Show I AT LIFES CROSSROADS f- A romance of Carmel by the Sea Written for the Utah Independent by Wanda A. on California's golden In days of erstwhile Indian In a forest of pines near Carmel Before the Gringo's rude Had aroused a famishing There flourished an Indian Where campfires blazed with a cheerful At the close of and the easy flow Of converse bright that waxed high Made the waning embers loth to Each wigwam there was an open To the heart's good will an ample Each guarded his honor with stoical Made love and faith and peace At the adobe Mission under the hill They were taught to bow to the Maker's And the reverend Padre's Made every Indian's heart As he assured with many a gentle That faith redeems and that are heard For the noble priest had left home and kind To retrieve the untutored savage In this Indian village beside the t There dwelt a maiden proud and Lithe of form and lovely of Her movements were rhymes of unstudied grace veritable whose eyes disclose A heart as pure as an rose Unknown to her was the sophist's the civilized social siren's To a blessing had duty And she toiled in with the hope of In leisure hours she was wont to stray To the farthest point of Carmel For various wonders drew her there The moss-decked trees and land-shells Where cavernous made the waters And a beach of sand had turned to There the chaos of massive rock Told the tale of some earthquake And there the for hours at a Would explore the the steep rocks climb She heeded not the briny As roared its waves in wild She searched for abelone rare to star K And at intervals a beautiful V That echoed sounds like a fairy's It chanced one day she paused for an In a wave-cut like an elfin's Where the splash of the waves at her feet her fancies to dreamland roaming She had grown a-weary Composure settled on her beautiful When the dreamer awoke to realize That the sun had gone from the western And its setting had spread a crimson glow Across the as if to show The pathway of its sinking As she she recoiled with To her astonished before her stood Six feet of savage A lone from an unknown land Self-exiled from his native He burst forth in excuse But admitted his guilt of a clever ruse To learn what he could of this charming He had followed her close over hill and Day after day with untiring j With the innate cunning of his 1 He told of his far and now that she was by his jj She could all his thoughts 1 In a way he could not Now with more courage he drew Hf strange to she did not j For his noble form and attractive mien Had awakened in her an interest ij Emboldened by no fierce t He ventured into her eyes to j And the wealth of slumbering passions there Trembled his and in his breast did flare An amorous so so The gods knew ever And now he asked her name to And with sweet tones like the chime of a She spoke the name is As she looked at the ground and her tresses He took at her side the proffered Declared that her name was Then he likened her to the dew of To the snowy clouds which the heavens Her eyes to quenching waters Her voice to the soothing balm of Then his words took a bolder 3 For he wished to win her heart so J He beat his breast with a fearful To express the love that surged He tenderly asked if she would be his j If he'd promise to obey her J He would worship the Master of Life at her f At the adobe Mission under the His heart with maddening joy beat As she met his gaze with a responsive sigh I How strange and fascinating to see This Indian maiden's As she frisked and gamboled before his Like a tantalizing Three days after this tryst by the He led her proudly to a new After the gentle i Had murmured a benediction Their dream of love was thus And it promised to last till life was The stalwart bold and Wondered and questioned the whole day long For a marvelous interest had filled his The study of blessed He thought of the years that would blissfully That their mission must new joys to Then he pictured with watchful Crooning an infant's And as in thoughtful he His heart beat high with That the Great Spirit o'er all saw fit In man's large destiny to knit This soft and smooth and Who revealed each day a new Who worked and and loved and Who hoped and prayed with With but one ambition her heart to To please her in every The of she did not And those of culture must needs concede That the bronze squaw of the wild knows best The sweetness of Long he would sit by the embers' As if petitioning them to show hidden workings of her the wily embers were not Thus he pondered many an hour away O'er the mystery of woman's A few short months too soon sped by In fishing and One moonlight night the Indian He watched the waters that o'er him sprayed Like the filmy hue of a chiffon Of texture so sheer and He saw a maid from the village near Wade into the devoid of Further and further out she Deeper and with brave When now what he saw made the savage As he heard distinctly the threatening moan Of a monstrous wave it broke with a Which with its echo the rocks Knowing the danger of the heedless He plunged like mad into the seething And secured her with his Without so much as a cry of High on the cliffs his wigwam In a secluded spot where few The fair passed out- of the To the brow of the to return no For as she looked down the rocky Upon the shifting She spied her lord with his burden according to the truth of her vision's He carried the woman with upturned With all the love's And with a farewell Knowing no truth of the Let rage kill reason maddened She poured forth her vengeance upon the night T With frenzied anger she to bestow ft Her form on the hungry waters That hid their victim with greedy As tho their guilt left no time to Meanwhile the his task being toward the cliffs in time to view Her reckless leap from the heights above His mate his joy his life his love in lieu of a a wail so To chill the blood of all who Emerged from the savage's husky Now fleet as the wind he obtained a And sought and mourned and mourned and But every effort was with failure The receding waters had borne her away J From the scene of his anguish and heart's For when the night drew And all trace of diurnal hours had The cruel with its cynical Tortured him with an By bringing to the cliff's sharp Every night from a projecting ledge At the selfsame he could see her leap Into the restless arms of the briny that a dream of happiness vf Should be so cruelly wrecked as Long years have passed since the fair In impulsive rage that wild leap took The hills re-echo bold and The call of civilization's Now the wigwam rude and the campfire's gleam SH Is replaced by the white man's brilliant To acquire affluence from the yellow That all life's privileges may to him V. Now curious travelers peer to see An aged savage's queer As they wind their desultory way Along the beach at Carmel Before the sun's rays dries the dew Of trailing one still may view An old man squatting before his Reviving memories of days of And the distorted dreams bring a fitful Vy-As he longs for the hour when grief shall And the specter grim will come on the To guide him over the lonesome That leads to that happy and Where with those we love we may y And ever and anon is heard the strain Of the demented Indian's wild For he's striving only to pass the time When he can start for that richer Only waiting for the postponed Like a lost soul's search for c If the traveler's interest waxes so high That he is prompted to greet as he passes by This survivor of a vanquished With trembling form and withered face v The Indian makes it With pantomimic gestures That from his heart he can never free That sting of nor happy Till the loved and lost is In the vale of the Happy Hunting |