Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1884-07-30
THROUGH NEW MEXLCO.
Sand IN tho foreground and Hills in
the Background.
= EaIL. or Cure Climate fOrsEnvalids
"A Country for Sheep and Cat.
tie 50 Wind and Plen-
ty OF sand.
TCor. Chicago Tinlesil

Cor Chicago Timesi
Il vouldn civ nick fer der whole outfit O.
New Mexico, vat I've seen NIT it," said
German passenger in my car, and most tour
lists will agree With him unless they unite
business with pleasure. There's dreamy
mouotony about the country, nothing
hut sand in the foreground and hills
il the background, with here and
there : mountain peak towering away up q
thousand feet or so. l like to see mountains,
but I must confess that the mountain scenery
along the line CT the Atchison, Topeka 4
Santa Fe is tame. True, there is Pixies peak
4 hundred miles to the westward, but only
its outline may be seen, and then only whom
the ii is unusually clear; it's too far away
10 be al object of more than nomentary in
tercSt. The only interesting mountain seem
cry I've vet noted is that of Apache canyon,
near Las Vegas. The old Santa Fee trail runs
through it, and may be seen from the cars.
What transformations the railways have
worked since it was in common usel
a KILL-oR-CURE CLIMATE.
its good climate New Mexico has, but
why eastern invalidS come here don't under
stand. | lived out here about year, and
from my own observation and from informa-
ton obtained from DISTINGUISHED residhAts l
think the percentage of cures is much lower
than that Of deaths, even in cases where the
trip was taken before the disease had
made such progress as to be well
nigh incurable. It's q kill-or-cure eli
mate. If an invalid can last three
months here, he's good for several years.
The atmosphere is everywhere dry and pure,
which moderates the effect of heat in the
southern valleys and of cold at the higher al
litudes and latitudes. When the Thermometer
marks 10 at MeSilla there is no more IN
pleasant sensation of warmth than at New
York when the degree Of temperature is 90.
At Santa Fe the mercury ranges all the way
frcm below zero il the winter to 100 in the
summer but the cold and heat are not severe.
Net repeat don't see why eastern invalids
come here. In these days Of rapid ocean
transit the health resorts along
the Algiers coast are not SO
very far away. and any one Of them is as
seed if not better than the kill-or-cure in
vaiiis towns of New Mexico; and may be
reached from New York quite as quickly.
I've a learnei Hooking friend here to whom
I've been talking on the subject, and he says
my opinion is correct. He has practlced
medicine for twenty. years, and has Travelled
much New Mexico he declares, lis
superior 10 almost any other country as q re-
sort for persons afflicted with catarlh and
bronchitis. but the climate is too severe for
invalids in general, and especially those
afflicted with rapid consumption Of the
lungs
STOCh-RAISING.
This is stock-raising country. AL the
railroad guides say so, and statistics bear
them ont, but the man, woman, or wonder
Ing child that expects to SSee many indica-
TONS Of the fact wilhelm Santa Fe drawing
room car will be badly disappointed. There
are $1,000 head Of cattle in the territory;
bIyoded cattle are being introduced rapidly;
the wool clip for 1852 was so, 600, 600 pounds.
| dcn't Doubt it, but I do wonder why the
railroad books set forth such glowing de-
scriptiOus of ranches to be seen along the
line. We've passed near many ranch, but
the cattle we're all so strung out and the
houses connected with them so far away that
they present little that is interesting.
Some Of the towns on the route are grow
Ing rapidly, Albuquerque most Of all. 1t is
bandsome-loOking city now, with many
evidences Of development. The hotels are
good, the carriage and omnibus fares none
TOO high, and the denizens frank and hos
ptabIe. There's fountain at the pretty
railway depot that gives one an idea that the
town has some artistic taste; and
in this he will not be disappointed,
for public squares and handsome build
:rgs are in process of construc-
ton. In the spring of 1880 the ground now
populated by 5000 people was mostly but
farming land, intersected here and there by
irrigating ditches$ and ribbed by embark
laeuts which regulated the;water supply. No
IL ha- 1a-
vcloped more rapidly. The county, Bernal-
lilo, has 5000, 900 and more 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.
NoSTEzUNA'5 EAGLE.
I haven't a very high opinion of Las Vegas,
though it is one of.the principal cities of the
territory. It's inhabitants don't seem so en-
terprising as those, of Albuquerque, and they
lave an unfeeling way of putting up prices
that I can not indorse. As the Spanish
name signifies, Las Vegas lies in "the mead.
ows," q pretty bit of land covered with
plants. Just south of it is Bernal, the scene
Of a fable Mexican historians treat of-that
during one of the numerous revolutions OF
long ago a company Of Spaniards were
driven t0the top of peak near by and held
L
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 mass of stuff
that looks like the remains of 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 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 yarn
to the effect that the sign of the important
event was to be "the alighting Of an eagle OIL
a cactus bush and devouring serpent.
There wasn't a goodly-sized cactus
bush about here and so the eagle journeyet
on till he found ], a noble roost where thu
present City Of Mexico stands. The alight
ing and devouring business is pictured by
the seals of both old and New Mexico.
A SANDSTONE.
How the wind blows It's whisking snow
flakes down from the mountains now ant
and will be carrying sand in our eyes soon
"We're going to.have a Storm" says an ole
Texan to me. "What kind?" 1 ask. ooh,
"a good deal of wind and lots Of sand.
That's the kind of storms they have dow
here this time Of the year. OCCASIONAL.
they are pretty serious Between Wallace
and San Michel the train had to stop fv
times on account of the track being covered
with sand. The sand lies in an undulatins
way that makes it resemble pillows on tn
ocean. 1t is flying SO thick now that one ca
see scarce twenty rods in front of him. TIL
1rain men tell me five cars were blown OF
the track here a short time ago.
SENSATIONAL STORIES.