The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1878-02-24
TAOS.
Life In a New Mexican Town.


A correspondent from Santa Fe to the Den
yer Tribune says;
The people of Taos are economical N the
way Of house room. There are but two dwell
ings at Taos, and in those two all the inlahi-
tai1ts reside. They are not owned by any one
or two parties and the apartments : let as
In some other places could mention, where
the houses are as thiekly inhabited; but as best
/ could learn the people possess the houses In
c,,-paltne1shp, and all live like. one happy
family. A house properly constitutes VII
lage. One Of the buildings at Taos covers
about an acre of ground, and the other about
strueted. as Is generally known, | pre-
sumo, like pyramids, one story on another
until they reach 0ffty or sixty feet into
the air each story being set in from the edge
Of the one below sufficiently far to bring the
stories are attained The walls are of adobe,
and the bottom ones are very thick, as they
must be to support the immense weight that
they are compelled to hold up There are IN
Vulnerable partition walls whlch serve 70 sup
port the roofs and top walls as well q to sep
arate the rooms. The inside walls IRE thus
the highest and strongest. Being thoroughly
protected from what slight rainfall there is
In this country, they stand Tor ages. lhe En-
are TO rs TOP ssSss adder Is
about as useful thing in a Pueblo village as
lead pencil is in q newspaper office. These
ladders stand everywhere outside and inside
Of and all around a village. They are used to
climb from the GROUND a 70 ,o e. ~ 70 Io9h e "p
and then from the top to the first t.'~r from
above. and SO on back again to the bottom
| The people go up end down them with the
agility oomonkeyS Even their olomestie
Indian dog Is The next thing to 81 Indian after
his first cousin. and the animals must OF
| course be In the house. Consequently. one OF
| the first lessons Pueblo dog must learn Is
to climb up and down these ladders. ne q
chickens also understand the modna 0perdhd
and the housewife often thus has 9 whole
brood picking crumbs from her fourth 1lOpr.
The houses are divided into compartments
| the rooms being about ten or twelve
feet square. A family occupies one eompart-
ment. and whatsoever owns the ground floor
| owns and occupies all above it, 1t may pc
seen tha,,hose having their residence In the
centre OF the building have much more com
modious quarters than their outside neigh
bors. When in one Of the Taos hives. a
family ocrupving central apartments has five
rooms rshnse upon whom are conferred 'front.'
corner rooms have but one They have rules
regulating the distribution, generally giving
the most capacious apartments, to their most O.
home,'' are so etfectually separated by the
immense walls between them that they are
no more troubled by their neighbors than are
the people who live along Fourteenth street
| in Denver.
The family relations are all well preserved,
and am told that domestic discood does not
prevail here more than among more civilized
communities The lamb and the lion lie down
together. The mother-in-aw and s0n-in-law
sit ia opposite corners and smoke the pipe OF
peace. There are about 700 Indians in this
village, and they all inhabit these two houses.
consequently they are about as thick as new
paper of pins There have beeIoabDnt seventy
deaths from smallpox in the place during
the last few months and. fearing that the
walls might be inoeulated. | did not go in
side.
These Indians have lived at this place FOL
over 300 years, MS we have every reason t6
J believe from the old Spanish records still
! extant. how much longer will probably never
be known. as they have no knowledge them
selves Il is, however. believed that they
settled here about the time or soon attel
Cortez attacked MGStco.