Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1891-08-08

l
ed by the prepOnderanCe OF tat-roofeC
one-story adobe house, above these ris
the massive walls and belfres of scattere
churches and other religious and publ
edifices, and the roofs OF few high bus
ness buildings about the plaza On Pa
ace avenue, east of the plaza, are sewers
great Mexican houses built about spaCiou
courts, or patiOS, and a number of hand
some modern residences. In other street
adobe buildings and high walls shut il
the roadway; many OF these houses ar
the humble adobes of the poor, bu
among them the large residences of tn
weather. MeXicans, with their soft brown
or Whitewash tints, long verandas, an(
air of seclusion and mystery presen
an Oriental appearance that is well in keep
ing with the surroundings. Up ant
down the valley bottom mud walls en-
close fields and gardens green with grow
ing crops.
In the by-streets and alleys Mexicans
! crouch in doorways and against the walls
and senoritas from beneath their black
shawls flung gracefully about the head
and shoulders throw coquettish glances
at the passerby. Mosto OF them are clad in
garments that would be commonplace in
any western city, and it is only among
those persons visiting the town from re-
mote and primitive hamlets that one finds
an approach to the old time native cos
tune. The Mexican of the poorer class
has the faults that accompany ignorance
and superstition, but he possesses the car
dlnal virtues Of charity and hospitality,
and destitute man may travel from one
end OF the territory to the other, and find
no adobe house SO poor that the inmates
will not give him shelter, and share with
him the best of their humble fare. The
wealthy Senior Don is a courtly gentleman,
with deep but unobtfusive pride, and a
hospitality that is unbounded and mat
ter OF course. Among this class are
names illustrious in the days of the Moor
lsh wars in Spain, and amid the prepon-
deratlng handsome dark southern types
there survives in the representatives OF
some of these old families the Vlsigothic
fair skin and blue eyes transmitted from
the noble strain of Andalusia and CASTLE.
Santa te county contains large and val.
liable mineral and coal deposits About
Mount ChalGhiuiti, in the Cerrillos range,
are the turquoise mines, worked SUCCESS
fully in early days by the Spanish con-
querors and these mines it may one day
be found profitable TO reopen. The town
of Santa Fe has two national banks, and
sustain one daily paper, the New MEXICAN,
and several weekly newspapers,
Adjoining the plaza at different corners
are two massive adobe hotels, built in the
old fashion about court-yards, and short
distance from the square fine modern
structure, the Palace Hotel. The New
Mexico Rod and Gun club has its head
quarters in the town, and maintains
house in the hunting and fishing region
lying about the upper waters of the Pecos
river. The New Mexico Historical Society,
which Is doing good work in this most
interesting field OF archaeological and his
torlcal research, exhibits large, valuable,
and increasing collection of relics and
illustrative specimens in its rooms at the
west end of the palace.
Santa Fe is astir early in the dav.
There are large market gardens near
Santa te, and the Indians from the
pueblos i'll the Rio Grande valley
bring to town fruits and vegetables packed
in hampers on the backs of burros (don-
keys. The plaza throuthout the morning
presents an animated scene. Groups OF
burros, loaded with garden products,
pottery, or tire-wood, stand at the edge of
the sidewalk, with the Iudian masters by
them waiting to sell their wares. If an
owner has occasion to leave his beast, he
perhaps secures him to post by rope
tied about the animals foreegs, The
Pueblo Indian is picturesque aborigine,
with his long black hair Changed" over
bis forehead and enCircled by red band,
or wound with strip of scarlet cloth Into
a short cue behind. His dress is a cotton
tunic, and loose drawers and leggins, fast
ened below the knee by red garters and
sometimes he brightens his costume by
wrapping about him gaudy -hued Navajo
blanket. All of the Pueblo tribes make
pottery, which they bring into town to
sell, their stock IN trade comprising a
great variety of shapes and sizes, from
huge olas or water jars, holding many
gallons, down to the tiniest of jugs and
bowls. Each tribe has its peculiar pat
,ern of decoration in the form of stri pes,
liagrame, and rude figures of men birds,
md beasts in various colors, baked into !
he clay, and some of the Indian pottery
8 very handsome as we'll as servceab!e.
AT warehouses on San Francisco street |
TX wagons are unloading salt brought |
rom the salinas, or salt lakes, on the !
,able-land a hundred miles below the city. |
In the jewellers shops on the plaza Mex
can workmen make fligree jewelry OF
native gold and silver, which material
they draw into wire of great fneness and
pllablllty; then double twist the strands,
and fashion them into ornaments of fan
tastic patterns. The fine serrated edge of
the twisted wires produces the delicate
gauzy or frOst-work effect so beautifully
displayed in Etruscan jewery.
The site Of the old Indian quarter is hall
mile southwark from the plaza across
The Rio de Santa Fe. Here the houses
upon devious and narrow alleys
swald with a population which shows
its strain of descent from the
native race. West and south of the plaza,
at Palace avenue, there have
been carved through this part of the town
The spacious domains OF a succession of
great church stabishments-St Vim
cents hospital, the Cathedral, the arch
bishops palace, the convent OF our Lady
Of Light, San Miguel church and the
Brothers college. San Miguel church,
fronted bya little Campo-Santo filled with
ancient graves, is an ancient and massive
adobe structure, cruciform in plan, with
a flat roof and square terrace shaped bel
fry, lately restored by the brothers of San
Miguel from state of crumbling decay.
The altar recess is decorated with bright
pictures of saints, and the pine and cedar
cross-beams above the body of the church
are quantity carved with imitation of
grape-vines and odd designs; on one
beam a Spanish inscription tell that,
'The Marquis de ia Penuela erected this
building, the Royal Ensign Don Augustus
Flores Vergara his agent, A. D. ITO"
The date of the inscription marks the