Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1896-12-22
.4HIS LOCALITY
Las Vegas, the Chief City
OF New Mexico Some
of Her Resources,
Attractions and
Advantages.

ohut Win no suouIub, nus hDOuI lU,UU
Inhabitants.
1t has water works, street cars, arc an,
incandescent electric light plant telepbon
exchanges, Territorial agricultural expert
ment station, headquarters of tho Atchi
son railway system, New Mexico division
together with railroad machine shops an,
lie representing works, stock yards, and th'
largest sheep shearing and dipping plan
In the United States.
West of the river, the old town has tn,
quaint and picturesque Mexican appear
ance adobe houses. narrow, crooked
streets, native people and customs, handi'
crafts and occupations; but the plaza anc
all OF the new town, east Of the river, con
stitute a distinctive American city. Tn,
streets are wide and we'll graded. Will,
sidewalks abound, shaded with growing
trees. Three parks, filed with grass anc
trees, add to the beauty and healthfulnesl
of the place. Handsome and we'll filled
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.
s~tructed of red and white cut sandstone,
unsurpassed in beauty by similar edifces
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, q 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, rariied, and highly cleo
trified-a certain cure for consumption, If
the disease be taken In time. The hot
waters are q specific for liver, skin, rheu.
matte and blood disorders. Her Montezu-
me hotel is the finest hostelry between
Chicago and California, and is ituated 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 $500 feet. This combination gives
- -.a~t I.k -. 49, .2ar.E a
winter, during the day, the thermometer
seldom falls, 10 the shade, below forty de-
grees, while 1t 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
tine 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-
phere which is q balm to all ~iseases of the
respiratory organs. The percentage OF
death from consumption ia lower in New
Mexico than it Is any where else in the
United States; and no other place In New
Mexico excels Las Vegas in the salubrlty
OF its climate. Asthmatics experience
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 babbling mountain brooks,
are the Las Vegas Hot Springs. Harvey's,
Ell Poryenir, S~andoval's Mineral Hill, Ro-
nero Ranch, Blake's, Sparks, Sapello,
Rociade, 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 wool-scouring establish
ments, cleaning 1,500, 600 pounds of wool
annually; a we'll equipped brewery and
bottling establishments; a mandatory of
mineral and carbonated waters; two wag-
on and carriage factories; a saddle and
harness factory; a foundIy cleo
Uric light plant, three planning mills.
and other enterprises Of less importance.
There are eight large wholesale houses,
whose trade extends throughout the Ter
y , anu lhuO ~ hiIOluluk bBCIIUuS.
tho volume of this trade, and the
value OF the stocks whicn 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-
uSiug 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
4 "a r0nT and haitian EtnRKu Of nnn1C fhnn A.
the retail merchants OF any other town in
this Territory or Arizona.
LAS VEGAS is the distributing point for
nearly ell 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 OF the south. Besides
these, she has more stage lines, connecting
her with tributary territory, than has any
other town ia New Mexico. This territory
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 Grapde, and the
less famous, but not less excellenu, Valley
of the P~ecos-the finest fruit sections Of
the west.
This Territory is rich 10 everything that
constitutes the Wealth of Nations. Iron,
coal, lead, silver, gold, mics, limestone,
sandstone. marbles, gypsum, soda in end
ess variety and exhaustless quantities,
are among the several products of the
which Las Vegas commands.
Sheep, cattle and lumber abound, so tina
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
in the Territory combined, while
her commerce in hides is truly enormous.
In the same way, she stands pre-eminent
for her trade in grains, hay, vegetables,
and other farm products; while her trade
10 ice, gathered In the ~neigbboring noun
west into Arizona, and south into Old