The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-11-23
LrwHRAruRn.
BEvIEw or VIEW oOKS.

n
around the world by man of quick intelli-
gence and scientific training, who had some
ihinq more than the usual incentives and
something more than the usual attainments of
travellers who journey for the purpose of
making books about their adventures. Pro-
fsssor Pumpelly was first employed as mining
engineer in Arizona, and he was afterwards
engaged by the Japanese and subsequently
by the Chinese government to survey their
mining fields, and, if practicable, to intro
duce the improved modern SYSTEM of mining.
He was thus, in the legitimate pursuit of his
profession, led across one of the least known
regions of the United States, through Japan,
China, Siberia, and Russia, with unusual op-
portunities and facilities for becoming ac-
quainted with the manners, customs, and
character of the people of the countries he
travelled through and for visiting places
commonly inaccessible. He has the rafe
faculty of looking at things with unpreju-
diced eyes and judging them with impair
tiality, and his opinions on various subjects
connected with the civilization in Japan and
China and the future prospects of those coun-
tries have decided value. Professor Pun
pelly's style is eminently readable, and he
has produced one of the most interesting and
valuable books of travel that has been pub
hshed for a long time.
Arizona during Professor Pumpellys So
journ there in 1860 was anything but de-
ightful place of residence, and the account
of the efforts to operate the Santa Rita silver
mines is o narrative of continual warfare with
the Apache Indians and with the even more
savage white outlaws who inhabit the from
tier. The social condition of this section is
thus summed up
The social condition of Arizona from 1857
till 1862, and later, was one which could not
fail to furnish much food for thought to even
q superficial observer. When the country
came into the possession of the United States,
it was almost entirely depopulated, excepting
the Indian tribes. After the conclusion of
the Gadsden treaty it was entered by Colonel
G. d. Poston with a party Of explorers, and
soon gained reputation as q silver district
from the high assays of ores discovered by
that party. considerable number of com
panies were soon formed to work mines in
various parts of the country. In addition to
the people sent out to work in different capa-
cities at the mines, an American population,
both floating and settled, was soon formed,
mostly from the Southern States, and of men
nnaccompanied by families
Many of these were old frontiersmen, many
more were refugees from the slackly admins
tered Justice of Texas, New Mexico, and
California; and when the vigilance committee
cleared San Francisco of its worst social ele-
ments, q large number of ruffians and gam
blers expelled from the city made their home
in Arizona. In addition to this there flowed
into the country many thousands of Mexicans,
who had formed the most degraded class in
land where social morality was, in every re-
spect, at its lowest ebb.
There was hardly pretense at a civil orga-
nization; law was unknown, and the nearest
court was several hundred miles distant in
New Mexico. Indeed, every man took the
law into his own hands, and the life of a
neighbor was valued in the inverse ratio of
the impunity with which it could be taken
Thus public opinion became the only code
of laws, and citizens popularity the measure
of his safety. And popularity, in society
composed, to great extent, of men guilty
of murder and of every crime, was not likely
to attach to the better class of citizens The
immediate result of the existing condition of
public opinion was to blunt all ideas of
right and wrong in the minds of new
comers who, suddenly freed from the legal
and social restraints of the East soon learned
to Justify the taking of life by the most
trihing pretexts, or even to commit it for the
sake of bravado. Murder was the order of
the day among total white and peon popula-
tion of few thousand souls it was daily
committed by Americans upon Americans,
Mexicans, and Indians; by Mexicans upon
Americans; and the hand of the Apache was,
not without much reason, against both of the
intruding races. The treachery of Mexican
workmen went to such an extent that be-
lieve there was hardly mine in the country
at which the manager, or in several instances
all the white employees, had not been at some
time assassinated by their poems for the sake
of plumber.
Such has been the condition of society in
part of our country within the past ten years.
and it existed without the influence OF actual
war. It is true that state of things more or
less resembling that have tried to sketch is
Incidental to the early history of many from
tier districts, but it can hardly be said to have
augured well for the future of region in
which it was claimed that an enduring civili-
zation was springing up on the ruins of the
Jesuit efforts, which were really far more sue
cessful.
That the region in question has future
that is both bright and near, there can,
think, be little doubt. It's prospects are
dependent on the development of mineral
industry and the occupations subservient
thereto. My own observations have convinced
me that Arizona contains many rich de-
posts of silver, copper and lead, and pro-
badly of gold also; but to work these profit
ably will require, in most, if not in all in
stances, the overcoming of peculiar obstacles
that now exist. Without at present touching
upon the Indian question, the first essential
to success is an improvement in the means of