Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1891-03-19
NEW MEXICO PICTURE.
PICTURESQUE SCENE AT A STOP
OF A SOUTHERN TRAIN.

Oueer Mixture of Humanity May Be
Daily Seen-A Passing Glance.
One of the famous eating houses of
the Atchison road is situated at Wallace,
where the train going south stops late IN
the afternoon. As the cars draw up at
the station the long platform is thronged
with the peopleof the country, of diverse
races. Rough miners in flannel and
heavy boots stand watching the train;
cowboys, set off by sombreros and spurs,
swagger about the platform, and Span
ish-Americans. with swarthy faces and
cleaning black eyes, lounge against the
ratings. looking impassively on the
scene. Most picturesque of all there
gathered are the descendants of the
tribes akin to the Toltecs and Aztecs,
those migrating people, whose first home
was in the northwest before they went
south to colonize the valleys of the Mex
lean plateau-the Pueblo Indians from
Santo Domingo and San flllpe.
They are quantity clad in their charac-
teristic garb of leggins and tunic, with
a blanket dress for the women, and some
times for the men gaudy blanket wrap
ped about the body. Some are awaiting
the train on the station platform, and
others, belated, are seen running toward
the cars. bearing on their heads and
hacks the things they have to trade.
They exhibit "a great variety of pottery,
IN the shape of vessels of divers sizes.
form and patterns of decoration, and
many earthen idols of infinite ugliness
They offer for sale pieces of what the
New Mexican curiosity dealers call
smoky topaz. which in reality is obsidian
or volcanic glass, the material used by
the ancient Aztecs for cutting purposes.
from swords down to razors.
MANY NATIoNAIITTES.
About the train is characteristic col
lection of passengers. There are tour
lists, European and American CONNER
cial travellers, young men from the east
going to the southwest to try their fort
unes, and perhaps in the rear cars some
families of emigrants. Representing the
territory are merchants, miners and cat
tlemen of American and Spanish h-Ameri
can descent. while opposite the blonde
eastern lady, in her dainty travelling
habit, may sit dark eyed olive tinted
beauty with the blood of Aragon or Cas-
tile in her veins, and perhaps a darker
and not unbecoming tinge from Indian
ancestry. Travelling theatrical com
pagaes, army officers and private soldiers
on leave or on duty. and Indian delega-
tious going on or returning from a visit
to the great father at Washington, are
current types in a southwest passenger
train.
Alnostswithout exception the passen-
gers are affable and disposed to conver-
sa+ion- Stiffness and reserve among fell
low passengers by stage or by rail vanish
west of'the lu1ndredth meridian.
There-is an excellent dinner, plentiful
and weE served, at the pleasant and
roonyrailroad restaurant, with so much
time allowed for the stay that the
traveller. LATTER his ample and leisurely
meal. rs, able to,walk about in this bar
barously briTlint scene and make bar
gains wIih the brown and worldly wise
sons and daughters of the country for
such. of their wares as he fancies. The
PuebloLndians hasten toward any one
whose~eye they may catch, hold up their
goods. and address him in a language
mainly aboriginal, with perhaps few
Spanish aara1 American words inter
mingled, but the only part of the dis
course really understood on either side is
~ Ie-.rrT lon
They ask several prices, expecting to
be beaten down to a fair rate, and they
seldom, viii let the possible customer get
away without consummating a trade.
Demure, swart2ly Pueblo children look
on. the transactions of their elders with
great interest. the larger girls helping
their mothers by carrying the very
Young children in couch made by
Singing a shawl. about their necks.
INDIsN POTTERY.
The Indian pottery is the ware most
purchased by the passengers. 1t is
quaint of pattern, and in its way much
of it is really beautiful. The material
of which it is made is white or grayish
tinted clay, which the men bring to the
women, who are the pottery makers.
The Indians guard jealously the secret
of the places where aEe found the earth
that makes the choicest kinds. The
hunter, prospector or railroad explorer
coming gsuddenly upon these natives en-
gagged m digging,clay for the purpose is
likely to remember the terror and con-
sternation which they exhibit.
The nodded pottery is buried in dry
sleeps dung, which is fired, and thus it
is baked. The material used in making
the striped designsiis decoction from a
certain green root which the Indians
call wake. 1t is painted upon the YES
sells, and in the baking it turns black.
The best pottery'is made by the Acoma,
Zuni and Cochiti Indians.
A gong clanks at the station, and
those passengers who have not already
returned to the cars discontinue their
promenade or hastily conclude their
bargains. The conductors cry rings out,
"All aboardI' and the laggards enter the
/ cars; but even as the train moves slowly
| off the passengers are still making last
| bargains from the car platforms and
| through the windows with the aborig
ines, who at the fast approaching dis
appearance of their possible customers
are'disposed at the last moment to close
bargains at almost any price. The train
gathers headway, the last Indian vender
! is passed, and soon the platform with its
semi -barbaric, party colored assemblage
. is left behind, and the passengers lave
turned from the strange and striking
scene to gaze at the panorama of the
river and the Indian villages against a
mountain background on the right, as
the train speeds southwark down the
slndy valley of the Rio Grande toward
! Albunuerque.-Harper's Weekly.
| Common Sense About the Cigarette.
A tobacco dealer says: There has been
great deal said about the harmfnmess
of cigarettes, and certainly they are in
furious to young boys or to men if
smoked in excess; but most of those who
attack the cigarette habit have very lit
tie idea of what they are talking about.
| 1t should be remembered that the great
est smokers in the world Spaniards,
the Cubans, Spanish-Americans and the