Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-08-21

marine-blue TINT" and announces that his
ONCE 'is located 212 feet from hell" His
editorial departments are called along the
Coral Strand" 1.-THE Undertow," and his
funny department Is dedicated to McGinty;
who, as you will remember, fell to the bot
tom of the sea Since Mr.. Freeman showed
how to do 1t. two other newspapers have
been published In the desert-the Randsburg
Miner at the chief town OF the gold-mining
district, and the Imperial Press at the
capital city of what was recently known as
the Colorado desert. but Is now called I'm
perfal Valley" and Is being rapidly settled
by irrigation farmers.
Running Desert Newspaper.
Il is quite job to run newspaper in
desert, with the thermometer averaging
10 or lis degrees Fahrenheit the year
round: where the rollers will melt Off the
presses and lie like pools OF molasses on the
floor. Hence you may appreciate the great
work these gentlemen are doing. They
show as much energy in getting news and
work just as hard to interest their readers
as any other editors in the universe They
are devoting their lives and their talents
TO building up the little towns down in this
desolate country. and keeping people cheer
ful and while you may say that they are
not compelled to come here and that no
one can make them stay against their will,
take OH my hat in the presence of men
o" their endurance and devotion and con-
graduate them upon their enterprise and
usefulness.
There are several thriving towns in the
Mohave desert-Bagdad, Daggett. Barstow.
johannesburg. Randsburg, and others
where men are eagerly hunting for gold
and silver and are trying to get rich with
a thermometer hanging around the 100 mark
day and night. They bring their wives and
families down here. too although you
would think that they would suffer tor
ments. But they seem to get along very
comfortably. They have hotels, churches.
Goh ~,
the other appurtenances OF civilization, and
live in comparative comfort. Some of them
insist that they like it. but I always regard
such persons with suspicion.
The Santa Fe Railroad Company has in
troduced pretty little frill to break the
nonotony of the journey across the desert.
for 1t has to be crossed whichever road you
take in coming to California. except the
Northern Pacific or the Great Northern.
The tracks are oiled in the desert and
there is no dust. The locomotives burn
petroleum for fuel. which gives very little
smoke and no cinders: and the seven or
eight hours that is required for crossing the
hot country are made comfortable as
possible. On the limited trains of the Sante
FL road, howeyer-in the hottest and most
desoIs.te part of the journey a little page
in f<:ery, sreckled all over with buttons,
passes through the cars and hands each
lady bunch of fragrant. spicy. cool carnd-
tons. AS a soul-reviver there is no better
flower and this novel and tasteful idea Is
gratefully appreciated.
The town of Daggett is the headquarters
of the borax industry, and there you see
the big wagons and twenty-mule teams that
were exhibited at the st. Louis exposition.
These wagons hold ten tons of borax.
Their boxes are sixteen feet long, four feet
wide and six feet high: the front wheels
are five feet and the hind wheels seven feet
in diameter, with tires eight inches wide,
and with the load and a water wagon,
which is always taken trailer lest the
driver and his beasts perish on the journey
from thirst, the entire load amounts ID
about twenty tons, a ton to each mule.
These teams are being abandoned however.
and traction engines are now being used
over oiled roads in place of them. The
discovery that a mixture of oil and sand
will form hard wheeling surface has made
the use of automobiles and traction engines
possible in the desert, and has prolonged
the life and mitigated the suffering of
many an honest beast of burden. Animals
suffer just as much as men do in the
desert: even burro has been known to die
of thirst. In the salt mines traction engines
are also being used, with wheels whose
tires are ten and twelve inches wide.
Borax in Death Valley.
There are millions upon millions of tons
of borax In these deserts Death Valley
has been called a vast chemical warehouse,
where nature has stored rare and valuable
medicines as well as minerals; and 1t is
undoubtedly true that the former have
borax mines have been worked since 1888.
and vast quantities have been taken out of
them. 1t Is due to this important deposit
that the price of borax has been reduced
from 81 to 10 cents a pound, and even at
that rate the Englishmen who own the
company have made large fortunes.
Borax appears in several formS-in
white crust lying upon the surface of the
earth: in salts crystals, known
boreat, and in cotton balls" as they are
Battle-Ground masses of ulexite fibrous in
appearance and varying from the size of
an ordinary pea to that of a bushel basket.
When the boraX is brought to Daggett
1t is shoveled from the big wagons into a
crusher. which grinds 1t into a powder,
which is then passed through rollers like
those used in -four mill Then the pow
der is mixed with carbonate of soda, also
mined in Death Valley. and the mixture Is
boiled and stirred until 1t is thoroughly
dissolved. Then it is run out into watts
and allowed to cool. After cooling the
liquor Is drawn off and the crystals cling
ing to the bottom of the vat are put into