The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1894-04-07
AT8AHHDY OF TIE DESERT.
Horrors Of the Desolste Regions
of New Mexico.

= E
Horrors OF the Desolste Regions
of New Mexico.
That vasE lava plain, known - the
Josnada Del Muerto, in New Mexico. il
. desolate place. From San Marcial
southwark the traveller gazes upon Law
sea, dried up by the ages, torn and rent
full Of yawning chasms, ragged ravinea
and rocky hillsides. Far away on the
line of the Western horizon fringe oil
green against the dusty background
markssthe cogrse Of the Rio Gfaads, and
on the east { bold, bare mountain range,
cut and furrowed in q thousand seams
and gashes.
Overhead the sky is blue and without
. cloud, but the strong glare Of the sun
reflected by the rocky hills and black
lava beds only seems to intensity the hor-
rors of the Tornado, . desolate. grewsome
place. Men and animals have gone mad
here fighting thirst. There is no water,
no shade, no birds, no life. Even the
grasshoppers avoid it, and Mexican pur-
sued to the death will turn and face the
scalping knife of the Apache rather than
the silent horrors of the Tornado. Only
wildness and desolation and great silence,
such is the Tornado. It is full of decep-
tive mirages.
DECEIVED BY NrRAaEs.
Only comparatively few years ago
party Of emigrants, with no guide, and
but slightly acquainted with the country,
crossed the mountain range on the east
side and struck out boldly, with the idea
of reaching the Rio Grande River to the
west. 1t was early fall. Looking out
over the treacherous desert the emigrants
imagining they saw groves of trees,
Charming lakes and winding streams
.shesd, and grassy slopes and verdant
meadows, and so they travelled on and on.
Their supply of water gave out, but on
the fourth day, just at sunset, the devoted
hand imagined they saw abeautifui lake
of water only a few miles ahead, and the
sight gave them fresh hope. They pushed
on to reach it, but darkness came and no
water. The party was composed of six
men and one woman, wife and mother,
with one little toddler clinging to her
skirt and another at the breast.
Morning dawned, and as the sun poured
down on the verdureless plain there, oh,
glory! but few miles ahead, with the
trees reflected in the water and grassy
green meadows with the waters tapping
and curling on the beach, there apparent
~ was the lake. The poor emigrants
went almost wild at the sight, but the
dumb oxen at the wagons, weak, emanci-
ated, betrayed no symptoms OF eagerness,
and this was fatal sign, for had there
been real water within a dozen miles
they would have detected it and been be.
You'd control. - EE5&a~3e
The morning hours passed, high noon
came and the children cried and worried
and the little boy asked his mother again
and again for water; the tongues Of the
men and cattle became parched and
frightfully swollen; they staggered and
reeled over the hot, parched, cruel ground,
with no definite aim or purpose, and with
but one thought, one prayer-water, wa
ter, and there still ahead, now growing
nearer, now receding, was the fatal mir
age, holding before the bloodshot eyes
and reeling steps of the emigrauts the
beautiful lake fringed with its grove of
trees. The party staggered on till late
in the afternoon, and then the oxen fell
and refused to rise. The men gave up in
despair and wandered off one by one over
the stony desert, reckless, speechless,
with fixed, staring eyes, and even the
husband deserted his wife and children,
shouting back as we'll as his parched
tongue would permit that he saw spring
and grove of trees "just over yonder,"
and would bring them some water. An
other night passed, another day with its
blazing heat, the oxen ALI dead, but the
mother and her children, clinging close
to each other, had crawled beneath the
shade of one of the wagons, and were
still alive. The stars came out, and a
coyote, bold With hunger, sneaked up to
the dead oxen for his feast, but the woman
shook her gaunt hand and frightened the
brute away. She had no nourishment
for the baby lips still glued to her breast,
and the little boy with his head on her
hp could cry no longer; he only moaned.
They were in the jaws of the Jornada and
the terrors of the desert were upon them.
A TRAGEDY OF THE DESERT.
At 10 O'Clock the next morning, and |
acme miles west Of the point where the |
mother and her children were slowly dy-
ing, acattle herder had urged his gaunt,
wiry broncho up the steep sides of =
rocky bluff, aud sat scanning the horizon
With bis glass in the faint hope that he
might discover some traces of gang of |
thieving Apachos, who had stampeded q |
few of his choicest steers the day before. |
When the Apache works a mean trick |
and is applehensiye of immediate and
vigorous pursuit he always strikes for !