CHAPTER X. 



Condition of the Arts and Sciences in New Mexico — Neglect 

 of Education — Primary Schools — Geographical Ignorance — 

 Female Accomplishments — Imported Refinements — Peculiari- 

 ties of Language, etc. — Condition of the Public Press — State 

 of Medical Science — The Mechanical Arts — Carpentry and 

 Cabinet Work— State of Architecture — Dwelling Houses and 

 their Peculiarities — Rustic Furniture— Curiously constructed 

 Vehicles— Manufacture of Blankets— Other Fabrics— Want 

 of Machinery. 



There is no part of the civilized globe, per- 

 haps, where the Arts have been so much 

 neglected, and the progress of Science so suc- 

 cessfully impeded as in New Mexico. Read- 

 ing and writing may fairly be set down as 

 the highest branches of education that are 

 taught in the schools ; for those pedants who 

 occasionally pretend to teach arithmetic, very 

 seldom understand even the primary rules of 

 tue science of numbers. I should perhaps 

 niake an exception in favor of those ecclesi- 

 astics, who have acquhed thehr education 

 abroad; and who, from their vocation, are 

 necessarily obhged to possess a smattering of 

 I^atin. Yet it is a well known fact that the 

 majority of this privileged class, even, are la- 

 mentably deficient in the more important 



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