Mexico weekly ledger., 1914-11-26
BY RoBERTUs LOVE.


leo. The new ten-day President sue
ceeding Carranza is not meant. This
Mexico is in Missouri. 1t is in Aud
rain County, which is in North Cen
trail Missouri, where prairies pre-
dominate instead Of pampas and
corn instead of cactus is king.
There are no Mexican revolutions
in this Mexico. The nearest approach
to n took place twenty years ago,
when Bill T%reloar, a talented fiddle
teacher of Mexico defeated Champ
Clark for Congress. Mexico and the
entire congressional district got
over that establishment two years la
ter, and since then revolution with
the initial "r" cut off has been the
rule Of Audrain.
This new thing under the sun has
to do with the evolution of Audrain
County. 1t is a sort Of advertisement,
a concrete presentment, in epitome,
Of the new era in which those good
average Missouri citizens are liv-
ing, which they have evolved by TAX
ing advantage of the things that
make for progress. They call this
new thing the Audrain Couny Round
Up.
That sounds somewhat wild west
ish, but you wouldn't have noticed
anything to that effect had you Wis
tied Mexico during Round Up Week,
which began early Monday morning
and lasted until late Saturday night.
There was no grand COW drive, no
roping and branding of steers, no
~corraling Of the herd, and no shoot
ing up Of the town by the cow
punchers after they got paid off.
1t would have been highly difficult
for such a shooting-up to happen, for
that kind of performance presupros-
es the presence Of bars and booze.
There is not a saloon in Audrain coun
ty. Last year Mexico, after a mighty
fierce fight, voted itself dry. Then, to
cinch and clinch matters, the capital
city Of Audrain, went and elected a
dry worker whose name is Dry
III. W. Dry-to the m~ayoralty. From
all of which the reader may assume
that Mexico is a law-abiding town,
a peace-keeping place, where nobody
paints anything red unless it be a
roof on one of the handsome new
houses of modern type which one
may see along the streets.
Bar" Equal Suffrage Headquarters.
/ observed something at Mexico
which made an impression worth re-
cording. 1t was election day when we
were rounded up there. A large side
room, adjoining the office of the Ho-
tel Ringo, with plate-glass windows
and double doors opening to the
street, was pointed out as the local
habitation of a tar for almost imme,
mortal years up to the defeat Of the
vets. It had been Mexico's chief
drinking place. Last Tuesday it was
difficult to believe this, for that iden:
teal place was headquarters for the
equal suffrage workers Of the county
Looking through the plate glass one
could see prominent women of Mexico
occupying rocking chairs and desl
chairs, handing out suffrage literature
and suffrage talk. 1t bespoke, in part
the evolution Of Audrain. The county
is awake and alive to progressive
ideas all along the line.
This first annual roundup was {
getting together Of all the Interests
of Mexico and the county. It was |
new thing for Audrain County in tina
respect, and it was new in its mate
i. rial aspects. It was different, decid
" so, from the ordinary town-count!
boosting show. The old-time count,
fair was not suggested. The stree
fair Of a few years ago was not hint
ed at. The tar-ra-ra-boom sort Of eel
ebration was not in evidence. Ye
from the four corners of the count!
more accurately, from the six cor
ners, for the map shows that many
and from all the intervening part
thereof had gathered the representa-
tive citizens, both voters and vote
less, and the representative product
industries and projects-all eonverg
ing on Mexico to show off and be mu
tually shown.
The farm, the pasture, the orchard
the henhouse, the school, the home
the Sunday School, the church inter
: ests, all were represented there; ant
vet the cily visible aspects OF th'
big roundup in the open air were on'
tent and a bandstand erected for thu
|. occasion on the Courthouse square
The rest Of the performance was IN.
doors. That gave the impression OF
something new by way Of n farm pro
duets and educational demonstration
Mexico's Streets Cleared for Traffic
|. Usually, such things are shown II
tents pitched in the streets. Mexico'i
streets were left clear for the largely
augmented traffic of the week. Inc
exhibits were in the show windows
of mercantile establishments It wa