IMPERIAL VALLEY TO YUMA 305 



steamers rests to-day on its laurels beside the bank 

 while another has been transformed into a bungalow 

 by an ingenious citizen. The last of their skippers, 

 Captain Isaac Polhamus, may still be met about the 

 streets of Yuma, and has vivid scraps of history to 

 recount, along with memories of soberer hue — for 

 instance, of days and nights passed in getting free of 

 one sand-bar only to immediately lodge upon an- 

 other. Several days were often spent in making ten 

 or fifteen miles. 



The town is interesting to any one who cares for 

 humble ways of life, though scorned by people de- 

 voted to progress. It reminded me of California's old 

 capital, Monterey. Here as there one finds houses of 

 all constructions and ages mixed : there is not yet a 

 "choice residential section" or "Nob Hill" (charm- 

 ing name), but adobe, timber, brick, and "stick-in- 

 the-mud"^ are pleasantly jumbled together, with 

 here and there a garden of old-fashioned flowers. 

 Date-palms wave over the sidewalks, mingling with 

 cottonwoods and even wildling mesquits. Half- 

 naked Mexican children play in the dooryards of 

 humble homes, and Indians use the main street as 

 boldly as the banker, the mayor, or even the police- 

 man. Altogether, Yuma comes near my idea of a 

 model town. 



Pictorially, the Indians are the making of it. The 

 Yuma men are athletic-looking fellows, erect and 

 well-featured, the finest, I think, among the South- 

 western tribes ; and they have ideas of dress that re- 

 sult in striking ensembles. One slim young man es- 



* Structures of willow poles set upright and plastered with mud. 



