Lippincott'S Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science, Volume 26 December, 1880. by Various None (have you read this book txt) 📖
- Author: Various None
Book online «Lippincott'S Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science, Volume 26 December, 1880. by Various None (have you read this book txt) 📖». Author Various None
The Day Might Have Graced The Month Of June, So Balmy Was The Air, So
Warmly Shone The Sun From A Cloudless Sky. But The Snow-Covered
Mountain-Range Whose Base We Were Skirting, The Leafless Cottonwoods
Fringing The Fontaine Qui Bouille And The Sombre Plains That Stretched
Away To The Eastern Horizon Told A Different Story. It Was On One Of
Those Days Elsewhere So Rare, But So Common In colorado, When A Summer
Sky Smiles Upon A Wintry Landscape, That We Entered A Town In Whose
History Are To Be Found Greater Contrasts Than Even Those Afforded By
Earth And Sky. Today Pueblo Is A Thriving And Aggressive City, Peopled
With Its Quota Of That Great Pioneer Army Which Is Carrying Civilization
Over The Length And Breadth Of Our Land. Three Hundred And Forty Years
Ago, As Legend Hath It, Coronado Here Stopped His Northward March, And
On The Spot Where Pueblo Now Stands Established The Farthermost Outpost
Of New Spain.
The Average Traveller Who Journeys Westward From The Missouri River
Imagines That He Is Coming To A New Country. "The New West" Is A
Favorite Term With The Agents Of Land--Companies And The Writers Of
Alluring Railway-Guides. These Enterprising Advocates Sometimes Indulge
In Flights Of Rhetoric That Scorn The Trammels Of Grammar And
Dictionary. Witness The Following Impassioned Utterances Concerning The
Lands Of A Certain Western Railroad: "They Comprise A Section Of Country
Whose Possibilities Are Simply _Infinitesimal_, And Whose Developments
Will Be Revealed In Glorious Realization Through The Horoscope Of The
Near Future." This Verbal Architect Builded Wiser Than He Knew, For What
More Fitting Word Could The Imagination Suggest Wherewith To Crown The
Possibilities Of Alkali Wastes And Barren, Sun-Scorched Plains?
A Considerable Part Of The New West Of To-Day Was Explored By The
Spaniards More Than Three Centuries Ago. Before The English Had Landed
At Plymouth Rock Or Made A Settlement At Jamestown They Had Penetrated
To The Rocky Mountains And Given To Peak And River Their Characteristic
Names. Southern Colorado, New Mexico And Arizona Have Been The Theatres
Wherein Were Enacted Deeds Of Daring And Bravery Perhaps Unsurpassed By
Any People And Any Age; And That, Too, Centuries Before They Became A
Part Of Our American Union. The Whole Country Is Strewn Over With The
Ruins Of A Civilization In comparison With Which Our Own Of To-Day Seems
Feeble. And He Who Journeys Across The Plains Till He Reaches The Sangre
Del Cristo Mountains Or The Blue Sierra Mojadas Enters A Land Made
Famous By The Exploits Of Coronado, De Vaca And Perhaps Of The Great
Montezuma Himself.
