The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-02-03

ueUI Ol lue NdleT COulpdnl6Ss AnO 1T you want to hear about rogue and scoundrel ask the water companies their opinion of Hardin"
 "Well, what sort of hole has he got us into?" demanded the other with heat
 "Hardin's Tn a hole himself.
 "No one seems to remember that he crucIfed himself to save the valley. I've great respect for Thomas Har- dfn.'
 "Yes?" returned Rickard, whose lIk- ing had been captured by the speaker. The impression of distinction sharp ened. The stranger wore laundered pongee silk shirt, open at the neck but restricted by a brown silk tie; and 1t was trimly belted. There were but two necktIes in the entire car, and they occupied, Rickard observed, the same seat.
 "The beginning of the canal sys- i tenn
 Rickard looked out upon a flat, one l toned country, marked off in rec 1 tangles by blows and scrapers. Far ther south these rectangles were edged | by young willows. He fancied he could see, even at that distance, the gleam of water.
 It was the passing of the desert. A few miles back he had seen the desert ] in its primitive nakedness, which not even cactus relieved. He was passing over the land which man and horses were preparing for water. And he could see the land where water was. That was the way Riverside looked when I first saw it," commented the other man who wore tie. Come out on the rear platform. We can see bet ter"
 Rickard followed to the back of the dust-swept, stifling car. The glare on the platform was intense. He stood watching the newly made checkerboard of a country slip past him. Exceeding were the two lines of gleaming steel rails which connected and separated him from the world outside. He was going in." Not in Mexico even had he such a feeling of ultimate remote ness. The mountains. converging per spectively toward the throat of the
 valley, looked elusive and unreal In
 their gauge draperies of rose and vio-
 let. The tender hour of day was cloth
 ing them with mystery, 6Oftening their
 sharp outlines. They curtained the
 world beyond. Rickard felt the sus-
 pense of the next act.
 It was q torpid imagination. he
 thought, which would not quicken over
 this conquest of the desert. East of
 the tract men and teams were prepar-
 ing the newly furrowed ground for the
 seed The curved land knives were
 breaking up the rich mold into ridges
 as pulveriZed chocolate. It was the dark color of the chocolate of com
 merce, this silt which had been pill.
 fered from the states through which
 the vagrant river wandered. The smell
 of the upturned earth, sweetly damp struck against his nostrils. Rickart inddlged a minute of whimsical fancy this was California territory Ovel which his train was passing, but tht soil, that dark earth those blades were . crumbling. was 1t not the tribute o1
 other states, of despoiiing Wyoming
 of ravishing Colorado and Arizona? To the west new squares were beint leveled and outlined. Shrubby rec tangles were being cleared of their ere osote bush and tough mesquite. Com pared with other countries, the prepa ration for planting was the simplest Horses were dragging over the grount ' q railroad rail bent into a V angle which pulled the bushes by the root and dragged them out of the way. Be
 yond, farther west, could be seen tn ] untouched desert. The surface f0
 many miles was cracked by wate 9 lines, broken and baked into irregula ] sand cakes; the mark of sand whic has been imprisoned by water an : branded by swift heat. J Close by men were putting in wit t care the seed that was to quicken tn river silt. They were passing a squar where the green tips of the graf were piercing the ground. Now the Il were abreast of a field of matured a
 falfa over which the wind raced gratt fully. Desert and grain field; deat , and life! The panorama embraced tn
 whole cycle.
 They went back to their seats. Afte
 few minutes the other leaned owe Ch -iorr to, Il the passing mountains. Those are til l. Superstition mountains you can SC s over yonder. An unusually apt name
 "YeSY'
 * Why is it good, you mean2 Tht $ pile of dark rock stands as a monl n ment to an effete superstition. It q the gravestone for a gigantic mistak 't Why, it was only the grossest ign q rance that gave to the desert the lab l- of bad lands The desert is co e dition, not a fact. Here you see u r. passing of the condition, the burial e the superstition. Are you interested
 irrigation"
 e Rickard was not given to expla d the degree of interest his professiC n. involved, for the stranger drew pal b ful breath, and went on. F. "Of course you are, if you are s western man. You are, think?" ot The engineer said he was, by choic
 Continued Tomorrow.) n
 [e When the saloons close, it is su ,S 1 rnntod that many men will not find