Henderson daily dispatch., 1938-06-25
Mr.. Peace Tells of Visit
TO Texas and Old Mexico
Sees Good Deal of Desolati in Americas Largest
State. and Plenty OF Pow erty In Jaurez, Across
Border; Texas. Grows Hay for Vance County

Here is the second letter writer
FOR the Daily Dispatch by S. T. Peace
one of party of five Henderson PEG.
rle attending the convention of Ro.
law International in San Francisco
this week. His first letter was yes
to-day. Others will follow. This one
deals with Texas and Old Mexico, and
was mailed from San Francisco. II
follows:
Between Louisiana and New Mex
100 lies Texas. l presume there is some
GOOD land in Texas. for / understand
the State is inhabited, but if what
we have passed through, the south
central part, is a fair example, old
Sam Houston was an old fool for
fighting so hard for it. 1t is flat. It
is dry. 1t is hot. 1t is sand 1t is
rocks Crops are not near so good
as ours. Cotton is late. Lots of corn
given up to grass. For miles and miles
YOU see no house. In some sections,
tv irrigation, they have fair farms
and here they raise hay to be sold
in Vance county, where our land is
better and our water without cost or
effort.
We saw a good many what you
call dry rivers" rivers that are as
dry as a bone. Houses made of
adobe" mud brick and mud tops,
very small one story homes. I saw
practically no good country homes in
our journey. clear across the State.
We reach San Antonio, a city of
100000 people, about 35 per cent of
them Mexicans. There is military
post of 5000 acres and. $1,000 troops,
the largest airplane army post in the
United States. The CITY has large
.arks ana a large ZOO with 500 mon
Keys in one colony. do not know
what they were saying but they did
not seem to like me. The Rotarians
of San Antonio have given the chill
dreo forty ponies to ride. In San An
tonic is the ALAMO. The Alamo was
a combination church and fort which
The Mexicans long ago surrounded
ard killed all of the Texans inside,
in number 2S7. No one escaped.
In San Antonio also there is all
old church, or mission, built in 1920.
This building is surrounded by per-
haps a hundred small rooms in which
the Indians lived while being taught
the Christian religion. The church
and huts were made of mud brick
and are still in a fair state of
preservation.
We ate lunch in a cafe caNed
"Buckhorn." In this cate are mounted
the heads of perhaps two thousand
animals. There are heads of Texas
steers with horns which measure ten
feet from tip to tip. A stuffed gorilla
stands in the door. They serve rat
tlesnake sandwiches and / wanted to
eat some rattlesnake hut it gave out
before l could get to the counter.
have eaten cells, frogs, turtles, terra
pin, crayfish, screech owls, bull bats
and bear, and l just wanted to add
a little snake. There are three things
will not eat, snails, spinach and
monkey.
Another stretch of sorry land and
we arrive at FL Paso, Texas. The FL
Paso Rotarians met us with a brass
band a day ahead of time. They
must have died of sunstroke for none
OF them came back next day.
Ell Paso is quite a city, perhaps 49,
900, half of them Mexicans, and about
$500 Negroes. There is a law here
forbidding any wooden structure, SO
the fire insurance rate is the low
est in America. Fort Bliss, a cavalry
army post, is located here, the larg
est cavalry post in America. We brag
about being at peace with our. neigh
bors. We will quickly pass over the
fact that our largest air army post
and largest cavalry post are situated
very near the Mexican line.
Now, l have not told you how much
money the New Deal spent in Texas
for my lead pencil is only ten inches
long and I was afraid it would not
last long enough to add up the fig
ures. The New Deal spent quite a
sum in Ell Paso in play grounds. I
understand the boys promptly tore
them up.
We were shown a handsome resi-
dence which cost over a million. The
owner went broke in 1929, the house
was sold and brought only $32, 800.
In soaking the rich do not see that
Roosevelt has done any better job
than Hoover did.
In Ell Paso, Texas, it is so hot
the people feed cracked ice to the
chickens to keep them from, laying
hard boiled eggs.
So we moved out of Texas into
Mexico to cool off a bit. We went 10
Juarez, Mexico, where it was only 40
degrees in the shade. They have no
refrigerators in Juarez, so / went to
the meat market to see what was
going on. They don't like fresh beef
in Mexico. They want a decided
twang to it. The meat quickly turns
a dark red and the odor is some
thing else. The vegetables are sold IN
little booths or shacks along the
streets. There was an active market.
There was no laughter and poverty
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