Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1883-04-05
line, it would run into the City of Mex
leo without any trouble.

line, it would run into the City of Mex
leo without any trouble.
After crossing the mountain the road
runs along the valleys Of the Canadian
and Rio Grande rivers. On the latter
river we saw some farms (patches, we
would call them, } that will average, I
suppose. six acres each. They are culti-
waited by Spaniards, who live in misera-
bic little adobe or mud houses. The
ground Is irrigated from the river. BY
means of this process the farmers" are
enabled to produce carrots, beans and
potatoes enough to sustain life. Take
away the river and it is a first-class
desert. I don't believe that a white
man could live there at all as it Is. In
many places the ground is covered for
miles with alkali, and makes it look as
though a slight snow had fallen.
The plains we passed through in this
Territory were dry, sandy, aud washed
in deep guliies in many places. One
of the conductors told me that they
had two light rains in February, and
the Mexicans were nearly scared to
death-thought the world was coming
to an end-as such thing was never
known before at that season of the
year. In July and August they have
floods of rain. 1t is said that rou can
stand on some of the mountains and
see q cloud burst in the valley. 1t
don't rain-it is already there. A gen.
tleman told me he had seen forty miles
of railroad washed away in an hours
rain; and don't doubt it, for the track
is laid on the sand. Another conduc-
tor told this about the floods: He said
he had seen a barrel with both ends
knocked out thrown down, and it would
rain in the bunghole faster than it could
run out at the ends. / don't know how
true this is, but from the looks of the
country it rains hard sometimes.
All the way through New Mexico it
is about the same kind of looking coun-
try. Idon't think we were out of sight
of a mounta at any time; and when
the mountains looked to be six or eight
miles off. persons who knew would tell
US they were forty or sixty miles away.
Most of them looked like mass of Gin
der or dark-colored rock, with nothing
at all growing on them; while many of
them were covered with snow. We
saw q few cattle, thousands Of prairie
kaxx
were about all the living things visi-
BILE. The principal towns on the road
are Las Vegas, Albuquerque, socorro,
and Deming. At the last named place
We took the 3. T. r. r.
ARIZONA.
/ thought we had been passing
through barren and desolate region;
but when we struck Arizona 1 gave it
up-'it takes the cake" For miles
yes, I will say hundreds Of miles-yeu
can see nothing but dry, sandy plains,
with few sage brush and cactus; some
Of the latter grow to tremendous size.
1 saw some, think, 80 feet high and
Is inches in diameter. II a person gets
near enough to one of these cactus
plants to take q close look at it, the
thorns will catch him; and it can prick
harder-and there is more of it-than
anything / have yet struck. 1 speak
from experience. / tried to cut small
one for a cane, and know all about it.
But few prickly pears grow there: it
is too poor. sandy and dry for them. /
saw hundreds of acres that just looked
like brick yard that had been cleared
and fresh sand put on. I suppose it
gets terrible hot, for the houses have
double roofs-one about three feet
above the other.
Yuma is said to be the hottest place
the Colorado river-which is the divid
ing line between Arizona and Cali
fornia. A young man in the town
told me the following yarn about the
military post at Yuma, and in the
company of soldiers there were to two
fellows who were terribly wicked
much worse than t1e rest. One of
them got killed, or died. A few nights
after his chum met him on the street,
and hailed him: "Why. Dick, thought
you were in HE'LL" well" replied the
other 81 was; but it is SO much colder
there than here, I came back after my
blankets"
At Gasconade, an Indian town, we
were stopped some time. The men,
women and children all came around
the train; many of the squaws had
their papooses strapped on their backs.
The principal towns in Arizona that
we passed through were Benson, Tue
son and Yuma. From the last men
toned place we crossed the river into