In 1881, the railroads came to the dusty West Texas town of El Paso bringing drummers, lawmen, gunmen, gamblers, ladies of the evening, miners, and untold others. They did not all have horses or buggies and the town fathers soon recognized the need for a mule-powered streetcar system. This is the story of how those mule cars carried the colorful characters of El Paso around town and across the Rio Grande to Mexico. It is also the story of the spoiled town pet, Mandy the Mule, and the remarkable survival of the car Mandy pulled, No.1. The author takes extraordinary care to separate popular legend from documentable evidence.

The story of early day mass transit would not be complete without the sad tale of Tobin Place and its railroad after the turn of the century as well as the intriguing tale of the much anticipated, but little used, plush electric interurban to Ysleta.