STEAMING STREAM
Rippling Through .a Trough-
of Snow-Mte Stone
in Fields of Green
imDEB GE1CEFUL CYPEESS4
leads to One of the Popular Bathing
Eesorts of Old Mexico.
PRICES THAT ETJLE ATTHB STORES.
Sombreros That Cost $50 and-Buckskin
Pants That Come-at $75.
AGLBIPSE OF THE MARKETS 1KDFAEHS
-tCOEEEEPOSBESCE Or TUB SXSFATCSJ
Agtjas Calientes, June 9.
AM at Aguas Calien
tes, the famous Hot
Springs of Mexico,
It is altogether differ
ent from an American
health or summer re
sort, and it might be
bodily transplanted
to the soil of 'Western
India and not seem
out of place. I am
sitting in my long,
high- oeilinged room
in the Hotel del
Plaza. It is like alj
the rest of the rooms
of the hotel, on the
eround floor, .and I
call my boy chamber man to make up my
bed by clapping my hands. It has no win
dows," and it looks out on a little garden full
of most beautiful flowers.
The hotel is built around this garden. It
is of one-story, and it makes mo think of a
hotel at which I stopped in one of the na
tive Stafes-of Hindoostan, Jeyporo, savl
that there I had to have my own servant
and he slept all night in front of my door.
Aguas Calientes contains about 40,000 peo
ple, and nine-tenths of the houses are of
one-story. They all have flat roofs, and the
water is drained off through pipes of clay
which jut out about a foot from the edge of
the walls.
All the Colors of the Rainbow.
These walls are very thick. They are
built of stone or sun-dried brick, and are
stuccoed where they face the street, and
this plastering-like stucco has been painted
in delicate blues or pinks or yellows, mak
ing the whole town one maES of rainbow
colors, which, strange to say, does not look
out of place under this bright Mexican sun.
None of these houses have gardens in front
of them. They are built close up to the
cobble-stone sidewalks, so that, in going
through the town, you seem to be passing
between walla of gaily-colored bill boards
ready for the posters, each of which has a
hole'in its center for a door.
The poorer houses have doors very rough
ly made, and in the galloping-mule street
car that takes you from the depot to the
center of the town, you see few houses with
windows, and many of these doors are filled
with queer-looking, dark-faced people. The
men in their red and gaily-colored blankets
look picturesque, and the women, with their
dark, mahogony faces, their long, black
hair streaming down their backs, freshly
wet from their last bath in the hot waters,
are in some cases very pretty, and in others
as ugly as the "Witch of Endor after an at-
tactc oi smallpox.
A Country of Biff Fricej.
As you leave the station you pass the
public bath houses low Spanish buildings,
where you can get for from 20 to 30 cents a
bath of any kind you want and go on up a
long, dusty thoroughfare under wide-spreading
green trees into the business part of the
city. The business of this city of 40,000
people is a fair sample of that of the in
terior Mexican town. It is big only in the
prices asked for the articles sold. Mexico
is not a great business country. The most
of the firms arc run on small capital, and
there are hundreds of stores which have not
more than 5200 orth of stock.
Many of these here have even less, and
the storekeeper, in the majoritv of instances,
has a little cave of a store without any win
dows opening out on the street, and he
stands behind a counter which runs right
across the store in front of the door and
offers his goods for sale for three times what
he expects to get. In the case of the smaller
businesses, the trader is generally a Mexi
can, and there are more peddlers in one city
in this country than you will .find in ten
cities of the same size in the United States.
Bed, "White and Blue at Market.
I have just come from the market. Im
agine a long tier of stalls around two hol
low squares which cover the area of a city
block. These stalls are occupied by the
butchers, bakers and candle-stick "mak
ers who nave the biggest stocks, and the
squares are filled with big-hatted men in
white cotton clothes, and by red-skirted
women in white waists who sit under white
umbrellas as big as the top of a small camp
ing tent, with little piles of vegetables and
fruit around them. I asked as to prices
gm
stfklfiM
l
Ut.
-
An .iztec Scanty.
and found that things were sold in piles
and not by measures. So many little pota
toes made np a pile, and I was asked two
cents for four potatoes each of which was as
big as a buckeye. A pile of four eggs costs
here three cents, and a little pile of toma
toes and peppers were among .the things
sold.
Peppers both green and red were sold
everywhere, and I saw that some of the
bigger market men had great bins of them.
They form a part of every Mexican dish and
are eaten in great quantities. The average
Mexican, however, eats very little in com
parison with us. His market bills are not
halfas heavy as those of his American
brother, anda sewing basket would contain
t'ie daily supply lor a large family. The
cheapest thins iold seems to be fruit, which
grows in the shape of oranges, bananas and
lemons very abundantly about here, and I
got splendid oranges for a cent apiece.
The Popular Mexican Beverage.
About this market the Mexican peddlers
had collected themselves by the dozens.
Here was a woman with two great jars of
what looked like very thin buttermilk be
fore her. She was selling it in glasses
which held from half pint to a pint to the
passersby at 1 and 2 cents a glass. I asked
what it was and told it was pulque, the
Mexican beer, which comes from a species
ot cactus, and is drunk by the barrel
every day throughout Mexico. At the cor
ner beside her, before a stand which looked
like a bookcase, stood a shoe peddler. His
stock was made up of sharp-toed gaiters,
and, by actual count, he had only 20 pairs
to sell.
A little further on a yellow-faced woman
in her bare feet sat with ten pairs of baby
shoes beside her. This made up her whole
establishment, and around the corner I
iff
L
found a very pretty Aztec maiden sitting on
a stool and rolling black tobacco into cigar
ettes. The paper she used was thicker than
the newspaper in which this letter will be
printed, and she doubled the paper over the
cigarette at both ends to make it stay to
gether. Before she did so, however, she
moistened the paper with her cherry lips,
and when I smoked a package of her wares,
at the uostoflOcentSj it seemed to me that
scent of the cherries lingered there still.
