Page:Face to Face With the Mexicans.djvu/581

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ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES.
575

portunities for knowing the subject thoroughly, Judge Crosby's opinions are entitled to the highest consideration.

He says further: "During my judicial career nobody gave me less trouble than the Mexicans, but I have to confess that I was very often called upon to protect them against sharp, not to say dishonest practices, on the part of the Americans who flocked into that country. The criminal branch of my court was almost exclusively occupied by the trial of offenses committed by lawless men who claimed to be Americans, and the only time I was in danger was when these outlaws tried to assassinate me while holding court. My life was saved through the intervention of Mexicans from both sides of the Rio Grande, who had heard of the conspiracy in time, and, forming a guard around the court-house, kept the scoundrels off."

In a recent letter to the author Judge Crosby says:

"My acquaintance with Mexico and her people dates back to a period of forty years, when, as a sixteen- year-old youth, I served under Jack Hays, the original Texas ranger, at the battle of Monterey. From that period to the present, I have never ceased to interest myself in all that has concerned Mexico and her future. I have made a study of her constitution, her laws; the manners, customs, traits of character, etc., etc., of her people, as well as the characteristics of this most beautiful and virgin portion of the North American Continent. Mexico is certainly the newest and yet the oldest of all North America."

Judge Crosby is at present engaged with some New York capitalists in developing the Corallitos property in Chihuahua, one hundred and fifty miles southwest of El Paso, which comprises 800,000 acres of farming and mining lands, and in which thus far $700,000 have been invested.

I am glad to testify to the fact from personal experience that ladies may with safety and propriety travel on any of the lines of railway throughout the country, getting off at any city or town and inspecting it to their satisfaction. Only this suggestion I would make: at the hotels where you stop procure a guide, who knows all