West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1895-08-15


them at this school, and It ia ex-
pecied that there will be a great
many more after Vacation. They
have farm OF l60 acres under a
high state of cultivation, fife
vineyard. orchard. and make more
hay than they have use for; keep
small herd Of fine cows and horses,
and are said to be good workers.
The Government is now having
built four new buildings. to cost
something more than 81 900, which
makes the place look like q small
town.
About the worst class OF people
We have to contend with is the
Mexicans. They are indolent, lazy
and filthy IN their way of living,
and will live on less, If possible,
than Chinaman, and the average
Indian would make more desira-
BILE neighbor than the average Mexi.
can. and it almost impossible to
find one shat will do an honest
days work. About all the good
they are is to haul wood. They
furnish the populace with all their
fuel. They have to go about thirty
miles for it--taking three days to
make trip, and then sell it for
$3.50 cord. Now. this will give
some idea Of how they must live.
They live in little Dolby huts usu-
ally; some in shocks made of brush.
There is scarcely one in six that
has table or chair in their hut.
When they eat, they sit fat on the
fioor. Their stove usually consists
of piece Of sheet-iron resting on
four DOLBY bricks, and their bed
consists OF an old blanket or two
spread on the floor. Their diet in
winter is usually beans and totticrs,
kind OF bread they bake on their
sheet-iron stove. In summer, water
melons and figs. The watermelons
he gets like Nasty got his clean
shirt, and figs, of course, are free
for everyone. Now, this is about
the makeup Of the average Mexi-
can. Do we want Mexico, with her
people? think not.
There are unmistakable evidences
that this valley was inhabited by
an intelligent race Of people CEN
turtles ago, but we have no anthem
tic history by which to identify
them. 1t is possible that one of
the present tribes of Indians are
their descendants. But it seems to
be general belief that they be.
longed to the Aztecs. IL this ia
true, we must conclude that the
Mexican race are descendants of
those strange people. If so, we
have their history, but this being
true, they surely have been retro
grading ever since the reign of
Montezuma, for there is no doubt
that they were further advanced in
science and in every way than the
Mexican race is to day.
We think it just MS likely for one
of the tribes of Indians to be de.
scendants of this pre- historic race
as for them to have belonged to tho
Aztecs. 1t is fact that they manu-
featured kind of earthen ware that
is manufactured to day by the Pima
Indians, and these same Indians are
superior, intellectually and morally.
to the Mexicans we have in Arizona,
and l believe they are about an
average of the whole race.
Another thing makes it seem
that it is hardly probable that they
belonged to the Aztecs, is the alb
sence of any kind of metal what
ever. History teaches us that the
Aztecs smelted and made use of
several kinds of metal, which is no
doubt true, as they done carving on
stone and had implements that
were no doubt manufactured by
themselves, but there is no evi.
dence that these ancients ever used
any metal Of any kind. Though
we fine hieroglyphics by the mile
along the foot. hills and where there
are lodges of rock, but the tools
used for this purpose are supposed
to have been made Of very hard
rock, as there has never been any.
thing else found that could have
been used for that purpose. A cor
respondent to st. Louis paper
thinks that they have operated some
kind Of smelling furnaces, owing to
the quantities of Stag found at diff
ferent places in the valley.
We think this Stag was produced
by the over-heating of The furnaces
or kilns in which they burned their
earthenware. We have visited sev.
eral ruins of their villages, and at
every one found great quantities of
1T, broken of course. Rancbmen
frequently find, while preparing
their land for irrigation, these
earthen vessels in a perfect state Of
preservation, some Of which have
contained human bones. There is
one Of these ancient ruins, situated
five miles east Of Phoenix, which is
very interesting. We find at the
south Of the village and fronting
toward the Salt river, there has
been an immense structure with
massive walls, which has undoubt-
edly been kind Of fort. Back of
this to the north was their village
or town, consisting of small DOLBY