Adventure Magazine Cover — page 54: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

1D eae ase “Up to Fieloe years = age I had never - worn so much as a stitch of clothing, and _ since that time had worn only a ragged _ pair of white trousers patched together _ by my mother from clothing she had begged from others. I had never had a hat or underwear; as for shoes, none but the officers in the army wore them in our dis- trict. This is not to be wondered at when you consider that the wage of a strong peon was only nine Mexican centavos per day, worth fourand a half cents in American old. “But I thought nothing of these clothes he was buying for me. I blubbered as I thought of Salvador, the pet goat, and grunting Mochito, the short-tailed pig, comrade of many a play on the dirt floor. “I thought of my mother broiling /rijoles over the coals and setting the round for- tillas on edge back of the fire as she browned more of them. Many times I had seen her weep from the smoke of the wood, for the hut had no chimney; but I knew this night as would weep real tears, as she had the | night my father was brought home in a blanket. Blood is thick, even the blood of the poor, and I myself had heard women wailing the loss of their children in the _pueblocito when they had sold them to the gringos. “Perhaps in their dumb way they thought to sacrifice themselves to better their children’s lot. Knowing them as I do, I can not find it in my heart to blame them. They were animals and looked upon and saw life after the fashion of animals. “As I thought of home my heart grew heavy and my head swam with home- sickness. I started to run out of the door, but the big gringo man grabbed me by the hair of the head and gave me a slap with his open hand that made my ears ring. “He bade me to take up the boxes of supplies he had bought, and when I had done so he followed across the track to a row of tents. Here we entered a tent which was boxed up half-way with boards and floored. : “On the floor lay a blanket-roll. The cot had been stripped bare. I knew then that this man was preparing fora journey. “T broke from the door and started to run away again. He overhauled me in a few quick strides, and this time he did not slap me. He held me off at arm’s length and kicked me viciously. When he re- blows of his heavy shoes. “He went in to the tent and brought out the clothing he had bought for me. He stood watching until I rose to my feet, then _ took me to a row of bath-houses behind the tents and bade me enter. cake of soap and a rough brush and made signs for me to strip off my single garment and wash. “He turned the water on-and it began to pour from a shower over my head. Each time I started to move out from under the shower he shoved me back and made ° signs for me to rub myself. I feared his wrath and rubbed until my skin was sore from head to foot. Never before had I taken a bath, except to wash the dust from my face and hands with a few dabs of water without soap. “I was shivering from the water, which was not cold, and it seemed an hour before I had satisfied my tormentor that I had finished the job. He turned off the water and gave me a towel. When I was dry he made me put on the suit. “The cloth was stiff and unwieldy. When I put on the shoes it seemed as if I were thrusting my feet into solid boxes of wood. I put the hat on and followed the gringo clumsily, walking like a very old man, what with the pinch of the shoes and the stiffness in my back from his heavy kicks. “T think it was when I turned and saw him laughing at me that I first began to hate him. Up to now I had taken things as a matter of course, as Mochito would have done had I thrown him on his back and rubbed his nose in the dust, or as Salvador would have done had I twined my hands in his long hair and dragged him across the floor. “But now an unreasoning rage took possession of me. I hated this gringo man, of those white men who worked like demons and who bought girls and boys from their parents. “Raising my two fists, I turned and dashed upon him. I did not touch him. With a short jab his fist struck my chin and I went down to the ground. “When I came to myself he was sitting on the step of the tent watching me. As I crawled to my feet he entered the tent and began arranging the blanket-rolls for us to | ee He gave me a . ee met fell to > the ii oe i Thee Saree for my spine was half-paralyzed from the