Arizona republican., 1896-11-28
THE DELIGHTS OF khii1z0GSA.
Depicted in a Graphic Way By
 WhiteIaW Reid.

The New Yorker Sums Up In the
 New York Tribune the Advanta-
 geS of Life In This Territory-ln-
 teresting Points.
 NEW YORK, Nov. 27.-Whitelaw Reid, editor of The Tribune, who is now on his way to Phoenix, prepared on the eve of his departure an article descriptive of life and conditions in Arizona which cannot fail to benefit the territory. This is what he says:
 So many questions are asked about Arizona as place for winter residence and there appears to be such a dearth of precise information among many who are vitally interested, that it seems almost public duty to set down in the simplest form few facts of personal observation.
 WEATHER.ADu five months residence in southern Arizona in win ter there was but one day when the weather made it actually unpleasant for me to take exercise in the open air 1 at some time or other during the day. Of course there were good many days which a weather observer would describe as cloudy" and some that were "showery"; but during these five months (from November 1895, to May, 1S96) there were only four days when we did not have brilliant sunshine at some time during the day. Even more than Egypt, anywhere north of Luxor, Arizona is the land of sunshine. As to details:
 TEMPERATURES have seen the thermometer mark 92 degrees in the shade on my north piazza in March. On the other hand, we had frosts which killed young orange trees, and there were several nights when thin ice 1 formed. The government reports show a mean temperature for fourteen years at the present territorial capital of 571a degrees in November, 5 de- grees in December, 49 in January, 54 in February, 61 in March and 66 in Ap- Til. The same reports show the highest and lowest temperatures, averaged for eight years, at the same place, as fol- lows: For November 781a degrees and AZ degrees, December 731a and 361a, January 651a and S2, February 7112 and 351a, March S11a and fl, and April S61s and 46 The nights through out the winter are apt to he cool
 enough for open wood fires and for blankets. Half the time an overcoat is not needed during the day, but it is never prudent for a stranger to be without one at hand.
 AIR.-The atmosphere is singularly clear, tonic and dry have never seen it clearer anywhere in the world. It seems to have about the same bracing
 and exhilarating qualities as the air
 of the Great Sahara in northern Af- rica, or of the deserts about Mount
 Sinai, in Arabia Petraea. II is much
 drier than in the parts Of Morocco, ) Algiers or Tunis usually visited, and
 drier than any part of the Valley of the
 Nile north of the First Cataract. It
 seems to me about the same in qaal- ity as the air on the Nile between As souan and Wady-Halfa, but somewhat cooler.
 ACTUAL HUMIDITY-This is ex-
 tremely slight, everywhere in Arizona, as compared with any eastern climate , in the United States. The air is driest on the high mesas, remote from snow
 clad mountains or forests, and in the desert valleys, where no considerable irrigation has been begun. Wherever irrigation is carried on on large scale
 the percentage of humidity in the at
 mosphere must be somewhat increased,
 although to an eastern visitor it is
 scarcely perceptible. The same gov
 ernment observations already cited ' show relative humidity, at Phoenix or
 Tucson, averaged for weeks, from
 morning and evening readings, as less 3 than half the relative humidity on dry l days in New York. General Greedy, 3 in publication from the weather bur . eau, gave the normal weight of aque- g ous vapor in the Arizona air at from l IF to 4 grains per cubic foot.
 l RAIN.-Showers and indeed heavy ! rains are liable to occur in every e month of the year; but the actual num- t Der of rains seems to an eastern visi- S tor strangely small. The average h rainfall in southern Arizona, as shown = by the government observations, is l. but S1s inches per year.
 f ALTITUDES.-It is a striking ad- e vantage offered by Arizona that, with t the same general conditions as to tenn a perature and dryness of air, the phy- Il sician is able to select nearly any alti- t tude he may desire. Thus, asthmatit + sufferers can find almost the sea leve y at Yuma, or an altitude of only thou 5, sand feet at Phoenix, or of only 2, 2,46t g at Tucson Others, who find nc objec. o tion to greater elevations, can choose e between Prescott or Fort Whipple, 5,. ;t 400; Flagstaff, $500; the Sulphur y valley, or Fort Grant, 4,200; Fort Hua