Newspaper Page Text
338
Written for Burke’s Weekly.
The Sensitive Plant.
t COTTAGER'S home, quite humble
and rude,
In the midst of a forest calmly
. stood;
And modestly rose broad spreading
■vr trees,
(~p Whose foliage sang to the passing
breeze.
And there quietly played a laughing brook,
Which darted away from the sun’s bright
look.
And hid itself ’mid the grass and fern
To peep saucily out at the sun’s return.
And all day long this frolicsome brook
Mirrors the flowers that into it look ;
And no wonder its heart is wild with delight,
When their eyes are butchanged for the stars
of night .
And no wonder the envious flowers weep
When the stars keep watch while the brook’s
asleep,
And with their own sweet smiling eyes
Reflect the beauty of Paradise.
But there was one, the sensitive plant,
Which, from jealousy, grew so faint
She certainly would one day have died
But for a tulip's inordinate pride,
Who, with gaudy head disdainfully raised,
In pity on the poor little floweret gazed,
And lifting it tenderly into her arms,
Kissed it and told it of manifold charms
Which none possessed but its own little self,
And stroking it, called it a shy little elf,
Whose modesty always would shield it from
harm,
Though ready to faint at the slightest alarm.
A sweet blush-rose was blossoming near,
Scenting with fragrance the amorous air,
And gracefully bowing her noble head.
Approved of all that the tulip said.
The beautiful rose, not gaudy or vain,
Was conscious of power that few can attain.
Her candid approval is deemed of great
worth
By all the bright flowers that people the
earth,
And kissing its poor little quivering lips
Till it trembled with delight to its fingertips,
She bade the sensitive plant good night.
Which gratefully smiled through a tear-drop
bright.
And folding her rose-tinted curtains, to keep
Fresh her bright color, she sank to sleep,
And dreamed beautiful dreams of sunlit
bowers
Where the sensitive plant was the queen of
flowers.
But others there were who heard all that was
said,
And they vowed that the brooklet never
should wed
So foolish a thing as the sensitive plnr t;
Whose sensitiveness was nothing but cant;
Whose modest demeanor was vanity’s garb,
The honey with which she baited her barb ;
And a feeling of envy ran through the crowd,
And the clamor of voices grew very loud.
Now a pretty brown butterfly, quite out of
sight,
Heard every word that was uttered that
night,
And dressing herself by the very first bcam3
That gilded the hills and crimsoned the
streams,
And taking a hurried breakfast of dew,
On her mission of love she rapidly flew ;
Till folding her wings, quite weary and faint
She entered the door of the sensitive plant.
BURKE’S WEEKLY FOR BOYS AND GIRLS.
The poor little thing was trembling with fear,
And the butterfly kissed away a bright tear
As she fondly caressed her, and breathed in
her ear
The tale of vile slander which she chanc-cd to
hear.
And the sensitive plant, from that hapless
day.
Forever is trembling and turning away
When approached by her friends, though ever
so true —
A mournful example of what slander may do 1
Mrs. Mary IVare.
Columbiana , Ala.
Written for Burke’s Weekly.
THE ADVENTURES OF
BIG-FOOT WALLACE,
The Texas Ranger and Hunter.
By the Author of u Jack Dobell; or , A Boy's
Adventures in Texas."
CHAPTER XLIII.
SUDDEN CHANGE OF QUARTERS —RANCHO
SOLADO ONCE MORE —BRUTAL ORDER —
THE DRAWING OF THE BEANS —“ DIP
DEEP, BOYS” —THE BABBOON-FACED
MEXICAN OFFICER —INDIFFERENCE OF
THE MEN —THE ONE EXCEPTION —WAL-
LACE DRAWS A WHITE BEAN —“ OULD
IRELAND FOREVER” —SPEEDY EXECU
TION —MIRACULOUS ESCAPE AND SUB
SEQUENT DEATH.
jouru at Saltillo, we
were 0 n e morning
J|ll/vo roui?e d u p by 011 r
guard, and told to
ready to march, as we
ivere to start that day to the
P' c ity of Mexico. A few mo*
"S[ ments afterwards the guard
paraded in front of our quar
ters. We were taken out and formed
into line, and marched off on the road
back towards Rancho Solado, where,
some weeks previously, we had risen
upon and surprised the guard under the
command of Colonel Barragan. Hand
cuffed and bound together in pairs, to
cut off all chance of our escaping or
making another attack upon the guard,
we were driven along the road at a gait
that would have been “ killing ” even
to men that were not fettered as we
were.
On the evening of the fourth day, I
think it was, after leaving Saltillo, we
came in sight, once more, of the lonely
desolate “ Rancho Solado.” The offi
cer now in command of the guard, Col.
