Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1880-08-26
Mexican Villages.

A correspondent tells us how Mexl-
can village looks in the following extract
from this letter. Perhaps we alight with
in one of the smaller collections of dwell
ings. No matter what its name may be.
Each resembles the other so much as to
be known at glance as town brother"
The first general impression left on the
mind is that the place bears an artful
likeness to towns built OF toy blocks by
very young child. The streets, which
might better be called lanes, are without
system or regularity. The houses are
either of adobes or of stakes planted up
right in the ground, and clinked and
piastered 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 H.
dlviduality is apparent about the build
ings. All 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 q
tree among the alleys of the village; but
if you venture for 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 complication of such a
kind, and all-pervading sense of deadly
dullness fills ones being from the mo;
ment of entering New Mexican town.
let. AS you pass by the houses ar infIe-
quent person may be seen moving hstless
/ ly from one doorway to another or some
open-mouthed lounger may stare stupid
| " 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 Que of these automatic
cerpses, the invariable answer will come
with machine.like regularity, "Quien
sabew There is an inexpressible air of
sadness about the place. The color of
the buildings, as sorrowful in tone as the
brown-stone homes of New York, the
ever-present, unProductlve sand upon
the village rests, even the white sunshine
itself, Cypress one with feeling OF gloom.
And the Mexican villagers themselves
| partake of the nature of their environ
ment and are sad people, with sad
ness, however, that is not inconsistent
| with general contentment and seasons of
mirth. There is not much filth in the
streets of the plazita. The inevitable goat
cleans up what little 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 up
on small gatherings of dwellings In the
querest, most unexpected places. They
seem to have been dropped down from
somewhere above, with happy-go lucky
disregard fer the fitness of the quarter
where they should touch ground. You
may see village sliding and struggling
down the side of sand hill, with not
even as much as blade of grass to ward
off the fierce rays of the sun in summer OF
the chilly blasts of winter wind, while il
is more than likely that within five min.
utes' walk there is a locality admirably
suited by nature for a town site. The
first conner appears to have raised his
roof tree wherever he happened to find 8
clear space, and his followers have ranged
up by his side because he was there be.
fore them. and tor no other reason. Yet
in some cases the disagreeable locations
of the villages have been to a certain ex
tent matters of necessity. In making 8
settlement in New Mexico the first con.
sideration is nearness to water, by which
land can be irrigated, and whence live
stock can be supplied. Where the quaint.
ty of land that can be brought under wa
ter is small, the dwellings are set back il
any conveniently proximate position
The first settlers having made arrange
ments with some such intention, latel
corners have crowded their houses as neal
as possible, with the idea of mutual pro
lection in case of danger from Indian as
saults, and thus the "plazita" has grown
, Sometimes the land cultivated by tn
men of the villages extends for consId
cradle distance from the center of hablta
!: ton, but more often there is no more sol
under tlllage than a mere patch tor eacl
family.