The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-02-01
CHAPTER Ill.
The RIessfnn of Ariditv.

When Rickard left the main line at Imperial Junction the next afternoon his eyes followed the train he was deserting rather than the one that was to carry him to his new labors. He felt again the thrill of detachment that invariably preceded his entrance into a new country. With the pulling up of the porter's green-carpeted stool, the slamming of the train gates, the curtain fell on the Tucson set scene.
 The long line of cars was pushing off with it's linen-covered Pullmans and diners, steaming down grade toward the Sink, the depression which had been primeval sea, and then des- ert, and was now sea again. Old Beach, rechristened Imperial Junction for railroad convenience, was itself lower than the ancient sea line where once the gulf had reached. Rickard knew he rould find shells at that des- ert station should he look for them. He picked up his bag that the porter had thrown on the ground and faced the rung-down curtain.
 Its painted scene was a yellow sta- tion house broiling under a desert sun; large water tank beyond, and in the distance the inevitable card board mountains, like property scene shifts, fiat and thin in their unreal hucs of burnished pink and purple. A dusty accommodation train was back ing and switching, picking up the empty refrigerator cars to carry into the valley for the early melon growers.
 Already the valley had asserted it's industrial importance; the late ram page of the Colorado had made 1t spectacular. Those who would pay little attention to the opening of q new agricultural district in the heart of dreaded desert opened their ears to the vagary of the river which had Bportively made of part of that deS- ert an inland sea. Scientists were rushing their speculatiOns into print would the sea dwindle by evaporation, as it had done before? Or would the overflow maintain the paradoxical sea?
 The flood signs were apparent. There cracks had split the desert sand; here water Assures had men, aced the track; and to the south a fringe of young willows hid the path of the Colofado's debouch.
 The men crowding the platform wore the motley of the new country 1 In Tucson the uniform of ethe male citizens, with the exception of those reckless ones who found inevitably that lotus is liquid, was the WilteG pretense of a gentle civilization; de spondent ducks and khakis and IimI collars. Imperial Junction marked the downfall of the collar. The rest o1 the composite costume was irregular badly laundered and torn, faded ani sunburned; the clothes of the deser soldier. Rickard saw buttonles! shirts, faded overalls, shabby hats the sombrero of Mexico. The face! under the broad-brimmed hats made , leaping impression upon him of youtl and eagerness. He noted signifcan average of intelligence and alertness This was not the indolent group O men which makes a pretense of occu patton whenever a train comes inl
 Going imp asked voice at his eaI
 A pair of faded eyes set in young
 old face, whether early withered 0
 well preserved he had not time to de
 termine, was staring at him. He assured his interlocutor that h was going in. His mood isolated tn
 phrase; its significance vastly differ ent from "going on."
 : 'Buying?"
 : q think not"
 Tt Is a good time to buy" Rickar suspected real estate agent. 'Fo land is low-rock bottom prices O account of the uneasiness about tn river. People are afraid. They wan to see the company redeem some 0
 its promises before they come in; an :, the company isn't in much of hurry"
 Rickard asked what company he It
 ferred to.
 The young-old. face with the fade
 eyes looked at him in surprise. 'Th
 D. R. company, Desert Reclamation which brought us all here."
 A tcaptannsa Moaaaat,