Higginf The land of sunshine THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES r 7i A^ k \\ \-% V \ i':\\ \ of ^unskine k oy 0^ \J^ THE >?*^^,\\-:3. ^iiii^if Land of SuNSHiNfi. By C. a. HIGGINvS. II^LUSTRATIONS BY J. T. McCUTCHEON. CHICAGO: 'I'riE Hf:nry O. Shepard Company. I8' 2. CONTENTS. I. Something about Climate, with reference to New Mexico in general and Las Vegas Hot Springs in particular, 5 II. A Sanitarium for the Sick, a Recuperating- , place for the Overworked, and a Pleasure Resort for the rest of Mankind, ... 15 III. New Mexican Sketches : 1. A Backward View, 29 2. Touching Burros, 33 3. The Pecos Church, 37 4. Mountain Trout and Quail, .... 43 876245 Somctbing about Climate, witb reference to IRew /llbeitco (n general auD Xas Wegas Ibot Springs in particular, sssssssss r^"^-^-?^ ."^^'^^4i'-:^'<'' tIu -^ point of latitude New Mexico \%^ is southern, just as in point of fH!!) longitude it is western, for it V lies wholly below the 37th par- allel and extends sovitherly j:~- beyond the northern line of every one of the Gvilf states except Florida. Is it then a land of n relaxing winters and torrid summers? By no means. In imagining an untried climate in southern latitudes it is a common error to overlook two very important factors. Elevation above sea-level is the first ; humidity, or its absence, is the second. With regard to the first, it should be remembered that an elevation of approxi- , mately 800 feet above any -^ given level is climatically ',-4^ equivalent to a degree of lati- tude ; that is to say, an ele- vation of from 5,600 to 7,000 feet above sea-level on the 36th parallel should, other things being equal, be of the same temperature with sea-lev«l between the 42nd and 44th degrees of north latitude. Now 5,600 feet is the exact mean elevation of the entire territory of New Mexico ; thirty-six degrees is the approximate latitude -^. '^r:r.- _: of Las Vegas Hot Springs, and 7,000 feet its altitude. On the other hand, all the New England seaside sum- mer resorts, from Bar Harbor to Newport, lie between the 42nd and 44th parallels. You see the point of the comparison : the climate of Las Vegas Hot Springs would be practically the same as that of the New England coast resorts, pro- vided other things were equal. But other things are not equal. There is an enorm- ous diflference in favor of New Mex- — _ ico, due to the almost entire ab- sence of humidity from the atmos- phere. It is a coun- try of sparse rainfall, and while it has sev- eral important rivers and many small scat- tered streams, the fact tliat in agricul- ture it is almost wholly dependent upon irrigation shows a decided lack of disseminated moisture. The reports of the United States Signal Service con- tain statistics showing the humidity of most localities throughout the country, and from those reports the following figures are taken : New England 73%, Middle Atlantic States 74%, South Atlantic States 79%, Ohio Valley and Tennessee 73 % , Florida 75 % , New York City 72 % , San Francisco 76%, New Orleans 79%, , -/ ■ \y Territory of New Mexico 29% to 43%, according to locality. The contrast presented by these figures is still more strongly marked when it -f^; \. i' is remembered that by ^ [ ^ " humidity is meant only \ '' the amount of invisible moisture in the air. The frequent visitations of rain and fog to which the sea- side localities named are subjected, make the amount of actual atmospheric moisture miich greater there, while New Mexico has but little rain and never knew a fog. '^ f} The area of the territory is 122,444 square miles, whose mean altitude, as already stated, is 5,600 feet. 'One-fiftieth of that area rises above 10,000 feet, and it possesses several mountain peaks at least 13,000 feet high. This pronoiniced altitude of an entire territory, averaging nearly as high as the famous crest of New England's giant, Mt. Washington, would certainly be characterized by ex- treme cold in winter were it not, first, for its southerly latitude, and secondly, for the extraordinary dryness A DISTANT MOLNTAIN. of the air. In point of fact, the combination of these three factors results in a temperate climate whose equability is but little affected by summer or winter solstice. There is hardly a day in the year when the most sensitive invalids may not be out of doors with impunity, nor is there any season when the' infirm may not and do not make excursions among the picturesque hills and inviting canons, and picnic on the ground. In mid- u '■*: "^i i'V- summer the rays of the sun are ardent, ' ^'_,;' but never harmful. No one was ever over- heated in New Mexico by work or exercise in the sun ; and in the shade, and at night, it is always ccol, for the dry, pure air contains nothing that can be heated. So, in winter, while nights are often cool, they never approach the eastern experience ^^ *^ of winter weather, and with the rising of the sun the temperate warmth returns. Snow buries the distant lofty ranges, <ind in the night, at rare intervals, falls lightly upon the lower levels, ' but