Girl Scouts in Arizona and New Mexico

by Lillian Elizabeth Roy

You scouts know quite well what sort of outfit to carry on this tour of the southwest; because it will be the same as that which you brought last summer for the camping in the Rockies. There will be just as cold nights, and the peaks just as high as those we had last summer. Because we speak of a desert in Arizona, one must not think that it will be the broiling heat of the Sahara, though I will say that our western deserts can produce a pretty good imitation of the Far East patented and copyrighted article. Therefore, and whereas, I will add, a change to summer apparel might be pleasant if you happen to stray to the middle of one of these sand-spots at noon-day. Use your judgment about mosquito-netting dresses, but use my judgment about flannel underwear, woolen golf-stockings and pure wool knickers and shirt-waists.

We shall not take a French laundress on this trip, neither will we establish a hair-dressing and manicuring parlor de luxe at every halt, so leave your beauty implements at home and resign yourself to trust Nature for the genuine article this season.

Now, having given you an itemized list of what you will not need for this outing, I will proceed to give you directions of how to find me one week from Monday—the Monday I am mailing this letter, and not next Monday week, or two weeks before last Monday.

I know a Proverb—I can hear you laugh, but I really do read the Bible—that says, “The better the day the better the deed,” so I want to start you off on your summer trip on the best day in the week—Sunday. If you take the train from Elmertown early Sunday morning you can get the Chicago Limited which leaves Philadelphia on Sunday afternoon. I figure you will save time and money by going to Philly instead of to Trenton, the latter being almost as far east from your town as the former is west, but west is your destination, hence—well, I need not explain to girl scouts.

This Limited will stop at Philadelphia, if Julie will stand on the track and flag it energetically, after the manner she signaled from the bluff that time when she was wrecked in the rapids. I’m sure you will find seats on the ocean-side of the train to Chicago, if you use one of those sweet scout smiles at the gruff old conductor on the train. Tell him you are personal friends of mine if you want to get thrown off the rear platform of the train at the next water-tank. He knows me well, hence he has vowed to use the gilded rule on me and mine, and treat all my friends as he would treat me.

If you can manage to stick to the Limited till she pulls into Chi., I’ll meet you at the station and get even with your conductor for bringing you safely to your destination.

If you get those knobs of rock, which the Pullman Company designate as feather pillows, and learn that you cannot rest your tender heads upon them, use your suit-cases instead; you’ll find them much softer and more apt to give you pleasant dreams. I’ve used my metal box which I carry for mineral specie and I prefer it to those pillows.

Now, my girls, having written you this valuable advice I feel as if I had earned my night’s sleep. There is one more item you may wish to know—every one asks this question, hence I expect you will: “by which route do we enter the enchanted land of the great southwest?” But I must tell you that I have not yet decided. The agent who keeps such decisions hidden in my subconscious mind expects to let me know in a day or two.

A friend to whom I confided my trouble in selecting a good educational route for this trip told me to have you scouts swim to the Enchanted Cañon. He tells me the Colorado River is unusually wet this season, and will afford you a diversion you never yet experienced. I prefer to ride there on the Santa Fé railroad, though I believe the swim will be much cheaper.

I am inclosing a short itinerary for the Captain to follow, and she will tell you when and where you are to launch this summer’s campaign. Now, if that is all you wish to know, I had best say good-by to you and to Denver for the present, and hie me to Chicago where I will await you on the platform of the station next Monday noon. I have a date with the oculist in the Loop at Chi. to fit me with goggles that give the wearer the faculty of seeing twenty times the focal power of one pair of human eyes, as I will need that many eyes if I have to keep them on you girls this summer.