Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1901-08-21
OUR TEMPE BUDGET.
Vivid DeScriptcOn of The Young Tor nadO Which UnrOOfed Buildings and UprOOted Torches.
Some Pertinent Inquiries as to The PerpetuatiOn and PubIica- tion of Dr. rIiIIer's Antiquarian Work. \,
Work. \

seems to thlnk thlS country IS not so very hot, but we who hang ours up in
 old-fashioned places entertain diff ferent opinion. For d while during
 the summer it was 120 deg. in the
 shade, and the air just hung around
 in state bordering on spontaneous
 combustion. You could almost hear
 it crackle, and I had to sit for hours
 each day with wet towel over my
 head to cool my fevered brow (as the
 poet saith.) But that didn't last long
 and, altho' the summer has been hot
 enough at any time to heat wash
 water in the sun, we have remarked
 with gratitude that no one Shas been
 prostrated or killed by the heat If,
 as our wise men tell us, Father Sol
 has a greater amount of heat in store
 for after years, what is to become of
 the children of men?
 Someone has remarked that the backbone of summer is broken now, because of the two awful storms that have visited us. Last Saturday even ing a frisky little breeze about the size of half grown tornado came wandering through town with several carloads of sand in front of it, and plavfully blew down a barn. Sunday night another breeze of more gigantic proportions came in on a regular jam boree and smashed things right and left. Concluding, in its haste, that Rev. TomIinson's house hadn't the right kind of covering, it removed the roof and left the family with the cell ing between themselves and the storm that was raging overhead. Then it whirled across the street and tore down all the porches it could find from Hotel Atwood up to the place | where porches were no more. Not | content with this, it hit Billy Good wins ware house a backhanded lick | and completely demolished it. All this time I was lying in cot under my own porch witnessing such Q storm | as had never before seen. Of course the sand came in first. At first it was so thick that I could see but a little distance, but the rain followed and settled it. And the thunder.--well, it seemed as if every gun in natures artillery, long and short ranges, open ed at once right over Tempe. We had thunder and lightning enough and to spare. It seemed a pity to waste so much valuable electricity, but it couldn't be helped Well, we had a good rain, and that was what We were longing for, but nevertheless we are sorry for those to whom the storm seems to have been a misfor- tune. The choking dust, which is such a disagreeable feature of the valley, will be settled for time. The rain was not really needed for the ranches just now, for there is an abundance of water.
 There is one redeeming feature of the summer here, and that Is the brisk breeze that springs up almost every day. The still cloudy days are very hard to bear, but, happily, they are few.
 This is fine year for the valley. Just as the water supply ran short the rains in the mountains sent down an abundance, thus insuring an un- usual amount for irrigation.
 I have driven around the valley a great deal since coming here, and it seems to me that the people are pros pering greatly. They have fine rdnches, and good houses, and should thank God and be happy and con tented, but every body can't look at it that way. Is man ever happy who, looking away from his own abun- dance, craves also his neighbor's pos sessions! It seems that there will always be an Ahab, as long as Naboth has vinyard. Down on the Verde l used to feed the COWS, partly for fun and partly because I feared that they would not be given enough, and there was one old COW who couldn't eat for fighting away the others, so afraid was she that she wouldn't get it all. Now there are people in this world just like my old, greedy COW; they would leave their own abundance to run and rob some body else. 1 knew the dog, the hog, the fox and the wolf possessed some of the lower instincts of man, but bless me if thought to find an old COW such a correct representation of certain type. And yet we can't ac- cept evolution, and Professor Hackel went all the way to Java to search for the missing link It won't be long, now, until our birds of passage will return. In other words, it wouldn't be long until all those who fled from the heat will return. September will see them coming home, from noun tains and seashore, to take up the duties of school and home.
 Now that Dr. Miller has passed over, what are we to do for some one to fill his place? And is his fine col ] lection to be lost to Arizona! It is quite impossible that the majority of ] people take no interest in prehistoric matters; the mystery surrounding ! Arizona's past does not appeal to them, but there are those who read with avidity all tracings of vanished hu- manity. They who take an interest ia such things should move at once towards having Dr. Mlller's collec- lection preserved to the territory. The last time l saw Dr. Miller was last Spring while he was superintend- | ing the excavation of the ruin near Tempe He told me then that he had | been solicited by leading magazines to write up his explorations and dis | coveries in the territory, but he had | replied to them that he was not ready. | The doctor was too earnest in his | work in this fine not to have left on record much that will be of great as sistance to the student of ethnologv. Who will place this matter before the public? In other words. who will write up the doctors explorations and the results of his investigations? It is to be hoped that Arizona will keep his valuable collection and that some one, through a leading magazine. will give the world the benefit of the doctors accumulated knowledge.