never remains there save for a day or two in patches among the caiion shades. One hundred and eighty- \ seven days of unclouded sky, ^^ » one hundred and thirty-nine '>^,;j^ days when sunshine predomi- nates, and thirty -nine cloudy dajs make up the average year in New Mexico, and of the thirty- nine days that are cloudy there is hardly one on which the sun does not shine at least a part of the time. On account of this preponderance of *j clear sky the territory has long )j^ been known as The Land of '* Sunshine. How it can be a land ■^ ,'*■' ''■ ''"i'^i^-f^'^'^''' .»V. ^, ■'C of sunshine iu southern latitudes and be free from oppressive summer heat, and how it can lie at an alti- tude equal to that of the White Mountains and be free from severe winter cold, should now be plain. But what is the average sum- mer and winter temperature ? Now of all the irresponsi- ble combinations known to num- bers, the most abandoned is probably the average ; and of all averages the mean temperature of a given locality is, without any doubt, the most barren of information. Imagine, if you please, a country whose temperature is uniformly in summer 6i°, and in win- ter 59° ; and another whose summer and winter tem- peratures are respectively ioo° and 20°. The average temperature of each country is 60°, yet the one where the thermometer blisters for six months and congeals the rest of the time is represented by the same figure as the other where there is a variation of only 2° in all the year. ,,i|l The record of five years' . obsen^ations at l,as Vegas ; '^'*' 'i^'" % Hot Springs gives the fol- ■■; lowiog mean tempera- j i. tures: ' . . '|vfif"' January 41.0, February 49.0, March 56.0, April Till-; SKASiin-; 58.0, May 61.4, June 71.4, July 74.0, August 71.9, September 65.0, October 55.4, November 53.7, December 52.0, or a meau annual tem- perature of 59.07. What this record cannot communicate is the fact that the citizen of New Mexico has his cold winter weather at night, when he sits by the fire or lies in bed under an extra blanket : while by day he hardly knows the use of an overcoat. It does not communicate the fact that in midsummer the blanket is still in de- mand, but the heat of noonday is never dis- ^ tressful. In the East the mean annual temperature is an averaging of violent extremes of heat and cold. In New Mexico it represents the habitual rather than the average. IN Till' 1: A WINTER IN TIIK NORTH. (CAR IN NKW MKXIv II. a Sanitarium for tbe Sich, a IRecuperatingsplace tor tbe ©vervvorftcD, an& a iIMeasure=resort tor tbc rest of /IftanftinJ>. = = = = = = |.1n-. T happens that there is scarce J , another known climate so absolutely *^ I : friendly to man and so valuable an ilu./ ally against the innumerable forms of disease that lour upon him all the. way from the cradle to the grave. Its equability at a comfortable temperature, its pure air free from humidity and rarefied by altitude, and its almost un- clouded sun, render New Mexico the most desirable resort in the whole world for those who are afflicted with any form of lung or throat disease ; and as such it is rapidly being adopted by the medical fraternity, not only in the United States but in several countries abroad. It is a fact that New Mexico numbers among its energetic and prosperous citizens hundreds who, lea\-ing their eastern or northern homes a few years ago with no better hope than to prolong by a few months a life apparently doomed to speedy termination by the scourge of our time, consumption, have there regained perfect health and the promise of a long and happy existence. And many others annually desert the harsher regions and repair to New Mexico at the approach of winter ^"f^ to preserve their lives. It is certain that consumption can be arrested, and even 17 ±1- ^-^', _ .iliiit ■'fii' .11 permaneutly cured, by residence there, if the change be made in time. And the climate that can not only withstand but conquer so terrible an adversary is a match likewise for a long array of other less for- midable human ailments. Are you aware for how few locali- ties in the world such a sweeping claim can be Jf^ made without /* t\ violation of the n truth? Do you i\\ know that the complications of disease find some fatal flaw in nearly every variety of climate ? Even New Mexico makes one exception in welcoming the sick. High altitudes are commonly regarded as aggravating to pronounced heart dis- ease, and sufferers from that malady in an advanced stage are not advised to go there for relief; but every other class of invalid may confidently anticipate the most kindly treatment, for those ailments which the soft ministrations ot climate alone cannot wholly obviate, yield when such ministrations are i8 VICEROY'S PALACE AT SANTA FE. '^M W,^ supplemented by the medicinal virtues of the Springs, to specific mention of which at last we are come. Half a dozen miles northwest from the old town of Las Vegas they bubble out of the hillside, some forty of them, varying in tem- perature from ice-cold to boil- ing hot, but most ^ of them