The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-08-31
A PARADISE OF STERILITY
Some Features of Life in the Towns
and Villages of New Mexico.
Sbe Manners of the Half-Breeds-An Inter-
estins Indian Village and Its Dude Gov
ernor-The Pueblos and Navajos.
Correspondence Of the indianapolis Journal.


descriptive tourist are numbered His neigl
Dor sees for himself. He cannot form cor
Bpiracy with space to gid the actual with til
uncertain charm which distance lends. T
him. however, who can enter this paradise q
sterility neither by the mud trail nor tn
iron trail, perhaps the Imagination NAV b
helped little by trail OF ink.
The New Mexico of to-day is one of inter
lst' The flint of American energy is strkin,
70 The rock-set habit OF the Mexican. The tw,
forces are at dead pull-the burro agains
lhe locomotive, with the present prospec
OF the burro being the deader pull
But whatever civilization the burro NAV
typify, it would be unfair not to interiect .
word in his behalf personally. 1t has been
said of him sufficiently long ago to have
been many times proven. that if New Mex
lco should ever be admitted as State it
would be genuine sin OF ingratitude to
omit him from the coat-of-arms; and. if one
can but slightly goad the imagination into
pleturing his ears as wings, he is the en-
oodlment of angelic patience, faithfulness
and devotion. Next to a burro is a peasant
~-N-AtNNh' LIZ 10 SuIlcn TemOnStrance
against the invasion of IDEAS He is swart,
mum, unfeeling, uninventive, prosylited
half-breed He is the fellow that lives in
little adobe house up in the mountains;
who sleeps with the burro at night and beats
him III the daytime; who drives him to
town with loads of scrub pine wood, NUT
ton, peppers and other small produce. He
rs the same fellow who drops upon his
knee when he sees a cross by the wayside,
the mark of grave, or hears the chimes of
Sbells, or sees the trail of a serpent across
his tracks. Catholicism has him hard by
the neck, but he doesn't wriggle. You have
70 extract how-d'ye-do from him with a
foroeps When you getit out you find it is
a dwarf grunt
So far as costume is concerned, the Mexi-
can peasant is Americanized, but the woman
is not She still wears the riboza, or shawl
around her head, so as to obscure part of her
face-she's such beauty.
The "dog-cart' has been in use here for a
long time. 1t is pulled by oxen. 1t is sort
of raft made of poles and hoated at the pivot
of two large round blocks of wood This is
what the family takes a Sunday drive in
They barnacle themselves somewhere around
the axle, and following the motion of the
cart, bob serenely over the hill. But we
cannot follow them. There is, however, a
type of Mexican here which is keen-witted
and aggressive. If there shall ever be cross
between this class of Mexicans and the
Americans who are down here, as in all hui
IL.
be q nIsn-and good one. The Americans
here will contribute much. They are usually
ganful men, and come either to make or re-
trieve fortunes, and are willing to take the
risks. This implies that they are ambitious,
energetic and intelligent bearing with them
the imprint of older and more elegant social
customs The other class is made of Hitter
ate adventurers-the cowboys and the hust-
lers. There is no middle class-no sturdy
farmers. 1t gives q man out here an alb
dominal ripple of honest Joy to see a man
who walks, looks, acts or talks like a farmer.
This valuable social factor will probably
never exist here. There are but the
two classes, the nabob and the bob.
The probability that social unrest will ripen
quickly after,a few years of the country's
growth, is almost certain.
Touching the soil, however. there are those
here who have great faith in the possibilities
of irrigation. The mountains will probably
always DTtNSul ltlS even ulSlIlDuIlOn Oh ram,
it must come in cloud bursts and torrents
1t is claimed that the simple method which
has been successfully carried out in Austria
liza, of selecting natural basins and building
dams for the storage of water from cloud
bursts is the practical one for New Mexico.
One gentleman stated that while engaged in
sheep grazing in Australia he had selected
such a basin and built dam at an expense
of $500. He waited three years before he re-
CeiVed drop of rain. A cloud burst came
and his dam stored for him strip of water
twelve miles long. The result was eyapora-
ton, slight distributed rains starting of vege-
tation around the shore, and a surprising in
crease in the productiveness of the adjacent
land. But whatever may be the general be-
lief upon this matter, the large grazers still
go on crowding the little ones away from the
water-courses and the water privileges and
practically monopolizing the business. Ny
opinion is that there is poor chance down
here for a tree-frog.
Englishmen of the better class are fire.
quently met here. They come be-
cause they enjoy large acreage. 1t
has the appearance of landed
estate, and is somewhat consoling to the
younger sons whom primogeniture cuts
short. To an Englishman, however is due
the credit of being the first promoter of the
recent tertio-millenial celebration of Santa
Fe. 1t hardly equaled the expectation of
the promoters. This ancient city, with its
historic points-its plaza, its palace its
churches-has recently been sketched in the
Harpers Weekly OF July A.
AN INTERESTING TOWN.
There is. how ever. Il little town near here
which is almost interesting as Santa Fe,
but it has not yet held its tertio-millenial,
and probably never will. 1t is the little In
dian village of Tesuque. 1 represents the
whole class of pueblo dwellers
To find this remarkable little town it is
necessary to follow the valley of the Rio
Pecos river few miles up the stream.
the trail is finally lost in the river bed.
From the bfoa$;Ns W hill over which the
road lies may be seen a-elnster of mud