rados." If there is anything that a
Mexican woman despises it is a red petticoat. They are exceedingly
dainty in their underclothing,--wear the finest linen they can afford;
and spend half their lives over the washing machine. The men of northern
Mexico are far inferior to the women in every respect.

This accretion of female population added very much to the charms of
frontier society. The Mexican women were not by any means useless
appendages in camp. They could keep house, cook some dainty dishes, wash
clothes, sew, dance, and sing,--moreover, they were expert at cards, and
divested many a miner of his week's wages over a game of monte.

As Alcalde of Tubac under the government of New Mexico, I was legally
authorized to celebrate the rites of matrimony, baptize children, grant
divorces, execute criminals, declare war, and perform all the functions
of the ancient El Cadi. The records of this primitive period are on file
in the Recorder's office of the Pueblo of Tucson, Pima County.

Tubac became a kind of Gretna Green for runaway couples from Sonora; as
the priest there charged them twenty-five dollars, and the Alcalde of
Tubac tied the knot gratis, and gave them a treat besides.

I had been marrying people and baptizing children at Tubac for a year or
two, and had a good many godchildren named Carlos or Carlotta according
to gender, and began to feel quite patriarchal, when Bishop Lame sent
down Father Mashboef, (Vicar Apostolic,) of New Mexico, to look after
the spiritual condition of the Arizona people.

It required all the sheets and tablecloths of the establishment to fix
up a confessional room, and we had to wait till noon for the blessing at
breakfast; but worse than all that, my commadres, who used to embrace me
with such affection, went away with their reybosas over their heads
without even a friendly salutation.

It was "muy triste" in Tubac, and I began to feel the effects of the ban
of the Church; when one day after breakfast Father Mashboef took me by
the arm, (a man always takes you by the arm when he has anything
unpleasant to say,) and said:--

"My young friend, I appreciate all you have been trying to do for these
people; but these marriages you have celebrated are not good in the eyes
of God."

I knew there would be a riot on the Santa Cruz if this ban could not be
lifted. The women were sulky, and the men commenced cursing and
swearing, and said they thought they were entitled to all the rig