CLIFF DWELLERS. WITHIN TWENTY-FIVE MILES OF SANTA FÉ, NEW MEXICO

The missions of Guevara, Zumacacori, and San Xavier were peculiarly fruitful in good results. The ruins of Zumacacori still cover a large space. The church is partially unroofed; the form is seen to have been that of a plain Greek cross with a basilica, and a roofless chapel is standing. The basilica is still crowned by the cross, and the vital influence of this sign and seal of faith in the Christ, this commemoration of the sacrificial zeal that animated the Mission Fathers is still felt by all who gaze upon this sacred emblem silhouetted against a blue sky.

Santa FÉ is, indeed, alive with the most profound and arresting interest. The work of the early Spanish missionary priests effected a great work among the Indians in creating conditions of peace and industry; for faith in God, taught in any form, is not merely nor even mostly an attitude of spirit: it is the instinctive action of life. It permeates every motive inspiring it with power; it vitalizes every effort with creative energy. Faith in God may well be described as the highest possible form of potency. He who is receptive to the Divine Spirit moves onward like a ship whose sails are set to the favoring winds. He who is unreceptive to the Divine Spirit is like the ship before the wind with all her sails furled. "The merit of power for moral victory on the earth," said Phillips Brooks, "is not man and is not God. It is God and man, not two, but one, not meeting accidentally, not running together in emergencies only to separate again when the emergency is over; it is God and man belonging essentially together,—God filling man, man opening his life by faith to be a part of God's, as the gulf opens itself and is part of the great ocean."

The unfaltering devotion of the Franciscan Fathers to the work of bringing civilization and Christianity to these Indian pueblos and their martyrdom in their efforts to establish "the true faith of St. Francis" invests Santa FÉ with an atmosphere of holy tradition.

These early Church Fathers taught a pure and high order of faith in the most practical way. They acquired the Indian language in sufficient measure to speak to the tribes. They taught them the rudiments of arithmetic, history, and geography—in the imperfect way then known; but they gave their best. They inculcated industry and honesty. Their faith is largely told in the poet's words,—

The missions through all the Southwest were peculiarly fruitful in good results. The ruins of many still exist, revealing them to have usually been in the general design of a nave and basilica crowned by the cross—this sign and seal of faith in the Christ.

Three Spanish documents still exist in the territorial records of New Mexico dated 1693-1694, which give a full account of the Spanish conquest; of the re-conquest by the Indians, and the final conquest again by the Spaniards. There is ample evidence that a city existed on the present site of Santa FÉ four hundred years before the settlement at St. Augustine. The final Spanish conquest took place in 1692, but all the records prior to 1680 were unfortunately destroyed in the Pueblo Rebellion. New Mexico's historian, Hon. L. Bradford Prince, who has more than once served as Governor of the territory and who is one of the most distinguished men of the West, has finely said that the people of his territory, although threefold in origin and language (Spanish, Mexican, and American), are one in nationality, purpose, and destiny. In Governor Prince's history of New Mexico he notes its three determining epochs,—the Pueblo, the Spanish, and the American,—and he refers to it as "an isolated, unique civilization in the midst of encircling deserts and nomadic tribes."

On August 18, 1846, General Stephen W. Kearny took possession of the capital of New Mexico in the name of the United States; and on that date, for the first time, the national colors floated from the Old Palace and the acting Spanish Governor, Don Juan Baptista Vigil y Alvarid resigned his authority.

On the historic plaza where now a memorial to this brave officer stands, placed there by the "Daughters of the Revolution," General Kearny proclaimed the peaceful annexation of the territory of the United States.

"We come as friends to make you a part of the representative government," he said. "In our government all men are equal. Every man has a right to serve God according to his conscience and his heart."

General Kearny assured the people of the protection of every civil and religious right, and this forcible and noble speech—so characteristically representing the generous and noble spirit of one of the ablest among the leaders and the heroes of the nineteenth century—made a profound impression on the minds of all who listened to the words. When on August 18 of 1946 New Mexico shall celebrate her centenary of union with the United States, this memorable address of General Kearny's should be read to the assembled populace. Not even Lincoln's noble speech at Gettysburg exceeds in simple eloquence and magnanimity the lofty words of General Kearny. They were worthy to be spoken in "The City of the Holy Faith."

It was thus that New Mexico entered the United States, Esto Perpetua. To-day, after a territorial novitiate of more than sixty years, she is ardently urging her claim for statehood.

