The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1921-04-21

Adventurous, colorful and full of con-
trasts as it is, the 1900 mile trip along this
crooked, historic line is rough and diff
cult, and has been made by few people.
'The Rio Grande part of this border
has caused both Uncle Sam and Mexico
much work and mental anguish. Dur
ing bad floods the line as formed by the
river squirms around in so astonishing
and lively manner that what is Mexican
soil one day may be in Texas the next,
and vice versa.
Railroads cut this long border line at
Brownsville, Laredo, Eagle Pass, and Ell
Paso, Texas; at Douglas, Naco and No
gales in Arizona, and at Calexico and
Tia Juana, in California. Only four of
these railroads, however, are main lines
of through traffic that penetrate the in
terror of Mexico; these start at Laredo,
Eagle Pass, Ell Paso and Nogales.
"You visualize the bigness of Texas
when you look at the length of its side
that borders on Mexico. You realize its
emptiness, too when you travel through
some of its border regions, where the
population is less than two per square
mile
"No section of the border has seen so
much of adventure, tragedy and turbulent
activity as Texas. The flags of France,
Spain and Mexico have waved over it;
for a time it flew its own Lone Star and
also the Confederate flag.
Tn Brownsville you hear more Spanish
than English, because most of the 5000
people who live there are Mexicans.
Cup the river from Brownsville lies
Laredo, most important border town in
south Texas, even if an old map does call
this vicinity "a wilderness filled with wild
horses
Eagle Pass, on up the Rio Grande, was
favorite camping spot for the California
gold hunters in 49.
GAS you follow the border west. oaks,
pines and underbrush decrease, aridity in
creases, and cacti lift their thorny heads.
Border counties like Brewster, Preside
and Ell Paso are of amazing area-larger
than some of our small eastern states.
Windmills are everywhere electric
fans to keep the cattle COOL waggish
cowboy once explained to London ten
derfOot.
eel Paso is the only large city from
San Antoine to Los Angeles, a ride of
1900 dry, dusty miles.
"The largest reservoir anywhere is the
great Elephant Butte dam, which stores
more water than the world-famous As
suan dam on the Nile. This big dam,
built in New Mexico, holds enough water,
we are told, to fill standpipe II feet in
diameter reaching from Ell Paso to the
moon, or to cover Massachusetts, to a depth
of six inches!
From the point at monument No. 1
where the boundary line crawls out of
the Rio Grande lat the southeast corner
of New Mexico), it strikes west into
wilderness of singularly dry and empty
aspect. For 40 miles along this march the
traveller must carry his own water.
"To the west lie the rough, hostile foot
hills of the Dog mountains; near here,
in the San Luis range, the line reaches
point of $500 feet above the sea, marking
the continental divide.
"In the San Bernardino valley the line
strikes the first running water after quit
ting the Rio Grande-192 miles to the
east. Here rises the famous Yaqui river,
that long, crooked stream that meanders
through the vast Mexican state of Sonora
and through the turbulent Yaqui Indian
zone, finally emptying into the Gulf of
California below Guaymas.
"In the whole 70O-mile stretch from the
Rio Grande to the Pacific this line crosses
only five permanent running streams, and
the average rainfall throughout its length