Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-09-18
THE TWO Ell PASOS.
A CHAPTER OF SOUTHERN Dor.
DER LIFE.
The Surprising Changes Experienced
from Crossing the Dividing
River-Mexican Laws.
lRroonD-UNos's Special correspondence

IREcoRD-USroN's Special Correspondenee.l
Ell PAso DEL NoRTE, September, 1886.
The twin towns, which have lately been
brought into unusual prominence as the
possible "seat of war;" are interesting
enough to deserve more than passing no
tice. That great river, the Rio Grande-
called by our more poetical southern neigh
bors El Rio Bravo del Norte' (the brave
river of the North, which serves as a long
boundary line between the United States
and Mexico-here separates the American
Ell Paso from its Mexican sister of the same
name Though the distance between the
towns, bridged By both tramway and rail
road IS scarcely four hundred feet, there is |
the greatest possible contrast between the |
TWO places.
THE AMERICAN Ell PAso,
Which boasts of 6,000 inhabitants. is built |
much after the manner of all wide-awake |
Western cities yet with q character pecu-
harly its own--a faint reflection, no doubt, |
from the other side of the river. Its prin- |
cipal business street is occupied by horse |
car line, and several side streets give |
StdTCGlI lGss ENllEuCt VI djtlh-
ity There are brick blocks and shingle |
blocks, handsome houses and tumble-down |
shanties, jumbled together a la crazy quilt !
the usual nondescnpt conglomeration of |
border towns but in justice be it said, |
FL Paso is far above the average of Rio |
Grande settlements. Everything denotes |
prosperity, from the well-dressed, content |
ed-looking citizen, to numberless shops |
with their large and varied assortment of |
&c a11 al
which looks as if it had inadvertently |
strayed away from New York, and several |
others nearly as good. There is also a |
daily newspaper, an opera house, q fine fire
department, and all the accessories of |
flourishing city To be sure there are |
rather more saloons and their usual adj |
juncs than Libraries picture galleries, etc; |
but these are errors which maturity may
correct, for young towns like young hui
mans, must SOW their wild oats. FL Paso |
is the great
GATE WAY TO MEXICO
A railway center possessing many features |
which should assure it a prosperous flu
ture. 1t is the southwestern terminus for |
those three great DECENTRALIZATION To- |
peka and Santa Fe, Missouri Pacific and |
Sunset routes; it is also the eastern termi- |
nus of the Southern Pacific and the north
ern terminus of the Mexican Central. All |
these roads have erected permanent and |
handsome buildings, and occupy more or
less space for shops, yard room, switch |
tracks, etc. A United States Custom house |
is of course located here, to the perpetual az
gravation of travellers, though its gentle |
manly but vigilant officials are as polite as
the duties Of their position will permit.
On either side Of the Rio Grande it is
best TO give up ones keys cheerfully at the |
outset and submit TO the inevitable search
ing, for those cranks who demur, and
would-be swindlers, who attempt to bride
the officers, invariably get the worst of it.
The immediate surroundings of FL Paso
are not of character to impress northern
born persons strongly in Its favor as place
of residence. For hundred of miles in
every direction the country is
BARREN, ROCKY AND UNPRoDUCTvE.
A few trees and some scant vegetation
struggle for a sickly existence in the imme-
diate vicinity OF the city; but one who is
neither an actual nor prospective property
holder in this section, may confess that,
notwithstanding its hoped. for future, the
crude little town set away. down on the
edge of the republic, and apparently re-
mote from everyThere-does look rather
forloTn and undesirable. Its streets, how
ever, present lively aspect particularly in
the late afternoons, when the sun-which,
uuIllp InOSL Oi Tue year, Is ShAldIhllR III
the nineties-is low enough to allow one
10 forget Hades for a brief period. The
newly-arriyed observer is profoundly i'm
pressed by several things. He is not only
surprised by the scores of handsome equip
ages which remind him of Central Park
on q gala day, and the number of fair
equestrians who delight in cantering up
and down the main thoroughfare, but is
also struck by oyer-dressing OF the sud
denly rich-with their street display of Jew
e.s and gorgeous expanse of watch-chains,
which would disgust a BostOnian and as
tonish even Chicagonian-and theunder-
dressing of the so-callcd Clover classes"
females from over the river, who consider
a chemise and a petticoat sufficient adorn-
ment for all occasions.
A little north of Ell Paso. approaching by
the Atchison road, the traveller passes
FORT BLISS,
Where a detachment of Uncle Samuel's
boys are stationed-though why they called
that modern inferno Bliss" is more than
the imagination can conceive.
Besides the steam car transit, q small pile
trestle bridge over the Rio Grande-which
is also used as a highway for wagons and
pedestrians-connects the two Ell Pasos by
horse car line. 1t is difficult to realize that
IN merely crossing that narrow, yellow, in
Notwithstanding stream we bid adieu to
the land OF the stars and stripes, its laws and
its protection, and pldnge into q country
rs old as Egypt That five minutes ride
transports one into another world, as it
were-into the land of romantic race,
whose civilization, coeval with the palmiest
days of Persia, partakes strangely of the
Orient. The Mexican side of the Rio
Grande shows more foliage, flowers, orch
ards, gardens-a striking and pleasing con-
trast after the deserts we have past and
still more pleasing to eyes that have become
wearied of mushroom palaces and freshly
painted smartness. are the old gray walls
and softened tints-the indefinable air of
rest and repose that well becomes a coun-
try which was hoary with antiquity before
our lusty infant, the United States del NoHe,
was born.
THE MEXICAN Ell PAso,
Though called the twin " of the town
on the other side of the river is at
least a century older, and is con-
sidered by the time-T orn neighboring
villages as a precocious young fedg-
ling not out of long clothes. Ii contains
about 1000 inhabitants, and is distin-
guished from its American sister by the
addition of the words del Norte-" of the
north" Strolling over the place, one sees
few signs of the alleged progress of these
latter days. The handsome depot, the big
dining hail, with its ear-splitting bell and
Yankee pie, and other " improvements "
made by the railway company, are about
the only substantial changes evolved dur
ing the last fifty years. Adobe houses,
with their blank windowiess exteriors and
barn-like doors, greet you on every side.
The long lanes and narrow streets are lined
with these low structures, all as monoto-
nously alike as so many peas ina pot, their
expressionless gray walls reminding one OF
dead faces with sealed eyes. The
citizens, generally seated in front
of their caSds, or behind their barred
easements, gaze at you abstractedly, as if
looking out of the past age to which they
belong. Now and then one meets a native. T.
sauntering along on the shady side under
a huge sombrero; silver coins iingling up
the sides of his breeches, dagger and pis-
tolls stuck in his belt, and bright-hued
zarspe slang carelessly over one shoulder
or 4 scantily-clad woman returning from
the plaza fountain with red water-iar
upon her shoulder which she steadies with
one bare brown arm as gracefully as did Re-
becca when Jacob fell in love with her at
the well. At certain hours of the day be-
hind every house q sound of spattinc is
heard-so alarmingly like that produced
nv the perniciQuS habit of orr sr-a-d |