Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1891-11-25
Letter From Merico.

took trip further in the direction OF
the Pacific yesterday than have ever been
before. We started at 6 a. m.-eight of us,
including the driver, in one carriage, pretty
we'll packed as you may imagine, though
there were three seats, We went three miles
to a refining mill belonging to the silver
mines, where we took the smallest railway
| ever saw for the mines some fifteen miles
further, and right up in the Sierras-over
5000 feet high.
The road was a great curiosity, something
like the famous Canadian PaciIic. In the
last three or four miles there were forty
seven turns-some of them complete loops
bringing us right back above the track we
had gone over few minutes before. About
ten miles out we came to the little town of
Santa Eulalia pocketed among the hills, the
point where che Spaniards two hundred
years ago entered the mines, and where
there old furnaces and immense piles Of
Stag remain Just as they deserted them when
they had exhausted their resources in get
ting out the silver. They not only drove
their shafts into the mountains, but where
ever the silver or lead showed itself on the
surface, followed the vein, sometimes for 4
few feet straight in, making holes just large
enough for a man to squeeze his body in
and wriggle out again backwards, or along
the surface in cuts that look like 4 drain or
gutter, running across the hills from five
to fifty feet, and stopping when the metal
failed. There are two more mines connect
ed with the one We saw, one of which Is
reached by road cut around the sides Of
the mountain, down which the ore is packed
on burros. We walked half mile of it to
climb a peak that took US a few hundred
feet higher and gave rs fine view Of our
canon. We could see chihuahua quite dis
tinctly at its twenty miles Of distance. In
this atmosphere il looked half a dozen miles
away. How very good dinner was after
such tramp in that high, pure air. We
loaded ourselves with plants, stalactites,
specimens of ore, and, not the least, loaf
of genuine homemade bread that my hos
tess, lady only four months down from
Nevada, gave me when she saw how we en-
loved it, Mexican bread is very good, but
one tires Of even the very good when it is
repeated too often. Our ride down the
mountain was accomplished without the aid
of steam indeed we needed two men at the
brakes, and when we reached the smelling
works again the Superintendent, who had
accompanied us going and coming, told us
that we had made what he considered very
perilous Journey that he had many times
resolved never to take ladies over the road
again, As it caused him so much anxiety
He could bear To see a man take the risk of
a smash.up, and howl if he got hurt, but
not a woman. Strange to relate, he was an
old bachelor Can it be that, like the cor
responding members of the other sex, the
world does not know their worth?
We had an English sermon yesterday of
ternoon, the first since | heard one in
Charlestown on the Goth day of July, and
for longer time here. am very anxious
that we shall have preacher for The Eng
lish speaking want to say, heather. We
are cold to-day for there is Norther but
the sun at 2 O'Clock is too hot to sit i'll it,
aud the day is lovely With much
love TO all the friends at home,
\. V. W.
chihuahua, Mexico.