8 OBSERVATIONS OF A RANCHWOMAN 



humblest of chimneys, but the effect was 

 good, nevertheless. 



Sometimes we plunged ankle-deep in 

 sand and climbed the eastern mesa the 

 tableland rising betwixt the village and the 

 Organ Mountains gazing curiously as we 

 passed at the adobe huts of the natives, each 

 with its corral fenced about by brush or 

 wattled sticks, or occasionally a mud wall, 

 and harbouring lean, roped ponies. Every 

 live thing is roped in this country, pigs and 

 cocks included, and even sometimes the 

 errant hen, until all hope of her performing 

 her duty for the day is at an end. The 

 ubiquitous cur and the dirty black-eyed child 

 pervaded the village landscape. 



The first impression of the native is Dirt 

 and Hat ; and here it should be said that the 

 entire population of this little town is only 

 about 2,500, and that the Mexican is in the 

 proportion of three to one of the American 

 1 American ' being used in the usual compre- 

 hensive sense of the word. Dirt is possibly 

 an indispensable item of the picturesque 

 'up to a certain point, you know, up to a 

 certain point ; but you can go too far.' We 



