Daily Tombstone epitaph., 1886-03-20
ARIZONA AT FIRST SIGHT.
Err 'neous lmpre,si s-ain'd by
 through Traveller

through Traveller.
 The following impres ,ions of Arlzoni, as seen from railway Car, are published by Geo. w. Peck. in his well-known paper, Peck's Sun. They show what false impression of Arizona is gained by the traveller, who simply passes through this territory, on one of our overland lines. U Unfortunately, both of theselines traverse some of the most barren and uninviting sections of Arizona. The traveller, who fails to visit our large and fertile valleys, can know nothing, except from hearsay, of our fields of waving barley and corn, our pastures, knee deep in alfalfa; our orchards of heavily burdened fruit trees and our browsing herds of rolling fat stock. Such an article as the following, read by eastern people, without these words of explanation, is calculated to do Arizona much harm.
 In passing through Arizona the air began to feel like summer and windows were raised. But what country it IS. can stand joke swell as anybody, but I think if somebody was to deed me about thousand square miles from the portiono of Arizona and California that the train has passed through the last two days, and found it out, and knew who it was that played such a dirty trick on me, believe, as peacefula man as l am that would hunt that man up and ask him to take it back; and if he refused to do SO, would kill him in cold blood. It would be an awful thing to saw any very large quantity of that land off onto man who never did anything criminal. o, it is entirely impossible to describe the country. It is not land at all. It is worse than desert. It is sand and stones, and not good sand and stone, either. That part of the country is the result of some violent convulsion of na- ture. For hundreds of miles there is no green thing, no live animal or bird, Once in a hundred miles crow or two would be seen, but there was nothing that self-respecting crow could eat l felt as though wanted to take those crows and tell them of land where they could get something to eat everyday in the year, wanted to tell them of farms l knew of in Wisconsin, where the corn few good crows could steal from the pigs would be bonanza greater than the entire product of million acres in A. T Egad, would like to take few Arizona crows to Wisconsin and hire then boarded all winter at McDowell's ol Hinkley's farms, in Waukesha county just for charity to deserving crows There are places where the whole coun try for miles, for hundreds of miles, fol all I know, is covered with lava iron extinct volcanoes. One volcano passed to-day, was as black as though it qui flowing lava yesterday, ,.and for miles al round the black lava looks as though i
 had just cooled off. And the alleged soil looks as though it might be ashes such as Vesuvius poured down ol Pompei. From the discoveries of an cient cities, that have been found in Ari
 zona and New Mexico. should not b
 surprised to hear some day that citie
 would be found buried in ashes from vol
 canoes. Dead cities that were aliv
 ages ago are about the only crops tha
 can ever be successfully raised on tha
 soil. For hundreds of miles there is nc drop of water, and the railroad has { haul water in tanks for the use of the CT zines and the stations. At many of tn
 stations on the desert there are no tell
 graph offices, but there is a box on son
 of the telegraph poles, where portab telegraph instrument, which is carried c :, all trains, can be attached, and message
 received and sent by brakeman, who
 an operator. It seems singular to s, them stop and sec mas go up to a tel F graph pole, as farmer would go up to ! COW with milkpail, and milk a dispate out of the bottom of the pole. Tappi' tree for maple sap is on the san