Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1896-05-13
LOCALITY
Las Vegas, the Chief City
of New Mexico-- Some
of Her Resources,
Attractions and
Advantages.

I--Tf ~
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 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 healthfnlress
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 conveniences.
A city hall, three public school buildings,
court house, Masonic temple, opera house.
Territorial Normal school and Territorial
Insane asy lum 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 10
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, rarifed, and highly cleo
trified-a certain cure for consumption, IL
the disease be taken In time. The hot
waters are u Sp6CiuC luz llftTs ohlu3 luCu-
matte aud blood disorders. Her Montezu-
ma hotel is the finest hosiery between
Chicago and Califol mia, 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
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 fulis, 10 the shade, below forty de-
grees, while it often runs, in the sunshine,
10 sixty-fve 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
nine days out OF every ten, the year
round. This, with the extreme dryDess of
the air, caused by the very slight precipi-
of moisture; the resinous aroma,
rolling down from the pine-clad noun
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
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 any here else in the
United States; and no other place in New
Mexico excels Las Vegas in the salubrity
its climate. Astnmatics experience
immediate and permanent relief, in this
In the way of health and pleasure re-
sorts, Las Vegas is unrivaled. In a radius
twenty miles, in romantic mountain
glens and beside babhling mountain brooks,
are the Las Vegas Hot Springs. Haryey's,
Ell Porvenir, S%andoval's Mineral Hill, Ro-
nero Ranch, Blake's, Sparks, Sapello,
% 1o;.In ArH ofhar plaoca foO nnr1ar0ua 1
10 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 dive weekly
papers, three banks, two building and loan
associations, three hotels. many boarding
houses, nine churches, q number of clubs,
ali the leading civic and social socie-
reis per day two wool-scouring establish
cleaning 1900, 900 pounds of wool
annually; a wsll-equipped brewery and
establishment; a mandatory of
mineral and carbonated waters; two wag-
and carriage factories; a saddle n
factory; "a foundIJ. cleo
and other enterprises of less importance.
There are eight large wholesale houses,
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
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 mount of their yearly
sales exceeding, in the aggregate, the COM
sales Of all other such brokers in
New Mexico. The retail merchants, of
Vegas, are m~ofe7numerous, and carry
larger and better storks 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 tie north, Arizo-
and California on the west, and Texas
and Old Mexico on the south. Besides
til Sc, she has more stage lines. connecting
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, Soc0rro, Dona Ana, Grant,
Cbaves, Lincoln and Eddy, with parts of
Valencia and BsrnaliIlo-a country larger
than all New England. This takes in the
famous Valley ofthe Rio Grande, and the
less famous but not less excellenr, Valley
OF the Pecos-the finest fruit sections of
the west.
This Territory Is rich in everything that
constitutes the Wealth of Nations. Iron,
coal, lend, silver, gold, mics, limestone,
marbles, gypsum, soda in end
ess variety aud exhaustless quantities,
are among the several products Of the
which Las Vegas commands.
Sheep cettle end lumber abound, so that
In each OF these prime articles of commerce
this city Is the best market Ia New Mexico.
She handles more wool than all the other
10 the Territory combined, while
her commerce in hiies IS truly enormous.
In the same way, she stands ~pre-eminent
for her trade in grains, hay, vegetables,
aud other farm PRODUCTS; waite her trade
ID ice, gathered in the neigbboriug noun
tain CANYONS, extends east Toto Kansas,