Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 90.djvu/699

 "BuUet-Proof Rooms, Two Dollars per Day'*

��For one dollar extra you can sleep in peace in this hotel on the^Mexican border

���The rooms in the bullet-proof portion of the hotel have thick reinforced walls of adobe, the Mexican unbumt, sun-dried brick, while the other portion is of frame construction

��HOTEL NAOO

��NA<-0. ARIZON

��A HOTEL in Naco, Arizona, advertises its ability to protect its guests from "stray" bullets from across the Mex- ican border with the same pride that the boniface of a t\venty-stor>' hostelry in a big city calls attention to his high-speed elevator service. The proprietor of this hotel advertises his "bullet-proof rooms" on the writing paper of his establishment and he is pre- pared to back up his guarantee. Chipped places in the adobe walls of his building give evidence of bullets which have lodged in but have been unable to pene- trate the structure.

Naco is a border town. Half of it is within the United States and the other in the State of Sonora, Mexico. One pitched battle and several lesser engage- ments have occurred during the past few years when revolutionist forces have at- tacked the Mexican portion of the town. Many bullets which failed to take effect on its citizens or their adobe houses found their way across the line and lodged in the hornes of Americans. The houses on the United States side of the town are mostly of frame construction and more than one of the steel- jacketed bullets penetrated their frail walls and injured the residents.

Naco's one and onlv hotel is a two-

��Bullets taken out of the proof rooms, which they

��Story structure of barn-like architecture. One half of it, that closest to the Mexican line, is of frame construction, but the main portion is built of adobe and has thick walls of sun-baked mud that are nearly as hard as brick. A bullet may penetrate the frame portion but the adobe walls form

an impassable barrier.

Rooms in the adobe portion have been in de- mand whenever trouble has been impending across the border. Not only transients patronize them but also residents of the town whose homes are not bullet-proof.

���adobe walls of the bullet- were unable to penetrate

��Taking Portraits against a Background of Soap Bubbles

PROFESSOR Boys, of England, experimenting with bubbles, obtained some very large ones, which in the sun- shine changed colors so beautifully that he conceived the idea of using them as backgrounds for photographs.

The large bubbles were blown with an ordinary bellows. The soap solution was heated and a large-mouthed funnel was dipped into it. The bellows, connected with the funnel, was then worked very gently. Bubbles with as great a circum- ference as two and a half feet were easily obtained.

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