Saturday news. (Watertown, S.D.) 19??-19??, 1914-03-12
c. H. Lester Writes an
lntesting Letter Of Trip

{ pen, however able, can describe
created of the earth and air and sky
by the Great Master Artist and ol
such rare beauty as to battle the copy.
ing brush of man. Passing on over
1 the fine road over these mountains we
4 We're soon at Vail and then We're
4 driving fast over the new state high
way toward the present metropolis Of
/ Arizona, the "Old Pueblo" of mystery
4 tradition and history -Tucsons On
this part of the drive We could plain
! " see, far to the southward, nestled
on the bosom of the Santa Clara val
Hey and apparently at the footSof the
| towering Tucson Mountains the little
/ volcanic cone, wherein is situated the
| replica of the Grotfo of Lourdes and
hard by the glittersng white structure
surmounted by its fine towers of the
Mission San Xavier del Bac. In that
bloody period of Indian rebellion
against Spanish rule long ago, the In.
dians of this mission by their vaIor,
fortitude, and loyalty to their Christ
/ ian teaching and although often in
danger of utter extermination, sue
nessfully defended their mission
against the attacks of pagan tribes
and held it inviolate until the time
of the return of the padres. While
i idischarging what to them was a duty
! of holW trust, they in SO doing pre-
served to the present age an old mis-
sion noted as being very much the
best preserved of any in the United
1 States. He who visits. Tucson should
not fail to visit del Bac.
/ Eating lunch at Tucson we hurried
on through a wonderland OF desert
! vegetation, soon reached Florence and
another fast desert run soon brought
lus to the valley of the Salt, with its
green fields and flowers and great
kherds OF high grade cattle pasfuring
1.-THE rank grass and barley PASSING
on through Mesa and Tempe we stop
i5ned sat Pl,oe1'iy ca nttal sssits ona
| for gas and then drove swiftly through
! the tree bordereG lanes leading west
ward from the city. AS l drove along
the song birds We're singing and their
songs certainly sounded good when
suddenly other birds--whole fields of
| ithem-great high long necked and
long legged gangleshanks, with voices
something between a squak and a
grunt and the assurance of the ut
terly unabashed, came into view. Ac-
cording to the last assessment return
there are nearly four thousand Of this
kind of adult birds in Maricopa coun-
! ty and as rode by the "Ostrich
Farm | could not see why every pret-
lty girl in Arizona should not have a
/ plume
| We reached Buckeye at just seven
and stopped our second days run
having travelled 1924 miles in $40,
having averaged a little more than
itwenty-four miles an hour during the
| day.
| Tuesday morning the road was wet
t and slippery from an over night rain
and We had a fiat tire. Finally get
iitnig away at 900 O'clock we drove
! the burnt district at good speed when
we reached it, but found the road
taiong the ella river slow, because of
the deep loose silt and many chuck
holes. Reached Aqua Calienti at noon
and had to wait until one for dinner
or eat canned goods and crackers
We waited and got started again at
l130. On this days drive I saw a.
bit of sarchasm bitter and inappro-
pirate because along these old trails
and especially this Yuma Trail in the
old days the bodies of many young.
men, some women and a few children
We're left along the way.
While driving through district.
that still shows Yividly the effect of
volcanic heat and where vegetation
10y III 4 y " StCiiCdlis uOllShioleNitJ -
saw neatly made mound of cali
cined earth shaped to represent a
child's grave. Large letters arranged
in a semicirc1e and built of coal black
stones, admonished the passerby with
Don't pick the flowers, and this
where the smile Of God was never
5KnoMn
After an uneventfnl afternoon run
we reached Dome, using $ hours and
As minutes TO travel 1874 miles and
averaging only 19 miles an hour for
the day.
The next morning we left Dome at
eight and one hour and ten minutes
later We're in Yuma We left Yuma
Iat 10:b5 and driving northward thru
the Yuma Indian reservation were
soon onto the mesa and headed away