The Arizona sentinel., 1899-02-11
Is IT A LAwLEss COUNTRY?

The man who goes to any considerable Arizona town with the idea of the Sonth- vest derived from novels, or from s'The Arizona Kicker" will he greatly m .stified. He will find as man. churches as in towns of corresponding size in Pennsvlvania IT Ohio: and probably more schoohouses. He will md plenty of liquor-snops too. and gambling houses and dancehonses, and vet he will see little disorder unless he hunts late at night for it. and he v i'll he apt to 6nd-as at Phoenix-a community of ten tho usand people requiring in the daytime Onl one policeman. and hardly requiring him. During my winter there did not see single disturbance in the streets. or half dozen drunken men, all told. Min. ing men and an occasional GOV boy certainly had quarrels, sometimes, in the disorderly quarters at night; and there were stories Of the use of the knife among Mexicans; but the visitor who went abont his own business had as little trouble as on Board way or Chestnut street The Pima and Maricopa Indians. who are encountered every~ here. have beep friendly with the whites for generations, and there isn't an Apache within some hundreds of miles.
 RAIN.
 Showers, and indeed heavy rams are liable to occur in every month of the year; but the actual number of rains seems to an eastern visitor strangely small. The average rainfall in Southern Arizona, as show b> the Government observ vations, is but S14 inches per year.
 IsII. PLACE FIT TO LIVE IN?
 This depenG what one expects in a haze, parsely 5, 'ed Territory of monnt- sins and deserts. ae man who looks for either the beauty c. he seductive excite ment of Monte Carlo i'll not ind it. As little wIil he 6pd the historic remains or the cosmopolitan attractions of Egypt; nor could he reasonable expect the amusements and luxuries of our own Eastern cities The people of Arizona are still chiefly busy in the pioneer work of subdumg it to the residence and uses of civilized man. But it has two transcontinentaI lines of railva av with numerous feeders; it has fast mails, and rival telegraph lines, and is throbbing with the intense life of the splendid West The two principal towns in the south ern portion, chiefly sought for their climatic advantages, are Phoenix and Tucson. Each of them las ten thousand inhabitants or more. They have the electric light, tele- phones, trolley cars, plenty of hotels, banks, bookstores, good schools, churches, an occasional theatrical performance. some times a lecture or a circus, often horse race, and. in the spring. a thoroughly curious and interesting ''hesta.' For the cest, people must take their amusements with them. Good horses are abundant and cheap. and there are plenty of cow boys-the genuine article-to show what horses can do. The driving for fifteen or twenty miles in almost any direction from Phoenix, is nearly always easy. The roads are apt to be dusty; bat there IS one we'll sprinkled drive of six or eight miles; and since the winds are quite regular i'll their direction, it is rarely difficult to choose a route or which the dust will be largely carried away fror, you. The unbroken desert itself ia often as cas-, to drive over as an Eastern highway, and the whole valley is paradise for bicy clers, or eIues- triars