Sept. 16, 1916
My Dear Little Sister: -
Last night I was in the Sheldon Hotel, the one in which Mother and I put up at when we were here before. I went all over the city, the Jap section, the Mexican section, and the swell section, on the whole it has not changed much from the condition it was in when I was here before. They have beautiful Spanish girls here. Concrete is used extensively around here; all the rich people's houses are made of it and even their large bldgs are made of it. The El Paso building, about 15 stories high is made of reinforced concrete. Many other things are much more modern than those we have in Toledo.
I looked up Aunt Mayme's brother while uptown, but the fire house to which he is capt was so far that I did not get a chance to go out and see him, will do that when I have more time.
Tomorrow (Sunday) three of the fellows from Troop D. Toledo, and myself are going to climb to the top of the mountains which are only three miles from here. I have about forty good friends who belong to Troop D.
Yesterday morning, when they relieved the guards who are posted along the Rio Grande they found one of them lying behind a shed with a long dagger through his heart. One of the fellows from Troop D., who is full of fun, wrote home to this parents the other day and said, "Just think, we have been here nearly tooo weeks and none of our fellows have been killed or wounded yet."
There is a fine Mexican blanket up at the city, that I have had put away for me until I get some money. They only want for it "Tres Pesos y circumenta centavos" - Ha, Ha, very cheap.
We have our camp fixed up dandy now some of the fellows have flower gardens of cactus made across the fronts of their tents.
There is a little Mexican boot-black, who comes around here about three hours a day and with his help I am getting so I can talk Spanish enough to carry on a fairly good conversation. If we are here very long I shall take up Spanish when I get back to school as I will be able to get a good start while here.
Enclosed are some un peso (one dollar) bills issued by Villa (pronounced veal'ya). Keep one for yourself and give one to Dad.
With love to All
Your Brother
Howard
Am feeling fine and having a fine time
Not exactly the most charming picture, but the above photo from the El Paso Public Library gives us a view from the Sheldon bathroom of an El Paso streetcar, looking up N. Oregon St. I'm unsure of whether this would have been a private or shared bath, or if it would have been common or considered luxurious at the time to have a bathroom like this in the hotel. A brief Google search on "history of the bathroom" took me way too far down a rabbit hole I didn't want to be in.
I was really hoping to find more about Aunt Mayme and the fire captain, but my ancestry search brought me very little. Howard did have an Aunt Mary (his dad's sister), so I assume he was referring to her brother-in-law. She was married to John Esselbaugh, who could have had a brother according to census records, but I couldn't find any reference to a Captain Esselbaugh in El Paso at the time. None of Howard's uncles had a wife named Mayme or Mary that I could find.
I got so caught up in the ancestry search that I didn't really have any more energy to do additional historical research on Pancho Villa (or "Veal-ya"). That will have to do for another time. I have a feeling that there will be plenty of hot El Paso days to talk about that. In the meantime, I'll leave you with a view Howard may have had from his hike up the mountain with his buddies from Troop D (courtesy of the El Paso Public Library).
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