Barton County democrat., 1914-01-09
HAD A GOOD VISIT.

@Su' 1VdgUG dnu IdanlVp ~ hdtOn, ~.
No. report good visit and a fine
tme, despite the fact that they were
at Ration during the big snow storm.
the worst storm that has visited that
section Of the country for over TWEEN
ty years. During the first snow over
thirty inches Of snow fell on the levd
IN two days, and few days later
they had couuple of storms which
added another six inches Of snowfall.
In connection with this snow, Mr..
Ddoge says there was one thing in
connection with the city admmistra-
tion Of Ration which he thinks should
certainly be commended. The city
Of Ration is built at the foot of the
mountain andslopes to the east at a
fall Of about eight or nine feet to the
block, and during the two weeks Of
the Christmas school vacation, the
city administration turned one Of the
main streets Of THE city over to the
children for a place to coast, giving
them the exclusive privilege of US
ing the street for nine blocks and
barring all teams and traffic from
the street during the vacation time,
and Mr.. Dodge says that the children
and many of the grown folks. too,
certainly enjoyed a fine time, as on
account of the sloping street, they
could start their sleds at the top and
coast at a very rapid rate for the
entire nine blocks. Another coed
thing about the way the children of
the town are treated there is shown
from the fact that the merchants Of
the town have one Of the pictn>
shows every Saturday for the exclu-
sive benefit of the children and the
ladies, all of the merchants furnish.
ing free tickets to the child or wo-
man who desires to attend, and as a
result Of these kindnesses on the part
of the city administration and the
business men, the children are
taught to respect the city laws to a
much greater extent than in towns
where privileges of all kinds are de,
MED them. 80
Ration, which is a town OF Eetween
1--we and six thousand inhabitants, is
practically divided into two places by
the railroad, On one side being TIC
main town proper, and on the other
side being the Mexican and other fer.
eign population, of which there is a
very large per cent on account Of the
railroad and mine work. The town
IS wide open as far as the .iluor
question is concerned, there being
seven saloons in the main part of the
town and four on the other side, and
during the six weeks he was there,
Mr. Dodge says he saw only one man
who seemed to be under the influ-
ence OF liquor, and that was over in
the Mexican quarters. Each saloon
pays $1,000 year city license.
Colfax county, in which Raton is
located, is Just about five times the
size of Barton county, but at that
does not have nearly as many inhat7
itallts. Outside the mining Industry
cattle and sheep grazing is the prin-
cipal industry of the country, and
many Of the big ranchers own thou
sands of acres of land, so outside of
the towns the country is very sparse
Ivy populated. The land taxes are
very high there as compared with
this country. The property Is assess
ed at half its valuation, that is, at
half the price It is supposed that il
would sell for, and the tax is s6.41
per hundred dollars of assessed valu.
alton Some of the people here who
have kicks to register over their high
taxes, should figure this out and see
now much more of a holler they
would have coming If they lived n
New Mexico.
The town Of Ration Is a fine. up.t;.
date place, according to Mr.. Dodge
They have fine churches and excep.
tionally good schools. They have a
large high school, similar to the ore
IN Great Bend, and last summer
built an addition. larger than the cne
built here, but joined the two build.
ings in the same manner as. the ones
here. They have a very fine Elks
home, and many other fine and med
ern buildings. and the business me1
are as wide awake and as progressive
as he ever saw anywhere, and they
are a bunch that are not afraid to gC
down into their pockets and dig W
for anything that wiA be OF benefit
to the town and community, and az
a result Ration is one of the lives
business tnwna of &c oizo "a ~