National Republican., 1881-04-26
THE CACTUS LAND.
ANOTHER LETTER FROM ARIZONA.
The Silver Seetions-Social Life-The EatiTes-Re-
Hgious Superstition-The Monster Mormon
ism-PubIie Lands TO Railroads.
Newspaper Enterprise.
Special Correspondence Of Tae Republican.

clothed in new dress, and the weather topic Is 9
"pat" one with mortals high and low, rich ol
poor, chaste or vulgar. from a tar-heel up to q
Longfellow 1t fills the gap in speech, takes the
place of the nobest thoughts of man, and sets the
timber tongue of woman all a-twitter. Just here
let me remark that the perfection Of weather is
ours, and the vernaI bloom of nature is made joy
ous by the music in the air from feathered song
Esers, gay and happy, triIling, chirping giving a
dancing, swinging melody in the green bowers
and sweeping mesquite boughs, swayed by health
giving breezes, waiting up and down the verdant
banks of the ella. The waving grain-feldS lend a
charm to the landscape along the valley, and the
bright foliage of every shrub, bush and tree give
picturesque outline which divides the low-lands
from the desert plains that form a background to
this beautiful ribbon of rich country, made fruit
full by the waters pouring down from the snow
clad mountains far to the eastward. Could this
atmospheric glory and yernal beauty of spring
time rest upon the banks of the ella through the
coming months of summer we should venture to
reach out our hands to friends at the East and say
come to
THE SILVER LAND OF ARIZONA,
partake of this and bask in the brightness of the
fairest cline known to man. Such weather, my
friends would set every blizzard struck individual
of you into ecstacy, and make you think you had
gotten very near to the celestial regions. and when
q little later in the season, you moved on to Yuma
naughty spirits will hand over this subject for the
digestion of General Hazen and DR.. VennOr and
write myself down an incompetent delineator of
what constitutes aerial refreshments. This is the
season when the noble red man puts in numer-
Gus appearance. Florence is the Pino's Mecca.
Bucks, squaws, and papooses greet us everywhere,
and seem TO enjoy stretching themselves at full
length across our sidewalks as much as "Cufy"
enjoys camp meeting. Our new paper (1ri-0nG
them, and the mysteries of the types and the edi-
torial sanetum cause many curious gesticulations
and grimaces from these children of the desert.
A newspaper has long been needed, and its advent
Is hoped to be signal for general waking up of
this sleepy town. The Saguara Social Club is an
other institution that has broken forth upon the
monotony of the place, in which the little social
element of Florence has centred, and by which a
healthy growth of intelligent and cultivated recre-
alton and entertainment is sought. community
with no other pastime than occasional calls upon
one another, and nothing to converse about but
neighborhood rubbish is anything but agreeable,
and certainly not profitable. We have recently
been having on a small scale some of those relig-
ious scenes which give us a glimpse of what Ste
Tens tells about in Central Amenca.
THE NATIVES ARE
very much alike in all the North and South Ameri-
can States first conquered, then ruled by Spain
and the Pope. All either seemed to desire was
contributions State-craft and prest-craf We're
SO dovetailed together as to work harmoniously as
one machine for the purposes oflevying tribute in
support of an arisCcratic intolerant and dietato-
rial management, founded on overthrown liberty,
cemented by the blood of martyrs to progressive
ideas-Gallileos who pioneer humanity out of the
bondage Of bigotry and superstition into the sun
Light OF Gods liberty of thought and action. Papal
carnivals flushed with picture worship, banners.
professions candles, and gunpowder to fasten the
attention of ignorant dupes while their pockets
are being emptied into the laps of fat priests, |
leagued together under pretended charter of in
fabe right to rule the world, has done for these
people what is to be observed in every country |
where the image rather than the principles and |
reality of the cross have been made the govern |
ing object in religion.
RELIGION WHICH DOES not
elevate and improve mankind, which does not |
harmonic the human with the divine which |
does not lift the souls of out of the depths of
beastly degradation, has little worth or Worthi- |
ness on which to build dignifed conscience, to |
ennobe character or nberate the inner thoughts |
to reach out toward the source of light. life and /
eternity. Slavery, whether of soul or body, so |
thoroughly represses the better nature as to make
it insipid and groveling This has a fresh exem-
plihcation in the modern growth of Normonism
cancer 1t is spreading out from its local centre at
Salt Lake City, like great plague into all of the
adJolnlng Territories which are fast becoming
contaminated with the loathsome immortality in
herent IN 1t. Sound craftsmanship demands that
THIS MONSTER BE CRUSHED
before II shall hiss venomous defiance at the Gov
eminent and civilization through the riffs of its
mountain fastnesSes, and require the marshaling
of armies to extirpate this hydra headed monster
n barh riS =l-a
lies woman, debases man, and finds succor in ig-
nerance. 1t is full of priest-craft and an organ
lied institution Of Self-ordained church and state
and opposed to everything but ITSELF regardless of
the best interests of mankind, in that it seeks to
control the consciences, labor, and purses of the
people, and by the devices of its schools aims to
educate only TO that extent to produce faithful
contributions to the one institution. With the in
fux of population better order of society is
looked for than now exists, and the affairs of the
Territory will no doubt gravitate to greater sta
bility and integrity in all matters conducive to
the welfare of the honest and peaceably disposed
citizen. We and the public generally are anx-
1ously looking for "a new register of the land
office. On the 18th of October last the one who
filed that important Office was
SUSPENDED BY THE PRESIDENTS ORDER
on account of misdemeanors involving grave ir-
regularities and illegal practices During these
N@
mineral lands had to stand according to the terms
of the law, suspended. That statesman who de-
Vlsed the law to so link the duties of register and
receiver Of public moneys as to stop all the busi-
ness OF district land Office when either one of
these officers, from any cause, leaves the office
should be entitled to premium for abSurdity
Suppose all the Departments and various offices of
the Government had similar laws governing them?
in that event nothing but class would exist Nv
in hiC
nine months conyinces me of the great importance
of the district land Office to the settler and miner
and how embarrassing it is to people coming into
the country TO be put off in the consideration of
their applications for public lands. The whole
land office machine needs to be remodeled. and I,
the various laws providing for the disposition of
the lands ofthe public domain need simplifying | .
and rendered more uniform in their provisions
The district Offices should have a different man. |
agement, the officers differently paid, and the in
Interchangeable terms-fees and commissions-upon :.
which the local officers pay is based
SHOULD BE LoPPED OFF
The District Office bears the same relation to the
General Land Office that the Office of an Assistant
Treasurer does to that of the Treasurer of the
bnited States. Each district Office should there
fore have but one head-an assistant commits
as many deputies as the business
Of the Office required. Assistant commissioners
0u +i's'S LAW o1ApiIlSs HllAOuI ices or COM /
missions, and then there would be no friction in
he management and no division of opinion such :
Is IS ever liable to occur under the absurd dual "
now established. / desire while on /.
he subject of land Offices and public land, to in
Eite the attention of the people of the United States
o one ofthe abuses growing out of the donating of
PUBLIC LANDS TO RAILROADS
md other corporations. There is no doubt but that
n certain instances grants made to corporations
or prospective enterprises have stimulated large
developments of the country and greatly facili- c
hted immigration and trade. Bat failure to b
comply with the terms of a grant may operate in a