The Roswell daily record. [volume] (Roswell, N.M.) 1903-current, 1905-08-28

that It was about time to seek a mors
congenial cline, and started pos
haste for Tjeras Canyon in the San
dia Mountains. But fearing lest they
might not be able to appreciate the
beauty and com9ort-of Natures attire
they forthwith improvised a dress
making and tailoring establishment
and without much regard to the lat
est styles, quickly constructed gar
ments suitable for the occasion out
of such material as they could most
easily find and fed;-hit the TRAIL
punched the breeze.-and pulled their
freight, as many another old timer
has since done when things got a lit
tie too hot for him.
After crossing the mountains they
came W the Estancia plain, and
feeling somewhat easier in their own
minds by this time, took occasion to
note how Nature had furnished an al
most perfect grade for a railroad from
Torrance Cor what is that now in
this direction.
Suddenly their eyes fell upon the
Rio Pecos. All seemed quiet and Sc
rene, and they resolved to pitch their
tent, here and make their future home.
One thing, however, was against This
proposition. The wild plums Ind
prickly pears which, in the Rio Grande
valley had supplied their gastronomi-
cal apparatus with material upon
which to operate, were rather scarce
in the Pecos Valley; and SO they had
to dig for a living. Possibly this may
accoun for the bottomless lakes on
the East side of the Rio Pecos; be
cause Nature abhors a vacuum, and
it is altogether likely that the holes
which they dug filled up with water
in after years.
History fails to record what these
first settlers raised; except n thing.
They raised Cain; and old settlers
since their day have sometimes done
a little along that line themselves.
Their kind of Cain, however, must
been different from the cane
we cultivate now days; because it
proved to be an Improbable crop,
although there was plenty of it, such
it was.
Well. they managed to get along
way with out the old lady hav-
ing to AXE in washing; n their
family increased until their descend,
ants became very numerous, and the
Pecos Valley was very well settled.
Then the first, original and most Gel
settlers in New Mexico vent
the way of all the earth and heir
children and their childrens' children
raised their voices and wept and
mourned their untimely end. These
same descendants became pretty
tough citizens, too: and after awhile
there was only one good man left in
the bunch.
One day this good citizen happened
to look out toward the west and OBJ
that it was raining up in the
direction of the White mountains;
and he said to his neighbours: How
is the Hondo? Is she rising? Do you
think there is any danger of an over
flow tonight?" But his neighbors all
laughed him to scorn and replied:
Whats eatin' We? Didn't we all build
a dixie along the Hondo last year?
You are all crazy to get so scared
when we are SO well protected" But
the good man vas wise beyond his
generation, and he concluded to take
no chances On the dixie holding or the
ditch from the Hondo to the North
Spring river carrying off the overflow.
wood. They called it gopher wood
because on account OF the scarcity of
trees in the valley they had to go
the wood to the mountains.
1t is said he laughs best who laughs
last At any rate when the Hondo got
good and ready she went on a regular
tear. And then the good man n his
went aboard their craft and
the other fellows went swimming
down the Hondo and out into the Pc
cos; and they haven't returned yet.
Some of them may be down around
Carlsbad now; but | do not believe
they will nave the nerve to come mp
here and claim the right to be called
the oldest settler on this mundane
sphere. After the flood subsidized some
of the good mans family returned to
the Pecos Valley, determined to try
it over again and grow up with the
country; and the rest were scatter
ed all over the world, and | do not
suppose there is any portion of the