Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-10-01
RED HOT >AMERICAN TOWN
Where lit in the Shade is Evidence That
Old Sol Means Business
Yuma, Arfz., Holds This Record I'M
disputed by Competitions
Adobe Houses.

The people who flee to the mountains ard
seashore these summer days as if before a
pestnence, when what they know as the
heated term is on, can have no idea what
hot weather really is until they have spent
few days in this old town on the Colorado
river in southwestern Arizona The people
who tell agonizing tales of their suffering
In the periods of temperature among the
ninetes IN the great cities ought to come
out here these summer days to know better
what Odl Sol can do In the way of heat
making when he gets really down to bus
mess. What would you say to living in a
spot where not a blade OF grass NAV be
seen, where there Is nothing green but a
rev trees shimmering in the dusty sun
SHINE. where the earth everywhere Is so hot
that one cannot stand upon 1t with hare
feet. and where from June 1 to early DC
tober the temperature Is seldom below 30
degrees, and more generally about the 10th
d ae mark-once in while running up to
l23 and 125 degrees? What would YOU
think OF temperature for full month not
less than 81 degrees, of two weeks at a
time varying from 1OS to lis degrees, and
the shade? That is what the residents of
tnis quaint old town of Yuma have regu-
iariy each summer So far this season the
umans have had two spells of weather
When the mercury climbed up to lit de-
grees In the shade every morning for a few
successive days. and descended to SO and
no degrees IN the night. From June 10 to
"a the daily temperature ranged from Joy
10 10 degrees. From June IS to June Fl
inclusive the temperature on each after
noon went as high lit degrees in the
shade.
Yuma has been the banner hot town of
America for forty or fifty years That an
c1ent, palSied and weather beaten story
about the soldier who lived and died in the
Earrison at u1na and whose ghost came
back one night for his army blankets for
use down in chilly. frosty hell has gone far
and wide throughout the world even Dr.
Depew recently told it to O group of re-
porters who welcomed him home in New
York from his tour Of the Pacific coasD and
mas given certain characteristic to the
fame of the town. In the forties and fifties
the army garrison at Yuma was famous
among Uncle Sans soldiers as the most
dreaded post on the frontier and the let
ters and diaries Of such military men as
Gems. Albert Sidney Johnston, Edward f.
beale and kearny. who served their mill
tary apprenticeship there, are plentiful with
comments on the terrific hot weather Of
Fort Yuma In the summer months while
they served there
All conditions seem to unite in making
1uma the not summer SPOT 1t Is. It Is To-
Gated In low, basinlike locality on the
edge Of the lazy. muddy Colorado river, as
1t meanders through desert sands and
adobe soil down to the Gulf of California
Away to the west, across the river, and to
the south. stretches the Colorado desert
several thousand square miles in area It
Is SO merciless. CHASTITY and fierce a desert
waste that no one dares cross it by wagon
or on root in the summer months. and never
in winter or early spring. unless accomna-
MED by companion or two. and fitted out
with an abundance of drinking water and
food. Every summer there are venture
some miners who lay down their lives in
trying to cross those deserts because they
arc overtaken by sand storm or are weak
ened unto death by the dreadful heat
Rain falls In Yuma and the region round
a hny hut fSrr f,-..
then only in the early winter months
There are, however, some very heavy foods
here in the months Of February and March,
when the water in the Colorado river rises
and oVerhows its banks because of the
melting SHOWS away up in the mountains
OF Colorado and northern Arizona and the
heavy rains in southern California When
the water recedes it leaves some thousands
OF acres of rich bottom lands along the
sides OF the river, an area Of alluvial mud,
where the Indians plant their mesquite
beans and melon seeds for their annual
crops, the same the Egyptians make
their annual planting along the banks of
the Nile when the floods are past. The fer
tllity of these bottom lands has attracted
attention, and in recent years enterprising
Yankees have taken up hundreds of acres
OF this SOIL and are growing to a small ex-
tent fruits and melons, which are first In
the market even in semi-tropical southern
California and Los Angeles The town Of
Yuma has population of three thousand.
About half Of these are Americans from
eastern states, and the rest are Mexicans.
A large part of the buildings here are
adobs-that Is, built of adobe mud bricks.
They have walls from two to three feet
thick. and are one story high. At night
every one sleeps out Of doors. Many sleep
there through ten months in the year. In
midsummer no one can we'll endure the
heat and closeness OF any apartment The
sight that one he's as he gazes from two
story building or some aminence in the
place early in the morning in III
across the old town would be long remem-
bered by any one not accustomed to Ari-
iona life and customs. Hundreds Of men
and women, eac h stretched out asleep on
cot, may be seen on the roofs or in the in
closures at the back of their respective
houses out on piazZas.
Many of them are sleeping in their
clothes, others have a simple sheet as q
cover, while little boys and girls are slsep-
ing the sleep of the just without the least
incumbrance of clothing or covering. When
5 o'clock comes and old Sol rises so high
that sleep Is longer out Of the question,
even for the old-timers Of the HUMANS,
there Is a general movement on every roof
top and In every yard and piazza Of the In
terror Of the domicile for raiment and for
| morning additions. At the railroad hotels
all the beds are made up every day in sum-
mer on the piaZzas.
The diet of the people in this land of
adobe and sunshine is very simple, and the
average person knows nothing but the
~ AAAc' A"AeAoi.e' O. ~ Wa -
and such fruits as apricots and peaches are
very abundant and cheap. They are eaten
by every one. Dried beef venison and NUT
| ton, brought down from the mountains,
are In every home, and there are all man.
ner of Mexican dishes and soups that every
| one, even the most recent arrival from
New England, eats with pleasure In these
| heated days. Alcoholic stimulants are no
| doubt drunk more generally in Arizona
and all the mining localities In the south
west than anywhere in the east but the
| drinker must exercise prudence IN his
drains in the famous hot towns, such as
Yuma, Phoenix or Needles, for the intense
| heat has greater effect on a person in a
| state Of alcoholic intoxication than on any
one else. The sudden death Of a hard
| drinker in a period Of unusual heat Is COM
mon in this region.