The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1921-07-28

The Wonderland, New
Mexico.
A Land 5000 Feet High.
Haughtiness In Solitude.
Glory in Mountains.

Uou&TltSl0SS III oOVSuuo.
j Glory in Mountains.
by ARTHUR BRISBANE
Copyright. 1871. :
To realize the beauty and grand
. eur Of this earth see New Mexico.
Under your eyes, beside the rail-
4 road track, are huddled the adobe
huts of half q dozen Indian fam
lies, living as they lived thou
sand years ago, scraping from the
earth thin living. Their home is
q square box of mud, before it
rounded mud structure like
beaver, but in which bread is
Beyond are magnificent table
lands five thousand feet above the
sea. now given over to feeble
grass, sage brush, goats and sheep.
On those broad lands will live one
day q nobler race than any this
earth has known. 1T hath not
been shown what we shall be-" AT
intervals on all sides rise majestic
dark blue mountains, each ruler in
it domain, so magnificently beau
ttful as it rises toward the bril-
liant blue sky and light travelling
ciouds that your heart feels pain
In looking at it. You wonder that
mans conceit can persuade him
that he is important in the Mind
that rules this planet and billion
others.
Wide stretches of these lands
are called desert lands. They are
lands OF infinitely varying form.
color and beauty, magnificent des-
erts. deserts one day to blossom.
Here you see a big Indian village.
Two buildings are bigger than the
others-one. the Indian school,
that comes from Washington; the
other, the church, that comes from
Rome, the power that reaches out
here before any other.
There are patches of color on
every washed hillside, and patches
Of color on every Indian. Man
follows nature, imagining that he
leads.
These Indians are poor, and ig-
norance, worst of all poverties,
curses them. Their village is by
the edge Of the muddy stream, so
often dry. They car live there
safely now. Beyond their houses
Of mud, they see the old trail that
leads up to the cliff where once
they dwelt, watching for maraud-
ers that ate any meat, human
meat preferred. Some wrinkled
old Indian may know vaguely of
that ancient life. The young In
dian knows of it as little as the
London taxi driver knows of the
days when his ancestors lived hid
ing in swamps, afraid of strange
men from the north that came
killing in their viking ships.
But ignorant as they are, and
poor as they are, when you see
the Indian face close by, eyes that
look over you, not4-Atsyou,-$ou re-s
member Plato's line, "Haughtiness
lives under the same roof with SOL
itude." Even crouching 1t the
railroad stations, selling "Indian
wares" that may be made in
Birmingham, those Indians have
not entirely lost the dignity born
Of ten thousand years in this glori-
GUS land. Ard dignity that. can
resist the humiliating effects of
retail commerce, and contact with
unspeakably ignorant, travelling
superior whites, is deeply planted
indeed. ...-...
On these lands, half barren or
all barren now, the soil lies over
vast stretches, twenty feet deep
and more. No one knows what,
wealth of food this land will one
day produce, or what other wealth
lies hidden in those mountains.
Here is a wonderland, a magic
land that for centuries will edu-
cate and inspire those that come
to see it and stay long enough to
learn what it can teach. In this
wide country the air is so clear
and pure you feel that you could
reach up and touch the sky. And
of all the wealth urdeveloped that
it offers, the greatest is the edu-
eating work that it could do for
the dull imaginations Of one hun
dred millions of Americans. Il
1t were possible to bring here tre
millions that live in cities, the
lives Of Gagged canaries, giving to
each three months of cortempla-
tion and real thought in these wide
spaces, the human average of this
country might be pushed ahead
several centuries.
But perhaps three months would
not be enough for some of US.
Studying your fellow travellers In
this slice of civilization on wheels,
you perceive that some still have
eyes and see not. One assures you
with deep earnestHess that at the
next stop they take on fresh trout
for the dining car. Another, having
bought and exhausted various fic-
tion periodicals. remarks: "I'll say
] don't blame these Indians for
killing everybody if they had to
live out here all the time. Wouldn't
you think the Government would
at least give the poor things a
moving picture show?"