ranging from iio° to 140° Fahrenheit. How long their cura- tive properties' have been known to man it is idle to speculate, for the region has been peopled for many centuries, per- haps for thousands of years ; but their fame among Mexicans and Indians led to the establishment there of a frontier United States army hospital nearly fifty years ago, while yet the northern and western bounds of Texas were the Arkansas River and the Rio Grande, and all west of the Rio Grande and south of Oregon was Spanish Dominion, and the wild- erness had been penetrated by very few of Anglo-Saxon race. Since that time numberless cases of nearly every form of disease suscepti- ^ ^ ble of mitigation have been either entirely 111* 1 f!!f! 19 ^4 H. ^-C" cured or greatly alleviated by the liberal ■*^i^:.; use of the spring water in drinking and , v '=^_ , -. bathing, aided by the 'j ' health -restoring in- fluences of the climate. While a chemical analysis has no particu- ^ "^ -^-- - lar value for the average unpro- fessional reader, it is a certificate of character to such as understand its meaning. The waters of Las Vegas Hot Springs, therefore, have been subjected to careful test by Dr. Walter S. Haines, Professor of Chemistry, Rush Medical College, who states that in many respects they resemble in chemical composition 4^^^ KIO GRANDE »-<ls I" 11/* the waters of the famous hot springs of Teplitz and Karlsbad, and finds — them to contain special ingredients in the amounts set down below, for Ki LMKUNAix. loiM.KP IN i-i every standard gallon : Carbonate of Calcium 0.89 grains. Carbonate of Magnesium. 0.15 Carbonate of Sodium 8.38 Carbonate of Totassium 0.28 Sulphate of Sodium 3.35 " Chloride of Sodium 14.68 " Silica 3.50 " Alumina o.io " Volatile and Organic Matter 0.32 " Carbonate of Lithium Traces. Bromide of Sodium Trace. Total 31.65 grains. Ask your family ph3-siciau whether or not hot natural spring water so charged ''JuLfl with chemicals should possess rem- ■^i?^. edial qualities. He will tell you that «;«¥ it belongs to the class termed Alka- line-Saline, and is beneficial in „'/. ^' cases of acute and chronic rheum- ^ ■^'•'/- </, , ..i^c/ - atism, gout, blood-poisoning, ^ ~ ^^^^^. J ''"-''. \i^-^>^ ' diseases of the skin, gland- '^^^SiM^f^ < ".^^=1.= tilar and scrofulous diseases, y' ^^LJJjr i 1 " "^i. mental exhaustion, debility, ">' -^rafSi^ .^«*V-^^ spinal troubles, nervous -Mr affections, dyspepsia, and a «3{iMi™Mi-. long list of other maladies >^4jPHWjP|^^ b«»^^ .• which for want of space '^^^aS^ft^' ' . ,^ "i' must be compressed into e/ '''^^^^V' | / , / si«?».^"'!.*ii5 cetera, et cetera. A combination of climate and mineral water exists at Las Vegas Hot Springs which will effectually rout almost any curable disease. The invalid who can ,™~-n„ I V- sit in that sunshine and breathe that ."■ ;*«Mi air ; can drink that water, bathe in the <ffls^uv" 9 "l?";^' \ ^^^ ^^ *^> ste^m in the vapor of it, lie :--f.,(!f^t^-f\^^~"^J^^ ^W -^\ "Ow ot It, ste^m in tne vapor oi it, iie B* l'?ir^- :- ~ ^'■*' packed in the mud of it, and hold fast ;r?i ^f:.'. •-■>' -s» '^-~~ to his disease through it all, has never r. "||r||'V u i ^^' yet been met with. Even imaginary -4_-i-- ——--;•:: ailments give way before forces so potent -'^i^^-EMJSaHiMH-i--— No one who has taken a \^i^7'''[' a? Turkish bath ever again flatters himself he is next door to ;v„ „ godliness after a common ablution ' PiivS^: with soap and water ; and just as the Jlili.'lij , ' Turkish bath searches out and removes I 111 I ^, ' ''fr^ / ' unsuspected external accumulations of for- eign matter, so do repeated baths and draughts of these hot medicated waters wash the entire system free from its impurities and leave the body clean. Is not that, then, a favored spot, where healing waters gush forth in unstinted flow, amid surroundings which, even were there no medicinal fountains, would still be unrivaled in the possession of recuperative elements? And when to these are added vistas of grass-grown meadows between the notches of hills set thick with pine and fir, watered by a stream that flows out from steep rocky walls into winding courses beneath the shade of vnllow and alder and aspen and maple. idling here aud there in transparent pools to have a word with the trout ; canons penetrating the mountain sides, overhung by precipices faced with tree and crag; lofty lookouts and deep secret dells, and far glimpses of purple shadowed ranges knocking their heads against the distant sky; must not such a spot be worth going far to see and know? Well, that is Las Vegas Hot Springs, only with a greater diversity of beauty and a subtler charm than so brief a description can convey. Nature did not design it for the sick alone, although for them she made particular provision ; the tourist who desires a new sensation ; the student of the ruins of antiquity ; the dreamer who delights in mementos and suggestions of a romantic and irrecoverable past ; the lover of nature who prizes imperishable memories of exalted scenic beauty ; the sportsman, devotee of the rod