The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, December 25, 1896, Page 29

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL ERIbAY, DEECEMBER 25, 1896. 27 HE day of dread had arrived, when Adam and Eve must go forth, for their sin, from Eden. Far and wide about that primeval Para- MY dise extended the high encircling wall, which, garlanded with 'nt in never-fading flowers, divided it from the untrodden world y North, south, east and west ran four brimming rivers, over which fruited orchards bent lovingly and into the mirror of which whole wildernesses of bloom Inoked to contemplate their own loveliness. m every copse the song of the robin, the bulbul and the nightin- gale were heard, stealing slyly outward from odorous glooms and telling of the love stories which were familiar to every flowering thorn and leafy 1d sun-crowned tree through sweet and constant iteration. On the sides of the far, purple mountains, as if enchanted, white as driven snow, foaming cataracts hung suspended, their loud voices hushed by the ance, sounding only like murmurs, which blént musically with the rustling leaves tbat the west wind swayed gently in slumber. What that in each drop of water in crystal springs, in babbling brocks, in wind- ing rivers, in flashing fountains and in mountain torrents and waterfalls the future rainbow of hope was prismatically revealed? There was no hope in the hearts of Adam and Eve thisday. Their eyes were blurred with tears. One slender hand Eve held out to Adam. Thus, hand in hand, with love half human and half divine in their hearts, they walked like all humankind, since, together, their voices often choked with emotion as they traveled reluctantly their allotted way to enter the world of death and sin and toil and care and strife and loss and parting. The western sun was glowing and fervent in the azure sky, over which a few fleecy clouds were sailing. 'The illumined air slept, musky with the breath of a thousand vast meadows and the incense of all tae dim, cathedral-like aisles of the forests, through which, in their earlier innocence, these, our very own father and mother, had reverentially walked, unafraid, meeting angels. That ballowed peace which, even now in faint reproduction, comes on some glorious California afternoon in the hills—the benediction of nature upon her sorrowing children—was brood- ing over all animated being. But when the heart-breaking fament of the moaning dove, who first learned of grief that day and has cherished regret for memory’s sake ever since, arose in the stillness, the bosom of Eve was shaken with a tempest of sorrow, and her sobs answered the dove, and startled bird and beast and listening flower with that sound—never before heard on egrik—but heard often enough since—God pity us! An eagle flying overhead dropped a spray of laurel, which rested on the heads of both, but they neither knew of it nor dreamed of the final victory which it presaged. A lion fawned upon them aad licked their hands. Around his shagey neck Eve convulsively threw her sncw-white arms, and 1nto the lion’s eyes came that hue which has since been a meroir of the love he felt tbat day for that lovely and gentle mother of men. Then Adam twined one protecting arm about Eve and led heg gently but firmly on, he standing erect and tearless, as became his man- hood. And so they came to thegate, and the world was in front of them and Eden nearly behind. The gate, never before seen by either, led out- ward from what had been their chosen wer, shadowed by ambrosial nd carpeted with a velvety turf which was enameled with shy-faced slets, dainty forget-me-nots and rich, red clover, where the bees found a i1ling supply of nectar. The lemon and the orange trees, the granate and the fig, the drooping willow and the wide-spreading oa v pit ol W V5 »p‘%\}\‘)@.}[ VAV, @'?n RO 5 s 2502 “Ah, Adam, beloved—but one more look.” They turned and saw all the glory of it. They lived all of life and tasted all the bitterness of death in one short minute. Lo, a miracle! At the very verge of Eden, at the parting-place where - Paradise almost ended and earth almost began, where had been the shadow of the wali, but where now was glaring sunlight through the terrible gateway, grew Eve’s favorite rosebush. With its snowy flowers Adam had often woven a chaplet for her head. It had sprung from the soil and flowered on the same day that they first spoke of love. They had thought it a token sent to bless their love, which was to last in Eden for- ever and forever. Now in the garish sunlight it seemed to be fading. Shaken