Churchill standard. (Fallon, Nev) 1903-1908, 1905-11-04
EDITORIAL COMMENT
TERRORS Ct THE DESERT.
". < Black. Editor

NTANY a mystery of disappearance could be cleared up If the
l1 deserts of Southern California and Southern Nevad;
had tongue to tell things they alone have seen. Many a vigil o
wife and mother. or father: sister or sweetheart unwed, tina
must ounast the empty years, would cease if the desert waste
of california and Nevada could give voice to the tragedies they
alone have witnessed.
No record will ever tell the names of the hundreds upon hun
dreds of lost vavfarers, from all sections of the United States ao
every part Of the civilized world-men who make up the shiftm'
nonuIations of the mining districts OF the wtst-Nho within tn.
last five wears have gone mad and died in those sun-scorched
waterltss solitudes. How many hundreds more belong on tn
mournful lists of the years preceding 1900 it is idle to ever
speculate.
Notch BY notch the sun 81 rmounts the horizon, and to the
banfmad man reelng in the solitude it seems as though a urnac,
door has been thrown open, letting into his tevered brain the
glare OF a molten world. The palor OF fierce suffering has
notified his burned skin; his eyes are wild and %bloodshot, h,
features drawn. He Is Young, but the pure light of the desert
sunrise reveals him as Il shambling old man. From nowhere IL
particular he has come Hgzagging out of the dawn. The sweat
of Yesterday has matted his hair. and unIempt locks have
stiatned on his forehead. Reason has forsaken him; only the
primal instinct of thirst remains He knees by one of a million
stunted SHRUBS. picks halt a handful OF pebbles cooled by the nigh.
and forces them into his mouth.
Noon. Into the unshaded wilderness the mounted sun pours
its i~ntoerable rays, making the thin air dance. Myriad in
intestinal shadows lie shrunken in under the innumberai e
cumbs OF brush. Even the gray-backed lizards have ceased the
darling and sought shelter from the midday blaze. Nothing
moves. Nothing disturbes this desolation of silence but a los
man, crazed, barehead,d, sun blinded moaning for water, water.
in that scorched and barren waste. Anguish of thirst the like O
which may be only once tnCu'ed has drawn back his lips, auo
the sun has cracked and baked them. HIS blackened tongue pro
trudeS
Crouchea in The desert, there drifts to his dying ears til,
music of splashng waters; O hs thinning eyes appears a penec
vision of fountains, and marble nonts, and fernemboNtrtd shad,
and oh, it is so near. Leaping, utterng deirious sounds, stop
ping to diye>t himself now OF one trayed garment, nov OF another.
naked he runs TO cast himself into his Eden OF moisture, into hs
palace of shadows-and stunbIes into the paradise of The grave
Gold, pure gold. Like some low luminous star on the veile,
horizon 1t lures The feet OF men In ruslless dreams it burns
above them. a yellow world amid the silver stars In hours OF
eager walking It CLEANS beyond, richer than hues of sunset.
brighter than MONDAY glare; ever vanishing, ever appearing
fair and elusive, a flame by night and a jewel by day, guiding it,
wrstful votaries in trails that lead to nowhere; torturing then
thrilling 'hen ur>ie and care>>re then and Wooing them OF
to death,
In the unreasonable sjenc, of the desert dwels Thirst, the
guard of Gold; tottering >ightess, with parchment lips and limbs
devoid OF he h-Tonopah Bonanza.