and gun ; the man of business who seeks relief from harassing cares in a retirement at once secluded and invigorating ; and the vast general public that appreciates the delights and benefits of an occasional sojourn in some favored spot where the cHmate is mild, the sunshine constant and the air inspiring, and where rest, health and profitable pleasures are combined ; — these, equally with the invalid in quest of surroundings whose medicinal virtues shall restore his vanished health, are welcome guests. They will find at Las Vegas Hot Springs not only the natural attractions that have been described and suggested, but a crown- ing provision for their comfort and happiness in the luxurious and perfectly appointed Montezuma Hotel, — the only thing that was want- ___Sfe^^j^ ing, after the completion of I'^jrfj^-^iTp^ #^ 1 the railroad, ^^^f^'' to place this " ideal sanitarium . . „^, :., • - ,^^,ji,!b--^' '^.ffiij'^"'**"'— _JS'-"^^" ■ ^^ service ■^^^^^C^--- hMt-.,-^^^^- of all mankind. The Montezuma is a '■.<•-._ perpetual surprise and delight to visitors, no matter what they BATH HOUSE. may have been led to expect before going to the Springs, for it is not easy to believe in the actual existence of a hotel so extensive and magnificent, so complete and modern in every particu- lar, nestled against the side of a caiion far from the accustomed home of lavish expenditure. The dream of a genie slumbering amid his treasures; that is the Montezuma. There is ample accommodation for hundreds in its numerous apartments, abundant room for a multitude on its spacious sunny verandas. The baths are close at hand, with every facility ■- ; \ ■.::.'^ .,>.",T':^'ffl' m and every modern method ' " ~'''~^''ii vf i " t^' of apphcation under the - /i^r«^,,. ' ^Ai«il-!1^ direction of specially 'Jj^p^^Wf^'^^ trained attendants. Saddle T^^^^^ ' >«.',, j/ horses and conveyances are te^-^ ^!- '/4i ' at the disposal of those who wish to penetrate % jtm^f^j^^vi' jj; farther into mountain solitudes than is practi- • "^ - •'' cable for the pedestrian. There are trout for hotkl office. fishermen ; quail, ducks and geese abound, and larger game may be found in the forest by hunters who crave the rewards of a more toilsome chase. Decayed monuments of pre-historic peoples exist for the beguilement of the archaeologist and historian. Music, dancing, billiards and bowling are provided for the lovers of such pleasures. And yet, so broad and peaceful is the environment, an air of quiet rest per- vades the scene, and the invalid is undisturbed by the activities of his more robust fellows. Neither need one contemplate from afar the possible fatigue of a journey. Las Vegas Hot Springs is less than two days ride by rail from Chicago and St. Louis, and from those cities, as well as from intervening points, through palace sleeping cars run daily to Las Vegas without change ; while, from the south, as far as the City of Mexico, and from the west as far as California, the same comfort-ensuring facilities exist. Round trip tickets to Las Vegas Hot Springs at greatly reduced rates may be obtained throughout the year. III. * * IRcw /IDcjican Sftctcbes. 27 A BACKWARD VIEW. "Ny OOK out from the open window of '■ your room in the Montezuma, through which a cool, sweet current is gently blowing. Far below, at the foot of the path that winds along green terraces, a fountain plays among the trees and shrubs of a plaza, behind which, as also to the right, rise steep tree-clad slopes, sierras cresting an elevation already more than a mile above the sea. To the left the vegas stretch away for sixty miles, their undulations softened by distance into an inviting plain of every conceivable shade of green, gilded by the morning sun. Rest, peace, security, everywhere meet the sight. It is a hushed sabbath of beneficent nature, made more impressive by recollection of a time, not long past, when romance and terror lurked beneath the same smiling face of that landscape, then no less inviting, no less fair. And as you gaze you will reflect upon a still older time, when down the mountain side and out over the grassy vegas, his eye beholding nearly the precise picture upon which yours dwells, strode an heroic pioneer, a knight in clanking armor, a gigantic figure in romantic annals — the First Invader. It is easy to fancy yourself face to face with the six- teenth century. You almost look for the print of the ^-'- - knight's heel in the grass. It was yesterday he passed. And there is a legend that if one should journey eastward for many wearisome, hazardous months one would come upon Atlantic shores, but meet no living soul except lost heathen. And to the north and west lies an unexplored land of undetermined bounds, full of allurement and mystery and peril. It is the genius of the true Christian to adventure and win earth from pagan rule. Great will be the reward of endeavor. The entire kingdom, a thousand leagues across the sea, is agog for news of the New World. Already in anticipation its acclamations greet the hungry ear of the warrior who is