf, arrangement on the
other side of which was a ten-foot steep and slippery mud-bank on
top of which were one or two wheel carts made with a pole with a
hole in the far end. The carter slips a rawhide fast to his horse's
cinch, through the pole hole and makes fast, he (riding the horse)
can then pull, or if he wants to back, ride his horse around the pole
and push backwards. To return to our mutton, what our man wanted was
help to land a portmanteau and some heavy small boxes and we got them
into a cart after a weary time sliding up and down that mud bank and
much indifferent language. One native rode and two friends kept him
company. We had to go two miles over a wicked road. The tall grass
grows right up to it on both sides and there have been a lot of
unpleasant things happening; so we had our guns in our hands. We had
found out that our friend from Paraguay, one of his prisoners Lopez
left alive, had been trading and the boxes, etc., were full of gold,
and silver dollars. Got to the hotel all right and had a drink. There
was a funny little old man with hair over his shoulders and white
beard to his middle and very old clothes. He looked lonely so we
asked him to drink. No, he did not drink. Smoke? No; he did not smoke
but he put a cigar in his pocket. Felt curious about him and asked
him and the capitalist to my room, also, drink and cigars. They came
and oh, yes! I had struck it rich. The little man was I think doing
penance. He would not say why he had tramped hundreds of leagues
through the wildest parts of the country with some polenta to eat
and no arms except a small pocket knife, or why he had not cut hair
or beard for seven years; but the stories those men told each other,
myself sitting listening till 4 a.m. with hardly a word; and they
could have gone on for weeks. I said that queer things happened on the
road we came here by, in the grass that borders the road back a little
way are adobe huts and very queer people live there. Everyone carries
a knife of course but the police had a very bad character for a time.
At another men riding were lassoed from the grass and you are gone
if a lasso gets you. At another the natives did not like it because
a number of men were killed one by one and there were stories of a
ghost. Soldiers hunted and some of us went out many nights. At last
some one was stabbed but before he died shot a tall man dressed as a
woman. What with the night, tall grass in which to slip out of sight,
and dark dress, the ghost theory is easy. His trick had been to ask
you for the time or for a light, and stab you as you got it. For
some time after if one was asked for a light about there after dark,
one threw a matchbox and said help yourself.
[Illustration: O'Geary.]
[Illustration]