Mexican ladles Do Not Market
It was about 10 o'clock at the time I
visited the market, and 1 found but few
buying. Two weil-to-do Mexican ladies
dressed in black, passed through giving
directions to their servants as to what to
buy, but I am told this was contrary to
etiquette, and that the ladies of Mexico
seldom do their own marketing but leave it
entirely to the servants. Near the market
I found a few very fair stores, but they
would be small affairs in a town of 40,000 in
Afraid of Vie Camera.
New York or Ohio, and a western city of
10,000 could show many finer. The coun
ters here ran across tlie whole front of the
store, and only the biggest "of them had show
windows.
The drygoods stores contained chiefly
French goods, and the merchants were in
most cases French or German, though I
found some of them Mexicans. I stopped
in front of a hat store which had a most
gorgeous display in its windows and priced
some sombreroes. They ranged -from $1
up to 575 apiece, and I am told that
some of these Mexican dudes wear hats that
cost more than S 100. Some of thehats were
trimmed with gold and silver cord, and I
looked at a 550 one which
"Weighed About Ten Pounds,
and which measured IS inches from one side
of the brim to the other. It had a crown a
foot high, and there was a cord of gold rope
as big around as my wrist about it. Many of
the hats had gold and silver letters upon
them, and I see many worn which have the
monograms of their owners cut out of silver
and sewed on to the sides. They are of
many colors a delicate cream, a drab and a
black being very common, and they are
beautifully made and are said to be just tbe
thing for this hot sun and high winds.
The same firm sold ladies' hats. Most of
these came from Paris. They were very
high priced and not at all pretty.
If ear by I stopped at a Mexican clothing
store and looked at some Mexican panta
loons. I here again found that the dude of
our sister Republic has to pay for his style.
Many of the pantaloons were made of buck
skin, and tne nicest pairs wnicn were lined
with solid silver buttons down the sides
cost as high as 550 and 575, and coats are
likewise high. It is not hard for a Mexican
country gentleman to spend from 5300 to
5400 on his clothes, and when you take into
consideration that he has to sport a saddle,
spurs and revolver of like gorgeous charac
ter, you see that if one of these big farmers
has a crowd of grown-up boys, his clothing
bills amount to something.
The Dress of the Poor.
This, however, is the case of only the
rich. The poor here are so poor that they
don't know how poor they are, and their
clothes cost practically nothing. A pair of
these cast-off buckskin pantaloons will last
a long time, and tho ordinary cotton suits
worn by the poor, though high considering
their character, cost but little. A blanket
costs from 51 or 52 up, and the leather
sandals which are worn almost universally
bv the Indiana are nothing more than two
pieces of sole leather as big as your hand
tied to the top and bottom of the feet with
leather strings. These cost 25 cents apieco
and last a long time.
The dress of the poorer women Is even
cheaper than that of the men, and Mexico's
nine millions of peasants will have to make
more money and have greater needs before
the land can become a great consumer of the
goods of any nation. Their houses 'are
novels of mud, and their diet is simpler
than their clothes, consisting of little more
than com cakes and red peppeis. The only
JL Mexican Eaywagon.
poor thing, however, about this part of
Mexico is the people. The land here is as
black as your hat, and in coming to Aguas
Calientes, on the Mexican Central Bailroad,
you ride for miles through fields which will
vie in their crops with the valleys of the
Nile or the Ganges, and I am told this is
called
The Garden of Mexico.
It certainly is a wonderfully rich garden,
and crops of all kinds grow here with all
the luxuriance of the guano beds along the
coast. It is more than a mile above the sea,
and the air seems to revivify the, land so
that it produces two crops a year without
manure. Prom here almost to the city of
Mexico, a full day's ride on the cars, you
go through a farmer's paradise, and plains
of rich crops stretch away from each side of
the road until their green fades out into the
hazy blue of the mountains in the distance.
This region of Mexico has a good rainfall
during the wet season, but this is also aided
by irrigation, and I see the method of rais
ing the water from one level to another is
the same as that used about Osaka, in "West
ern Japan. It is by a long pole with a
weight on one end and with a bucket at
tached to a rope on the other which works
on a second pole fastened upright into the
ground. You see peons working this crude
well everywhere, and the sparkling
water flows like bands of silver through the
green. This is a great wheat region, and I
see cornstalks in many of the fields. Maize
is one of the great crops of Mexico. It
can be raised in every part of the country,
and it constitutes 80 per cent of the entire
agricultural product of the land. More
than 5100,000,000 woith of it is raised every
year, and it forms tho food of the common
people, who pound or grind it up and make
it into the thin, fiat, griddle-like cakes
known as tortillas. The corn is always sold
in a shelled state and such as I have s'een
has been white in color and large in grain.
iuo Ji.cn vuo bell water.
TJp to the present time every Mexican
city I have visited has been suffering "for
lack of water. The greater part of the coun
try north of here on the line of the Mexican
Central road is-desert, and the bier mining
towns of Zacatecas and Guanahuato have
hundreds of men who make water peddling
their profession. In Zacatecas the water,
with the exception of a little stream that
flows into a big fountain in the plaza, comes
from a spring aw ay up on the side of the
mountain, and it is brought down on the
backs of little donkeys in red clay jars.
These jars Are tied on by ropes, and the
waterman peddles them from house to house
as our dairymen do their milk.
In Guanahuato the people are more en
terprising, and they have a system of water
worjts wnicn, nowever, oyno means sup'
ucb me ucjuuutui ca me city.
