The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-02-04

| is now baggage master at Ell Paso. We
have an hour and half here and go UP
town to see Phil Dieter, formerly OF
| Wichita. He isn't in. He is a big man
here and rich, people told US Then we
stroll down to the bridge which connects
| the two towns. On the American side the
approach to this bridge is clustered
| about with adobes. In front of these
on the white-beaten ground are babies
crawling around in the sunlight dressed
about as American babies in summer
time. In front Of US walking is a group
Of Roman Catholic reverends. all in black.
blacker because of the white adobes, and
as they pass three dirty-faced boys, the
boys jerk off their dirtier sombreros and
the reyerends all smile. Occasionally the
scene would be varied by an old grandpa
Mexican, sitting in front of an adobe.
with a baby in his arms So far all the
Mexican old men look alike to me- All
have thin white boards, more noticeable
because of their swarthy skin; their som
breros are gaudy and their serapas
(shawls) rainbow hued. The silence of
this people is the most marked thing
about them. AS you pass up the streets
you don't hear a squeak. 1 watched
mother call her baby. She crooked her
finger at the baby and kept crooking it
until the child saw. If she had happened
to have filed up her lungs and yelled:
Come here Romero Tejada Diazr' the
whole street would have had nervous
prostration for a week I saw another
sight A little procession of four, the
1aoT
Two Of the women were very old, and
between them they supported a woman
who was ancient, a mummy broke out of
her wrappings. The man in front was
equally as ancient, ragged, a bundle on
his back. He raised his face In his eyes
stupidity, the drop of his
lower jaw, the symbol Of cavernous in
anity, the whole bearing of the man,
wretchedly sad. : wondered where they
were going, for they were moving I am
sure, for the old man had his chatteIs in
that bundle. But going where? What
asylum can there be for the second child
hood of gross ignorance? And when you
come to think Of it, how slowly the cen
turtles, which will in their time develop |
these poor poems into educated, happy,
progressive beings, move, and what a |
criminal Time is, for taking his leisure.
Over in front Of one adobe I saw |
like all the rest, with a shawl |
lalf over her face, trying TO feed her
chickens. She was not succeeding very |
we'll. About forty pigeons, every time she |
would let handful of feed fly, would |
iutter down and crowd in over and
lnder the roosters and hens in very i'm
,udent way When this woman attacked
he pigeons they would fly away to the
op OF the adobe, a distance of ten feet,
Ind then come down again in a bunch.
When we reached the end of the bridge
connecting the two towns, we failed to
lotice the customs station. It IS about as
zig as railroad tool house. We went
Jack to it and called the man stationed
here, out. He was clad in the good, old
Grand Army blue, although he wore no
,utton. He told us he fought under
sherman. street car came across the
ridge and stopped. This blue-clad Of
cial stepped aboard, looked at each pas
enger or his package curiously, patted
Iexican baby on the head and came out
gain. the car going on. Two men on
orseback rode up, and after question
T two went on again. The official told T
s they were part of the patrol the
United States keeps on the frontier, that
). along the border to prevent SNUG
ling. VICTOR MURDOCH.