Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1915-10-26
40 N~1-A~
A MEXICAN SALOON TOWN.
lJack Dalton dtscourses Of his Elk
periences in Old Mexico.l

|
! lJack Dalton discourses Of his Elk
periences in Old Mexico.l
When the Fourth of July came I
committed the mortal sin Of leaving
my native country and going onto for
eign soil-down into Mexico among
the cactus and the greasers, the
gamblers. Sabbath breakers, booze
| fighters tourists sightseers and buns.
Like others who commit sin, ! excuse
myself on the plea that there were
many who were as bad as myself, for
there were. probably. twenty thousand
| other who braved the terrors Of
| crowded. torrid. dirty, s'reeling, bump
ing trains on the San Diego & South
eastern railroad, the only rail line
covering the eighteen miles between
| San Diego and Tia Juana, Mexico. the
! final object of that trail of torture
! across the Mexican border, or rode
over the dust choked highway in auto
| mobiles under the terrific rays Of the
sun and against the blistering winds
that swept across the mesa from the
south. Altho i started at O'Clock it
was ~: 80 when I got across the bridge
that spans the Tia Juana river on the
boundary line, In July this river is
, always trail of dust and stones with
not drop of water anywhere in sight
unless you pay ten cents a glass for
1t. The accursed stream. like that OF
| Eugene Aran, was dry. very dry. and
1t seemed to come from nowhere up In
the hills and so nowhere down thru
It's CHASTITY slit across the rock-strewed
plain. The Tia JuaDa people had pre-
pared for the eastern sucker crop by
putting on a grea. fair and bull fight
for their detection. The fair was a
cluster OF buildings looking very much
like county fair in Iowa, but there
were no exhibits of either agriculture,
art horticulture, animal husbandry. or
any OF the things that decent and in
dustrious people have at their fairs
The only live stock exhibit was COM
posed OF horde of painted women Of
all nations drained from the purlieus
OF the coast cities and an assortment
of fighting roosters in tent. No, the
| painted women were not in tent.
The other chickens were. The women
were scattered all over the grounds, in
the saloons. in the big cafe" and
around gambling tables in the casino"
The cock fights were only two for
quarter. but did not care to look at
them. The bull fight cost $50 II you
sat in the sun and $500 If you took a
seat in the grandstand. did not care
for any bull fight either. altho / was
informed that 1t was a denatured at
fair, that is. there would be no horses
used and gored to death by the bulls,
because so many Americans get sick
when they see the stomachs of the
horses ripped open by the horns of the
bull"
Gambling was the principal occupa-
| tion<o the crowd Attic the tourists.
be it said to their credit, did not in
dulge very much in the games. plenty
of others did and the mobs around
! the gaming tables were as thick as
sardnes in box. There were two
roulette wheels in the casino" and
! a couple Of faro layouts, as well as
stud poker tables. crap tables and a
three card monte plant. The only
instrument OF highway robbery that
! I did not see In operation there was
| the old shell game. but 1t might have
been working somewhere around the
fair" grounds. An orchestra COM
posed entirely Of Mexicans in fantastic
national dress, ground out a fairly
! good quality Of music in the big
1 gambling shed. Hundreds OF sight
seers pushed and crowded each other
in the sitting hot building. The cries
| of the custodians Of the gambling
games as they announced the fateful
| fall of the roulette ball, the chuck luck
dice, or the turn OF The monte cards.
rang out above the common din. Out
side the fair" grounds in the town the
| saloons were running wide open and
! were crowded. Each saloon had COM
plete gambling outfit In operation and
women as we'll as men pushed their
| way into the drinking places. ! saw
many men and women who, am con-
| fident. never entered anything worse
! than a Sunday school class room back
| home. who rubbed elbows with beer
smelling, cigarette smoking greasers
and touts, gamblers and immoral rim
raft from everywhere. There 10 al
ways a certain license allowed tourists
| and sightseers and those people took
the license without batting an eye or
blushing even a little bit. altho one
could easily tell from their looks that
they felt Just a little bit scared and
guilty. One redeeming thing about
Thorn was that they did not buy any
thing to drink In the saloons. They
looked on while others imbibed Many
women crowded up to the bars and
lifted glasses from the dirty hands OF
Mexican bartendeTs. to their cherry
lips and quafYed the tepid "suds' to
the last drop. 1t was anything for
excitement. I have been held up by
dining car and cafe people all my life
and have taken my oath many times
that / would never submit to their ex-
tortion, but I wish now to retract
many OF the unkind things have said
about them. Compared to the Next
can saloonist they are all highly bred
| gentlemen and philanthropists. With
out the quivering OF an eyelaFh those
Mexican saloon keepers charged their
| thirsty customers Is cents for what we
lin Iowa cali nsnif' glass of beer
| about two swallows for child and
hardly a decent swallow for reason
ably large and healthy man. They
were magnanimous enough, however
to allow you two glasses for . aaar
ter! In the leading care OF the I.i..s
the American waiter. husky buii
Z esperad0 with . red scar cisafs scros'