The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1913-08-27

rainbows. Wild rumors about Death |
Valley Scotty's big find in that sec
ton, electrified the country, and scores |
of prospectors rushed into the desert,
expecting to make their fortunes in |
few days. Beck was among those
present
There we're several in Beck's party.
They hiked many miles through the
mirage land, finding nothing worth
while. and worrying constantly lest
they exhaust their supply of water.
For two days they sought water holes
and when out of water they went for
hours with tongues swollen and lips
parched from want of moisture. Then
when death seemed inevitable they
suddenly discovered a tiny stream
trickling out Of canyon at the base
of the Panamint Mountains
when Beck returned to civilization
he was a changed man. He had seen
sands that were strewn with skulls,
and that sight had put big idea into
his head.
Game spring, and Beck made an
other trip through Death Valley. At
his side was Newfoundland dog. The
prospector carried a bundle of tin
strips. They we're signboards to guide
the wanderers steps Alright.
Each summer since then the pros
pector and his dog have made jour
ney to the land of the purple mist, pill
ing up rocks and attaching signs to
them. searching for lost travellers and
incidentally keeping a lookout for a
piece of precious metal Once or
twice Rufus has led his master to
prospectors who, after long suffering
from thirst. had fallen upon the burn
; ing sands to die. In signboarding the
desert Beck has saved a number Of
thirst-mad rainbow-chasers, and ha.
+ also. in remote districts, stumbled up
on the bleaching bones of dead mer
who may have found fortunes in tn,
! silver sulphuret district but who dic
not live to tell the world about II. A
one time he assisted at the burial o
!. four men who died of thirst withil
, two miles of a spring.
e The country that Beck traverses /
4 the most arid section of the American
!. continents dreary stretch of hur
a creek beds. chaparrel, prickly peal
z and there with foothills, buttes, dr.
e sreek beds, chaparrel, prickly pea
;. and sagebrush. Springs are mile
apart. Most of them are bitterly alkal
and some are poison.
p ION an ordinary summer afternoo
l. the Thermometer runs up to about IL
j. degrees in the shade out in Death Va
q ley, and the most unpleasant thin
e about 1t is that there is a dearth
/. shade. When man ventures out upc
e this tractless expanse, the shimmerir
heat dazes him. the scarcity of wat,
a crazes him, and the mirage-treache
Gus, lying thing of beauty that it is
looms ever before him, flashing upc
e the canvas of his minds eye verdaI
valley, gorgeously green with CROWN
q things. fresh with flowers, wet wit
water, and waiting to welcome hin
a He can see grassy hillslopes ju
d ahead, and the mirrored lake appeal
q to lie just beyond some beckonir
2. meadow. He follows on and on; an
"A afterward drains the last drop from b
\. canteen. Then his throat becom,
# parched, his tongue cleaves to the 70,
I. of his mouth. and strange things PAL
n. before his eyes. The buzzards begi
4 to soar over him, and the coyotes $
\. upon their hunkers and watch hi
A. chase rainbows until he pitches 70
a ward upon his face and closes h
eyes upon a world that is too nv
FERROUS and merciless for him to ling,
in 1ouOar~