Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-08-23
FASC n A TE S NJ { n
Deserts Call Them Into the
Wilds Again.
NEVER WANT TO LEAVE
THOSE WHO DWELL IN RAINLESS
REGIONS SATISFIED.
Men Who Voluntarily Spend Their
Lives in the Burning Sands
Satire in Names.
NEVER WANT TO LEAVE
BY WILLIAM K. CURTIS.

Special Correspondence of The Star and the ChIca
Record Herald
DAGGET. Cal, August H. 1905.
The desert has peculiar fascination
for men. 1t is an old saying that anyone
who drinks of the waters of the Nile will
always thirst for them, and man who
has once lived in a desert will never be
contented anywhere else. 1t Is the same in
all countries. People who live In deserts
never emigrate. You find very few natives
of India Arabia. Egypt. northern Africa
or other desert lands in other countries 1t
is difficult to drive them away from their
rainless homes. 1t is the people who live
In fertile regions. among trees and flowers
and springs and rivers tina, become dissatis-
fed with their homes and seek new ones
far away An Arab is fastened to the sand
by an affection that is not found in any
other people except the Hndus, and they
will starve to death by millions rather than
move. 1t Is an axiom that the less a man
has. the more he loves 1t; and the less
there Is in country to attract the inhabi-
tants, the stronger are the ties that bind
them to their homes.
A recently published novel called THE
Garden of Allah" by Robert Kitchens des-
cribes the fascination which the Desert OF
Sahara had for an English woman; and her
emotions and sentiments are not unsual
among tnOSe VINO dwell In the ralnleSS
regions of the southwest. although few Of
the latter stop to reflect realize their
own feelings or the irresistible force which
holds them. Another book on the same
subject is The Desert" by Prof. John C..
VanDyck Of Rutgers College, who has a
brother down here, growing alfalfa and
vegetables for the miners. He is man
of rare ability, culture and refinement. He
has tasted of the pleasures of all countries;
yet he finds full satisfaction in the life he
Is living here. 1t matters not to him that
water is 'two-blts" a gallon, and the Their
mometer stands at 112 in the shade, or
that men and animals are dying of thirst
within a days march of him. His artistic
soul finds all the food it wants In the sky,
the air and the mountains. Nor is he alone
in this feeling. Wherever you go in this
part of the country, you will find men who
have voluntarily spent their lives among
the burning sands. l have told you about
John Hance, the veteran guide at the Grand
Canyon of the Colorado, who. with $4,000
to his credit, left there to spend the rest Of
his life in Honolulu, but became SO home
sick before he got to Los Angeles that he
took the first train back to the Canyon.
There is a good deal of humor in the des-
ert besides the tragedy. One often sees
sign-boards inscribed:
KEEP OFF THE GRASS
when there is not a blade or a spear Of
green within forty miles. The other day, in
front of a dreary looking cabin In a long
stretch of hopeless sand, / saw a board
nailed to post with this pathetic inscrip-
ton:
PLEASE DO NOT PLUCK THE
FLOWERS"
The names of several of the towns ex-
press the satire of their inhabitants. IT
you will look on the railway guide or on
the map, you will find Saratoga Springs,
Arctic City" Siberia" "Snowline," Ice
Cave" ''Timberline." 'Pisgah' and others.
Then again we have "Sodom' and "Gomor-
rah," Ash Meadows Internal Flats, ="
Furnace Creek" Funeral Mountain and
so on There is a large sign In Death
Valley, reading as follows:
Saratoga Springs.
Christmas Day. 1900.
Twenty miles from Wood.
Twenty Miles from Water.
Forty Feet from He'll.
God Bless Our Home.
Please Keep OFF the Grass.
Don't Waste the Water.