Plans for tlie Reorganization of the Frontier
2 55
be sharpened often. The result was that they wore off at the point and became too short for effective use. Gun stocks cost seven and a half pesos a dozen and were sold to the soldiers at three and a half each, or forty- two pesos a dozen. They were of poor quality and rudely made. Equally indispensable regardless of price to a frontier soldier were the saddles. These were generally brought in Penjamo for twelve pesos and sold for twenty-eight. A pistol that cost in Mexico fifteen pesos sold in Texas for forty. Horses were generally bought in Coahuila and from the missions in San Antonio at eight or ten pesos a head. They were sold to the men at from sixteen to twenty-five. Hats were sold for three and a half pesos each and cost eighteen a dozen. Powder puffs, consisting of a two-inch .sack of downy cloth filled with powdered rice, were still selling for fifty cents and were being consumed in such large quantity by th_e different garrisons that Rubi ordered the number purchasable by each man restricted, with a warning that they should in fact be stricken from the list of supplies. The charge for soap was excessive and outrageous. 1t cost at the rate of fifty-four bars for one peso, each bar weighing one and a half ounces. but they were sold at ten bars for one peso in El Paso, twelve in San Saba and San Antonio. Metal buttons, which cost twelve cents a dozen, sold for fifty. The price of foodstuffs was very high due lo the fact that little or nothing was raised by the soldiers or in the settlements in their vicinity. Corn sold for two and a half to five pesos a fanega ( two bushels) from El Paso to Los Adaes; flour sold at fifty cents a pound at Orcoquisac 'but at three pesos an arroba (twenty-five pounds) in San Antonio. and four at Los Adaes; and beans sold for fifty cents a pound in El Paso but for only one and a half pesos at San Saba. Howe\'cr, the average price was twelve pesos a fanega (one hundred pounds) in San Antonio and Los Adae,. A head of beef sold for ten to twelve pesos, sheep for three to four pesos. A string of red chiles cost from one to three pesos, sugar sold for sixty to seventy-five cents a pound, pilconc-illo (brown sugar loaf) from four to ten for a peso. Rubi remarked that these were purchased in Mexico at the rate of sixty for one peso, although they were eYen cheaper if bought in large quantities. But they sold in Paso at ten for one pao and at four for one peso in San Antonio. Salt sold for fifteen cents a pound. Articles of clothing and luxuries were proportionately high. There appear to have been four kinds of cloth sold: Mitan, Tripe, Queretano, and red woolen. Mitan cost one peso and sold for two; Tripe cost two -pesos and sold for four a vara; Queretano cost one and a half pesos and
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