The Oskaloosa herald., 1914-01-22
THE RoUSTABoUT.

saw them sweeping the streets. And
say it was sight for sore eyes.
They have no pavements over there
and no means of sprinkling. Eight
or ten husky poems were doing the
sweeping with large branches off of
trees. They were raising such dust
that even the flies buZZed away to
get a breath of fresh air. What real
good the process was doing is hard
| to say. Illustrative of the poverty
present there, we saw an old man
and a little boy crawling along the
street, gathering up grains of corn
that had sifted through a crack in
passing wagon. And you ought to-
see the water-melons they raise in
Mexico. They are about us large as
a good sized cocOanut and about as
dry as buttered toast made out OF
! bakery bread. The market place
bears evidences of having seen bet
ter days. The wares offered for sale
look uninviting and show the power
ty of the country, now almost devas-
tated by the long ravages of war.
We have discovered that there are
grouches in FL Paso as well as else
where. We hurried into the barber
shop one bright sunny morning, and
after much deep brown study sug-
gested. fine weather." Yes. replied
! the barber, but it's cold. We had
frost again last night. Boo!" and his
hands felt the part We found out
afterwards that he had gone over to
! the races at .Juarez on Sunday. had
: l.,
| in line for share of the stakes that
would have netted him $4S.37, But
what do you know about the wheels
| of fortune? Some fellow picked his
pocket and got the treasured paste
| board. We do not blame him for
kicking on the weather.
! 1t seems so funny to see immense
locomotives hauling great trains and
no smoke or SCOT putting out of the
! smoke-sta The Southern Pacif-
| ic railway uses pil-burning engines,
and they are a success, but the cost
is said to be a little more than coal
even wnen coal is more plentiful.
! The tenders are just immense oil
! tanks. with the water jackets about
| fireman to do is to keep his eye on
| the steam gage and turn valve
once in a while. e 1t has occurred to
us, that if we wanted to learn the
business of Railway Engineer, we
/ would try and serve an apprenticeship
! as fireman here. Turning a valve
once in while, and oiling the blow
! off, would beat handling about four
! hundred million tons of coal, even
! if the fire box were equipped with
an automatic stoker.
| Standing in line for half an hour
! at the post office to get chance to
I call for mail reminds us OF the lit
! tie Oklahoma towns when the land
openings were on down there. 1t is
| slower here because of the many
! foreigners, especially Mexicans and
Spaniards now here, but there is no
occasion for lonesomeneSs, as the
lnewsboyS on the corner, and the new
er Ceasing street cars keep ones
eyes and ears busy. 1t was amusing
Sunday morning to see people buying
Los Angeles, st. Louis and New Or
leans Sunday papers" They were
dated Sunday all right, but as either
one of the three cities is from 500 to
/ 900 miles distant, and the fastest
trains could not cover the distance
in less than AZ hours, the SO-called
Sunday papers must have been print
ed on Friday. The funny sheets and
the feature pages were present, but
as newspapers they were a joke.
It is also amusing to read the
war news here.-and that is about all
you get on the front pages of the To-
cal papers. If there is no news, the
war correspondents in the office take
a shot at it at long distance. The
morning paper the other day contain
ed glowing accounts of the prolonged
fight at Ojinaga. and told OF how
many had been killed and wounded
up to date, how many prisoners had
been taken and how many were in
the hospitals. The evening paper
came back with an interview with
the American commander at Maria,
showing that the morning papers fig
ures were somewhat exaggerated.
More men had been reported killed
and wounded, than have been engag-
ed in the fight, and the contesting
forces were about as large as ever.
This reminds us of the Fort De Franc
reports in the Spanish-American war.
But such is war;
~r - - - =-w
While FL Paso has nothing to smelt,
ii claims TO have the largest silver
leadcopper custom smelter in the
United States. It Is surely large
institution and handles ore from all
over Arizona, New Mexico, Old Mex
leo and Texas,--if there is any ore
in Texas. There must be ores OF
value there now as about 100 Amer
lean soldiers are quartered on the
premises. FL Paso also claims the
largest wood finishing and box fac
tory In the world. Having never
seen the others we must take FL |
Paso's word for this. And again, I'll
Paso claims to- be the principle
United States Customs point on the
Mexican border Its Masonic temple
represents value Of $4,000. Elks
49, a. a. 80 -