resolved to plant its banner in the heart of an unclaimed wilderness and bring under the dominion of the Cross unnumbered m^ultitudes of benighted souls. But the way is hard; graves lie scat- tered behind ; and the soldiers murmxir and wonder whose sturdy frame will next succumb to the rigors oi the task, whose voice will next be missed from the camp-fire song. Yesterday? He stands before you ^^^ now, that Invader, his stern, swart . -<^^^^^ face bent uncompromisingly on you, faint-hearted follower that you are, his extended arm still northward pointing. ^'Forward, for God and Spain!'' he thunders. But with a sensation of relief tm;^. THE riRST INVADER, entirely unheroic, you will scram- ble back to the extreme rear of the nineteenth century and go to breakfast instead. Yet, in spite of the romantic achievements of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, never was there more miraculous doing on the face of this round world than in our own time. The soldier in armor threaded a perilous way over these mountains and across these upland plains and lifted here the standard of Spain ; and the wilderness closed behind him upon a bedouin race unconquered and unyielding. The locomotive came, morning sun of our later day, and the bedouin fled ; and the scattering mist revealed the benignant Saxon ruling the land, irresistible and serene. It is well that he is benignant, that Saxon, for he is a terrible man. Or, rather, he is the mani- festation of a law of earth that out of the north and east shall come strength and power. The west wind never wafted the fleet of a conqueror, the tropics never threw victorious armies into the upper zones; the shadow of the domi- nant man advances with the sun, and Boreas is at his back. He built the Montezuma. Yonder, if you seek the contra.st, observe the chief comtnemorative monument of his world-subjugating predecessor — a squat adobe hut, in- habited by a brown-faced, black- eyed, black-haired family, picturesque in appearance, courtly in manner, but insulated, isolated, as foreign to our real American life as if they dwelt beyond the sea. As for the bedouin Indian, you shall seek an example of his prime in vain. Only cowed rem- nants of him are scattered here and there, disreputably arrayed, dethroned and ridic- ulous. And while you are making onset upon an excellent morning meal in the aesthetic dining hall of the Montezuma, the inhabitants of the adobes will be masticating dried kid and chili. ; The aborigine has apparently schooled himself not to eat, since the pillaging of the Saxon is be- come for him a thing forever past. GERONIMO. 32 vit^Sg*??' is situated in tin vkxiru, at ;ia cUrvatiou of 6,767 icil .lesuiisliiue is constant and the c6p\ V of tlie air are ulwayrt iuvigoi-ating. It is lu ' d.lias tlie best of accotnmodations for .sever:: I its table is suj)plicd with every staple and ^•-nth, Kast and West. The dry, eqnriM- . particularly recommended by ph^ ■ ni hay fever, asthma, catarrh or e- - of the hf)t niineral springs are • ut, blood poison, diseases of the iloii'^ diseases, tntflital exhnnstion (h-'>il dyspopsi. \ rrj-.NiiANei:, n Vuirar and Pack, $ia>o Tuh • 5<> Mud, three for.. $5 " five for ... >; seven for . h ■ ten for — '.a'^ \ (.-gas Hot Springs is six iiules ilisianl Jrom Las \ ■. i '\Mi on the main line of the vSanta 7^6 Route, through -sv : !lirough Pullman palace sleeping cars*are run df\ily to ^rom Chicago, St. Tvouis, Ivansas City and intermediate pi ' !ie,t,'ast, Denver, Colorado Spritigs and Pueblo on the ii' -. ico on the south, and California on thi v. .-,f -vA trains. to and from the springs make close • !}i rough trains. For hotel rates address the mana ' . f Vegas Hot Springs, New Mexico. Round trip tickets at reduced tat loruiation desire<l, may be obtained from ;iii\ -Santa Fe Route throughout the countrv, or iti< addressed to ■VRNE, As.si.sUiut I'as.S(-nKer Traffic .Man.igci, -aiita Fe Route, 723 Moiimliiock llidg-., CHIC ^iCHOLSON, General Passenger autl 'rickct Agent, Atchison. Toptka & Santa Vd Kailro.id, TOfPf: A n. WISHART, Ceneral Passtngfcr and Ticket Air. ' St. I.ouis i<t San l-'raiicisco Kailway. S'l ' 'i. THOMPSON, General Passenjjer and Ticket. Agcu Gulf, Colorado & Sant;i W- Kailw" ' \' ■' C. S. LEE, General Pas.sengt^r and Ticket A Colorado Midland Knilw.ay. ])KN> ■V. A. BISSELL, General Pas.senger Apicv.i. Atlantic & Pacific Railroad, ■^. r.. HYNES, General Passen.i^er ,\i;' .'^oiilliti ;i Crilifnriiia K TOUCHING BURROS. <^^ VERY living creature is respectable in his into foreign surroundings is he wanting in validity. In contemplating an occasional imported specimen of the burro in the East it is possible you have never taken him seriously. In New Mexico, then, you will make amends, for you will find him entirely authentic in his own realm. Unenterprising, fond of his ease, opinion- A| ated, and a doubter ; that is the burro in outline, up to his ears. As for those huge organs, they were evolved to enable him to catch the faintest first whisper of a command to relapse into statuesque inacti%-ity. In point of fact, they serve him even better, for he often chooses to imagine that such man- date has issued from his rider, and arrogant in the possession of his appalling, winglike appendages he stops, absolutely — and so far as may reasonably be inferred from his manner, forever. It avails nothing with him to argue that j^ou never said it. He droops an ear gratefully, relaxes a hind leg, shifts his equi- poise over upon the remaining tripod, and waits for the end of the world. Only the most emphatic prod- 33 ^r^" w*^«.