as an aspen its petals fell apart and strewed the ground—white as a winding sheet thrown over the forget-me-nots, which seemed to wetcome this floral burial. Anon the notes of the moaning dove—soft and mournful as a distantly heard funeral bell, when all the Sunday afternoon is still—sang the requiem of Eve’s floral dariings. The Troses fell, not all at once, but one after another, as years pass, as time which then. first had to do with "humanity is inexorably and irretrievably recorded. With eager and trembling hands, ner face all pallid, Eve seized those blossoms, which had not felt the curse. She gathered them in a bunch and pressed them passionately to her lips again and again, and they repaid her by theirown sweetness. This was the miracle that the blos- soms she beld faded no more nor lost a leaf or frazile petal, while the bush in Paradise faded completely and failed before Eve’s wondering and startled gaze; nor did Eve’s white rose of the Garden of Eden, which she placed in her hair, ever fade until she had planted the stem in the alien - soil of outer earth, Weeks after when the gate of Eden had closed behind the unhappv couple and they for the first time had seen the menacing sword of flame which forever puards that gate, the rose was again growing -In a little valley they re-began life with the white rose as their only living memento of Eden. - * * * * Adam and Eve went the way of all humankind, and earth knew only of their dust. Age succeeded age, civilization rising and. falling; barba- rians sweeping away the proud works of man’s hands with torch and blade; earth wasno more the same, its lands crumbling away and being submerged by the ocean; its hills and mountains being thrown down, rent and scarred by the forces of internal fires. Surviving ail changes of clime, country, nation, speech, custom, two things remain as in the days of Eden—the human heart and the love of roses. ‘Wonderful heart! Never worldly wise, but forever getting happiness from earth as a bee gathers honey from itssurroundings—gathering sweet- ness where the weary brain finds only baffling and disappointment. Not less wonderful love of flowers, which the reason declares to be only vegetable, but which the soul, midway between happiness and woe, as was Eve standing on Eden’s threshold. perceives to be intimately connected with the ideal—of that ideal which, taking root on earth, may blossom in that golden land where flows the River of Life through listening meudows and where tears never more fall. Eve's descendants, migrating, carried with them sprays from her rose bush. But never more than one spray took root in any part of the world at one time, and, when the spray was detached, the parent bush died. Pure white were its biossoms for centuries. Then, during the crusades, Peter the Hermit, hearing of 1ts strange history, carried it away to a distant land. The next year it had upon it a faint red stain, a mere speck upon its otherwise immaculate petals. After this the red stain grew century by century as human tragedies multiplied, but the rose never changed its nature. Strange were its migrations, A gay Spanish cavalier, who foliowed in the train of the early explorers of the Pacific Coast of America, planted it in Peru. There it ¢id not remain, but at the time of which I am writing, 1t grew to delight the eyes of a simple-hearted Indian maiden in what is now known as California. Whoever had possessed the white rose of the Garden of Eden had met mjsfortune. It seemed always fated to fall to the care of the young * * * * * and the innocent, those most like Eve before the temptation. No haughty lady, no queen, none of the proud ones of the earth ever owaed it. JOSE AND CHIQUITA. Into what is now knewn as Monterey came Padre Junipero Serra and Soldier Portala and their ecclesiastical and military followers. The sword with the cross hilt told of the vengeance of man. The cross told of the mercy of the divine Savior. Through the windows of the darkened soul of this Indian girl, to whom was given a new name, came in the light of salvation and her life was illuminated. Traly, from that day she had visions of lands as fair as Eden as she dreamed beside the ocean anc pondered with wonder over all the padres had told her. Chiquita, the Spaniards named her. She had a lover, a bearded Spanish soldier. But even while love was ripening an insidious disease preyed upon Ler. Not many months had pussed when the secret voice whispered to her that she must go hence. She said nothingto Jose, but her eyes took on a wistful look. She was like