El Paso

“ El Paso is a progressive, lively, American town; El Paso del Norte is as far back in the Middle Ages, and as slow as it was when the first adobe hut was executed in 1680. It is rich with grass and shade trees, while El Paso is as spare of grass as a twenty-year old youth is of beard. ”

“ El Paso is situated on the Rio Grande River, in the extreme west corner of Texas, within a mile of that river, which forms the boundary line between Texas and Mexico, and very near to New Mexico on the north and on the west. ”

“ I still held my town lots, and having faith in the future of El Paso I took out a license as a real estate agent ten years before any one else. “Seymour” and “Blair” and the ambulance were still on hand, and I purchased another pair of very large mules (which we named “Insect” and “Fairy”) and a wagon for our baggage, provision, etc., and employed two Mexican drivers. ”

“ In fact El Paso feels that as long as the Mexican frontier battles have proper stage management they are first-rate advertising attractions for the town—quite discounting mere Mardi Gras or Portola or flower celebrations, Frontier or Round-up Days, as well as its own simpler joys of horse-racing and bull-fighting. On battle-days El Paso can ascend to its house-tops and get a rare thrill. But when the atrocious marksmanship of ill-trained Mexicans does its worst, and a few stray bullets go whistling straight across upon American soil, El Paso grows angry. ”

“ We left San Antonio June 1, 1849, and arrived at El Paso early in September. We remained there nearly a month. At that time El Paso was a town on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande river. There was but one building on the Texas side, and that was the Maggoffin's hacienda. Vegetation at El Paso grows very rank, and fruit exceedingly fine. The grape attains a large size, and bunches weighing four pounds were common. I brought with me cacti, in form like an acorn, and so large that the hoops had to be removed from a clothing tierce (a small hogshead) to put a single one inside for transportation. ”

“ Daily, whom I had known well at El Paso, was at the time wagonmaster in charge of Ochoa’s train, and in camp near the post. He was an old frontiersman, an Indian fighter, and had often been employed as a guide by United States army officers. I knew that he was a Southerner, but I knew that when a man of that class took the Union side he could be trusted, and I knew that he possessed every other qualification for the dangerous service. ”

“ This old letter, copied from the Deseret News, I think will help in describing Mexico:
"El Paso, State of Chihuahua, February 10th, 1876. "Brother F. Nicholson:
"I herewith send you an account of the country and people of this region.
Description of El Paso.
"The town of El Paso is situated on the right bank of the Rio Grande del Norte, in the State of Chihuahua, on a low bottom, liable to much damage from high water; land sandy. The streets are simply old cattle tracks, running in every direction. ”

“ I returned to El Paso on foot, and as I reached the northern end of the bridge, walking, as it happened, on the far side of the road, with my overcoat on my arm, as careless as could be, I was hailed by an officer in uniform. ”

“ Across the river from El Paso is Paso del Norte, the most northerly town of any size in Mexico, as well as the oldest in this region, having been founded, as a mission, at or near the close of the seventeenth century, probably in 1680. It is an unpretentious mud village, which is content to remain so, if those restless Americanos from over the Border will only allow it to. But they will not, and the Yankee "City of the Pass," like Laredo, is pushing its apathetic Mexican sister into prominence. ”

“ The El Paso and Presidio land district included all territory west of the Pecos River (El Paso and Presidio Counties) , an area larger than New Jersey.
With the recommendation of the army officers and Judge Crosby of that judicial district, I was appointed surveyor for that district by the State government. Immediately I had plenty of work on pending locations for two hundred miles below Franklin, many tracts embracing five thousand acres each, and also the reservations leased by the War Department for the posts of Quitman, Davis, Stockton, and Fort Bliss. ”

“ Also, it had been reported that he had said he would give five thousand dollars to get me out of the way. He furthermore advised me in the letter to take the train from El Paso, as the old fellow might have some mexicans watching along the road for me.
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Chapter XXIX. IN LOVE WITH A MEXICAN GIRL.
I found El Paso, to be a red-hot town of about three thousand inhabitants. There were also about that number of people in Paso Del Norte, across the river in Old Mexico. I spent several days in each place. ”

