The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1883-07-29
SWINGING AROUND--SAN-
Ia FEL

deco, Is IS an 6lUOSI every udy d4AaIA
throughout central and southern
Colorado and over the larger part Of
New Mexico. We were favored
with several soaking shOWers be-
tween Denver and Pueblo, and saw
evidences of recent rains all the way
down, or up rather, to Las Vegas,
for the last named city is elevated
$500 feet above sea. But one of the
graudest and most terrific storms
that I ever witnessed was encOun-
tered on the GlOrieta Mountain, one
of the highest spurs of the Rockies
in this region. Coming out OF the
Vegas the sun was shining brll
Iian.Iy and was burning hot. Within
one hour we were climbing the
beautiful Glorieta, winding along
the gorges and among tte trees,
when suddenly the sky was over
cast, and the snriek of the lOcono-
tive and CHATTER of the Car wheels
were hushed by a clap Of thunder
that made the ground fairly trem-
bic, seemingly startling the train
itself, frightening ladies into
scrfans and men insLinctlvelY
threw their arms over their heads
and cTouched as if expecting the
blow to fall. Of course all "baced up"
the next moment : ID smiled at their
demonstrations OF terror, but most
of the smiles were of a forced and
CHASTITY character. The thunder
seemed to have broken the flood
gates of the skies, for the rumbling
mad not died away before the rain
came down IN torrents. Appar-
emily the water had not time to col
leCt IN drops, simply spilling itself,
descending in broad sheets, drench-
ing and deluging the earth. In ten
minutes the level country was
gulcAeS were running with mad,
muddy mountain torrents, and
where Q few moments before we're
dry, rocky washes. furious rivers
frOthed and foame1, flashing and
tearing their banks in very rage.
Water poured over the railway cuts
in sheets, making rods and furlOngs
of fantastic, furious cascades
and waterfalls. All this time the
fierce lightning, both sheet and
forked, was continuous, and the
thunder deafening. The soil here
Is of that fashionable though abOm-
inabIy bad color, terra Gotta, and it
was torn and quilted, cut, washed
and plated into strangely mutilated
shapes. If a person is partial to
lain storms it may be worth mis-
while TO come up here in July and
be happy. One experience Of this
kind is 20 awful as 10 be interesting
and entertaining; but | imagine on
the second occasion the thing would
become so terrible as to be ex-
tremely mOnOt0nous and objection
able. These storms, however, are
useful in one respect-they tend to
encourage one in the matter of the
Noah deluge, The business could
be accomplished in forty days, and
without making mathematical cal
culatiOnS, | am not certain that 1T
would not be necessary to have the
ark ready before the regular sailing
time. If it can rain, however,
on short notice, it knows how to
stop as suddenly. Fifteen minutes
after we were riding over these
rivers and through the dirty red
seas, the train was gliding along
over a dry, p2rched, baked earth,
with no evidences that it had ever
tasted rain except the seams and
gullies that broke and cut the sur
face.
And here we are in Santa Fe. the
City Of Holy Faith. Many years
ago | used to see on my school atlas
a little dot marked Santa Fe," but
the books told very little of the city
or It's surroundings. This was prac-
tically terra jfIc0gajtG to the map
makers Of the last generation, and
even to-day there is less known by
the masses concerning Sante Fe,
than of the hundreds of little min
ing towns that dot the slopes of the
Rockies and the Sierras. Even our
Alta, hidden up there in the Was
atch, is better known to the world,
through the unpleasant notoriety OF
the Emma. than is this ancient CITY.
for ancient it is, being unqueStion
ably the oldest in the United States.
and the first to receive the civiIiza-
ton of the old world. When all
that vast region north of the gulf
and the Rio Grande was a bowling
wilderness, knowing nothing of a
Europe, without knowledge even of
other races than the red, the cross
threw its shadow in Santa Fe. and
civilization had set up some sort of
q standard here. Nearly a hundred
years before the pilgrim fathers set
foot on Plymouth Rock, and gazed
hack upon the ocean lying between
them and religious persecution, the
unhappy residents of Santa Fe were
suffering persecution at the hands
OF the Christians who had come to
claim the soil and compel the ma
yves to accept and obey their re-
Figures, dates, and names are
All tedious Ond tiresome reading,
oehg suggestive of study, of unpeet-
lcSl facts and uninteresting histori-
cal events besides, thew are diff
cult to remember and and ar are mot not
appreciated by the newspaper reader
Of to-day: hence let ns stin - t5enn
merely Nrking that it IS pretty
well es' ems. l that Sometime he
tween 40 8. 155O tbo S--IN. oS