El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1898-07-26
Booming Alpine.
ALPINE, Brew ster Coun
1onO

ALPINE, Brew ster County,
July oath, 1898.
Mr.. EDITOR:
THE shades of eve were falling fast.
AS through an Alpine village passed
youth who bore midst snow and ice
banner with the strange device.
Excels 10 r..
never had a suspicion that this was
the rillage the poet writ about until |
came here, and 1 amt fully 'suaded
yet. 1t Is commended by some that this
never was q part of the Garden of Eden,
and, even if it was, Eve never had any
shades to fall, either slow or fast; fur
| thermore there is nothing in the his
| tory of this village to show that any
youth ever bored through snow and ice
| with a banner or any other device, and
none but a natural born fool KNOWN
nuthin' about the history of Texas
would ever have tOted such flag when
he couldhave had the Lone Star flag,
the Bonnie Blue Flag, the Confed-
| crate flag, or even Old Glory itself to
| tote.
The supporters of the Alpine theory
call attention to the fact that this
the village of Alpine, and they point
to the "happy homes" where the youth
'.saw the light of household fires CLEAN
warm and BRIGHT" and show the pass
in the mountain that he was warned by
the old man not to try.
| The conflict is conflicting and the
exact facts of the case may never be
known, but there are other things.
| just at this particular time Alpine is
right peart town with big court
house, an "Avalanche," with r. G..
Mckinney as editor, proprietor, gen.
| eral manager, and superintendent OF
details: two mud churches full of the
grace of God; two saloons, two hotels:
| q fine public school building; many fine
residences and growing cemetery.
When this cemetery was first laid
out it received so little patronage that
| q meeting was held to devise ways and
means to get it under way. 1t was
agreed that the village was too healthy
| to depend upon for start the natural
| way, and one man suggested the idea
of writing to Ross of Ell Paso to furnish
a few subjects. Another said all that
| was necessary was to advertise the
town as a health resort and that would
bring in all sorts of people with all
| sorts of diseases which would swell the
death list and give the town q ceme-
terry unsurpassed. One young man in
| the group arose and stated very mod
estly that if it was only necessary to
give the cemetery little send off he
thought that he could help the bors
out in q short time; that he was intend
ing to open a saloon in a few days and
| could stock up with ingredients cap
able OF doing reasonable amount OF
execution, and if it was thought best
he could open a bank with roulette,
craps and chuck-a-luck sccompani-
| ments that would lead to differences of
opinion among men who usually car
ried the defenders of their honor in
| their hip pockets and knew how to use
| them. When the young man got
through talking there wasn't another
word to say and the meetin' dissolved
without adjournin'.
The Avalanche finally got on to the
situation and in an able editorial set
forth the fact that near this place
there was q quarry of the most beauti-
full tombstone marble waiting to be
dug out, and that an artist thoroughly
conversant with epitsphology and ex-
angels and lambs. and weepin' willers,
was willin' to work for his board and
clothes until the grave yard got fair
start, when he would expect an inter-
est in the business. Then there was
the transfers who expected to haul
the rock, and the men that expected to
drive the teams, and layin' behind all
this was the capitalists who expected
to become stockholders aud directors
in the Alpine Monument Building and
Altitudidous Cemetery Association
(Limited)
AS soon as these facts became known
every COW man and cow boy for
hundred miles around steered for Al
pine and now everything is lovingly
serene, the cemetery remains suspend
ed on the hillside and the marble
works are working night and day, leav-
ing off only on Santiago to hear
Brother Bell expound the gospel.
Many years ago there was q man
which his name was Murphy, who
owned everything around here for
many miles around except the air and
sunshine, and when the railroad came
along here huntin' a right of way and
depot grounds for city. he said that
was all right but the place must be
named Murphyville. A little discus
zion revealed the fact that Murphy
held royal flush and wouldn't be
bluffed, so everybody said that was
just what they intended to propose
and the railroad right-of-way agent
said that the directors had already
suggested that name. After the COM
pany had got all they wanted and
everything cinchsble was cinched,
then the citizens began to rezaloot
and it wasn't long before they changed
the spelling Of Murphyville giving it
the sound of Alpine and it will proba-
bly, remain so until changed to Dewey
in honor of the next president.
L am somewhat particular in stating
the facts contained in this letter be-
cause today is Sunday and have just
returned from a church conference
where the worthy parson Bell kindly
introduced me to the brethren, but
omitted presenting me to the sisters.
OF course that's all right, but would
not have treated him that way.
This is long letter but know YOU
will excuse it when you consider the
facts therein and thereon contained.
Yours as ever,
DIR. BOOMGOSSIP.
Big Powder Explosion.
On the arrival of the Ell Paso North
fro In oo =