The Coconino sun., 1916-02-11
NEW HISTORY 0F ARIZONA
 REVIEWED. BY N. '. HERALD

votes more space to Hon. Thomas E, Farish's History of Arizona than, per haps, the history of any other state would have commanded, more than half column. This is the history which The Republican has been the means of distributing 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 aver age 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 ar rival of Pike and Kit Carson and the other explorers brought by the Santa Fe trail, and, finally, 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 Confederate forces, has been an uneventful narrative of mining and agricultural development So much has been written of the early phase that Thomas F.. Parish, histo- rian by commission of the legislature, naturally occupies himself in greater part with the more colorless years following the treaty of Guadalupe lii dalgo. 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 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 under the charge of Oriental drivers, the army men reporting that they car ried water for the whole party, easily | traversed stretches covered with the 1 sharpest volcanic rocks, and with packs climbed mountains where mules found it difficult to go. But the Great American Desert proved less infertile than it had been supposed, drivers and Indians distrysted the camels, and they were finally turned loose, to be- come extinct. The stage lines of Ari- zona, peonage, and the discovery of the richer mines, each offer some in teresting pages. The surveys of early railroads were attended with a great deal of danger; and there were seve- ral sharp political episodes connected with the organization of the territory in the last years of Lincoln's admin. stration.
 When it comes to chronicling tho lives of the early settlers, who should all be glorious lights in the estimation of the younger generation, Mir. Farisf is frequently under some embarrass ment: Arizona was as very lawlesS community. There is, for example Charles o. Brown, who brought tht first sewing machine and the first baby carriage into the territory, but who is further described as holder oi monopoly in Tucson of the selling of liquor and of gambling. About the year 1866" begins an episode oi common type in this liar, "therC were a lot of hard cases, bad men who came into Northern Arizona from Montana. Among the rest was Jeff Standifer, who had the reputation oi being a cool, courageous killer; deao shot with any firearm. He was | gambler, and hearing somewhat ot King Woolsey being man of courage he declared that he would kill him or sight" Of early American Tucson tn, author must write that fits citizenship was not of class to inspire conf dence in peaceful, law-abiding men In the absence of civil law, the nearest courts being in New Mexico, every man was law unto himself, and tho consequence was that it's graveyards were largely filled with the victims oi private quarrels." Lieut.. John Swill ing was one of the most prominent o1 early Arizonians, having made a for tune in mining, organized the com pany which built the Tempe canal, ant founded and named the city of Phoe nix. Yet he died in jail, having beer accused of wanton stage robbery which there is every reason for be lieving that, while under the influence of liquor, he committed. But there are scores of others whose lives, a: recorded in the last chapters on early settlers, were as heroic as any ot those who have built up other DOT tions of the west.-Phoenix Republi can.