CHAPTER X 

 THE BUDDING CIVILIZATION OF ARIZONA 



ARIZONA is a land apart. With the single exception 

 of southeastern California, it differs in many respects 

 from all other sections of western America. This is es- 

 pecially true of all those portions of the Territory which 

 will sustain the densest future population and develop 

 the characteristic institutions of the country. 



Speaking of its atmosphere the product of its pe- 

 culiar climatic conditions and physical environment 

 Whitelaw Reid has said : " It seems to have about the 

 same bracing and exhilarating qualities as the air of the 

 Great Sahara Desert in northern Africa, or of the des- 

 ert about Mount Sinai, in Arabia. It is much drier 

 than in the part of Morocco, Algiers, or Tunis usually 

 visited, and drier than any part of the valley of the Nile 

 north of the First Cataract. It seems to me about the 

 same in quality as the air on the Nile between Aesouan 

 and Wady- Haifa, but somewhat cooler/' 



This description of the Arizona air, which is remark- 

 ably happy, may be accepted as a key to the true char- 

 acter of the country. It is a semi-tropical desert, like 

 the region about the southern and eastern shores of the 

 Mediterranean, where civilization was born of the ancient 

 art of irrigation. This is said with reference to the 



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