The Newtown bee. (Newtown, Conn.) 1877-current, 1904-03-11

crawl in and out, and on the opposite
side, near the top, small round hole
which served as ventilator, window
and chimney, all in one. They were
exact reproductions of the round mud
nuts pictured in the old Biographies as
being occupied by the Kaffirs. An.
other simple form of building a house
was to select depression in the earth,
hollow it out little more if necessary,
and fling few sticks or brush or any.
thing else handy over the top, as sort
OF rafter, and then plaster mud over
the brush. This in the sun bakes like
stone in few days. Plaster up one
end and the house is finished. Fur
n1Shlng would not require much time,
labor or money. Another popular
form Of house, much finer than these,
is built by taking" old worn out rail
road ties, flung to one side. These are
stood up end ways and the spaces be-
tween plastered with mud. There are
no floors in any of these I kept my
eye out the window pretty closely aft
er crossing the New Mexican line and
l found that Hillside, N M, consisted
of one of these huts, containing a large
number of Mexican children and dogs,
a railroad water tank, a sign board
telling the name of the place, and
one burro.
The country grew more and more
desolate and barren till it would not
seem that anything could get living
and the soil changed from brown to a
reddish brown. The whole country
looked as though it had never seen
drop of rain. I made that remark to
man who had considerable knowl-
edge of the country, and he said that
they never had rain there. That
when it got ready to storm the whole
bottom of the sky fell out and lake
fell, all at once. fcan we'll believe it
from the gullies from two or three to
ten and twelve feet deep, the sides as
straight cut as though a knife had
been used. Outside of the herds of
horses and cattle and some crows
did not see any sort of an animal. The
porter told me that it was not unusual
to see coyotes. He said that if they
got hungry they came down to the
tracks for food, there being quite a lit
tie refuse thrown out. OF course no
such luck as that when I was looking
for one.
We left the California train at $50.
Leaving to come up to Santa Fe. 1t is
rather relief to get away from the
rush and rattle and roar of the last
four days. In some ways the crowd
aboard our car was pleasant one.
The car ahead of ours was otherwise,
and it was piece of good luck that
we we're in that one that we were. In
the car next was very large and
beautiful parrot, who talked all night
or at least every time light appeared.
There were a party of four at the other
end Of the car, with musical inStru-
ments, a violin, a guitar and two ban
joes, who gave free concerts to their
neighbors. A little of it was delight
full and quite treat, but it kept up to
eleven or twelve at night, when it
grew wearisome for those who wanted
to sleep. The porter told me that
there were things worse than either
of these aboard, for about the middle
Of the car was woman who carried
lunch basket, containing, among
other delicacies, picked onions and
Limburger cheese.
What Santa Fe looks like 1 do not
know. We struck here after dark, and
after getting our supper decided not
to 60 out at all tonight. When we
reached the station we we're faced by
perfect bedlam of shrieks, in half
Spanish and half English, of the cab
men from the various hotels. We had
decided upon our hotel and the two
fellows who we're it's representatives
clutched us as though they were afraid
we would escape. Another one
snatched our baggage and rushed off,
while we were bundled into closed
carriage. After moment or tWo.of
waiting one of them opened the door,
looked in to see if we were where he
had put us, land seeing that we were, he
slammed it to and shrieked to the
driver to proceed. Proceed he did, for
about three-quarters of mile to a
mile, with his horses on a dead run.
The road was far from smooth and we
were flung up and sideways and all
other ways, till I began to wonder
whether we would be there in pieces
or whole. Just as had resigned my
self to the inevitable he drew up before
the hotel with another flourish and a
shout that announced our arrival. 1t
took three or else four Of them to assist
US out and up the steps Of the hotel,
and we found ourselves in large Of
fee with a gentlemanly, quiet clerk
that might be credit to any good
New York hotel. Land is not valuable
hereabouts so the hotel is huge affair,
with rooms as large as four ordinary
ones. Ours is big enough to hold four
beds comfortably. We have electric
! lights, and as soon as we we're in they
sent boy up to kindle a fire in our
stove. They say that there are very
few days here cold enough to need a
fire, so it does not pay to equip the
houses with heating arrangements tC
any great extent:An open fire or a
small stove furnishes ample heat.
Our room was not by any means cold
without fire, though little chilly tc