Tucson, Arizona

“ We travelled to Tucson in a Pullman car. It was hot and uninteresting. I had been at Tucson nine years before, for a few hours, but the place seemed unfamiliar. I looked for the old tavern; I saw only the railroad restaurant. We went in to take breakfast, before driving out to the post of Fort Lowell, seven miles away. ”

“ Its climate, characteristic of southern Arizona, attracts many invalids and winter visitors. Tucson is the seat of the university of Arizona (1891; non-sectarian, coeducational) , which is organized under the Morrill Acts; in 1909 it had 40 instructors and 201 students. At Tucson also are a desert botanical laboratory (owning a tract of some 1000 acres about 1 m. west of the city) established by the Carnegie Institution of Washington, St Joseph’s Academy (Roman Catholic) ”

“ In the foreground you see lazy ox-wains, a prospector, perhaps, with his pots and kettles, and a mounted Mexican towing by a lariat a bull, which ducks its head in vain resistance. From a distance it is thoroughly foreign, and of attractive promise. There is something of the Dead Sea apple in the realization of this promise. If Ruskin be right in holding that a house should be of the general color of the soil on which it stands, Tucson may lay claim to great artistic merit. It is entirely of adobe brick of the natural mud-color. ”

“ Our conveyance was an old ambulance owned by Lord & Williams, who, as I have said, kept the only store and the post office in Tucson. The outfit was driven by "Old Bill" Sniffen, who will doubtless be remembered by many Arizona pioneers. We picked up on the way "Old [Pg 59] Man" Benedict, another familiar character, who kept the stage station and ranch at Sahuarita, where the Twin Buttes Railroad now has a station and branch to some mines, and where a smelter is located. We were paid ten dollars per day for our work and returned safely to Tucson. ”

“ Much of the land produces two crops in the year. The towns are all of inconsiderable size, and the whole white population of the territory, in 1870, did not amount to more than 9658. The capital is Tucson, in Pima county; and the other towns, Arizona City and Prescott. ”

“ He had been a great traveller in his early life, but now had built himself some sort of a house in one of the desolate mountains which rose out of these vast plains of Arizona, hoisted his sun-flag on the top, there to pass the rest of his days. People out there said he was a sun-worshipper. I do not know. "But when I am tired of life and people," I thought, "this will not be the place I shall choose."
Arriving at Tucson, after a hot and tiresome night in the stage, we went to an old hostelry. Tucson looked attractive. Ancient civilization is always interesting to me. ”

“ The surveyors for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé Railroad have pressed work beyond Cimarron, New Mexico, and expect to extend their surveys as far as Tucson, Arizona, during the present winter. The building of the road, however, will depend largely upon the corporation’s ability in obtaining a land (or other) subsidy from Congress. ”

“ Beyond, the route crosses the southwest corner of New Mexico and enters Arizona, passing amid the mountain ranges to Tucson, the chief town of the Territory, having six thousand people, a quaint and ancient Spanish settlement, which has considerable Mexican trade. It was originally an 436 appanage to the old Spanish mission of St. Xavier, nine miles southward, and it now thrives on its cattle trade, mining and magnificent climate, being also the location of the Territorial University. ”

“ The lush green South eventually gave way to the Texas plains and then the dry highlands of New Mexico. There was something elemental and down home about New Mexico that was similar to Maine, Oliver found. The Indians were impressive—silent and aware, not unlike the Japanese in that respect. New Mexico wouldn't be a bad place to live.
Tucson was a small city in a basin rimmed by desert mountains. The University of Arizona was a modern oasis in the center. ”

“ Christ, Mahomet, Zoroaster, and Confucius all formulated their creeds in the desert. I gather that we are to expect from Arizona, at the proper time, some new prophet or sage, to sway again the destinies of men in their way.
The correspondent was satisfied, at any rate, that, with a public library, Tucson could shortly become another Alexandria of the desert, "a seat of learning and fountain-head of ideas, to be sought by students from Mexico, from the Pacific Islands, from China and Japan, and the mountains and valleys of the Rio Grande," and I for one shall be very glad to see it so. ”

