MORE
LETTERS FROM UNCLE TOMMY BARKLOW - PART 1
Down Into Old
Mexico He Goes to See the City of Tia Juana [sic;Tijuana]
605 Walnut
Avenue, Long Beach, California - February 4, 1925 –
Dear American: My last letter was written January 28th,
from the Coronado hotel. In this letter I shall give you
something from TiaJuana, Mexico, the city we hear and read
so much about. It is situated a short distance south of the
California line, about a half a mile. The government has
officers stationed at the line and they inspect every car
that crosses the line. One is not allowed to carry any arms
with them into Mexico. They examine every car that returns
over the line. They ask if you have purchased any
merchandise, and if so they find out what you have. No one
is allowed to take any spirits of any kind from the south
and all know that TiaJuana is a whiskey and gambling and
horse racing town.
During our stay there I did not see a
single drunken person, in spite of the fact that they have
barrels of whiskey, rum, brandy, and beer standing right
before your eyes and one can drink all he wants, provided he
does not get top-heavy. The government is strict and allows
no foolishness. The U.S. Custom house and the Mexican Custom
house are quite close together, and they are looking after
things quite closely.
There is a monument erected between the United States and
Mexico at Tia Juana.
Also a railway station for the Arizona and San Diego Railway Co.
There is a hotel called the St. Francis, and a place called Monte Carlo.
There are some good buildings in TiaJuana, and the new Federal building is a
large structure. It is quite a thing to have flags on the
buildings, the Federal building having five on it. I did not
learn the cause.
The Fuerte Fort is a large structure, built of brick.
We were in two of the large curio shops. They have all kinds of
fancy work of their own people
One very dull feature was the fact that there was but one
school house, at least that is all we could see, and they
sure needed more.
The Foreign Club building was three combined by archways over the front of each.
The entire
business district was destroyed by a fire December of 1921,
but has been pretty well re-built.
The grand stand and club
house is a very important feature in the estimation of the
people and the race track where they have their races every
afternoon at 2:00 p.m., as we were informed. But believe me,
it is not worth while to spend much time or money to go see
TiaJuana, Mexico.
The Mission Cliff garden is quite interesting and also
the caves at Sunset Cliffs.
The Mission Beach is at no
distant day going to be great resort for rest and pleasure.
The swimming pool covers over three acres of ground and as
Spreckles is going to spend two and a half million dollars
there it will be a place of more than ordinary attraction.
All these places are located just a short distance from San
Diego.
I write so many private letters that it is hard to
remember what I have told to the people through your
columns, but suffice it to say that it is very much like the
spider and the fly. Many curious things to show when you are
here and it all costs money to visit them. If you can come
and see for yourselves.
Uncle Tom
