Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1902-05-02

0A EFORE the railways came
6; / !; : 4
NJ the Great American Deser,
Ao/ was most primitive re-
gion, writes Robert e. Hill
U in The Worlds Work. In
~ 1880 1t was inhabited by O
population about as dense
~ as that Of the Sahara now
but In practically the same state
OF culture; and the mission bells
rang over the same civilization as
existed in 1928. The Inhabitants
practiced irrigation, agriculture and
architecture very much like that
Of the Egyptians of to-day. and
constructed dwellings of unburnt
brick and stone. The aborigine found
sustenance on the desert, but Of kind
upon which the white man could not
exist. Maize was his staple Of diet.
This with the tunis Cfruit of the
prickly pearl and the roots of various
yuccaceous plants, supplemented by a
few wild animals, provided an aborig-
inal diet pure and simple.
In Mexico the old desert cities and
country estates were practically in the
same status of civilization that exist
ed in the first century after discovery.
The cities had no commerce except
by caravan; the estates were great
feudal districts with their fortified
haciendas, to which all the surround
ing people were attached as fiefs. For
200 miles along either side of the in
ternational border in Mexico and in
our own desert country the uncon-
Quered Apache spread devastation
from the Pecos to the Colorado; and
the only white men there were the
soldiers at scattered and lonely out
posts, or bad men," endeavoring to
hide from civilization and scarcely
better than the Apaches In instincts or
action. Here and there in the United
States at the widely dispersed water
holes were a few nomadic ranchnen
who owned cattle Of primitive breed
for which there were no purchasers,
except the army and beef contractors.
Some mines were there also, but these
we're merely those with easily re-
duceable ores and limited in depth
by the distance which a man could
dig in solid rock without machines or
powder and from which burdens could
be carried on the human back. In
Utah alone had the white man OBJ
tanned foothold.
With the advent of the railroads the
modern conquest of the desert began.
1t was first awakened from its CEN
turtles of lethargy by the whistle of the
locomotive in the SOS. In the Great
American Desert in the United States
and Mexico there are now more than
5000 miles of railway.
The first railways constructed were
designed merely as highways be-
tween the Atlantic and Pacific sea-
boards. No thought Of revenue from
the desert itself was anticipated. Next
came a great longitudinal line follow
ing the ancient trails of the Aztec
from Mexico to Santa Fe. Mining and
population soon followed these trunk
lines, which are now extending out
syen into the utmost recesses of the
desert, and these feeders-built or in
process of construction-will soon
equal the aggregate Of mileage of the
original trunk lines. From the Peces
in Texas to California, distance OF
1.5OO miles, the route of the Southern
Pacific followed a belt of country de-
void of water except occasionally In
the Rio Grande. Not herd of cat
tie, a modern house, farm or mine
existed along this desert stretch. Nor
would they exist to-day had 1t not
been for the construction of this rail-
way. Now its course is marked by
many prosperous embryo cities AMI
villages.
Notwithstanding the apparent scar
,ity of water, one of the most remark
This pretty house in southern Cali
fornia stands on a site once covered
by wind-beaten sands. Irrigation
has wrought the change.)
able features of the American Desert
is that water has been secured, often
in apparently impossible places. and
in quantities that have made possible