The Roswell daily record. [volume] (Roswell, N.M.) 1903-current, 1907-07-11

By the way, the Elephant Butte pro
ject in New Mexico is said to be even
a more gigantic proposition than lat
under the Assouan dam in Egypt. We
cannot handle the engineering figures,
but it is stated that the dam will i'm
pound enough water to irrigate 10000
acres for two years. At present the
government is working on a small di-
vision of this project, the Engle dam.
The completed work, however, will
containing two million acre-feet of
water, which means water enough to
I'VE that many acres one foot deep.
1t is expected to control the entire
flow of the Rio Grande. A minister
who accompanied the Las Cruces par
ty to Carlsbad, stated that the water
in this proposed reservoir would GOV
er 1000 acres LOO feet deep, or one
acre 179 miles deep. He also figured
out a column of water that would
reach to the moon. He did not esti-
mate how many cars of lemons it
would require to onvert the whole
into lemonade nor now many thous-
ands of years it would take one man
to suck it all through a straw. We
did not question his figures, having
heard what happened to a Texas
newspaper man who visited the Las
Cruces crowd at their car.
One advantage of the Avalon pro-
ject over all others is that the Pecos
river almost constantly carries more
water than is used in i~rrigating the
lands under the project, the principal
purpose of the dam being to hold the
water at a proper level for entering
the big canal. Further, even with all
the water completely shut out of the
river at the head of the canal, there
are springs in the bed of the river
between there and Carlsbad furnishing
$50 second-feet of water to the Util-
tiles power house which runs tAe
municipal electric light plant n wa
terworks system. Valuable medical
properties have been found in one OF
these springs. The waters are said to
cure kidney troubles and rheumatism
Many Carlsbad people drink water
from the spring, but no particular eff,
fort mas been made to advertise them
to the world or to bottle and ship
the same.
Engineer Reed very c~ourteOusly
showed us over the big dam and ex.
planned things he had been asked to
explain perhaps a hundred times dur
ing the week. Mr.. Roarke, the super,
intendent of labor on the work, we
also found to be a very polite gentle
man. But as we have said before, we
did not go to Carlsbad for the pur-
pose of writing a technical treatise
couldn't if we tried.
Yesterday we referred to Father
Kempker and the gambling question.
Carlsbad still has open gambling, but
force and a welLbehaved lot of sports.
The Eddy county Jail which recently
stood empty for a week or more, had
only three temporary prisoners dur
ing the entire celebration. Another
story of a living minister we heard
from a man who associates more or
less with gamblers. We shall not give
the minister's name, because he is a
man who does not parade his benev-
o~lences. In brief, he secured the par
don of a gambler in the penitentiary
whose wife was dying at Carlsbad.
He brought the man home, helped to
get him a job driving a dray and
gave him twenty dollars as a start.
Said our informant, 1.-The man is now
at work every day. taking care of mis-
sick wife, and is a changed man."
Said he: Every sporting man in
town swears by that minister" The
minister, however, hates gambling as
a business perhaps worse than any
other man in Carlsbad. and declines
to recognize any social standing in
a man who is engaged in the gam
bling business.
To Be Continued.