CHAPTER III.THE DEATH OF PRESIDENT DIAZ.
The two great scientists, Señor Don Miguel Lehumada and Señor Guillermo Gonzales, had been more successful in their treatment with “Liquid from the Sun’s Rays”—or “Memory Fluid,” as their wonderful discovery had become to be known—than their most sanguine hope for its success could have been in the start.
Their belief in the first place was that they had secured a fluid from the Sun, which would under proper conditions destroy every species of bacteria in man; that while the death of disease was taking place, each of the mental faculties and the spiritual nature of man as well, would begin taking on its normal condition, and when the body became freed from all depleting causes, these faculties would be in a condition to rise to a high degree of development. Further, they believed that the fluid they had discovered would have a particular effect upon the memory; not only in restoring it to its normal condition, but in causing it to bring to mind every incident in one’s life.
But strange to say, their wonderful fluid went further in its effect upon memory, than the present life of the person upon whom the experiments were being carried.It penetrated the sarcophagus of every previous existence and resurrected every thought and experience. It mirrored all the physical, social and spiritual environments, of each life of the person as plainly to him as if they were occurrences of yesterday instead of the remembrances of events in one’s other lives; which he had lived perhaps ages and ages ago.
It was not until many experiments had been performed successfully, and the remembrances of each subject faithfully recorded, that they let the public know of their wonderful achievements.
Then it received its first knowledge of the scientific investigations and the results, of the two scholarly men of Chihuahua through the medium of the work—“Liquid from the Sun’s Rays” by the distinguished Governor of the State.
The eyes of the entire world were centered upon them at this time, watching intently for their great test case to be concluded. A case which they claimed would furnish the world sufficient proof to convince it, that their great discovery, “Memory Fluid,” accomplished all they claimed for it and very much more.
On his return from “the States,” the Governor had said, that in twenty-four-hours’ time they would have sufficient proof collected to enable them to give the results of their test case to the public. And in truth, they did have; but complications had arisen which would result in them being able to give stronger proof of the effect of “Memory Fluid” upon mind and matter.
But these very complications would require time for arrangement, and the public must wait. The eager,avaricious public, tale-bearing public, panted with suspense, caused by the delay.
The two great men were in no hurry; they had reached their present plane of advancement by a succession of lives carefully planned during one hundred and fifty years.
Fifty years seems a long time for the single life of one man, and it is. But when a person with a mind so full of desire for knowledge is cut off at the end of fifty years, the time seems short. He is cut off at an age in which he is in a condition to begin to take on higher and better knowledge. It is the desire for a continuance, on a higher plane, in a physical life that causes one to return to earth and take up the new life where the old left off.
The press spoke of the two scientists as marvels of the day. It claimed that history did not record any great discovery to have been made by men so young as the discoverers of “Memory Fluid,” hence they were spoken of—not without satire, however—as being inspired—and their discovery—if it contained a grain of truth—as a miracle.
Ten years previous these two great men, living in the same city, meeting only occasionally and then as strangers, had for many years secretly recognized each other as a compatriot, a fellow-student; a friend in other lives, two other lives long since passed away. Yet for the want of more confidence in self; for the courage to confront his fellowman and avow his knowledge of a superior soul development, and physical advancement, each held aloof.
The occasion for mutual acknowledgment arrived. It was a supreme moment. They fell on each other’s necks and wept for pure joy. From that moment they spent hours each day reviewing events of their past; studying to develop the present, to bring about by scientific discoveries, a means which would show to the world that the sins committed in this body must be appeased on earth; if not in the life in which the sins were committed, then in another life. Perhaps the guilty one would pass through several lives unmolested; but the day of reckoning, however, certainly would come, retribution would surely overtake every evil doer.
The result of their investigations was the famous “Memory Fluid,” which accomplished for them more than they hoped.
It was with much amusement often, that the two wise men discussed the subject of their youth, at which the public marveled. How well they knew they werenot youngin experience, or years. It was laughable to read the statements of the credulous editors, credulous from a materialistic point of view; but wholly incredulous when it came to questions of spiritualistic discussion.
