bartered at a staggering advance. Plain broadcloth sold
at $25 a yard, linen at $4 a yard, and the price on other goods was
proportionate. Goods taken in exchange were hides, wool, gold and silver
bullion, Indian blankets and precious stones.

Travelers from Mexico to the outside world went by stage or private
omnibus with outriders and guards and sharpshooters. Young Spanish girls
sent East to school were accompanied by such a retinue of defenders,
slaves and servants, as might have attended a European monarch; and a
whole bookful of stories could be written of adventures among the young
Spanish nobility going out to see the world. The stage fare varied from
$160 to $250 far as the Mississippi. Though Stephen B. Elkins went to
New Mexico with a bull whacker's team, it was not long before he was
sending gold bullion from mining and trading operations out to St. Louis
and New York. How to get this gold bullion past the highwaymen who
infested the stage route, was always a problem. I know of one old
Spanish lady, who yearly went to St. Louis to make family purchases and
used to smuggle Elkins' gold out for him in belts and petticoats and
disreputable looking old hand bags. Once, when she was going out in
midsummer heat, she had a belt of her husband's drafts and Elkins' gold
round her waist. The way grew hotter and hotter. The old lady unstrapped
the buckskin reticule--looking, for all the world, like a woman's
carry-all--and threw it up on top of the stage. An hour later,
highwaymen "went through" the passengers. Rings, watches, jewels, coin
were taken off the travelers; and the mail bags were looted; but the
bandits never thought of examining the old bag on top of the stage, in
which was gold worth all the rest of the loot.

In those days, gambling was the universal passion of high and low in New
Mexico; and many a Spanish don and American trader, who had taken over
tens of thousands in the barter of the caravan, wasted it over the
gaming table before dawn of the next day. The Fonda, or old Exchange
Hotel, was the center of high play; but it may as well be acknowledged,
the highest play of all, the wildest stakes were often laid in the
Governor's Palace.

Luckily, the passion for destroying the old has not invaded Santa Fe.
The people want their Palace preserved as it was, is, and ever shall be;
and the recent restoration has been, not a reconstruction, but a taking
away of all the modern and adventitious. Where mode