The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-11-29
A LETTER FROM MRS. ELLA GLENN
SHIELDS

the most valuable of all possessions
health Wichita never looked so beauti
full, friends never seemed so dear, as when
we were looking at them on that after
noon, and absence only intensiies that
feeling.
We seem to have at last found a land
of perpetual sunshine; for, bright as it is
in sunny Kansas, there is some rest
there for the wearied eyes; but here the
glittering, glazing, white sand is as blind
ing to the eye as the blazing sunshine, and
one feels cloudy day would be a wecome
relief
/ would have to hire a kodak and send
you a series of instaDtaneous'views to give
the faintest idea of Albuquerque. Some of
| the business houses and some residences
are much like any other city. but the
| scores of Adobe houses are revelation to
any one who never had one before. The
city lies in valley with mountains on one
| side. The mountains looked to be from
there to ten miles away, but l am told
| the nearest is twelve miles. They show a
| little suggestion of timber in some places,
| but the tops stand out as bare aud Hat
| looking as the top OF goods box, L
yentured the assertion yesterday that a
dog or child standing on the top could be
/
| horse even would not be seen. l am told
| they are beautifully wild and picturesque
| when you reach them, but from the city
they are not beautiful except as a haze
! hangs over them, and in the evening per-
haps low over them the sky is luminous
| yellow. melting into a delicate roseate
hue, and the mountains turn to vast
piles of purple and blue and gray
/ wish my Wichita friends could have seen
the eclipse as did. Days of anxiety had
driven all thoughts of the eclipse from my
mind, and l iarted across the street to my
supper, unmindful of what was happen
ing. Half way across the street happened
to raise my eyes, and just over the top or
the Sandal mountains hung the heavily
yelled Luna. / certainly never saw more
beautiful sight, and it was my regret that
my friends at home could not see it as /
did
Two miles out is what is called 'the old
town" 1t is the original settlement, con-
tains the court house and Jail, fair grounds,
few modern houses-frame or brick-and
the balance is made up OF all sorts of adobe
houses. Here is situated the Catholic
church which is over 300 years old. o.
was modernized by having wooden
floors, pews, etc, put in: The
altar is really very beautiful and
altogether the church resembles many
modern ones, but as | stood within those
old walls l thought of the labor, toll and
privations of those self-sacrificing pioneers
who PLANTED the cross of Christ" among
the savages who inhabited these plains
and mountains, in contrast with the ease
with which have been builded the various
other churches whose spires point heaven
ward throughout the city. What long
procession the babies who have been bap-
tized belor that altar, the young couples
that have taken upon themselves the mar
riage JwS, the dead VINO nave sIept before
it, would make.
From the church we went to the Jail,
where the chief center of attraction now is
handsome young MeXican-wth the
charming name of Romera--who is said to
have cruelty murdered a beautiful young
Mexican girl because she would not marry
him. He talked very freely of his love for
her and said: IL could not kill her.
She had refused me once. / ask
her again and she say she go
to the convent. If she liked
it there she would be a sister. If in three
months she did not want to be a sister,
she would marry me, and l was waiting
for her answer. If l get free of her, no
one will see me at a dance for one year, for
loved her." This absenting himself
from a dance for one year seems to en-
body the Mexican's idea of mourning.
The streets in Old Town are very mar
row, most of them not wide enough for
wagons to pass, and they are as Irregular
as a labyrinth. On a corner we saw an
old Mexican man and woman sitting nat
on the ground with little fiat box be-
fore them for a counter and their wares
nuts, grapes and appes-spreado out around
them. No better subjects exist in Brit
tony for our American artists than these
two people. 1t would make me
famous if / could faithfully repro
duce that picture on canvass. After
much trouble / found young
Mexican who could speak English, and
got him to ask them their age. l would
have believed them if they had said l25
years, for the iron gray hair that looked
as if it never had seen comb, the wrinkled !
face, deeply sunken eyes, hands that |
looked like wrinkled leather, all would |
have carried out the assertion, but reckon |
ing from war, they thought they were
only about TO- but l know they were |
nearer 100.
around an open court and the whole |
family seem 10 spend the most Of their 4
time in them in the sunshine, but |
stroIled up to the door of one that seemed |
'of the people," One room, a |
dirt floor covered with few ragged scraps |
of carpet, no window, dirty bed, and old
fashioned wooden box cradle and few |
furniture A pile OF rocks aud
some smoked BACKED utensils outside,
showed where the cooking was done.
stretched out on thes ground just inside
The doorway was a black-browed, strong,
able bodied man, looking as If life to him
was one long continued dolce far niente."
By his side with the euevitable black
shawl over her head was the wife. and
three or four children, all happy in the
II of ha
filth and restitution of their surroundings
This picture we saw repeated over and
over again, no one seeming TO be thinking
Of anything except to lay in the sunshine
ike so many cats.
There is one palatial home in the town
called the Castle" and it is truly castle.
an Adobe house It is occupied
DIV German who came here, l believe, in
1865. They are pleased to show strangers
through it,and If ever there was contrast
It was in going from that howell, to this
palace. The exterior of the house
had been covered with cement and looked
ike white marble Trhe partition walls
we're three and half feet thick, and the
loor facings were beautifully carved wood.
The walls covered with elegant papers,
nails in which you could drive four car
RACES abreast inches in the walls filed
With beautiful statues of Goethe, Schiller
md other German celebrities, magnificent
,arpets, furniture etc, al showed to what
perfection even an adobe house could be
brought The mistress OF this beautiful
house told me It cost originally between
$4,000 and $40, 900. when 1t was only
plain adobe house. before ali the elegant
,arved woodwork and exterior finish was
,ut on few years ago. That was in the
LAYS when Santa Re, seventy-five miles
way. was the point from which every
hing was hauled.
The chief impression q stranger
tets Of Albuquerque is that everybody
n It has conspired 70 rob him. A
cry ordinary room with IRE rents for 80
"a rla--,. ID u -----.-.