JUANITO.

Waikato Independent, Volume V, Issue 322, 10 January 1907, Page 3

JUANITO.

By A. L. UNGER.

JUANITO was discouraged and sullen, not to say vengeful. Here he had lain for nearly three days with only a little jerky to eat, and only an occasional mouthful of water,, and now his canteen was empty. “Madre de Dios,” he muttered to himself, “will those miserable Gringo’s never, never go away so that pobre Juanito can get some fresh agua.”

Yes, pobre Juanito (poor Juanito), certainly needs some fresh water, for it was nearly three days before, when, just as he had finished filling his canteen at the water hole, his sharp ears caught the click of steel on a rock as a party of cowboj's approached, and Juanito lost no time in hiding himself in a dense thicket of mesquite a little farther up the canyon. At that time Juanito was very tired; he had tramped 20 miles after his horse had fallen and broken his leg, and he thought it best to wait a day and rest, for it was nearly 40 miles to the nearest water in any direction, and Juanito knew quite well that it would be a hazardous trip for a man on foot, and with but one canteen of water, even if he was fresh when he started. Pie knew very well that the cowboys were looking for him, but it never entered his mind that they would stay there at the water hole in any such senseless way; so he took a good drink, ate some of his jerky, and, after concealing himself so nothing but the closest search would discover him, he went to sleep as calmly as though his life had been spotless. But Juanito’s life had not been spotless; far from it. In fact, he had been an exceedingly bad Juanito; though, perhaps, it was not so much his own fault. “Pobre Juanito” had had a very bad start in life. His father had been a Chinaman at that, while his mother had been a low cast Mexican woman, whose veins were largely filled with Apache blood, so Juanito was rather handicapped by his parentage to start with. Then events had been rather against him. When he was about three years old his father came home to their abode early one morning in an unpleasant frame of mind, due to the loss of all his money at the gambling dens, and a skin full of bad Tombstone whisky, and in the quarrel that followed Juanito’s mother received several more knife wounds than is conducive to longevity, and passed out of the game.

Juanito’s father was found asleep with the bloody knife still in his band, and the crowd that soon gathered lost little time in arranging a “necktie” party, with the result that in less than 15 minutes Tombstone’s population was decreased by one “chino,” and Juanito'was an orphan. Juanito had been chirstened Juan, but as he grew to manhood and did not grow very much in length, his name became lengthened to Juanito —equivalent to “Little John,” in English.

Alas, poor Juanito; life did not deal very gently with him, and his inherent badness had the best of chances for development, and—it did not fail to develop.He became a sort of common charge among a half dozen or so of the lowest of the Mexican families; eating at the adobe hut of the family that happened to be honored by his presence at meal time, and sleeping wherever he happened to be when sleepy; but after a few years he became so bad that Juanito’s presence was not looked upon with favor by any of his foster fathers, and Juanito early began to “rustle” for ininself, doing odd jobs around the saloons, and morning errands for the gamblers. W hether inherited or acquired, Juanito at an early age showed a great disregard for the property rights of others, and a facility for attaching unto himself anything of value not fastened down or red hot; as well as a disposition so quarrelsome, that at about the age of 15, after having at various times inflicted serious wounds on other gamins, he cut a white boy very badly, and the Tombstone vigilantes told him to make himself invisible, which he did. Eor several years Juanito was not much in evidence; butpt was known that he had joined a roving band of Apaches who attacked a party of freighters near Benson, and were driven off. Juanito was hailed by one of the freighters who knew him, and replied insultingly, but paid for his insult by the passage of a "forty-four” .bullet through his cheek. After that he got "bad.” (To be continued).

An American coloured regiment has f&een ordered to the Philippines.