Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1896-03-21
THIS T,0c'AATITY
Las Vegas, the Chief City
Of New Mexico Some
Of Her Resources,
Attractions and
Advantages.

LAS VEGAS, meaning Tho Meadows,'
IL the county seat Of San Miguel county
lies on both sides OF the GalIinas river
and, with Its suburbs, has about l0,0O
Inhabitants.
1t has water works, street cars, arc ant
incandescent electric light plant, telephone
exchanges, Territorial agricultural expert
ment station, headquarters Of the Atchi'
son railway system, New Mexico division
together with railroad machine shops and
tie preserving works, stock yards, and tbs
largest sheep shearing and dipping plan
In the United States.
West of the river, the old town has the
quaint and picturesque Mexican appear
ance = adobe houses, narrow, crooked
streets, native people and customs, handi-
crafts and occupations; but the plaza and
all Of the new town, east Of the river, con
%stitute a distinctive American city. The
streets are wide and we'll graded, while
sidewalks abound. shaded with growing
trees. Three parks, filed with grass and
trees, add to the beauty and healthfulness
Of the place. Handsome and weIi-flled
stores, beautiful residences, and inpumera-
BILE lawns, set In grass and adorned with
shrubbery and flowers, combine to pro-
claim a cultured community, possessed OF
all modern comforts and conveniences.
A city hall, three public school buildings,
courthouse, Masonic temple, opera house,
Territorial Normal school n Territorial
Insane asylum are public buildings, con
structed of red and white cut sandstone,
unsurpassed in beauty by similar edifces
in any town, Of equal size, in the States.
An Academy, Seminary, Jesuit college,
Convent school, Presbyterian Mission
school, Methodist manual training school,
Christian Brothers institute, City high
school, three graded public schools, kin
dergarten, a commercial school and two
music schools, besides several private teach
ers. are among the educational advantages
and facilities.
the United States, combining more nat
ural advantages than any other place 10
America. Her thermal waters are the
equali OF the Hot Springs of Arkansas,
while her climate Is Infinitely superior.
There is no malaria, no excessive heat or
cold, no gnats, rats or mosquitoes. The
air is pure, dry, rarifed, and highly cleo
trified-a certain cure for consumption, II
the disease be taken in time. The hot
waters are a specific for liver, skin, rheu-
matte and blood disorders. Her Montezu-
ma hotel Is the finest hosiery between
Chicago and California, and is situated in
a beautiful canyon, five miles from town,
where the Hot Springs, forty In number,
come boiling to the surface.
The latitude IS about the same as that OF
central Tennessee, while the altitude is
nearly $500 feet. This combination gives
a peculiar, but most happy, result. In the
seldom falls, in the shade, below forty de-
grees, while it often runs, in the sunshine,
to sixty-hve degfees-or even more. On
the other band, in the summer, the heat is
never oppressive, IN the shade, and no
night is too warm for comfortable sleep,
under one or two blankets. The sun will
shine nine days out Of every ten, the year
round. This, with the extreme dryness of
the dir, caused by the very slight precipf-
tation of moisture; the resinous aroma,
rolling down from the pine-clad noun
tains; the large amount of electricity in
the air, and the consequent ozone, result
ing from thealtitude and the location of the
town, land locked by mountain and mesh
these all conspire to produce an atmos-
pnere which is a balm to all diseases OF the
respiratory organs. The percentage of
death from consumption is lower In New
Mexico than 1t is anywhere else In the
United States; n no other place In New
Mexico excels Las Vegas in the salubrity
of its climate. Asthmatics experience
immediate and permanent relief, in this
altitude.
In the way of health and pleasure re-
sorts, Las Vegas is unfivaled. In a radius
OF twenty miles, in romantic mountain
glens and beside babbling mountain brooks,
are the Las Vegas Hot Springs, Harvey's,
El Porvenir, Sandoval's Mineral Hill, Ro-
nero Ranch, Blake's, Sparks, Sapello,
Rociads, and other places, too numerous
to mention, where health can be recovered,
and life becomes a pleasure to the ennuye,
the invalid, the over-worked business man.
LAS VEGAS has two daily and ive weekly
papers, three banks. two building and loan
associations, three hotels, many boarding
and all the leading civic and social socie-
ties; a roller -four mill. capacity. fifty bar
rels per day two wool-scouring establish
ments, cleaning 1,500.0 900 pounds of wool
annually; a w~ell-equipped brewery and
bottling establishments; a mandatory of
mineral and carbonated waters; two wag-l
on and carriage factoriesi 2 saddle and
FL. ais'' iisb. fI pi / three Z f0 pisnissx m siis.
and other enterprises Of less importance.
There are eight large wholesale houses,
whose trade extends throughout the Ter
and into the adjoining sections;
while the volume of this trade, and the
value OF the stocks which they carry, can
not be duplicated west OF Kansas City and
south Of Denver. Three merchants' brok-
ers have selected the city as their distrib-
uting center, the amount Of their yearly
sales exceeding, in the aggregate, the COM
bined sales of all other such brokers in