The Monticellonian., 1917-01-25

l ican west coast has lured the restless pioneer. First it was the ad- ventufer, scattering his bones over the trackless hills; then the gold hunter and miner-and finally the farmer and cowman, building up homes and for tunes. It is one of the worlds garden 1 spots, this rich west coast, q country of singular charm, of striking contrasts and varied opportunity. Nowhere on earth is life more easy. As one idler cleverly phrased it, You can kick your | breakfast off tree, any morning in the year"
 Here, with the advent of peace, far reaching progress must inevitably dawn. Linked with California by rail and sail, and with two hundred Ameri- can millions already invested. the flu ture of the west coast is peculiarly tied up with that of the United States "a question of big trade and mutual human betterment, says q contributor to the Los Angeles Times.
 | It Is n kaleidoscopic. colorful trip the train ride from the border south, l lIiN VI CSl NitAlNp. toNtlllNs oltll liiL . and full of bright. buoyant life it is, after you have passed Guaymas and plunged into the primitive Yaqui coun- try.
 Floeks of sereeching, squawking par rots flap noiSily overhead. Skulking coyotes twist oddly away into the palo verde thicketS. In smoky. scattered camps along the railway, Yaqui troops -patrolling the line against their wild | brothers of the hills-are on duty. You see them making sandals from green cowhide, or cutting up q beef into shreds and hanging the meat on stunted mesquite trees to dry. From their outposts comes the dull rattle of the tomtom. "That Yaqui drum" one Mexican officer told me, always gives the enemy an earaehe."
 American Influence Grows.
 Not so long ago the Spanish impress lay strong on the west coast-a sur vival of that romantic age when treas ure-laden galleons sailed between Acapulco and Manila. But now the bpulS lhdl hlpl' tiiNhol anu uiliodt at Acapulco. MaZatlan and Guaymas come from San Franciseo-or Seattle. And the trains that crawl down the long coastline from the Arizona border are loaded with American machinery, | and American miners, cattlemen and farmers. Only of late has this been true-the rail-head reaching Topic less than ten years ago. But already Yan- kee customs, habits, influence and i'm plements are making themselves felt 1; slowly, but hopefully.
 Even certain reform waves, popular in the United States of America, have swept over the border and engulfed the Mexicans. Licensed gambling on the west coast is practically abolished. Bull fights are giving way to baseball.
 One day in Hermosillo saw soldiers carrying demijohns of tequila-the once universal alcoholic drink-carry- ing them into the street, and smashing them in the gutter. Pungent smells fioated in the air. "What is 1t you do?' l asked native sergeant. "El Estado es seco" (the state is dry) he said. punching his bayonet into an- other demiiohn. Prohibition had been decreed. Today you can't legally buy drink from Nogales to Mazatlan (nor | Illegally, either, without risk of pris- on.) II is so in some other parts of the republic. Order is better. drunken brawls thing of the past. Tequila, the old curse of the land, is effective | ly suppressed.
 Daily life among foreign merchants