Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1880-12-09
The Indian ehildren are an interest-

The Indian children are an interest
ing study. They are generally very
scantily dressed. thesonly. garment that
most of those between the ages of five
and fifteen years wore. being loose
chemise ,reachipgs about to khe knees.
Smaller children were ffeq6ently seen
without stitch of clothing. The wealth
of straight black hair with which most of
the young Pueblos are blessed is some
thing wonderful. IT is s'banged" in
front, but hangs down upon their should
ers, half hiding their dusky faces. The
passage of a railway train has not ceased
to be o novelty to them, and at San ke-
lipe dozen or more of them were gath
cred on the tops of the houses nearest
the railroad, jumping about and shout
ing like the little savages that they are,
and throwing stones at the passing cars.
Some of the Pueblo Indians in the
Rio Grande Valley have moved out of
the towns and live on their little farms.
Their adobe houses are very small and
mean-looking, and some of them ap-
parently have no doors or windows.
Frequently five or six persons, old and
young, would be congregated on the top
of one of them, and look 90 crowded
there that it seemed as though some one
must be pushed off if any other one
moved. Many of these little houses have
rude awnings, made of poles and boughs
of trees, shading their tops, which are
then used as lodging apartments by the
family. tsx
The Pueblos and Navajos have never
been friendly, and relics of their old
warfares may still be seen in some parts
of New Mexico. The Pueblo archi-
=. LII
villages might easily be defended from
their towns were built high up upon the
cliffs for the same reason. The western
banks of the Rio Grande north of here
are very abrupt, rising in some places
almost perpendicularly two or three
hundred feet. On the top of one of these
bluffs there still remains stone fort
built by the Pueblos, and almost inn
pregnable from the river. side against
anything but modern artillery. -N-~ -
Many wealthy Mexican dons own es-.
tates on the Rio Grande River, and, al
though their modes of agriculture are
rude and primitive, their fields are well
cultivated, they have large fiocks and
herds, and their houses are spacious
and imposing in appearance, when seen
through a long vista of trees, with their
neatly whitewashed fronts and broad
verandas extending all around them.
Among these people. may occasionally
be found Spanish family of pure Cas-
lillian blood which, though it came here,
perhaps, two centuries ago, has never
inter-married with the Indians or Mexi-
cans of mixed blood. These are the real
aristocracy of the country, and, as many
of their children have been educated in
Europe or in the Eastern States, they
have retained not q few of the charac-
teristics of their Spanish ancestors, to
which they have added, perhaps, more
of modern refinement. H. .ti.
The old town of Albuquerque is about
three miles west of the railroad,
but a observation-disclosures is already
springing up about the station. The
old town contains about 1000 inhabi-
tants, of whom two or three hundred
are Americans and Europeans, and the
remainder Mexicans. 1t resembles,
Santa Fe except that its architecture is
purely Mexican, and it lacks the 4ap-
pearance of thrift and enterprise which
the capital of New Mexico has in
slight degree. The plaza is simply an
open square in the center of the town,
without fences, trees or grass. One side
of it is occupied by the church and
church institutions, the former of which
is said to have been built about 200
years ago. The people of Albuquerque
assert that the town was occupied by
the Spaniards earlier than Santa Fe, it
being at that time large Indian pueblo,
and it therefore disputes with the ca oi-
tai of the Territory the honor of being
the oldest town in the United States set
tied by Europeans. The merchants
here carry on large business with the
farmers Of the valley. The new town,
which is at the junction of the Atlantic
and Pacific Railroad (the construction
of which from this point west to Cali
fornia has already been begun) with
the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe
main line, is expected to be an import
ant railway center. -. 20. ..r,. ..,
The first night slept in Albuquerque,
my room opened by a door upon the pla-
eta of the hotel, but the window looked
out upon Il broad street with no build
iags on the further side. After mid
night, and when perfect silence reigned
throughout the hotel and town, l was
awakened by a weird, plaintive sound,
and, looking out of the window, l saw
tall Indian in the bright moonlight,
wrapped in his gayly-colored blanket,
walking alone, very slowly, and chant
ing something that sounded like a dirge.
1 watched him for five minutes until he
had passed out of sight aud hearing,
and the apparition seemed prophetic.
The Indian race has survived the cruelty
of the Spaniard, and has not disap-
peared before the civilization of two
centuries ago; but did this old chief
l -, %ho Cd ~ ho qualification IF
the last quarter of the nineteenth cer .
fury the Doom of his people sealedp- .
Cor. NeU York Tribune.