Tonopah bonanza. [volume] (Butler City [i.e. Butler], Nev.) 1901-1909, 1905-10-21
TERRoRs OF THE DESERT.
Awful Sufferings Of Those Who
Die of Thirst.

Many a mystery of disappearance
could be cleared up if the deserts of
southeastern California and southern
Nevada had tongue to tell things they
alone have seen. Many a vigil of wife
and mother, or father; sister or sweet
heart unweu, that must outlast the
empty years, would cease if the desert
wastes of California and Nevada could
give voice to the tragedies they alone
have witnessed.
No record ever will tell the names of
the hundreds upon hundreds Of lost
wayfarers, from all sections of the
United States and every part of the
civilized world-men who make up the
shifting populations Of the mining
districts of the west-who within the
last five years have gone mad and died
in those su~n-scorched, waterless
~solitudes. How many hundreds more
belong on the mournful lists of the
years preceding 1900 it is idle to even
speculate.
Notch by notch the u s%urmounts
the horizon, and to the half-mad man
Keeling in that solitude it seems as
though a furnace door has been thrown
open, letting into his fevered brain the
glare Of a molten world. The pallor of
fierce suffering has notified his burned
skin; his eyes are wild and bloodshot,
his features drawn. He is young, but
the pure light of the desert sunrise re-
veals him as a stumbling old man.
From nowhere in particular he has
come zigzagging out Of the dawn.
The sweat of yesterday has matted his
hair, and unkempt locks have %stiffened
on his forehead. Reason has foresaken
him; only the primal instinct of thirst
remains. He kneels by N of a mil
lion stunted scrubs, picks half a hand
full of pebbles cooled by the night, anc
forces them into his mouth.
Noon. Into the unshaded wilderness.
the mounted sun pours his intolerabl'
rays, making the thin air dance. My.
Rad i~nfnitesimal shadows lie shrunker
in under the innumerable clumps o.
brush. Even the gr%ay-backed lizard!
have ceased their darting and sough'
shelter from the midday blaze. Moth
ing moves. Nothing disturbes Thu
d~esolation Of silence but a lost man
crazed, bareheaded, sun-blinded, moan
ing for water, waterl in that scorchet
and barren waste. Anguish of thirs
the like of which may be only once en-
dured has drawn back his lips, and tn
sun has cracked and baked them. Hi
blackened tongue protudes.
Crouched in the desert, there drift
to his dying ears the music of splashinI
waters; to his dimming eyes appears
perfect vision Of fountains, and marbl
!, fronts, and fern-embowered shade
! and oh, it is so nearl Leaping, utter
ing delirious sounds, stopping to dives
: himself now of one frayed garment
2 now of another, naked he runs TO cas-
i. himself into his Eden of moisture, int
his palace of shadows-and stumble
e into the paradise of the grave.
Gold, pure gold Like some To-
/ luminous star on a yelled horizon
, lures the feet of men. In restles
dreams it burns above them, a yello'
! world amid the silver stars. In houl
Of eager walking it CLEANS beyont
richer than hues of sunset, brightC
than MONDAY glare; ever vanishing
2 ever appearing, fair and elusive,
: flame by night and a jewel by da,
' guiding its wistful votaries in trai
! that lead to nowhere; torturing then
thrilling them, cursing and caressir
n them, wooing them on to death!
In the Unreasonable silence of Il
desert dwells Thirst, theguard Of Col
: lettering, sightless, with parchmeI
lips and limbs devoid of flesh.