Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1894-11-15

| weeks ago said good Dye 70 you in Leon
ardtoSH. q recollection now ripened into q
nhei.ox memory, BY the distance fancy,
you asked me 10 sFrise you and tell you
something sg this rcuntry. To night INV
work il done. my Thoughts homewani turn,
and shall do my best endeavour 70 frame
few Of them In some hastily picked words
Well. Sir, my journey out, from start TO
finish, and my timas here was and is TO me
severely novel and intensely interesting;
everything 30 new and unlike all former
experiences Of my life. From Leonard
town a. Santa Fe there ere, indeed, vast
changes in the human and sonhuman order
Of things. and to ma IL was an entertaining
fancy TO observe tie different phases Of
animal aud vegetable life presented by this
great union If states from Maryland to
New Mexico. Over the Blae Ridge, the
Alleghanies. the Ohio, the Mississippi, the
Missouri and lastly over the Rockies en-
ables one 20 take in divers conditions of
man, beast and plant Tn the Atlantic side
of the Mississippi. the almost unlimited
amount of corn and on the Pacific side the
all but boundless plains of dry grass and
cattle struck me IS marvellous.
Since the day | was born, l never saw so
much corn-how the people Of the globe
can consume II cant imagine-and until
the day Of my deaisss. never expect to see
more cattle, for, as Car as the eye could ken
there was noting <s6eefcss prairie land
with thousands Of cattle, great big, strap
ping oxen that bore no sign upon their
neck Of ever having suffered the humilia-
ton of being driven sub jugum. had the
good fortune TO see two "round ups" one
Sunch of ducks and a solitary cayotte, that
ran off from the train. Through this
sparsely settled and dreary country, with
interruptions at some few towns, we passed
for two days and nights. Two engines
hauled US over the Rockies and on the
night of the fourth day of my travel
landed pretty well worn in Santa Fe, and
am now safely domiciled in quarters of a
few years at least
Santa Fe is u quaint, curious and inter-
esting old town, nesting at the foot of the
Rockies but still 1000 feet above the sea
level. There is church here still stand
ing that was builded in 1884, of course
having been repaired, but this makes i. the
oldest in the United States, older than st.
Augustine, Florida. Though it is antique
in many instances, the customs of the first
settlers themselves still are followed as
imagine when l look at the donkeys packed
with wood, or "bur,os" as the natives call
them, being driven down the streets, one
Mexican driving as many as 90 at time,
still there are lots of very excellent people
here and there are at the same time many
OF the improvements of the day in use.
All in all, though. should not call Santa
re progressive town by any means. 1t
numbers about 10000, 90 per cent. of whom
are whites and the rest Mexican, a very
inferior race of human beings, decidedly
inferior to our own negro race and below |
think the Indian race The offices are
monopolized by the whites who have emf
grated here from the East and farther West,
and well it is for the salvation of the ter
ritory, for the MexEcans are not fit for
them sure. There are In the town several
houses that have stood "the whips and
scorns of time" for more than 800 years.
In one of these, builded in 1882 il may in
terest you to know that Wallace wrote the
famous Ben Hur; one end of this is utilized
as the Post Office and the other as dwell
ling in which the secretary of the Territory,
a Maryland man by the way, Mr.. Miller,
of Charles county, lives. The majority of
the houses are of the onc-story Mexican
build and from the outside present rather
shabby appearance but within, those in
which have been, are handsomely fur
nished. No matter what time you 20 in
the town you will find representatives of
the Mexican race losfing about the plaza
in the sunshine-:t seems 10 be the heighth
Of their ambition 10 have sunshine in the
day and chilli con carnie at night. q don't
know whether "carnie" is spelled right or
not) They are wealthy when they possess
as much as 500. Not SO with our whites
here, for they are as nice people as would
chose to meet. Santa Fe is surrounded by
mountains with one slight exception of about
mile on the S W, and it is a curious fact
that our coolest winds come through this
break. Our prices out here are higher gener-
ally than they are in the East; glass of beer
costs 10 cents, shave 25, and hair cut,
half dollar, and as wrote some one else, l
don't drink, shave myself and let my hair
grow long The paper circulation of small
bills, indeed of most all paper money is very
strained; dollar bill can hardly by found.
ana all change pretty nearly for less than
IS is in silver and gold, the latter of which
is much used in larger amounts. 1t is easy
enough TO lend money and get gilt-edged
security at 12 per cent.-some pay as high
as 20. was in TO a political meeting few
nights ago, and it was. to be sure, novel
experience. The Spanish language Is prin-
cipal!y used and each speaker had his in.
terpreter; the English and Spanish speakers
were sand wiched in. When IN English
spoke a sentence the interpreter would
repeat it in Spanish and vice versa /
thoroughly enjoyed itfud Think with lit.
tie more experience viii BE able pretty well
to converse in Spanish. II IL not hard to
get on to. II seems to night that our speak
ing here as we'll as most every where else
was failure. It's certainly tough 90 have
10 read the election news. What in the
L. lo aaaora R.,t sudo.l