The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-08-02

weight, and Bagdad was full of them
Despite the efforts of the United States
authorities ships succeeded in running
the blockades and reached Bagdad in
safety. And there was always a mar
ket for cotton. The arrival and de-
parture list Of ships would have ri
vailed that of one of the greatest ports
of today.
In all the oil regions of PENNSYLVANIA
the men of the days gone by reel off
story after story OF the prodigaity of
.'coal Oil johnny Steele, who, the
stories go, threw hundreds of thousands
of dollars away. But the men of Bag,
dad were spenthrifts of the first water
and set a record which johnny Steele
nor any since Steele has never equaled
One name stands out in the mem
cries of the men who lived in Bagdad
= Mike Kelly made killing in a
cotton trade one day in the fall of 1864
and walked into the Silver King gam
bling rooms with $4,000 in little
grip. He had the grip when he left
the place the next day, but the pro
prietor of the Silver King had the
$4,000. A week later Kelly learne
that the roulette wheel had been fixed
and he followed the whilom proprietor
all the way to Vera Cruz, where he
calmly shot him down as he was about
to board steamer for Liverpool. OF
the $4,000 he had lost he recovered
almost three-fourths. The ancients to-
day smile as they remember the some
what forceful reply OF Mr.. Kelly as he
declined the invitation of another keep
er who asked him to take whirl at
the 'rouge ct noir. ~
Up the river from Bagdad was the
Mexican town of Matamoros, where the
French had built an opera house with
a seating capacity of 1900 and where
money was almost as plentiful as in
Bagdad. At that time it had popu-
latIon Of 10000, while today barely
1000 persons claim residence there.
The bull ring in Matamoros was
one OF the largest in Mexico. Cor,
ton was taken from Bagdad to Mata1
moros on the King Kennedy line of
paddle-wheelers. There it was piled
along the banks, to be shipped later
to points in Mexico and for shipment
at Vera Cruz. At one time there were
mile and half of cotton bales along
the Rio Grande Later a straight mile
of cotton burned to ashes at Malta
moros, destroying goods value at $780,
COO
Those were the esgood old cotton
times as the aged Mexicans of today
call them. The men who now beg o.
the streets for una centayos, senior,
then made from So to So an hour ON
the wharves.
When the civil war was ended in
1865 and the blockade lifted from the
Southern ports, the people of Bagdad
saw the beginning of the end, and the
exodus began.
Bagdad s career ended forever Oct
ober Z, 1867. Those who remained there
after the war moved inland few days
before the date mentioned, because the
water was coming in from the gulf. 1t
was well for them that they did. Oct
ober a hurricane swept the gulf
waters two miles into Mexico, and
when the waves receded not stick
nor stone of what had been Bagdad
remained on the beach.
The refugees from Bagdad sought
refuge at La Borita ranch, where they
remained until taken away in boats. In
San Antonio today are scores of
wealthy persons whose fathers made
their money at Bagdad. Great ranches
and plantations throughout Texas,
Louisiana and other Southern states
are possible only because of Bagdad $
existence In Matamoros, Mexico, are
a dozen families who have engaged IN
absolutely no occupation since the Cos
but have lived in the best of style.
But the modern Sodom is gone. To
day the only inhabitant of that section
of Mexico is a lonely customs inspector
At night bobcats and oeelots romp over
the sandy beach. In the daytime the
sandcrabs. great hairy tarantulas AMI
green lizards have the whole lefty
to themselves.