Arizona republican., 1914-03-27

and almost barbarous people arrive at the knowledge of these things?
 It is a singular and striking in stance of the abatement of valuable customs that after the advent of the more highly civilized race the ad- vancement which the Indians had achieved in agricultural matters was gradually lost. Acre by acre the fer tile valleys which their rude system of irrigation had made green and fertile were abandoned to the sway of the surrounding country. bitches and laterals' checked and filled. Cac- tus replaced corn. The horned toad abounded where song birds had sought their food. Desolation re- placed prosperity. Savagery in it's widest aspect swallowed up the civ illzation of the Pueblos and out Of the desert swept a bosom of sand to wipe away the gardens they had made
 It was a picturesque civilization which those old Pueblos enjoyed 1 Their garments were woven of yucca fibre, of cotton and the down of the cottonwood tree, of native grasses and even of cat and rabbit skins and buckskin. Bright colors abound ed. The head dresses of the officials were aflame with the brilliant plumes of the macaW. Bright dyes stained the tunics worn by the younger wo- men and even their footwear bore barbaric evidence of this love of col CT Their dress, as a whole, was simply fashioned, sanitary and com fortable
 They were a race of worshipers, and none among them were so high ly honored or implicitly obeyed as the prophets or priests. These were superior even to the war chiefs, and their incantations, prayers, lasts and lengthy rites made their positions among the tribes no sinecures. These were also the physicians of the tribe,
 treated diseases by laying on hands, by prayer and chants and the Weav- ing of spells. They could have given some of the faith curists of this l present day valuable points on prac- 1 tice.
 i But it was in their agricultural
 methods that the Pueblos shone with 1 brightest lustre. Their fields were | small, but they knew the gift of the
 waters and they were cunning in ! leading the great river aside through their laterals, sub-laterals and
 Gitches of varying degree, and flow
 ing it upon their thirsty fields. The
 result was that in the midst of a
 parching desert they made them 1 gardens that would have won the en-
 " of the Egyptians themselves. Into the midst of this Utopian ely
 sium, in the early part of the six | teenth century, came an adventurous troop of Spaniards, bringing with | them their Roman Catholic priests their flaming arquebuses. their Eur
 opean civilization; and Pueblo insti- i tutions entered upon a gradual de- ! cline. Missions took the place of the public dancing mesas; monks replac- 1 ed the medicine men; heather incan-
 tations gave way to masses; but
 agriculture waned. For some reason
 the vitality of the tribes declined | The genius of Pueblo civilization
 passed under a cloud, and as yet nc
 sun of refinement appeared upon the horizon. The old was suffering de-
 cay; the new was yet to come
 Meantime America was slowly evolving. Along the Atlantic coast
 the colonies established themselves
 and began driving their outposts into the westward wilderness. Along the
 Pacific coast a few adventurous spir- it's, attracted by the genial climate
 and the magnificence of the scenery
 had builded settlements and wer,
 slowly transforming the wildernes:
 into a paradise. Then, in 1S4S a la
 borer discovered gold in the tail-rac,
 of the Sutter mill and the mad rusl
 to the Fl Dorado began.
 But all this while the whilom fer
 tile valley of the Rio Grande was un
 Is. '..''l'