The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1901-10-13

Mexico. In what measure IL is RESPONSE
BILE for the general climate of those States
cannot be summarized, but it certainly
has a great influence, especially. in the
matter of producing dry air.
Who shall say that the preternatural
productiveness of California is not due to
the warm air of its surrounding deserts?
They furnish health to the human. Why
not strength to the plant?
THE deserts should never be reclaimed.
They are the breathing spaces of the
West and should be preserved forever.
To speak of sparing anything because 1t
is beautiful is to waste ones breath and
to incur rid:cule. The main affair of life
is TO get the dollar and if there is any
money in cutting the throat of Beauty,
why bv ali means cut her throat"
In the night for life on the desert, where
rabbits eat bush, coyote eats rabbit and
the drought chokes them all, it is inter
esting to see how nature protects her
children.
Half the plants on the desert put forth
their leaves with impunity: they are not
disturbed by either bTowsers or grazers.
Some of them are poisonous, many of
them are cathartic or emetic, nearly all
of them are disagreeable to the taste.
so it seems with spines, thorns, var
nishes, resins and smells nature has
armed her desert own very effectually.
waste may not seem worth while, but ma
ture does not think so. To her the cac-
tus on the desert is just as important in
its place as the arrowy pine on the noun
tain
But they are useful, these desert
growths? Certainly they are. just as use
full as the pine tree or the potato plant.
To be sure man cannot saw them into
boards or cook them in a pot; but then
hos le
look after; other uses for her products
than supporting human life. She tolls and
spins for all alike and man is not her
special care.
THE life of the desert lives only by
adapting itself to the conditions of the
desert. Nature does not bend the elements
to favor the plants or animals: she makes
the plants and animals do the bending.
The evening primrose must get used to
heat and drought the coyote must go
without food and water for long periods.
Even comDlacent man fares no better
than coyote or chOlla: he must endure the
same heat. thirst and hunger, or perish.
What wonder. then. that there is the
determination of the starving in all desert
life Everything pursues or is pursued
Every muscle is strung to the highest ten
sion. The bounding deer must get away:
the swift following wolf must not let him.
The gray lizard dashes for ledge of rock
like fash 'of light; but the bayonet bill
of the road runner must catch him before
he gets there. Neither can afford to miss
his mark"
And last of all the author tells of the
real tragedy. the threat. the horror of the
desert 1t is creeping all the time. 1t bit
piece off the sea. as we saw at the head
Of the Gulf Of California and licked it drv
TIL there was but a pillar Of salt left It
is creeping on the lakes and dying them
out. leaving q mirage in the place. Its
sands are creeping over the forest and
choking them. 1t is the slow coming of
the end of the world. OF this he saws:
our outlook is limited, but have we not
PROOF in our own moon that worlds do die?
What was the element that failed? Per-
haps IL was water. Perhaps it died
through thousands Of years with the slow
evaporation of moisture and the slow
growth of-the desert" published nv
Charles Scribner's Sons, New York;
The October Impressions, published by
Elder & Shepard of San Francisco, has
book mark and leaflet concealed among
its pages. This idea of getting some
thing for nothing" always seems to take
with the American people-whether it is
a piece of crockery with pound of tea,
d brass ring with a box of popcorn or a
leafiet and book mark with an Impress
sions.
There was no particular objection to
Mr.. Morgan's observations of Jay-a
Dog" AS book it did well enough for
those interested in dogs mental insides.
Selections quoted from it a random might