The water
vS Nf-s jXnx Mil
peddlers here carry, the water about on their
backs in immense jars of, red pottery abon
four feet long and a foot In diameter, and
they tilt these over when they want to serve
a customer. In Zacatecas I saw soldiers
guarding the only working fountain of the
city, and allowing only so many men and
women to dip up water out of it at a time,
and back of these under the blaze of the hot
sun other men and women squatted, with
gourds and crocks or oil cans, waiting their
turn. The water from the fountain was
scooped up by these people us fast as it
flowed out of trie half dozen, mouths of thai
fountain, and men and women bent them
selves double in" reaching over and catching
the drops in their gourds as it came, or in,
scooping itnp from the edge of the fountain.
Off to tho Hot Springs.
Aguas Calientes means "hot water," and
the hot springs here are among the finest in
the world. There are a number oi them, and
the people come here by the thousands to
bathe in their health-giving waters. There
is a big bathhouse kept up, I was told, by
the town which has excellent bathing ar
rangements, and in which there is a vat of
hot water about 50 feet square that is used
as a swimming bath. This is near the
depot on the edge of the town, but I pre
ferred to go to the old baths at the springs
about a mile out in the country.
The road to these baths is one of the finest
in Mexico, and the sights along it you will
Bee nowhere else in the world. Picture to
yourself a long avenue of great cypress trees
which almost meet far above your head and
shut out the glare oi the Mexican sun and
the silver of the clear sky. Let these trees
be very near together, and let them go on
and on until they seem to almost come to
gether in the distance. Along the sides of
the road let there be the greenest of grass
and on the right of you as you walk toward
the bath place a stream of steel blue water
from which the stream rises as it flows on
TO
85tI
4p
i r- w
4r
i
The Zecatecax Jbuntcdn.
toward you. Let this steel blue stream flow
through a little aqueduct of white stone and
let this be about three feet wide and about
four feet deep. Here you have tho back
ground of the picture.
Scenes at the Bathing Spot.
Now for the stream itself. This stream
is the waste of the hot springs. It is also
the bathing place and the washing place of
the common people, of the Aztecs of Aguas
Calientes. They are here by the hundreds
men and women, girls and boys, lovers
and sweethearts all bathing together in
the warm, refreshing and health-giving
waters. Many of them have washed their
clothes while in the water and these they
have spread out on the green banks to dry.
Under these great trees as far as your eye
can see there are white waists, red skirts
and the other bright bits of color made by
many colored serapes and the gay rebosas
which lie on the green banks while their
Making Her Sbttet.
owners are splashing and playing and scrub
ingthemselves in the little trench below.
Here is a man bathing, while his wife sits
on the bank and watches him, and the sun
creeps through the trees and paints his
dark skin a rich mahogany. Here there
is a Venus washing some clothes by
rubbing them on a rough stone,
and there under a tree lies an Indian half
dressed but sound asleep. I point my
camera at him and his wife springs up from
the stone where she is washing and stands
over him as though sheeared the camera
was some new-fangled gun. I press the
button, however, and the lens and the shut
ter do the rest.
ThJ Effects of Custom.
I walk along the stream and amuse myself
by taking notes of the bathers. They see
nothing wrong in their actions, and I note
that there is nothing really immodest, bold
or indecent about them. They think noth
ing wrong in families and friends bathing
together, and after all I have again forced
upon me the feeling that modesty and im
modesty are matters of custom and fashion,
and am reminded of a little maiden in Egypt
who, upon seeing me approach, covered ner
face with her skirt that she might modestly
hide it from the eyes of a man.
The Japanese are in many ways more
modest than we are. They are In most
things more polite and refined. Still until
lately all the people bathed there together
in the very capital itself, and prudery did
npt raise her voice until the "Western World
taught her to do so. It is simply a matter
of opinion, and the old French saw fits the
case wellt "Honi soit qui maly pense."
. i'EAJfK l. UAEPENTEK.
A NEEDLE THAT CAUSED TEOUBLE.
It "Was Left in Patrick Barker's Trousers
and Afterward Got Into Him.
New Tort Sun.
Patrick Barker's daughter was mending
her father's trousers the other day. Mr.
Barker was in a hurry to get away from his
home, 355 "West Twenty-second street, and
didn't wait for his daughter to cut the thread
or remove the needle. As he hurried down
to the foot of Thirteenth street, North river,
where he is pilot on the fircboat Zophar
Mills, the needle was caught in the cloth
with the thread dangling, but it didn't
trouble Mr. Barker because he didn't know
it was there. He found it out though when
he sat down in tho boat. Priends,,attracted
by the language he used, gathered around
him -and found that the needle had pene
trated so far into the left leg that it was
almost out of Bight. The. thread was still
attached to the needle, which seemed to be
working its way deeper into the leg.
An ambulance was summoned and Mr.
Barker was taken to St. Vincent's Hospital,
where it took Dr. Campbell 15 minutes to
get tho needle out It had worked its way
further in, and its path was only followed
by the attached thread.
A COUNTY FULL OF OLD FOLKS.
Every Person in a Hundred If ear Saratoga
is an Octogenarian.
New York Tribune. J
Out of a population of 55,151 In Saratoga
County there are almost 500 who are 80
years old and upward, which includes a
gobdly number of nonogenarians besides a
few centenarians. This remarkable longev
ity is mainly due to the healthfulness of the
Adirondack climate, which at all times of
the year is both invigorating and exhila
rating. Had the compilation embraced people be
tween 70 and 80 years of age the fist would
have been trebled, for many of the most ac
tive people in Saratoga County are passed
the alloted three soore years and ten. The
beneficial effects of the climate are materi
ally assisted by the. curative Dowers'of
the many mineral springs found there.
Lfi-&g&Ui
t?l , -aMKl-SCefN
LJtFfF-J
PITTOBUEGDIBPATCSDKD.
BENEATH THE TEPEE.
Elaine Goodal&Describes a long Trip4
Among the Redmen.
ROUGHING IT ON THE PRAIRIES.
(0ie Heard the First ITntterings of the
Eecent Indian War.
