The Canon City record with which is consolidated the Canon City cannon., 1916-10-12
did they care for it for that matter.

did they care FOR 1t for that matter.
When the Republic of Texas merg-
ed its identity into the American
Union the object of its founders was
accomplished and the protection of
its people assured: a condition that
could hardly have been upheld under
an autonomy its own The western
line of Texas during the regime we
have been trying to describe included
the major part of the territory of
New Mexico; Santa Fe and Albuquer-
que being well within the confines OF
the republic.
The question is sometimes asked,
How did the Spaniards and the Mex
leans come to occupy so prominent a
place in the history OF the west. es-
pecially in Southern Colorado. before
the advent of the Americans?" The
query is not an unnatural one and in
contemplation Of the early explora-
tions and settlements in this section
is not hard of solution. As, We have
endeavored to show in the course of
this article, the Spaniards were the
masters of the southwest during the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
and their racial kinsmen, the Mexi-
cans, for the first half of the century
just closed.
Santa Fe which is the oldest town
in the United States. with one pos
sible exception, was settled by the
Spaniards and it soon became IN out
post for religious and commercial en-
deavor on the part of the Spanish
priests, traders and explorers of Mexi-
CO, who hoped to extend the flag of
CASTLE over the greater part of North
America. When the decline OF the
Spanish power in the western hemis-
phere began to be manifest the Mexi-
cans threw off their allegiance to the
mother country and set up in business
for themselves, and they began to
step into the shoes of their progeni-
tors at Santa Fe and other places es-
tablished by their predecessors in
the country north of the Rio Grande.
as well as in Arizona and California.
The Spanish people of the 18th and
18th centuries were a highly rnigrat.
ory race of people, and it was not at
all strange that they transmitted that
characteristic to the Mexicans, who
were their descendants. From Santa
Fe Mexicans overfiowed into the sur
rounding country and had pretty well
intrenched themselves in Colorado.
Arizona, California and the adjacent
territories when the "Gringoes" be-
gan their career in the west. The
presence of the Mexicans in Colorado
is consequence of the Spanish con-
quest; about the only explanation of
their being here is that, like Topsy,
they just ''growed."
The changes that have taken place
in the western half of the United
States within the memory of men now
living are indeed marvellous. The
civilization of Spain and Mexico.
which have rendered the land of the
Montezuma hardly less interesting to
the antiquarian than Egypt and India,
has given place in the country north
of the Rio Grande to a civilization so
positive and aggressive that nothing
can stand in its way. 1t is the land of
the utilitarian where all the arts and
agencies of nature are made to con-
serve the purposes of man. II is one
of the exemplars of that mighty
Anglo-Saxon civilization in which the
tide of progress never ebbs and the
star of hope never sets"