Durango semi-weekly herald., 1901-06-27

wonderful age. Think of the rapid
progress made. What have we left
for those coming after us to do?' We
are the people of the twentieth cen
tury; We are great; in brief, we are
| IT,
To be sure. they may have great
| deal of fun over us. Who cares?
They may even go SO far as to call
our spiritual thought loose. and pity
us for our lack of spiritual insight
Who cares? Sufficient unto the day
| is the evil thereof. But nonetheless
| the superstitions laughed at today
may be explained into being tomor-
row. Thus far no farther and the pen
dulum swings to the other extreme of
| the arc.
Take out superstition and we should
| find the world very disagreeable
place to live in. since their supersti-
tion is all that keeps some people de-
cent and others happy. Take out hap.
piness and decency, there is not much
left worth having.
| The fact that things are beyond our
| understanding does not necessarily
prove that the former are false. Pos
sibly the fault is in ourselves. al
though it seems hardly credible. to be
sure Personally. the whole sub
| ject is beyond the writer. That being
the case. it has always seemed wisest
to give superstition the benefit of the
doubt.
Under those circumstances. it seem
ed that one day. when stranded at Ig-
nacio with a prospect of several hours
to wait and nothing special to fill
them. it would be wise to find some
occupation. Watts might be right
| about the idle hand"
Naturally. there were some things
that naturally appealed to one first.
| The store. dinner. the scenery and the
people. When you had looked at the
| things in the first, eaten the second,
disapproved of the third with the ex-
ception of the grave across the river
and found the fourth all gone. or too
busy to be interviewed-wha next?
Did you know there was a school at
Ignacio? had a long chat with the
teacher. Miss Gertrude Hileman Wis
tied the building and saw some of the
work. The term. which is nine
months long. closed the last week in
May
| 1t is mission school. under the au.
spices of the Presbyterian Board the
present teacher having been in charge
for the past two years. The enroll
ment was 40 children MeNicans and
lItes.
Miss liileman said she taught them
in English. although they sing in Ute
and Sanish occasionally. Besides the
common branches such as those in
the public schools. Bible instruction
is given for 80 minutes each day
The Indian children prove to be very
appreciative and loving and very do
cile. Discipline is. therefore. a very
small matter. In the case of the
Mexicans it is somewhat more diff
cult, since they are somewhat tricky
But the greatest difficulty is that oil
the language. The children find the
English very hard to master More
than that. since they cannot think
readily in the Language. they miss the
point of great deal that is told by
way of Illustration. such as stories
for example.
1t seemed little strange to heal
that several Indians attending school
last year We're grown up Among the
number were Julian and Santonic
Buck. sons of Buckskin Charley. and
Willie Wolfsliin who is married
The school house serves the pur
pose of church and Sunday school
Church service is always conducted
in Spanish. the minister's name being
Rev. Rodriguez
On the day we visited the building
decorations for the Children's Day ser
vices We're still up. The room was
very prettily trimmed with pink. blue
and silver paper, while there were
flowers in every available place
The platform was carpeted and be
sides the stands and pots of flowers
contained an organ. On the black
board was the roll of honor. as well as
a drawing by one of the Indian bows
which was splendid.
Beside the Sunday school there is n
Christian Endeavor society of "a mem.
bers, which is in a Hourishing condi.
ton.
few of the most striking of the
children's names We're: Atanacia
Estifinita, Quirino. Prpieah. They do
not, however look as unusual as
they sound. BLUEBEIJ,