CHAPTER XXII
MIGHT AND RIGHT.
It was about ten o'clock at night. The last rockets lazily soared
into the dark sky, where paper balloons shone like new stars. Some of
the fireworks had set fire to houses and were threatening them with
destruction; for this reason men could be seen on the ridges of the
roofs carrying buckets of water and long bamboo poles with cloths tied
on the ends. Their dark shadows seemed descended from ethereal space
to be present at the rejoicings of human beings. An enormous number of
wheels had been burned, also castles, bulls, caraboas and other pieces
of fireworks, and finally a great volcano, which surpassed in beauty
and grandeur anything that the inhabitants of San Diego had ever seen.
Now the people turned in one great crowd toward the plaza to attend
the last theatrical performance. Here and there could be seen the
colored Bengal lights, fantastically illuminating groups of merry
people. The small boys were making use of their torches to search
for unexploded firecrackers in the grass, or, in fact, for anything
else that might be of use to them. But the music was the signal and
all abandoned the lawn for the theatre.
The large platform was splendidly illuminated. Thousands of lights
surrounded the pillars and hung from the roof, while a number, in
pyramid-shaped groups, were arranged on the floor of the stage. An
employee attended to these and whenever he would come forward to
regulate them, the public would whistle at him and shout: "There he
is! There he is now!"
In front of the stage, the orchestra tuned its instruments, and
behind the musicians sat the principal people of the town. Spaniards
and rich visitors were occupying the reserved chairs. The public,
the mass of people without titles or rank, filled the rest of the
plaza. Some carried with them benches, not so much for seats as
to remedy their lack of stature. When they stood upon them, rude
protests were made on the part of those without benches or things to
stand on. Then they would get down immediately, but soon mount up on
their pedestals again as if nothing had happened.
Comings and goings, cries, exclamations, laughter, squibs that had
been slow in going off, and firecrackers increased the tumult. Here,
a foot broke through a bench, and some one fell to the floor, while
the crowd laughed and made a show of him who had come so far to see
a show. There, they fought and disputed over positions, and, a little
farther on, the noise of breaking bottles and glasses could be heard:
