the enormous length of his legs would permit. "Heow are yeōu, stranger?" he repeated, as I continued to stare at him, still mentally wondering who this quaint specimen of humanity, with his wonderful legs, homespun breeches, and cowhide boots, could be. Having satisfied my curiosity, I informed him that I was in my usual health; upon receiving which gratifying intelligence he arose, and, after stretching himself until I thought of asking him to suspend so unnecessary an operation, finally remarked that "he allowed I had come eout thar to see the elephant," at the same time giving me an invitation to "take a turn round town." Before starting, however, he sorely tested my friendship by inviting me to join him in a "horn of Monongahele," as he was pleased to term some of the most execrable "corn whisky" which it ever has been my misfortune to taste. But I had sojourned in the Far West too long not to know that a refusal to drink would be considered any thing but courteous to my new acquaintance, or, as he himself would most probably have expressed it, I should be open to the charge of having made "a large hole in manners" by so doing. Having, therefore, duly complied with the stern requirements of frontier etiquette, we sallied out together, my long companion taking strides which would have done honor to "Jack the Giant Killer's seven-league boots," thereby keeping me at once in a dogtrot and a profuse perspiration.

Leaving the main Plaza, we traversed a complication of remarkably dirty streets until we halted before a low adobe house, built somewhat in the form of the letter L, with a flat roof, and walls carefully whitewashed upon the outside-perchance a satirical commentary upon the purposes to which it was devoted. But my guide was little given to moralizing, or did not then care to indulge in it; for, after beckoning with his hand, and muttering an explanation to the effect that "they kept an elephant in this establishment, and the tallest kind of an animal at that," he made for the door, through which he effected an entrance by stooping not more than six inches. Following his lead, and keeping close to my conductor, I stepped into a room which, besides a couple of billiard-tables and a very mixed assemblage of the "genus homo," contained a sufficiency of cat-glass decanters, not to mention a villainous smell of bad brandy, to inform me that it was the "bar;" but, as my companion had already paid his respects to the "Monongahele," he did not tarry, but glided through the throng, while I followed closely in his wake. A moment more, and we had entered another apartment, where the sounds and odors were, if possible, worse than those which we had encountered in the vestibule without. I now discovered that I had been introduced into the principal gambling saloon of the city. It was, as the exterior of the building had indicated, a long, low room, with narrow windows upon one side, which lighted it but dimly, and an earthen floor, which seemed perfectly impreg nated with the expectorations of its tobacco-chewing frequenters. On either side of this apartment were ranged three tables for the convenience of the "banks" and their customers. These tables were strongly built of some hard wood, with a parapet upon the three sides most distan* from the wall; partly, I presume, to prevent the money from rolling upon the ground, and partly, it may be, to put a stop to any undesirable scru

tiny into the manipulations of the banker. Between the wall and the tables were placed chairs for the convenience of the dealer, or dealersfor these gentry usually hunt in couples; while upon the board was displayed not only the lure in the shape of Mexican dollars and Spanish doubloons, or "ounces," as they are called in that region, but a preven tive to interference (or, as is sometimes the case, just complaints of unfair dealings) in the shape of Bowie knives, "Derringers," and "sixshooters," which latter weapons lay prepared for instant use, being loaded and capped so as to be ready to the hand.

The amount of capital invested in these operations was certainly much larger than I should have supposed, several thousands of dollars being not unfrequently exhibited, with an assurance that even larger sums would be forthcoming if the player should desire it. The upper end of this "Pandemonium" was occupied by a "roulette-table," the proprietor of which kept crying out at intervals, "Come up, gentlemen! Here's the game for your money! Any time while the ball rolls! Eagle by chance," and so on.

Finding that my new companion had by this time forgotten me, and almost his own existence, in the all-absorbing interests of the gambling-table, where, if I might judge from his occasional exclamations of "Wal, neow!" and "Wonder if that's far!" he seemed to be tempting Fortune with but indifferent success. I made the acquaintance of a young volunteer officer, who was lounging about the room, and as both were but "lookers on in Venice," we joined company and took notes, which at that time I had but little thought of printing.

It is a wise and truthful saying that "Death levels all things; and if there be a parallel to that equality, which is only found in its perfection when we lie down "with kings and counselors of the earth," it is that born of the morally pestiferous miasmas of the gambling-table, where the one great passion absorbs all minor considerations-dignity, position, principle, nay, even honor itself, being forgotten for the chances of a card or the hazard of a die. Nor was it less so here, for amid the excited throng I noticed more than one woman-yes, even child-who was risking money upon the fluctuations of that truly Mexican mode of gambling, "el monté."

