Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1895-07-18
QUEER PEOPLE.

The most wonderful city ofthe world
is in New Mexico, only a few miles
from Cubero, or Laguna, on the At
lantic and Pacific Railroad. 1t had
been in existence hundreds of years
when Columbus discovered America.
Acoma, for such is its name, is perched
upon the level summit Of great rock,
whose perpendicular sides are nearly
400 feet above the surrounding coun-
try, and reached by some Of the most
difficult paths ever trodden by man.
The feet Of generations have worn
these paths six inches into the solid
sandstone.
The Acomas now number 600 souls.
Upon their seventy acres of rock they
have six communal houses, each three
stories high, besides church Of enor-
nous dimensions. The inhabitants
have carried up the toilsome trails
every particle of the material from
which the buildings were constructed,
and besides this the graveyard con-
sumed forty years in being completed
by reason of the necessity for bringing
earth from the plain below, All sup
plies at the present day, even to drink
ing water, are brought in the same
way.
The architecture Of Acoma is as
strange as its location. The houses
are all terraced, so that they resemble
flights of stone steps, or Egyptian pyr-
amids on small scale. In each house
the second story stands ten or a dozen
feet back on the fiat roof of the first,
thus leaving broad, uncovered walk
the whole length. The third story is
similarly placed upon the second.
There are no doors on the lower walls
of the houses, nor stairs inside. 10
get into the first story one must 90 up
ladder to the first roof, enter the
second-story room, lift trapdoor in
its floor and back down another lad
der.
All these houses are Of stone mason
ry, in spite of the fact that the build
ers had nometal tools for dressing the
material Instead, they chose rock
which broke naturally into the shape
desired, and laid it in a very durable
mortar made from mud. So neatly
was their work done that the outer
faces of the buildings are as smooth as
a board.
The rafters are straight pine sticks
stripped of their bark, and above them
is a roof of smaller sticks, straw and
clay. The combination is perfectly
water-tight. The windows are very
small, and until glass was introduced
the panes were made of Translucent
| gypsum. The finishing touch is tt
plaster the walls, inside and out, witt
adobe clay, and then whitewash then
with preparation of gypsum. This
whitewash gives pueblo town at {
distance the appearance of being bull
of marble.
Acoma is simply type of twenty
six inhabited pueblo towns now exist
ing in New Mexico and Arizona, and
containing population Of 10000 souls
The nineteen pueblos of New Mexico
are scattered up and down the Ri
Grande Valley from Taos, the mos
northern, to Isleta, which is just soutl
of Albuquerque. Then they exten'
westward, along the line of the Atlantl
and Pacific Railroad, to near the Arr
zona border, the last one In this dl
rection being the far-famed Zuni. In
seven pueblos in Arizona are close to
eether in the northern part, the inhab
itants being collectively called MOqu
The origin of the Pueblos has neve
been unveiled. A profound lnteres
centers in them. But one thing ha
been settled-they and the cave Q
cliff dwellers are one and the sam
people. The latter have not yanlshe
as was once supposed. Their descend
, ants are with US today.
The ancestors of the Pueblos wer
| probably the earliest inhabitants {
this continent. The remains OF thel
forts, towns and stupendous irrigatin
? canals are thickly scattered over Ne
i Mexico and Arizona, and indicate tina
the population was teeming
The Pueblo Indians now live
| ! much the same way as did their fore
fathers when first discovered by th