On the Mexican Border [pp. 460-469]

4ON THE MEXICANV BORDER.
and darkness; whose hearts were mildewed with grief. She is not "elaborately goodish, without point;" but is a
beneficent spirit of wise and uplifting
charity, cheering and energizing the disheartened, encouraging the weak and
erring, pointing to the happy possible,
and leading the way. To those who
have folded the mantle of decrepitude
about them, and are going gently down
into the years, she is a soft and tender
light; and the musical sweetness of her
sympathetic voice, and the tranquilizing
ministries of her gentle hand, hint of angelic fellowship and fraternity, just a little in advance of their tottering footsteps. In her, they catch a glimpse of
angelhood.
ON THE MEXICAN BORDER.
0S Oyou superintended the famous
Corralitos Mine?"
"Yes, off and on. I was not regular
Superintendent. Took it up between
fighting the Apaches and teaching Flotte's children."
"Who was Flotte?"
"Don Louis? Have you never heard
of the Flotte family in Mexico? Well,
that is probable enough. They are reduced those of them who remain in
Mexico-to the condition of peonzes.
You see, Don Louis was French. His
parents immigrated to Baltimore, from
whichl city he ran away when a boy.
Falling into good hands, he was brought
up to business, and was one of the best
clerks in the city of Mexico in his youth.
He got along well, and married an heiress, the daughter of McKnight, from
Missouri, who owned the Corralitos
Mine."
"By George, he was lucky!"
"Yes, lucky and unlucky. He did not
manage his mine very well. You see,
the Mexican mines are never opened by
tunnels: they all have shafts running
down into them from the top of the
mountain, and in consequence get filled
with water, which their owners do not
know how to get out. Every thing about
them is on the same old-fashioned plan:
no modern machinery-at least, there
wasn't in that day."
"What year was that?"
"About I848 or'49. Flotte had eight
hundred Jeoizes working for him, who
got out sixteen or seventeen marks a
day (a mark weighing eight dollars).
When I took charge, I made the mine
yield ninety-two marks per day, with
some very simple inventions of my own."
"I hope he paid you for it."
" He paid me well enough. But I
was not making money in those times:
I was living on adventures. Had been
in nearly every part of the world, and
always contrived to find something out
of the ordinary way. I didn't go to
Mexico to teach the Englishl language,
as you can imagine. I had drifted in
there, and joined John Glanton's second
expedition against the Apaches. Glanton was a splendid fellow, and good Indian fighter, but he did not quite like
taking scalps for pay; so at the end of
this expedition he resolved to quit."
"You had adventure enough as a Ranger, I should think."
"Plenty of it; but no more than in
affairs with the Mexicans and others.
The Mexicans are as bad as the Apaches.
Why, the first proposition we had made
to us, on presenting ourselves before
Governor Don Angel Trias for our pay,
was, that we should earn more money
from himself by assassinating the rival
candidate for his office, one Zuloago.
460
[MAY,