Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-08-16
ITS HANDSOME HOMES
ARIZONA has A HIGH RATIO
OF LITERACY.
Church Statistics Are Surprising
Present Population Is Enough
to Entitle It to Statehood.
By WILLIAM Z. CURTIS
Special Correspondence of The Star and the Chicago
Record Herald


est mineral districts in the world. and the
residences Of the owners and managers OF
the mines and smelters are here. Hence
club which cost $50. 600; its opera house.
which seats 900 and cost $50 600: its cum
ming little library, so small and dainty that
you can almost pick It up and put 1t in
your pocket. Prescott is the distributing
point of supplies for large and wealthy
district and the place where the employees
OF some of the most profitable mines in the
country come to spend their money after
pay days. Hence Its large, fine retail
stores and big show windows. full Of al
Turing articles. The population Is less than
5000, perhaps not more than 5000: but 1t
Is more Of a city than any other place I
know of with that number Of people.
The residences. almost without exception
are of tasteful architecture. and every one
of them seems to have been painted last
week. There Is not a shabby house in
town, and they are all surrounded by neat
ly-kept grounds. Half the population seem
to be sprinkling their lawns after business
hours. 1t costs good deal Of trouble and
money to keep a lawn and garden in this
arid section, and therefore people value
such things more than they do in New
England where lawns and gardens take
care of themselves.
mine owners and president Of the Santa
Fe, Prescott and Phoenix railroad. is turn
ing an ugly, stony hill on the outskirts OF
the city into a beautiful park, and is spend
ing a great deal Of money making drive
ways and other improvements. 1t is filled
with fine examples Of desert vegetation and
rugged lodges Of rock-not rare combina-
ton in this region-and II 1t could be trans
ferred to Chicago 1t would be a treasure
beyond price. Mr. Murphy intends to pre-
sent the park to the city one Of these days,
but he Is going to have the fun of fixing
1t up himself first, and in other ways is
acting the part of a fairy godfather to the
town.
Academy Of st. Joseph.
The most conspicuous building in Prescott
is the Academy of st. Joseph, which stands
on a rocky elevation overlooking the town
an imposing building which cost 100000,
where hundred or more young women are
being educated. Mr.. Murphy gave the
ground on which 1t stands to the sisters.
The next most conspicuous building Is
$50, COO school house, as good as they nave
In Indianapolis-and yet Senator Beverage,
who was of the serio-comic actors In
the statehood drama that was played IN
the United States Senate last winter, says
the people down here are illiterate.
The ratio of literacy is higher than It Is
in Indianapolis, and the average attend
ance at the schools and the amount OF
money expended for education per capita
Is nearly double that of the town and the
state in which he lives. With a population
of ID, 1919, Yavapai county has an average
attendance OF 1892 children in forty-five
schools, taught by sixty teachers, and an
average of S22.S2 per capita of attendance
is paid in taxes for their support Senator
Beverage may think that Arizona Is not
fit for statehood, but in her banks and
stores, her schools, clubs. theaters, resi-
dences and other evidences of civilization
and culture Prescott is far ahead Of In
dianapolis or any other town Of Indiana
when the difference in population is consid-
cred and if you would consider the place
he came from there would be no compari-
son at all.
The banks and business blocks are built
of light-colored brick, which gives the
town a cheerful appearance-or tufa--a vol
canic rock that is very soft and easily
dressed when It is first dug out from the
mountain, but hardens with exposure until
1t becomes as firm as granite. The capitol
at Phoenix Is built of this material and
all the other important buildings In the
territory The streets of Prescott seem too
wide for the town, the narrowest being a
hundred feet, but there Is plenty OF room
on the plateau for million people. In the
center OF the city Is plaza surrounding an
ugly court house and decorated with trees
and plants that gre nursed as carefully as
a young child Much of the beauty and the
newness of Prescott is due to fire in 1901
that swept nearly the whole town away,
and every building Of Importance has been
erected since tnen.
On the north side of the town is Fort
Whipple, a United States military post,
which is being rebuilt to accommodate four
companies, at a cost or million or more
dollars.
Lots of Little Valleys.
While Prescott and this part of Arizona
are chiefly dependent upon the mines. there
are lots Of little valleys Of great fertility
lying in the foothills and between the
90 ha toIp lota
tracts of from 1000 and 10000 acres which
have been pretty well taken up by farmers.
who raise corn, wheat, alfalfa and vege-
tables and irrigate their crops by wells.
There Is plenty of water fifty to a hun
dred feet under the surface. Sometimes 1t
Is pumped up by small gasoline engines,
but usually 1t flows under good pressure.
Many farmers make their living out Of the
soil in this way and derive a large profit
from sheep, cattle and goats. which have
free ranges on the government land around
them. They sell their beef. mutton. veg
etables and alfalfa in the towns and min
ing camps around them.
There Is a mistaken idea in the east about
Arizona. While 1t is recognized as one Of
the richest store houses Of metals in the
universe, II is supposed to be hopeless
desert, and those who live here are OBJ
Jects of pity and solicitude. But, while
the rocks are many and the sand covers a
large area of the territory, these little
valleys l have just described are as fertile
as the soil Of Egypt or the prairies of
Iowa, and nowhere can larger return per
acre be obtained II water Is available. The
reports of the geological survey credit Ari-
IONA with ten million acres of arabic lands
more than all the New England states
combined-and the average yield per acre
under irrigation Is several times great
as can be harvested from any farm east
of the Allegheny mountains. Seven crops
of alfalfa are cut in some localities near
here and two crops can be harvested from
nearly every farm.
Nearly all of the land that can be easily
irrigated has been taken up, and the de-
velopment Of other districts Is dependent
upon the construction Of reservoirs for the
storage of the spring floods and expensive
irrigation systems. This can only be done
by the federal government, and is now con-
templated under the Newlands reclamation
act. What Is known as the Salt river dam,
near Phoenix, which Is already under con-
struction, will mako available more than
300, 600 acres of the most fertile land in the
world. The system that is planned for the
Colorado desert will bring under cultiva-
ton about 100000 acres, and the dam at
Yuma, which Is soon to be constructed, will
add 10000 acres to the farming lands of
the territory. This will bring In q large
population. because the new territory thus
irrigated will be cut up into farms of ten,
fifteen and twenty acres each.