The Ordway new era., 1916-04-28

COUNTRY OF treeless Nils, OF
n dried up, thirsty water courses;
IL a country of eternal sunlight.
4 OF great stretches made desc.
,.,e by sand and the white crust Of
,lkali; a land of prairie dogs. looping
,,ck rabbits. lonely hawks circling In
, eIoudless sky. This is northern Mex
I'm where an American army went In
pursuit OF Villa
The state Of Chihuahua and its west
su neighbor, Sonora, have been VII
his stamping ground. They are the
,yo largest states In Mexico. although
sonora had only 221.6s2 inhabitants
6ye years ago and chihuahua 1921. 800.
Betyeen the states. and tapping over
into both, lie the Sierra Madre noun
taIns on whose wooded slopes. dark
with mines, bears. black and grizzly.
mountain lions and leopards abound.
II is a high-lying country. Four
oiths OF Chihuahua Is table land 1000
10 5000 feet above the sea. Snow falls
In winter time in the mountains. and
rivers that are valleys full of dry
stones most of the year become rush
ing torrents after a storm.
But the rivers are few and the
stretches Of arid country very great
Always in northern Mexico you have
the impression of vastness. and the
sharp.toothed hills against the blue
sky the naked hills. washed In the
sunlight of thousand years, add to
the bigness and the loneliness and the
desolatIon OF 1t all. There Is little life
apparent. Here and there cattle Craze,
for cattle and mining are the life Of
this country Sometimes you pass
where ragged Mexican in sombrero
and serape herds flock Of goats. Lit
lie dusty. sun.baked settlements OF
low adobe houses huddle beside the
nilroad track at far intervals in the
desert.
Land Of Mirage.
The dust is choking often; white, al
kali dust that gets into your throat and
eyes. burns, blinds and chokes. The
Illusion Of lakes is not uncommon In
The shimmering heat: they seem to lie.
broad and shallow in the sun, and
With tall. feathery trees around their
rims. Neither lakes nor trees are
there. This Is northern chihuahua.
aong the line of the Mexican Central
1ilroad.
Sonora, wilder country. has only
one real line of railway. q division OF
The Southern Pacific which runs down
to Guaymas.
Chihuahua Is q country Of mines
and great cattle ranches. Sonora Is
even richer In minerals. and has been
since Spanish days. 1t furnished the
md Of Montezuma, and afterward
many Jealous padre built churches
with the gold Of the Sonora hills. Hid
zen In the hills lie many fertile val
lsys and irrigation has produced rich
crops; but farming 10 not one Of the
great industries Of Sonora.
halfwild cattle roam the Chihuahua
pains; the great haciendas count their
'cfes BY the hundreds of thousands.
h easy to understand why caval-
Y aad to form large part Of the ex-
pediuonary force against Villa. This
aa country Of horsemen; Villas fol-
lowers have lived on horseback. Va
suesos. they are. many of them. Mexi-
ua cowboys; and when they became
ssnters 1t was natural that they should
0'cone troopers rather than Infantry
men.
Mach Of the arid country 10 admira-
Wy adapted for horseback going; 1t 10
A.fd packed. sandy soil.
Cities Are Few.
clues Of size are few: the most i'm
ol,ant Of these 10 Chihuahua, capital
Z me state Of the same name. There
.uarez, Of course. the sordid, monde.
= nN and squalid town acrosS from
lsso where gambling. bull nghtinG
~ forms Of iniQuity are accus'
40 70 run withont much ourb. Then
~ naesert. and $50 miles to the south
saeahua. chihuahua has popula'
~ ~ q close on 10000. II II an ancient
esung from Spanish. aays, and Y
rs without IL beanty. eet n thu
q wide circls of tfsslss6 hills
eva and the tMln scwesa "a tn
etd cathedral ~ Gan yf4Aeisce
may - te1i llS1a 7 4; G1 sfldiS
lGncA oeo 1lIiI a ~ r. ~