Lot
2031 
(Santa Fe Trail) "Galisteo, August 16th, 49", dateline on provisional government period stampless folded letter from a drifter to his sister in Uniontown, Alabama, carried up the Santa Fe Trail by military courier to Missouri and mailed with green "Independence, Mo., Nov. 6" cds and matching green "X" rating handstamp; some minor splitting and toning at the folds, Very Fine. Estimate $1,000 - 1,500.
Especially derogatory letter reads in part "You will be surprised to hear from me at this place, and particularly at this time. You must now believe me in or near California. I must acknowledge that I expected being there again this time when I left you… This is a small town twenty-five miles south of Santa Fe. It contains about eighty houses. The streets are dirty, crooked and without pavements as all the little towns in this part of the world. These Mexicans are the most contemptible wretches that you can possibly conceive of. I have not seen a good looking woman among them yet. I do not believe they ever comb their heads or wash themselves." and, omitting a digression into the subject of sucking on goats for milk, "I visited Santa Fe, the Capital of New Mexico… The place contains about six thousand inhabitants (such as they are). The houses are all one story high and built in the Mexican style of adobe or mud, with flat roofs and narrow doors… As for the morality of the place… Vice is a business. I might add, almost the only one. Persons coming here seem to think that they have a right to do the worst things that they ever imagined. All go armed with bowie knives and revolving pistols. There are more Americans than Mexicans. The most desperate characters that can be found. Starting to California they have come here and lost all of their money by gambling… The gambling tables are never unoccupied day or night and the rooms are so full that it is almost suffocating. Taking Santa Fe altogether it degrades human nature." .
Realized: $1,600