The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-12-24

Indian relics and curios galore. Here we find a great collection of the household gods of the Indian tribes. These are the crudest things imaginable mere pieces of unpublished stone stone 12 to IA inches long, to inches broad and to 4 inches thick. with some slight cutting in the stone to represent eyes and mouth. In some instances, there was a crude attempt at sculpture in which the little god was given arms.
 San MIqueI Church.
 Another place in Santa Fe possessing great interest is the old San Miguel church. It is asserted here that this is the oldest church in the United States. The walls of the building are made of sun-dried brick and are five feet thick, yet owing to the weakness of the material used 1t has been necessary to build pilas- ters to support the walls. Among the relics in the church is a bell cast in Spain. in 1856 and brought by private par ties to Mexico, from there to California and from California to Santa Fe. The bell weighs 7s0 pounds and is inches thick The tone of the bell is so wonderfully sweet that one Is apt to conclude that Americans are poor bell makers.
 We saw a rare painting made in 12S7 by a master hand. the priest informing us that no living artist can equal this painting In the very delicate blend of its colors Tn a wonderful wood carving Of the Lord by an artist of Tirol. Swift zerland, the facial expression of purity. sympathy and compassion seems indeed more than human, as If the artist had somewhere seen divine or angelic form, which he used as a model Among the names registered as visitors at the old church there stands in bold relief the name of our strenuous President.
 Afa t.-t mercal activity seems to have been be- tween the years of 1921 and 1880, when merchandise was transported by OK and mule teams from points in Missouri and Kansas over the Old Santa Fe Trail, San ia Fe at that time being a distributing point for mining camps as far south as Mexico.
 Prices Were High.
 The prices of goods that prevailed in Santa Fe in those days were astounding Iy high Colonel Inman of the United States army. and for thirty-three years a resident of the west, says; 'When the commonest article of domestic cloth made entirely of cotton brought from s2 to g per yard at Santa Fe and other articles at the same ratio of cost, no wonder that the commerce with the far off mar ket by those who desired to send goods there was yeritable GolcOnda."
 For a long time Santa Fe was the terminus of the Old Santa Fe Trail, which was probably the greatest highway of commerce known to modern times. Every few miles along the Old Trail, at some time or other. there was fight with the Indians, and many men went down fight ing these nomads of the plains. The present route of the Santa Fe railroad fol- lows very closely the Old Trail.
 Enduring for the oldest inhabitant, from whom I might obtain some reminiscenee of the long ago I was referred to Charles l., Thayer, a pleasant old gentleman of S2 summers, who came to Santa Fe 55 years ago. He said: "When I came here we had no mail from the states-we had a military express. Later on we had mail once a month. I engaged in frelghting goods, having nineteen OK teams of ten oxen each. I received s20 per hundred pounds. making $500 for each wagon load I hauled. It required 1lO to 12O days to make the round trip. We would go out of Santa Fe light upon arriving In the buffalo country we would strike camp and go out and kill enough game to last the entire trip. We were sometimes at tackled by the Comanche and Kiowa ln- dians, who fought us with smooth bore guns, which had a range of about 100 yards. while our more modern guns had range : 800 yards but then we were often grs giai-nh red. SO the con test was lnf ra uafofs after all. If an Indian fsa e ounded in battle his comis lcs u .a sfe ys bear him from the felt ra we7 belief among the Indians f1s ini.sa who lost his scalp on earia elG aNer enter the happy