The Emmett index. [volume] (Emmett, Idaho) 1893-1925, 1911-06-01
More Than Eighteen Hun
dred Miles of Border
ForUncle Sam to Guard.
Thirty Thousand Amer
leans In Mexico.
By JAMES A. EDeERToN.

With the necessary IHentdl ap
paratus. We now know where
Douglas. Ariz., and Aqua Prieta, Mex
leo, are located. If the unpleasant
ness on the border continues we may
discover the whereabouts of other
places, such as Nogales, Naco. Calexi-
co, Mexicali, Eagle Pass and Ciudad
Porfirio Diaz. We already have
vague and general notion of the spots
on the map occupied by Ell Paso and
Juarez Nothing like a war to make
folks brighten up on their geography!
1t is even possible that after few
months or years we might learn to
pronounce the names of these Mexican
places. although the Russo-Japanese
war gave us a large and congested
collection of consonants through which
our tongues never could find their
way. The safest rule in pronouncing
Mexican names is to remember that
they do not sound like they look. In
cold print they appear to be jawbreak-
ers, but in the mouths of the natives
they roll off the tongue like honey.
We are simply bound to take an in
terest in this war whether we will OF
not. Whenever our attention flags
some of the insurgents or regulars, or
both together, playfully shoot up the
border and kill or wound a bunch Of
American citizens. When peaceable
folk are plugged while measuring cali
co, laying down sewer pipe or count
ing money In bank 1t is time to sit
up and take notice. Whatever our
opinion of Diaz of Madero or of the
Mexican republic generally, we can
not have neighbors shooting into our
back yards, breaking our windows and
pushing lead into our anatomies when
we are not looking.
Uncle Sam is patient individual,
but when somebody goes to firing at
him he is liable to resent it. Whistling
bullets are not diplomatic. An inter
national boundary may be an imagi-
nary line. but it is not healthful occu-
patton to shoot It full of holes. Well,
If worse comes to worst, we can turn
the state of Texas loose, and it wiz
clean up the whole republic of Mexico.
Shooting Up the Border.
1t seems that the insurrecto troops
at Aqua Prieta shoveled out their
trenches as near the boundary as pos
sible, with the result that the United
States of America became backstop
for all the regular bullets that did not
lodge in some insurgent. Not only
were our scenery and landscape plug
ged like a sieve, but buildings and
store fronts were shot up and men
walking abroad with their families or
following their ordinary avocations
suddenly had to be taken to hospitals
to have Mexican bullets picked out of
them. Perhaps they could have ex-
pected nothing better for having To-
Gated so close to Latin American re-
public, but Mexico had got over the
fashion of spring revolutions so long
ago that they felt safe.
The boundary between the United
States and the republic to the south
and bounds two states and two near
states. all of which were amputated
from Mexico when General Scott. Tay-
lor and some others took a holiday trip
down there in the forties. At that
time we managed to absorb something
What would become of the other three
ffths if there should be a like unpleas-
antness now?
At "San Antoine" where General
Carter and his American army are en-
still stand the ruins of the
Alamo. That is reminder of another
for liberty when the
line was farther north. The |
thing most of us remember about that |
famous fight is the inscription, "Ther
had her messenger Of defeat, |
but the Alamo had none" Today the |
United States troops are located at
Camp Davy Crockett, named for one
Of the heroes Of that day.
Returning to the present boundary
line, 1t is almost as crooked through
out most of its length as is the river
that flows through San Antonio, of |
which 1t is said that an eel broke his
back trying to swim it. The rivers i
down that way are certainly some |
wavy in their general contour. The
Rio Grande is not a very ambitious
stream in other ways, but it certainly
does go a long distance to get any
where.
A Meandering Boundary.
The boundary line formed by the
Rio Grande between Texas and Next
70 is something like LOO miles long,
the twists and plain and fan
" curves. Among these are all the
,urves known to mathematics and sew
,ral that no mathematician ever
thought of. There are circles, ellipses,
lrcs, parabolas. hyperbolas, spirals,
,urlicues, bends, crooks, meanderings,
doublings. kinks, weav-
ngs, gyrations and ordinary wiggles.
rhe man that laid out the course of
he Rio Grande river had comb1na-
ion of plain drunk. st. Vitus' dance
md locomotor ataxia.
Along this part of the boundary the
American inhabitants are somewhat
protected. however, by the fact that