Show ACOMA IN THE AIR moston boston transcripts where Is acoma Acu oia with a few exceptions among the educated travelled people one meets meef this la is the first question baked thoroughly eon coo venant with the beauties beau antiquities and add wonders of the old world but unmindful that io in our own fair country way may be seen today a city which as ae a sot of patient toll toil is y low len wonderful wonder lul than the pyramids of egypt and may be termed the eighth wonder of the world clift built storm swept acoma is ie in now new mexico easily accessible by a drive of sixteen mlles alles southeast irom from laguna and this pueblo Is ia within a sto stones nels throw of the railroad at am after a sixty five mile ride west from f om albuquerque we reach the pueblo of laguna Li aguna and aad grasp our grip for a abort tarry among the indiana indian including a visit to acoma our birok day is passed in ligans an old spanish land grant patented by the united states and containing about of the tribe numbering in all from boiu 1800 to 1400 scattered about in their communal homes those these strange children of the desert are a quiet peaceable pea pe reable seeable self eel sufficient people who till the soil raise cattle and make pottery while accepting the form of religion professed by their spanish conquerors they have not abandoned their own and in their curious ol 01 i church without floor or beatt may be seen on the side walls quaint tanta fantastic indian decorations much the same as adorn adora their pottery and over the altar are pointed painted the indian emblems of worship sun eun moon moons stars rainbow and lightning abey nave have a government day school where a kind self seif sacrificing teacher labors to educate the children out of the dense cloud of ignorance and superstition in which their minds minde have for ages been swathed their style of architecture is severely plain and houses bouses with the exception of the buildings about the large court where the dances are hold held are but oue otie story high in some instances built of adobe blocks of hnud mixed with straw end and dried in the sun and in others of stone alone covered with mud cement some of the latter having been built in the age of stone axes as is 18 shown in the irregular way the he rigan beams beame were chopped off the en mirauce to toe the first story ol of houses Is ie in soma caner indeed universal in acoma by means ot crt a ladder sou irom thence is in terraced up with steps tj ta the upper stories orlea st there to is nothing to tell of the origin of this mysterious people jorfor or for ilow many centuries they have been treading tue the game narrow pathway to ID the rock which in some places la Is worn to ade a do th of eight inches all water used in the pueblo to is brought bythe by the squats squaws in four and five gallon poised gracefully e upon the head bead from a spring one distant while waiting wa 1 ting as they often must for water to t run into the spring they amuse themselves by climbing a steep foot trail in the rock to the top of a high cliff upon which are quantities of lava java and where we was fought a battle between spaniards and with pieces or ol over bare or feet with one foot preceding the other slide elide down io in a well worn groove the writer essayed the sport port but would not care to be photographed ss as making the descent deacent our genial hoit boat who left his home near dayton 0 and began his lite among the come twenty sigbe y ears siide first AS aa teacher tea ober later as civil engineer and surveyor has haa twice nettled married from among afung them hla his first wife having been an apache and the present one a pueblo who has partially adopted our style sty leof of dress but till still adheres to the daily banda bandaging glog ot ol the lower limbs limbo which I 1 am told inda batee wealth and rauk the housemaid is a pueblo and attired through out in strict pueblo style out our interesting historical chats by the cheerful chetri ul warmth of the pinion etious burning on end in the little old adobe fireplace are among the memories which will go with us to the purpling of lifes seven am the follow following ang day we tart start with guide and team for aboms our drive to is over the plains plain where the bones bonea of numberless cattle lie bleach lot through a groath crowth of stunted umber timber beyond wb which ch ou every eory hand band time magni fireng rocky constructions by nature bd great architect assuming every imaginable form tower domes dome gothic spite spires and one train with large engine we named acome acoma past the ancient acoma which according to the tradition of the stood upon dupoin the crest of the superb haunted mesa mean tome ome two and a half miles east of present aboms and about boo feet higher but one day while the entire population except three women were t work in 