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Show 198 BY PATH A^ D TRAIL. adobe church of St. Augustin built, the walls of which are yet standing on the east bank of the Santa Cruz, one of the disappearing rivers of the southwest. With the coming of the railroad in 1880 the really modern Tucson begins. In 1803 two meteoric bodies were found here weighing respectively 1,600 and' 632 pounds. The rub bish that has been written about Tucson in the news papers, books and magazines of the east, is only matched by the myths and fables published about Santa Fe. From before Father Kino's visit in 1691 Tucson was never heard of. Since then, down to the building of the South ern Pacific, its history is a record of blood and murders, of Apache raids, of Mexican feuds and American out laws, gamblers and hold- up men who exterminated each other or were lynched by the law- abiding citizens. To day Tucson is a city of law and order and will soon be the metropolis of Arizona. So much by way of a preface and now let us continue our impressions of the city. The early Spaniards civilized and Christianized the Aztecs of Mexico and intermarried with them. From these unions were begotten the race known to- day as Mexican, though the average American very often con fuses and very annoyingly to the Mexican the Indian tribes of the Mexican republic with the descendants of the Spanish colonists and military settlers and the daugh ters of the warriors of Montezuma. The Spaniards did something more. They imparted to their descendants courtesy, civility and high ideals. They taught them all those nameless refinements of speech and manner which impart a gracious flavor to association and a charm to companionship. I cannot help thinking that the Americans of Tucson have profited very much from their intercourse with the |
