__________

     Reminiscences of this county of Bexar and city of San Antonio, will date back to our landing at Galveston, Feb. 11th, 1846; whence we sailed on a schooner to Port Lavaca.  After a stay of one month in that place, our residence began in this quaint and historic city.  Before the siege of the Alamo, many American families had left and we found about one hundred families only, besides the native population, who were mostly descendants of Spanish ancestors.
     The population was confined within an area extending from now Romana Street on the north; the Alamo on the east; Nueva Street south, and Laredo Street across the San Pedro creek on the west side of the town.  Many of the better class lived in houses clus-

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tered around the Main Plaza, east and west of the Cathedral of San Fernando.  A narrow foot-bridge crossed the river just a little north of the present Commerce Street bridge.  One ford at the ''Old Mill" and another at the Lewis Mill were used by the Mexican "carretas" for crossing the river.

     Ten years after the "Fall of the Alamo", we found the ruin choked with debris of stones, mortar and dirt, causing an embankment from the base to the top.  From the roofless top we could view a tangle of mesquite bushes, the ditch on the east and a few huts or "jacalos" scattered around.  One Sunday we crossed the narrow foot-bridge on our way to the Alamo.  We ran up and down the "Hill" as we called it, when one of the party unearthed a cannon ball and rolled it down to the entrance.  Three years afterwards, in 1849, very strenuous work was required to put the church in shape for occupation by the U. S. Military Department.  In clearing the ruin, away down in the rubbish, were found skeletons and other relics which attested the courage and fortitude of those heroes of undying fame.
     In 1846, the Lipan and other tribes of Indians were friendly to the people and used to come into the city to trade their pelts, beads, feathers and moccasins; but in 1847 they went on the war-path and depredated on all the white settlements until 1878.  Quite an exciting incident occurred one day when several Indians with their squaws entered the only large

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mixed grocery and dry-goods store which was then on the southeast corner across from the Cathedral.  A little girl just two years old was playing on the next corner south of the store, when a squaw picked her up, fondled her, then ran diagonally across the Military Plaza with her towards the Priest's House, the residence of Bishop Odin, west of which tangled mesquite bushes grew rankly.  Screams from the one in charge brought people to their doors who chased the squaw.  She came back making signs that she was only in play.
     Many curious customs were then in vogue amongst the natives, such as the observing of certain Saints' days. The image of a woman, Saint Guadalupe, the patron saint of Mexico, was carried around the streets.  Judas Day was celebrated by mounting the figure of an old rag-man on poles, followed by the rabble, rattling gourds covered with skins and filled with pebbles.  The crowd threw sticks and stones at the image, and with hootings and noise the bedlam was deafening.  On San Juan's Day (El-cinco-del-Mayo) , every Mexican who owned or could beg or borrow a mustang pony, bestrode the animal richly caparisoned with gaily colored blankets, on silver-pommeled saddles and with silver spurs (if of the better class).  They rushed around the plazas and narrow streets at a breakneck speed from early morning until night.
    An accident that happened on May 5th, 1848, made

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an impression upon me which memory can never efface.  My brother, then fourteen, had begged permission to ride, but had been denied the privilege by my invalid mother.  He disobeyed and was thrown right in front of the door.
     Another scene I witnessed from a window in the only two-story house then in town (Mrs. Riddle's).  Diagonally across the Main street (now Commerce street) was a gun shop.  In a government wagon standing in front, were two soldiers sitting.  A desperado passing by, who was the terror of the town, wore a broadcloth cape thrown over his shoulders and was smoking a cigar.  One of the men remarked, "He looks like a priest."  Understanding the remark to be, ''like a thief", the gambler dared him to repeat what he said, ordered the soldier to come down and cross the line of an alley adjoining.  The man did so, when three shots rang out in succession; the poor fellow wounded, lay down on the pavement and was soon after carried by in a blanket by four soldiers right under our window.  The desperado resumed his cape and cigar and walked with the greatest sang-froid down toward the Plaza.
     Many stragglers followed the army when the troops passed through at the close of the war with Mexico, and very severe remedies were resorted to by the authorities to control the unsettled state of affairs.  One fellow, I remember, was said to have borrowed from a respectable citizen, a ''biled shirt," as he dubbed it,

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to be executed in.  The Mexican were also insulted and angered by the troops singing the following to the tune of "The Maid of Monterey," a couple of verses of the refrain being:

     I must tell of another custom that was the beginning of the "Pastores", afterwards established across the San Pedro Creek.  This celebration was held in the Cathedral of San Fernando.  On Christmas Eve while being held, Mexicans dressed like Indians stood in line on each side of the front door and fired guns.
                    SARAH L. FRENCH, San Antonio.

     Sarah L. (Webb) French, widow of James H. French, for many years mayor of San Antonio, was for over seventy years a citizen of the metropolis.  Born in Detroit, Michigan, she was first brought by her parents to Port Lavaca, Texas, in 1839, when but three years of age.  They did not remain long at this time, but returned in 1846, coming to

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San Antonio where they continued to reside.  Mrs. French was fond of and a great favorite in society, having a brilliant mind, while the prominence of her own and her husband's family gave her unusual opportunities to meet and know the leading Texans and visitors to the State before the war.  She was one of the original members of the First Presbyterian church, whose corner-stone was laid with much ceremony, Feb. 29, 1860.  A genealogist of note, she was a member of various historical and patriotic societies and served as first State Regent of Texas for the Daughters of the Revolution, also as regent of the San Antonio de Bexar Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and a State Chaplain in 1914.  She died one day after the twenty-second anniversary of the death of her husband.

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