Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1896-01-11
FROM ARIZONA.
An Interesting Letter From John o. Day
Lately ofthis City.
PHOENIX, A. T., Jan. l, 1896.

An Interesting Letter From John D. Day,
Lately this City.
PHoENIX, A. T., Jan. /, 1896.
EDITOR LEADER:
Sitting by the cradle of the New
Year, memory goes back to events of
the past past and | am reminded of my
promise to write you letter from Ari-
zona.
| have been very busy since / came
here, but have endeavored to gather
some general facts in regard to this
country and shall give you the impress
sions as they have been made upon my
mind. For ages past Arizona has
been considered barren arid waste,
and perhaps no other state or territory
has been SO maligned. This opinion
may be accounted for in various ways,
the principal of which, is probably due
to the fact, that the two great trans
continent rail roads pass through
the undeveloped portions of the terri
tory, and the traveller from California's
fertile valleys and gold-impregnated
sands and the eastern fields of waYing
grain and cities busy with the wheels
of industry, sees nothing but the worst
conditions that exist here. He goes
back to his home and when referring
to Arizona, speaks of nothing but
deserts, bones bleaching in the sun,
rattlesnakes, Indians and bad men.
That the things l haye enumerated
are here in Limited quantities. is not
to be denied, especially the bad man.,
but he is OF no more hideous mien than
in other communities. However there
are better things than these to talk
about, and in the last few years they
have grown, increased and multiplied
till the visitor is apt to give his atten-
tion to the better side of Arizona life.
He certainly will if he visits the Salt
river valley, for when the beckoning
leaves of the fan palm are kissed by
the zephyrs, where birds are nesting all
the year round, where every day is full
of sunshine, where the moon beams
kindle all the night long and where
December is as pleasant as May there
is certainly enough to be enjoyed with
out calling up the ghost of twenty
years ago or following the renegade
Apache in his bloody trail. The tide
in the affairs of Arizona has indeed
been turned, and the land that for
years has been regarded as the home
of the Apache, when civilization was
stranger and prosperity came not is
now heading for statehood and her
place in the march of progress.
The land that bloomed and blossom
ed before New York was on the map
of the world is once more riding the
waves of advancement and one by one
the great undeveloped resources of
this rich region, that contains in pro-
life quantities every mineral substance
of value and every vegeta BILE product
grown, is being unfolded. Ten years
ago Phoenix was a village of a few
hundred inhabitants shut in from the
outside world by what seemed to be
unscalable mountains, and impassa BILE
deserts, without business life or ac-
tiyity and with little or no hope for
itself either in the now or hereafter.
But there came, on burro, mules or on
foot, men with the prophetic eve, men
capable of projecting future possibili-
ties so clearly upon the imagination of
others as to lead them to work ener-
getically toward the fulfllment of
those possibilities. A few years have
shown the result of that work and
what yet lies in the future for this
City and the Salt River valley.
The irrigation canals, the prolific
ranches, the alfalfa fields, the orchards
of semi-tropical fruits, the flower en-
powered homes and the ten thousand
contented and prosperous inhabitants
of this city give only foretaste of
what this country is destined to be.
Phoenix is the capital of the territory
and situated in the central part of the
Salt River valley, whose trend is east
and west and has an area of about 900
square miles of as fertile land as can
be found on the continent / am qui te
willing to say that like Arizona, and
that it offers much to make life enjoy
able; "a most healthful climate, first
class public school system, plenty of
churches. good society, and, in fact,
all the advantages of advanced civili-
zation to those who are inclined to en-
joy them.
The more important resources of the