Rocky Ford enterprise., 1905-06-09
W. C. STEELE'S IMPRESSION
OF JALlSc0.
Jsliseo. Mexico. May "a. 100

The railroad equipment Is not very
grsa, ard the engines are light and had
difficulty in getting SO large an excursion
here. Every courtesy possible has been
shown the eseafsionists. both by the Of
iicials Of the road and the natives.
Yesterday we went TO Tonola and also
10 tho beach. ten miles from there. The
brse eh there ls beautiful and splendid
bathing point. About two hundred OF
the sxeursionisss were In tho surf ., once.
took several snap shots 70 settle the
matter Of the ocean on this land. Il 10
lust little ovsr eleven miles 70 ths ocean
from the face Of the mountains and about
nine milss from the railroad tracks. There
are three Islands At the mouth OF the bay
with about three miles Of passage. which
will have 70 b. drsdgsd 70 admit large
vessels. The bay. or lagoon as 4 10
called. is forty fest deep and all right
The sx-Covsrnos Of Chsapas (Jusrsxl
spoke In behalf Of the Governor tPmsn-
tall and stated that as soon a. The colony
was formed and went to work In good
faith the passage would b dredgsd and
the largest vessels would sntsr ths hAr-
bor-Also that railroad would b built
at once 10 the coast and 10 Tooola-
The eolonists are very enthusiastic and
most sxpset 10 stay.
Near Jaiiseo. Mexico. May 20. 1905
We have had fine time since starting
on the Pan American. Sixteen miles
from Geronimo we stopped At Jueatan.
Here tho natives were gathered to see
tho train. What clothes they had on was
holiday attire composed Of brilliant COL
orsd prints and necklaces OF coral and
and gold coins. We were told that they
will pay fancy pr,es for gold coins and
string them on their neeks and ears. The
male children under six years were nude
and the others did not have on too many
clothes. They arc eleanly and hne
looking race o! Indians and some have
very regular features. They live In
thatehed houses. the top. roof and sides
being composed Of thateh OF coarse
reeds. Tho heavy timber still continues
with occasional intervals Of meadow. The
cattle here aro In exceptionally fine con-
dition. How any ono could como through
here and say he did not SEQ trees can
no, conceive. There Is almost a contin-
ual forest Of very large trees with an un-
derprowth almost equal to Jungle. Tho
most peculiar part Of Il is that this part
Of the road has wooden telegraph poles
bu. that tho management say they ex-
DOC. to replace them with steel because
Of the damage to tho wooden poles by
fire.
So far have not seen a single mosquito
and only an occasional house fly. and no
blow flies. noticed the meat OF tho
natives hanging out undor tho trees.
Jalisco, Mexico. May 25. 1905.
Mr.. Phillips and myself went up the
Jalisco river yesterday about four miles
and then climbed mountain. We went
over the tops Of three mountains and
came down in front Of tho town. We
could sue the whole colony tract and the
ocean to tho south. We found a lot of
wild grapes. They are as large as the
California grapes and have very large
punches. A man told US that few
weeks ago he brought bunch in and his
wife counted the grapes and discovered
that there were 555 grapes on It. The
punches we found were much smaller
but still Of large size.
The Jalisco stream is hardly large
enough now to be called river, but
imagine that in the wet season it gets
pretty large. There is considerable water
in it now, as the fall is considerable. The
water is as clear as crystal and is full OF
fish that look like trout. 1t is quite warm
and very soft. We took off our clothes
and washed them. 1t was no trouble to
clean them without soap, the water was
so soft. We washed them inthe shade and
then laid them in the sun on the rocks.
The rocks were hot and they dried very
quickly. never had as pleasant bath.
The bottom was clean sand and the
water about knee deep and luke warm.
II will be several days before we will
know about the tracts, but the COMMITTEES
of Ave reported about the land, which
thew viewed yesterday. One Of them,
man from Texas, made speech and the
others endorsed what he said. He said
that he never saw so large body Of land
with as little poor land in it. In all the
ten thousand acres the town site was the
poorest. and, with the exception of about
twenty acres on a hogback, the rest was
absolutely without fault and could grow
ANYTHING out of doors. He said that on
the whole it was better than represented
in the literature. He found eoooanuts.
lemons, mangoes, and in fact all kinds OF
tropical fruits he knew and numbers OF
others he had never heard OF; also all
kinds of woods such as described. he
said there were about two hundred
houses scattered about on the different
tracts that went with them.
The bees are going to suffer some dim
mutton of pasture by reason Of the alfaifS