Eve when she first heard that she must go from Paradise. Much like Paradise was earth becoming to Chiquita, with Jose and tie religion of his people. ‘When he saw that she was slowly fading away he wandered by the shore trying to be brave and strong. Daily their footsteps were together until her strength utterly failed. Then she lay in her adobe hut, over which the wild morning glories grew, and gazed out across the hills and over the blue Pacific. The earth grew green with the early rains, and she lingered. Daily now Jose sat by her and beld her hand, and so they jour- neyed on and on toward the end, she longirg to stay and ever wishing to look backward, and he, broken-hearted but brave, trying to buoy her up. Oneday they saw the gate through which they were to pass. She saw it clearly, and he knew of it some way in ber look. **When I am dead, Jose,’”’ she said, “‘you will see that the white rose of the Garden of Eden is placed in my hands.” The last hour came and Jose threw his stout arm around her, even as Adam had strengthened Eve as they neared the gate from Paradise. In one hand she held Eve's white rose. The other hand clasped histrembling fingers. ¢ g“Yet one more look,”’ she said, unconsciously repeating the words of Eve. He raised her and she gazed upon the flowering fields and so went through the gate. Jose, too, leaving bliss behind him, went out once mor~ on the sand and looked out on the ocean—never to be comforted more, He too had lost Paradise. She was buried on Christmasday. Inherhandswere theonly clusterof buds that Eve's rosebush bore. As the service was over and no sound broke the silence excepting Jose’s sobs, Padre Junipero Serra uttered an exclamation of surprise. “The rose, the rose!’’ he said, with an expression of rapture and rais- ing his hands toward heaven. The buds in the crossed hands of Chiquita had opened. The reverent Jose saw with wonderment that in the heart of each wasa blood red hedged in this nook. There was the low limb of the oak tree on phrase which never yet, in all d sooften sat, repeating that and the shadows endlessiy played “We must go forth,” said Adam. ’ sobbed she, querying. ,”" ke answered gently. 1turies, has grown one whit older—*‘1 love you.” There was the pool to which Adam had led his bride that he might sson in buman vanity— ambered vides with star-shaped flowers, flowers, burned tte clustered millions of passion flowers where the sun- all Paradise was unrolled to view at once. that she might ¥iew her own e a flame, ke a glory of hide and'go seek. From this LO! IN THE HEART OF THE ROSE WAS A BLOOD-RED CROSS. crucifix. expiation for sin. garden. So the red stains of centnries of tragedy had taken on this shape above the stilled heart of this sinless Califcrnia girl, whose taste of her first Paradise was brief, and in uer pulseless fingers she clasped the sign of “Wonder upon won der,” said Padre Serra as he walked out into the There Eve’s rosebush stood quivering for some invisible cause and there it soon withered and died. Never more shall the Lands of our mother Eve invisibly extend throucgh the years to take from her children for her own the roses of her lost Eden, for the rose has perished, root and branch. JACK BRUIN, THE GOATHERD. A Galifornia Bear Story, Stranger Than Fiction and True as the Gospel. Far up on the side of Cerro Colorado, where you may stand (1f you can finda footing, so steep are its rocky slopes) and look away off into the lovely valley of the | San Joaquin, lying down beneath you; | far up sbove the snow line of winter, | among the California pines and man- zanitas, there was living but half a| dbzen years ago Lewis Ford, solitary and | alone but for his flock of 800 or 900 goats, his hali-dozen horses, and “Jack.” | And ‘““Jack” was a bear. Some eight years previous to the time I mention Ford one day had found.the | little, shining, black cub—soft, and round as a ball—and had gathered it up closely to his breast, carrying it to his lonely log | cabin as tenderly as though baby Bruin | was the fairest foundling ever born under the perpetual blue of California skies. Neighbors be had none, Visitors were creatures almost unknown up there where a wagon road was an impossibility, and | where Ford’s own stores had to be carried up on pack-horses that picked their way carefully along the dizzy trails. The real love of solitude is an acquired taste. Man is, generally speaking, a gre- garious animal; and if he cannot mix with his own species in his own way he will— instinctively—turn to the companionship of the four-footed beasts of mountain