10 the fields below its ita only approach was swept away by a storm leaving the three women to die of star in sight eight of the homeless huc buc dieks of their people who for many days surrounded the uneca lable cliff with uplifted agonized faces the ancient acoma bali bah thus far fair remained an cliff thought to be rich with antiquities from the old ruins thus thua bereft of their homes those these pa tient wanderers push on to another cliff and build the present acoma at the gateway of which we halt in the shadow of 0 one of the towering mono lithe that have been separated from the parent mesa by erosion slight alight and silently gaze up the almost vertical sides aides nearly Dearly feet to the tb most aboriginal city ilu in existence standing majestically upon the brow of the cliff with many colored blankets blau kela wrapped gracefully about them out our advent are some of the chiefs chie fc and their way over a precipitous stairway in the rock and a trail over saud sand banks which have drifted in to depth of from twenty to sixty feet we see bee their men and women going to and from their dally daily labors in the plains below we make the recent ascent over one of the dizziest dizz iest leat paths human feet ever trod and stand upon the summit of ft a table rook fully feet above abo the plain which is feet above sea level the streets are filled the houie housetop top are coverer 1 for we being the second party of white women who bad ever visited them are as much of it curiosity to these theme sons and daughters of the desert as are they to us the entrance to the be houses is effected by ladders to the second story then hen tor ter raced up with steps to the me upper stor ator lei ies when the ladder ti in pulled up gh the latchstring to la considered withdrawn we climb their ladders ladder enter their homer and see aee them making broad bread and pottery potter visit their silversmith who in IB actively their women being very food fond or 01 dref drear bright colors and sliver silver jewelry always preferring it to gold A hw few scattered starve look looking ug turkeys turk eyet yr chickens swine and ducks roam about at will and pap pooai Jea entirely nude february I 1 I 1 save move a small leather bracelet supoj ane upon the ground or swing owing in blankets to the father fathers fa s back the old city covering 1000 feet ot of tho the ton ten acre area of the cliff with its three streets of df quaint paint terraced houses of stay gray adibi adib tta its huge chu church rob with walls sixty feet feel high aud eight feet thick having timbers forty feet long and fourteen inches square which must have cost the labor of generations its graveyard said to have consumed forty years la in making by reason of the neam necessity sity of carrying eaith as aa well AN aa every particle of material used in oon the city from thu the plains be ow upon their backs up the precipitous airway in the rock which at that time me was the only approach as a monument eDt of patient toll scarcely less wonderful than the pyramids of its august surrounding it jeg senery nerys its wild and romantic his tory and the curious 0 customs toms of its if y imma remaining ining inhabitant the reserve S ot whose bose inner me lifo labori laborious ouri 1 I efforts have been made to penetrate i are rife with interest to the lew j who vist visit this isolated city as one of the aalt interesting spots on earth lq neither uither tradition nor history tells us when acoma was founded it was an old itt 1 1 town when first seen by coronado I 1 tia in 1640 rom from which date began its ita au history hi etory tha original acoma on the mesa in Eo cantada being oleu oyeu even then an ancient tradition the adomas welcomed the soldiers of coronado witti with deference believing bighem of celestial origin but subsequently learning their ar dis hut nan man character acter slow slew a dozen of tars me nalter iter having pro processed proe sied lessed allega 1 once lice the incident of s re vilpas when he be headed acore err andt and after a three daubl band 1 11 hand struggle carried the sky citadel by assault has no parallel in v american history save sare the memorable 4 like exploit of cortez cortex on the great alcoe pyramid the remit remained ned three quarters of a cent abent uy u thare thereafter after until the balooly cupris v iligin in 1680 when priest soldier and atler were massacred massa wass ored mored or driven from tt land they were afterward by diego do de and have itsinie it t of since dee openly rebelled against the ltv of the white mau man they a bloused house d to in th the e self asme structures which their ances ancestors torii were die st ered i ed sod and in three and a halt half con cles ies of contact with europeans their r J of life demathe unchanged pueblo toe pueblo is in undoubted undoubtedly ly the highest yf arpe of the aboriginal tribes |