Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1896-07-31
Las Vegas, the Chief City
of New Mexico--Some
of Her Resources,
Attractions and
Advantages.

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 plant
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 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 we'll filled
stores, beautiful residences, and innumera-
BILE lawns, set in grass and adorned with
claim a cultured community, possessed Of
ell 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-
s~tructed of red and white cut sandstone,
unsurpassed in beauty by similar edi6ces
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.
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
trifed-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 Montezu-
ma hotel is the finest hostelry 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 9, 500 feet. This combination gives
a peculiar, but most happy, result. In the
winter, during the day, the thermometer
seldom falls, in the shade, below forty de-
grees, while it often runs, in the sunshine,
to sixty-1ve 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 ell 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 ii is anywhere else in the
United States; and no other place Ia New
Mexico excels Las Vegas in the salubrity
OF its climate. Asthmatics experience
immediate n permanent relief, in this
altitude.
In the way Of health and pleasure re-
sorts, Las Vegas is unrivaled. In q radius
OF twenty miles, in romantic mountain
glens and beside babhliug mountain brooks,
are the Las Vegas Hot Springs, Harvey's,
FL 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 nan.
LAS VEGAS has two daily and Ave weekly
papers, three banks, two building and loan
associations, three hotels, many boarding
- 11--zI- - - 49, haA ~ lrI
aud all the leading civic and social socie-
ties; a roller -four mill, capacity. fifty bar
rels per day two wool-scouring establish
ments, cleaning 800, 900 pounds of wool
annually a we'll equipped brewery and
bottling establishment; a mandatory OF
mineral and carbonated waters; two wag-
on and carriage factories; a saddle and
t ncDs 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;
white 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
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
and Old Mexico on the sonth. Besides
49, ~to L-c Axo oto~ o 1tpoo norpontixr
Der 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 BE, Soeorro, Dona Ana, Grant,
Chaves, Lincoln and Eddy, with parts of
Valencia and Bernalillo-a country larger
famous Valley ofthe Rio Grande, and the
less famous, but not less excellent, Valley
ca tie Peces-the finest fruit sections OF
the west.
This Territory Is rich in everything that
constitutes 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 several products Of the
country which Les Vegas commands.
Eheep. cattle aud lumber abound, so that
In each Of these prime articles of
this city Is the best market Ia New Mexico.
Sic handles moro wool than all the other
sowAa in the Territory combined, while
her 10 hides is truly
Ia the same wey, she stands pre-eminent
for her trads in grains, hay, vegetables,
and other farm PRODUCTS: while her trade
10 ice, gathered in the neighhpriug noun
tain CANYONS, extends east into Kansas,
west i1to Arizona, and south into Old
Mexico