Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1905-02-07
OLD TIMES
RECALLED
Exciting Scenes Once Enacted
In the Town OF Lincoln.
Sunday Visit TO Fort
Stanton.
A LAS VEGAN
ON HIS TRAVELS
old Military Cemetery where
Rcposc the Bones Of Old
Timers Government
s%anitarinm. .--. s-as
To Tho optic.

To The Optic.
LINCOLN. y. NJ, Jan, 30, lsO5.
How your onc-time fellow.aeryanl
Gomez TO be a visitor 70 these historic
parts Is a story Of itself. AZ you know
Corona Is my temporary home. Cor
ona has a saloon which has wickedly
done business on Sunday Two weeks
ago Sunday stepped 10 tho door
or that saloon 10 inquire when a Ger
tain invalid would tal.e The train for
lei raso. 10 my recollection | did not
30 much % project my head within
the entrance, merely asking my ques.
tion from tho threshold and receiving
my reply from some occupant whom
l did not see. Now, Il appears. q
game called poker wsas ia progress Al
that very time, tho participants IN
which we're afterwards accused OF
robbery aud attempt 10 murder. The
victim Of these supposiiious crimes
instead II naming ns q witness any
N IL tho dozen Or more persons who
visited the Joint" during their enact.
ment calla only me, as innocent and
ignorant as any New Mexican jurymau
10 testify In bis favor. IN the middle
Of the night ! am called from my post
Of duty. rush TO a passing train and
am hurried away to strange scenas
and rough experiences IN a manner
quite dramatic ana aa highly exaspor
ating.
But there are componsations. From
a thrce.hours' sleep nj Carrlzozo
awoke To view a landscape Of broad
level plain from which. In every direc
tion. rise huge. bare mountains Of
varied shapes. those TO tho eastward
crowned with cleaning SHOWS. On
tho west. black and desolate, spreads
the '~'malpais." that mighty lava flow
Of = hy.gone ago which extends FOR
moro than sixty miles from north to
south with a width that varies from
NJ 10 many miles conforming TO tho
confines Of the bordering hills.
From this point a branch railway
runs 10 the Captain coal fields and
took up position on the rca platform
Of the one coach which Ii composite"
sure enough as II has compartments
for baggage. express. mall. colored
passengers and white. A steep climb
u Ii from Carrisozo Flats 10 CAPTAIN,
and the locomotive struggles strenu.
ously around sharp curves. up. up:
lifting us into View Of grand. now
covered peaks and far reaching ridges
blue and beautiful as softened by dis.
lance. At last We run "head-o on" into
tho mountain wall and have TO reverse
our course upon a ~switch-back from
which We take q fresh start for the
final effort over n deep canyon span.
ned by q spider web trcstle which
lands us on top Of the Captain mesa
where lie the great coal fields Of the
b. =. 4 N. II. railway company.
The mining here Is from tunnels
which run under the hills NJ an easy
Incline About seyenty-fivc miners
are employed at present and nearly
two hundred tons OF coal are shipped
daily except Sundays. II was pleasant
TO learn that business of all kinds
ceases for the Sabbath at the towns OF
Coaiora. Captain and Lincoln. AT
Captain are several large stores doing
a thriving trade. From this point.
the terminus OF the railroad, mail
routes run 10 various interior postof.
fees and a telephone line extends 10
Lincoln. and another to Fort Stanton
to which point there is also a govern.
ment telegraph line
A team and blackboard were engaged
here TO take me down to Lincoln
Down" IL ia: a thousand feet In ,hIr
teen miles. all the way through n
winding canyon. first that OF the Sala
do and then the canyon OF the Bonlto
which pours out from the snow, fields
OF the Sierra Blanca. For several
miles the road follows the fence that
eneloses Fort Stanton reservation
within which grazes a roodiy herd OF
cattle on the we'll grassed hin slopes
"Bonito" Is Spanish for beautiful"
you know, and surely this stream Dor
dered here by alfalfa fields and or
chards. hemmed on both aides by
steep and lofty hills, grassy for the