The age in which they now lived was more in sympathy with materialistic ideas than in any of their previous existences. They were not surprised, for it seemed prophetic that evil, that materialistic views, should reach the pinnacle of fame before a revolution would occur which would demolish their false ideas. And they had hoped that the revolution was near at hand—and they prayed that it might be brought about by their wonderful discovery. Victory was sure to follow.And what a glorious victory it would be! A victory of life over death; of health over disease; of spirit over flesh; of the righting of all wrong; of the assurance of everlasting life.
Events which pointed very plainly to materialistic and spiritualistic controversy were taking place on every hand, yet the masses adhered to materialistic views or to the dogmatic teachings of the churches.
A hundred and thirty-eight years had passed since the American Continent was convulsed by an internal revolution. This revolution took place immediately upon the death of President Diaz, of the Republic of Mexico.
It was a short and terrible conflict. At the earnest solicitation of all State officials; of the entire army; of a large majority of the professional fraternity; of prominent people of wealth and business, the United States interfered in behalf of the law-abiding citizens of the Republic; and quelled the internal revolt.
The mere presence of the army of the United States upon Mexican soil, the fact of the army of so great a nation occupying their soil, not by force, but by the earnest pleadings of many of the best citizens of Mexico, those who wished to see the republican form of government, established by General Diaz, continued, was enough within itself to keep the small parties of revolutionists in each state quelled.
Only a small number of fights occurred, and in each but very few lives were lost.
During the year the American army occupied Mexico, and many of her best war ships were anchored off the Mexican coast for further protection, the Mexican peopleconvinced themselves thoroughly of their impossibility to maintain a republican form of government when there were so many small factions fighting for the rulership of the nation; and there was not a man in the army or in any other vocation of life, who had the confidence of the educated sufficiently to unite them, or the power to hold the peons and rabble in submission.
Toward the close of the year the state of their unsettled condition was awful to behold. Something must be done, and that quickly; or a fearful struggle, a long war would take place.
It was finally decided to ask, to petition the American government to annex the Mexican Republic to the United States of America, without any delay, provided three-fourths of the States of Mexico and a majority of voters in the Federal District desired it.
The day set on which votes for and against annexation should be cast was the same day of the month on which occurred the birth of General Porfirio Diaz—the greatest leader they had ever known; the maintainer of peace and progress in their land—the fifteenth of September.
The scenes enacted on the day of voting made another black page in the history of the Mexican people.
The combined effort of the Mexican army in favor of annexation and the army of occupation saved the country from a most fearful homicide.
The rabble set to work by the priesthood, who seemed to think the day especially set apart for them to gain prominence by helping to defeat the annexation question, caused the trouble. Their people plundered, murdered,set fire to the homes and business houses of prominent people whom they knew were in favor of annexation.
It certainly required months for the vast army of rabble to be organized and drilled, to be able to accomplish so much evil before their nefarious deeds became known, before they started out upon their grand parade of open revolt. Notwithstanding there was an organization of this kind in the capital of every state in the Republic, a very large majority of the States went for annexation.
A petition for immediate annexation was presented to the Government of the United States by a large and representative body of Mexican citizens, which pleaded for an extra session of Congress to convene, which occurred with results satisfactory to each nation. And Mexico became a part of the United States of America without further delay. More than one hundred years had passed since the memorable event, and Mexico had grown to be possibly the most important part of the United States.
There had been a long reign of peace and prosperity, and the fact that this part of the United States had been, long ago, a hot-bed for internal revolution, was only known to the present generation by reading from the pages of history an account of her brave people struggling for independence—struggling for enlightenment; for the maintenance of a republican form of government.
The two great scientists and their most able coworker were of purely Mexican origin; in no existence previousto this one had there ever been any mixing of blood.
Governor Lehumada took no especial pride in the fact that there was no Anglo-Saxon or other than his native Latin blood in his veins.
Neither did the other two great scientists—Guillermo Gonzales or Julio Murillo. They had no prejudices; they were too intelligent and learned. They advocated intermarriage of the races. They believed that it was necessary for a high degree of intelligence to be preserved.
However, their own existence—the very high degree of their intellectuality and spiritual development was an exception to the rule they advocated.
There are people who without apparent cause carry prejudices in families for hundreds of years, and while their real feeling may not have any publicity, is only due to the fact that no occasion presented itself for them to declare their opinions.
