The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-05-11
VIEWS OF Ell PASO.
Interesting Glimpses of Border City
of Texas.

of Texas.
Ell PAso. TEX, April 2S-After long
sweep over the Texas plains, gaunt and bare
in the early unbudded spring, there lies the
broad Rio Grande, 'the great river of the
north" shallow, yellow current, shrunken
in its wide bed until the ugly rocks grin in
broad strip on either side; lazy, almost
stagnant, with hardly ripple in its flow.
And on the American side, built out here
and there and in every direction, with
staring red brick and much tawdry wood
work, is the busy, active, would-be great
city of the southwest, tie American Ell
Paso.
When one goes west, as many do now-a-
days, 1t is direct passage into
the great distinctive country of booms
in all their various stages, the incipient, the
virulent, the semi-decayed, the extinct.
Some three or four years ago Ell Paso was
on the crest of the boom wave. She was
the center of important railroad connec-
lions, and she aspired to be more than an
other Denver Or Chicago. Capitalists large
and small invested in real estate, parks
were laid off and the red brick structures
sprang up like mushrooms. She was soon
overbuilt, and since then rival has come
into existence seven or eight hundred miles
south of her and threatens to take away her
steady flow of immigration. Laredo, on
the Rio Grande, is being doomed as health
resort. and with a brand new railroad con-
nection is springing citywards in the magical
manner of western towns YOurecogB1Ze at
once in strolling the thoroughfares of the
American IIl Paso that in many respects it
isl& bit of a foreign city, fgo badly It's pro-
pihqui9y to its quaint, sqnser. ancient neigh
bur hcrcss the river has mach to do with its
rather unsAsfer3eSn phases. You see on
every Hand che dark eyes and tawny faces
of the Mexican; the somorero seems to be
the only headgear ia the place. An Indian
with red blar.ie strapped from shoulder
to shoulder, Lat other wise in the garb of
the paleface, stalks silently past you, and
from the various doorways in the mercantile
quarter you see the smlrking countenance
of tile Monaghan. Step into any one of
thes emporia where gay Chinese silks and
har lsome porceains are displayed, and
Johh. sometimes in the national blouse, and
again in "Melican" attire. with his queue
nea lily tucked up under his hat, talks to you
lis more or less wonderful English, and
is you away with real bargain in his
res
but if you are hating awhile between
Inns, east or west-bound by ali means
(e the few hours for trip over the border
Paso del NOrte, where you will find your
straightway in another world, and
ange, shabby, unkempt worl1 it is, where
Ingrel children and dogs abound, and
here the fieas will tear you limb from
hb if you stay there long enough You
ard the slow-going Ell Paso street car,
ich carries you across the bridge. The
ver is a Mexican, whose features, with
exception of his teeth, which seem very
tie contrastei with his general swarthi-
IS, are hidden under the droop of his SOM
bro. He is belted around with pistols aid
til he resembles nothing so much as a
pail boys dog with lot of firecrackers
xed to him. This driver understands
thing you say to him, and you, presume
do not comprehend his patois, so that
you are disposed TO ask questions, your
d of inquiry is limited 1t takes
pething like an hour to get over
sluggish Rio, for if there is
hing more deliberate, more stately and
THAN the movements of this Mexican
and his team, it has yet to be discov-
Once across the line OF road runs out
itely into the open plain. On either
he track are wide irrigating bitches
tn the liquid yellow mud of the
d through these. splashing content
is blrro, his feet almost dragging.
be Mexican citizen as serenely as
other thoroughfare could possibly
impression is that the ancient
ERE hubble of adobe huts, but by
% becomes aware of an American
here and there, which l. not only
bic but almost stylish in appearance
ems to, but to emphasize the
squalor. There is one narrow,
rect which is probably the shopping
ard of Paso del NOrte, the street Of
lars. 1t is a long row of low, dark
With large proportion of their wares
ut Mt the doors and piled upon the
fla front. Inside you are surprised at
quisite things that are offered you at
that make a feminine heart throb
oy, SO cheap are they. Everything is