FIRST IMPRESSIONS 17 



to dispense with elaborate barns. The 

 Mexican stable is as often as not simply 

 four posts stuck into the ground, the roof 

 being made of brush, on which the corn is 

 kept. Should this erection possess sides, 

 they are pretty sure to be made of closely- 

 wattled and thorny mesquite or other brush ; 

 and, strange as it may seem, such a shelter 

 is not to be despised. Those who have the 

 money to spend build them barns of adobe, 

 and excellent they are ; but to build in adobe 

 is far from being as cheap as it sounds. As 

 for lumber, the farmer who can extend him- 

 self in that direction must have a big bank 

 account. The fences are, of course, barbed 

 wire. The indifference to appearances, or, 

 speaking more accurately, indifference to the 

 externals of a home, seems to work like a 

 contagion. Granted the existence of pleasant 

 exceptions, the ordinary ranch-house in the 

 Mesilla Valley causeth the blood of the un- 

 happy stranger to run cold. ' And in one of 

 these I am to make my home !' is his inward 

 moan. He remembers the long and costly 

 journey from the East, and realizes that few 

 will be the friends of his (now) past who will, 



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