In old Santa FÉ the past and the present meet. Governor Hagerman receives his guests in the same room in the Old Palace that was used by the first viceroy; and seventy-six Spanish and Mexican and eighteen American rulers have preceded him, among whom was General Lew. Wallace, who, while serving as territorial Governor, wrote his immortal "Ben Hur" in one room of the palace, which is still pointed out to the visitor. During this period Mrs. Wallace wrote many interesting articles on the history, the life, and the resources of the territory, in which are embalmed valuable information delightfully recorded. Mrs. Prince, the wife of ex-Governor Prince, a lady distinguished throughout all the country for her gracious sweetness and refined dignity of manner, is much interested in the New Mexico Historical Association; and the ex-Governor and Mrs. Prince, His Honor, Mayor Cotrell, and Mrs. Cotrell, Colonel and Mrs. Max Frost, and others of the choice society of Santa FÉ, are preserving the history of this territory "that has survived all those strange modulations by which a Spanish province has become a territory of the Union bordering on statehood." Santa FÉ is the home of some of the ablest lawyers in the United States, and one private law library is said to be the largest legal library west of Chicago.

The Old Palace has been identified with the times of the Inquisition; with the zealous work of Friar Marcos de Nizza, Friar Augustino Ruiz, and with Coronado and his band of warriors. On the Plaza, Juan de OÑate unfurled the banner of Spain; here de Vargas gave thanks for his victory, and here to-day is a simple monumental memorial of General Kearny placed there by the Daughters of the Revolution. The revered memory of Archbishop Lamy is closely associated with the place. In the Old Palace is a musÉe where a great array of unique curios is gathered; pictures of saints rudely painted on skins; crucifixes rudely carved in wood or moulded in native silver; gods carved in stone, and primitive domestic utensils.

There is a very charming and cultivated society in Santa FÉ of the small circle of American residents,—a circle that is of late rapidly increasing. The country around is rich in gems,—the turquoise, opal, onyx, garnet, and bloodstone being found in liberal deposits; and in the town is a manufactory of Mexican filigree work that employs the natives only who are very skilful in this delicate art. The Plaza is a curiously fascinating place to saunter around, and the visitor finds himself loitering and lingering as he is wont to loiter and linger on the old Ponte Vecchio in Florence. The nomenclature of Santa FÉ is sufficiently foreign to enable one to fancy himself in Andalusia, as such names as Padilla, Quintona, Lopez, Gutierrez, Vaca, and others recur.

The Rosario Chapel, built by SeÑor Diego de Vargas, stands on a height overlooking Santa FÉ a mile distant from the Plaza and the Old Palace. Near it is now located the Ramona School for the children of the Apaches. The legend of the founding of San Rosario is still on the air. When, in 1692, SeÑor de Vargas, marching from the south with his band of two hundred men, gazed upon the city from which, in 1680, his compatriots had been so tragically driven, he prostrated himself on the ground and implored in prayer the protection and aid of "Our Lady of the Rosary," and recorded his purpose that, would she but lead him on to victory, he would build, on the very site where he was kneeling, a chapel to her name. Arising, he led his band on to assault, and after a tragic struggle of eleven hours' duration he was victorious. Did the "Lady of the Rosary" shield and strengthen him? Who shall venture to deny it?

De Vargas had promised that, in case the victory was granted to him, he would have the statue of the Virgin carried from the cathedral to the Rosario Chapel, as already noted. To this day the custom is fulfilled; and each year, on the Sunday following Corpus Christi, this sacred drama is enacted, with sometimes two thousand people, drawn from all the country around, forming the procession. The statue is kept in the chapel a week, with solemn masses celebrated every morning, after which it is returned to the cathedral and the chapel is closed, not to be opened again until the octave of the Feast of Corpus Christi the next year.

The "City of the Holy Faith" is very quiet in these days, and one finds little trace of the turbulent past when it was the storm centre of tragic wars and revolutions. The incessant warfare between the Spaniards and the Indians, the sublime courage and devotion of Bishop Lamy and other Fathers of the Church, constitute a wonderful chapter in the history of our country.Santa FÉ antedates the landing of the Pilgrims by more than twenty years. Its history is an unbroken record of thrilling and romantic events, from its capture by the Pueblos in 1680; the terrible massacre of the Mission Fathers, and the flight of the Governor to El Paso; its conquest again by de Vargas in 1692; the change from Spanish to Mexican rule; then the splendid entrance of General Kearny and his troops (in the summer of 1846) in the name of the United States, down to the scenes and the incidents of the old Santa FÉ Trail and thence to the present day, when three railroads have brought the city into close touch with the modern life of which it still refuses to become a part. Still, Santa FÉ has nine mails a day, a free-delivery postal system, electric lights, and local and long-distance telephonic connection. The Capitol, where Governor Hagerman presides over the councils of state, is a fine modern building with a beautiful view from the dome. There is a new Federal Building of stone in classic design, in front of which is placed a monument to Kit Carson. St. Michael's College, the residence of the Archbishop, and the Government Indian School attract the eye. But it is the old Santa FÉ of haunting historic memories that one dreams of in the narrow streets, or in looking down on the town from a mountain-side. The quaint little Plaza dreams in the sunshine, which lingers, as if with a Benedicite, on the Kearny memorial, while through the unshuttered and uncurtained windows of the Old Palace, forming one side of the Plaza, the antique dÉbris may be dimly seen. Should the ghost of any of the old Spanish warriors peer forth, the apparition would hardly produce a ripple of surprise. The long colonnade may be the favorite promenade of phantoms for aught one knows,—phantoms, that come and go,—

"With feet that make no sound upon the floor."

