The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-06-25
AMERICAS HOTTEST TOWN.
YUMA. IN ARIZONA. HOLDS RECORD
FOR TORRID TEMPERATURES.

grees Frequently Registered-Pen-
Feature-Has n Vicious Glass Of
Prisoners and Punishment Is often
Severe.
From the St Louis Globe-Democrat.
Prospects of warm weather in ST. Louis
this season. echoed the old army SER
geant. removing his battered black briar
10 blow a contemptuous cloud Of smoke in
10 the air Man alive, you never viii
know what warm weather is until you
have sweltered in Yuma, Ariz., where the
genuine. simon pure article is 10 be had
ten months in the year. It's the hottest
town in the United States, and has held
that record unbroken ever since Arizona
was acquired from Mexico along with a
few other places. From now on nothing
green will be visible in the town or vicin-
itv EXCEPT a few scrubby trees shimmering
and shrivehng in the blasting sunshine,
and the ground viii be so hot that even an
Indian or a greaser could not stand on it
with bare feet, while matches thrown up
on it will ignite instantly.
From the middle of May until early in
October the temperature seldom, If ever,
falls below 30 degrees, and more often the
mercury is boiling in the region of 10 de
grees in the shade with frequent ascensions
20 125 degrees. 1t is not unusual for the
temper oture to remain steadily at 9S de-
erees for an entire month in Yuma at this
time Of the year, and little later, two
week a a time, the temperature will vary
from 137 to lis degrees without provoking
remark. ! have known the thermometer
10 record Il. degrees in the shade every
every afternoon for a week at time. with
q descent of about IS degrees at night,
without unduly' exciting the 5000 persons,
greasers and Indians. who make up Yu-
mas popula ton.
"Ail conditions combine to make the
town the hot place il is. To begin with,
IL is situated in low basin on the brim
of the sluggish, dirty Colorado river, which
strays through the desert sands and adobe
soil down to the Gulf of California. Across
this river. away to the west and the
south. stretches the great Colorado des-
ert, many thousand square miles in area.
Such a CHASTITY wilderness is the great
patch of sand that no one is sufficiently
dauntless or foolhardy to cross by wagon
or on foot in the late spring or summer,
and never in the dead of winter unless ac-
companied and supplied with an abund-
auce Of food and drinking water, for, be-
sides the deadly heat, there are sand
storms of such magnitude that whole CON-
panies Of Adventures and several detach-
ments of Uncle Sans boys in blue in pur-
suit of hostile Indians have been wiped
out by them.
Little Rain Falls.
Rain falls In Yuma and it's vicinity not
more than five times a year, and then only
in the early winter months. Some heavy
floods occur in February and March, how
ever, when the waters of the Colorado rise
and overflow the banks because of the
rapid melting of The snow upon the noun
taius of Colorado and Northern Arizona
and the heavy rainfalls in Southern Cal
ifornia When the waters recede some
thousands of acres of fertile bottom lands
are uncovered along the sides of the river,
an area of alluvial mud. and the Indians
rush to them TO plant mesquit beans and
melon seeds for their annual crops The
richness of these bottom lands has at
tracted much attention in the East of
recent years. and many enterprising Yam
KEGS have bought extensive tracts and
are growing small fruits and melons,
which are first in the market, even in
Southern California and Los Angeles.
Most of the buildings in Yuma are built
have walls from two 70 three feet thick
Everyone, without regard to sort or condi-
ton. sleeps out Of doors at night for near
ly ten months in the year, for ii is almost
impossible 10 endure the heat and close
ness of any apartment from the beginning
of spring until the advent of the brief
winter Contemplated from an eminence
carly in the morning. the view presented
by Yuma is one to be remembered for
years by one unaccustomed to Arizona
life. Hundreds and hundreds of men wo-
men and children, each prone upon a cot
and sound asleep, may be seen on the
roofs and piazzas, or ip the Enclosure in
the rear of their respective homes. Some
are sleeping in their lightest garments.
others are covered by the thinnest of
sheets while little boys and girls and in
fanis sleep the sleep of the innocent and
conscious free without any incumbrance
OF clothing or covering. In the railroad
hotels az the beds are made up every day
IN the late spring and summer on the
plazzas and the guests obtain whatever
sleep they can until 5 A. M. by which time
the sun has risen so high that II is impos-
siblessfo even an old inhabitant to sleep
longer
Years ago the army garrison at Yuma
was famous among officers and men as
the most dreaded ard desplsed post on the
frontier. and it is probable that no other 4
intt III the extreme WesI ever contained
30 many men who later became great and
distinguished military leaders. Among
them were Gems. Albert Sidney Johnston,
Custer, Phil Kearney. Edward +. Beale,
Iongstreet and Mcdowell ala of whom
served year or so of their apprentice
shin there and commented fervently In
their letters and diaries upon the Internal
heat.
John Phenix.' whose real name was
II. A. Derby. and who was a lieutenant
ia the regular army, besides being the
father of his peculiar style of American
l1urner. died in Yuma. To his pen is at
tributed that hoary, decrepit old story
about the soldier who had lived and died
in the garrison at Yuma. and whose ghost
came back one night for his army blank
cts.
An Interesting Prison.
But most interesting of all to the stran-
ger from the East. perhaps is old Yuma
prison. now the Arizona pententiary, and
dreaded as much by modern criminals as
IL was once feared by refractory regular
army men. II stands upon an eminence
which overlooks the Colorado and ella
rivers for miles. On one side is the dirty
Colorado and on the other three sides the
terrible desert. A wall sixteen feet high