GOOD POINTS OF THE EQUAW MEN
COBBXSrOlrDXKO&OF THE DISPATCH.
Pnra Bxbge iNBiAij- Agency, June U.
-r-The Sioux Reservation can hardly be
called a summer re
sort, in the usual
sense of the term,
nor was the journey
which I propose to
describe undertaken
for pleasure, al
though it was pleas
ant enough for me.
I traveled in my
heavy mountain
wagon and on the
back of a little In
dian pony 2,400
miles in a single
season. There is an
Elaine Ooodale. ever fresh charm
about selecting a new camping ground in a
spot different from any that we have called
our temporary "home" before. It is pleas
ant to stretch oneself on a rug or a luxu
rious cushion of grass and idly watch the
feeding and "rubbing down" of the tired
horses, the pitching of the "teepee," the
building of a Gipsy fire and deft prepara
tion of an al fresco meal; or even, if unusu
ally hungry, to assist in these preparations.
My cook kept everything clean and
orderly, and my driver delighted in adding
to the simple bill of fare at every oppor
tunity a fat prairie chicken or a string of
delicious fish. If there were any Indians
in the neighborhood of our camp, they
usually claimed a relationship with some of
us, auu on mo sirengw oi u, urougut
of
their humble best and were in
turn invited
to share our rustic meaL
The Passports to Indian Confidence.
Anyone who travels through the Indian
countries with the desire to study native
customs and character, must divest himself
of all prejudice, travel with 'Indians as
simply and unpretendingly as possible,
proclaiming by dress and manner a willing
ness to accept life for the time being on
similar terms with those on which it is
taken by tho people whom he wishes really
to know. A pair of moccasins, a fondness
for one or two genuine Indian dishes, good
Horseniausmp, anu an acquumuujet: wim
the tongue of the people, are all excellent
passports to their confidence. That confi
dence once won, the rest is easy.
My journey on the plains covered more
than six months and ended with the be
ginning of tho sad winter of 1890-91 in
Dakota. Nothing that occurred during
that winter has shaken my personal confi
dence in the much tried people, nor lessened
my sympathy with them; and, although I
fully realize tho fact that recent events
have unsettled and embittered the minds of
some of them to a perilous extent, I believe
that they are far more sinned against than
sinning. I shall not hesitate to trust
myself among them again with as little fear
and as much freedom as during that ever to
be remembered summer.
Dakota's Freaks of Temperature.
Foremost among the charms of the Da
kota is the exhilerating climate. The dry,
clear atmosphere and brilliant sunshine seem
in themselves to make life worth living.
and the reward of free exercise in such an
air is an almost superbundant energy and
vitality. To me a feeling of languor is
absolutely unknown there, even on the hot
test midsummer day. x nave, walked and
ridden in safety and comparative comfort
with the mercury at 114 in the shade
and there was no shade, except the narrow
strip on the north side of a building. The
same may be said of the occasionally severe
oold of winter, when one can thoroughly
enjoy a brisk walk in a temperature of 40
below zero, provided the wind does not
blow.
Another source of, the keenest enjoyment
is the exquisite and subtle variety of prairie
landscape.
These are gardens of the desert these
Tho unshorn fields, boundless and beautiful.
For which tho speoch of England has no
name
The prairies! I behold them for the first,
And my heart swells, while tho dilated oye
Takes in the encircling vastness.
I pity that American whose undeveloped
taste complains of monotony in a scene like
thisl It has much of the infinite grandeur
of ocean, with a softness and human quality
peculiarly its own, and the fine harmonies
of coloring in the grasses at certain seasons
would delight the eye of an Indian or a
poet.
Delights of the Indian Character.
That charm, however, which surpasses
even the vitalizing climate and the inspir
iting landscape is to be sought in the nature
of the Indian. There is something inde
scribably soothing about the repose, the de
liberation of it something in striking con
trast with the over-excitable, over-hurried
modern temperament. Indians are such
pleasant, restful fellow travelers, such cor
dial, unpretending hosts giving of their
best without unnecessary circumstance or
delay.
On the 1st of July all the Indian schools
are closed, and vacation begins for teacher
and pupil, but not for the supervisor. My
first care was to hold a teachers institute
for all the teachers on the Pine Bidge Re
serve. Although their schools are scat
tered on a radius of 50 miles, they were at
that time all gathered at this agency. This
was the first meeting of the kind ever held
in an Indian reservation, so far. as I now,
and the discussions provoked unexpected
interest A teacher accustomed to all the
modern helps the institute, the educational
journal, the reading circle can hardly ap
preciate the isolation and discouragement
of many an unnoticed worker in the Indian
field.
The Fourth of July Dance.
The glorious Fourth is, according to a
time-honored, though decidedly demoraliz
ing custom on j.naian agencies, given up to
Indian dances and general rcvelrv. The
white employes are in the habit of reward
ing: tho dancers with money and food for a
public! display of a character which is, at
ordinary times, discouraged and even for
bidden altogether. Certainly this "Omaha
dance," in which young men only partici
pate, clad in paint and barbaric ornaments,
is a picturesque and fascinating spectacle,
and as an amusement it cannot be 'called
degrading, but as a vulgar show it becomes
so. I admire the suppleness and grace of
the dancers, the brilliancy of their costumes
and the interest of their dramatic repre
sentation of war; but I am wearied by the
crowd, the dust and the heat, and soon re
tire. Until within a few months there were at
Pine Bidge a band of Indians distinct from
the Sioux, and in fact their hereditary
enemies several hundred Northern Chey
ennes. They had been brought here as
prisoners of war, and had been living for
some years discontentedly in the heart of an
alien tribe. These people, although they
received very little assistance either from
the Government or the churches, had
progressed from a state of absolute barbar
ism into one of semi-civilization, living in
log houses and cultivating small farms. A
large number of them were earnestly acting
for chapels and schools.