There are a few of this class of people living in the capital of Chihuahua, who pride themselves on the fact that they have never crossed the Rio Grande; that they do not speak the English language; that they have no associates amongst the Anglo-Saxon American people. These persons are not without influence, often being people of wealth and position; and they now believed their time had come to make known their views concerning the race question.
Many of the large newspapers were full of the absurd ideas of these people. They claimed that the wonderful discoveries of their two townsmen were due to the fact that through their veins coursed no foreign blood.They claimed they could see through the shadows events which foretold the complete extinction of the Anglo-Saxon race on American soil and the re-establishment of the Mexican Republic. Sensational papers published their articles, and wise people laughed at them over their morning meal.
When questioned about the opinions of their countrymen, the Governor and Señor Guillermo Gonzales impressed their interviewers with the fact that they were perfectly intolerant of such restricted ideas. That it was very embarrassing to them, being of purely Mexican descent, and striving to bring about a means for the improvement of man, to be held up for a target at which the known world would hurl its anathemas.
They now knew no nativity save the United States of America; they knew no Master but God.
They held in esteem only such people who were striving to improve their physical and spiritual state. They held no one in contempt because he was poor, ignorant, dissipated; full of disease and depravity. They knew the time was close at hand when a desire would be born within the soul of each for a knowledge of Truth; that the scales of disease which obscured the light from their soul would decay, and victory would cry out. These very people who secretly hated their foster-mother were the stumbling-blocks to every enterprise, headed by a person of Anglo-Saxon origin, particularly if the advocator be of American parentage and was born in the United States north of the Rio Grande.
They aided and abetted the clergy. They fought strenuously against any modern improvements in theCatholic Church. Their ancestors were so bold once, that they held a meeting of indignation, when some of their brethren of more modern ideas were determined that the poor of the church, as well as the rich, should have comfortable seats; they contended that it was a relic of slavery and heathenism for people to prostrate themselves on a dirty floor to worship.
The voluptuous, avaricious priests hated to see the innovation. They knew it meant a waning of their power. Yet when questioned by the advanced members of their flock, they could not refuse their consent.
The opposing party were petted and pampered by the priest, who consoled them by saying—and truthfully—that upon them the salvation of the church rested. It was a terrible, terrible day when the long, barren church, save for the candelabras, the paintings of the saints and images of Marie and Jesus, and its wonderful altar of purple and gold, was furnished with comfortable seats for the poor; the very poor, who with theircentavos,centavos(which they obtained mostly by begging and plundering), helped to build the magnificent cathedrals, and entirely supported a vast army of parasitic creatures called priests, in idleness and voluptuousness.
The few in Chihuahua who were so unfortunate as to have for their ancestors a class of people wedded to catholicism as practiced in Mexico in 1899, and adhered to it, needed the sympathy of every enlightened person seeking for spiritual knowledge.
Francisco R. Cantu y Falomir was the most prominent member of the few who resented the presentrégimeof things, simply because his forefathers did a hundred and thirty-eight years ago. He was a man of great wealth. He insisted on the “Don” before his name and invariably signed his mother’s name, Falomir, to his own, as was the custom then.
His family atetortillasandfrijolesthree times a day; drankpulque,aqua miel,mescal, andaguar’diente—the latter two when they wished their troubles drowned; both of which are powerful intoxicants.
The male members of the family woresombreros, short ornamental coats, sashes of many colors; and skin-tight trousers of light colors. The women and girls of the family wore blackrebozos, and lacemantillasover their heads; thecriadacooked on thebrasero, and never failed to serveensaladasandtomaleson holidays and feast days as was the custom from time immemorial up to the date the Republic became a part of the United States. This family was spoken of by their townsmen as oddities and were rather liked for their old-fashioned ideas; they were hospitable to the extreme with their own countrymen, and generous to a fault to the poor of Mexican lineage who adhered to the religion of their fathers. They were unobtrusive in social affairs and political affairs, but interfered in everything commercial where it was possible.
Their interference was always in a quiet way, however, and attracted the attention of no one but those directly interested. They inherited the cunning and silence of their ancestors and acquired more unconsciously, by long contact with races which held them in submission. It required no effort to conceal theirreal feeling toward the country of which they were now a part, which took them under its protecting wing at the earnest solicitation of their best people at a time when the growing Republic was bereft of its main support; the great and noble leader, Diaz, who caused every avenue of progress to be opened up for his people. A man who loved the Mexican people, for whom he had fought and labored, next to his God. The American people claimed him as one of their heroes, and even the present generation honor his memory with as much fervor as if he had been one of them, as if the Republic he established and maintained had been a part of the States.
