Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1904-06-24

ana We counted IL a privilege To en-
JOY the genuine hospitality of their
well ordered home in its delightful
surroundings,
An interesting relic III other days
hangs on the wall Of Mrs. Mariners
dining room. II IS a life-size portrait
In oil of a beautiful young woman and
is in an old-fashioned gilded frame.
The canvas of the picture is pierced
by two Jagged holes. This portrait
once hung In the room at Taos Of a
certain Captain Lee Of st. Louis. who
was among the first Americans to
come tae the historic mountain set
tlemeht. The picture Is that OF i
niece OF his, AT the time Of the Pu,
eblo uprising the Indians broke into
the room where it was hanging and
installing it to be a living person ran
it through with their lances making
the perforatons in the canvas which
remain as witnesses Of their murder
Gus intent. Captain Lee returned az.
ter this to ST. Louis and the portrait
came into the possession of MIR. Mar
tinez's father and then into his own.
II the valley of the Black Lakes had
appeared charming in the evening of
our arrival it was surprisingly SO in.
the early morning beneath the bril-
liant sunshine. Birds sans on every
side and one among them such as We
had never seen, q plump, black-feath.
cred bird with a yellow breast, having
a peculiar, subdued musical note. So
~pervading Is the spirit Of gentleness
in this peaceful vale that the wild
birds mingle socially with the domes.
ticated pigeons, a row of both perched
upon the stable roof being alternately
Of swallows and our new found rara
avis side BY side with the tame birds.
Along the road as we left the ranch,
a bright plumaged. wild duck waddled
across a fenced field altogether undis-
turbed by our passing.
The streamlets that run into the
lake basin from every side slip softly
from between the rounded hills and
are so gentle In their flow that It Is
not easy to tell lat times In which di-
rection that may be. This fact created
lively discussion in our carriage but
a conclusion was arrived at without
loss of money or blood when We ar
rived at the rim Of the lake region
and went over the divide into the head
Of the famous Moreno valley where
other streams were at once eneoun-
tered running In a directly opposite
way.
From Black Lakes a road leads over
the range by Osha pass to Taos, ano-
Their across Ocate mesa to Wagon
Mound and the one We were travelling,
on to Elizabethtown. From this
branches another road, the long.travel.
ed thoroughfare Of early days through
the Flechado pass to Taos. 50 named
because the Indians OF the western
mountains when coming through on
their way to the buffalo hunt p%racticed
shooting their arrows into d tall pine
tree Of the pass, and arrow in Spanish
is "flechar whence flechado-arrow-
shot. Older residents recall, yet, see.
ing the arrows sticking in the pine
tree, although some thirty.ive years
ago.
In this pass, too. was the notorious
road house of Kennedy, whose guests
with money Or v~aluables mys~teriously
disappeared until suspicion fastened
upon him and a search brought to light
the fact that one after another had
been murdered in cold blood and their
bodies buried beneath the floor Of the
house.
A railroad survey has been made re.
through Flechado pass and soon
It'll romance may be brushed aside by
the passing Of trains and traffic.