Arizona republican., 1898-03-18
WHAT IS MESQUITE? Botanical Study at the Court
 Reuse Last Night A STRONG RESOLUTION
Asking the Land Office to Re-
 consider it's Ruling
A Worthy Meeting Under Unfavor- able Auspices. The Effect of Timber on the Ice Supply. MT. RedeWilPs Lost Opportunity.

The streets were filtered yesterday
 morning with handbills calling the cit izens of the Salt River valley into the
 Gazette's mass meeting last night to protest against the ruling of the gen.
 eral land office prohibiting the cutting of mesquite timber for firewood. The
 wind picked these handbills up and fluttered them in the faces of horses
 which threatened to make firewood of
 the vehicles to which they were at tached and mince-meat of the occu-
 pants. The sbuJect seems to be mis-
 understood from the foundation. Un- familiarity with the situation appeared
 even in the handbills which referred to
 the general land office as the dpart- , ment, whereas there is no such de- partment.
 Though the Gazette has been pretty
 busily employed for the last week | inveighing against the land office and against The Republican for telling what the land office did, the subject seems to need great deal more agita-
 tion. The citizens of the Salt River valley did not turn out in large num- l bers. A majority of those who were there went to see what was going on | and not to protest against anything. Twenty-nine citizens of the Salt River valley turned out. The mass meeting | consisted of P. J. Clark, A. J. Daggs, R. E. Daggs, Captain Evans, Captain | Parker, William Thode, M. McCann,
 George Purdy Bullard, S. D. Lount, J. i H. McC1intock, William Lount, Cap tain Hancock, B. H. Hoffman, Alvin s. Mills, Phil Herold, Seth Byers, | James Snowgrass, Sam Purdy, A. Red , ewill, G. M. Little, John Y. T. Smith, John T. Dennis, three Republican rep l editorial force of the Gazette, ex- | elusive of the devil and the office cat. 1 It was no such a mass meeting as the Gazette had contemplated in either l spirit or numbers. It was very or
 derly and inquiring affair. It was
 
 cause for alarm and the meeting pro posed to examine into it. John Y. T.. 1 Smith was elected chairman and s. J. | Darby was made secretary. Captain | Parker said there was some feeling in 1 the valley regarding the land office ! ruling and he believed some action , should be taken. He read the ruling i of 1888 suspending the cutting of mes quite and the statute defining timber.
 Mr. Smith spoke at some length af- | ter which the mass meeting got down
 to the business before it, when dis
 covery was made. Nobody could tell precisely why he was there. The
 mass meeting looked at the Gazette and the Gazette could not return the glare. The gentlemen present said
 they had read about it in The Repub- : lican more than a week ago, but had 1 forgotten precisely what the article
 set forth. Nobody had read anything l in the Gazette except observations
 upon the iniquity of the order. Now
 what was the order? They glared at l the Gazette again. J. H. McClintock shortened the agony of that journal by
 throwing a covering of chagrin over it and producing a clipping from The Republican containing the story of the
 ruling and what the land office was ,, threatening to do.
 The mass meeting having been thus informed of it's object proceeded to
 business. Captain Parker introduced a resolution, the general tenor of
 which was a declaration that mesquite is not timber This was not strong enough to meet the views of George Purdy Bullard, who pleaded that the
 aegis of the mass meeting be thrown
 about the mines of the territory. He
 was, he said, the president of the Ari-
 zona Lime Kiln club situate in Yav- apai county. If this ruling could not be overthrown he would order the fires to be permanently pulled from
 every kiln to the detriment of the building trades in Phoenix. MT. Bull lard is also the president of a copper
 corporation which would never pro- duce another pound of copper if he could not have mesquite to roast the
 ore. Mir. Bullard is beside a lawyer and a parliamentarian, and in the latter capacity he demanded that the resolution be amended by the an
 nexation of his views.
 | The next speaker was that insatiate
 consumer of firewood, P. J. Clark. He
 clamored for revision of the diction- | aries and cyclopedias which had err
 roneously classified mesquite as tim
 Der. He had .-laIs 0 e.-i o-.i ,s;;;..y of