Higginf 
 
 The land of sunshine
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
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 ^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.
 
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