Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1881-11-09
Mexican Dwellings,


Editor Chase OF the Lyndon Uaton
description of the dwellings in New Mex.
leo.
Yon would not ike TO live in mud
house, reader, would you? Bnt e. me tell
you about it. To begin with it is cheaper
than wocd and, to say no'hing about looks,
is great deal better. Very comfortable
houses are made here by digging prairie
sots, piing hem up, one top OF the her,
enclosing a square the size wanted, across
which is lait poles. which are again GOV.
cred WI q sods. A place is left in one sile
for door, and one or two places in other
sides for windows This is the common
Mexcan's house, and until one gets close
to it, one can't distinguish il from any
other lump of dirt. Unless a traveller
keeps up q toierable looS out he is liable
TO pass the mansion OF some unpretending
native withou. knowing it. Ii Mexican
wants to give his donkey shelter he can
dig few turfs. pile them five or six feet
high around small space and turn the
animal in. If he is particularly tender OF
his beast he will roof that over al,o with
straw or mud. But the side shelter is
generally considered sufficient for the pur-
pose. A llttl- regard for looks will some
times induce a Mexican to dig up little
dirt, mix it with sand and spreal it on the
outside Of .ods with a wooden trowel.
This gives the outside Of the house a
smooth surface and aiheres well.
The adobe brick is prairie clay, wafer
and sand, mixed together, moulded and
laid in the sun to dry. rnov are eight
inches long. min" inches wide and four
inches thick. sni when dug are no. as
hard a. burned brick, but sufficiently hard
for building walls and are durable Men
can be hired to furnish their own meteriai
and make them for eight dollars thou
81 ID. An eastern builder can compare
these with the size OF burned brick and
easily compare the comparative cost of
brick houses in the east and New Mexico
Men charge ten dollars thousand for lay
ing them in the wall. Few houses are
bull! over one story high, though occa
sionally ambitious men will build two and
once in a great while three stories high.
The walls are usually eighteen inches
thick, but if the house is two stories, the
first wall is twenty-seven inches, and the
second eighteen inches. Beleton walls
are eighteen inches in the first and nine in
the second. Partition ioist Is sometimes
set up, in which case the bricks are set on
edge between the joists making four inch
wall. The bricks are tackled 10 the ioists
with nails and the partition is male per-
fecty firm. A kind OF mortar is made of
one-third mud and two thirds sand, which
is spread Oh the partitions with trowels,
and is as firm as lime mortar The house
is very warm in the winter and cool in
the summer. Evesdropping through the
partitions is out of the question, and in
some eastern communities they would not
be popular on that account. Many build
ers plaster the outside with mud and
check il off into squares to resemble brick
or square stones. The best adobe houses
are papered and nicely finished inside
with native pine, which cost thirty dollars
a thousand The regular house of the
native was Hat roof, but Americans
usually put on the pitch roof, and shingle
1t. One peculiarly Of the houses here is
that mos of the rooms hava an outside
door, and in corner rooms it is not uncom
mon to find two OF them. 1t seems odd to
step out OF ones sleeping room directly
into the open air.