Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-01-01
EN- ROUTE TO CHIHUAHUA.
The Country, the People and Their Gus.
tOms-The city of chihuahua.
To the Editors of the Appeal:


To the Editors of the Appeal:
CHIHUAHUA CRY, MEXICO, December Is
The day after writing you from Ell Paso,
Texas, passed over the Rio Grande to Paso
del Norte, Mexico, to make my arrange
ments with the stage line for myself and
party to this city. i found Paso del Norte,
Mexico, crowded with a mongrel class,
making preparations for the national feast
of Mexico, "Nestestro Sonora di Guddelupe."
The main plaza (main square) was being
built up with temporary shanties, prepara-
tory to the 18th tine feast day.. Bull-pens
in abundance, bull-fghts, circus men and
country lasses crowding the street. FL Peso,
Mexico, has been so often described that i
will content myself by saying that in the
spring and fall of the year it is one of the
prettiest places on the frontier, and quite
business place since the railroads have
reached it. After leaving it our course was
southeast to Guadalupe, along the Rio
Grande bottom forty miles over a heavy
road, but very fertile bottom, capable of sus-
tanning adense population. This valley is the
home of the grape of this continent, and the
day is not distant when vast amounts OF good
wine will be made by those who may
seek homes and settle in this por-
ton of Mexico. After leaving Guadelupe
our course changed suddenly to the southwest,
ever a. barren waste, only fit for grazing pur-
poser, but sadly deficient in water. In fact,
for three hundred and twenty miles, from
El Pasc to this city, the country is only fit
for raising stock and connecting link to
some better country south and west of this
place. As matter of course it is not all
desert. There are perhaps dozen or more
hdcfGEdns, where they have running streams
sufficient to irrigate with, that considerable
corn andsyheat is raised, and are green spots
in the vast wilderness. Not far from Car
risal, on the road to this city, there is a
al. L.
place OF resort. Track-laying and road
making are rapidly progressing on the Mex
lean Central TO this place, and some suppose
that in less than year the road will be COM
pleted to this city The track is laid out
| from Ell Paso about forty miles, and the
grading mostly done for about one hundred
and ten miles. This road may do something
for the country, but l doubt it, unless the
country is settled by a different class Of
people than now nhabit it. The kexicans
must be born aga q before much can be made
of them in the resent generation. Their
| young men may love more active than their
fathers. il is to S3e hoped, atleast. Chihua-
hua City is quite n pretty place, with one of
the finest churches in the Republic, and a
| delightful climate; but, heavensl it is the
dullest place on esi.th-at least one thousand
years behind the times. Every day here looks
| like a Sunday in one Of our little
country ,Sillages. Just think of it, every
day Il pm. every @store is closed
until pm. $50 that owners and clerks may
take sleep. How would that do in Mem
| phis? There is great room for improvement
! z-don't you think so7 The State of Chi
huahua is baxond doubt rich mineral and
grazing country, but can never be an agri-
ljcultas<sSshnRtry-
N We leave tonight for farzi. about one
| hundred and fifty miles south OF this city,
and from fheDce to Yude, in the State of
sDuxango, about one hundred and ten miles
south. L. W. oBANSoS'