, 1884-04-09

This is a stock-raising country. All the
railroad guides say SO, and statistics bear
them out. but the man, woman, or wou1er-
ing child that expects to see many indica-
tiJus of the fact while i'll a Santa Fe drawing.
room cur will be badly disappointed. There
are 500, 900 head of cattle in the territory;
blooded cattle are being introduced rapidly
the wool clip for 1852 was 80, 600, 900 pounds.
l don't doubt it, out l do wonder why the
railroad books set forth such glowing de-
scriptions OF ranches to be seen along the
line. We've passed near many a ranch, but
the cattle were all SO strung out and the
houses connected with them SO far away that
they present little that is interesting.
Some of the towns on the route are grow
ing rapidly, Albuquerque most of all. 1t is
a handsome-looking city now, with many
evidences Of development. The hotels are
good, the carriage and omnibus fares none
too high, and the denizens frank and hos
pitable. There's a fountain at the pretty
railway depot that gives one IN idea that the
town Inns some artistic taste; and
in this he will not be disappointed,
for public squares and handsome build.
ings are in process OF construc-
ton. In the spring of 1880 the ground now
populated by 5000 people was mostly but
farming land, iatsrsccted here and there by
~irrigating bitches and ribbed by embank-
ments which regulated the water supply. No
town in the west, except Leadville, has de-
veloped moro. rapidly. The county, Bernal-
lilo, has 100000 and mora sheep, and in 1888
furnished so much wool that Albuquerque
shipped $500, 900 pounds of it. Tributary TO
it are mining districts of much promise.
MoNTEzUMA's EAGLE.
l haven't a very high opinion Of Las Vegas,
though it is one of the principal cities of the
tare,+ar- lee ,haIsN.nts 1,,,ft ca an-
terprising as those of Albuquerque, and they
nave an unfeeling way Of putting up prices
that | can not indorre. As the Spanish
name signifies, Las Vegas lies in ''the mead
ows,n u pretty bit of land covered with
plants. Just south of it is Bernal, the scene
of u fable Mexican historians trent of-that
during one of the numerous revolutions of
long ago n company of Spaniards were
driven to the top of a peak near by and held
there till they starved to death. The peak
is still called STARVATION peak" There is
another tradition anent Glorieta mountain,
as, indeed, there is about everything more
than fifty years of age in the territory. This
one in particular regards a mass of stuff
that looks like the remains of n demolished
brick kiln on the side of the mountain, but
which the veracious historians declare is the
ruins of the old Pecos pueblo and church
The site of the church, it is said, was once that
of an Aztec temple, erected where Montezuma
was born and set out from the south rid
ing an eagle. Wherever the eagle stopped
at night a village appeared the next morn
ing. AS Monty was to found a great city,
there had to be a sort of precursor of the
event, and so the prophets and the sooth-
sayers got together and concocted a yarn
to the effect that the sign of the important
event was to be "the alighting OF an eagle on
n cactus bush and devouring a serpent"
There wasn't a goodly-sizsd cactus
bush about here, and so the eagle journeyed
on till he found a noble roost where the
present City of Mexico stands. The alight-
ing and devouring business is pictured by
the seals OF both old and New Mexico.
AsANDsToRM.
How the wind blowsl It's whisking snow
fakes down from the mountains now and
and will be carrying sand in our eyes soon.
"We're going to have n Storm" says an old
Texan to me. "Whnt kindf' / ask. "Oh,,"
"a good deal of wind and lots Of saud.n
That's the kind of storms they have down
here this time of the year. Occasionally
they are pretty serious. Between Wallace
and San Michel the train had to stop hvo
times on account of the track being covered
with sand. The sand lies in an undulating
way that makes it resemble pillows on the
ocean. 1t Is flying so thick now that one can
see scarce twenty rods in front OF him. The
train men tell mo five cars were blown of
the track hero a short TIM ago