New Britain herald., 1916-06-26

w lOIl, b 1., ullS Ho.-o1iO of the chief centers of Mexican popu- lation along the frontier to which the National Guard troops have been Or dered is Nuevo Laredo, the subject or the following war geography bulletin issued by the National Geographic so- cietv from it's Washington headquar- ters:
 "Nuevo Laredo, the border city of Tamaulipas, is one of the most lm- public, not on account of it's popu- lation, for the American Mexican El Paso and Juarez constitute hyphen- ated city more than twice as large as Laredo (American) and Nuevo Lare- do (Mexican), but because the latter IS the northern terminus of the shortest railway route to Mexico City, the dis tance being about 800 miles, compared with 1,200 miles by way of Juarez and 1000 miles through Ciudad Porf1rAo Diaz (Eagle Pass).
 with 5000 people, Nuevo Laredo is a little more than half as large as the American town at the other end or the 900 foot international bridge which spans the Rio Grande at this point. The two towns were one up to the time of the secession of Texas the settlement on the left bank of the river being captured by Texas rangers in 1S46 and occupied by United States troops under General Lamar year later. In 1852 the northern city Cor perhaps it would be more accurate to refer to it as the eastern city, for the Rio Grande flows in a more sOuther- ly than easterly direction in this part of it's 1,80O mile course from the San Juan mountains in Colorado to the Gulf of Mexico), received it's charter as a Texas municipality. The Lare- dos, named for seaport Tn Spaln, were settled by Spanish colonists dur ing the decade preceding the American Revolutionary war.
 "From now until late in September the region around Nuevo Laredo will present a fertile aspect, for it is the rainy season, but beginning with Oc- tober the landscape will take on dry, parched appearance, similar to the picture which it presented month ago when the mesquite shrub was the haunt of jack-rabbits, horned tOads and coyotes.
 "There are no mountains to lend beauty to the skyline in this thinly populated part of Texas Mexico, but shortly after leaving the valley of the Rio Grande the railway line begins it's long climb up to Mexico City which has an altitude nearly a mile and Q half about Nuevo Laredo.
 About twenty miles southwest of Nuevo Laredo the railroad runs through Jarita, long a rendezvous for 1 border riders who were supposed to i patrol this region in search of Mexi- !! can smugglers, but now employed, it i is feared, in much less lawful pur- suit
 "One of the oddities which will in- press the observant traveller on his way to Mexico City is the manner In which the telegraph poles of this section are 1 riddled with holes, as if they had been pierced with hIghpower, large-calibre bullets The explanation is not that | the Mexicans have been engaged in extravagant target practice but that the myriad ,wOOdpeckers of the region find the poles admirable raw material out of which to drill their bird apart ments form of feathered industry which costs the railway company tn housands of dollars a year to replace the weakened wire supports.
 'Nuevo Laredo is 150 miles south west of General FunstOn's headquar- ters in San Antonio.
 '"The chief agricultural product on the American side of the Rio Grande in the neighborhOod of Laredo is large white onion which yields as high as 10000 pounds to the acre when the land is properly irrigated, the waters from the river being in such demand for this purpose that bitter feeling,