The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-11-14
TRADING WITH RED MEN.

1hADING WITH RED MEN.
 Jake Colds Queer Store in old Santa Fe Tt is No Small Job to Do Business With tho Untutorid Indian-Jako's Va ried Stock and His Way Of Carrying on Trade.
 tFrom tho Chicago Daily Inter- -ocean.l
 At the corner of Burrow alley and San Francisco street, in Santa Fe, two little pathways between rows of close ly built adobes. is a long. low. ram bling building. Perched upon It's roof Is an old Indian wagon with its up- right poles and solid wooden wheels. Such wagons have not been used for Q century or more. Hung about the doorway and on the awning posts are all sorts of curious things. squaw we'd ding dresses, Mexican buckskin trou- sers and sombreros. saddles and trap pings. The presiding genius of the place. Jake Gold. is now man of mid dle age. and came to Santa Fe when a mere lad, so he is one of the oldest in- habitants."
 Colds lair is room long, low, light ed from above, and of the ordinary adobe construction. But the contents! Words fall to picture the conglomerate mass which lines every inch of wall, hangs from every beam of the ceiling, and trails down the center of the room in a rough line of pine showcase and table. Down at the end of the room are the large, graceful ollas, or Indian jars and water bottles, both of the old make and the coarser modern manu- facture.
 It is interesting to note that the old Zunis have produced in some instances exactly Grecian lines and shapes. And they did this over century ago. Their modern work is weak imita- ton of the ancient models, and cheap earth colors are used instead of the fast mineral paints with which their ancestors decorated. There are frag- ments of the pottery and tools of mound builders, cliff dwellers and an cient Pueblo, garnished with an occa- sional skull filled to the eye holes with crusted dirt. There are rude Indian tools of stone and iron, and specimens of every evidence of the old Indians that time has saved for us. A table near by Is covered with skins-bear coyote, and the more valuable ones Near the door a glass case, the only one which the store boasts, Is filled with those pretty cut and polished gems" which the tenderfoot buys SC eagerly. There is shelf upon shelf of modern Indian pottery and baskets
 rain gods-little, ugly. sduatting fig
 ures holding water jars in their laps
 and. there are figures in white earth painted to represent and Ito initiate anything and everything within the ken of the makers.
 All these things are absorbing, but after all 1t is not in them nor in Jake's parrot, which swears in excellent Mex. ican, that the chief charm lies. Just off his main room Is another and smaller one, and here Is Jake's native heath. In the center of the room is an immense stove. Covering one side are high shelves, piled with cheap trinkets of every kind and flanked by counter covered with bright calicoes and fan nels, to catch the eye of the simple na- tive. The rest of the room is bright | with Navajo blankets, the most beau tiful and artistic thing the Indian makes. Here is an effective one in what is called the lightning" stripe, with great zigzags of flaming color on a dull background. Here is a Flag staff" with shaggy coat like that of a Newfoundland, so called because made at Flagstaff, Ari. All these blankets have the bright reds, yellows and greens blending in rough harmony very pleasing to the eye,
 Winter is the time when this room Is truly in it's glory. While warm wealth CT lasts existence is cheap and the In- dians bring nothing to trade, but at the first frost they begin to troop into town, wrapped in their long blankets, which conceal whatever they have brought. They all know Jake. They know that he is square, and that they have always a welcome around his big stove, now cleared of it's festoons of Navajo blankets. There they squat in a silent circle. Sometimes a buck will sit there for day, making no sign, and then suddenly draw his treasure whatever it is, from his blanket, and place 1t beside him. Here Is where Jake's fine work" begins. Of course, any sign of interest or enthusiasm on his part would at once triple the value of the article presented, 50, however great prize it may be, he glances over 1t, puts 1t down again and walks away. If not treated with the utmost finesse the willy savage will sell his treasure to Jake and then calmly pro- duce some other article from the mys- terious folds of his blanket, and trad l ing must begin all over again. Jake makes 1t a rule to only. buy in bulk and he let many valuable relic go be- fore the Indians understood that they must show all they had lon the first layout" When he is satisfied that he has seen all the merchandise under that partic- ilar blanket he goes behind the coun- ter, picks out a choice assortment of the trinkets there, places them beside the desired article, and again retires. These '.articles of trade, embrace all kinds of cheap dry goods. buttons, toys and cheap brass goods Perhaps the ,..,-~t or,,,ainc If them ia \ I,nxr f,,I1 ,f