DOWN THE MESA TO SCHOOL

Dunstan Times, Issue 2296, 7 August 1905, Page 2

DOWN THE MESA TO SCHOOL

Curios* Sight Presented by the Chil4nd of the Xoqui Sndfea Tribe. H TO stood about seven otelock in the morning near the foot of the Oraiba mesa in Arizona we should see a most interesting sight, relates a writer in the New York Sun. The flat-topped elevations oalled mesas are very common features of the arid plains of Arizona. Some of them have for ages been the home* of Indian tribes whose enemies oould not easily reaoh the tops of these big rocks, and so those who lived on them were comparatively safe. This particular mesa is the home of the Oraibi branch of the Moqui tribe. Perched high in the air on their little plateau, the elders still practice the snake dance and other famous rites of their fathers. Only a few years ago they were called hostile because they opposed more strenuously than the other Moquis the introduction of white influences among them. When it was proposed to erect a schoolhouse near the base of the mesa, and to place all the children in the school, the parents stubbornly refusing to permit it. They yielded finally, however, to firm pressure, and every child of school age was-placed in the school. ? The enterprise has been a great success, and whoever stands near the school at seven o'clock in the morning and iooks up at the plateau 500 feet above hum suddenly sees children begin to spill over the edge of the mesa. One child comes into view behind another, and soon the face of the great rock is alive with them as they descend the steep zigwig path leading to the bottom of the mesa and the school. The sight mierests gisitors because it k so anosual. The little folk seem to be hanging to the wall of the mighty rock aa they; slowly descend its face. They keep pouring over ttiff edge and the head of the line has reached the school on the plain below before the last of it leaves the top of the mesa. When the straggling line comes fully into view it is seen to be nearly half a mile long, and its convolutions on the path bear some resemblance to the movements of a snake. There are 175 children in this Bchool, and in attendance it is said to head the list of Indian day schools in the country. A fine new building costing over $3,000 has taken the place of the first school, and it is said that after once being placed there, wearing the new clothes provided for" everj; jpspil? they never miss a day. i I*rgcet Stone Arch Bridge, In spite of mammoth steel a?an\ girder and cantilever bridges, the stone arch bridge is still employed under certain conditions, and the largest structure of this kind in the world is now in course of erection at Planen, Saxony. This bridge will have a span of 295 feet, exceeding by 20 feet the famous Luxembourg bridge opened last year, and by still more the Morbegno bridge in Lombardy and the Cabin John bridge, near Washington, D. C, which have held in turn the record as the longest stone arch bridges. The Plauen bridge differs from the liuxembourg bridge in being of masonry throughout, instead ot consisting of two parallel arches connected by iron and concrete. I£s cost is estimated at about 1120^000.—Chicago Chronicle. •

Plymouth Tinndrmrtla '->-. The landmarks, which draw ian ever-lengthening procession of visitors to Plymouth, are all within the compass of an hoar's ramble. North street, running parallel with Leyden, leads to Plymouth rock, formerly on the water's edge, but now several rods Jrom the shore, and shielded bf a granite canopy. Close by wharf and Cole's hill, wtSse« tJtea first houses of the cosen;£ff£is were set up, and where were buried those who died in the first disastrous winter, the ground above their graves being plowed and sown by the survivors, in order to conceal from the Indians the largenjjmbej; who had fallen.—Criterion. .jlu- ' ""^o^''' ■"".■'■ Cutting Strict - Custom officials in SwTffcfer'land (will in future examine passengera.' *flf3ft6£ in tbe trains.—^32,£g£Jb