The Green Forest tribune., 1893-08-24
LETTER FROM OLD MEXICO.
Special Correspondence to The TRIBUNE.

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TopoLoBAMpo BAY, MEX, Aug. 6.
According to promise, [ will, at
ter some little delay, write q few
lines for your valuable paper, which
l appreciate, even more than ever,
since ] am so far separated from
my Green Forest friends. I anx-
louslv await its coming and devour
its contents with much the same
relish that the proverbial small boy
does the watermelon from his neigh
boris garden.
L left Green Forest on the morn
ing of April 80 Git was regular
frog pond of mud and water, and it
was still raining.) Owing to high
water, Eureka Springs was not
reached until the evening of May l.
Here lay for II days waiting on
our party in Kansas, which was de-
layed in starting. But, on the even
ing of May IL, bado a final fare
we'll to old Arkansas, and we wend-
ed our way in and out through the
grand forests and thrifty farms of
Missouri. 1t grew dark at Monett.
After a good nights sleep in COM
Portable reclining chair, I awoke
and looked upon the beautiful
plains OF Kansas. This refreshing
sight brought back the joyful mem-
ories of my early childhood, which
was spent on the grand old fertile
plains of this State. Farmers, it
seemed, were much behind hand
with their Spring crops. 1t was,
we learned, on account of the OK
ceeding drouth. We passed through
Wichita in the early morning. That
has been a nice little city, but this
is all past, as the hundreds of va
cant houses testify.
Burton is a beautiful little city
of about 1000 inhabitants. We
layed over here IL hours which
gave us ample time to taxe in the
town. They had had no rain here
of any consequences for over year.
But we brought with us little of
Arkansas, for we left in hard rain
at 9 'elock that night. Next morn
ing found us on the dry sandy
plains of western Kansas, where the
people raise crop occasionally by
irrigating when there is water
enough in the streams for that pur-
pose. At this time the Arkansas
River was.dry and, consequently,
the irrigatlDg bitches.
The part of Colorado through
which we passed was dry and arid.
Far to the vest, Pixies Peak can be
seen from the car window. Then
we soon lose sight of it and are
hurried away among snow-clad
mounta aims. We cross the snowy
range exactly on the New Mexico
and Colorado line, or, under it,
rather, at 1922 feet above sea level.
We enter the tunnel on the Colo
RADIO side and emerge into New
Mexico.
What we saw of Arizona was the
poorest excuse for country. We
learn that the western part is better,
but my! we wouldn't give old Car
roll county for whole moon full
of such as we saw of it. There are
sand breaks along the railroads,
similar to the snowsheds in the
northern States, and in some places
sand dritted clear over them.
We stayed over night at Benson,
Ariz., and the next morning took
the Mexican branch of the Santa Fe
and reached Nogalcs,a a boader city
between, Mexico and the United
States. Here we layod over one
week, amusing ourselves with look
ing the town over, studying the
manners and customs of tho Mexi-
cans, and reading French novels.
We had comfortable quarters in the
Bclleview, two-story "dobie"
building nicely furnished. The walls
hung with beautiful pictures. The
collection in the gallery of the ho-
tel was the finest it has ever been
our lot to see, before or since. We
were almost loath to start out once
more on our slow dusty journey, for
on this part of the road, we go al
most at a snaiPs pace.