Arizona republican., 1916-02-07
.AR|zON' 5 STORY
 E COMMEN NDED
Mr. Parish $ History of Ari- zona Reviewed at Length and Very Favorably by the New York Evening Post

The New York Evening Post devotes more space to Hon. Thomas F. Farish's History of Arizona than, perhaps, the history of any other state would have commanded, more than q half column. This is the history which The Repub
 Gcan has been the means of diStribut- ing widely not only throughout this, but other states. The Post says of it:
 The early history of Arizona is more romantic than that of the avera ge American state: it is a wonderful story of daring Spanish explorations, of the seven cities of Cibola, of the growth of the missions, of the arrival of Pike and
 Kit Carson ahd the other explorers brought by the santa Fe trail, and, fin ally of the conquest of the region by Taylor, kearney, and DOniphan. The later record, however, except for the
 Indian hOstilities and the brief period of fighting between Union and Confed-
 crate forces, has been an uneventful
 narrative of mining and agricultural development. So much has been writ
 ten of the early phase that Thomas E. Parish historian by commission of the legislature. naturally occupies himself in greater part with the more colorlesS years following the treaty of Guade- lupe Hidalgo. Even then he has some very extraordinary incidents to tell How many know that in 1855 congress made an appropriation for the pur- chase of camels to be used for trans | portation across what was then called 1 the Great American Desert, and actu , ally had army and navy officers bring | two large herds of these animals from | Cairo and Smyrna? They did well un-
 der the charge of Oriental drivers, the army men reporting that they carried water for the whole party, easily l taversed stretches covered with the 1 sharpest volcanic rocks, and with l packs climbed mountains where mules
 found it difficult to go. But the Great 1 American Desert proved less infertile than it had been supposed, drivers and ! Indians distrusted the camels, and
 they were finally turned loose, to be- come extinct. The stage lines of Ari-
 zona Deonage, and the discovery of the ] richer mines each offer some interest 1 ing pages. The surveys of early rail- roads were attended. with a great deal
 of danger: and there were several
 sharp political episodes connected with
 the organization of the territory in the ;, last years of Lincolns administration. When it comes to chronicling the 1 lives of the early settlers, who should 1 all be glorious lights in the estimation | nF bn ,ich is frequently under some embarrass- meHt: Arizona was very lawless l community. There is for example, | ChGrleS Q. Brown. who brought the first sewing machine and the first baby carriage into the territory, but who is further described as %older of q monopoly in Tucson of the selling of liquor and of gambling. "About the year 1866" begins an episode ot com mon type in this Iliad. there were q lot of hard cases, had men, who came into Northern Arizona from Montana. Among the rest was Jeff Standifer,
 who had the reputation of being a cool
 cOLra geous killer; a dead shot with any
 fircarm He was gambler. and hear ing somewhat of King Woolsey being q man of courage. he declared that he would kill him on sight Of early | American Tucson the author must
 write that tits citizenship was not of a class to inspire confidence in peaceful laW-a biding men. In the absence of civil law, the nearest courts being in
 New Mexico, every man was a law un- to himself. and the consequence was
 tEat it's sra aveyards were largely filled
 with tne victims of private quarrels.'
 Lieut.. John SWilling was one of the
 most prominent of early Arizonians
 having made a fortune in mining, or
 eanized the company which built the
 Tempe canal, and founded and named
 the city of Phoenix. Yet he died ir
 jail. having been accused of a WantOr
 stage robbery which there is every
 reason for believing that, while under
 the influence of liquor he committed
 But there are scores of others whose
 lives, as recorded in the last dozer
 chapters on early settlers, were as he
 roic as any of those who have built UT
 other portions of the west