246 Beyond tin .SV/va-s. 



wliich you see out there toward the horizon. It is as easy to say forty miles 

 a8 ten. Neverlhelcs.*, you do see with Hniazmg distinctness to an amazing 

 distance. Beyond, <>n our right, for inst«nce, at tliis little station on the 

 plateau, is old Sierra Blanca. If the train would stop for a half or three- 

 quartersof an hour (and you consult willi the conductor abtut that matter), 

 you could walk over to the foot of Blanca and touch him. You could look 

 up his shining front and say, "Hello! old fellow, how long have you been 

 here ?" But the train is going to pull out in live minutes, and so you do not 

 go. Presently the question is, " How 'ar is it to Blanca, anyhow ?"' Some 

 guess a mile and a-half; .some, distrustinij iheir senses, say three miles, or 

 four miles. You ask the natives on the platform, and they tell you the 

 thing that is not. But the honest and straightforward Capt. W. J. Maltby. 

 of Baird, who knows about these things, siiys it is fourteen mUfS. Still, to al 

 seeming, Blanca stands ju.-^t out there. Y'ou could go in half an hour and 

 salute his great toe. Farewell. Blanca, perhaps forever! 



After Fort Worth, the ne.xt formal stage (what the old Greeks called a 

 stalhmas) for the excursionists was El Paso, Texas. Look at its jilace on the 

 Tiiap. For a good reason, those discerning old Spaniards called it The Pass. 

 Here is the Bio Grande; and yonder, to the north, only a few miles away, is 

 the bold and gigantic heel of the Rocky Mountains. Through here you 

 must pas.s if you would go to the sundown. The railroads have found it so. 

 They also Tiiust traverse this notch 'twixt river and mountain if they wouKl 

 find their way to the west. So I believe the city of El Paso is wi-sely 

 planted. It appeared to me to be a good place for establishing an enterpris- 

 ing population of some hundreds of thousands of people. I did not inquire 

 into the census, but I suppo.se that ten or fifteen thousand have already 

 gathered here: and there is the hum of business. Here we stopped for half 

 a day. Very courteous attentions were given to the Society by the authori- 

 ties of the city. We were escorted to the hotels, and shown the principal 

 objects of interest as soon as practicable. Many of the company made for 

 the bridge of the Rio Grande, and most of them were for the first time on 

 the soil of a foreign people. This is Mexico; that is the Rio Grande, a 

 broad, flat stream, skimming along over sand-bars, with low banks, or no 

 banks at all ; and beyond, and just before, is the low Mexican town of Paso del 

 Norte. A strange sight to the thrifty, blustering American is this quaint, 

 half-silent, sunshiny place, with its adobe houses and musical eihoes of the 

 Spanish tongue in its streets. 1 have been surprised to note how soon the 

 general tone and rhythm of a foreign language will fix themselves in the ear 

 of a stranger. One needs only hear the natives of a foreign city speak their 

 own language for a single hour, an<l the sound thereof will remain with him 

 forever, like a voice in the tree-tops. 



Not a little amusing was it to see the manner in which the good Mexi- 

 cans of Paso del Norte had pl.-inned to entertain us. We were horticulturists, 

 you know — men and women of the garden and orchard. What, forsooth, 

 should the del Norte people do for us to please and instruct our company ? 



