Arizona weekly enterprise., 1889-12-14
FROM TEMPE.
A BIT OF HUMAN NATURE EXEMPLI-
 FEED.
The People who Growl and what they GrowI abOut-Farmers Growing Rich-InvidIous Comparisons
 in Social Matters.

mine of discussion and speculation, of hopes and fears, retrospect and prophe- cy that single subject furnishes to the cowmen? Let but two or three of that persuasion be gathered together and there in the midst of them at once appears than ever attractive topic, the price of beef; is glorious past, 1t de
 plorable present, its possible future.
 It is well known fact that when a man has a grievance, he thinks, dreams and talks of but little else, such being the somewhat selfish con stitution of the human mind. To cowmen as body, the prevailing price of beef is a grievance, huge grievance
 as they consider it, the more aggravat- ed and intolerable ill that the depress-
 sion in values does not extend along
 the whole line of intermediate stages
 before the beef passes into the hands,
 or rather mouth, of the consumers.
 With beef on the block as high or high
 CT than it ever was, the cowman feels
 more or less vaguely that there in some
 agency between him and the consumer
 that is diverting large proportion of
 the profits of the business that are
 rightfully his own. Therefore 1t is, as
 I have said, that he is man with a
 grievance and bieng such must be
 given scope to air it. And your hum-
 ble correspondent as one of those un-
 fortunate beings possessing cattle
 must be accorded that privilege else
 his epistolary powers are nil.
 To pasture or not pasture, that IS
 the question just HOW among the cat
 tlemen within reach of the rich pas
 ture of the Salt River Valley. Wheth-
 CT it is better to sell your steers as
 they come from the range or to fatten
 them first with two or three months of
 alfalfa, is rather a nice point to de-
 eide at the prevailing prices for pas
 turage. There are some who main tain that the owner of the pasturage
 is the only one to profit by the plan that it is simply impossible for any
 animal to take on as much weight as
 will over pay for his pasturage, sup
 posing the latter to be $1 per month
 and the prevailing price for beef two
 cents a pound. True, say others but
 that is not the point. You cannot
 sell poor steers at all, unless some one
 wants them at bottom prices for feed CTS To sell them at q good figure you must have them fat; so even sup posing that their gain in weight does not pay for their pasturage, you car
 get them in shape to sell. I am my
 self somewhat inclined to the affirma tive side of the question, though l an still more inclined to believe that } would prefer to be the man that ha' the pasture to sell than to be he tha has to buy.
 Though one hears a good deal O
 grumbling among these worthy burgl
 CTS of Tempe, their general lot strikes an outsider as being quite the reverse :. of an unhappy one. Any capable, in 7 dustrious farmer who can point to hi!
 'Purae rivus aquae, lsilvaque jugerum , Paucorum ct segetis certa tdes meal
 : in this charming valley, seems to mt - to possess lien upon happiness so fla
 as this world is concerned not easil,
 paralleled in any other country that have seen Of course it is the preroga ] tive of the farmer to g1'oNl even tn $ 1nspeakable a{Ivailtage conferred 5, *sthe sslfe fiieiity .off his hafyest doe ta efa i as is1'sl F I Y slamsil ne a5 tend serves only to stimulate the farm 4 CTS ingenuity in discovering flaws il ,. his happiness whereat he may rail ant O work himself into that comfOrtabl
 state of discomfort, so to speak, where r in he feels that he is much abuse' '- man. II he cannot have the weathe e to growl at, he can at least inveigl
 against the canals which have sup
 planted it. If his unerring crops atfor
 him no opportunity for grievance, h
 can at all events work himself into .l rage over the prices he receives fo U them. He is indeed farmer of bu poor mental vision who cannot di: E cern at least one fly in his pot of oint U mcnt. And so you will find the grow l' Ter and the kicker still extant even i ?, this happy and prosperous vale ( $ Tempe. But you will also find her
 what is "rara avis in terris" east ( 'i the Rocky Mountains-the farme 0 't who has made money out of farmin ,' solely an it's own merits. Here are me II who have been here not more than si " or seven years who now own their fint {" highly-cultivated farms, substantis v dwellings, the latest improved agr , cultural machinery, fine well grade
 stock, and have besides anywhere froI :" $5, 900 to $20,000 hard cash made or 'o of the soil they live on. Of cours nTI there are men here who started wit II II as good or better advantages and wh II to-day are in debt, their farms nor = gagged and everything in neglect an ~ unrepair. That is the old story, ths moralizers have worn threadbare, (
 industry, thrift and intelligence y sloth, extravaganza and thoughtles l. ness. But these wise virgins who hay 'r their lamps so we'll filled to-day-woul le they not have filled them no matte T. where they had been set down { 'r work out their fortune? In Kansa s: in Iowa, in Missouri? No, a thousan oi times no. Given equal capital, equ; c. intelligence, industry, etc., to stal 9s with and I will venture to say ths d the farmer of Kansas, or Iowa, (
 Missouri would be his whole life a s- taining-if he attained it at all-th T. same pitch of comfort and af1 1uenc n- that these Salt river farmers hal IS gained in few years. Andwhy shoul T. they not? Are not all the advantage n on their side? Haven't they overcon IT. the weather-that great arbiter of tf at farmers destiny elsewhere? Does nc u the climate permit of more days IL productive labor than any other-bl y pshaw are not all these things writ
 the pamphlet of the real estate agel IT. in more glowing and alluring languas 'p than my simple pen can command H Yet are they none the less true ar 1I worthy of being known to those VI UT are yet in ignorance of the paradi Se that southern Arizona hides betwi, lo her rugged and parched mountains. C "The rain is over," and the COG
 pleasant weather-to paraphrase u rt eloquent language of MT. Pixley-