Invited to the Cheyenne Tillage.
Among the braves of this class was Little
"Wolf, a fine-looking man in the prime of
life,' with a face full of refinement and a
singularly musical voice, who called one
July day at my log cabitf headquarters at
Pine Bidge and rnvited1 me to visit the
camp of the Cheyennes. Ho said that some
ly. jtt-ii; ' - " lfirV '1
. ...... - .. . J M
of their nrinMnitl man niilmil tn meet me.
and th6y wanted me to use my jnfluenca in
their behalf, especially in the matter of
esiaonsning a school for their children.
I set out accordingly on the appointed
day with my party, consisting of my faith
ful driver and his wife, tent and equipage
complete. None of us knew the road to the
Cheyenne village, but we attempted to find
it without a guide, and were reduced to
making frequent inquiries along the way.
After some hours we became exceedingly
hungry, and paused under a tree beside the
creek to refresh ourselves with o hastr
lunch, which we shared with a ragged small
boy on a vicious pony. He had appeared to
observe our proceedings with interest. At
last we came in sight of the White river, a
stream of considerable size with a wide
fringe of Cottonwood trees, and saw that
the straggling village lay mainly on the
opposite side. The ford, however, looked
dangerous. The milky water ran swift and
deep, and with our heavily loaded wagon
my driver dared not attempt if.
Rroin the School ot Carlisle.
"We drove along the bank and stopped at
the. first house to make further inquiries,
although we supposed that the people were
Cheyennes and that we could converse with
them only by signs. They proved, however,
to be Sioux. The elderly man told us all
we wanted to know, and finally spoke of his
son, who was, he said, lately returned from
Carlisle School; and who had been badly,
injured at the last beef issue, and was in
great suffering. I went into the house and
talked with the poor fellow in English, to
the great delight of his parents, leaving
him with 'a promise to send tho agency
doctor to him, and also some of the canned
fruit his feverish palate longed for.
Now came the most perilous part of the
road a precipitous descent over chalky
white cliffs to the log house of Little
Wolf, prettily situated in the edge of a
deep wooded ravine near the river. At its
side stood the cool summer house a tepee
with its framework of poles half bare ad-
consisted of himself, his wife and two
children, a pretty young girl and a hand
some little urchin of 6 or 8 years. They re
ceived us with graceful warmth, and a rush
of soft sibilant syllables, of which a tall
young policeman, whose mother was a
Dakota and his father a Cheyenne, acted as
interpreter.
A Council With the Wiso Men.
The woman helped to , pitch the tent un
der the trees, and brought a store of warm
fried fish for our supper, while the men
assembled as many of their friends as possi
ble for a council, although, as they told us,
the river was really dangerously high and
few would venture to cross. Most of the
people lived on the opposite bank and a
rude bridge had been projected but not yet
built
There was real pathos in the earnest talk
of these men, as they gathered in the one
bare room of the chief,' seated themselves on
hard wooden chairs, on iron-hooped trunks,
or on the edges of the neatly arranged beds,
and with the true Indian mixture of sim
plicity and ceremony explained their posi
tion and set forth their needs. I am so ac
customed to understanding and conversing
freely with Indians that the sound of the
strange Cheyenne tongue added to the
charm and unusualness of the occasion. I
talked in Dakota and the policeman inter
preted. Afterward we drove with Little
wolf and the policeman up and down the
river bluffs, and selected a central and
beautiful location for the desired school
house. I thoroughly enjoyed my visit here,
and really mourned when the order came
last winter to transport tho whole band
through the blizzards and severe cold of
February to their little reservation on
Tayne river, Montana.
The Mntterlngs of the Coming "War.
On our way back to the agency the next
day we stopped by previous appointment
at the "White Clay school house, afterwards
burned by excited Indians just after the
massacre at "Wounded river, and I met there
in council 50 or more of the principal men
of that district most of whom were within
a few months from that time involved in a
species of rebellion. They were in a thor
oughly dissatisfied frame of mind, and it
was equally evident that they had cood
grounds for discontent I insisted that I
was only a School Inspector, with no au
thority to listen to general complaints or
make general recommendations, and en
deavored to confine the discussion to educa
tional matters. But this I found to be im
possible. Every one who came from "Washington
must listen, whether he would or no, to the
sad tale of insufficient food, of unfulfilled
promises, of unsuitable employes and gen
era injustice injustice which burns lnt
the soul of even the patient and long sul
fering red man. I listened and I made note
of what was said, and even sent the sub
stance of it to "Washington; but it is idle to
hopo for attention to such stories until at
tention is claimed by open or threatened
violence. The Indian may starve un
noticed if he will only starve peaceably, but
the country 'is soon in a commotion if ha
prefers to die fighting.
' Good Peoplo of the Bad Lands. v
My next trip took me into a region of
which much has lately been heard, and but
little is probably known by the average
reader the Bad Lands. My errand in that
neighborhood was to ascertain the number
of children in a certain settlement of half
breeds on the White river, and to seek out
a desirable location for another new school.
My observation of these good people in their
neat, thrifty homes, and my pleasant expe
rience vi lueir iiuspiiauiy uayc lnciinea me
to the belief that the "squaw men," as they
are vulgarly called, are a much-maligned
class. Their houses and farms aro generally
equal to those of the average pioneer settler
and greatly superior to those ot the average
Indian'.
