The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-06-16

poses. But year by year Nature
writes the praises OF the Father ia legible
characters Al over the land are neglected
orchards and vineyards and olive groves
still bearing fruit, around tho deserted
missions, and tue spiritual works OF their
Jealous planters win continue to Dear fruit
| through the years to come.
! The present settlement. comprising
about sixty people, IS scattered up and
down the narrow valley a distance Of five
or six miles
AT FIRST SIGHT
one looks upon Santa Tomas as q place of
| picturesque poverty; but the people are
not poor, only most of them are squalid
from choice. Their ADOBE cottages, and
cane nuts matched with straw, are equally
free to pigs, goats. fowls and humans. -
There is food enough for all without the
necessity of hard labor. Fashion finds no
! deVotees IN Acadia, and life has neither
"carklng' cares nor vaulting ambitions.
| Being obliged to remain over night in the
valley, we were strongly advised to stop
| in the school house-a large building.
some distance removed from any other. in
| whose upper story some cots are kept
for hire-travelers being ex lected to
bring their own blankets and food. But
the place stood so spooky in the fading twi-
| light and the broken outside stairway
| (the only means by which to reach the
upper foor), so dangerously snaky, that we
determined to be wiser in our generation
and to forage around among the farmers
for better accommodations.
Sut whether our plan was wiser is an
open question. After several refusals.
on the ground of having no bed, we
were finally ''taken i'll and done for in
the adobe mansion OF lord of the
valley, whose numerous Aocks and herds
Al.nr 4 -
! lily. His name, too, was IN itself recon-
mendatiOn, belonging to one of the haugh-
test houses of Old CASTLE.
! will not harrow you with a detailed
account of life beneath the roof of this
noble Don. Suffice it to say that we being
guests, were to the best the case afforded.
| Supper spread on a clothless table-con-
sisted of beans boiled in lard, stewed
strips of drid meat that looked like shay
ings, thin cakes OF crushed corn and COTE
without milk or sugar. Breakfast was
the exact counterpart of the supper; and
the two repasCs for three people (mOther.
daughter and ESCORT cost precisely 81 so
at the hands Of
THESE SIMPLE ACADIANS.
The escort bestowed himself in the
hay, with saddle for a pillow: but we
women folk were given the best bedroom,
in fact, the only one the house contained
In it were two nigh posters, shcctless and
blanketless, with straw ticks laid upon
boards ana calico coverings. But there
was glazed window and plank floor
luxuries not INDUCED in at Santa Tomas
except among the wealthiest However,
the glass might as well have been boards
and the floor clay, because of the accumu-
latiOn of dirt upon them; and we were
soon fain to leave the beds in undisputed
possession of the sWarming vermin.
Upon returning to our apartment the
naughty Don handed us a short plank
which he politely assured Us would secure
our door if set up against it. Hearing an
incessant clack-clack of feminine tongues,
that ran on into the wee sma' hours like
Tennyson's brook, / determined, toward
morning, to see what was going or Softly
removing the plank, and looking into the
adjoining room, what do you think / saw!
Seven women, among whom was our host
ess, squatted fiat upon the floor, each with
a black rebosa drawn tightly over her head.
putting away at cigarette as for dear life
and chattCring with the energy of a crazy
blackbird. The good lady, having been
turned out of bed by los entrangeros Amer
icanos, had invited in her neighbors to be
guile the hours and discuss the event.
In the morning, call for water for pur-
poses of absOlutiOn. created an immense
sensation for the family-if they wash at
all-r9pair to the waterigg- trough in the
yard At last a tin baking was brought,
containinga quart of water for two women;
but neither love nor lucre could produce
towels or mirrors-artices they had never
possessed. Before taking our departure
the mistress OF the mansion desired, with
housewifely pride, to show US her home
Hers is the largest house-and presum-
ably the fnest-in Santo Tomas 1t is a
big, rambling structure Of upholstered
adobe, with numerous ellis and additions,
unfinished and totally unfinished, and