Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 169, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 July 1916 — FIRST LETTER FROM THE MEXICAN BORDER [ARTICLE]

FIRST LETTER FROM THE MEXICAN BORDER

Major Healey Writes of the Trip of Company M and of Conditions At Mercedes, Texas. Llano Grande, Mercedes, Tex., July 12, 1916. The Republican: If it was not raining and the old settlers say it had not rained for 14 months until a week ago, I might be able to say that we had as pretty and healthful a camp site as was ever provided for soldiers in the field .with war or near-war conditions. But it is raining, has been raining since noon Tuesday, the day’of our arrival, and it may rain for a month or more tdmost unceasingly. From my tent I view the most desplicable camping conditions almost that one could imagine. The streets are a sea of mud and in the absence of adequate tentage or almost any at all, the soldiers have their little pup tents pitched and are making the best of it. Our arrival was premature in two or three respects. The tentage was not here, the water mains were not completed, and the ice supply was not arranged for. The commissary, however, has kept us amply supplied and there is no grumbling. Khaki-clad soldiers in ponchos are digging ditches to drain off the water and if it ever stops raining so that some system can be established our camp, which is in a grove of mesquite trees, will be a beautiful one. We are told by Texas residents of this part that our location is the most ideal in the state. The ground is high, there is a breeze from the gulf, 30 miles east, and the surrounding country is populated with many thrifty northerners. It is an irrigated trucking 'secHoh is worth or held at S2OO to $250 per acre. The soil is a sandy loam and is covered with mesquite grass, which resembles our blue grass except that it runs along the ground. The small bushes are called mesquite brush and the native are mesquite trees. Mesquite is pronounced “muskeet.” Our railroad station is called Llano Grande, pronounced Yonna Granda. It is about 2% or 3 miles from Mercedes, which is pronounced “Mer-say-dis,” with the pronounciation fairly strong on the “say.” The latter s is the nearest postoffice and unless later orders are issued all mail will be sent to that point. Our trip from Ft. Benjamin Harrison was without notable incident. From East St. Louis we went over the Iron Mountain railroad to the river crossing point at Illmo, north of Cairo. We had dinner last Saturday at about 4 o’clock in the afternoon at Campbell, Mo., on the Cottonbelt railroad. A gentleman approached me there and asked if we happened to be from near Monon. He proved to be T. C. Clayton, a brother of Dr. Clayton, of Monon, and uncle of Mrs. Firman Thompson, of Rensselaer. He is the agent of the Frisco railroad company at Campbell. We had our Sunday breakfast at Texarkana, Tex., having traveled all night in Arkansas. Cottonfields and oleanders began to show up and many fields of com almost past the frost stage. As far back as Campbell, Mo., we had home grown roasting ears and “snap beans” to eat. Ripe watermelons showed up at Texarkana and when we reached Tyler, where we had dinner Sunday at about 4 p. fn., watermelons, fine large ones, sold for 10 cents each. Especially were the citizens ordial at Tyler. Automobiles Were furnished ’free to all who cared to take rides. Our next stop was made at about 10 o’clock Sunday night. The train pulled up alongside Lake Axtell, about 15 miles out from Waco, where the soldiers bathed. About 200 were in the lake at one time. We left the Cotton Belt roan at Waco and came as far as Linton on the San Antonin and Arkansas Pass, called the Soap railroad. We then took passage on the, St. L., B. & M. road. Real tropical conditions began to evidence themselves some 100 miles up state,, when palms, Spanish moss, mesquite growths, etc., began to show up. Another unmistakealble indication that. we were nearing Mexico was the great number of Mexicans. Their habitats were wretched abodes that would make poor woodsheds for Hoosiers or white people any place. Even the huts of the typical negro families are much better than the homes of the Mexicans. Another evidence of the fact that we were nearing the border was the number of Texas rangers, big, cow-boy typed fellows with their pis-, tols, cartridge belts, fancy boots, broad brimmed hats, etc. They are mighty nice fellows and work along with soldiers in a very nice manner. Some have been assigned to troops as guides and scouts. Some are easterners who enjoy the cow-boy life. They ’ hold no courts for Mexicans who

make a crooked move. We are only 5% miles from the Rio Grande. The country is occupied largely by Mexican laborers, who get 75 cents per day. Boys 15 or 16 years old get the same wages as men. They are employed in clearing the land for the occupation of troops. They are not trusted but they are not allowed to carry arms and have no manner of communicating with the Mexicans across the river. They live almost altogether on tortilias, a com-bread patty, and on mesquite beans, which grow on the mesquite trees. It is said they live well on 10 cents per day but if you undertake to board them it will cost you $1 per day to do it, for they eat like gourmands when they have a chance. Mercedes has a population o's about 1,200 people. It is somewhat of a boom town, having been started along with the irrigation project. The residences of the white people are largely of the bungalow type, with an occasional mansion of Spanish type. The latter residences are surrounded with palms of various sizes and shapes, while oleander trees, white and pink blossomed, are grown in locations rp make the parking most attractive. We saw oranges, bananas and dates all growing at Mercedes. Cora, some ripe and the stalks as dry as they get in November, and other corn knee high, we saw along the tracks. This is the green bean, lettuce and onion trucking section of Texas, and an accommodating resident informs me that green bean growers last year made as high as S6OO per acre. This year they are growing a great amount of sugar cane, claiming so raise three times as much as can be grown in the cane section of Louisiana. Don P. Warren, who was my ser-geant-major, has been detailed as brigade sergeant major, which *s a big boost for him. The detail is ex-pected-to be permanent. He will receive $65 per month. Earl Chamberlin, who taught school in Rensselaer .last year, is a member of the Monticello company. He has been detailed to me as Orderly. John Robinson is a horse orderly. I There are so many things I might write about that I hardly find a good quitting place. But Ido not want to

tire my readers. One or two more things about our trip and I will be ready to close. Near Waco we passed through a peach orchard of 100,000 acres. Starting north of Kingsville and extending some distance this side we run through the ranch of Mrs. R. M. King, who is 83 years of age. The ranch contains about a million and a half acres. Mrs. King’s home cost $500,000. The general offices of the St. L., B. & M. railroad arc there and the Casa Grande hotel. Magnificent court and school buildings are in each town. Sinton is on the 100,000 acre ranch of Charles P. Taft. It is a boom town with a business district far in excess off its population and covering enough ground to be a 15,000 city, but having actually only about one thousand. It is now noon and Still raining. An old resident told me this morning that is was going to clear up. I’m hoping he knows. MAJ. GEORGE H. HEALEY. P. S. Address all mail to 162nd Indiana Militia, Mercedes, Tex., giving the name of the soldier and the letter of his company. I am entertaining for noon mess, coffee, bacon and bread, "beans, potatoes and biscuit, two Texas ’angers, A. J. Summers and J. J. Busby, who are detailed as scouts with General Parker, and who have been mighty

cordial to us.

G. H. H.