Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-10-02
pah for a starting point and Red Butt
for q. --teImippS~- had elected pitcl

/! pah for starting point and Red Butte
for q -teEmipnS had-elect6d@ ito pitch
their. headquarters camp In the west
ern edge of the desert. no later Corners
| identity OF the camps sponsor who.
visioning, the things that were to be
borrowed from the California pioneers
and named the hating place on the
more material details Chandler was re-
sponsible. 1t was he who laid out the
division yards on the bald plain at the
foot of the first mesa, planting the
Crows Nest" headquarters building
| on the mesa side of the gridironing
| tracks. and scattering the shops and re-
4 pair plant along the opposite boundary
| of the wide right-of-way.
| The town had followed the shops, as
sheer necessity. First and always the
railroad nucleus. Angels became in turn,
and In addition, the forwarding station
| for copper mining district in the Tim
anyoni foothills. and little later, when
a rev adventurous cattlemen had dis
covered that the sun-cured heritage of
the desert borders was nutritious and
fattening, a stock-shipping point. But
even In the day of promise, when the
railroad building was at its height and
handful of promoters were plotting streets
and town lots on the second mesa, and
printing glowing tributes-for strictly
eastern distrtbution-tO the dry at
mosphere and unfailing sunshine, the
desert leaven was silently at work A
Few or the railroad men transplanted
their families: but apart from these.
Angels was mans town with elemental
appetites. and with only the coarse fare
of the frontier fighting line to satisfy
them.
Farther along the desert came more
definitely to it's own. The rich Red Butte
pockets began to show signs of ex-
iaustiOn, and the gulch and ore mining
afforded but precarious alternative to
the thousands who had gone in on the
crest OF the bonanza wave. Almost as
unanimously as it had swept into the
hill country. the tide of population swept
Timanyonis there was still an industrial
reason for being; but the railroad
languished. and Angels became the weir
to catch and retain many of the leav-
ings, the driftwood stranded in the slack
water Of the outgoing tide With the
railroad. the Copperette mine and the tx
barr" pay days to bring regularly re-
curing moments of f1ushness and with
every alternate door in Mesa avenue the
entrance to bar, a dance hall, gam
bling den, or the three in combination,
the elemental appetites grew avid, and
| the hot breath of the desert famed slow
fires of brutality tfAt ate the deeper
when they penetrated to the punk heart
of the driftwood.
1t was during this period of deflagra-
ton aid dry rot that the eastern owners
OF the railroad lost heart. Since the year
or the Red Butte thrush there had been
no dividends; and Chandler summoned
from another battle with the canyons in
the far northwest. was sent in to make
an expert report on the property. Sell
1t for what it will bring was the SUBJ
stance Of. Chambers advice; but there
were no bidders, and from this time on q
| masterless railroad was added to the
spoils of war-the nexpiable war of the
Red desert upon its invaders.
AT the moment of the moribund rail-
| roads purchase by the Pacific South
and more upon the town planted in its
western border. In the height of Angels
prosperity there had been, electric lights
and a one-car street tramWay, bank,
testing Its presence In rows of ornate cot
tages on the second mesa-alluring bait
thrown out to catch the potential saw
ings Of the railroad colonists.
electric lighted: the single ramshackIe
| street car had been turned into q chile
con-carne stand; the bank. unable to
!. compete with the faro games and the
| roulette wheels. had gone into liquida-
| ton: the building and loan directors had
long since looted the treasury and sought
fresh fields. and the cottages were chiefly
empty shells.
or the charter members of the building
and loan association, shreWdeSt of the
| many boomtime schemes for the separa-
ton Of the payroll man from his money.
only two remained as residents of Angels
the decadent. One of these was Gridley.
the master-mechanic, and the other was
Hallock. chief clerk for q diminishing
series of imported superintendents, and
now for the third time the disappointed
applicant for the headship of the Red
Butte Western.
| Associated for some brief time In the
real-estate venture. and hailing from the
same far-away eastern state and city.
these two had been at first yoke-fellOWS