CHAPTER 5. LIFE AT HARD LABOR—REFUSAL TO PAY INCOME TAX 78
- Fire to glow on the hearth,
- Warmth to open the heart of the Holy Corn,
- Warmth to melt the snow on White Mountain
- Giving water for our crops, our animals.
- This, Sun-Father, is good.
- Great fire to kill
- is bad.
- I kill my enemy with my own two hands
- Or he kills me.
- That is brave. To burn and blast every man,
- Every woman and child,
- All animals and birds,
- All corn and grass—
- That is cowardly and wicked.
- They steal your brightness
- For devil-worship;
- Sun-Father
- They mock you.
In May I received a telegram from Claude McKay in Chicago saying that he was very ill and wanted to come to Albuquerque, thinking the change of climate would help him. Sister Agnes de Sales, head of Catholic Teachers College and a friend of mine and of the CW got a bed on the porch of St. Joseph's Hospital for Claude, He was nearly dead with diabetes, heart trouble and dropsy when he arrived and had to be put under an oxygen tent. I had studied Theosophy, Rosicrucianism, the I AM, Spiritualism, Christian Science, Eschatology, and various other occult cults and at this time was studying Yogi breathing and healing exercises. Their basis was relaxed deep breathing, drawing the strength from God, or as they phrased it: The Great Central Sun. Then this buildup of power was sent with outstretched hands and prayer to that part of the body or the person afflicted. The person to be helped did not need to believe in it; only to acquiesce and not eat meat. I did my best each morning and a friend in Milwaukee who had more experience did the same for him. Whether it was these prayers, those of Sister Agnes and others or not, Claude passed the crisis and in about six weeks was well enough to be released.
The trouble then was to find a place that would accept a Negro. I made a public appeal in a local Protestant Negro church but to no avail. Finally Msgr. Garcia made up a bed in his office for Claude. Later we found a small apartment in the Mexican section. I visited him twice a week, took dictation for a book which he was writing, and wrote his letters for him as he was still weak.