and | plain. So, Ford—wifeless, childless and alone—on the heights of Cerro Colorado, | sixty miles away from Mount Diablo’s snowy summit, took into his home ihe little wild waif of the mountain; and which, as the years wore on, won its way into the heart of the lonely man. But opening the cabin door with a «Salve, Bruin!” was not all there w3s to be done in so serious a matter as adopting 8 very immature bear. *Jack” had to be provided with a foster mother. Andso a frightened, trembling, bleating she-goat was brought to the house to take the place of the parent be so missed. It was only after much combined jorce and persuasion tnat *:Lillie”” could be induced to adopt as her own the very un-kidlike orphan placed in ber care. But the time came when foster-mother and foster-child were as heppy and content in their relations to each other as if .the sight of a nimble- footed, bine-haired. “Nanny'’ suckling a;‘ clumsy biack bear.cub was of the most | ordinary condition of affairs. “Jack’ waxed fat on godt's milk; and a more docile, tractable beast never grew up under the guardianship of a humane and loving master. In the earlier days of bis adoption the baby was a baby in truth. He would nov be left alone. And 1t would have been a harder heart than Ford’s that could have resisted the pitifal whimper of the little fellow whenever be thought tbat he was 10 be left alone within the house. Had there been any to see it in those days they would have witnessed a strange signt, The great, broad-shouldered man | pet that “was getting “muy gordo,” but following his flock as they grazed on the bunchgrass—sometimes five or six miles from home—and as ne walked the steep mountain side where it was so almost per- pendicular that it seemed that only the goats themselves could gain a foothold on the rocks he carried the cub in his arms. They grew very tired many times and oft; grew tired with the growing weight of the Ford would not leave the little one to mope and mourn at home and perhaps be stolen by some straggling stranger in his absence. Sometimes a stray hunter came that way and Ford would take no risks. Ford was a worker, and be felt that his charge must learn to work |also. Bears without number are taught t) dance and to do all sorts of amusing tricks, but this was no city bear, to waltz t9 music and hold out a hat for a dime. lle was not to learn accomplishments, bui to put his efforts forth to acquire useful knowledge and apply it to the daily dutles at hand. So *“Jack’s” playdays were over. For he had bad playdays and playmates. There had been times when Ford had left his flock temporarily in care of a herder— Spanish Leandro, from the other side of the mountain, forty or filty miles away— and then “Jack” and ‘Jack’s” master went off on jaunts, when the master hunted with rifle or shotgun and the bear chased rabbits and squirrels—digging into their holes tiil he captured them. Some- times their way lay across the mountain to Leandro’s own place, and there he would make friends with the children as | 1f he was a child among them—romping with Carmelita and Rosario and Petro- nilla and even playing with Baby Ramona without so much as a single rough stroke of the great clumsy paws. If, tired outin play, they threw themselves ‘down on the ground, he too would drop’ down, his huge carcass aeross their feet where they sat; and when one day, while sitting on the bank of a pond, they éhoved him from where lie lay fastening their dress skirts down with his weight, they gave him a push into the pond. he displayed no other evidence of anger than a growl, as he climbed out, saaking the watdr off. With the boys he would box and wrestie as two boys will when playing together. Some- times it was the bear that was thirown— sometimes little Leandro. % All these things came to an end; and “Jack" was trained to herd the goats, as the shepherd dogs had done. The dogs, in time, were given away—for “Jack'’ could never be made to fcel that dogs were other than his:avowed enemies; and fights—frequent and fierce—were the result of their associations. The dogs went; and “Jack" stayed. Rut he was made to take their place. ' It was wonderfal, the - aptitude he dis- played in learning to dispense the duties of his new position! True, thers were times, when being initiated, that he played l the truant; and was found away off among the manzanitas, - breaking off great branches and munching their dark and shining berries. But that was in the first days of his responsibilities as assistant herder—beiore Ford had trusted him alone with the goats, and