El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-07-20


mote Southwest, and only the dry and
dusty bed of the Rio Grande separates
| it from the little Mexican city of Jua-
rez, a city where the houses, the shops,
the very headgear of the men and wo-
men, to say nothing OF their speech
and complexion, all give Immediate
evidence that we are out OF Uncle
Sans dominions. The sharp peak of
1.-THE Boundary Mountain" throws its
, splendid shadow across the American
city and the Mexican city in the val
ley. There is lively communication
between the two towns, both business,
social ,aad in the fine art OF gRling;
but the inhabitants of each town seem
to get along with as little as possible OF
the language and customs of their
lneighbors across the border.
CITY IN THE DESERT.
Ell Paso is q city in the desert-an
oasis of grass and trees by the patience
of man in giving the thirsty sands to
drink and his ingenuity in devising
windmills to pump the water and ditch
spsces of the uP CITY, The sands sSe
prickly cactus, and all the harsh vege-
tation of the desert creep down the
streets and under the fences; the sun
burns pitilessly, the hooking winds
often in night strip the leaves from
carefully-tended and treasured vines.
and the rainy season is sometimes pre-
| luded BY fierce hail storms that beat
the petals from the blossoms: but man
is patient and conquering in his fight
for the green, and the sun and winds
and sands cannot discourage him, and
Ell Paso is in blossom and leaf for many
of the months of the sunny southern
year.
Ell Paso has no park-like suburbs, no
''country" where one may walk under
the trees. No pebbly, lily-bordered
streams sing their way down old Mount
Franklin's steep and rocky sides. |
There are none OF those deep, cool,
green places of delight in beech woods |
where one may go on Sunday morn
ing and see Jack preaching from his
ton that ever q preacher had-whis- |
pering birds, vain butterflies and dragon |
flies posing in the sun to show OF the |
sheen of their blue wings.
BEAUTY OF BARRENNEss.
There are no such Sunday places for
the Ell Pasoan. If he walks to the
sandy land, the rocky mountains with
turbulent foothills a little greened over
by q tough, reckless little vegetable
that creeps close to the ground, but
destitute of trees, the high, wind
swept mesa circling about the town,
and only the mesquite and cactus
greening DER the levels in an exceed
Ingly spotty fashion. No one who has
never seen q treeless, grassless place
;an imagine it. To eyes accustomed
10 the hilltops sown in buckwheat. the
forestclad mountains, the wide acres
If grain, the howery rOadsides OF
Pennsylvania, this southwestern corn
er of Texas seems oppressively harsh
Ind desolate at first.
The dry air makes one's'nostrils ache
or rain and the eye longs for green.
The cactus and Spanish bayonets mock {
mes thoughts of enemOnes and violets
nd the gentle flowers of the woods
# the Atlantic coast. But one learns e
o find delight in this strange, vast 3
mountains are majestic
md have sky line like stormy waves,
Operating when they are not heavily .
aden with sand, and the beautiful q
olors in rocks, in the skies and on the r
mountain peaks are an ever-varying q
oy. =
QUEER RIVER. q
Ones vague impression of the Rio g
Irande as being a wide river flowing a
etween green banks and slipping past o
usy wharves, receives a rude shock e
t the first view of this important geo. v
feature. Its bed is wide and al
ry and dusty-a puddle or two under d
be bridges give fimsy reason for
hose structures. The dusty-rooted fl
trees that linger at the q
ridges ends seem to expect to drink g,
p water some day, but they sway in a,
be hot winds and are disappointed for fr
be most part. It's true, along the n
ridges are set barrels of water, and it q,
said that this is the real Rio Grande eli
that the channel is barreled to keep if
from drying up and thus bringing A
onfusion to the boundary line. M
Every year in the early summer this Fl,
lconvenient river threatens to become
torrent; first, when the SHOWS on dis ri
Int N fountains melt, little streams are of
uickened and the waters rush down to "
lie sea; again, when the rainy season Iii
)mes and it rains by the bucket, then ar
lie Rio Grande threatens to flood the or
ties on its banks. n
Sometimes this great wetness does mr.
ot materialize, but the Rio Grande ra
as rampsged way beyond its banks, tie
irving MeXicans from their abodes to ed
lie mesa and washing away crops and bs
title. After short rainy season it In
lbsides back to dustiness, aud the hr
'untry dries up again for the lack of SO
ink. a
There is much talk of an information ar
dam to collect some of this super 40
Ious water in great artificial lake an
ID put it under curb and rein, so that
may bring crops and prosperity to
e country, instead .of.terrible waters