The log cabin Democrat., 1916-04-13
MONO all the historic spots in | the Southwest none is quite so | N thrilling and entrancing as that |
 a1nnO tho old Govt, Eo ..a:l

M N thrilling and entrancing as that
 along the old Santa Fe trail Among those towering granite hills, buried in the silence of the Rockies, are to be found the ruins of Spanish palaces spacious and stately in their day. Here lie the bones of daring scouts like Kit Carson. Here lingering tribes cling to pueblos and till the fer tile valleys in the most primitive fashion. Here live the clifY-dwellers- remnant still wandering through rough-hewn granite halls deserted by their fathers in the long ago.
 Pages might be filled with the men of the mighty Southwest. No more picturesque character ever trav- ersed this wilderness than Augustini- ani-the Hermit of Old Baldy.
 John Mary Augustiniani was a her init because of pious inclination. A nobleman by birth-the product of Italian aristocracy-he was born of the nobility in Sizzario, Lombardy, Italy, in 1901. Under the impulse of religious zeal, he turned his back upon all the wealth and luxury of his Ital- ian home, only to become a wanderec in strange and distant lands. Of this there is legend, common in some fashion to the beginning of every re- formers life. One day he was strolling in the garden of the estate. Suddenly he saw an apparition-the finger of the Virgin pointing toward regions far away. He must therefore lead a soli- tary life in life far from his native home. No cave-dweller in the Orient ever more certainly followed the path of destiny.
 After three years of earnest medita- tion, and at the age of twenty, with only staff in hand, he set out on foot to Rome. Seven long years he dwelt in the caves of Italy, and for five more years he wandered on foot all over Eu- rope. About this time his thought turned toward new continent, and he landed on the shores of Venezuela. Here, still afoot, he traversed the Bra zilian, Chilean and Argentine coun- tries. He then sought out his abode near the dangerous Orizaba volcano in Old Mexico In all these wanderings he became famous as doctor and a priest among the widest Indian tribes.
 Banished to Cuba.
 While doing his prestly work around the city of Orizaba, he was ar rested by the civil authorities. A ! I,.., and conviction followed. He was ban ished to the island of Cuba. From these shores he set sail for New York. He reached St. Louis in the opening of the sixties These were the opening days when the intrepid pioneer blazed began to dream of priesthood among the Indians in the distant West.
 He walked to Kansas City and on to Westport. By invitation of Gonzales. wagon-train king of the historic trail, he found his way to Las Vegas, N. NJ.
 On reaching Las Vegas, he found a cave-home in Kearney's Gap, west of town. The people thought him super human, but their coming broke the quietude he so much longed for. With only his bag of meal. his books and his staff, he began his long journey toward the Owl mountains. There is a we'll worn path on the very summit of Old Badly about which there gathers le- gend of the hermit priest. From breast to breast the story has passed and to this day they Say this is the path of the pious patriarch as he walked to and fro in his devout medi tations. Amidst the snows of this i'm pious solitude until the last tragic hour of his life in the summer of 1867
 About the base of this famous peak lay the trading station of the Santa Fe trail. Old Baldy overlooked the vast outstretching leagues of the Baubien- Maxwell land grant, equal to three states the size of Rhode Island. In the very shadow of these heights, piled in such wondrous beauty. stood the Max well place, where frontiersmen like Kit Carson, Dick Wootton, Don Jesus Abreau, Colonel St. Vrain and ex-Gov- srnor Boggs made their rendezvous for years. Amidst Old Baldy's fastnesses were the famous hiding places of such desperate outlaws as Griego, Poncha, Clay Allison, Chunk, Coal Oil Jimmy, Long" Taylor. and scores of other bandits equally wild and fierce. Thus was Augustiniani environed by mot ey and reckless citizenship.
 
 Story of the Hermit.
 Near the summit of Old Badly there perennial spring whose cold and sparkling waters leap from beneath