The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-04-23


 all work, Juan Gallegos. yuans early life had been spent south of the Raton range, on the cattle ranches, but he had wandered north as far as the Rio Suer- co, and there had met up'' with Woot- ton. Juan knew the mountains, knew them better than anything else in the world, and loved every pine that sway ed and sang in the wind. He had driven the widest beeyes from the mesas through the Ratons, and, wheth- er by day or by night, he seemed able to find his way alone like one possessed of second sight. Juan knew the mountains.
 Time was when Wootton would have disdained to do anything resembling work, but now, with the evening of his life coming on, he determined to make a stake by mining coal in the Raton mountains and sending it to the rail- road which he knew to be then pushing it's way south. Dicks first shaft was sunk on the side of the canon, south east from his home a mile or more. Juan Gallegos did most of the work.
 The highest point in the Raton range is something more than 1900 feet above the level of the sea, and between that point and Trinidad the surveyors were months in finding a way suitable for a railroad track It was when they reach- ed the summit that they stopped, all most discouraged, for before them they saw a mountain of solid rock and coal through which they knew a tunnel would have to be bored. It meant the expenditure of vast sums of money, but worse than all else. It meant delay of year or more before trains could be running.
 Fretting under the. exasperating in- terruption of work the engineer and the surveyors spent the days tramping through the mountains in search of a pass through which they might send their railroad. The Raton range was a sealed book to them. They might bring powder and blast hole through the uninviting rock, but that was all The tree-covered slopes had mo paths for the enterprising Americans, and if there were any hidden by-ways they did not find them. Under such condl- tions the reports sent to the East were not encouraging.
 Surely, though the chief engineer there must be some one in the corner of the State who knew way to get over those mountains, and who would be willing to lead a party of surveyors with their chainmen and stakes.
 One morning Mexican, smoking the never missing cigarette, strolled into the surveyors camp. It was Juan Cal legos. Dickson, who was learning his Spanish from little book entitled At Glance began to trS some of his phrases on the visitor, but was cha grined to find that Juan knew almost as much English, or American as he called it, as Dickson.
 There was no misunderstanding the mission of Juan Gallegos. You want the pass" he explained. T have 1t.
 want the money, the dinero; you have that. Is it not right that we should trader" And then, noticing depreca- tory expression on the face of Burton the man in charge of the party, he gave to his shoulders shrug that no other 1 nationality on earth knows how to give ] as he explained: 'Bueno, it is no i'm { port to me so much as that you of the 1 East should have the trains on the
 other side I shall go back to - Wait" said Burton. Wait; let us talk of these matters that you may show me what we shall get for the money.'
 1 Juan waited, but only for a little
 while. My word" he spoke with dig nity. My word is good, but since you { vii have it so I shall send Senor Rice. 1 ardo. He will say that I know the l pass.
 1 The next day, so the story goes. Senol l Ricardo, otherwise Dick Wootton, wis. l tied the camp, and before he left ha6
 signed contract to point the way
 through the Raton range for line
 over which trains might be operated ' in consideration of $2, 000 the sum au.
 thorized by the Eastern office as a re. I ward. The one point on which DicE
 and the surveyors could not agree was
 the time of starting. Leave that tc ] me- said Wootton. ''Ill come back il l a week, and lead you over to the prom : ised land,' and with this Burton had ts i be content.
 l Five days after his first visit Woot 1 ton came again to the surveyors camI and announced himself in readiness tt 1 lead the stake men through the pass It was noticed that his face bore 1 frightful cut on one cheek, a woun( which Dick said he had received ir ! falling while examining a ledge. Of Jual 1 Gallegos he said never a word unti | Burton inquired for him, and then h. explained, grufiiy, that the Mexican was down in the valley getting read, to start, in a few days for Chihuahau his boyhood home T didn't think he't stay" Dick is said to have remarked as if talking to himself. T didn't thinl
 he'd stay if he got this money.'
 Within the week the pass was staket the men were building the switch back'- you can see it to this day iron the car windows just before your trai
 enters the tunnel going south-an
 Wootton got the reward It was no the business of the railroad people t inquire for the whereabouts of one Jual Gallegos; these people were intereste konly in seeing to it thsr the train | climbed up the mountain properly an did not go too fast. It is doubtful