The twentieth-century sunshine lights up the dusky corners wherein are stored the relics of the Spanish conquerors and the followers of St. Francis. Perchance Francis d'Assisi himself, "revisiting the glimpses of the moon," glides along the shadows, drawn to the spot where, at so fearful a cost of life and treasure, his "holy faith" was guarded; or it may be the warrior in his armor who for an instant is dimly discerned through the dust-covered windows. Coronado, too, may haunt this scene. Many are those in the historic ranks who have contributed to the making of Santa FÉ. It is the most composite city in American history. The very air is vocal with tradition and legend.

The little shops around the Plaza bear their signs mostly in Spanish. Yet mingling with these is the office of Mr. Lutz of the Santa FÉ transcontinental line, with which the New Mexican capital is connected by a branch to Lamy, on the main line, where one may stand and converse with Denver,—a feat which may surprise the ghost of Coronado or of Juan de OÑate were it looking on; and Colonel Frost's daily journal, with its news of the world, is just at the corner. Not far away, too, is Mr. Linney, who represents the United States Signal Service, and regards Santa FÉ as a most opportune town in which to pursue his most up-to-date study of atmospheric phenomena.

A remarkable personality in Santa FÉ is Colonel Max Frost, the editor of "The New Mexican," the political leader of the Republican party and a man who, though blind and paralyzed, is simply a living encyclopÆdia of historic and contemporary events. At eight o'clock every morning Colonel Frost is in his office, at his desk, dictating to three expert stenographers, carrying on three different subjects simultaneously. Instead of his blindness being a hindrance to his work, he has, by the sheer force of his remarkable energy, transformed the obstacle into a stepping-stone. "I can do more work in ten minutes than most men can in an hour," he said, in reply to a question, "as, being blind, I have nothing to distract my attention. I put my mind on my work and keep it there."

Colonel Frost's experience is the most convincing testimony to the phenomenal power that lies in mental concentration. He cannot move without assistance,—physically he is a wreck; yet he dictates columns of work daily; he is the most influential leader of the political party, and he is one of the makers of New Mexico. Every line of copy in his daily paper is read to him before it goes to press, and the vigorous and brilliant editorial page is largely his own work. For four hours, every evening, Mrs. Frost reads to him from the great Eastern dailies, the periodicals, and new books. It is said in New Mexico that Colonel Frost has been the power behind the throne in territorial legislation since the time that General Lew. Wallace served as chief executive in 1879.

Colonel Frost went to Santa FÉ from Washington in 1876 as a brilliant young officer, commissioned to build a military telegraph line from Santa FÉ to Phoenix, Arizona,—a distance of five hundred miles. This commission attracted great attention, and Colonel Frost became at once a power among the Spanish-American citizens of the territory. His great ability was widely recognized by leading men all over the Southwest. He was urged to remain and become a citizen of Santa FÉ. As if to further prepare him for his remarkable life, he was commissioned by the government to serve at several points in New Mexico on a variety of important matters, and he thus became singularly identified with the general progress of the country.

With all his extraordinary work in conducting his paper and devoting himself to party political measures, Colonel Frost is serving his territory as Secretary of the Bureau of Immigration with the most conspicuous ability. Under his electric touch and irresistible energy there is constantly prepared and sent out some of the finest transcriptions of the entire status of the country, in climate, resources, and opportunities; in achievements already realized and in the potential developments of the future. Thousands of residents have been drawn to New Mexico through the data so ably set forth by Colonel Frost, the matter being, each year, revised to date. He knows, from personal observation and intimate contact, every part of the territory; he is personally acquainted with all the leading people; and no visitor in the territory can feel his trip in any sense complete without meeting Colonel Max Frost. If every state and territory in the Far West could command such efficient service in the literature of immigration as is rendered by Colonel Frost, there would be an appreciable increase of their settlers.

There are many eminent men in Santa FÉ,—government officers, political leaders, gifted lawyers,—whom the stranger within the gates must recognize as among the ablest leaders and makers of the nation. A newspaper recently established, "The Eagle," ably edited by Mr. A. J. Loomis, adds another attraction and source of inspiration to the wonderful old city, whose life still continues to illustrate and exalt the "Holy Faith of St. Francis."