The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1880-07-14
Mexican villages.

A correspondent tells US how a Mexi
can village looks in the following ex'
tract from his letter.: Perhaps We
alight within one of the smaller col.
lections of dwellings,. No matter what
its name may be. Each resembles the
other 80 much as to be known at 8
glance as Gown brother" The first
general impression left on the mind is
that the place bears an artful likeness
to the towns built of toy blocks by a
very young child. The streets, which
might better be called lanes, are with
out system or regularity. The houses
are either of adobes or of stakes planted
upright in the ground, and clinked and
pfastered with mud. They may or may
not have little courts either in front or
rear and inclosed by adobe walls. No
endeavor toward display of taste, no in
| dividuality is apparent about the build
ings. All the angles were intended by
the builders to be right angles, and such
a thing as curve is beyond the pale OF
possibilities. Seldom will you find a
tree among the alleys of the village;
but if you venture for a stroll after
night you may, while barking your
shins against broken down adobe walls,
be convinced of the presence of the
thorny mesquit bush or the hostile
"Spanish dagger" plant. Save
for a complication OF such a kind,
an all.pervading sense of deadly dull
ness fills ones being from the moment
of entering a New Mexican townlet.
As you pass by the houses an infre-
quent person may be seen moving list
lessly from one doorway to another, or
some open-mouthed lounger may stare
stupidity from the SHADE in which he is
crouched. But nobody seems to have
any particular purpose or object in life.
Should you put question to one of
these automatic corpses, the invariable
answer will come with machine-like
regularity, "Quien sabe!" There is an
iri ::pressible air of sadness about the
,.,,:cf. The color of the buildings, as
so."owful in tone as the brown'stone
homes of New York. the ever present,
Lnproductive sand upon which the
village tests, even the white sun
shine iSsri.., oppress one with feeling
of glou,,. And the Mexican villagers
themselves portake of the nature of their
environment and are sad people, with
a sadness, however, that is not incon-
sistent with general contentment and
seasons of mirth. There is not much
filth in the streets of the "plazita."
The inevitable goats clean up what lit
tie garbage is thrown out of doors, and
the hot climate breeds many insects to
act as general scavengers.
In riding along the highways and BY
ways of New Mexico one often comes
upon small gatherings of dwellings in
the queerest, most unexpected places.
They seem to have been dropped down
from somewhere above, with happy
go-lucky disregard for the fitness of the
quarter where they should touch
ground. You may see village sliding
and struggling down the side of sand
nil, with not as much as a blade of
grass to ward off the fierce rays of the
sun in summer or the chilly blasts Of
winter wind, while it is more than
likely that within five minutes walk
there is locality admirably suited by
nature for town site. The first conner
appears to have raised his roof-tree
wherever he happened to find a clear
space, and his followers have
ranged up by his side because he was
there before them, and for no other
reason. Yet in some cases the dis
agreeable locations of the villages have
been to certain extent matters Of ne
cessity. In making settlement in New
Mexico the first consideration is near
ness to water, by which land can be ir-
rigated, and whence live stock may be
supplied. Where the quantity of land
that can be brought ulder water is
small, the dwellings are set back in any
conveniently proximate position. The
first settlers having made their arrange
ments with some such intention, later
comers have crowded their homes as
near as possible, with the idea of mutual
protection in case of danger from Indian
assaults. and thus the "plazita " has
grown. Sometimes the land cultivated
Dy the men of the villages extends for
a considerable distance from the center
of habitation. but more often there is no
more soil under tillage than a mere
patch for each family.