The dress of the New Mexican is the same as in Old Mexico. The peasant
wears his _sombrero_ and his everlasting blanket, which serves him
as a coat, and a covering by night. He rarely has but one suit of
clothes, which are put on new and worn until they are of no further
use. By amalgamating with the Americans, they are gradually
changing their style of dress. The buckskin pants, which were
characteristically cut and ornamented, are giving way to the ordinary
cloth ones of his white companion. It is so with the blanket, which is
being shed for the coat; and, again, this is true with the moccasin,
which is being replaced by the leathern shoe. The dress of the female
has undergone the same alteration. From almost a state of nudity,
they have been raised to a position from which they look upon silk
and satin with a "_connoisseur's_ eye." When New Mexico was part
and parcel of the domain of Old Mexico, Taos was the seat of much
smuggling from the United States, and many an apparent pack of grain
drawn into the town has been nothing less than packages of domestic
goods, the duties upon which, when introduced in the legal way,
were enormous; hence the white men engaged in this business, when
successful, met with ample rewards for their labors. The frontiers
were like the olden sea coasts. The Mexicans kept out scores of
custom-house officers to guard their frontiers, but the shrewd
foreigners, many times, were able to escape them; at others, they
were so fortunate as to find that a bribe would answer as well. An old
trick was to have a double bottom to a wagon, and, in the vacant space
thus formed, were stowed valuable shawls and such light articles as
would meet a sure and remunerative sale. Sometimes the goods were
brought near the frontiers and there hidden in the ground until a
favorable opportunity offered to steal them into the country. When
there was great danger that these secreted goods would be discovered,
the smugglers would so arrange a keg of powder with a loaded pistol