The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, July 8, 1900, Page 1

t the exact truth of » ean over the coun- g=tore May and pulled i and let out a rs. They were dust eno an one-third of Some of them groaned and some obody’s fault the rest, a e expressed fewer opin- er find any circumstances profundity ar becomes the 1 an encompass spice that X town's guests t gs were being disagree- 'bus old Dol de of the train gng crossed the t Dol standing ap idler.: “This nd 1 remem- swer. No & ends of his red years back. mped the Spanish Mire T once than it 4 3 4 black man ership and aris king as If he might, named the posse: flutteringly on took off his hat and bowed ner coast Dal?” sald another. jore has cracy. sor of one of fortune lie back of Mayfield, foothilis slope away toward the fogs. {0 the newcomers: bowed in old Epanish such a gesture as lands. It was Then as the to the path or the is hat again , Dol!” said enoush for you, they got no an- one these thirty nda was a name that meant more It picked up in the sport Spanish land grants, which was long and 4 blown his 1it- broad and rich. There w. Callfornian \ ong red house on the land and house is g like a signal to tell yours” was everybody's welcome. . L her away. But it The great fields w h once enclosed a here the 5 B v * N ] - M\< & y Y They were good for barley and for wheat and for cattle, and they could yleld such fruit as gorgeous goddesses of wealth and bounty would be willing to play ball with upon a classical canvas. A thriving Californian family grew there, and sons and davghters were many. The gringos came and little by little other families lost their granted land, but some- how the Mirandas clung to theirs when around them were growing poor to advantage of wiser men's pockets. 1d their property to bad some gambled it away be- tween church bells. But there was at least one prudent Miranda who knew that a good thing is worth keeping, and so the family estate was held tdgether. When Dol—8enor Doloros Miranda—grew to manhood he was heir to flelds that were of the richest and o the yleld of them which he knew a thing or two about managing. For he had a good deal of Spanish in him and a good deal of Amer- fcan, too. He had the fine courtesy and hospitality of his race, but he was not en- tirely a lily of the field. He knew the value of five dollars If ngt of. ome. The most of his people thought that dollare were made to throw in showers upon the most bewitching dancer at some fan- dango. Besides his business ability he had am- bitions. He wanted to study law and he did. San Francisco was & very new city then, a zipping one, and he chose it as headquarters for his profession. Tt was a town of miners and adventurers and hard-headed pioneers, and Doloros Miran- da was an odd figure among them In their business life, although they knew the Mexican people well enough soclally. But Sty 8t 1t is told that he held his own With the best of the young men and gave promise of bigger things when he and the city should bave grown up together. In the midst of this it happened. Just what happened s what everybody In Mayfield knows, but everybody knews differently. Bome tell It In this way. There was & brother who was comfng home from Ban Jose and a washout came along and something terrible occurred. And all the time Doloros was waiting at Mayfleld ¢ his brother and day after day he kept on walting, even after the body had been brought home, because they could net make him understand whose the body was. Those who tell the story s way say that {s why he goes to meet the trains now, and they look “tt tles 1t” and give their palms a final, satis- fied pat. But other people do not re- membher any brother who was killed and they say he was just made to fit the case. Thess sccffers tell it in their own wi y also talk of a brother, but other- se. The brother was a spendthrift, and not only a2 spendthrift but worthless one. He never had more th e coin at & time and that was us begged or borrowed from Doloros. At last refusals came at his requests and then he grew angry. A barkeeper In San Francisco was a friend of the brother, and these two pr their heads together. They knew that Doloros carried much money in the easy way that old Californians did, and so eay, one night when they knew that 3400 rang In his pockets they i htm Into where the brother’s friend tendad bar. They gave him a drug to drink when he thought he had e liquor, and when he woke he was lying in a dark alley and the money was gone and so was his rea- son. There is still another story. The laugh of a woman rings through it and the e of a woman sparkle in it, and they are black, Spanish, smoldering eyes. Bhe ltved on another Spanish grant. So they say. She used to sit at a grated ‘window nd twang and sing when it had grown dark and Doloros came. He could tle round hole wh see her through & I LYING the climbding geranium was cut away—it was a geranium, because that would grow of itself without tending, and she hated to tend flowers. She kept a light burning back in the room, so that he couid see her dimly, and he could tell that she was R0asasise P0¢Eiot Yaye 22?1909 IN A DAarK. ALLEY s =+ = watching, and that made Mm very Ragpth She would lean close te the windew when he was coning, and he would kurryy and she would sometimes take the ress from her hair and toss it to him, and tees & bar of the Spanish love song with I, Then, just as he drew very neas, she would say, “Come to the window of Ree faela's room, Doloros,” and she weuwld £ oft with the light through the dark, sieepe ing house, and pre 7 she would fickes at another window. And so alwayw, as he thougk: he had reached her, sbe weuld wisp, and glint and so s , for he knew that the ay in its safe rer unworthy T lover and never -told. I might she went away with the his ra his wi of either. m ar as daylight t he for me when he was a host irstead of a poer, shriveled, witiess old man, and magnificent fa trains to greet are his ts Dolores is the ble. that n coming BARAH COMSTOCK,