Volume 26 Title 1 (Lippincott'S Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science) Pg 2
In The Year 1540, Francisco Vasquez De Coronado Was Sent By The Spanish
Viceroy Of Mexico To Explore The Regions To The North. Those
Mountain-Peaks, Dim And Shadowy In The Distance And Seeming To Recede As
They Were Approached, Had Ever Been An Alluring Sight To The
Gold-Seeking Spaniards. But The Coveted Treasure Did Not Reveal Itself
To Their Cursory Search; And Though They Doubtless Pushed As Far North
As The Arkansas River, They Returned To The Capital From What They
Considered An Unsuccessful Expedition. The Way Was Opened, However, And
In 1595 The Spaniards Came To What Is Now The Territory Of New Mexico
And Founded The City Of Santa Fe. They Had Found, For The Most Part, A
Settled Country, The Inhabitants Living In densely-Populated Villages,
Or _Pueblos_, And Evincing A Rather High Degree Of Civilization. Their
Dwellings Of Mud Bricks, Or _Adobes_, Were All Built Upon A Single Plan,
And Consisted Of A Square Or Rectangular Fort-Like Structure Enclosing
An Open Space. Herds Of Sheep And Goats Grazed Upon The Hillsides, While
The Bottom-Lands Were Planted With Corn And Barley. Thus Lived And
Flourished The Pueblo Indians, A Race The Origin Of Which Lies In
Obscurity, But Connected With Which Are Many Legends Of Absorbing
Interest. All Their Traditions Point To Montezuma As The Founder And
Leader Of Their Race, And Likewise To Their Descent From The Aztecs. But
Their Glory Departed With The Coming Of Cortez, And Their Spanish
Conquerors Treated Them As An Inferior Race. Revolting Against Their
Oppressors In 1680, They Were Reconquered Thirteen Years Later, Though
Subsequently Allowed Greater Liberty. By The Treaty Of Guadalupe-Hidalgo
In 1848 They Became Citizens Of The United States. From One Extreme Of
Government To Another Has Drifted This Remnant Of A Stately Race, Till
Now At Last It Finds Itself Safely Sheltered In The Arms Of Our Great
Republic.
Such Is The Romantic History Of A Portion Of Our So-Called "New West;"
But It Was With A View Of Ascertaining Some Facts Concerning Occurrences
Of More Recent Date, As Well As Of Seeing Some Of The Actors Therein,
That We Paid A Visit To Pueblo. We Found It A Rather Odd Mixture Of The
Old And The New, The Adobe And The "Dug-Out" Looking Across The Street
Upon The Imposing Structure Of Brick Or The Often Gaudily-Painted Frame
Cottage. It Looked As Though It Might Have Been Indulging In a Rip Van
Winkle Sleep, Except That The Duration Might Have Been A Century Or Two.
High _Mesas_ With Gracefully Rounded And Convoluted Sides Almost
Entirely Surround It, And Rising Above Their Floor-Like Tops, And In
Fine Contrast With Their Sombre Brown Tints, Appear The Blue Outlines Of
The Distant Mountains. Pike'S Peak, Fifty Miles To The North, And The
Spanish Peaks, The Wawatoyas, Ninety To The South, Are Sublime Objects
Of Which The Eye Never Grows Weary; While The Sierra Mojadas Bank Up The
Western Horizon With A Frowning Mountain-Wall. A Notch In The Distant
Range, Forty Miles To The North-West, Indicates The Place Where The
Arkansas River Breaks Through The Barriers That Would Impede Its Seaward
Course, Forming Perhaps The Grandest Canon To Be Found In all This
Mighty Mountain-Wilderness. Truly A Striking Picture Was That On Which
Coronado And His Mail-Clad Warriors Gazed.
[Illustration: General View Of Pueblo, Colorado, Looking
North-West--Pike'S Peak In The Distance.]
