The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1883-07-29

| dS nearly h16AlChu db bAoy WIZ -
hundred years ago. 1t Is with
strange feeling that we are driven
from the railway depot, in a mod
ern bus, through the quaint old
town to a modern hotel, which
structure and finishing and
furnishing would do credit to
progressive American city OF
25, coo population. All through New
Mexico the ancient and modern have
been noted, but here the new and
old rub up against each other and
are in such striking contrast as to be
somewhat distracting and almost
painful. We crowd along streets
! lust wide enough to admit the
coach between the houses, and then
move up a six-rod boulevard that
has been thrown along the SIDE OF
the town, just because other cities
have wide streets, but which are
entirely out of place here. Gas
lamps and water works, mud huts
and venerable burros, gally, fash
| iOnabiy dressed women and nall
clad old crones, the dude and the bar
barian, the ancient and the modern,
the old and the new in everything
are encountered at any time and on
all sides, mixing and mingllng IN
close upconcarned association, FORM
ing strange and striking contrasts
and cOmbln itions. The records
prove that the city is 333 years old
since the SpaniaTds invaded it and
! nv bayOnet aud sword brought the
then ancient Pueblo into subJectlon
to the Spanish throne. They could
| tell me it was q thousand years OLD
and L could not dispute them, Ior
appearances would all be on their
side. Like all Spanish cities, Santa
Fe is build around a public square
or pIaZ I, on the sides of which are
| the principal stores and business
establishments. The houses are
low, One-story structures of adobe,
with fiat dirt roofs AM just enough
windows to suggest that indoor
air and light are not deslrabl9 by the
Mexican constitution. In front of
some of these residences mar
row, mud-covered p0rches pro-
ject, hut whether for or
nament, protection from the sun
Or weather or other purpose it
is impossible to say, as they are
uglier in appearance, if possible.
than the buildings and too narrow
to be of any use. Thele is no at
tempt at architectural beauty, the
rich doh's residence and the hoVel
of the owner Of one spOOr burro
bearing striking resemblance to
each other except in the matter OF
| proportions. You must understand
| that the adobes are not the pretty,
trim, blue clay sun dried brick of Salt
Lake, but an ugly, unshapely chunk,
of reddish mud, about twenty inches
in length, nine i'll breadth and three
in thickness. They are literally in
terWoven with coarse straw, proving
| that the Mexican makers were not
prosecuted by wicked Egyptian task
masters. Indeed. l question if they
had any masters, +or everything
bears evidence of lazy go-as-you-
please sort of arrangement. There
is a main entrance to every house,
and a public hall leading to an ia-
ner courtyard which seems to be
the living place, and where the care
and taste Of the dWellers are dis
played in flower beds, trailing vines
and little objects of Ornamentlon and
display. Windows and doors also,
looking and opening into the court
are much more numerous than on
| the street side which latter resembles
the old mud wall that in early days
surrounded Salt Lake. The at
tempts at streets are crude and in
artistic in the extreme, and the idea
of a side walk seems scarcely to
have entered the heads Of the build
ers. 1t is possible that two streets
are of equal width and length and
| two run parallel to their termina-
ton, but the matter is opeu to seri-
GUS doubt. The main thOroughfare,
San Francisco street, is a narrow
lane extending in a straighG line
forty or fifty rods from the plaza,
and then branching off in two or
three directions. 1t is wide enough
to admit the passage Of two lum Der
wagons, and on either side runs
what was intended to be a side
walk, which however, is most
execrabIe failure. &c may he four
feet wide, anG If it were not for the
goods boxes, boulders, projecting
planks and upturned paving stonos,
TWO persons might walk abreast
along it, but now single file is the
rule and absolutely necessary, be
cause one of the pedestrians cannot
be hopping into the street every
half minute and then climbing back
to the pave. The other streets are
merely crooked alleys and paths,
fenced on either side by the grim
mud walls of dwellings. In most of
these there has been no attempt at
sidewalks, men, women, children,
donkeys, pigs, chickens and dirt
all running together in one
indiscriminate herd. Seemingly no
regard has been paid to regularity
in laying out the city, everybody
building when and where he found
it most convenient, always barring
in mind the -unWisdOm of walling
himself out from a roadway; and
vet there must be some sort of
system to these paths and donkey
trails, for wander about as you may
among the Iaues,alleys and by-ways,
| Won only have tn turn abOut ana