Their wives, almost invariably neatly
dressed, are good housekeepers. The large
families of little ones are usually prett,
clean and attractive, all speaking English,
and thereds an air of self-respect; and pros
perity about them quite foreign to our usual
contemptuous thought I found plenty of
promising children, and an earnest desire
tor a good day school. These claims, lying
in the comparatively productive river bot
toms, all border on the Bad Lands those
strange, bare cliffs of fantastically colored
limestone, of an aspect at once arid and
beautiful. The sunset and moonlight effects
On Their Towers and Turrets
are worth taking much time and trouble to
behold. "We devoted two or three days to
exploring some of tho most accessible fort
resses, for the wildest portions cannot be
reached save on foot or horseback and with
a trusty guide. Water and pasturage for
teams are only to be found in certain
lavored spots, xuere are also numerous
culs de sac, ending in insurmountable cliffs
or yawning precipices, so that an excursion
in this region is attended with more or less
danger and hardship.
As is well known, this country offers a
rich field to geologists, and there are sev
eral men living hereabouts who make a
business of acting as guides to scientific ex
peditions, or of collecting fossils for sale.
Midsummer seems an unusual time for
prairie fires, but the prolonged drought had
rendered the tall grass as dry as tinder and
huge fires devastated all that region and de
stroyed the crop of hay upon which many
were depending to winter their cattle. We
were caught in ono of these fires, and came
near having serious trouble, but while the
roaring flames were steadily approaching
and a black column ot smoke halt suffocated
us, one of the hidden and tremendous thun
der storms peculiar to the west put an end
to our enemy. We were grateful for tho
soaking rain, though insufficiently protected
from it, and even the terrific peals of thun
der and flames of lightning were received
with meekness. Elaine Good ale.
Summer Complaint.
Hot weather is coming, and the experi
ence of Bev. John Hertzler, of Bethel,
Berks county, Pa., will be of general inter
est. It is as follows: Xast fall I was taken
with a kind of summer eomplaint accom
panied by a woaderful -diarrhoea. Soon
after my wife's sister, who lives with us, was
taken in the same way. We used almost
everything without benefit Then I said
let us try Chamberlain's Colic, Cholera and
Diarrhoea Eemedy, which we did, and that
cured us right away. I think much of it as
it did for me what it was recommended to.
wsu
COMflJERfiD A' FEOOB;
A Young Cavalry Officer's Experience
With a Eiyer in Texas.
IT HAD HELD HDI A PBISOHEE,
'But Pluck-ancl Ingenuity Took Him Across
It Victoriously.
A COOL BATH FOE BOY MUSICIANS
WBITXES FOB THE DISPATCH.
I once had an experience in crossing a
Texas river, that, in my more mature
years, I have thought foolhardy. The
riverain the northwestern part of the State
are, in dry weather," scarcely less than
brooks, but hard rains swell them in a sur
prisingly short time to angry, raging tor
rents. Ever so many years ago I was a
young lieutenant of cavalry, fresh from
West Point, going to join my regiment
On reaching San Antonio I was ordered to
conduct about 25 recruits to posts through
which I must pass. These consisted en
tirely of musicians drummers, fifers and
buglers all boys from 16 to 20. In the
caravan were three six-mule wagons con
taining supplies for .Fort Blank.
A few days after we started it began to
rain very hard, and all streams were
swollen. We managed to cross them with
out difficulty, till we reached the Llano
river, that was ordinarily so small that one
could cross on stepping stones; but the rain
had made it I don't know how many feet
deep and very swift I was annoyed at
having to stop, for I wanted nry first ap
pearance in the regiment to be in good
time. The river, fed by the continuous
ram, did not fall, and it seemed that I
might be delayed a week or more.
Must Cross at All Hazards.
The second day Captain Elwood, one of
the oldest and best officers of my regiment,
reached the other side'with his escort often
men and was Waterbound, too. The third
morning I determined to cross that day if
possible. "I got on my horse, the only one
in the party, and rode down to the river
bank. It looked very dangerous, but I thought
I would see if my horse "could swyn across,
and if he could do so, why not try the
mules? Going up the stream a little way,
I plunged in. The hose battled nobly
with the current, and came out safe on the
other side, some distance lower down. I
then went to Captain Elwood's camp to call
on him, and asked his advice about
trying to cross. He doubted if it
could be done; but I was young, and
thought nothing impossible. So I went
back and had camp broken and the teams
hitched up ready for marching.
The stream was not more than SO yards
wide and I determined to get the wagons
over first I told one of the drivers to start
The little mules went in timidly, and had
not reached water more than four feet deep
when they were swept around against the
bank like corks. They couldn't stand the
current I then swam back and borrowed
some lariats from Captain Elwood and asked
him for the help of his ten men. He read
ily granted the request and expressed the
liveliest curiosity to know what I was going
to do.
Pulled the Mules Across.
Tying the lariats together, and leaving
one end with the men, I swam back with
the other and tied it to the lead mule on
the lower side. Going back to the other
side again, I had all the men ready to help
the mules when they should start in. I was
very anxious about the success of my trial."
When I pave the sienal to the driver, the
men pulled with all their might, and I was
delighted to see the mules dragged through
the water till they could get a foothold on
the bank and then they could do the res
themselves. The same process was gone
through to get the other wagons over, I
swimming the stream twice for each wagon.
But the next thing was to get my boy re
cruits over, some distance Deiow tne
stream was not more than four or five feet
deep, but extremely swift, and to have
waded would have been impossible; so I
had to have recourse again to my rope.
Selecting the shallowest place, I tied ono
end to a tree, swam back and tied it to an
other tree on the other side, recrossed and
had all the boys strip and tie their clothes
in a bundle, and fasten them to their
muskets. Then, telling them that- by
holding their guns in one hand and passing
their arm oyer the rope they could with tho
other hand work their way across, I ordered
the largest of them to try it
, Had to Set the Example.
I could not get one of them to try it first,
and as I would never ask a man to do any
thing that I could not do, I went in and
crossed first, and came back. They saw
that it could be done, and then the bolder
ones crossed safely, and all were willing to
try. When the little fellows would cross I
would go along to help them, and finally
got them all over safe and sound, pretty
cold, but with no harm done. One boy I
thought would go down. Like several
others he had his feet swept from under
him, and became frightened, even panic
stricken, but? I gripped him by the arm, and
helped him along till he was landed safely.
