Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 April 1894 — The Streets of the Town Burned Up. [ARTICLE]

The Streets of the Town Burned Up.

“It is not often a man is a witness to burning streets in a town, but I had that pleasure a few days agp,” said G. W. Douglass, of El Paso. “The citizens of the village of Las Cruces, N. M., are in the habit of grading their streets with the accumulations of barnyards. They bad done this till the Sand, dust and manure had become thoroughly mixed, the manure predominating. It seldom rains in that part of the country, and the manure was dry as powder. From some cause it eaught fire in the western part of the village, just as one of New Mexico's typical sand storms was rising. The wind soon became a strong gale, and the fire spread rapidly. In less than twenty minutes the whirling wind had carried the fire into all parts of the main streets, which had been graded with stable stuff. Dense clouds of smoke rolled over the buildings and out on the plains. The whole heavens were darkened, and it was a grand sight to see the great columns of smoke, flie, sand and dust surging, whirling, and darting away toward the mountains. Had the town not been built of mud it would certainly have been destroyed. The storm swept the streets of all barnyard grading material, and the Las Cruces villagers will have to regrade as material accumulates. ’’—St. Louis Globe-Demo-crat.