A Motley Throng Compose The Inhabitants Of Pueblo. The Dark-Hued
Mexican, His Round Face Shaded By The Inevitable _Sombrero_, Figures
Conspicuously. But If You Value His Favor And Your Future Peace Of Mind
Have A Care How You Allude To His Nationality. He Is A Spaniard, You
Volume 26 Title 1 (Lippincott'S Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science) Pg 3Should Know--A Pure Castilian Whose Ancestor Was Some Old Hidalgo With
As Long An Array Of Names And Titles As Has The Czar Of All The Russias
Himself. Though He Now Lives In a Forsaken-Looking Adobe Hut With Dirt
Floor And Roof Of Sticks And Turf That Serves Only To Defile The
Raindrops That Trickle Through Its Many Gaps--Though His Sallow Wife
And Ill-Favored Children Huddle Round Him Or Cook The Scanty Meal Upon
The Mud Oven In a Corner Of The Room--He Is Yet A Spaniard, And Glories
In It. The Tall, Raw-Boned Man, Straight As A Young Cottonwood, Whose
Long Black Hair Floats Out From Beneath His Hat As He Rides Into Town
From His Ranch Down The River, May Be A Half-Breed Who Has Figured In a
Score Of Indian Fights, And Enjoys The Proud Distinction Of Having
Killed His Man. There Is The Hungry-Looking Prospector, Waiting With
Ill-Disguised Impatience Till He Can "Cross The Range" And Follow Again,
As He Has Done Year After Year, The Exciting Chase After The
Ever-Receding Mirage--The Visions Of Fabulous Wealth Always Going To Be,
But Never Quite, Attained. The Time-Honored Symbol Of Hope Must, We
Think, Give Place To A More Forcible Representation Furnished By The
Peculiar Genius Of Our Times; For Is Not Our Modern Rocky-Mountain
Prospector The Complete Embodiment Of That Sublime Grace? His Is A Hope
That Even Reverses The Proverb, For No Amount Of Deferring Is Able To
Make Him Heartsick, But Rather Seems To Spur Him On To More Earnest
Endeavor. Has He Toiled The Summer Long, Endured Every Privation,
Encountered Inconceivable Perils, Only To Find Himself At Its Close
Poorer Than When He Began? Reluctantly He Leaves The Mountain-Side Where
The Drifting Snows Have Begun To Gather, But Seemingly As Light-Hearted
As When He Came, For His Unshaken Hope Bridges The Winter And Feeds Upon
The Limitless Possibilities Of The Future. Full Of Wonderful Stories Are
These Same Hope-Sustained Prospectors--Tales That Are Bright With The
Glitter Of Silver And Gold. Not A Single One Of Them Who Has Not
Discovered "Leads" Of Wonderful Richness Or "Placers" Where The Sands
Were Yellow With Gold; But By Some Mischance The Prize Always Slipped
Out Of His Grasp, And Left Him Poor In all But Hope. And In Truth So
Fascinating Becomes The Occupation That Men Who In Other Respects Seem
Cool And Phlegmatic Will Desert An Almost Assured Success To Join The
Horde Rushing Toward Some Unexplored District, Impelled By The
Ever-Flying Rumors Of Untold Wealth Just Brought To Light. The Golden
Goal This Season Is The Great Gunnison Country; And Soon Trains Of
_Burros_, Packed With Pick And Shovel, Tent And Provisions, Will Be
Climbing The Range.
Pueblo Has Likewise Its Business-Men, Its Men Of To-Day, Who Manage Its
Banks, Who Buy And Sell And Get Gain As They Might Do In any
Well-Ordered City, Though, Truth To Tell, There Are Very Few Of Them Who
Do Not Sooner Or Later Catch The Prevailing Infection--A Part Of Whose
Assets Is Not Represented By Some "Prospect" Away Up In The Mountains Or
Frisking About The Plains In Herds Of Cattle And Sheep. But Perhaps The
Most Curiously-Original Character In all The Town Is Judge Allen A.
Bradford, Of Whose Wonderful Memory The Following Good Story Is Told:
Years Ago He, With A Party Of Officers, Was At The House Of Colonel
Boone, Down The River. While Engaged In Playing "Pitch-Trump," Of Which
The Judge Was Very Fond--And In Fact The Only Game Of Cards With Which
He Was Acquainted--A Messenger Rushed In announcing That A Lady Had
Fallen From Her Horse And Was Doubtless Much Injured. The Players Left
Their Cards And Ran To Render Assistance, And The Game Thus Broken Up
Was Not Resumed. Some Two Years Later The Same Parties Found Themselves
Together Again, And "Pitch-Trump" Was Proposed. To The Astonishment Of
All, The Judge Informed Them How The Score Stood When They Had So
Volume 26 Title 1 (Lippincott'S Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science) Pg 4
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