Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1896-06-12
THIS LOCALITY.
Las Vegas, the Chief City
of New Mexico Some
of Her Resources,
Attractions and
Advantages.

LAS VEGAS, meaning 1.-THE Meadows
is the county seat Of San Miguel county
lies on both sides Of the GalIinas river
and, with its suburbs, has about 1000
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, bandit
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 well 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 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 conveniences.
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 kin
dergarten, a commercial school and two
music schools, besides several private teach
ers. are among the educational advantages
and facilities.
LAsVEeAs 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, rariied, and highly cleo
trifled-a certain cure for consumption, IL
the disease be taken In time. The hot
waters are q specific for liver, skin, rbeu-
matte aud 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 Hos 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, tho Thermometer
seldom falls, In the shade, below forty de-
grees, while it often runs, in the sunshine,
to sixty-flve 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 will
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 In
the air, and the consequent ozone, result
ing from thealtitude; and the location of the
town, land-locked by mountain and mesa
THESE al COuSpiIo W PIOouCc I'LL dtuuO5-
pnere which is a balm to all diseases OF the
respiratory organs. The percentage Of
death from consumption is lower In New
Mexico thar it is any where else in the
United States; and no other place In New
Mexico excels Las Vegas in the salubrity
OF its climate. Astnna tlcs experience
immediate and permanent relief, in this
altitude.
In the way of health and pleasure re-
sorts, Las Vegas is unrivaled. In a radius
OF twenty miles, in romantic mountain
glens and beside babhling mountain brooks,
are the Las Vegas Hot Springs, Harvey'sy
Ell Porvenir, S~andoval's Mineral Hill, RO-
nero Ranch, Blake's, Sparks, Sapeilo,
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 tw daily and ave weekly
papers, three banks, two building and loan
associations, three hotels. many boarding
houses, nine churches, a number OF clubs,
aud ali the leading civic and social socie-
ties; a roller -four mill, capacity. fifty bar
rels per day two wool-scouring establish
ments,. cleaning 100000 pounds Of wool
annually; a we'll. equipped brewery and
bottling establishment; a mandatory of
mineral and carbouated waters; two wag-
on and carriage factories; a saddle and
tric 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
while the volume Of this trade, and the
value of the stocks which they carry, can
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 |
exceeding, 10 the aggregate, the com.
New Mexico. The retail merchants, of
Las Vegas, are more numerous, and carry 1
larger and better stocks of goods than do
the retail merchants of any othor town In
this Territory or Arizona.
LAS VEGAS is the distributing point for
nearly all New Mexico. By the Atchlson
she has connection with Kansas
on the east, Colorado on the north, Arizo-
ma and California on the west, M Texas
and Old Mexico On the sonth. Besides
these, she has more stage lines, connecting |
with tributary territory, than has any
town In New Mexico. This territory |
includes the entire section east and south
Of the mountains, and comprises the coun-
Of Colfax, Mora, Taos, San Miguel,
Santa Fe, Socorro, Donn Ana, Grant,
Chaves, Lincoln and Eddy. with parts of
Valencia and Bernaliilo--a country larger
than all New England. This takes in the
famous Valley ofthe Rio Grande, and the
less famous, but not less excellent, Valley
Of the Pec5s-the finest fruit sections of
the west.
This Territory Is rich 10 everything that
the Wealth of Natl ms. Iron,
coal, lead, silver, gold, mice, limestone,
sandstone. marbles. gypSum, soda In end