Then I swam my horse back and loosed the
rope, and went over, having taken every
thing over with no more harm than a wet
ting to soma f the stores I had in the
wazons.
It took me four or five hours to get my
little command oyer the stream, and I was
desperately tired; but the hearty commen
dation of grim old Captain Elwood, who had
carefully watched the undertaking, which
was plucky, if it was reckless, was sufficient
reward.
I had been wet during the whole time
October weather and wet clothes don't go
well together and was glad, after cutting
off my boots, and putting on dry clothing,
to be invited up to the Captain's tent to
take a cup of hot coffee, and restore the in
ner man. He made me his guest till I left
next morning, and gave me to understand
that my first service in the presence of any
of my regiment, was, to say the least, not
discreditable?" Patjt, Pjxkins.
E1EC1EI0 STBEET CAB SH0CZS;
One Most Touch tho Balls and Overhead
"Wires at tho Same Tlmo.
When electric cars hrst came out many
people could not understand why they were
not shocked when standing on a track just
after a -car had passed, Johft A. Wise on
this point says: "This suggests the question
of why is it that swallows and little birds light
on the overhead wire, and are unconscious
of the presence ot the electric current rush
ing through their very claws? The answer
to both questions is the same: The man and
the bird are on but one side of the circuit;
the current does not flow through them. One
may swing by his hands upon the overhead
wire unharmed, as ne may stana witn Doth
feet on the track; but if he were tall enough
to reach, from the'point where his feet rest
on the earth, to the wire above, and seize
it with his hands, instantly he would be
come the connecting link between the two
legs of the circuit and the current will flow
through him or, as it is called, 'short cir
cuit through him, shocking him or killing
him according to its strength."
A PBrMHTVE TELEPH0HE.
The DuaUas Have a Code of Signals That
Sen-cs TTell.
New York Horning Journal.
The drums of the Duallas are made by
cutting a narrow groove in the side of a
block of hard red-wood, and scooping jout
through it the "whole inside. The'ilrum' is
beaten on the side instead of the ends, And
the four notes thus obtained have been
worked into a complete code of signals, aud
ible two miles off, so that a native trader
can telephone instructions to his agents be
yond the hills or across the river.
-r - . . I
A TALE OF BURIED MILLIONS,
Which Were Accumulated to Overthrow Spain's Power"-in America-and-'Hid-
den on the Revillagigedo Islands.
iriurijor tob this dispatch bt chaelzs howabo shew.
Mexico, as many writers have said,
abounds in tales of buried treasure. Whole
libraries could be filled with legends of the
treasure of Montezuma, which lies in some
cave of the Cordilleras, ready to upset the
gold standard of the civilized world, as soon
as some lucky explorer discovers the
guarded secrets of its resting place. Other
libraries, too, might be crowded with tho
equally fascinating stories of the Gaute-
mozin treasure, hidden by the last Prince of
tne .aziec line, unaer tne waters ot the
Mexican lagunaa.
In truth, Mexico is a land where un
counted millionslie hidden. It is the India
of tbe Western Hemisphere.
Though many stories ef buried gold are
but airy nothings", yet others have a real
historical foundation. One of these strange
yet wholly reasonable and coherent stories
oi lost treasure nas come down lrom the
days of the greatest of the Spanish Viceroys
of Mexico; the proud and masterful Bevil
lagigedo. Unlike most of the Mexican
treasuretales, it deals with Baja California
and the coasts of the Sea of Cortez, now tha
HIDING
Gulf of California; and in fact it is the only
island treasure story that I have ever heard
from Mexican sources.
In 1792 Captain Colnet, an English fur
trader, cruising up and down the Pacific
coast, was seized, with his ship, at the port
of Nootka, in Van Couver Island, by the
Spanish authorities, who then claimed tho
whole coast to Alaska. If this claim could
have been maintained there never would
have been any British Columbia, but the
English Government, true to its' traditions,
took such prompt and energetic
measures that the King of Spain
disavowed the ambitious plans of
the famous Viceroy of MexicOjand exemplary
damages were paid to Colnet and to Eng
land, During these negotiations Captain
Colnet, first token to San Bias and thence to
the city of Mexico, was treated with such
courtesy by Bevillagigedo that in the year
after his release, 1793, he named argroup of
islands off the coast of Baja California alter
the Viceroy. These are the islands of that
hidden treasure whose story has been given '
me by one of the most prominent members
of an old Californian family.
But the history of these islands reaches
much farther back. The great Spanish
navigator, Fernando de Grljalva, discovered
the group in lo-a, dui oniy Desiowea ine
name of Saint Thomas upon the principal
island. Other explorers have namedthe
same Socorro, but since the name first given
ougnt to De prcserveu, ouiut iiwuuu,
though also a duplicate name, will be the
one used in this narrative.
The Spanish Government long ago tried
to establish a colony on the Bevillagigedo
Islands, but failed on account of the lack of
springs or rainfall. The Mexicans had
plans for turning them into a penal estab
lishment, a sort of Pacific coast Botany Bay,
but this likewise was never realized, and
the resources of the group are so small that
it is hardly visited once in ten years- ?Ehe
geographical position of the principal
island, Saint Thomas, is: Latitude, 18 43'
north; longitude, 110 51' west
The manuscript from which I have taken
most, of these facts, subsequently verified as
farus possible by the leading historical au
thorities, is lent me by General Manuel
Castro, one of whose relatives visited the
islands and furnished the following descrip
tion of Saint Thomas:
"It is eight leagues long from S. E. to N.
