"Mexican barkeeps, when they sells pulque, aims to dispose of it two
glasses at a clatter. It gives their conceit a chance to spread
itse'f an' show. The pulque is in a tub down back of the bar. This
yere vain Mexican seizes two glasses between his first an' second
fingers, an' with a finger in each glass. Then he dips 'em full
back-handed; an' allers comes up with the back of his hand an' the
two fingers covered with pulque. He claps 'em on the bar, eyes you a
heap sooperior like he's askin' you to note what a acc'rate, high-
grade barkeep he is, an' then raisin' his hand, he slats the pulque
off his fingers into the two glasses. If he spatters a drop on the
bar, it shows he's a bungler, onfit for his high p'sition, an'
oughter be out on the hills tendin' goats instead of dealin' pulque.
"What do they do with the sour pulque? Make mescal of it--a sort o'
brandy, two hookers of which changes you into a robber. No, thar's
mighty few still-houses in Mexico. But that's no set-back to them
Greasers when they're out to construct mescal. As a roole Mexicans
is slow an oninventive; but when the question becomes the
arrangement of somethin' to be drunk with, they're plenty fertile.
Jest by the way of raw material, if you'll only confer on a Mexican
a kettle, a rifle bar'l, a saddle cover, an' a pigskin full of sour
pulque, he'll be conductin' a mescal still in full blast at the end
of the first hour. But to go back to Enright's yarn.
"'These yere pulque people,' says Enriglit, 'does a fa'rly rapid
commerce. For while, as you-all may know, pulque is tame an' lacks
in reebound as compared with nose-paint, still when pulque is the
best thar is, the Pine Knot Cavaliers of the Plaza Perdita invests
heavily tharin. That pulque's jest about a stand-off for the
chaplain's sermons. "'It's the fourth trip of the pulque sellers,
when the Donna Anna shows in the door. The Donna Anna arrives with
'em; an' the way she bosses 'round, an' sets fire to them pulque
slaves, notifies me they're the Donna Anna's peonies. "'I'm sort o'
pervadin' about the plaza when the Donna Anna rides up. Thar's an
old she-wolf with her whose name is Magdalena. I'm not myse'f what
they calls in St. Looey a "connoshur" of female loveliness, an' it's
a pity now that some gifted gent like Doc Peets yere don't see this
Donna Anna that time, so's he could draw you her picture, verbal.
All I'm able to state is that she's as beautiful as a cactus flower,
an' as vivid. She's tall an' strong for a Mexican, with a voice like
velvet, graceful as a mountain lion, an' with eyes that's soft an'
deep an' black, like a deer's. She's shorely a lovely miracle, the
Donna Anna is, an' as dark an' as warm an' as full of life as a
night in Joone. She's of the grande, for the mule she's ridin',
gent-fashion, is worth forty ponies. Its coat is soft, an' shiny
like this yere watered silk, while its mane an' tail is braided with
a hundred littler silver bells. The Donna Anna is dressed half
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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