Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1896-12-08
THIS LOCALITY
Las Vegas, the Chief City
of New Mexico Some
of Her Resources,
Attractions and
Advantages.

AltE Oh VI oiuOo VI WV v
and, with its suburbs, has about 10000
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, n the
largest sheep shearing and dipping plant
In the United States.
West Of the river, the aid 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 hsalbbfulness
of the place. Handsome and well-flled
stores, beautiful residences, and innumera-
BILE lawns, set in grass and adorned with
%shrubbery and flowers, combin to pro-
claim a cultured community, possessed OF
all modern comforts and c~onveniences
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.
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 nor climate is infinitely superior.
There is no malaria, no excessive heat or
cold, no gnats, rats or mosquitoes. Inc
air is pure. dry, rarified, 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 hostelry between
Chicago and California, and is situated In
q 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 OIL
central Tennessee, while the altitude is
nearly $500 feet. This combination gives
n .an,Itor hr.t rnoaf his nnV- raanlt. In the
winter, during the day, the thermometer
seldom falls, in the shade, below forty de-
grees, while IL often runs, In the sunshine,
to sixty-five degrees-or even more. On
the other hand, in the summer: the heat IS
never oppressive, IN the shade, ana 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 locke by mountain and mesa
these all conspire to produce an 'atmos-
pierre 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
Oulbtu btdL6ss anu III JUS plhCt III NOW
Mexico exceis 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 " unrivaled. In q radius
OF twenty miles, in mani mountain
glens and beside babhling mountain brooks,
are the Las Vegas Hot Springs, Harvey's,
Ell Porvenir, Ssndoval'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 Ave weekly
papers, three banks, two building and loan
associations. three hotels, many boarding
houses, nine churches, a number of clubs,
and all the leading civic and social socie-
ties; a roller four mill, capacity, fifty bar
rels per day: two w~ool-scouring establish
ments, cleaning 1900, 900 pounds Of wool
annually; a well-equipped brewery and
bottling establishment; a mandatory of
mineral and carbonatsd waters; two wag-
on and carriage factories; a saddle and
harness factory; a foundrJ 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;
while the volume of this trade. n 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-
utipg 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
all New Mexico. By the Atchlson
she has connection with Kansas
the east, Colorado on the north, Arizo-
and California on the west, and Texas
and 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
and Bernalillo-a country larger
than all New England. This takes in the
famous Valley ofthe Rio Grande, and the
famous, out not less excellent, Valley
Of the Pecos-the finest fruit sections Of
the west.
This Territory is rich In everything that
the Wealth of Nations. Iron,
coal, lead, silver, gold, mica, limestone,
marbles, gypsum, soda in end
sss variety and ~exhaustless quantities,
ire among the several products of the
which Las Vegas commands.
Sheep, cattle and lumber abound, so that
each of these prime articles of
city Ia the best market in New Mexico. |
She handles more wool than all the other
.Owns in the Territory combined. whiIe |
Ter In hides is truly
n the same way, she stands pre-emincnt
or her trsde in grains, hay, vegetables,
md other farm products: while her trade
n ice. gathered in the neighboriug noun
canyons, extends east into Kansas,
vest iato Arizona, and south into Old
dexico