Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1905-08-01

Client marriage and funeral customs
are being abandoned; the family life
OF the natives is gradually being ad.
justed 10 the Yankee plan; modern
furniture Is being introduced into the
houses the Mexican oven IL disappear
Ing and cooking stoves and range
are taking It's place. Boards are
being laid over the dirt floors Of the
houses and matched roofs are being
replaced by shingles. A lady told me
the other night that al the graduating
this city, which were celebrated n few
days ago. not a word Of Spanish was
spoken, for the first time In the his.
tory OF the institution. Until this
year. nearly one.half OF the programme
has ben made up OF essays, recita.
lions and music In the Spanish Ian.
guage. which Is remarkable evidence
OF progress and change.
The Mexican hidalgos-the descend.
ants OF the Spaniards who settled this
country and have controlled II for
800 years and control II now-have
made a long. patient. stubborn fight
against modern civilization. II has
been a struggle OF race against race.
generation against generation. but the
'greaser' has been compelled 10 give
way 10 the "gringo" and adopt his cus.
toms 10 save the future OF his child.
rem.
What the people call the Canine
Real, or Royal ROAD, ~ being con-.
structed along the mountain sides
from Denver TO Fl paso. n distance OF
about 500 miles. II will run from Den.
yer "a Santa Fe (462 niles. via Colo
RADIO Springs, Pueblo. Trinidad. over
the Ration Pass and through the Pc
cos forest reserve. following the old
Santa Fe trail a good part Of the dis
lance. From Santa Fe 10 FL Paso Il
will follow the valley OF the Rio
Grande. Two years ago the legisla.
tnre OF New Mexico passed an act ap-
propriating $4,000 and authorizing the
use Of the convicts In the peniten.
tiary for construction work. The Colo
RADIO legislature passed a similar act
last winter. The work has already
$3.50 'NHNhr viz buiNthS nave DttH
completed and the road is finished
six miles southwark from Las Vegas
and seven miles ~northward from San.
Ia Fe. II Is sixteen feet wide and has
a maximum grade Of only five per
cent. so It will be admirable for auto
mobiles as well as wagons and Is like
~ TO be one OF the great highways OF
the world.
The scenery Is magnificent. The
road Will cross the Sangre de Cristo
range OF mountains at an elevation of
5000 feet and descend into the Pecos
Valley, which Is one OF the most pic
turesque In the southwest. II crosses
"A federal forest reserve, which Is
densely covered with timber, and IL
Is hoped that the federal government
VIII meet the expense OF construction
across the public domain. The EN-.
ployment OF convict labor has proved
TO be a good thing for the prisoners
as well as the public. II Is a good
thing for them TO work in the open
air and they enjoy it, while the cost
OF the road will be much less than 1t
would be II built with free labor.
In the Gallinas Canyon, on the Cam.
mo Real, a short distance above the
Montezuma hotel, at Las Vegas, is a
curious phenomenon in the form Of a
J natural Ice factory, where the ther-
mometer will stand at freezing point
for weeks at a time, while the people
at the hotel, half a mile below, will be
sitting on the porches Of the hotel
without wraps, and the ranchmen will
be working In shirt sleeves. This is
due to the fact that the Gallinas Can.
yon Y receives the avs Of the
sun or the warm breezes from the
plains below, and the temperature is
always fifteen or twenty degrees low.
err than on the outside. The canyon
never warns up from one years end
TO the other, and In winter. when the
nights are always cold at this altitude
(6,200 feet) and the days are always
warm and sunny, those living in the
canyon do not notice the change. The
thermometer may be below zero here
when 1t Is twenty or thirty degrees
above In Las Vegas. From the first
December to the first of March the