“ Believe me, you are in neither Europe, Asia, nor Africa. You are in a much despised land called "America," whence wealth and culture run off to Europe, Asia and Africa, to find what they call "art" and "antiquity." [Pg 254]
It is October 3rd in Tucson, Arizona; not far from the borders of Old Mexico as the rest of the world reckon distance. The rain has been falling in torrents. Rain is not supposed to fall in the Desert, but it has been coming down in slant torrents and the sky is reflected everywhere in the roadside pools. The air is soft as rose petals, for the altitude is only 2,000 feet ”

“ The frontier has gone to join the good Indian. In place of the ranger who patrolled the border for “bad men” has come the forest ranger, type of the forward lapping tide of civilization. The place where I write this—Tucson, Arizona—is now essentially more civilized than New York. Only at the moving picture shows can the old West, melodramatically overpainted, be shown to the manicured sons and daughters of those, still living, who brought law and order to the mesquite. ”

“ Their own farms and settlements, save in the immediate vicinity of the presidio, were often plundered and abandoned, and such settlement as there was was confined to the Santa Cruz valley. From about 1790 to 1822 was a period of peace with the Apaches and of comparative prosperity for church and state. The fine Indian mission church at Bac, long abandoned and neglected, dates from the last decade of the 18th century. The establishment of a presidio at Tucson in 1776 marks its beginning as a Spanish settlement. ”

“ The large foreign element, mainly Mexican, would lead us to expect a startling illiteracy. Few children attended any kind of school. The professions were hardly represented at all. The Territory had but one newspaper—The Arizona Miner—at Prescott, with a circulation of 280 copies; though a second paper, the Arizona Citizen, was founded at Tucson that year. No Protestant Church had yet been founded, though there had been some missionary effort. The Catholic Church was strong, and was soon able to begin founding parochial schools and convents. ”

“ Smithfield, Utah, reports: “We had only twelve in our organization. Our community is only two thousand—a farming community of good quiet citizens. We support the constitution; over-subscribed for Liberty Bonds, Red Cross, and War Savings Stamps. If you realize what a rural community like this is, you know there is not much to do. We have done what we could with the local boards in draft matters.”
ARIZONA
Tucson, Arizona, is the land of sunshine and appears to have been very peaceful. ”

“ What was foretold in Judea is fulfilled in Arizona—the desert has blossomed like the rose.
I could hardly believe it, a month ago, when a Tucson business man, who in the kindness of his heart had turned the city upside down, almost, seeking to find a home for a man who was not a consumptive and did not wish to live in a hospital or a pest-house—I could hardly believe it, I repeat, when he said: “Oh, you mustn’t go back to Texas yet. You must stay and see the desert in bloom. ”

“ The white men of Tucson held a meeting, at which I was present. Sidney R. De Long, first Mayor of Tucson, was also there. After the meeting had been called to order De Long rose and said:
"Boys, this thing has got to be stopped. The military won't believe us when we tell them that their charity to the Indians is our undoing—that the government's wards are a pack of murderers and cattle thieves. What shall we do?"
"Let the military go hang, and the government, too!" growled one man, "Old Bill" Oury, a considerable figure in the life of early Tucson, and an ex-Confederate soldier. ”

“ While there was no provision in the law for secondary schools, various towns, among them Prescott, Phoenix, Tombstone, and Tucson, had tried to inaugurate high schools. While the school at Tucson was probably larger and more successful than the others, its uncertain foundation is shown by the fact that although such work was begun as early as 1880, but one class was ever graduated, and that not until 1893. ”

“ Holiday had been a dentist in his native Georgia, and his intimates called him Doc. “It’s the only trail,” reiterated Mr. Masterson. “The message says that they start to-day from Tucson. They’ll be in Denver day after to-morrow. The only way to beat them is to have you under arrest. Our Governor won’t give up a man to Arizona who’s wanted here at home. Those reward-hungry sports from Tucson will get turned down, and meanwhile you will be on bail. That Arizona outfit can never take you away while a charge is pending against you in Colorado. You’ll be safe for life.” ”