made him herder-in- chief. A time, however, did come, after much patient teaching, when—true as the Pompeiian soldier to his trust—'‘Jack” was the faitbful guardian of his master’s flocks. *‘Jack,” the goat-herd of the Cerro Colorado. From sleeping in the cabin at his master’s side he came to sleeping 1n the gateway of the corral. An army could not have invaded the goats’ stronghold with the black bear on guard. Nor was the tending of goats his only duty. He carried all the firewood into the log cabin and laid it down by the stove. The halter ropes of two or three borses would be given him between his teeth, and he would lead them to water and back again. Strange horses, like human strang- ers, were terribly afraid of him at first sight, but ¥ord’s horses knewthim as they knew Ford himself. \ One day Ford was breaking a two-year- old colt, and being obliged to go into the house for something which he needed, and having no vost handy to tie to, he gave “Jack” the balter rope to hold. The horse was unused to the bear and became thoroughly frightened, plunging and rearing about the yard. But, though the strain was severe, the iron jaws did not relax, albeit thelittle bear wasdragged ruthlessly to and fro, valiantly tugging at the other end. There were times when they would go on a hunting expedition, miles away from home, and Ford would leave his horse and saddle, and the raw meat for his luncheon—to be reasted over blazing cones —and his other iraps under Jack's care. On his return be always found everything as he had left it. The bear would no more touch any raw meat that he was left to guard than he would have attacked Ford bimself. And the horse would be found herded not ten feet away from the exact spot where he was left to graze. Jack would ‘walk around the horse ina circle, keeping him always within the limit of his pasture. If Ford had to go down in the valley—to Livermore, fifty miles away—he would kill a goat and give it to Jack, with in- structions to look after everything well while he was away. And who shall say that the words that Ford used were not as well understood as if the message had been given 1n the silent speech of bear with bear? % And is it a matter of any wonder that those two loved each other as man rarely loves his fellow-man? Does man ever find his fellow-man so faithful—so steadfast? By and by aday came when Ford sold the goats. Sold the log cabin, too, where, among Pacific pines and manzanitas, for a double decade he had almost lived the liie of a hermit. He was growing old. A sister anda brother far across a continent—far beyond the ocean that lapsits eastern shore—were waiting for him to come home. So, there came another day when Ford loped his horse slowly down the lower slopes of Cerro Colorado and the black bear came loping at his beels; loping for awhile and then stopping to rest, and lying out as flat as if he was stone dead, then getiing up and going to whers Ford waited for him. And when they came into town and the peopie heard that Ford was leaving the country never to return a hundred offers were made to him for the bear that had never knawn muzzle nor chain nor coliar. “No,"” said be, ‘‘where I go ‘Jack’ goes. Ii I find when Uget to San Francisco that I can’t get a passage for him on the steamer to New York and another one when 1 get there that will take him across the Atlantic why we will both stay on this side.” But that was half a dozen years ago. Since then letters have come across the seas from Ford. And “Jack” is with him. Ipa M. STROBRIDGE. THE BEAR WHICH BECAME A GOATHERD. | time and plenty of fun. IN THE CITY OF THE AZTECS. Some Pleasant Memories of a Ghristmas Under the Sunny Skies of Mexico. For nine nights before Christmas in the City of Mexico they hold what they call las posadas. Several families join together and have the posadas at the different houses in turn. Posada means inn, and they renre- sent the Virgin Mary and Joseph looking for a place to stay in Bethlehem. Most of the company are gathered in the sala, where in one end they have a little altar arranged. Mary and Joseph with a few followers, ressed in the costume worn in the Holy Land at the time of the birth of Christ, come to the house. Mary is often mounted on a burro. They knock at sev- eral doors, singing all the time, asking shelter for the night, but they are denied and the door isclosed to them, until at last they come to the sala, where those in- side answer them in singing, and the door is thrown opcn. Mary dismounts from her burro, and they all sing together the bymns of the posada. Then