Don Francisco R. Cantu y Falomir’s ancestors belonged to the faction which strove to make the Church stronger; to the faction opposed to Diazism, to progress. He seemed to take an uncanny pride in nourishing the frightful skeleton he had inherited.
Little did he think that the very fact that he made bold to step out and hold an indignation meeting, like his ancestors, against the “powers that be,” that the cherished skeleton would be brought forth and aired with a result of disaster to his present life, that is, disaster in a certain way. As much as Don Francisco R. Cantu y Falomir hated, or pretended to hate, the Americans and their language, he had now in his employ a poor, but highly educated young American woman, Helen Hinckley. She spoke his language and understood it as perfectly as if it were her native tongue.
She had no prejudices against the race from which her employer claimed to have sprung. She rather admiredthe quaint, old-fashioned customs to which he and his family adhered.
She was evidently of strictly American origin. She had no relative, no home, and no money but what she earned. She described herself as a lost spirit roving over the world in search of friends and a permanent abiding-place. That was the only answer she gave herself or anyone else, when questioned why she was alone and in Chihuahua or any other place. She had been in Chihuahua only one night, when she read in the great daily,The Chihuahuan, the next morning, the advertisement of her present employer, which stated that he wanted an educated American who understood the Spanish as well as his own tongue, who was quiet and unobtrusive, to act as secretary. He preferred a person with no family ties; and one who would consent to live in his family for a year. Whatever salary such a person required for his services would be forthcoming at the end of each month.
When Helen Hinckley walked into the old-fashioned adobe house standing in the center of a large garden, around which was the old-time high adobe wall, and stood in the magnificentpatiogazing at the rare flowers, beautiful birds and sparkling fountain, she felt as if she were not a stranger to these very scenes. She was startled and yet made very happy, neither of which feelings could she account for.
When shown into the long reception-room she showed her surprise, to see it full of applicants eager to get the position for which she had come to apply.
She was about to retire, for she was sorry for theseearnest breadwinners, whose only happiness seemed to be in material existence. Besides, she felt intuitively that if she applied, all of those present, who needed the position worse than herself, would go away with a heavy heart, still she lingered in thepatio.
To the left of the room where the many applicants breathlessly waited to know their fate, was the small but well-appointed office of Don Francisco R. Cantu y Falomir, where, one at a time, he examined the applicants.
When he saw Helen, he stepped to the open door and said: “Oblige me, señorita, by passing into my private office.” He immediately dismissed the other applicants with the quiet and polite information that he had secured one whose recommendations were all he required. He further told them that he hoped they would soon secure employment, as no doubt they were all competent, and (with a ring of satire in his voice), being Americanos, were deserving. No great change had come over Don Francisco R. Cantu y Falomir, yet judging by the great enthusiasm and cordiality with which he greeted Helen Hinckley, on his return to his private office, it seemed to indicate quite differently.
“Pardon me, señorita,” he said in greeting, “but I took the liberty to say to the other applicants that I had employed a competent person as my secretary, meaning you. I hope you will do me the honor to serve me in this capacity. In fact, you are the person whom I have had in mind. Your duties will be light; in fact, for some time to come, all the day will be yours. I have only one request to make, and that is, while in myhouse, you will have no social intercourse with my wife and children; that you will stay closely in your own room or in some quiet spot in the garden which my family do not frequent. When I want your services I will send themozofor you. Amozo, saddle horse, and carriage are at your disposal. You are from this moment to be at no expense. Every comfort of home life we will supply you free, and your salary I will pay now. How much do you require? Will you stay?”
Helen Hinckley replied without any hesitation: “Sir, you are courteous and generous to the extreme. I thank you. I will enter into your employment at once. I want for my services, five hundred dollars a month.”
Don Francisco R. Cantu y Falomir stepped to his desk and handed her the first month’s salary in shining gold; directed a dreamy-eyedcriadato show the señorita to her room, and sentun mozo de cordelto the hotel for all of her belongings.