*( ding will persuade hitn to ..^ resume his reluctant way. If he should manifest any seem- "^^ ing inclination toward alacrity it will be due to his discovery that you object to traveling in a direction contrary to that in which your des- tination happens to lie. In the flash of such a divina- tion he is capable of voluntary activity, and will even break into a jog trot for a distance of twenty yards — an entirely unprofitable ebullition of energy, if you are considering your own interests, for his progress is side- long, radiate, tangential, what you will except onward in the path of your choice. It is better not to betray a purpose when mounted upon a burro ; at any rate, no other purpose than that he shall keep in motion. To effect this you will find the best weapon a goad, improvised from a stout stick, whittled to a point. Prod him with this resolutely, vigorously, frantically ; prod him unceasingly. You will not offend him. He expects it. He seems to like it. But do not ask him to follow so logical a sequence as a path, above all the right path. Beat about the bush, and the crag, and behave as if you were going nowhere in particular. Tack him, jibe him, ease him off the instant he jC'^^ appears to divine your secret, ^^s^^^'^^^ If your course lies directly ^^^ .^ to the north, be content with noi^thwest, northeast, and even occasionally south- hand. southwest ; aud if you fiud yourself driftiug too decidedly into southern latitudes, act as if you were eagerly bound for the tropics ; you can fool him. It is well to change the goad frequently from hand to This not only enables you to bear up longer against fatigue, but doubles the likelihood of finding a vulnerable spot in his callous epidermis. When your strength finally fails you can walk. You can alwaj-s find your burro again when you want him. To be entirely truthful, that is the worst of a burro, that you are morally certain to find him where you left him, whether you want to or not, unless you have been absent so long that hunger has forced him to move. The present writer does not regard himself as gen- erally either an astute or a vindictive person, but it gives him a malicious satisfaction to this da)^ to remem- ber how he avenged himself on his first (and last) burro, abandoned in despair on an outward trip some three miles from the Montezuma, few hours later, he passed the con- tentedly waiting creature without a glance of recognition and footed it back to the hotel with a merry heart, alone. Next morning, they said, the burro was found behind the stable, limp, despondent, disgusted, his long cheeks bedewed with tears. 35 ReturniusT, some his air proclaiming the shadowed, misanthropic soul of one wha i-4^ has been betrayed by man and possesses an ineradicable griev- ance. He had expected to be ' pushed home. 36 '^. .4- ''""^WSk THE PECOS CHURCH. I ROM the window of the Pullmau car, two hours' ride below Las Vegas, may be seen, a few miles away, a strange brown ruin standing like a dismantled castle upon a fortress-like elevation overlooking the surrounding plain. It is one of the Missions founded by Franciscan monks, uobodj- appears to know exactly when, but doubtless soon after the Spanish invasion, and something like three hundred years ago. On account of its location at the Pecos pueblo it is locally known as the Pecos Church. Abandoned, solitary, forming with the adjacent debris of still more ancient structures the only visible sign and handiwork of man in that lonely valle}-, it was once the center of a busy throng, and often the scene of savage warfare. It may be reached by a ^our-mile drive from the small station Rowe, over that highway of romantic memory, the old Santa Fe Trail. Although a valley hemmed in by mountains, the level table land is eleva- ted some 7,000 feet above the sea. It stretches broadlj- before the eye, an arable plain, unbroken save by occasional arroyos and the single mound that rises nearl}- in the center, buttressed on three sides by 37 enormous crags, bastions invulnerable to the assault of an enemy, although the hand of man had nothing to do with its building. Upon this natural elevation the ruin stands like a watch-tower, an adobe shell, roofless and desolate, backed by the debris of what was once a pueblo, a tribal Indian home. Stern must have been PECOS CHXTRCH. the necessity that forced a peaceful primitive people like the Pueblos to choose a stronghold for their dwelling place, and doubtless the Franciscan Fathers bowed to the same necessity in building their church upon the crown of that citadel ; for though there is 38 ■^i'|i|llillNilJ[,'|S"».