complications, I surrendered myself to the alcalde of the precinct
and accused myself of having disturbed the peace of the realm.
Pleading my case, I stated that as there was nobody but the peace
disturbers involved, and as said parties did not make any further
claim upon the Honorable Court, therefore, under the statute of the
Territory and the Constitution of the United States, the law required
that the court mulct the guilty parties in the payment of a nominal
fine and discharge the culprits. The Honorable Court decreed that I
as an American ought to know the American law best, and discharged me
after I paid my self-imposed fine. The administering of justice in
cases of importance was, of course, relegated to the United States
Circuit Courts, but Uncle Sam did not care to meddle with the many
troublesome alcaldes or justices of the peace, as he did not
understand the Spanish language very well. This was certainly
humiliating and embarrassing, but who can blame him, as no one is
over anxious to be rated an ignorant person.

My Mexican friends decided to give a farewell party in my honor.
Accordingly they made great preparations. They secured the largest
sala, or hall, in the township and scoured the country for
musicians--fiddlers and guitar players. Every person of any social
notability was invited. They drew the line of social respectability
at peons, or bondmen. This was a happy-go-lucky caste of people who
possessed no property nor anything else, and consequently they had no
cares and were under no responsibility of any kind, as the wealthier
classes, who virtually owned them, had to provide for their
necessities. The system of peonage in New Mexico had been abolished
with the abolition of slavery in the United States, but the peons did
not realize the wretchedness of their deplorable social status, and
in their ignorance they regarded their bondage as a privilege,