they kneel before the altar in prayer. I thoughtI never saw anything more picturesque and really touching. The music of the posada is very sweet. After the prayeris finished, a fine band strikes up in the next room, and they dance merrily until midnight. The last posada is Christmaseve. In the center of the room is hung a huge olla decorated in the gayest and most fan- tastic style, with bright-colored and sil- ver and gold paper. This is full of pres- ents and dulces, and each one takes a whack at it with a big stick, and, as it breaks, the presents fall to the floor and thero is a great scramble and « very lively Besides this, every guest 1s presented by the hostess _with a Jittle gift. They dance until the bells begin to ring for midnight mass, then all adjourn to the church. The massis very beautiful and 'solemn. 4 The'great plaza, or zocalo, 4s it is called, is a wonderful sight for a week before It is full of booths where they s of things. From long poles and cords stretched across are hung ollas of all shapes and sizes decorated most tan- tastically. Quantities of the beautiful Guadalajara pottery and pottery from all parts of the country are for sale, and dulces and fruits of every kind. The men in their broad sombreros and leathern suits covered with dangling metal buttons, gay sashes and bright zarapes, the women in their skirts of gay colors, their rebosos over their heads, their em- broidered chemises and heavy silver orna- ments, make a most interesting and bril- liant pictnre. There are such throngs of all kinds of people, also buying oilas and little gifte for the posadas, from the poor peon, dressea in his white cotton suit, to the baughty lady who alights from her elegant carriage. ~ This zocalo is a historic place. It is said where is now the garden in 1312 was the little rocky island on which the long- looked-for sign was discovered by the Az- tecs—the eagle with the snake in his bill. They built here the famous teocalli, the place of celebration and sacrifice. Through this plaza, in the time of the Spaniards, prisoners of church and state have passed on their way to the faggot and the scaf- fold. It was a barren, great square when Maximilian and Carlotta arrived in Mex- ico, but Carlotta transformea it from a dreary place to a charming garden. Christmas is a quiet day in Mexico. In the afternoon the band plays on the Paseo de la Reforma and all the world turns out to drive or promenade. This boulevard is 170 feet in width, and with its glorietas (circles) and its magnificent trees is one of the finest driveways in the world. Mexico also owes a debt of gratitude to Carlotta for the creation of this paseo. As we drove out on the paseo last Christmas with our friends we were es- pecially attracted by the statue of Cua- uhtemoetzin in the second glorieta. Cuauhtemoetzin was the last Emperor of the Aztecs. There is something strike ingly noble in the pose of the figure. He seems every inch a king. He is repree sented as advancing and about to cast the spear raised in his right hand. On his feet are sandals and over his shoulders he wears the royal robe, and on his head the feathered crown. This memorial wasde- signed by Jiminez, the eminent architect. On a platform having four stairways, each guarded by bronze leopards, stands a bazaltic pedestal in three parts. The first of these bears two reliefs and two in- scriptions. The reliefs represent—one the captlive Prince before Cortez, the other the torture of Guauhtemoetzin and Tetle- panpuetzal (from whom: Cortez expected to learn where the royal treasure was hid- den). On the second part of the pedestal are the names of four heroes and repre- sentations of Aztec arms and .shields. Tbe third section, beautitully ornamented with ancient symbols, is surmounted with the noble statne of Cvauhtemoetzin. On the 2ist of August, ‘the anniversary of his torture, the Indians come from far and near to do homage to his memory. They have addressesin the Aztec language, and some say they lie at the foot of the memorial all nignt and weep over their sufferings and wrongs and the loss of their ancient empire. During our drive on the paseo we met many of our friends, with whom we ex- changed the pretty Mexican greeting of twinkling the fingers, the beso soplado, as it is called. The day was perfect. The lovely blue sky of Mexico was so clearand so blue and, although Popocatepetl and Ixtaccibuatl raised their grand snow-crowned peaks so near us, the air was balmy and warm, and we look back with pleasant memories of Christmas under the sunny skies of Mexico. Kung.