Back to Susan E. Wallace

November 21, 1879

Mr. William H. Ward

Dear Sir,

Herewith

Please find manuscript with words corrected. I shall refuse to be comforted if the first paper forwarded last June (I believe) is lost. Having one copy and the succeeding letters do not make sense alone. I have in hand ample material for a series of articles necessarily long, on the Pueblo or Town Indians peculiar to New Mexico and Arizona, and rightful owners of the soil. They are by far the most interesting of all the Aborigines and the only tribes not a curse to the country. Living in permanent houses peaceful, half civilized, sun worshipers, unchanged since the early Spaniards discovered them more than 200 years ago. From careful study of their history I am satisfied they were anciently the skirmish line of the Aztecs. Only second to them in configuration and near a kin to the Mound builders of the Mississippi Valley. Would you examine papers on the subject with a view to publication? If so how long should each one be, what pay?

Professor Strieby is one of our most valued friends. Men of his high character do not abound on the frontier. Be the land of the Divine Lord. One room of the dismal den called “El Palacio Del Gobernador” is devoted to assaying ones. There the professor spends Saturdays and any evening , over a fiery furnace, while his girlish wife looks on with innocent eyes that are diamond editions of the pleasures of hope. The speediest answer will obliged.

Yours truly,

S. E. Wallace

Address

Mrs. Gov. Lew Wallace

Crawfordsville, Indiana