Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1909-02-11

al tAItNltlil tlON " Ilfth sohiiiNiSo IL
the hall of the House of Representa-
tives last night when Governor l..
Bradford Prince called to order the
meeting of the Historical Society Of
New Mexico, the meeting being one
of two public ones given each year.
Ex-Governor Prince by way Of intro
duction, explained what work the So
ciety had been doing, how it had Sc
cured additional space for its exhibits
and what splendid increase the So.
ciety had made in the line of collect
ing relics and documents Of great his
torical value. He spoke of the new ar
rangement OF the rooms of the Histor-
ical Society and especially the con-
version of one of the rear rooms into
library, making it quite convenient
for every one, SO desiring, to consult
the historical references, books
and documents. "The library is the
best on Southwestern historical topics,
west of the Mississippi said he. Be-
fore him on the table, the Ex-Governor
displayed large number of original
historical documents, dealing with the
early history of New Mexico. Several
of the documents were explained by
him while relating interesting events
connected with their origin. The i'm
portance of the documents, of collect
ing them and preserving them, was
dwelt upon. Ex-Governor Prince then
introduced Prof John n. Vaughn of
the Normal School of Las Vegas.
Professor Vaughn read a most inter
esting paper on the subject, "Pikes
Expedition and the Coming of the
Americans The paper was one of
especial value and contained much in
formation that was not generally
known heretofore to most of those
present. The discourse is published
in another part of this issue and is
well worth a careful reading.
When Professor Vaught had con-
cluded, DR.. W. E. Garrison, who was
not on the program, was called upon
for remarks. In response, he briefly
called attention to the. great import
ance of HAVING men OF learning pre-
pare such papers of a historical ma
ture as the one read by Professor
Vaughn. He maintained that such
|men as Vaughn should be given suffi-
cient leisure time and every possible
facility for such work although it is
highly gratifying to know that men of
his calibre, though overworked, are
still willing to do this additional work
which is that of student. He stat
ed that the Historical Society had
struck a very valuable and fruitful
line of activity" in the work of col
| lecting historical documents. that
while relics and curiosities were we'll
enough in their way and were, Of
course, of incalculable value, histori
cal documents were still far more i'm.
portant because they are the very
foundation stones upon which history
is built. They should be gathered
while there is opportunity, for said he,
there will be no second crop of Or
| iginal historical documents" and too
much stress cannot be laid upon their
Importance.
Professor w. G. Tight was called
upon He is the President of the Ter
ritorial University at Albuquerque and
also a vice president of the Historical
Society. Professor Tight related how
eight years ago he had come to the
territory and that shortly after com.
ling to Santa Fe on official business
he at once became interested in the
Historical Society. He said that while
the majority of the people who come
to New Mexico come for commercial
purposes, they possess higher feel.
! ing" that makes them take an inter.
est in the preservation of the histor.
ical relics and documents of the ter
ritory and that the work of the His
torical Society appeals to the great
majority of the people. Attention was
called to the fact that the people of
| the East have what is commonly call
ed "the swell head" and imagine that
Everything starts and ends in the
East only. "But they will soon get