Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1896-12-03
LOCALITY
Las Vegas, the Chief City
of New Mexico Some
of Her Resources,
Attractions and
Advantages.

~-t @~t~~>
inhabitants.
1t has water works, street cars, arc and
~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 the
largest sheep shearing and dipping plan,
In the United States.
West Of the river, tie 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 q 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 well-flled
stores, beautiful residences, and innumera
BILE lawns, set in grass and adorned with
%shrubbery and flowers, combine to pro-
claim a cultured community, possessed OF
all modern comforts and co%nveniences.
A city hall, three public school buildings,
court. house, Masonic temple, opera house,
Territorial Normal school and Territorial
Insane asylum are public buildings, con-
structed of red and white cut sandstone,
unsurpassed in beauty by similar ediices
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, a kim
dergarten. a commercial school and two
music schools, besides several private teach
ers, are among the educational advantages
and facilities.
LAS VEGAS is the natural sanatorium Of
the United States, combining more nat
ural advantages than any other place in
America. Her thermal waters are the
equal 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, rarified, and highly cleo
trif1ed-a certain cure for consumption, IL
the disease be taken In time. The hot
waters are a specific for liver, skin, rheu-
matte and blood disorders. Her MoDtezu-
ma hotel is the finest hostelry between
Chicago and California, and is situated In
a beautiful canyon, five miles from town,
whore 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
winter, during the day, the thermometer
seldom falls, 10 the shade, below forty de-
grees, While it often runs, in the sunshine,
to sixty-ive degrees-or even more. On
the other hand, 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 viii
shine nine days out Of every ten, the year
round. This, with the extreme dryness OF
the air, caused by the very slight precipi-
tation of moisture; the resinous aroma,
rolling down from the pine-clad noun
tains; the large amount OF electricity Ia
the air, and the consequent ozone, result
ing from thealtitude and the location of the
town, land locked by mountain and mesa
these all conspire to produce an atmos-
phere which is a balm TO all diseases OF the
respiratory organs. The percentage OF
death from consumption is lower In New
Mexico than it is anywhere else in the
United States; and no other place in New
Mexico excels Las Vegas in the salubrlty
of its climate. Asthmatics experience
immediate and permanent relief, in this
altitude.
In the way of health and pleasure re-
sorts, Las Vegas Is unriyaled. In a radius
OF twenty miles, in romantic mountain
glens and beside babbliug mountain brooks,
are the Las Vegas Hot Springs. Harvey's,
Ell Porvenir, Sandoval's Mineral Hill, Ro-
nero Ranch, Blake's, Sparks, Sapello,
Rociada, 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 five weekly
papers, three banks, two building and loan
associations, three hotels, many boarding
houses, nine churches, q number OF clubs,
aud all the leading civic and social socie-
ties; a roller flour mill, capacity, fifty bar
rels per day two wool-scouring establish
meets, cleaning 1880, 900 pounds of wool
annually; a well-equipped brewery and
bottling establishment; a mandatory of
mineral and c~arbonated waters; two wag-
on and carriage factories; a saddle and
harness factory; a foundry. cleo
trio light plant, three planning mills,
and other enterprises of less importance.
There are eight large wholesale houses,
whose trade extends throughout the Ter
ritory, and into the adjoining sections;
Wuli0 10 Vi boAo tl0o0s aAo khC
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
New Mexico. The retail merchants, of
Las Vegas, are more numerous, and carry
larger and better stocks of goods than do
the retail merchants OF any other town in
this Territory or Arizona.
LAS VEGAS is the distributing point for
nearly all New Mexico. By the Atchlson
system, she has connection with Kansas
on the east, Colorado on the north, Arizo-
ma and California on the west, and Texas
AMI Old Mexico on the south. Besides
these, she has more stage lines, connecting
her with tributary territory, than has any
other town in New Mexico. This territory
includes the entire section east and south
of the mountains, and comprises the coun-
ties of Colfax, Mora, Taos, San Miguel,
Santa Fe, Socorro, Dona Ana, Grant,
Chaves, Lincoln and Eddy. with parts of
Valencia and Bernalillo-a country larger
than all New England. This takes in the
Valley ofthe Rio Grande, and the
less famous, but not less excellent, Valley
the Pecos-the finest fruit sections of
the west.
This Territory is rich 10 everything that
the Wealth Of Nations. Iron,
coal, lead, silver, gold, mica, limestone,
sandstone. marbles, gypsum, soda in end
ess variety and exhaustless quantities,
are among the severed products Of the
which Las Vegas commands.
Sheep, cattle and lumber abound, so that
In each Of these prime articles of commerce
this city is the best market 10 New Mexico.
She-haDdles more wool than all the other
towna in fha Territorv combined. while
In the same way, she stands pre-eminent
for her TRACE in grains, hay, vegetables,
and other farm products: while her trade
In ice, gathered in the ~neighboriug noun
tain canyons, extends east into Kansas,
west iato Arizona, and south into Old
Mexico