Again, sir [to the Mexican representative], I thank you for the friendly greeting you have brought from across this narrow river that separates us, and to you my fellow-countrymen, I extend my thanks and bid you good-by. [Prolonged cheers.]
[DEMING, NEW MEXICO, APRIL 21.]
As the train crossed the Rio Grande and entered New Mexico Hon. L. Bradford Prince, Governor of that Territory, gave the Chief Magistrate a cordial welcome. Deming was reached at 2 o'clock. The city was in holiday attire; a battery of artillery thundered the presidential salute, two companies of the Tenth Cavalry, under Captain Keyes, came to a present as the President appeared, and the Twenty-fourth Infantry Band burst forth in patriotic strains. The Committee of Reception comprised the following prominent citizens: Judge Boone, C. H. Dane, B. A. Knowles, J. R. Meyers, A. J. Clark, J. P. Bryon, W. H. Hudson, S. M. Ashenfelter, Gustav Wormser, Ed. Pennington, W. Burg, James Martin, Colonel Fitzerell, James A. Lockhart, Seaman Field, John Corbett, E. G. Ross, and Robert Campbell. Professor Hayes delivered the welcoming address.
In reply President Harrison said:
My Fellow-citizens—It gives me great pleasure to tarry for a moment here and to receive out on these broad and sandy plains the same evidence of friendliness that has greeted me in the States. I feel great interest in your people, and thinking that you have labored under a disadvantage by reason of the unsettled state of your land titles—because no country can settle up and become populous while the titles to its land remain insecure—it was my pleasure to urge upon Congress, both in a general and special message, the establishment of a special land court to settle this question once for all. [Cheers.]
I am glad that the statute is now a law, and immediately upon my return from this trip I expect to announce the judges of that court, and to set them immediately to work upon these cases, so that you shall certainly, within two years, have all these questions settled. I hope you will then see an increase of population that has not as yet been possible, and which will tend to develop your great mineral resources and open up your lands to settlement. Thanking you, on behalf of our party, for this pleasant greeting, I bid you good-by. [Cheers.]
[LORDSBURG, NEW MEXICO, APRIL 21.]
At Lordsburg, New Mexico, the train made a brief stop. A number of citizens, headed by Don. H. Kedzee, welcomed the President and presented him a handsome silver box, manufactured from metal mined in the vicinity. On the case was inscribed, "Protect the chief industry of our Territories. Give us free coinage of silver." In accepting the memento the President said: "Mr. Kedzee and gentlemen, I thank you for this cordial welcome and for this elegant souvenir, and assure you due care will be taken of your interests." [Cheers.]