Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1897-02-01
THIS LOCALITY
Las Vegas the Chief City
of New Mexico Some
of Her Resources,
Attractions and
Advantages.

LAS VEGAS Is the natural sanatorium Of
the United States, combining more nat.
ural advantages than any other place IL
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 OF
cold, no gnats, rats or mosquitoes. The
air Is pure, dry, rariied, and highly cleo
trided-a certain cure for consumption, II
the disease be taken In time. The hot
waters are q specific for liver. skin, rheu-
matte and blood disorders. Her Montezu-
ma hotel is the finest hosiery 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 10 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. the thermometer
seldom falls, 10 the shade, below forty de-
! grees, while 1t 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, 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-c clad noun
tains; the large amount of electricity in
the air, and the consequent ozone, result
ing from thealtitude; and tine location of the
town, land-locked by mountain and mesa
these all conspire to produce an atmos-
phere which is a balm to all diseases of the
respiratory organs. The percentage of
death from consumption is lower in New
Mexico than it ia anywhere else in the
United States; and no other place In New
MqYjen aYrpla Las VaQaG in the saluhr,fU
Of Its climate. Asthmatics Experience
immediate and permanent relief, in this
altitude.
In the way of health and pleasure re-
sorts, Las Vegas Ia unrivaled. In a radius
OF twenty miles, In romantic mountain
glens and beside babbling mountain brooks,
are the Las Vegas Hot Springs, Harvey's,
El P~orvenir, S~andoval'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 d pleasure to the ennuye,
the invalid, the over-worked business man.
LAS VEGAS has two daily and i've weekly
papers, three banks, two building and loan
associations. three hotels, many boarding
houses, nine churches, q 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 1900, 600 pounds of wool
Il huuuhiiy q Wcil-cQuippcu DTSWSIy anu
bottfng establishment; a mandatory of
/ mineral and carbonated waters; two wag-
on and carriage factories; a saddle and
harness factory; a foundI 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, 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 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, Dopa Ana, Grant,
Chaves, Lincoln and Eddy. with parts of
Valencia and Bernalillo-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 Pecos-the finest fruit sections of
the west.
This Territory Is rich In everything hat
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 Las Vegas commands.
Sheep, cattle and lumber abound, so that
In each of these prime articles of
this city is the best market in New Mexico.
She handles more wool than all the other
towns In the Territory combined, while
her ommerce 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 neighboring noun
tain canyons, extends east into Kansas,
west into Arizona, and south into Old
Mexico.