The Clio messenger. (Clio, Mich.) 1907-current, 1916-11-10
FL Paso, Tex.
Sunday, Oct. %, l6.

will try to answer it. Nothing excit-
ing has happened around here since we
have been here. Everything runs along
as peaceably as if we were in Flint.
The more see of this city, the bet
ter like it. 1t sure is pretty town.
In the northern part of the town there
are blocks of nothing but bungalows,
with lots of lawn and roses and other
flowers. Nearly all the streets here
are asphalt paved. There are several
good sized parks here and in one, not
very far from our camp, there is quite
a good sized zoo. The down town dis
trict is lighted with cluster lights on
poles on each side of the street.-the
same system as they have installed in
Clio. The largest hotel here is the
Paso del Norte. 1t is about ten stories
high and occupies an entire city block.
There are two large department stores
here that occupy whole block each
and are about fifteen stories tall. Then
there are several real tall office build
ings.
The Rio Grande river is the dividing
line between U. S. and Mexico. 1t
flows through the city but is a rather
small river here, not much wider than
the Flint river. But then Ell Paso is
located pretty close to the source of it
and | understand it is quite stream
20 oh he Il
irrigation canal about forty miles long
that flows past our camp, but as the
dry season is over, it has been closed.
They tell me that it is closed about
three months during each year.
Today | and several other fellows
climbed Mt. Franklin, the mountain
north of the city. 1t was sure some
climb and tonight | am about all in,
but the view from the top was sure
worth the work. The summit is about
25OO feet above the city. understand.
Of course, one can see the entire coun-
try spread out like a map. Ell Paso
looks like toy city from the peak. On
the mountain there is nothing but rock,
cactus, horned toads, lizards, tarantu-
las. and rattle snakes. There are all
kinds of cactus around here and nearly
every bush is covered with thorns .
There is a lot that looks almost like the
century plant that you had. Then there
is variety that has long thin blades
with teeth on both edges. Another
kind that grows about six or eight feet
tall is composed of long branches about
as big around as your thumb, each one
starting from the ground, and all COW
cred with prickers. There is another
variety that looks almost like green
pumpkin, only the creases are lined
with thorns pointing in all directions.
One kind grows about 10 inches long
and perhaps inches thick, shaped like
a sausage This is covered with wnat
looks like stiff hair and in this hair
there is occasionally thorn. This kind
has a little red flower. There is an
other variety that grows out on the
plains that has very sweet smelling
white flower. l have never seen this
kind, but the colonel was out in his
car today, and he brought back some of
the flowers. They grow straight in the
air about six feet, on stem about an
inch through About two feet of the
end of this is just mass of these white
flowers. 1t makes cluster about two
teet long and perhaps eight inches
through, and is about as pretty thing
as ever saw.
There are plenty of bugs and animals
down here. some dangerous and some
not About the ugliest looking one l
have seen is the horned toad, Lut he is
perfectly harmless. He is built like an
ordinary toad, but his back is entirely
covered with horns and is spotted, gray
and yellow. The underside of the body
is yellow and has scales like snake.
His face is almost exactly like an OWLS
face, with four horns on his head and
tail like young frog. Instead of hop
ping. he runs, and he can go like
streak of lightning. When he isn't
running he fattens himself out on a
rock and lays like he was dead, until
fly comes along, then out goes his
tongue and the fly is no more. There
are plenty of tarantulas-they are al
most like the spider Aunt Ann had in
alcohol-and scorpions-they look like
thousaed legged worm, only are about
four inches long, down here, but it is
very seldom that anyone gets stung.
The weather here is great-just like
summer in Michigan, only the nights
are real cool. There is hardly ever
cloud in the sky and away on the hori-
zon one can see the mountains in one
direction and the plains in the other.
Well must close now. Love to ALL
"Adios,"
Vernon.