SUBURB OF PHOENIX, ARIZONA—Reclaimed from Desert Land
RECLAIMING THE DESERT
The Romance of the Desert
SIX
A vein of romance runs through every form of human endeavor. No life so sordid, prosaic, or wretched, but has felt sometime its light and gladsome touch. In the desert, romance finds its chief essentials in adventure, courage, daring and self-sacrifice. For more than half a century man has been writing a romance of compelling interest upon the face of the dusty earth. Irrigation, with Midas’ touch, has changed the desert’s frown to smiling vistas of verdure. Its solemn silence has been broken by the voices of countless happy people.
Our national strength is in its citizens, and the place in which the best is bred is in the country. The threat of urban congestion, no longer remote, and the pressure of population, which even now is bearing heavily upon our resources, are unanswerable arguments for increasing and making permanent the nation’s virility, prosperity and growth by creating more country homes.
It is an economic axiom that the stability of a nation is assured only when the bulk of its citizens reside in their own homes. The ideals and principles for which our forefathers fought cannot be preserved and maintained by a citizenry whose interest does not extend beyond mere wage earning. The American desert was won by war, treaty, discovery and purchase. Flying at one time the flags of four nations, its history is rich in thrilling incident and adventure. Its milestones are the bones of trappers, explorers, and pioneers. Its people are strong and courageous. To battle with the elemental forces of nature has become a passion. While the glamor of romance in years agone is dispelled, it is still romance-land, but with a new background. The romance of creation now pervades the once silent desert, and the dominant thought and impulse is to establish there the well ordered life of New England with all the highly organized facilities for making existence in the country attractive.
American people cannot rightly claim to have measured up to their opportunity until the deserts of the West and the swamp lands of the South have been replaced by vistas of prosperous farmsteads.
WRITTEN ESPECIALLY FOR THE MENTOR BY C. J. BLANCHARD
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 6, No. 17, SERIAL No. 165
COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.