Imperial Valley press., 1924-04-21
TAKES AFFIDAVITS
FROM TOURISTS

AffidavitS and statements made
to Imperial County officials who in
terferred in the quarantine measures
established in this county last week
by Arizona officials, by tourists
who were forced to camp at Knob
for a week show the length to
which Arizona went in trying to
prohibit traffic into Yuma.
In an interview this morning
Miss Clara Feustel, secretary to the
district attorney, told a startling
story OF the suffering of the tour
lists whom she saw at Yuma bridge
on Saturday.
1--WE found ut least 40 or 80 ears
out in the heart of the desert at q
station called Pilot Knob, held for
quarantine by Arizona officials. y
she said. "The cars carried passen-
gers numbering from two to nine.
men, women and children, all Of
whom We're halted at least u miles
from real shelter or food of any
kind and some of the people had
been there for Il week. At least
three or four days of that time had
been without anything to eat other
than what they had brought with
them.
Later, the Sanguinetti company
of Yuma sent provision wagon so
that people could purchase the nee
essary food stuffs. In affidavits
which l took from n number of these
people, they stated that the price
of the foods was at least from 40
to 30 per cent higher than in Los
Angeles. Eggs which could be
bought in Yuma for 90 cents, cost
40 cents; butter was 90 cents
pound; canned goods worth 10 cents
they paid - cents for; coffee 60
cents.
- saw children who were ac-
tually burned from the hot air and
sun, until the flesh was raw. One
child had blisters on its feet so
it could hardly stand. One little
girl, less than three years old, was
so burned from the hot desert winds
that she was unable to sit down or
even lie down in comfort. A baby,
five weeks old, was burned so that
when | saw it at 4:30 p. III. Satur-
day, it hadn't taken of nourish-
ment, was screaming at the top of
its voice and was burned from its
waist to its knees until ii was the
most pitiful thing Imaginable.
Terribly Sunburned
''The women and children were
all dreadfglly sunburned, and some
of them told me they had certifi-
Gates from the doctor saving that
they were in no condition to return
to the camp in the desert for fumi-
CATION.
In the desert the tourists stat
ed they had no water at all until
an engineer of tine Southern Pacific
had brought a tank of water and
left it. The last day they were
there, this same engineer brought
some milk from Mecca. They com
piimented this engineer, whose name
[ do not know, very highly and
said that he had done everything
possible for their comfort.
Some of the people were not
carrying much bedding, and they
had to sleep on bedding borrowed
from others, although many of them
had but "a single quilt
"'The reason given by many of
the tourists for remaining there so
long was that each day they were
given promises by Arizona officials
that the next day would see the
lifting Of the ban and they would
be allowed to move forward. The
next day didn't come until Imperial
Valley officials took matters into
their own hands and led the group
to the edge Of the county.
We found some of these people
had very little money with them,
even as little as from two to four
dollars, and there were some Mexi-
cans without any at all Several
of the campers, who had arrived
about April "A, said the sand storms
were terrific and that the nights
were almost unbearably cold. Many
of these people had high fevers
from exposure Of wind, sun and
cold. "
Miss Feustel said that leaving
Pilot Knob for Bard, they found
the road flooded in several places
and by the time they were ready
to return many other parts Of the
highway had been flooded so that
it was almost impossible to get
through.
L OC, ANrn III IsC III 10 IL.