Arizona republican., 1906-08-09
TIE DESCENT OF A BURRO
Became the Subject of Contemplation
 in Justices Court.


 [ spondence of The Republican, )-What : is believed to be the first case of arrest ] for cruelty to animals in the history of the local justice court, came up for ! trial the latter part of last week and was settled by the dismissal of the | defendant shortly after the case was | brought into court.
 | The greater part of the wood supply ! of the town is brought in from outside points on the backs of burros, and one of the chief packers of this wood is one Fernandez Mexican. In the em- | ploy of Fernandez, and in charge of one ! of his largest punches of burros is one Bernardo Diaz. About two weeks ago when Diaz was bringing in the bunch heavily laden with wood. it was neces- sary for him to cross an exceedingly difficult piece of trail to reach town, and in trying to effect a crossing one | of the burros fell from the trail with his pack and was killed. In falling. the animal rolled down the steep mountain side for some distance. and if the words of Diaz are true, he was ! too late in discovering the animals pligbt to be of any help to him.. How ever that may be. Fernandez upon hearing of the loss of one of his pack animals laid the blame on Diaz. and ! forthwith secured a warrant for the mans arrest. Diaz demanded a jury trial, which was granted. and the case was set for the following day.
 Diaz and his counsel set forth their case in a straightforward manfier and just about as.it has been told here. It is most coinmon practice among the packers hereabout to load their animals so heavily that they can hardly .stagger under their loads, and this was Ire quently done by the smen in tffe em- ploy of FernaHdez.s ESceptf f5na9fy bad | roads and trails ninst@sbe Hassads over in bringing the wood to town. land it II has been the cause of no little com II ment that the loss of animals in the N past has been no greater than it has |, The jury was convinced that, while the man Diaz, was the only witness to the acident, he had told the truth and that he was in no way unnecessarily cruel to the animals in his care and he was acquitted.
 The hot spell which has been so gen. erally prevalent throughout this part of Arizona for the past few weeks. was brought to an end on Monday flight of this week by a most cooling and wei come rain that started in shortly be- 1 fore midnight and continued until al most 9 o'clock the following morning. During that time 1.02 inches fell, as measured by the official gauge, but the precipitation was of such a nature that no great rise in the river was felt, only a few inches being recorded. The dust was settled and temperature consider ably lowered by another shower which fell for a short while on Thursday af- ternoon, inches being recorded. While the fall of water was very heavy and occurred in a very short time, no dam age was done and the effect on the river was practically nothing.
 MT. E. Durga the cement expert in charge of the government cement plant al this place, left on Tuesday morning for a somewhat extended tour of the projects in the states of Montana, Wy oming and Idaho. During his absence MT. Durga will make a thorough ex- animation into all passible cement rock deposits near these projects and make a report on them to the author ities in Washington. Cement manu- facture on the Salt river project has been so cheaply and successfully done that should the government be placed in a similar position elsewhere as it was here. it can manufacture it's own Il cement with all the material at hand. MT. Durga will possibly be absent sev- eral weeks.
 .i MT. Walter Ludkin the government photographer returned the early part of the week from a tour of the Carlsbad, Hands and Yuma projects where he has been for the last three weeks mak- ing photographs of all construction work in progress.
 MT. George Wilson and H. C. Foster. two gentlemen, from, Tempe, were vis- itors at the government camp on Fri day. as guests of MT. C. NJ Paddock.
 MT, s. B. Taggart who has been ab- sent for several weeks on his vacation through Colorado and. California, re- turned to the project last Saturday to again take up. his duties in the govern ment office here. 2S
 John Nj. Urqnhart and son Donald, left on Wednesday .mornirg stage en- route to Iron Springs for asvisit to Bfre Il UrqUhart who is spending the summer there, L I.s.Aaa. ..s.sA ...s...s a.S,..s...