Among the females present, I remarked one, whose face-though she was by no means advanced in life-bore most unmistakably the impress of her fearful calling, being scarred and seamed, and rendered unwomanly by those painful lines which unbridled passions and midnight watching never fail to stamp upon the countenance of their votary. I afterward learned that this person was the most notorious, if not the most accomplished gambler in New Mexico, where she had obtained by her unprecedented successes a famous, or, rather, infamous reputation. her history is a peculiar one, I will give it in the language of Gregg, who thus alludes to her in that excellent work, "The Commerce of the Prairies":

As

"The following will not only serve to show the light in which gambling sheld by all classes of society, but to illustrate the purifying effects of wealth upon character. Some twelve or fifteen years ago, there lived, on

rather, roamed in Taos a certain female of very loose habits, known as La Tules. Finding it difficult to obtain the means of subsistence in that district, she finally extended her wanderings to the capital. She there became a constant attendant upon one of those pandemoniums where the favorite game of monté was dealt pro bono publico. Fortune at first did not seem inclined to smile upon her efforts, and for some years she spent her days in lowliness and misery. At last her luck turned, as gamblers would say, and on one occasion she left the bank with a spoil of several hundred dollars. This enabled her to open a bank of her own, and, being favored with a continuous run of good fortune, she gradually rose higher and higher in the scale of affluence, until she found herself in possession of a very handsome fortune. In 1843, she sent to the United States some ten thousand dollars to be invested in goods. She still continues her favorite 'amusement,' being now considered the most expert monté dealer in Santa Fé. She is openly received in the first circles of society. I doubt, in truth, whether there is to be found in the city a lady of more fashionable reputation than this same Tules, now known as Señora Doña Gertrudes Barceló."

The foregoing particulars were entirely confirmed by statements made to me during my stay in Santa Fé. This woman has since gone to render her final account, and was, I am told, interred with all that pomp and ceremony with which ill-gotten wealth delights to gild its obsequies. Alms were given to the poor, and masses performed for the repose of a soul which could claim but one mediator between itself and its Creator. When I saw her, she was richly but tastelessy dressed her fingers being literally covered with rings, while her neck was adorned with three heavy chains of gold, to the longest of which was attached a massive crucifix of the same precious metal.

-

Another "noticeable " amid this motley assemblage, who attracted no small share of my attention, was a Mexican priest, who, in the clerical garb of his order, with cross and rosary most conspicuously displayed, was seated at one of the tables near me, where he seemed completely engrossed by the chances of his game, the fluctuations of which he was marking by the utterance of oaths as shocking and blasphemous as ever issued from human lips. Unlike my jolly friar, Father Ignatio, (whom may Bacchus defend,) he sinned, not from carelessness, or out of a genial exuberance of animal spirits, but from the evil workings of a sinblackened soul within. Yet this man was a minister at the altar, and a sworn protector of Christ's flock; who held, according to his creed, the power to absolve and to baptise, to shrive the dying and intercede for the dead; who would go from the curses of a "hell" to the house of the living God, and there stand in his sacerdotal robes and say to his people, "Go in peace, thy sins are forgiven thee !"

As I was still following out the train of thought to which these matters had given rise, my meditations were interrupted by the sudden reappearance of my Missourian guide, who had lingered about Madame Tules' bank until he had staked and lost his last dollar. I shall not soon forget his woe-begone expression as he planted himself directly in front of me, elevating his tall form to its fullest altitude, while his right

arm was gesticulating in the air. After looking full in my face for a moment, he addressed me in the following strain:

'I brought yeöu hiar, stranger, to see the elephant; but I kinder expect I've seen the critter wuss than yeöu hev. If yeöu'll take a fool's advice, yeöu'll leave hiar-sure as shooting, and forgit the trail yeõu cum by. Darn the keārds!" he added, in a sudden burst of indignation; I allers wus a fool, and cuss this Greaser swindle they call Monté! I only wish the man that invented it had had his head tuck off with a crosscut saw just afore he thought of it-wall, I do, hoss!" Here he paused. I listened for something more, but he had "said his say," and, walking moodily through the crowd, which he elbowed with but scanty ceremony, he finally disappeared through the open doorway. The next time I saw him, he was seated upon the driver's box of a heavy mule wagon, en route for Chihuahua, where, as he informed me, "he allowed to make a raise," being just then, "thanks to that cussed Monté woman, flat broke."

Upon regaining the, by comparison, purer air of the uncleansed alleyway without, I could scarcely avoid moralizing upon the scenes I had so recently witnessed. Here were men, women, and children- the strong man, the mother, and the lisping child. all engaged in that most debasing of vices, gambling, an entire devotion to which is the besetting sin of the whole Mexican people. But yet these transgressors were not without an excuse. What better could you have expected from an ig norant, priest-ridden peasantry, when those whom they are taught to reverence and respect, and who should have been their prompter to better things, not only allow, but openly practice this and all other iniquities? If there be a curse (as who shall doubt ?) pronounced against those who are instrumental in whelming a land in moral darkness, what must be the fate of those "blind leaders of the blind," the Roman Catholic priest hood of New Mexico?

On my way back to the "Hotel," I paid my respects to the paymaster, or, rather, to his clerk, from whom I received certain moneys due me from the United States for services rendered. Departing thence, I walked into a "store" upon the Plaza, where I purchased divers articles of clothing, with which, and a fit-out for my extremities in the shape of hat and boots, I so metamorphosed myself that a little Mexican, who had seen both my exit and entrance, grinned admiringly, which, coupled with the compliment of non-recognition paid me by "Long Eben " upon my return, was, all things considered, extremely flattering.

As it wanted still at least an hour to supper-time, that meal being served at the very primitive period of sunset, I once more sallied forth, leaving "Long Eben" lolling against his door, where he was busily engaged in completing what Dickens would have called "a magic circle of tobacco juice," to wander through the town.

Of La Ciudad de Santa Fé, as it existed in the summer of 1848, I can say little that is favorable; but as I am unwilling to pass judgment upon so limited an acquaintance, I prefer adopting a description of that city which I find recorded in the narrative of Gregg, to advancing my own hasty impressions. The more so, as I am satisfied that this descrip