The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-10-18
SCENES IN OLD JUAREZ

! the~markets in New Orleans there are five
to be found In the Juarez market, and
even the vegetables known to us are I'M
recognizable. Just imagine tomatoes the
size of the common yellow or red plum.
but you can see them here OF course,
there are some larger ones, as large as
the ordinary sized In the United States.
And peppers. Surely Juarez can show
greater assortment than anywhere in the
United States. There are purple peppers,
blue peppers, brown peppers yellow pep
pers red peppers, big ones the size of an
eggplant and little ones as big as the eye
of a little bird. But they all possess a
quality In eommon-hotl Why, 1t would
seem as though the application of a red
hot iron to the tongue after biting into
one of them would cool off the mouth.
There are peppers from six to eight inches
long and as many inches In clreumfer-
ence. There are long, slender ones, round
ones, ohlong ones; in fact peppers of
almost all shapes and sizes. Beans there
are in plenty. Peas of various species,
many OF them strangers to us. Noodles,
Mexican macaroni, vermceli, etc., and
cheese, not very appetizing to look at,
and various kinds of fruit
In the way of melons. cantaloupes and
muskmelons, why, they cannot be recog-
ntzed either by shape, size or color.
Imagine watermelons the size of an or
binary orange. Yet there could be seen
numbers of these last Sunday. But the
muskmelonsl There were some as yellow
as pumpkins, and as smooth outside, OBJ
long In shape and so disguised that even
an adept in melon culture on this side OF
the Rio Grande could not recognize them.
Then, nearly every vegetable stand Is a
curio shop on a limited scale. As basket
makers the Mexieans excel as they do In
the art of pottery and image making
from adobe" Almost every stand dis
plays large assortment of the most beau
tiful and artistic little statues. Then the
dressed feas, the miniature scenes in
walnut shells, etc.
Juarez Is without question an inter-
esting city for the seeker after the Curl
Gus, and it is small wonder that the ma
jority of travellers passing through Ell
Paso elect to stop 6ver a day or two to
visit. 1t surely is a quaint looking place,
the houses being mainly adobe" or, as
they are now called, "dobes." These lit
tie fiat, low, square habitations don't APP
pear larger thansa dry goods box, and a
dobe house appears somewhat like
large, square dry goods box with a slit
cut into 1t which answers for door Tho
larger dobe houses contain two rooms
and in them sometimes from IL to Is per-
sons live, with their dogs, for the poor
Mexicans are fond of these animals and
treat them usually as one of the family.
Juareg can boast of larger better and
finer trees than can Ell Paso, just across
the river, but the Irrigation in centuries
past was introduced on the Mexican side
of the Rio Grande, while it is compare
lively new In this section of the United
States.
AS to the Rio Grande river at Ell Paso,
for the greater part of the year it is
more an imaginary than real river.
Sometimes when the rains come pouring
down from the mountains this usually dry
river bed becomes a turbid, wild and
muddy stream, and for several weeks the
muddy water threatens and sometimes
does overflow the valley for perhaps
quarter of a mile on each side. Usually,
however, it would be quite possible to
walk across the Rio Grande, or Grand
river, without as much as getting a speck
of mud on the shoes.
But with all this, glory awaits Juarez
in the near future.