Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1884-03-01
MESSAGE FROM THE LONE STAR.


your paper. A TAXPAYER.
MESSAGE FROM THE LONE STAR.
IAREpo, TEXAS, Feb. 90, 1884.
To the MINING JOURNAL
Since my last letter to you several
much needed changes have been made
in our "Gate City," or as a newspaper
correspondent called it the other day,
'"The Pittsburg of the Southwest"
and the residents anticipate a more
pleasant summer than has been spent
here for many years. The water
works are completed and as there are
fire-hydrants in the centre of every
block, one section Of hose serves to
sprinkle the whole length of each.
The authorities have employed men to
sprinkle all the plazas and already
they are getting green from the new
grass that is coming up. The China
trees are putting forth leaves, some of
which are pretty large even now.
One one of the plazas, Jarvis) is being
made very fine-a flower garden in
fact. Walks, seats, fountains, trees,
all the varieties of cactus, bananas,
magney plants, bayonet trees, palms,
etc., are being arranged so that the
whole will form counterpart of a
famous garden in Italy. When the
hot days come we salamanders will loll
on the rustic benches by the softly
falling waters Of fountains and-and
yes, even then, I guess I'll envy you
in your mountain city enjoying the
purest air that ever swept DER wooded
hills,
Or stirred the vines
That hang from the pines
in the deep, dark forests recesses.
Springtime has come for us; the
thermometer has not been down below
so degrees for weeks and the March
winds they should have waited for
March, are bowling around and
through our open work houses. There
has been dust storm in progress for
two days, and it is, to say the least,
very disagreeable. But we are not a
very busy set, so we "let it dust and
it affords food for conversation.
Our telephone exchange will be
working in about four weeks with
about fifty subscribers, and we'll have
a jolly time talking to our amigos Mer-
icanas el otro htl0.
The miners employed by the Rio
Grande and Pecos railroad at their
mines at Carbon and San Tomas, are
very much dissatisfied at the company's
Inability to pay up, and many of
them are leaving for other fields. I
believe all would so if they could get
away. Several have secured judgments
against the company and I believe
some few have been paid. | would,
however, advise all the readers of the
JOURNAL to steer clear of the Rio
Grande and Pecos, as it is $40 6neno"
ON. g.D
Every one here smuggles some, and
all visitors especially delight to "get
away WITH the river guard by bring
ing over some contraband or dutiable
articles but, although it is fact that
the days of very extensive smuggling
are over, still, the old fellows who
made a pile at it in years past, when
the border was q terror, occasionally
send out heavy loads of canvas-cover-
ed bundles, two feet square, one thick,
and weigh 200 lbs. I have seen huge
dray loads of these bundles (of course
l don't say positively they were to be
smuggleO striking out in the early
part Of the evening, and some folks
say they have seen ghostly looking
trains of white covered animals go
right through our city at midnight.
Horses are constantly being brought
over from the Mexican side, and l
must say, to the credit of the officers,
that great many of them are captured
as soon as they land on this side of the
river.
The |. and G. U. railroad extension.
in Mexico is thus far failure; all
work on it has stopped the contractors
who graded hundred miles of it, got
a judgment against it the other day,
and on the Goth of this month it will
be sold to satisfy their claims amount
ing to 100000. Nearly all of their
immense outfit is held by the Mexican
custom authorities to secure payment
of duties on former shipments made
by Jay Gould. 1t is thought here that
Gould will buy it in at the sale to-
morrow and push it to completion as
rapidly as possible. In this event
Laredo will surely experience another
boom.
The fact that no duties are charged
on mares from Mexico is causing large