Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1892-11-17
AN EPISODE OF TND
DESERT.

DESEkI.
There is probably no landscape which
produces so powerful all effect upon the
imagination as the Colorado desert. II
fascinates by its dread, and the glitter
which the deadly snake holds in his
cold eyes is contained in the broadly
shimmering sand expanse. Strong
minded and stout hearted men have
been known to utterly abandon hope
when they were by no means In great
danger. Within u mile and a half Of
the old Paymaster camp Il man went
insane and was lost. Many have gone
mad and died within 100 yards OF
water. 1t is insanity that kills-the
insanity of fear. Once man surround.
ed almost by friends was so completely
taken possession of by the fear of being
lost that within their hail be died.
urged my companion not to start,
begged, prayed and finally swore. Ri
ley.' l said you are a fool, not paltry,
ordinary fool, but pig headed, obsti.
nate, blundering, blitherlng IDIOT
could not say more to friend, could
I?
But it WAS useless. If | had gone
down on my knees and begged him not
to 60 it would have been jnst az poten.
tial.
Swearing. ! generally find, brings
more sense into mans head than en-
treaty, but il you had known Riley as
knew him, you would have gwen him
up long ago as an uneommonly splen'
did specimen of an ass. So when he
looked up at the stars and cooIly said :
4 m going to Salton and shall BE- In San
Francisco on her birthday WAS sure
be would go. This was in July, and we
were in the Chuckawalla district, which
everybody knows who has been on the
desert .s some thirty five miles back OF
Salton on the north, and is az llsm Al
and as forsaken land as any that can
be found.
Yes, but old Connors will be passing
in u day or so and he will return the
burros, dead sure. So why not walt ?
lie said he would be here today, and
he isn't. You can't believe these feI
lows any way and I'm going to start.
OF course, you needn't to hoof 1t if You
are afriad.
Rlev had no right to sneer. l knew
the desert better than he did, and the
sncer wasn't comfortable. Besides. l
never b.lieve that fooishness is pluck
1t WAS blazing day. Hot! Why,
there is no word for that heat. The
sun came up at 4:3O Il, m. He rose IN
furious mood, and could tell by his
blood red crescent as it topped the low
range Of bills to the east that we were
m for a scorching time.
If you have never seen sunrise OH
the desert ii would pay you to 90 out
there and see 1t. The sand plains were
gIittering with strange whiteness, and
were moticnless as death. Man is so
used to seeing movement that he canLot
imagine that life is entirely extinct.
Imagination is generally so powerful
that you fancy you detect respiration IN
freshly made corpse.
But the desert in early morn is liter.
ally dead, and Is endowed with the pc
cullar fascinating beauty of death.
When the sun commences to throw his
rays it begins to move tremulously,
slowly at first and impatiently until the
whole country is aquiver with the pulse
Of returning life.
The sand bushes under Soils ardu
Gus advances, the dark sage brush
seems suddenly to grow pslrr, and the
gray hues of dawn quickly become
whitened as If by age under that terri
Bile expressing. killing heat.
'Phew, how hot it Is. Riley: l said,
as my cheek felt the first beams. we
are in tor 1t, my boy
We: he l"turned coolly.
Yes, We.
Are you going?
Shall see you 90 alone:
Oh. come now, It's no use your COM
ing. You'll be Il nuisance with your
platitudes.
Not at all, my son, cheeriIy an
swered. I want to see how an amateur
behaves when tormented by the terrors
of thirst. It. viii be rs funny as the
stories which fellows write of the sun
stabbed silence which they have never
seem
The way is immensely drearv and
rather rough in the vicinity of the
claims-queer rolling ground literally
besp;lttered with stones and rubble.