The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1885-03-04

COlOrauO air WIN Jne SmOOtnneSS OF
the air of southern seas. In the first
instance felt that it must be an excep-
tional experience; in the second, be-
gan to credit it to the country. "Once,
twice, and the third time proves" is
an old saying; for the third time now l
have found the Arizona deserts beauti-
full of color, with air delicious to
breathe, no dust, no parch, no thirst.
If the African Bedouin inhales such
draughts as these, looks on such splen-
doris in his skies, no wonder he is daunt-
less, tireless, terrible. He is to be en-
We'd his life. Securing swiftly across such
plains, lying low on the back of horse
to whom he is welded with almost the
love he would give woman, the man
may well break lances with the best and
bravest for such freedom.
The Arizona mountain ranges, as
seen from the railway, are like the Dol
omite Mountains in Italy. Their
needle-like points are not quite so
sharp or slender, but the shapes are
similar, and the myriad tints of pink,
orange, violet, rose color and white are
the same. BY these alone it may be
known that the atmosphere is mysteri-
ously charged with electric forces, and
shifting conditions of moisture and
dryness. These last create at the base
of the Arizona ranges what the Dolo-
mite foothills and plains never show
a constant play of mirage effects, whose
shadowy phantasms are sometimes so
substantial in shape, so clear cut in
outline, that the mind refuses to be-
lieve them unreal. The first time l
saw them they were cities, domes,
minarets, turrets, long lines of COM
pact buildings; there they lay, at base
of the rainbow-tinted mountains, SEEM
ingly only few miles off. Yet the
strip of plain on which they floated was
sixty miles away, and even as we
passed, the cities melted into air.
The second time l saw them they were
fantastic, hobgoblin shapes; very
Walpurgis night of revelry seemed
going On-animals, men, fiends and
angels, all wildly leaping, embracing,
rushing across the plain, sailing in the
sky. 1t was not beautiful, it was
grand. The last time the imagery was
purely Oriental Feathery palms were
waving on the shores of cleaning seas !;
the violet and rosy peaks beyond
seemed stately obelisks and pyramids
bathed in sunlit lights streaming across
the golden waters.
Just as the palms and shining seas
were beginning to fade in the late af-
ternoon light, the door of the car
opened and a man came in, bearing in
his arms a large basket of oranges.
" Los Angeles oranges This years
orangesI" he cried. To the expert
enced the cry was not alluring, for this
years oranges are never ripe nor good
it must always be last years orange
that you eat. However golden and
tempting it may look, it is sour, if it is
less than year old. But by no means
the sole end of the orange is the being
eaten. 1t is a feast for the eye no less
than for the palate, and the eye has
much the best of the enjoyment, since
one can eat oranges only by the dozen OF
score, but one can see them by the
thousands; yes, and by the tens OF
thousands; nay, millions, if he winters
in Los Angeles. Never will he find one
however, which will look to him quite
so fair, so ravishingly golden, as the
first ones which thus greet him in the
cars toward the end of his day in the
Arizona desert. Next day, at noon, a
the Los Angeles station, he will be be
set by vendors of them; boys in the
car, men with carts outside, old wo
men with dilapidated baskets full
Oranges Oranges Los Angeles
oranges!" 1t is positive din of orangs
On this day, the 9th of December
of the year of our Lord 1884, as | 81
with my window open, small Woo
fire blazing on my hearth, great gloss,
green boughs laden with oranges, clus
tiers of orange-colored persimmons
lunches of geraniums, roses, marguer
ties, cupatoriums, passion flowers, hello
trope, callas, on my walls and tables,
am reading shivering list of tempera
lures more or less below zero, all tn
way from New England to Colorado
railways blocked by SHOWS, mountain
passes closed, trains abandoned, mel
found frozen dead. / lay down m
newspaper, and pick up De Amici
again, and, reading what he writes o
his memories of Seville, sigh, sayin
to myself, Thus shall | ever recall Lo
Angeles: 4" AT times the image of tina
city passes before my eyes without m
mind being able to grasp it at all.
, see it in smelling an orange with m
eyes closed, or in taking the air at Gel
tain hours of the day at garden gate.