The copper era. (Clifton, Graham County, Ariz.) 1899-1911, 1902-01-09
NOW AND THEN.
Just Twenty Years Ago--Lordsburg
Lively Town.

this class Of customers. a. they were
. the agents Of the Leszinskys, they
carried a general assortment Of wet and
. dry goods, and seldom, If ever. had oc
/. casiOn to pay out much cash. There
. business manager, in LOrdsb burg, wa.
Henry Harris, Il young Californian,
one Of the Lords chosen people, and a
hale fellow well met. He was a thor
ough westcrner, aud soon became a
general favorite. As he was kept ad-
vised by mail Of each hOmbre's indebt-
edness to tho Clifton establishment,
any manana yarns didn't go with him.
He did an enormous business up to the
time the A. & n. NJ. ROAD made june
tion with the Southern Pacific. 1t
had been no uncommon sight during
this period, to see one hundred or
more teams camped every night in and
around the town. y majority of the
teams had oxen for motive power, and
as the country was not then over run
with cattle herds, feed was plentiful
! ever WHtTc. All Tue uTlNtIS NiIuOuI
any exception, were MeXicans, and
after the manner OF their kind. they
/ proceeded to make things lively just
as soon As they struck the town.
| Liquid food appeared to be their pre-
/ ference, and after Il weeks trip down
! from Clifton, they commenced to fill Il
/ long felt want.
! With the coming of the Clifton road,
all this was changed, and where pre-
viously several hundred men had been
! engaged, half dozen men aud
couple OF transfer wagons did the bust
ness. Lordsburg's glory had departed,
and the town dozed Off in Rip Van
Wrinkle sleep.
The first newspaper started in Lords
burg was the Advance, conducted by
an impoverished southern gentleman
named Jones, who also owned up to the
paternity o. seven or eight little olive
branches, each one OF whom had
cruel cavity in its face which was in
satiable, and the old man acknow ledgcd
that he cOnldn't keep them filled. He
managed however to keep convenient
ly full himself, and by so doing, sorter
evened things up. He could 90 home,
blow his breath on the youngsters, and
put them to sleep. Colonel Jones soon
reached the end of his rope, and moved
on. He was succeeded on tho tripod
by Il down east Nank, who glOried in
the cognOmen of |. G. Burt, whose last
camping place before reaching the
New Jerusalem, had been Phoenix,
Arizona. Berr would remark jocular
ly that a. he considered Phoenix near
ly hell, the change to Lordsburg was a
desirable one, and he was not sorry he
moved. He was u genius in several
ways, and aside from being editor and |
proprietor of the most influential journ |
al in the western part of Grant county, !
he was also postmaster, telegraph oper-
ator and inventor. He had secured a
patent to a knitting machine and had |
one of the contraptions in his Office, !
and when he was not clicking type, |
YOU could hear his machine buzZing in |
the editorial sancturn.
The san Simon rustlers, band OF /
reckless freebootcrs, aud stock fanciers, |
held undisputed sway all over southern
New Mexico and Arizona, and they !
by reason of their frequent /
visits to keep things moving pretty |
lively. They invariably had money, /
and plenty OF it, and when gang of /
them struck settlement, they immed
ia'ely proceeded to paint it red. They /
carried guns, both ritler and pistols.
aud when in playful MOOD, and filled .
up with tarantula juice, they would
shoot up the town. They seldom inter-
tered with any of the peacably dis
posed citizens, and if any misunder-
standing occurred among themselves,
they settled it when they got home,
and when member of the mess failed
to answer roll call, there were no fool
ish questions asked. No will was ever
known 10 have been prouated, and the
effects of the late lamented, became
the property in common of the gang.
Upon one occasion when in Lo. dsburg,
some of tho boys concluded to have a
little innocent fun, and rs they rode
ont of town they opened up a lively
fusilade with their six shooters upon
store. The hour was late,
and Henry Harris was fixing up his ac-
counts preparatory to retiring. The
first intimation he had OF any visitors
was the crash of glass, and broken
window pane fell to The floor, next his
lamp chimney, and Henry was in total
darkness. He jumped to the rear of
the store where he had n lot OF flour
piled up, and he dug his way down
toward the center in remarkably short
order. In explanation afterwards, he
said it did not take him but few sec
onds TO throw out enough flour to