The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-05-29

Writing In the TimeS-Herald FREQ
Benzinger says: Pyramids in the
United States? Yes, two Of them.
They are built of mud and inhabited
One has six stories and the other five,
and both have many rooms. The in
ha'bitants have two names, two re-
ligions and two languages. They are
Christians and pagans at the same
time-Catholics and sun worshippers.
They have one church above ground
and several worshipping places below
ground. They are citizens Of the
United States, but neither vote nor
pay taxes They have a republic of
their own and never carry their inter-
nal disputes outside their own primi
tive court. They owned their little
domain of six miles square long be-
fore the United States came into exist
ence, and they lease farms to the de-
scendents of naughty Europeans.
They are the real first families of the
country, for their forefathers were liv-
ing in these same pyramids when
civilization discovered them 250 years
ago. They are aborigines but far
mers. They are semi-civilized, but
they punish with the stocks and the
whipping post, and until recently
stoned witches to death.
In many things this remarkable
people reverses the white mans or
der The children trace their de-
scent through the mother instead of
the father. The wife owns the
house and all it's contents. Fires
for baking are built in the oven in
stead of under 1t. In .he fireplacep
the wood Is burned standing on end.
The people go into Their houses
through the roofs, pulling up behind
them the ladder used in mounting the
building, thus very nearly accom-
plishing the feat of going into a hole
and pulling it in after them.
The pyramids of the American
Egypt are tucked away in a little val
ley among the Rocky Mountains of
northern New Mexico. A few years
ago they were 1000 miles from a
railroad. Today one can get within
thirty-five miles of them by rail by GO
ing north from Santa. Fe to Erhbudo,
but after that the rugged canon of
the Rio Grande del Norte and brown,
waterless, interminable mesas make
the approach a trying journey of dust,
joltS and WEAKNESS.
JUAN MIRABAL.
Fortunate is the visitor who has
Juan Mirabal for a host, Juan has
acquired fair grasp of English much
of it by painstaking inquiry of white
visitors and neighbors. He has lost
most of that reserve SO common
among the Indians, which battles the
investigator by a real or assumed
misunderstanding of his wants, and he
talks frankly of his people and their
peculiarites. He will even go so far
as to put the sounds of their songs
into English letters, though the effort
is slow and painful. Juan and his
father, for they live together, have a
good farm and are well to do. Juan's
four fine guns are evident of that.
The Mlrabal home is of mud with a
dirt floor, but it has several rooms
with white-washed walls and boasts
of some comforts Of the white man.
There is an American bedstead with
sheets and covers but it seems to be
too precious for use even for the or
dinary guest. The members of the
family have raised platforms for Sleep
ing places and skins and blankets for
cover. The visitor with experience
of life in remote New Mexico and fair
ly reasonable will have little cause for
complaint, however, for Juan has in
reserve for him an American made
cot with a springy bed and plenty of
red blankets. Neither Juan's pretty
wife nor his father or mother nor his
white-haired grandmother rounding
her first century. and still agile
enough to climb the ladders has any
knowledge of English, but they are
proud to entertain American visitors
and their faces beam with friendly
hospitality.
The cooking is done over a fire
built on the dirt floor in one corner
of a big room, which has a bed OF
skins in another corner, perhaps a
pile of wheat in a third and openings
to other rooms in the fourth, and a
ladder to the roof intrance. Holes q
foot square in the walls near the
ceilings give the smoke vent and ad.
init air, but there are no windows tC
admit light, and all the sunshine
these queer abodes get is what little
can squeeze its way through the roo
holes. But Jxan Is rising above his
surroundings, and in the room with
the precious bed are an American
table and several chairs. Sheep arr
plenty and cheap in the southwest, anC
There is so little discrimination II
selection that it seldom rises to tht
dignity of being mutton.
SIMPLE FARE.
But Juan does better than many o
the white inhabitants in honor of hi
guest, for he sets before the visito
butter and cakes brought from tn
nearest town, and his wife brews al
excellent cup of coffee. To these ar
added sugar imported by wagon owe
the mountains and home made breal
or tortillas baked in the strange oven
out of doors. The oven resembles al
overturned bushel basket with
whole in one side, and it is made o
mud. A fire Is built inside until tn
mud floor is thoroughly heated, whe
the fire is raked out, the Iloor moppe
clean and the big disks of doug
showed in on wooden paddles to bak
by the heat radiated from the bottor
and sides Of the oven. Barring a
absence of salt, the bread is good, an
the meal set forth by Juan for hi
guest in luxury compared with tn
fare one will get from many of tn
whites similarly isolated.
The American pyramids are know
as El Pueblo de Taos. 1t is the north
ernmost settlement of that strang