The Waco evening news. [volume] (Waco, Tex.) 1891-1894, 1894-06-23
THE GREAT SOUTHWEST.
The Country Lying Between
Laredo and Corpus Christi.

Antonio l5i miles, at the southern
terminus Of the International and
Great Northern railway, on the Rio
Grsnds, you note another city, La
redo, s'the Belle Of the Border;" q
place of Il, coo population, situated
on high sandy bluff, lst at the
dumping off place" into Mxico. 1t
is a port of entry, through which
passes more IL arch anjise between
Mexico and the nited States than
through all the. other ports combined
on that long line of frontier, the
Rio Grande. Naeyo (New) La
redo, on the opposite bauk, is about
half the size Of Laredo, Tex, a1d
il the second port in financial i'm
portance in and to Mexico, being
second to only Vera Cruz in the
amount of custom house receipts.
L}reIo's population is of a 81,
saph's coat style, two thirds being
Mzxlcans Of all shades and grades;
the other third being Americans
and Europeans of all faces and
races, Of al classes and passes, from
q lord to lazarone, from tramp to
titled
Look again on the map you note
q railway running nearly due east to
Corpus Christi on the Gulf, the
Texas Mexican railway The large
territory between it and the Rlo
Grande is sandy, seadsposit soil,
slightly undulating, subject to
drouth, vegetation small IN szo,
mostly thorny, grass scarce, napal
(o5ickly pain, a fine cattle feed, and
other forms of cactus niant,
soantily populated and CHIEFLY
Mexicans Of Texas nativity; fine
country for good health, live stock
AMI hsas.
We will take q run down the Cor.
pus, starting out eastward by the
immense Mexican national shops,
which cover several acres, by "The
Heights" the handsomely built-up
east suburb Of Laredo, al three
miles we strike into the valley OF
"Chacon" (Cha.co or shake, sol
der hat creek and wind up the val
ley thereof several miles, then away
over the hills greenly clad with
scrubby brush and at twenly-nine
miles Aqlilares (Eagle Nes0, com
posed of depot building, section
house, one store. one shop and about
a doz IN dwellings of plank or staked
acsles. The mixed freight and
passenger train gets away after ten
minutes and at six or seven miles
passes Ochoa station, unimporta 1T,
leaving the village of Los OjueIos
four miles TO the south We soon
come into level, sandy prairie,
aud numbering along down to the
gulf through this sea wido, telescop-
ic-vista country, we pass with short
stops the stations Summit and Los
Angeles, and draw up at Pena.
thirty four miles from Agulasas,
here the Jared D ward train passes
us while our passengers, less than a
COZ an, swap yarns with the local
folk AID our train crew shifts
freight cars.
From Pena a hack line to the
Rio Grande towns connects the rail-
way and river town travel. Pena
had one store, one shop, dozen or
two dwellings, small and large, and
everything in sight except the sta
ton building, railroad track, train
and people, belongs to Don Laz sro
Penn, who will not sell a
foot of land out of his
big tract, on which the station
is loo ated, and thus has double
twisted oinch ON all the local bust
ness. The locality seems yerita-
be dry sea beach; the pure sand
yielding BID under foot, and
banks of it here and there all about
piled up or piling up by the swirl
Ing winds. The sea seems TO have
been many centuries later receding
from this than from any other poiu!
along the coast. So far as known
Don Lag sro may have started his
solo monopoly at the actual wa
ter's edge Of the sea coast here
5000 or 10000 years ago, and have
taken pre- empion on the drying
sands, as he and they went up in
the world, successors in busin IS