“ The only objection I found to El Paso was its utter lack of grass.
The people of position are mainly those who are there for their health, or to enjoy the winter in the balmy climate, or the families of men who own ranches in Texas. The chief pleasure is driving and riding, and the display during the driving hour would put to shame many Eastern cities. The citizens are perfectly free. They speak and do and think as they please. ”

“ The new El Paso got away from me. Que sea por Dios.
Our merchandise and supplies were brought from St. Louis, a distance of sixteen hundred miles, or from Port Lavaca, Texas, a distance of nine hundred miles, by large trains of immense freight wagons, “Schooners of the Plains,” drawn by fourteen to eighteen mules, usually four abreast, at a cost of twelve and one-half to fifteen cents per pound for freight only. These trains were usually accompanied by twenty-five to forty men, including the drivers, all of whom were well armed, and stood guard like soldiers. ”

“ El Paso contains about five thousand inhabitants, and there is a large population in the rich valley extending above and below the town. When Colonel Doniphan visited it with his troops, the vineyards were in "the sere and yellow leaf," yet they afforded the promise of an abundant harvest. Most of the Pasénians retired on the approach of the Americans, but they shortly after returned to their homes. ”

“ For ten years, amid all the folly and extravagance and vices of my bachelor youth, I kept one object constantly in view: to acquire and hold and pay taxes on a sufficient number of town lots to make me reasonably independent when the railroads should come, and for a time I owned more desirable property in El Paso than any other individual ever owned except the proprietors of the town tract. ”

“ The reform movement was so successful that El Paso today is one of the best governed cities in the United States. Notwithstanding the addition to its population during the past two years of fifty thousand United States soldiers (well disciplined men, however) , it has stood the test of good, safe government.
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Mexico
Youthful knowledge of our war of 1847 with Mexico, and a residence of four years at El Paso, where I employed many Mexicans in the construction of buildings and surveying, gave me a great interest in its government, its people and affairs generally. ”

“ To it one always returns.”
“Si,” Bull acknowledged the call, the most powerful in the feeling of a Mexican. “But from El Paso one could go by the ferrocarril Americano. In one day he could cross from El Paso to Nogales, thence south to Las Bocas and live in plenty beyond the reach of Valles. And one’s woman and niñas—would smile the sweeter at the sight of a bulging pocket.”
The cigarette glowed again, this time without the shrug. “There is something in that. Si, señor, I will do it!—go to the consul Ingles in El Paso.” ”

“ Before Pike was welcomed by the civil and ecclesiastical dignitaries of El Paso del Norte, he crossed the great river, and thus passed from the State of Texas into that of Chihuahua, as these are now bounded. He would have said that he simply went across the river which flows in the province of North or New Mexico of the kingdom of New Spain, and had not yet reached the province of New Biscay. But aside from any of the political affairs which spoil the complexion of the maps, El Paso is one of the most remarkable positions in North America, unique in some respects. ”

“ Pike has nothing to say of any place on the Rio Grande opposite the Mexican town of El Paso, at or near where El Paso stands in Texas. But the valley has been settled and cultivated from remote antiquity, and the clustering of the population at various points gave rise to towns or pueblos, all of which, of course, had names, though several of these have lapsed forever. Maps now nearly half a century old mark on the Texan side several places by the names of Frontera, La Frontera, or Las Fronteras ”

“ But the citizens of El Paso, the border town, who were practical, industrious and thrifty people, had been greatly influenced, like those of New Mexico, by interest in the caravan business, contact with American traders and wagoners, and acquaintance with the ideas and methods of the United States. ”

“ The prices for everything are something dreadful to contemplate. The houses are mostly modern, with here and there the adobe huts which once marked this border. The courthouse and jail combined is a fine brick structure that any large city might boast of. Several very pretty little gardens brighten up the town with their green, velvety grasses and tropical plants and trees. The only objection I found to El Paso was its utter lack of grass. ”

