The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1883-08-05
SWINGING AROUND
SANTA FE.


Of interest to the sight-seer and
especially SO to the antiquarian.
The natives are literally crammed
with historic facts and legends con-
corning these venerable piles of
adobe, and they delight in imparting
their knowledge to the stranger.
They talk of incidents that occurred
in this house, and tell anecdotes of
that church which happened two
or three hundred years ago, with a
familiarity and minuteness of detail
that would indicate the relator was
present on the occasion in question.
For aught one can say to the con-
trary a good many Of these story
tellers, especially the croning old
women, may have participated in
occurrences a century or two ago.
All the evidence Of appearance is
in faver of the supposition. l study
these withered, leathery, wretched
countenances as the owners are
perched on their launches in rows
along the shady side of the house,
each with cigarette between her
lips, and wonder if they are one
hundred or two hundred years Old.
They might be either age for all one
could tell by looking at them.
do not imagine the MeXlcaEs
are proud of their history here. for
they have but to open their eyes to
see how slow and unDrOgresslVe
they have been. They are the same
as hey were ages ago. Their
houses are no better to-day Than
they were three hundred years
since; they are the same mud
novels, with dirt roofs and ground
floors that their fOrefatheTs built in
the sixteenth century; they are fol-
lowing about the same, shaggy,
ugly, forlorn.looking little burros
that nave been rambling over these
hills for ages; in fact they are the
same,-no better, no worse-as their
progenitOrs of ten generations ago
were; while all around them are
striking evidences Of the progress
that others have made in the social
and intellectual scale. Here are
some brick and iron and wooden
buildings which would not be out
of place in some of our larger cities,
but they were not erected aud are
not owned by the MeXicans. This is
good place TO suggest that these Gne
modern dwellings and stores do
seem out of place here, mixed up
with the dirt novels and the Span
ish mud-piles. They detract from
the quaintness and ugly-beauty-if
the expression may be employed
of the city. 1t seems almost sac
religious 10 put three story brick
store against a block Of mud-Toofed
shanties looking like brick kilns
which have been standing here
aInos nee the days Of Montezuma;
and it certainly ID bordering on
Wickedness to deface one Of these
old adobe churches by erecting by
its side a modern cut stone church,
with pointed roof. steeple, stained
glass windows, and so on. Irealize
that the Santa Fe of to-day must go
and that, toe, very quickly. The
hand Of enterprise is already here
hourly. day and night, the l0com0
tive whistle wakes the echoes of
the ages in these old hills, and must
make the generations of shiftless-
ness and Inactivity tremble as it
screams the approach OF American
progress. Only a few years hence,
and the Santa Fe Of centuries will
be gone, and in its place arise a
thriving, pOpulOus American city,
attracting health and pleasure
seekers by its dry, suIubriOus
climate, and distributing sup
plies to the rich mining
region of which it is the centre. l
cannot say the thought of the trans
formation is pleasing. There are
scores of American cities, and but
one Santa Fe. Nor is the outlook
for these poor people particularly
gratifying. They have been happy
IN their ignorance and slothfulness
in their simple ways and few wants
in their poverty and their AFFECT
subsection to the priests. Will they
be happy in the new order of things
that is coming upon them? l think
not. 1t was not good day for the
Pueblo Indians, when $50 years ago
the SpaniardS came among them,
and under the name of better re-
ligion and a better civilization,
made the aborigines menials and
slaves. They did not elevate the
savage, for the civilization of the
latter was as great three hundred
wears ago as it was twenty years
since. The improvement, if any
can be claimed, has all come in the
past fifteen years. So l believe it
was a sorry day for the present
generation of Mexicans when Anne
ricans began the introduction among
them of the ways, customs and insti-
tutions of the republic. The coming
generations will derive an advantage
from the "invasiOn" going on here
but the present. one would have
been better of # it had been left
alone.
But [ was going to mention some
of Sante Fe's most venerable build
ings. First among them is the San
Miguel church, the Oldest structure
of the character in the United States
and perhaps The crudest. Like all
these houses, it is Of adobe, or mud
the alls being thick and mud
tamped between the layers of adobe
The walls are hard, almost like &C.
,,o,+ lDv,F ora worn MARKED aOf