The Arizona sentinel. [volume] (Arizona City [Yuma], Yuma County, A.T. [Ariz.]) 1872-1911, 1890-05-17


appearance [ did not doubt but that
he might have lost the $l,700 all the
same, if not in this flood, in some
previous ones Pigs, chickens, cats and
cattle We're floating about in the vast
muddy expanse of these turbulent
waters.
As l progressed farther South the
scene Of waste and desolation be
came more pitiful, aud the damage
done 10y these tremendous overfows
more apparent. 1t was curious
thing to see big r. r. tie lodged
III the branches of BLACK Jackoak"
tree, twenty feet from the ground
and five hundred feet from the track.
One man l heard of had gone crazy
10y his losse. by the floods His
house Was Few one, just completed
and contained all his effects He and
his family barely escaped, but left
little child in lower room, and it
was lost. This bereavment, combined
with losing his all upset his mind and
he was caught by his neighbors trying
to bail out his house through a hole
he had cut in the roof. The idea was
surely original, bat still it was pitt
full case \ beautiful little town
called wills Point"was as complete
ly obliterated as though it had
never been. Not a shingle was left.
not fence post. The immense pile
drivers of the "Texas and Pacific R.
Z" and the Santa Fe" were driving
piles across what seemed to me to be
boundless ard impossible sea of
muddy waters dotved here and there
with an island form ID by some house
top or tree rather taller than its
submerged fellows.
Proceeding further South towards
Galveston, / came to rolling country
where the tremendous rains had no t
had the same dismal effect as to the
North and East. Here We came to a
country of big ranches, and the old
time Texans, the old pioneers. Men
who could tell you stories of the Ala
mo and fights with the Comanches OH
the lower ''Drazos." Old battle-scar
ed veterans of many an unfought
fight. who had told the same old lies
so perslstently for so many years thar
they had become part of their family
history, so to speak, Incorporated in
their family bibles, if they had such
an article. One war-worn veteran
who bore on his wrinkIed visage the
marks OF many hard fought skirmish
with the jug" told me that he occu-
pied whole county as his back-dooy.
yard. Sud he needed it to dry clothes
on, and take his morning exercise
He said the balance Of his land had
never Yet been surveyed. Some how
/ doubted this m:n's statements. You
know you viii somatimes doaLt a
mans statements when his broaU
indicates chat the whiskey he has beer
drinking did not cost Over $50 a
9 ,Ilon. You "ca ca or" to all thes,
small items i'll Texas. One old gentle
man was pointed out to me whose FAC,
also bore the scars Of many battles as
yet uufought. Ny informant stated
chat lie had come to Texas in '33, a
poor little Sunday school boy and was
now a prominent pirate Oh the lower
"RIo Grande'', connected with several
enterprising smuggling firms doing 3
lucrative business between cold Monte
rey" in Mexico, and Corpus Christie
in Texas, a man in fact much sought
after, especially by detectives ant
sheritfs. His business at home was
that Of an "exhorter" of the Baptis
persuasion he SAID he had brought
many souls to grace. However apart
from the pecuiiarities and tough yarns
of certain of the inhabitants | meet
this lower Texas is surely delightful
place shall visit it again. ano
write You how it appears when the
floods have subsidized,
'And when the bloom is on the alder
And the tassels on the corn"
IJENDEDCON MCCtTrNF