Arizona republican., 1890-12-19
A STRANGERS TRIBUTE.

Mir. Samuel P. Putnam, who lectured here some time ago, wrote most glow ing letter to FreethOaght descriptive of Phoenix and her wonderful possibilities. His letter is so good that much Of it is herewith reproduced for the benefit of our readers:
 Arizona conveys the impression of vast desert lands. Here is Death Valley, and Yuma, the hottest place on the con tinent, of whose inhabitant, who went to hades, it is reported that he sent back for his winter oyercoat. Arizona is hot and desolate and lurid, without doubt, and yet in the bosom of these desert scenes is uncounted wealth. Right here there will sometime be a brilliant world of fruits and flowers.
 Arizona not only looks to the future with glittering hope. Antiquity con fronts one here with relics of by-gone splendor. Ancient canals and forts app pear that must have been constructed by most civilized people, different from any of the aborigines now known. Arizona is land of wonderful curiosi- ties. It has something of the mystery of Egypt, of the vast unknown of human life. There must have sometime been q mighty race here, and these wildernesses were garden, and in the luminous at- mosphere cities lowered. Perhaps here was Bellamy's dream in the far past. Who knows what might have been ere the floods swept to the mountains, and the winds blew the countless sands? Perhaps the garden of Eden was here, and in Arizona the first man walked and woman plucked the apple. It is affirmed by Cushing that this Salt River Valley once contained a population of 300, 900. There are remains of dwellings, temples, extensive build- ings of adobe or sun-dried brick. There are charred human bones, pottery, stone implements, tools of the artisan and husbandman, earthenware pots of fine clay painted of many colors and which resemble the jars of GuadalajaIa in Spain. One of the canals, of which traces remain, is supposed to have been sixty miles in length.
 What Arizona was once in these dim ages it will be again with thousandfold Improvements. One can live easy in Arizona; in fact, too easy. Hard work is not necessary. There are $40 days of brilliant sunshine every year, and not day passes but some blue sky is seen. For three months in the year the heat is extreme, but sun-strokes are unknown. The air is dry and pure. From October to May Arizona can boast of the finest climate in the world. Neither fever nor malaria germinates. There are no fogs. Through an area of 100000 square miles there are no bodies of standing water, no swamps and no marshes. The streams all flow to the sea-there are no "sinks." The drainage is rapid and complete.
 The soil of the Salt River Valley is an alluvial deposit varying from six to twenty feet in depth. The amount of desert land reclaimed to cultivation, when the canals now in process of con struction are completed, will aggregate millions of acres. Millions more can be reclaimed when the flood-water is stored in immense reservoirs in the mountain caflons.
 The soil produces every variety of vegetation of the semi-tropical zone, cereals and grasses, textile plants, or anges, lemons, grapes, bananas, figs, peaches, strawberries, olives, etc. The cottonwood and mesquite are the native trees, but the elm and palm and mag nolia, with others, have been introduced and grow strong and thrifty.
 Phoenix, the capital of the Territory, has population of about 1000. It is lively, handsome place. It has cleo tric lights, street railways and water works, fine opera house, City Hall and Court House. The main buildings are of brick and brown stone the brick is manufactured here and the stone is found near Tempe. There are elegant residences and beautiful gardens. The Territorial Insane Asylum is located near. The city has fine trade from the surrounding agricultural region and the mines of Cave Creek, Vulture, etc. It is the most populous town in Arizona.
 Phoenix does remind me of that bril- liant bird of ancient fable. It rises | from the ashy plain--where once was | life-now dead forever. But new life comes. The bird springs into the air and spreads it's glittering plumage. Around it throng the stars of glory, the gemmed flag of liberty and progress. A newer, brighter world flows in shin ing splendor over those barren sands. Once there were the waters beaming in a thousand channels, and making green fields and vineyards and embowering forests where fruits glisten. The flame and flood of death succeed. The gentle, prosperous people disappear. The homes vanish. The wind-swept desert follows. But the Phoenix was in the luminous air. The wealth of it's plum age W as in the bosom of the earth, the flash of it's eye and the music of it's sweep ing wing; and that glorious bird will wheel it's lofty flight. Beautiful bird, symbol of hope and courage, greet inp the wpstprn ann in whoaa o,oldan |