Tales from the Morgue

TO BEAT DEADBEATS

December 18, 1901

Merchants of the City Get Together For Protection

Tonight in the Chamber of Commerce rooms there is to be a meeting of the retail merchants of the city to form a sort of protective association. The meeting has in view two special objects – a means of informing the members of the proposed organization of the names of those whose trade is undesirable, and the collection at the least cost to the members themselves of bad debts.

It is thought that by circulating among the associated firms a list of those who are found to be systematic “dead-beats,” a safeguard can be thrown around the merchant who suffers from extending too much credit.

“We are, all of us,” said a retail merchant in El Paso street, “subjected to the annoyance and loss of giving credit to well-appearing men who come here holding positions of more or less responsibility. They are, however, of a vicious stripe, and seldom remain long in one place. They have grown to be professionals in getting credit and of disappearing just the time when their accounts will no longer be extended. We want to get at these people, and we want to have them known among the merchants generally, so that they can be held in check when once they are found out. Then, too, by placing our accounts in the hands of one agent, that is, the doubtful ones, we may have them collected at a less cost proportionately, and here again we may know who are professional ‘dead-beats.’ There are, too, other mutual interest of the retail merchants, which can best be furthered from time to time by concerted action and joint effort.”

The association is to be modeled on one recently formed in Roswell for like purposes, and the prime mover in the local scheme is Maurice Simon, an attorney formerly of Roswell, who gave The Times an interview of some length a few days since.

El Paso’s 1st woman mayor takes oath

June 13, 1989

By David Crowder
El Paso Times

Suzie Azar propped open the big double doors to the mayor’s office Monday, creating a rare sight at City Hall.

“I don’t like them closed. It’s lonely in here,” El Paso’s new mayor said.

She had to use boxes to hold the doors open because there were no doorstops – former Mayor Jonathan Rogers never needed them.

Then, in her first official act after being sworn in Monday morning, Azar signed a deed Rogers had refused since February to sign, even after he was sued by City Council and lost. The document sells nearly 11 square miles of Public Service Board land to the state for inclusion in Franklin Mountains State Park.

“Let’s sign it now,” Azar told an assistant city attorney and others. “All of sudden it occurred to me, ‘I’m the mayor; I can sign it.’”

Before the land becomes state property, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission must agree to accept it and pay the city’s cut-rate price of $52.79 an acre - $360,792 in all.

“I’m real pleased. I think she’s getting off on the right foot,” said John Sproul, a member of the El Paso Wilderness Coalition, which has been working on the park issue for a decade.

Azar, the six City Council representatives and six municipal judges were sworn in during inauguration ceremonies Monday.

“El Paso – what a great city,” Azar told 1,000 people at the civic center. “Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be your mayor. It will be an exciting two years. … I hope you’re as excited as I am.”

In the next two years, she said, the city will see a new baseball stadium built, its zoo expanded, the expansion o the city’s bus service, Downtown streets rebuilt, and Doniphan Drive and North loop widened and improved.

The swearing-in of Jay J. Armes as Lower valley representative was greeted by wild applause and cheers from one large section of the audience.

“Well Jay, you finally made it,” District Judge Enrique Pena said before administering the oath of office to Armes, who was elected on is third try for the Lower Valley seat.

Former three-term State Rep. Arves Jones needed little prompting in reciting the oath of office as the new Northeast representative.

“There should be a saying: “The greater the depth of gratitude, the shorter the speech of thanks,’” Jones said. “I will endeavor at all times to justify

Suzie Azar photo gallery