Orlez, had spoken kindly to us fre
quently during the day, telling us to
“be cheerful and walk up fast, for that
the sooner we arrived at the city of
Mexico, the sooner we would be liber
ated and sent back home.” Notwith
standing such assurances, from the first
moment the men caught sight of the
dismal old ranch, whether it was the
dreariness of the locality, or the recol
lection of what had happened there
when we rose on the guard, and of the
sufferings and disasters that followed in
the wake of that event, or whether it
was some dim foreboding of the “bloody
scene ” that was to be enacted there
again so soon, that weighed upon the
minds of the men, I know not; but not
a word was uttered by any one, as we
trudged along silent and depressed, un
til we reached the hated spot, and were
once more securely fastened up in the
same corral we had occupied before.
But a few moments elapsed when an
officer, accompanied by an interpreter,
entered the coral, and calling our at
tention, proceeded to read to us from a
paper he held in his hand, a mandate
from the “Supreme Government of
Mexico,” ordering the instant execu
tion of every tenth man. Some of the
more sanguine among us fully thought
that the paper contained an order
for our release, and eagerly crowded
around the interpreter to hear the joy
ful news, but when the purport of the
writing was explained to us by the in
terpreter, this barbarous decimation of
our number came upon us. so unex
pectedly that we stood for a moment
stunned and confused by the sudden
ness of the shock. Then a reaction
took place, and if our hands had only
been unshackled, unarmed as we were,
the old Rancho Solado would have wit
nessed another up-rising, ten times as
bloody as the first; but when we look
ed upon our manacled limbs, and the
serried ranks and glittering bayonets of
the large guard drawn up around us, we
saw at once that any attempt at resist
ance would be utter folly, and we quiet
ly submitted to our fate.
It was determined that the seventeen
men to be executed should be selected
by lottery, and in a little while a squad
of Mexican officers came into the cor
ral, preceeded by a soldier, bearing an
earthen vessel, which he placed upon a
low stone wall bounding the farther
side of the corral, and which was in
tended to hold a number of white and
black beans, corresponding to the num
ber of men and officers in our com
mand. The Mexican officers stationed
themselves near the earthen pot, to
overlook and superintend the lottery,
and see that everyone had a fair chance
for his life. One of them then pro
ceeded to count out so many white
beans, which he poured into the vessel,
and then dropped in the fatal seventeen
black ones on top of them, covering
the whole with a thick napkin or cloth.
We were then formed into line and
drawn up in front of the low wall on
which the earthen pot had been placed.
Before the drawing began, they in
formed us that if any man drew out
more than one bean, and either of them
should prove a black one, he should be
regarded as having drawn a black one
solely, and be shot accordingly.
Our commissioned officers were or
dered to draw first. Captain Cameron
stepped forward, and without the slight
est visible trepidation put his hand un
der the cloth and drew out a white
bean. He had observed when the Mex
ican officer put the beans in the pot lie
poured the white in first and the black
ones on top of them, and then set it
down without shaking, possibly with the
intention of forcing as large a number
as possible of the black beans upon our
commissioned officers, who were to
have the first drawing. When he re
turned to his place in the line, he whis
pered to those nearest him, “Dip deep,
boys,” and by following his advice all
the officers drew whitebeans except
Captain Eastland.
After the officers had all drawn, the
“ muster rolls” of the men were pro
duced, and we were called forward as
our names appeared upon them. Some
of the Mexican officers present were
evidently much affected by the courage
and nonchalance manifested by the men
in this fiery trial ; others, on the con
trary, seemed to enjoy the whole pro
ceedings hugely, particularly one little
swarthy baboon-visaged chap that look
ed as if he had subsisted all his life on
a short allowance of red pepper and
cigaritos. He appeared to take an es
pecial delight in the hesitation of some
of the men when they put their hands
in the vessel, for even the bravest felt
some reluctance to draw when he knew
that life or certain death depended up
on the color of the bean he might select.
Whenever there was the slightest hesi
tation, this officer would say, in appa
rently the most commisserating tone:
“ Take your time, ‘mi liino,’ (my child);
don’t hurry yourself, ‘mi muchaco,’
(my boy) ; be careful, ‘mi pobrecito,’
(poor fellow) ; you know if you get a
black bean you will be taken out and
shot in ten a fact we had al
ready been fully apprised of.
“Ah! that’s unfortunate,” he would
say when a poor fellow drew a black
bean, “ but better luck to you the next
time.”
Yet all the while he was talking in
this way, in the kindest accents, a devil
ish grin on his baboon-face indicated
the great pleasure he took in the anx
iety and distress of these “poor fel
lows.”
I am not of a revengeful disposition,
but if that Mexican had ever fallen into
my power, his chances of living to a
“good old age” would have been mis
erably slim, and I could have recognized
him among ten thousand, for his weazen
features and his diabolical grin were in
dellibly impressed upon my memory.
I’ll tell you how I would have served
him. I would have bought a bushel of
black beans, cooked them about half
done in a big pot, and made him set
down upon it and eat until lie bursted.
I’d have given him a dose that would
have stretched his little tawny hide as
tight as a bass drum. He should have