New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-08-14
SEVERAL KINDS OF INHABITANTS.

| SEVERAL KINDS OF INHABITANTS.
! cHARACi ERIsTIC ~GsNE>-THE MEXICAN AND HIS
| DoNREY-THE COAL FIELDS AND ADOBE HOUSES.
PROV An OCCASIONAL CORRESPONDENT OF THE TRIBUSEl
Las VEGAS, n. NJ. July 2s.-There is general,
and during the past few days. have fousd mis-
taken,impression that the region from the southwest
| corner of Kansas. through Southern Colorado and
/ Northern New-SlexIco is a scorcned desert IN July
| and August. During the past four five days
| have been travelling, trying to travel, across
| those two or three hundred miles, in a region of
mud and water. | could see. however that the vege-
tation freshened by the rains Of a week, had been
scorched through the early season. The country on
! the Upper Arkansas, for a hundred miles below
Pueblo, IS not naturally paradise. There IS little
too much sage-brush and alkali, unless cOntem-
plated glass-works. The dirty narrow creek called
Las AnImas Purgatoire OF Plcketwlre, might have
got the name of PurgatOry properly enough at its
lower end; bur its corruption into "Pcketwire" is
Incomprehensble. 1t has a course of about hun
dred miles, and as you ascend it, a change meets
you The country becomes more rolling as you get
half way up The sage grass does not disappear but
better vegetation is mixed with 1t. Groves OF a
stunted species of cedar dot the landscape here and
there, looking like orchards. Then amidst the
breaks in the storm can see away some fifty or
hundred miles to the right the foot hills and near
est peaks Of the Rocky Mountains. The PurgatOire
rises in the ROTOR Pass Away before one be can see
the ROTOR Peak, 9,465 feet above the level Of the
sea. The Rotons are range Of mountains or bills
running eastward from the Rocky Mountains, and
extending theme, 80 miles eastward to the head
waters Of the Cimarron and Red Forks of the Ar
kansas. Its highest attitudes not above the
timber line and as no snow lies them during the
Summer, the streams proceeding from 1t are dry ex
cept when 1t RUNS or during the SHOWS of Winter
aud Spring. IL is sparsely covered here and there
with yellow pine and the aforesaid stunted cedars.
When the commerce of New-MexIco followed the
old Santa F6 road with its enormous trains Of OK
ana mule wagons that road had two main branches.
One proceeding up the Arkansas to near Fort Lyon,
crossed the ROTOR Pas 1.-THE Purgat0lre,
which is 5000 feet above the level Of the sea. The
other road crossed the Arkansas not far from Fort
Dodge and passed east OF the spurs Of the ROTOR
Range through Las Vegas, which Is some seventy
five miles directly east of Santa Fe. About fifteen
miles from the summit Of the ROTOR Pass the town
Of Trinidad stands. on the Purgatolre. Ii seems 10
be directly under ROTOR Peak, which is, however.
some seven or eight miles away. The town Of Irlni-
dad is place of considerable Importance in South
ern Colorado owing chiefly to its coal mines, but is
an odd-looking town. II is a station on what is
/ called the main line of the Atchson Topeka and
! Santa Fe Railroad A prong ofthe Denver and Rio
]
Of It. As you approach Trinidad from the north
and while yet thirty or forty miles from New-llex
/ leo Won strike a new or rather old. a very Old
civilization Every few miles you see villages Of
! Mexican Spanlards. Sometimes the hacienda has
only dozen houses but they Of adOLe. with fat
or earthen roofs and built round a plaza. One OF
these MexicanOs cannot conceive Of town without
a plaza Their fields are small and badly irrigated.
suspect they have a limited supply Of water, ex-
cent when they do not need it. There are three
! kinds of inhabitants in these haciendas, MeXcans,
burros Ia small donkey. and goats. The burrO is a
neat, but not a frskY creature. I saw one driven
by his master to Trinidad with load of wood COM
posed of small faggots as thick as your ARM the
tire load being so much bigger than the burro that
you could see nothing oft out its feet the tips Of
its ears. and an occasional whisk Of its tail Behind
il went its master with short, sharp stick. He
! n poorly dressed, swarthy-o0ling man, with mel
| ancholy countenance. With these drivers, some
times the Indian predominared. sometimes the Cas-
! tIlian So very black some of them were. and yet
! with countenances so classic that they made you
/ think Of De Soto and Cortez The master of the
| burro walked behind II, and periodically punched
| il with his stick. timed one with my watch; he
punched it every one hundred seconds. | suspect
he did it under some traditional sense Of duty. 1t
did not appear TO be an ebuilitOn Of wrath on his
part or to have the slightest effect on the burro.
Yet was the little beast intelligent. | one, as
two Americans approached il and its master, step
promptly out of the way if It was conscious that
a collision was not desirable, and then IL turned its
melancholy face up over the bundle of faggots to its
MASTER as if it would suggest to him to do the same
thing. They, that Is the bUrro and the man, con-
trlved between them to sell their load for % cents
Then tue burro meeky and contentedly went ana
Il 1,Fvs.v tho.
town. and when the master called TO 1t they went
home together; burro and man, typical Of each
other meek laborlous inviting an oppressor, living
n little. getting little. And way had these people
strayed away above the line OF old Mexico INTO Col
oradoi Alas, they knew rs little OF geography as
they did OF anything else.
surveying parties have developed the fact that the
greatest coal fields in the United states lie on the
eastern slopes Of the Rocky Mountains. From away
norrh of tile Omaha road below this point coal
found everywhere. and extending INTO me plain. III
is of different QUALITIES Trinidad " is an excel
lent coal watch cOkes easily; great deal OF 10 ~
made into good coke. here are TWO seams, an
upper and a lower; the first eight the second
eleven feet. The cars 20 up 10 H. ana ~ can 9e put
on them al from so cents 10 81 ton. Inc canon
CITY coal is called Colorado anthracite. DO not
think that name properly applies, Dut y IS more
Ike Peuu,vl ylnia AM hracIte chan any other West
ern coal All about Denver and north of Denver
coal abOunds. North Of Trinidad, ana forty niles
distant are he famous two spanish PEAKS. Ihey /
are l3 800 feet above the level Of the sea, anu Their
bare breasts rise more than two thousand feet ABOVE
the timber line. " ~
At the ROTOR Pass, the Atchison, Topeka and
santa Fs Railroad are boring tunnel, "hlch WIZ /
br completed in September Their construction
trains run over the pass By inclined planes As
Won cross the ROTOR Pass you begin to toqcn the
Lead-waters OF more southern streams mere are
several towns of scanting and boards on the route
the most noticeable being Oter0' when Il DeIug
moved south plecemeal to Las Vegas. AT Las Las
Vegas you touch the Erst tributary Of TIE d kio
Graude Ibe foyytl winch contains about 1000
habltants lies at tue foot OF the spurs OF foothills
of the Rocky Mountains, and on the very slope.
| looked for the meadows from which u derives
i,s nam, but fund them IN the verd2nt Valley OF
-. M .illnns W. tnis .tream snould have been