Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1899-09-07
PLAZA OLDEN DAYS
The Spot As 1t Is Remembered by
the Early Residents Of
the City.
NOT A THING OF BEAUTY
The Transformation Wrought Through the
Efforts Of the Women of Santa Fe-The
Oommendable Object Of the Foun-
tain Fete Next Tuesday.

There are a few of the odd timers
left in Santa Fe, who .emember the
plaza when it was a dusty, sandy, bar
rem square, where creaking OK carts
and long lines Of mild eyed oxen were
corralled; remember when bull whack-
ers' built their camp fires where the
monument to dead heroes now stands,
and how full the air was of mutton fat,
smelling compounds.
There are a few, a very few, still old
er timers who saw the bivouac fires of
the Spanish c%onquerors light UP the
brown walls Of the palace and heard
the bugle calls of the conquistadores.
Their memories are the legends of their
fathers; the old timers "reminiscences
the legends of the present up-to-date
Wlde-aWake Santa Fean. A generation
ago the cotton-Woods which now throw
their gigantic shade across the green
sward were spindling, little saplings,
set out by the prisoners of the Sd cav
airy, brought out from the crumbling
guard house to do their part toward the
first identifying of the town. A rickity
paling fence enclosed the square,
scarcely strong enough to stand against
the united, resting backs of the Indians
who visited here by hundreds, where
now they come by tens, and altogether
inadequate to protect the s%ueculent,
tyrip. rnv tlA n,,, .;,,~ ,ntl ~ Tho,
~neadquarter deer and goat.
One morning to the dismay of Cap
tain John Ayers-who had watched
each alamo with loving jealousy, it was
discovered that some of the s%traightest,
prettiest ones, along the border, were
nibbled past all PREPARATION. The mis-
tress of the guilty marauders felt that
something infinitely worse than a court
martial would befall her-and her four
footed creatures-Were those trees not
speedily replaced. 1t was done quickly
and well, and three of the largest, most
grotesquely gnarled of the giants now
standing, We're set out under her mater
nal eye. Those infant cotton-woods
WHY a. nut ioohCd ollCI I'd cam
( graceful tree, each tuft of grass is now
by the Womans' Board of Trade, to
whom New Mexico-as we'll as Santa
Fee owes much. We old timers We're
satisfied with the alamo saplings and a
stray sunf1oWer or so, whose parents
bloomed in profuse and gaudy majesty
upon the palace roof. We We're satisfied
with so little that l sometimes wonder
whether we believed there We're any
| possibilities in this Sunshine Land be-
| yond what the horizon held in it's sap
phire cup. Time passed on; the bull
whackers and his patient herds van
ished; the old fence vanished too in the
| ashes of many a camp fire; the shaft in
memory of the soldier dead of the ter
ritory was erected and yet the sunfiow-
er bloomed, the sand blew over the dun
| waste and the alameda was as desolate
| and bleak as the hills that framed the
city. Down in the Bishops garden in
the Cos was the only glimpse of nature
coaxed by loving hands into some SEM
blance of her affluence that 1.-THE old
timer saw. More than once the good
prelate would say: rs it not possible
for us to put a little green into the
| plaza" But we were an everchanging
| people of brass buttons and political ac-
cident, and no one really cared whether
| blue grass would or would not grow in
New Mexico.
When the up-to-date woman arrived,
! she cast a meditative eye over the sand
| waste and the town and said: This
| will not do" And from this small be-
| ginning of thought evolved the Wo-
mans Board of Trade with no "pent up
| Utica" for it's creed, but the greatest
good that woman's wit and will might
fashion. The result of the cherished
dream of Mrs. Cora L. Bartlett is seen
in the little park, than which nothing in
nature could be more freshly, exquisite
ly pretty. With grass and ornamental
trees an assured fact, the board has
! united upon a recognition of the neces-
| sity for humane work, and as it has
| never yet harbored an impractical idea,
this scheme rounds out their consisten-
! cy. So long ago as when the first reser-
| voir was being constructed, a big-heart-
| ed man, an admirer of Archbishop La
my, and a lover of Santa Fe, declared
| his wish to help the board, and at the
| same time p%erpetuate the memory of
that Christian gentleman, the first bish-
or and archbishop of Catholic New Mex
leo, and a fountain for man and beast
was suggested. After many disappoint-
! ments the ladies of the board, through
| Mr.. Meysenberg's generosity, feel that
the time has come to add to the beauty
and utility Of the plaza, and to erect
I the fountain, which will be a boon to
many a weary, heavy-laden burro;
many a thirst-maddened dog; many a
| fainting, f~ootsore wayfarer. 1t Is to be
graceful and artistic, and as ornate as
the funds will allow.
The fetes next Tuesday evening in it,
| self is to be a dream of beauty, and ev-
cry man and woman who loves the crea-
lures God has made or the memory of
the archbishop, or who appreciates the
| self-sacrificing work Of the Woman's
| Board of Trade, should make 1t a duty,
| as 1t will be a pleasure, to attend on
Tuesday evening.
OLIVE ENNIS HTTE.