St. Paul daily globe., 1892-07-03
new MEXICO LIbELED
Chief Justice O'Brien Takes
Issue With a Recent Globe
Correspondent
The People and the Country
Not Half so Bad as
Painted.
A Base SANDER Upon Both the
Men and Women of the
Country.
Those Who Disgrace Las
Vegas Not Natives Of
sa New Mexico.

NOW M0AICUs
To the Editor of the Globe
There appeared in the daily issue of
your great journal, few weeks ago,
communication on New Mexico and its
people, written by one of your corre-
spondents, which. on account of it's
many startling and disparaging state
ments, has evoked considerable angry
feeling and adverse comment through
out the territory. The writer appears
to have been member of an editorial
excursion party, travelling rapidly over
the Senta Ee railroad. stopping 9cca-
sionally, for short time only, at few
OF the principal towns, to make observa-
tions and write and report impressions
formed along the route. Such person
has little opportunity to become ac-
quainted with the inhabitants. He may,
In such manner, be enabled to obtain
superficial idea of the character of the
country, its mountains and climate,
but he cannot form an adequate estimate
OF the social, moral or intellectual con-
ditlon of the people. That requires
| SahiNs oetOhtiOti oul OtUUys 1H0 WEIIGI
of these lines has lived in the territory
going on three years. During that time
he has become well acquainted with
hundreds of the inhabitants, both native
and Immigrant. He has often travelled
through the country for the purpose of
1amlllarlZlng himself with the charac-
teriSticS Of the
HtspanO.AmerfcanP People.
He has studied, with some degree of
success, the language and habits OF the
natives. He has no interest in misrep-
resentation or calumny. His future
be very brief. Hence, he is especially
anxious, in the interest of fair play, to
correct some erroneous statements no
doubt unintentiOnaliy made by your
correspondent. The substance of the
charges made by him in the article un-
der review, is:
The people are lazy, indolent ignorant,
superstltlous; that tomales and chile-con-
carne stuff the Mexican belly, while a mad
dening religious fervor aud native idolatry
feed the spiritual nature of the dusKv
greaser. That 1t Is land where the burro
and the Mexican boy are chums: where
pretty, dark, evil-eyed senoritas curse and
threaten, and where the men lounge around
the puique shops looking for beer" ETC. In
thls ancient site LAS Vegas of Spanish pre-
empn%on on the m people are picturesque, igno-
rant bad. They do not know that New Mex
leo has become possession of Uncle Sam,
They practice their old Spanish customs.
disregarding, with contempt, the newer hab-
lts ihduced by modern civilization. AS the
men are bad and lazy. SO are the women lewd
and faIthleSS. y The women absolye
their foul practices of the night by reverend
invocation and penance during the day.
From what source the author of such
calumny, as foul as it is false, derived
his Information, it would be vain to
conjecture. The people are Catholics.
Ii that religion is superstitious and
ldolatrOuS, they are obnoxious to the
charge of superstition and idolatry. If
1t is not, then they are grossly and
cruelty maligned. To talk about the food
OF the people or the companionship of
the boys, hardly deserves notice; the
poor have few of the luXurieS, but an
abundance OF the necessarles of life.
Their Wants Are Few;
they live within their means and paw
their debts with proverbial promptness.
The burrO is faithful little animal.
easily kept and renders valuable serv-
ice, such as no other animal can, in
carrying heavy burdens along the mar
row roads and devious trails of this
mountainous and arid region.
The Mexican women, married as we'll
as single, are faithful and chaste. The
contrary is the exception, the same as
among other races. Most of the vice
existing in the territory is not indigi-
nous. Take, for example, Las Vegas,
the town from which the gentleman APP
pears to have written his article.
Who are the harlots that infest the
streets. dens and plazas of that beauti-
full city? Two-thirds of them at least
are Americans, who never think of lab
solving the foul practices of the night
by reverend invOcations and penance
during the day." Had your correspond
ent asked the many noble, virtuous
Las Vegas and the other cities visited
by him what class of people Impress the
foul plague-Spot of immortality upon the
face OF Mexican society, he would have
been tOld-Amerlcan prostitutes and
American gamblers. The Mexican wife
is pre-eminently faithful, and the Mexi-
can girl is, with very rare exceptions,
modest and chaste. If the truth must
be told, it is but simple justice to say
that the Americans, So-called, consisting
OF people from the Eastern states. as
we'll as natives of Germany, France and
Ireland, form about One-fOurth of the
population; and it is notorious that they
supply the territory with more harlots,
gamblers and professional desperadoes
than the remaining three-fourths of the
Hispano-Americans. Why blame the
native race for the crimes and vices im-
ported and practiced by other people?
AS to
The Adobe HutS.
with one door, etc, which appear to
have impressed very unfavOrably the
mind OF your correspondent, it may be
truthfully remarked that they are in
many respects equal, if not superior, to
the log cabins of half century ago
which furnished the hardy American
pioneer farmer of Ohio, Indiana and
Illinois, with home and castle: If
the adobe residence-hOuse of the New
Mexican has few doors and windows, II
was so constructed to protect the family
from the hostile raids of the relentless
Navajo and Apache. Had your cor
respondent had time to go some distance
away from his palatial Pullman car and
travelled into the fertile and
watered valleys of Taos and
Mora. he would have found many
New Mexican farmer enjoying as COM
Portable and commodious home as any
OF his agricultural brethern m the East
ern states. The lands around Las Vegas
and Santa Fe, though rich and fertile,
cannot be rendered productive without
rain or its equivalent in artificial irriga-
ton. 1t requires time and capital to
construct irrigating bitches. These
lands are under rainless sky. The
DOOR. neglected natives, but recently re-
deemed from species of serfdom as en-
ervating and cherries as slavery, have
not the means requisite successfully to
prosecute such expensive improvements.
If the American congress admit the ter
ritory into the Union as state; if the
Eastern states send jntQ New MayicO
capital and skilled laborers instead of
Worthless Adventures,
gamblers, politicians and criminals, the