*«- SAN MIGl'lJI,. still discernible an old irriga- ting ditch iu evidence of once fruitful fields and agricultural occupations, in two hours' search j'ou may find upon the surface of the slopes of the mound a double handful of arrow heads, fashioned from flint and jasper and saw-toothed obsidian ; cruel, jagged things, shot by those untameable wild men whose nature is to make relentless war upon every people except their own. Little is known of the history of the Pecos Church ; nothing whatever that is trustworthy of the origin of the Pueblos, who differ from the roving Indian tribes almost as widely as if they were not Indians at all. Say that they were stragglers who lagged behind in the great southward march of the Toltecs twelve hundred years ago, and no really well informed person will be likely to dispute you. But the main story of the ruined church is readable upon its crumbling walls. To a peaceful, populous village of those mysterious Pueblo Indians, huddled in their curious apartment houses of adobe and stones upon the summit of this mound, came the old Spanish priests, and preached the gospel ; and for the better preach- ing they builded a Mission and there dwelt for a space of years with their flock ; and by and by they went away ; and they and their flock are no more. 39 CHAPKI, KOSARIO. PUF.r.I.O OF LAGT'XA. ^"i^^'Lj- Inclined to religious rites, to peace and the gentle pursuits of agriculture, the Pecos Indians still were stubborn fighters for their homes and their kin. Their enemies were unable to dislodge them, unless the final removal of the remnant of the tribe to the banks of the Rio Grande fifty 3-ears ago was an ultimate concession to hostility. At any rate they remained long after the priests had departed, and so long as they remained (so the tradition runs), there ceased not from the altar of the church erected to the glory of the Catholic faith a fire, by night or day, a vestal flame, maintained by the Pueblos in expectation of Montezuma' s return to earth and power. The demi-gods have their habitat as surelj- as plant or animal species. Each must be sought upon his particular Olympus ; and because Montezuma is not to be found wdthin the boundaries of New England, nor anywhere upon the prairies of the western states, one must not therefore deny him in the land of echo- ing canons, of desert tracts, of cacti, of lofty altitudes, and, withal, of abundant verdure, flowers and fruits, and of pure air and sunshine. Although you may be justified in hearkening to the tradition of the vestal flame with mental resers'ations, and may have a shrewd notion that the divinity INIontezuma is but an apotheo- sized Aztec emperor fallen heir to the old clothes of the god of his worship, Quetzalcoatl, 5-ou will not unlikely gain a juster sense of the difficulties of engrafting the idealism of a higher race upon the superstitions of a lower. And while you muse by the walls of the old church and tr}- to picture a rotund, shaven, tonsured, cowled company of godly men in ^-v-ivgs such an incongruous setting, three centuries ago, ^ ^-7^ : and then view the tremendous gulf that inter- venes between that time and the da}^ when the stones upon which j-ou sit were first piled into rude dwellings for man, you will reflect that the evolution of pagan gods is a very human thing. As distance is the first essential of a landscape, so some degree of remoteness in experience or space or time is neces- sary to the appreciation of poetic beauty, and, perhaps, in turn creates it. We dream of yesterday and tomorrow. No- bod}- ever wrote an ode to the noonday sun ; it is only his rising and setting that limners paint and poets sing; the day that is gone, and the day that will come. There is no people, no land, so poor in poetry as not to possess a yesterda)-. Everywhere you will find some tradition of an Odysseus, a Buddha, a Moses. "To ever}' nation," says the Koran, "God hath given a prophet in its own tongue." And in whatsoever manner his own may have received him, time deals liberally with a great ^=5* PUEBLO WOMEN' OF ISLKTA man. It will uot have him appear quite mortal to the distant view. It swathes him in atmospheric haze that obliterates something of his human outline, and more and more as we recede. Who among li^dng mouarchs- can be compared to King Solomon ? And can another Cleopatra ever live upon this earth ? Already Napoleon has become a semi-myth, an almost incredible tradition of demonic force, an Attila-scourge, withheld only by the interposition of heaven from overrunning the world. And no man, unrebuked, may now whisper that oiu- own first national hero ever laughed in his sleeve upon the consummation of a horse trade. Time would fain have it so, and poetry demands it. Let us therefore forget of Montezuma that, like Homer, he may be a compo- site hero. Let him have all his halo and at least half a dozen ways of spelling his name. Let him be prince and prophet and redeemer to a mysterious