The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1883-03-11
A MEXICAN TOWN.

i dSO QoI NO1lCs A~A etSS 10 y"
years old; Paso del Norte, 200 and
more,-how much more nobody
knows.
a sharper antithesis could not be
found in the world than these two
towns afford, and the thorn in the
flesh that Ell Paso is to Paso del
Norte, only Paso del Norte people
could describe. But they will not.
They are as mute and gentle to-day
as they were centuries ago, and
submit t. this second great con-
quest of their country even more
silently than they did at first. The
steam-engine is greater than Cortez.
Their doom was sealed before; 1t
will be accomplished now. Walk
ing through the streets Of Pase del
N0rte, seeing the primeval simple
ity and poverty of the inhabitants,
one wonders that they should not
have welcomed the coming of a
railroad, the bringing in of supplies
the opening of the market. But
they did not. All they asked was
to be let alone.
The town claims to number 10000
inhabitants; this seems incredible.
Still, it stretches for miles along
the banks of the Rio Grande, an al
most unbroken line of mud houses,
mud-Walled vineyards and orchards,
and similar lines of mud houses and
mud walls, with muddy bitches ad-
ded, run off at right angles to the
river, for a long distance. Every
doorway sWarms with women and
babies; every shaded ditch bank
sWarms with children; and the lit
tie plaza, of Sunday, swarms with
men. Perhaps there are 10000 after
all; but that 10000 people could be
living in town, and the town re-
main ole month what Paso del
Norte is, is marvel, and would be
an impossibility to any other race
in the world; only the Mexicans
could accomplish such inertia, or
endure such discomfort.
Considered as a spectacle, as a
picture, the town is perfect; all
that heart could ask. To be there
On a Sunday is to escape from
America and the nineteenth cen
fury as from place and time forgot
ten.
The church is a long. low adobe
building, with good bell tower, oil
Moorish design. 1t is in all proba-
bility nearly 300 years old. Part of
the front has fallen, ard, having
been left lying where it fell, has
been coyered,b by the swift sand-bloW-
ing gales into a hardened mound
The winding staircase in the bell
tower is made of solid rough heWn
logs; a clumsy post, also solid aud
rough hewn, being driven through
them in the corner. The ceiling OF
the church is made of logs, reeds
and saplings. The logs are most
curiously and effectively carved in
deep-cut lines, intersecting each
other so as to make regular diamond
intervals; in each Of these inter.
walls a sort of rose, and al
each intersection projecting
peg. The effect is marvelously dec
orative; it is design which might
well be copied by wOrkmen to-day
The logs are supported at each enc
by a graceful bracket, wrought in
the same pattern, and LeveryJbea
and support of the building is SINH
larly carved. The spaces between
these logs are about twice the width
of the log, and are filed in witt
small round saplings or reeds, set al
slant corresponding to the slant
ing carved lines on the logs, and al
ternating right and left in the alter
mating spaces. This alienation
greatly heightens the effect of the
ceiling. There are traces of colol
decoration on the walls, but ruthles!
whiteWash has .nearlyiobliterateC
them; and there are nc, pictures Oh
other adornments at all on the same
plane as the wood-carving.
The church stands on a sandy
eminence, looking southwark dowI
on the sandy little plaza. Two
sandy streets lead up TO it; more
than sandy they are,-ankle deeI
in sand, except here and there
rod or two of scattered pavement
prehistoric, apparently, and appar
emily held in reverence by the Mex
leans, who seldom walk on it, chOos
ing rather to wade in the sand. The
more elegant of the women weal
long skirts, trailing foot or two
behind them. They would scorn tt
lift them. 1t has never been the
custom of the race to do so, and NJ
dOWager in England can sweep hel
brocade train over the queens floors
with finer mbination of leisurelI
nonchalance and dignity than de-
the Mexican danes trail their dusty
cottons through the clouds of sane
in the streets of Paso del Norte. Il
is as fine thing, in its way, as the
sombrero, and as fnll of significance
Long befOr the mass begins the
floor of the church is crowded with
kneeling figures; men on tho right
women and children on the left. A
few have brought gay rugs or blan
kets to kneel on; the most knee
humbly on the bare floor. Upon al
the faces is an expression of sol
emn, almost sad devotion, which
would not have seemed inadequate
even to Padre Gomez, who, two
hundred years ago, used to preact
from the queer little carved cask
hanging precariOusly high up OF
the wall. The books of births, mar
riages, and deaths which he kept
are still lying where he for so many
years used to put them carefnllV