Albuquerque morning journal., 1922-12-04
HARDSH|PS Of
PIONEER DAYS
ARE RECALLED
Ell Paso Women Tell OF
Their Experiences When
Goats and Tin Cans Sup
piled the City With Milk

Eel Paso. Tex, Dec. S.--Hard-
ships Of pioneer days, days when
Ell Paso and Juarez were twin cit
les OF 1900 each, when there was
saloon on every corner and the
corners not far apart, when goats
and tin cans supplied the city with
milk and when all houses and
buildings were made of adobe and
most of them with dirt floors, are
recalled pretty regularly once a
month. The occasions are the
monthly meetings Of the Pioneer
Women Of ll Paso.
Mrs. A. NJ. Loomis, a resident
of El Paso for more than 40
years, recalls the time when she
had two barrels of muddy Rio
Grande water in her kitchen--the
best she could get in those days.
Boxes for Church Seats
The only church when she came
here was held in a tent, formerly
used as a grocery store. There
were three preachers, and the con-
gregation sat on boxes the grocery
store donated.
Mrs. w. r. Brown was one-half
of the first graduating class of the
I'll Paso high school. Prenttss
Robinson, who has since moved
away, was the other half. This
class was graduated in 1887. There
were $50 students in all the city,
schools, just half as many teach
ers as are in the city schools
now. Mrs. Brown 1. now a mem
Der of the FL Paso school board.
The pioneer women in recalling
the days of bustles, prairie schoon-
ers and tent stores, do not forget
the society Of the times. Mrs.
Julia Wilcox, for example, reviews
the days when women dances were
held at the courthouse, when al
most everybody walked to social
functions. Now and then some
one would come in a carriage, but
there were no automobiles or
street cars. The dances were diff
ferent from those Of nowadays,
the polka being popular. Married
women parked their baby buggies
lat one corner of the building, and
and the young couples met on the
other side of the building.
Branching off for diversion, the
women (there are fifty-eight men,
bers of the club tell of episodes
which all recall with laughter
Smuggling was one of the principal
diversions of men and women
Silks in Juarez were especially at
tractive, and they say women used
to hide them in their old-fashion-
cd bustles.
One woman, members OF the
club tell about, tried to smuggle an
alarm clock across the river. AS
she boarded he ferry the jolting
caused the clock to ring.
Carried Cigars in Hats.
Men work silk hats to Juare2
those days, the high standing kind
to carry back cigars in them, the
women tell, to get even.
Mrs. Howard Thompson telling
of making the trip to El Paso from
Iowa with a mule team, says il
took five weeks to make the trip
They built home near here and
made it bullet-proof and kept
twelve rifles and a big supply OF
ammunition to use in case of at"
ttacks from Indians.
Mrs. Z. A. Falvey who has beer
here AZ years, and Mrs. Katie
Marr, who has been here Al years
also contribute to the program OF
history telling when the Pioneer
Women of Ii Paso meet.
Rural life even 80 years ago was
not enjoyable around here, ac-
cording to Mrs. Eleanor Porcher
who lived down the Rio Grande
valley southeast of Ell Paso then
Still, she tells some interesting
stories when the club meets. Wheat
was threshed in the valley by al
lowing horses to trampie on 1t. she
said. Wine was made by pressing
grapes through dried cowhides
suspended from the roof. After
the grapes would drip no more
men would trample on them.