people whose minds cannot grasp our finer symbols of divinity. Let him be the personification of a heathen idea which, stubborn as the Pueblos themselves, still dwells in the canons of New Mexico. MOUNTAIN TROUT AND QUAIL. -HE Pecos River is one of the best trout streams in the United States. The trout do not attain the size of those in the Rio Grande in the State of Colorado, but in number and voracity they satisfy the greedi- est carrier of a creel. Rarely weighing less than half a pound, they often tip the scale at over a pound, and two-pounders are not infrequently taken. Four miles beyond the Pecos Church, almost on the river bank and in the heart of the best fishing, is a comfort- able ranch-house, where excellent accommodations in the way of meals . ' _^ and lodging may be obtained. Here, .-. -i^^ also, is the location of the pro- posed National Park. , For many miles the stream / oflFers the perfection of fly-fishing. Here and there are pools too deep for wading, but the fisher- man equipped with hip-boots is seldom forced to the bank. Fol- lowing the winding shallows, the entire stream may be whipped. ■iJii 43 left and right, and every lurking-place under project- ing shore and bough explored with a cast of flies. In a delightful three days upon this river, the writer recalls but two occasions of even momentary embar- rassment to his leader by bush or branch, and the avidity with which the Pecos trout rise to a fly, and the determination with which they resist capture, has rarely been equaled in his experience. What manner of soul has he who does not love to- drop a cast across the translucent riffles of a stream that chatters endlessly over sand and pebble and ledge, through glimpses of field and wood and gorge, under a friendly sky? In every seductive shoal there lies a tremendous moment of suspense, an absorbing riddle one never wearies of guessing. The powerful and somewhat complex charm of fishing is not com- prehended by those who deprecate the sport. It was not the size, or number, or greediness of the trout that made old Walton declare that "other joys are but toys ' ' ; and if the trout imagine they alone make or unmake the fisherman's joy they are a fatuous lot — his main business is with the brooding mother of us all. There are those who would have us think that the sportsman is a barbarian — that he who can compla- cently asphyxiate inoffensive fishes and slaughter innocent birds has not at- tained to perfect civilization — is, in - fact, hopelessly be- , low that state of - grace. Although New Mexican trout are a comparatively easy _^ prey, the hunter of mountain quail, to be quite candid, is not necessarily so murderous in fact as in appearance. The question of the fate of an upris- ing quail never outgrows the small dignity of a riddle with many gunners. " Shall I get him ? " That is their query. They guess with the right barrel, often guess again with the left, and not infrequentl}^ after both guesses find themselves wthout a pang of conscience — and without the bird. He who cares to try his hand at mountain quail will find an abun- dance of two very sprightly varieties of that game-bird in numberless New Mexi- can localities. The tyro vrill need all his self-com- mand in the first few en- counters. These quail are fleet-footed, and take to their wings reluctantly, preferring at first to attempt nt— escape b}- running. A sharp pur- suit forces them to flight, and as a covey usually numbers scores, and sometimes even hundreds, the clat- ter of their simultaneous uprising is extremely disconcerting to inex- perienced ner\^es. Their flight is ,, -- short, and upon this fact is based the only effectual method of hunt- ing them. One must pursue, and 'i'i^.'- .'',i;ii-..i- .. ,^. shoot without regard to bagging, until several rapid flushings and repeated salvos have robbed them of confidence in their legs and •5-*,-;. wings. Then they scatter and lie close. At this juncture only is a dog serviceable, and fair sport may be had without one, as after the birds have been thus bewnldered they will lie until the ground has been pretty thoroughly beaten up, and will offer successive singles and doubles in abundance a* they are closely approached. It is mainly in the first stages of pursuit, as above described, that the habits of the mountain ~ 't' quail are seen to differ ^^^ from those of his east- J^w^tL-^ "''''•) ern brother, Bob White. -^^-^pt* When the work has fairly begun, the sports- man will find him '• ,,, as sudden and swift ■M a target as Bob himself, and capable of carrying off quite as many stray pellets of lead. Often will he leave a shower of feathers floating in his wake and make some port in safety, notwithstanding. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. nrns ra 9 ^^ 1CT03 Form L9-50to-7,'54(5990)444 THE LIBKAKr BHXVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS AJSGELEa iiiggins__- [ -V ^ Land of sunshine UCLA-Young Research Library F797 .H53I y L 009 537 694 3 UC aOUTH[ Rf-j Hi (;i(lNAI I IRHARY l-Ai:il ITY AA 001 332 888 5