“ The river is dry at Tubac now, however, except in unusually rainy seasons, irrigation and cattle having robbed the stream of its former volume.
At the time we were quartered there Tubac was a place of no small importance, and after Tucson and Prescott were discounted it was probably the largest settlement in the Territory. Patagonia has now taken the position formerly occupied by the old adobe town as center of the rich mining zone of Southern Arizona, and the glories of Tubac (if they [Pg 38] can be given that name) are, like the glories of Tombstone, gone. ”

“ Sage-brush and grease-wood, of course, constantly occurred, and here and there superb bunch-grass abounded, which will prove invaluable hereafter for grazing purposes, when the country settles up. The mountains usually gave us a wide berth; occasionally, however, they crowded quite down to the road, as at Picacho and Point of Mountains, and as we neared Tucson they shot up into a bold, castellated front off to the east, that would be very surprising outside of Arizona. ”

“ Of the later history of the Tucson schools, Prof. McCrea continues:
In the fall of 1874 Prof. W. B. Horton, who was a Scotchman by birth and a graduate of a college of Edinburgh, was elected principal of the Tucson Public School. [40] During the first year he was supplied with two assistants, one to teach the girls and one to aid him in teaching the boys. The schools greatly prospered under his management. Although he began school work in Arizona later than Prof. Sherman, he is worthy in every way to be ranked with him. ”

“ Tucson is located in the heart of the great silver and gold bearing regions of Arizona, and it was exceedingly difficult to prevent the boys from loading themselves with specimens of the many ores offered for sale, by every loafer, greaser, and Indian, that we met on the street.
Hal managed to absent himself for a short time; and, when I found him, had traded Ned's watch for about as small and lively a specimen of a Mexican mule as I ever saw, which, he assured me in good faith, he had bought for Patsey's exclusive use. ”

“ Joseph have recently established a school in Tucson for the education of females, and too much praise can not be accorded them for leaving home and its surrounding comforts and coming to this remote Territory to promote education. With limited means and in a strange land they have overcome every obstacle, and in a few months established a school creditable to any country, and which is already attended by about 130 pupils. ”

“ Save for a few brief stretches in Texas and Arizona there was no wagon road. El Paso and Tucson were the only towns between the termini. A few far-flung military outposts, whose troops of dragoons were having a hard time of it to hold their own against the Comanches and Apaches, afforded the only semblance of protection from the Indians.
Horsemen carried the first mail-sacks across this wilderness of dark mountains and flaming deserts. On that initial trip Silas St. Johns and Charles Mason rode side by side over the stretch from Cariso Creek to Jaeger’s Ferry, where Yuma stands to-day. ”

“ The upshot of the matter was that the Honorable Timothy Clare and I had a most excellent month's excursion, shot several good bear, and returned to Tucson the best of friends.
At Tucson was Schiefflein and his stories of a big strike down in the Apache country. Nothing would do but that we should both go to see for ourselves. ”

“ The 150 mile journey to San Luis was necessary in order to reach a priest who would bury the dead woman. All the dead were treated in the same manner.
While I was in Yuma the railroad reached Dos Palmas, Southern California, and one day I went there with a wagon and bought a load of apples, which, with one man to accompany me, I hauled all the way to Tucson. That wagon-load of apples was the first fruit to arrive in the Territory and it was hailed with acclaim. I sold the lot for one thousand dollars, making a profit well over fifty per cent. Then with the wagon I returned to Yuma. ”

“ The university at Tucson and the normal school at Tempe are highly creditable institutions, and of incalculable benefit to the Territory. The managements show a very high order of ability, entirely satisfactory to their patrons. The advantages of an advanced educational system can hardly be overestimated. Our common schools can not be excelled anywhere in the Union. ”