The times., 1898-09-25
THE HOTTEST SPOT.
AG0nfzfnE Tales of Heat From
Southwestern Arizona.

southwestern Arizona.
From the Boston Transcript
The people who fee to the mountains
and seashore these summer days, as If
before a pestilence, when what we know
as the heated term is on, can have no
idea what hot weather really Is until
they have spent Few days in Yuma. on
the Colorado River, in southwestern
Arizona. The people who tell agonizing
tales of their sufferings in the periods
of temperature among the nineties in the
great cities ought to come out here these
summer days TO know better what Old
Sol can do in the way of Matchmaking
when ne gets really down to business
What would you say to living in a spot
where not blade of grass may be seen,
where there Is nothing green but a few
trees shimmering in the dusty sunshine;
where the earth everywhere is so hot
that one cannot stand upon 1t with bare
feet, and where from June l TO early
October the temperature is seldom be-
low 80 degrees, and more generally about
the 110th degree mark-ouce in a while
running up even to 123 and 125 degrees?
What would you think of a temperature
for full month not less than 81 de-
grees; of two weeks at a time varying
| from los to LIS degrees, and even week
at a time over 112 degrees in the shade?
That is what the residents OF the quaint
old town of Yuma have regularly each
Summer. So far this season the Yumans
have had two spells of weather when the
mercury climbed up to III degrees in the
| shade every morning for few success
/ sive and descended TO 9s and 100 degrees
! in the night From June 10 10 IA the daily
| temperature there ranged from 1o7 to lis
/ degrees. From June IS TO June 81 inclu-
| sive, the temperature on each afternoon
! went as high as III degrees in the shade.
| Yuma has been the banner hot town of
1 America for forty or fifty years. 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 letters and diaries OF
/ such military men Gems. Alert Sidney
| Johnston, Edward T. Beale, and Kearney,
i who served their military 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
| Yuma the hot summer spot it Is. 1t Is To-
| Gated in low. basin-like locality on the
edge of the lazy, muddy Colorado River.
/ as IL meanders through desert sands and
| adobe soil down to the Gulf Of Califor-
| MIA. Away to the west, across the river,
| and to the south stretches the Colorado
| desert, several thousand square miles in
| fierce desert waste that no one dares
| cross II by wagon or on foot in the sum-
! mer months, and never in winter or ear
| ~ spring unless accompanied by a COM
| pauion or two, and fitted out with an
| abundance of drinking water and food.
| Every summer there are ventursome min
| ers who lay down their lives in trying
| to cross those deserts because they are
| overtaken by a sandstorm. or are weak
| ened unto death by the dreadful heat.
| To the north are vast plains and up
| lands of barren sunbaked 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 there are millions of acres
| that are the next thing to absolute
desert, where nothing grows except by
irrigation and then only scantily. and
| where no one lives who can exist else
| where For over a hundred miles about
Yuma not g. tree grows naturally. and
| none OF the forest trees that the people
of New England the Middle. States
know can be grown even artificially.
There is not a thing in nature anywhere
In the region to add a degree OF GOODNESS
to the atmosphere. There are no balmy
| breezes to blow from anywhere. no sea
or lake air to come once in a while as
a relief after hours or a day OF steady
downpouring of solar heat; not noun
tain or brook, canyon or dell, a
grove or beach to which one may resort
throughout a whole country for so much
as a. moment of GOODNESS. One may gaze
In any direction from the highest place
in Yuma. and the only color In nature tc
be seen is dull reddish brown under
| a blazing sky Even the sluggish river
| takes on the hue of the surrounding ter
| ritory.
Rain falls In Yuma and the regfor
| round about but four or five times in &
year, and then only in the early Winter
| months There are, however, some very
heavy foods here in the months of Feb
rrIary and March, when the water in the
| Colorado River rises and overfiows ii:
| banks because of the melting SHOWS away
| up in the mountains of Colorado ant
Northern Arizona and the heavy rains II
Southern California. When the water re
cedes it leaves some thousands of acre:
of rich bottom lands along the sides o.
| the river an area of alluvial mud, wher,
the Indians plant their mesquite bean:
and melon seeds for their annual crop:
the same as the Egyptians make thei
annual planting along the banks of th'
| Nile when the floods are past The fer
tility OF these bottom lands has attracted
| attention, and in recent years enterpris
ing Yankees have taken up hundreds o
small extent fruits and melons which ar
| first in the market even in semi-tropica
Southern California and Los Angeles
The town of Yuma has a population o
three thousand. About half of these ar
Americans from Eastern States and tn
| rest are Mexicans.
i Yuma and Phoenix are the most pop
| ulous spots in Arizona to which con
sumptives resort, but very few of then
r.. L 49, zf
Fhey come here in the Fall and go ava,
to the mountains of California or North
ern Arizona in May. The hot, dry sun
shine day after day, the absence of fol-
or humidity of any kind in the atmos
phere of this region is just what the con
sumptive wants. Last Winter there wer
| over four hundred consumptiveS VIII
spent the season in Yuma, and there ar
very many who apparently have recov
. cred their health and vigor by a residenc
, | of several months in the region of Yu
, | ma in the Winter, and in the high noun
tains near Prescott during the Summer
; All the residents of Yuma who hav
means and are able to, leave Yuma Il
| early June, and do not came back unit
, | along the latter part of September. Il
! this way they avoid the hottest weather
but even they experience few day
, | when Old Sol sends down shafts tha
make temperature of over 100 degree
S in the shade.