THE NEW EARTH 



tie by little the train drew nearer, and when an 

 hour had passed it cut through the green 

 thread, the sands slipped backward into the 

 night, and lo, a miracle! For suddenly, mile 

 upon mile stretched away noble green sweeps 

 of orange and lemon, pomelo and lime, olive 

 and fig, and, further upward along the moun- 

 tain side, grapes, ripening in the mellow sun- 

 shine still aglow on the upper mountain slopes. 

 There were lovely homes, embowered in roses 

 and adorned with stately palms ; there were 

 little towns where penury never stalks, and 

 further on, thriving beautiful cities throbbing 

 with American life. 



It was a noble prospect. When the New 

 Earth began it was a sand-strewn waste, part 

 and parcel of the Great American Desert. It 

 was the miracle of the Spirit of the Water. It 

 has taken but a few years to make these oases, 

 and, though they have proven beautiful to the 

 eye and fattening to the purse, they have 

 merely dotted the desert, and millions upon 

 millions of arid acres yet remain. So man has 

 begun to sponge off the Great American Des- 

 ert from the map. It is now, since the New 

 Earth began, a movement in full swing, — the 



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