The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-07-21
HOT OVEN OF THE UNION.
G Geographical Conditions With Give
Yuma, Arizona, That Name.

Where the Temperature Ranges from 81
TO 125 Degrees from Mornin Until
Midnight for Weeks and Weeks-For
Eight Months Men Wear No Coats,
Vests, or Suspenders.
(From the St. Louis Globe Democrat.
Yuma, July 10-Ever since old Fort
Yuma was established here, in 1850, the
temperature of Yuma has been proyerbial.
All the jokes and funny stories about
high records have been credited to Yuma
for over forty years. That ancient,
palsied, and weather-beaten story about
the soldier who lived and died in the gar
rison at Yuma, and whose ghost came
back one night for his army blankets for
use down in chilly, frosty hell has gone
everywhere and in its travels throughout
the world has given certain fame to the
town. Two generations of American
school children have been taught in geo
graphies that yuma, noted for its high
temperature, is situated on the eastern
bank of the Colorado River and on the
western edge of the Arizona desert. I"
Newspaper photographers and humorists
have found the summer temperature
records of Yuma perennial and fruitful
field for their talents
In the 40's and SOS Yuma was famous
| among Uncle Sam S soldiers as the most
dreaded post on the frontier, and the let
tiers and diaries of such military men as
Gems. Albert Sidney Johnston. Edward
f. Beale, and ,Kearney, who served their
military apprenticeship here, are full of
comments on the hot weather of Fort
Y una in the summer months. "John
Phoenix (Lieut. Derby) the first of the
modern school of American huporists,
was at Fort Yuma for two years, and his
hunor was developed while writing of
the devices of the army boys to avoid the
heat of July and August days in the
adobe buildings of the garrison.
There is abundant reason why Yuma IS
the banner hot town of the country. 1t
| is hot from the very nature OF things:
| The town Is in sort of valley where Old
Sol has all the advantage. 1t lies on the
! east bank of the Colorado river, which
| meanders through desert sands and adobe
| Away to the west. across the river, and
| to the south stretches the Colorado desert,
several thousand square miles in area. 1t
| is so merciless, ghoStly, and fierce desert
| waste that few dare to cross it by wagon
or on foot in the summer months and in
winter or early spring travellers are care
| full to be accompanied by companion or
two and supplied with an abundance of
drinking water and food. Every summer
venturesome miners lose their lives in
trying to cross the desert by being over
taken by sandstone or weakened unto
death by the dreadful heat. To the north
there are vast plains and uplands of bar
rem, sun baked adobe soil and peculiar
formation of lava and soft granite, the
remains of numerous extinct volcanoes.
This area absorbs the suns heat by day
and distributes it by night. To the east
are millions of acres that are the next
| thing to an absolute desert, where moth
| ing grows except by irrigation, and then
only scantily; where no one lives who can
| exist elsewhere. For over 100 miles aboul
Yuma not tree grows naturally, and
none of the forest trees that the people OF
New England or the Middle States know
can be glown even artifcially. There is
not thing in nature anywhere in the
region to add a degree of GOODNESS to the
| atmosphere. There are no balmy breezes
| from anywhere, no sea or lake air to come
once in while as a relief after hours of
a steady downpouring of solar heat; not
| a mountain or brook, . canon or dell, q
grove or beach, throughout whole coun-
| ty, to which one may resort for SO much
as moment of GOODNESS. One may gaze
| in any direction from the hithest place
] in Yuma, and the only color in nature
to be seen is dull reddish brown under
blazing Sky. Even the sluggish river
| takes on the hue of the surrounding terri
| tory.
The total rainfall in Yuma is about
twelve inches year; it is twice and
thrice that in the greater dart OF the Eas-
| tern States. Rain falls in Yuma and the
region round about but four or five times
IN year, and only IN the early winter
months. There are, however, some very
heavy floods here in the months of Feb
ruary and March, when the water in the
Colorado river rises and overhows the
banks because of the melting SHOWS away
up in the mountains of Colorado and
northern Arizona and of the heavy rains
in southern California, When the water
recedes and leaves bare some thousands
of acres of rich bottom lands the Indians
plant their mesquite beans and melon
seeds for their annual crop, just as the
| Egyptians do their annual planting
along the banks of the Nile when the
floods ale past The fertility of these
bottom lands has attracted attention,
and in recent years enterprising Yankees
have takenssup hundreds of acres and are
growing to small extent fruits and
melons, which are first in the market
even in semi-tropic southern California
and Los Angeles.
No one can tell adequately how the
fierce mid summer heat of this part of
Arizona affects q person recently from
the Eastern SUBSEQUENTLY from the
cool New England and Middle States.
On most summer days there is scarcely a
breath of air stirring.anywhere, and from
early dawn until sunset there is constant
sunshine At a. m. the mercury on a
warm day is 81 or 80 degrees. At it
has risen to "a degrees, at 10 it is 103 de-
grees, at p. m. it is at 107 degrees, and
at. 8 p. IN. it may be at 112 degrees; at
p. m. it has gone down to 102 degrees,
and at midnight it has sunk to 95 degrees
When wind comes up from off the desert
the air is almost shrivelling, and even
the natives of Yuma go into their adobe
houses and shut the doors to avoid the
air that comes likeithat from the furnace
room of a foundry. The glare of the sun
shine has serious effect on the eyes. Green
goggles and smoked glasses are COM
monty worn here by Eastern people.
! Thfra are MANY "a cog Of Kindness AMONG