The Arizona sentinel., 1899-02-25
IS IT A LAwLEss COUNTRY?

The man who goes to any considerable Arizona town with the idea of the South west derived from novels, or from ''The Arizona Kicker, will be greatly mystified. He will ind as many churches as in towns of corresponding size in Pennsylvania pr Ohio; and probably more schoolkOuses. He will find plenty of liquor-snops. too, and gambling houses. and dancehouses, and vet he will see little disorder unless he hunts late at night for it, and he will be apt to 6nd--as at Phoenix-a community of ten thousand people requiring in the daytime only 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 cowboy certainly had quarreis, sometimes, in the disorderly quarters at night; and there were stories of the use of the knife among Mexicans; but the visitor who went about his own business had as little trouble as on Board way or Chestnut street. The Pima and Maricopa Indians, who are encountered everywhere. have been friendly with the whites for generations, and there isn't an Apache within some hundreds of miles.
 Showers, and indeed heavy rains 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 shown by the Government observations, is but S11ll inches per year.
 IsIrA PLACE FIT TO LIVE IN!
 This depenG. n what one expects in a hnge, parsely Sc. led Territory of mount aims and deserts. he man who looks for either the beauty ol he seductive excite ment of Monte Carlo will not tind it. As little will he find 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 subdning it to the residence and uses of civilized man. But it has two transcontinental lines of railw ay 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 fer their climatic advantages, are Phoenix and Tucson. Each of them has 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 lecture or a circus, often horse race, and, in the spring. thoroughly curious and interesting "iesta." For the cest, people must take their amusemsnts 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; but there IS one we'll sprinkled drive of six or eight miles; and since the winds are quite regular in their direction, it is rarely difficult to choose a route or which the dust will be largely carried away frorl you. The unbroken desert itself is often as easy to drive over as an Eastern highway, and the whole valley is paradise for bicyclers, or eques- trians.