10 
stopped me on the street and asked 
me if I was interested in ruins and 
relics. J answered that I had a weak 
spot for these antiquities. The old 
fellow looked me over, said he was 
sick and that if I had the price of two 
ginger ale highballs, he would tell me 
something that would be worth more 
to me than the two-bits. 
I fell for it. I thought his story 
might be worth the quarter. We went 
to the rear room of a saloon. He or- 
dered two cocktails — a big glass of 
whiskey with the same quantity of 
ginger ale, and after he had put them 
both under his belt, he warmed up, 
got strictly confidential, and told me 
the following story and hitched on a 
proposition, 
He said he had long been a hunter, 
prospector and trapper in Arizona, 
and knew most of the country and 
ruins; that four years ago he was 
trapping about 20 miles from there, 
along the Gila river; a Mexican who 
lived in a hut near his tent died, and 
that he and another white man, a 
prospector, buried him. 
He said they dug a grave at the 
foot of a mound, when the pick 
brought to light the rub stone that 
goes with a matette, and digging fur- 
ther he found the companion stone, 
(The matette stones were the an- 
cient method of grinding corn into 
meal.) 
He said they buried the Greaser, 
and both knew the mound was an an- 
cient home, where the walls had fall- 
en in. Vegitation had grown over it, 
and to all appearances it was simply a 
prairie hill. ‘They talked it over and 
decided they would wait until the 
Mexican had partly rotted, then 
would excavate and get the relics, 
pottery, etc., but that the prospector 
soon left for Texas, and that the 
mound had never been opened, 
The old man made me this proposal: 
J should hire a camp outfit, furnish 
the chuck and a team to take us out 
and come after us a week later. We 
would excavate the mound and go 
halves on what was found. 
It was a plausable story and I have 
no doubt was true, for later inquiries 
established the old man’s honesty, but 
I knew from the mounds that I had 
seen that it would take from six 
weeks to three months for two or 
three men to open up a ruin with any 
care, and as I sized up the old trap- 
per I realized Brown would be the 
whole thing in the shovel gang, and 
that I could never get away with the 
job within the time limits of the trip, 
and so I bought him one more and 
turned down the alluring proposition. 
And what established the truth of 
the old man’s story, was his flat re- 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
fusal to a counter proposition that 1 
made that 1 would pay tor the ng and 
give him $7 tor his day’s work 11 he 
would show me the mound and the 
grave. | thought 1 would locate it 
and perhaps next year come back. 
The old man remarked that it 1 was 
afraid to dig open new graves, he 
would COiu.ence Work on Une oppo- 
site side of the mound and not dis- 
turb the Mexican, 
For miles and miles around this 
part of Arizona the country is cover- 
ed with outlines of fallen ruins, walls 
and ditches, and fragments of pottery 
-can almost be kicked up. 
Once this section was densely pop- 
ulated, in fact in ancient times the 
whole southwest was populated, 
And why (the question is so often 
asked) did these hundreds of thou- 
sands of people live in this barren, 
waterless land, when to the east and 
to the west were verdant lands and 
plenty of rainfall and game. 
The wise man of today will tell 
you there have been great climatic 
changes in the strange old southwest, 
and that in the unknown age when 
these people lived here the country 
had rains and many running streams. 
I was formerly one of the wise 
geeks, and have often advanced this 
theory, but when I saw the outlines 
of a great reservoir at the cliff dwell- 
ers’ ruins in the Santa Clara Valley, 
the old irrigating ditches at Casa 
Grande, and many other evidences of 
the fight for water of the prehistoric 
people, Ihave considerably changed 
my mind, and have half concluded 
these first unknown Americans lived 
in that desert country because they 
liked it, as the Arabs like the desert, 
and perhaps some of the reasons were 
they did not have to often shingle 
their house nor wear rubbers when 
they went to the meat market. 
Zuni, a communial pueblo in the 
southwest corner of New Mexico, 
which is and has been inhabited for 
about goo years is in a barren prairie 
country where rain seldom falls. But 
the Zuni’s think it is a regular alfalfa 
life and that their city marks the cen- 
ter of the world. 
The barren ranges of Arizona and 
New Mexico are covered with ancient 
history we cannot read. Their can- 
yons show the homes of the lowest 
types of human beings (cave homes) 
and their prairies show ruins of wall- 
ed villages that men of high civiliza- 
tion erected. 
And it seems too bad that all his- 
tory and trace of these people should 
have been lost. And it seems too bad 
that the walls of the great castle at 
Casa Grande should be left out there 
to crumble, fall over and be forgotten, 
The rains are fast undermining these 
thick walls, and it is but a question 
of a few years when they will fall 
over and become like other myster- 
ious hills that cover portions of the 
weird old southwest. 
Boston Opera House 
With some of its world-eminent ar- 
tists arriving on steamships, and with 
chorus rehearsals of its brilliant rep- 
ertoire well begun, the Boston Opera 
Company is fast getting ready for — 
the opening of its fifth season, on 
Monday evening, Nov. 24th. 
The novelties that will be given 
this season are Zandonai’s “Francesca 
da Rimini;”’ Fevrier’s “Monna Van- 
na;” and “Die Meistersinger.” There _ 
will also be revivals of “La Giocon- 
da;” the “Manon Lescaut” of Puc- 
cini; and Massenet’s ‘‘Manon.” 
Aside from the pleasurable antici- 
pation with which these events are 
awaited, even greater interest will 
center in the personnel of the com- 
pany. For example, there will be 
not only Mme, Edvina and Miss Gar- 
den for “Louise.” but also Mme. © 
Beriza and Miss Nielson. For Mimi 
in “Boheme,” there will be Mme. 
Melba, Miss Bori, Miss Nielson, 
Mme. Heliane, and Mme. Teyte. For 
coloratura roles, Director Russell has 
at his disposal the greatest singers of 
florid music in the world, in the per- 
sons of Mmes. Melba, ‘Tetrazzini, 
Hempel, and Scotney. For “Tosca” 
there are more prima donnas than — 
there could possibly be performances; 
Miss Garden, Miss Amsden, Mmes. 
Edvina, Beriza, Marcel,. Cavalieri, 
and Destinn. 
The prospective revival of “La 
Gioconda” will afford a splendid op- 
portunity for the fine array of con- 
traltos. The male sections of the or- 
ganization are equally strong. For 
the great tenor roles such as Faust, 
Don Jose, and Samson, there will be 
Muratore, Zenatello, and Laffitte. 
Clement will sing Pinkerton in “Ma- 
dama Butterfly” for the first time. 
Taken in all, the present Boston 
Opera Company is the greatest or- 
ganization that has ever borne that 
name. ‘The subscription has already 
been very large, but it is likely that a 
great many more people will take ad- — 
vantage of the new arrangement, just 
announced, whereby seat subscript- — 
ions can be taken for half the season; ~ 
either for alternate weeks, or for 
either half of the eighteen weeks. 
Subscriptions can be made according 
to this plan until Nov, 17th, when the 
regular seat sale begins. 
Subscribe to this paper, 
