{"product_id":"2940013446458","title":"THE LONE RANCHE","description":"CHAPTER ONE.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA TALE OF THE STAKED PLAIN.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"HATS OFF!\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWithin the city of Chihuahua, metropolis of the northern provinces of\u003cbr\u003eMexico--for the most part built of mud--standing in the midst of vast\u003cbr\u003ebarren plains, o'ertopped by bold porphyritic mountains--plains with a\u003cbr\u003epopulation sparse as their timber--in the old city of Chihuahua lies the\u003cbr\u003efirst scene of our story.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLess than twenty thousand people dwell within the walls of this North\u003cbr\u003eMexican metropolis, and in the country surrounding it a like limited\u003cbr\u003enumber.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOnce they were thicker on the soil; but the tomahawk of the Comanche and\u003cbr\u003ethe spear of the Apache have thinned off the descendants of the\u003cbr\u003e_Conquistadores_, until country houses stand at wide distances apart,\u003cbr\u003ewith more than an equal number of ruins between.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYet this same city of Chihuahua challenges weird and wonderful memories.\u003cbr\u003eAt the mention of its name springs up a host of strange records, the\u003cbr\u003esouvenirs of a frontier life altogether different from that wreathed\u003cbr\u003eround the history of Anglo-American borderland.  It recalls the cowled\u003cbr\u003emonk with his cross, and the soldier close following with his sword; the\u003cbr\u003eold mission-house, with its church and garrison beside it; the fierce\u003cbr\u003esavage lured from a roving life, and changed into a toiling _peon_,\u003cbr\u003eafterwards to revolt against a system of slavery that even religion\u003cbr\u003efailed to make endurable; the neophyte turning his hand against his\u003cbr\u003epriestly instructor, equally his oppressor; revolt followed by a deluge\u003cbr\u003eof blood, with ruinous devastation, until the walls of both _mission_\u003cbr\u003eand military _cuartel_ are left tenantless, and the redskin has returned\u003cbr\u003eto his roving.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSuch a history has had the city of Chihuahua and the settlements in its\u003cbr\u003eneighbourhood.  Nor is the latter portion of it all a chronicle of the\u003cbr\u003eolden time.  Much of it belongs to modern days; ay, similar scenes are\u003cbr\u003etranspiring even now.  But a few years ago a stranger entering its gates\u003cbr\u003ewould have seen nailed overhead, and whisked to and fro by the wind,\u003cbr\u003esome scores of objects similar to one another, and resembling tufts of\u003cbr\u003ehair, long, trailing, and black, as if taken from the manes or tails of\u003cbr\u003ehorses.  But it came not thence; it was human hair; and the patches of\u003cbr\u003eskin that served to keep the bunches together had been stripped from\u003cbr\u003ehuman skulls!  They were _scalps_--the scalps of Indians, showing that\u003cbr\u003ethe Comanche and Apache savages had not had it all their own way.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47079449166064,"sku":"2940013446458","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013446458_p0.jpg?v=1763581593","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013446458","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}