The chronicle=news., 1913-05-29
"reminiscences Of
The croatier Days

A fellow can experience some
strange optical illusions In the west
ern country and SIN not have the
jim-jams. Wc havc two OF three In
cidonts To report that will bear out
this conclusion. In the balmy IaCntl
Of May. 1880. while riding brVncho
bnck across tho Tornado del :;ucrtO.
or journey Of death. In southern New
Mexico We Witnessed AN aauntci mir
tngc where there Ia not n drop 0f
water for ninety miles. OFF To the
right across tho tito Grande aud
sccmiuxiy midway between the Elc-
phant Butte and San Christobal.
there suddenly loouied up on Il Wide
perfect mirage which ut first wc
thought must be genuine scene so
r"aiiatic did II appear there In the
soft morning sunlight. The phan-
tnsmagcrla WIS that Of beautiful
lake with itn placid surfae. ricam-
Ing In the sunshine like mirror
held up to the face Of nature.
In the foreground We're three
stately cottonwoods forming an arils-
tie perspective In still M. while
-ioSc by. grazing on the short curly
;ras,. was plainly seen an old white
horSc. II WEE this lIvinx Eppariiion
that got our xoat for there was no
mistak!nx the head movements M
aud down As the ancient pegasus
munchcd away AT his morning rcpas,.
We were In the heart Of = great dss-
cr' and there MAS not lake Of water
within ~ hundred miles o! the spec
tra1 place and yet there WAS Dobbin
waiskinE away with his tail. taking u
step or two forward every minute or
70. mud the old head working up and
down like n pump handle We gave
!, up and ~ did the other fellows.
but the Illusion continued for two
hours or more ~ We proceeded on
toward Scidcn.
On another oeeAs,on off to the
South Of this ssmc Tornado with all
it's khoalish traditions. the most Of
which were real. NC came upon an.
other optical Illusion which turned
mystifyinE st first klsncc A. was the
old Dolphin Al the lakes dc. We had
left the train At Lava statIon-for
the railroad had arrived there by this
'Imc-and werc J0ufnryiaR over
toward Fort stanton TO bc the guest
OF the rommaadaat. A Chine~e ser.
scan'. aud the Only astursiis~ti ccics.
tioi ever In the army by the way.
~sA driving III In y xovrsn ment am.
bulsnrc with four sood mules ID
front and finc road ahead. We had
l'assrsi the Grapevine and Dsippia.
Sprinss where Captsin Jack Craw.
ford was working . copper prospect
aud were Just xcttinx ont of the Fan
Andrcas mountains whru something
peculiar q mile or 10 ahead attracted
attention. The perspective showed
what appeared 30 br somc strange:
animals. outlined plainly against the
skyline. rsvortinx around on top Of y
forest and wc could not make II all
out al the distance.
We asked the obscuuioua chink
about Il and his only reply wan: You
walt you scc.'' and this was abou:
all one could expect from . mobile
MonGoiian with = wooden face. wc
thought II might possibly i.c another
mirage hut there was something
-ihcrai about II TO dixpci this con-
clusion and finally us VIC approached
the phenomenon tncr. on top some
low atraxxlinx mahogany trees not
more than four feet high. and hav-
Ing u spread of more than q hundred
feet. was u herd Of Mexican goat.
browsing m contcntcily IN kittens
at their mix aud tho pcsky chink
only grinncd when he saw that we
saw.
Once again In the golden autumn.
farther down the valley and closer to
civilization. We had another chtmcr-
ical jolt that was quite Ms amusing
We were driving from Las Cruccs
back toward I.a McsiIla aud bit to
the north OF that ancient pIacita We
saw two objects that looked like men
dancing In the air as II bewitchcd.
We must have been more than two
miles away and Paauin who was driv.
ing laughed heartily when he said II
WAS only some wincmRkers on La
Flor del Vale ranch The way they
were hopping up and down as II pcs.
tered by yellow Jackets made II ap.
pear as IL they were dancing tn.
devils hornpipc or were trying ia
stamp ont some terrible enemy like
the dragon Under 81. Georges horse
when We pulled up at the ranch the
thing became perfectly clear. \ larg,
circular wine vat but little more than
two feet deep was mounted on q
trcstle Of underpinning that stood
some five feet high and In this were
two crcadoros dc vino treadIng out
tho grapes with their naked feet
their pantallc,s rolled up IN high Il,
possiblc. Old man Spatcicr. ths
maestro OF the ranch. gave Us somt
Of tho now vintage and WC brO,i Rh