Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1897-06-05

fashioned grand
eur that II seems almost a sacrilege 70
tear away the curtain of c~ontented ST.
lence which time has hung there n
to gaze with modern eyes half blinded
by the dust OF u~nceasing whirl at the
bright, stately days OF patch and pow
der, says a correspondent OF the new
York Tribune. Nearly every house a
It's bit OF history. its comedy of dances
and assemblies, or its darker Tragedy
of misfortune. death and even murder.
Among the places crowded with his
torical myths and shadows the Ola
Carlyle house stands pre-eminent, for
1t has played its part in all the was-
fare OF the country and has had no less
a share in the heyday Of Alexandris's
glory. Built of stone and Holland
bricks by the early settlers, supposed
ly in 1910, 1t was used during the
French and Indian war as a fort; n
in the old kitchen that is now falling
into decay there is a we'll that has
supplied the place with water through
all the varied phases Of its Ions exist
ence. 1t was in the house that rose
above the fort, which, by the way,
made a most convenient foundation,
not to mention stables and dungeons,
that Braddcck. in consultation with
the governors of five colonies, planned
his Inflated campaign; here young
George Washington received his first
commission; the war Of 1872 saw 1t
in use as a powder magazine n a
prison. while in the civil war 1t was
used as a hospital. Around the colo
NAL period, however, when Alexan-
dria's glory was brightest, most of the
interest centers: for, though the old
house is now comparatively unknown
and obscure. being hidden by the sur
rounding wings of the Braddock
house, in those days its p%illared porti-
CO looked down upon long terraces,
bordered with slender Lombardy pop
lars. The wide hall is fianked on eith-
er side by quaint little rooms, the o
famous of which is the blue parlor,"
unchanged since the days OF wash
ington, where the white cornice Is
carved in queer little roses and thistles
to remind them. perhaps, OF the ola
English days of Merry Carlyle" II
was to this room that little Sallie Fair
fax tripped down the mahogany stairs
to dance at her first ball with Gen.
Washington and in the tiny antecham-
Der in front Gen. Braddock slept. Up
stairs the rooms are small and the
modern housewife would look in dis
may at the c~upboards, for they are
scarcely more than two feet square.
The windows which front the river or
iginally opened upon a balcony that
overhung a most entlcing garden, but
the balcony has gone and the old gar
den, with it's circular path Of brick,
its great box-trees and wistaria vines,
is fast becoming a dream OF the past.
On the third foor the rooms are small
err and SO still that but for the spotless
w%hitewash they might easily be peo-
pied with ghosts. At n end OF the
passage that runs between the rooms
there is a door leading into a corridor
Of the old hotel and down its length
of blackness it is said hat the wailing
of a baby, long since dead, often
breaks through the stiffness of the
night. So much for the ghosts, who,
unfortunately, do not walk in broad
daylight, but the old vaults, far down
below, are surely spooky enough, even
where the sunlight pours its warm
flood through the doorless archway.
In one of the partitions above the
vaults stands an old cupboard, made
by the Indians, with traces Of beading
thickly covering the doors. The beads,
however, have all disappeared. Down
the stone stairs again, to the left, there
is supposed to be an underground way
that led to the river, which in those
DAYS was nearer by several hundred
feet than it is now, but the.vault has
long been walled in, and its secrets
are still unsoived. The Braddock
house, which surrounds this relic of
a bygone stateliness, is of a much lat
er date. but a quaint, rambling enough
old place it is. The front was original
ly built for a bank, and the rest Of the
house was added afterward. It, too,
has seen many changes and much de-
generation, and its wings seems fairly
to shake with holy horror at the buzz
ing OF the telegraph wires that have
their home in it's staid and proper
walls. Straight down the street from
the Braddock house is the old Clagett
tavern (they were all taverns in those
days), whose lower floor has been de-
generated into something that is more
like a junk shop than anything else,
but upstairs are the assembly rooms.
which, it is said, George Washington
often honored with his presence. There
is a queer little musicians gallery
looking into it that was accessible Only
from the lower hall by means Of a lad
der, as the tiny door leading into It
is high up in the wall. When the
musicians had assembled the ladder
was taken away, leaving those unfor-
tunates no way Of escape. This room,
now divided into three, is used as a
club room by Al organization thai mas
done much to preserve and care for it.
The carved w~ainscoting and molding
are still the same, though the place has
been, Of course, much modernized. On
the opposite side OF the hall is the
room occupied by the famous Female
Stranger. and it Is still pointed out to
all other strangers. male or female, for
wherever there is a mystery unsolved.
and a trifIe uncanny, the interest al
ways seems the greatest. This per-
son, who is known only as the Female
Stranger" came to the tavern early N
the century. She stayed just four
days. and during that time held no