W., and in its widest part is about three
leagues across. It is a mountain some
2,000 feet high, rising steeply from tha
ocean, with the main slope toward the
south, and is visible in clear weather for 20
leagues away, xne soutnem siope is cov
ered with cactus and with low and exceed
ingly thorny shrubs, which grow in the
crevices of the rocks and dark lava that
form its soil, which is evidently of volcanic
origin. The anchoring grounds are two,
one on the southwest, called Cornwallis
Bay, and the other on the southeast, called
Braithwaite Bay. Both of these were
named by Captain Colnet The only ani
mals on the islands are goats, which may be
seen running over the heights. It is said
that there is abundance of logwood; but this
is doubtful, for thU tree is usually found in
the tropic lowlands. No permanent fresh
springs have yet been found on tho island,
but there are probably some among the
peaks, since goats exist there, and since
there are dense mists that often cover the
mountains, as in the island of Guadalupe,
off the California coast"
So much for tho story of the treasure
island. That of the treasure itself is a still
more complex narrative,a3 must needs ba in
a matter which so many persons have been
interested in keeping secret, and which so
"few have really known anything about
TTTt il---Tf 1 f 1 .A.
wnenina viceroy uearu fcuab hue gruup u
Islands had been named in his honor ha' sent
his Secretary to- examine them. This gen
tleman was a Castilian of pure blood, a
nephew of tho old Duke of Albuquerque, J
and very loyal to the Viceroy, whom, in
deed, he held in his secret thoughts as fit to
.be King of New Spain, without the leave of
the sleepy monarch of the EscuriaL But
this was hardly a plot; it was only a possi
bility, foa which his loye for the great Vice
roy prompted him to make ready if an op
portunity presented itself.
The Secretary went on board a Govern
ment vessel at Acapulco, and tha captain,
whowas under his orders, took him to tha
Bevillagigedos. The beauty and safety of tha
southeast narbor first attracted his atten
tion. Next, inaugurating a thorough ex
ploration of the group, he discovered in
the lava a series of caves or fissures, de
scending almost to the sea level, but so sit
uated that the openings could easily be con
cealed. The Secretary determined to uso
them as storehouses of treasure, whose
secret he would reveal to the Viceroy in
time of need.
.Nor was this problem one that was diffi
cult in the last decade of last century, if the
country was Mexico, and the Viceroy was a
man of such vast plans and such absolute
confidence in his Secretary. It was possible
to gather up millions of dollars from the sea
and the land, without being called to ac
count for it until the time came for the rev-
THE GOLD.
elation. The surplus of Mexican revenue
was still oriental in its magnificence. Tha
Secretary sailed back to Acapulco, and sent
a courier over the mountains, on the danger
ous path to the Taqui Indians, who were
absolute masters of an extensive territory,
but had been hard pressed by the Spanish
troops and were ready to make peace. He
knew more about the Yaqui chief than even
the Viceroy had ever known, and the chief,
who was a sort of a savage Napoleon, came
to Acapulco to see him.
A thousand legends tell the story of the
hidden golden treasure of the Yaqui In
dians. It is among their fastnesses that the
scenes of the wildest adventures of prospec
tors and explorers have occurred. Braver
than any other Indians of Mexico and more
intelligent, the Yaqui tribes would die
rather than let a Spaniard have the secret
of their mines: But the great chief of all
the tribes had traveled over Mexico, and
his heart held vague dreams of a Mexico
that should drive out the Spanish Govern
ment He had never dreamed that any of
the Spaniards themselves could wish to
help in this revolution.
The Secretary won his confidence and
made a treaty with the Yaqui nations. If
this treaty should be ratified by the Viceroy
one clause, which was to be kept secret be
tween the chief and the Secretary, was to
begin operation at once. The public treaty
withdrawing Spanish soldiers from the ter
ritory claimed by the chief, was easily and
promptly secured by the Secretary on his
return to Mexico. The secret clause ran as
follows:
"That the Yaqui nation will reveal to the
Secretary of the Viceroy, a natural store
house of gold, from which he will be per
mitted to carry away a shipload, or more;
whatever, in fact, he deems necessary for
his project to secure the independence of
New Spain."
The next year there were pirate schooners
In the Sea of Cortez, and the Viceroy sent a
royal corvette on a cruise along the shores
of Baja California. The brother of the Sec
retary commanded the corvette, and the
secretary, by dint of much persuasion and a
convenient memory of an uncle who owned
pearl fisheries, was a passenger. The royal
corvette sailed up the gulf, sank several
piratical vessels, discovered new pearl oyster
beds, and finally cast anchor off the old
Franciscan mission of .Lorcto, where the
Secretary obtained from his cousins the men
and the fishing schooner that he needed for
his enterprise. Sailing across the Gulf to a
bay named by the Yaqui chief, he sent a
messenger inland. Within a fortnight the
chief came and fulfilled his promise. He
showed the Secretary a laguna, whose bot
tom when drained was sown thick with nug
gets of gold. The treasure was sacked and
carried to the vessel by many journeys until
the little fisher craft held one of the greatest
piles of wealth ever known in the New
World. Then the Secretary and two men
whom he could trust sailed the craft to the
Bevillagigedo group, and buried it in one of
the lava caverns on tha Island of Saint
Thomas.
This was the first of the treasure-gathering
of the shrewd, unselfish conspirator, '
who dreamed of the freedom of Mexico '
third of a century before the revolution,
but it was not the last, for his position en
abled him to halve the pearl revenues of
the gulf, and the silver revenues of the
mines of Sonora and Chihuahua. So cor
rupt were many branches of the Govern
ment at that time,. so open to bribery, so
used to false reports and the disappearance
of large sums of money, that the Secretary,
at the expense of acquiring rather a worse
reputation than the average politician of
his time, was enabled to add millions of
dollars every year to the Viceroy's un
known treasury. He sent pearls, sapphires '
and opals; bars of silver and gold, jewel
hilted swords and pistols, and many a pre
cious heirloom of ancient Spanish families, -
I
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