“ Carriages and buggies were considered as almost community property, and the man who refused to lend them was considered a bad neighbor.
Everybody had credit at “the store,” and everybody paid up—sooner or later.
There were no hotels. Travelers stopped at each other’s houses and even strangers were welcome there. Any one having any claim to gentility or education was cheerfully received and entertained by the officers at the army posts, and many, very many, by the collector of customs at El Paso. ”

“ The train from El Paso arrives within sight of the city at dusk, passing through a colony pertaining to the railroad, where great machine-shops cover the ground, and where a round-house, with its stalls full of iron horses, is surrounded by hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of railway material, and where the evidences are strong that an American town will soon develop that shall rival the capital city itself. ”

“ A toll bridge spans the river and connects the two cities.
An American collects the toll on the El Paso side and a Mexican on the Juarez side. It cost me two cents to cross each way.
While in El Paso I heard a great deal of talk about the high wages paid laborers in Bisbee, Ariz., and as it was only a few miles out of my way going to Tucson, I decided to stop over there a few days.
I shoveled coal on an El Paso and Southwestern freight train from El Paso to Douglas, a distance of 200 miles. ”

“ The next day, Mills of El Paso, a Republican, moved to reconsider that resolution and to admit all who had been elected by the people. He urged that we were not officers of the United States, but of Texas, and scarcely that, because we could do nothing which would bind any one. Our work would have to be approved by the people, and then by Congress, etc., etc. ”

“ I organized the Republican party in El Paso County, and for a decade I controlled its politics. Yes; a political “boss,” if you will have it so, but I never purchased any votes nor juggled any man out of an election after he had won it, as was done in the case of Adolph Krakaner after he had been fairly and honestly elected Mayor of El Paso in April, 1889. ”

“ It is growing late, and when we return to El Paso and reach our rooms it is midnight.
THURSDAY, MAY 13th.
Arose about 6.30 and found the morning clear and warm. There are many wonderful, strange, and unusual things in, around, and about El Paso, but one of the most puzzling and perplexing things is its time. Traveling westward you arrive on Central time and depart on Pacific, a difference of two hours, while in the city they use local time, which is a split between the two. Over the river in Juarez they use Mexican time. ”

“ To get out north of El Paso would take you across the Llano Estacado which in those days was considered a vast treeless plain, unbroken by any topographic changes, and completely devoid of water holes.
The accompanying map, published in 1856 in Yoakum’s History of Texas, shows clearly the political subdivisions and settlements of Texas in those times. A substantial part of the State, from the Panhandle to the upper Rio Grande, appears to be completely uninhabited and, therefore, politically unorganized. ”

“ The valley in which El Paso is situated is from a mile to three miles wide, and nearly forty miles in length, possesses a soil which is extremely productive when well irrigated, yielding excellent crops of wheat in particular, and its climate is remarkably fine, equalling that of Santa Fé and Mexico City. ”

“ The nearest United States troops were at Fort Craig, one hundred and seventy-five miles north of El Paso, but I determined to make the journey. I obtained a horse from Craig and bought another, and secured the services of a Mexican who claimed to be a guide.
We started at 11 p. m. from Juarez. We crossed the river below Concordia and traveled north on the east side of the Organ Mountains, avoiding all roads. When we thought we had reached a point nearly east of Fort Craig, we rode west across the mountains. ”

“ There were usually about a dozen United States army officers at old Fort Bliss, now East El Paso.
The most prominent Mexican citizens in Paso del Norte (now Juarez) were:
Dr. Mariano Samaniego, Inocente Ochoa, José M. Flores, all still residing in Juarez; José M. Uranga, Jefe Politico, dead; Juan N. Zubiran, collector of customs, my partner and friend; and the venerable Ramon Ortiz, who ministered there as curate for fifty years, and died a few years since, beloved of the two races. ”