«k
Ramblin’ Bill Talk* of Boyhood Scene. Here
and Describes Desert For Friends of Old
(By Ramblin’ Bill)
Editor of The Star.
About the most welcome sight 1
have seen for some time was that copy
of the Cleveland Star you sent me.
Glancing through its columns awak
ens memories that are most fond of
boyhood days spent in the old North
State; of sunshine and showers and
last but not least, it brings to me the
fragrance of roses, springtime violets,
honeysuckle blossoms, peach and ap
ple blossoms, for I remember well that
its about this time of year or just a
mite later that North Carolina is in
bloom and the birds are singing a Well
come to spring. There is a certain
fishing hole just above Lawndale
where I’d like to be fishing today;
where the horny heads and catfish are
hungry and would almost steal one’s
bait out of the old Prince Albert can.
Many’s the day that I have sat ana
fished at this “ole fishin’ hole” to the
tune of honey bees in the foilage above
and I could hear the farmers in the
fields nearby talking and sometimes
using strong language to their mules.
Just how many fish I caught does not
matter and if I were there today, 1
could march to that old fishin’ holt
Unashamed because I was fishing
while other folks were at work.
This is a desert country and fishin'
holes are few and far between, but
you would be surprised to listen to the
tales they tell about the good fish
ing to be had in the White river sec
tion in northern Arizona. Personally
I have never verified these stories of
fisherman’s luck in Arizona’s streams,
although I have cast a few lines in
some of Old Mexico’s streams with
fair results. However, in my opinion,
there is just one fishin’ hole in the
world and that is just above Lawn
dale whether they bite or not, I’d like
to be fishin’ there today.
For the benefit of those who have
never lived on the desert or those who
are not acquainted with the southwest- ;
ern sections of the U. S. A, I am go
ing to attempt to enlighten them just
what the desert is and especially what
life is like along the international
boundary of Arizona And Mexico. With
a warning to all the young blood crav
ing romance and adventure to remain
in North Carolina unless their pocket
bo<>1 Will stand an expensive pleas
ure jaunt.
Soutnern Arizona is mostly made
u]i i i ,i,..] v. aste lands although there
are a few pood ranges where cattle
feec the year round and some irrigated
xpo - where farming activities are
eaiti-.i on with mere or less success
But ttenerally speaking, southern Ari
zona is a desert consisting of cac
tus, Spanish dagger, chapperal mes
<iui. and sand, said sand being inclin
ed to shift with the winds and said
winch being considerably active nearly
Id months in the year. To the strang
er nr.d uninitiated, Arizona in the sum
me- it winter is a terrible place. How
ever, when one gets used to it, Ari
zonu is a wonderful place, a health
ful climate, and a garden spot despite
the shifting sands, terrific winds, se
vere sunshine and bitter winter cold.
1 he days in the winter time are al
v' i; Warm and the nights both sum
n r and winter arc1 old enough for
cover. Not a day goes by that the sun
does not shine in Arizona.
My fir r trip to Arizona was not a
health seeking one as I came as a .sol
dier to guard the border. Later an
overdose of German gas made it ne
cessary that I come here to make my
permanent home. I have steadily gain
ed in health until I am now normal,
ray weight having increased from
about 1 GO to 180 pounds, or ten
pounds above normal. Arizona has
given me health and a new lease on
life and I love Arizona, I love its
desert wastes, its drab mountains ana
great silent places. 1 love its people
with their open frankness of expres
sion, their plain ways and straight
forward methods. I love to be out on
the desert at night and lie by the camp
fire and listen to the coyotes howl on
the nearby hills and watch millions
of stars in the sky (Arizona has more
stars visible, it seems than anywhere).
There is something about the desert
that attracts one that is beyond ex
planation. I believe that the Almighty
watches over the desert with just as
much zeal as he watches over other
parts of the universe and when a man
is alone at night in the desert he is
closer to God than in any other part of
the world.
viivf me a canieen ol water, a hlan~
ket, a days rations and my rifle and
I am on my way far a genuine picnic
in the desert. Such excursions havt
saved by life when the doctors shook
their heads and wanted to operate oi.
| me for something that I never had and
would have probably left some of theii
tools in me and made it necessary to
operate again to recover their instru
ments and who knows but what I
would have been pushing up daisies
j today with my toes, had I listened to
their advice.
I'll describe one trip I took last fall
—a deer hunt in the Chireahuas, sixty
miles northeast of Douglas or through
what is known in these parts as Cave
Creek section and Rucker canyon.
Not knowing the country very well.
I selected an old timer a Mr. Bidwell,
TO years old and a typical westerner
of two-gun fame in the old days, yet
active and robust and rearin’ to go. I
had a double purpose in selecting Mr.
Bidwell for this hunt, because he holds
the reputation of always bagging his
deer and he knows every nook and
cranny in the mountains. We packed
my car with several days provisions,
two rifles and two shot guns and
plenty of ammunition as well as
enough bedding, for be it known thal
October the nights are cold in the
Chireahuas. We left Douglas about
midnight on the opening day of the
season and made our hunting grounds
by daylight, or just as the sun was
peeping over the hills. We lost no
time in getting ourselves concealed in
the small timber of scrub oak, juniper,
and other undergrowth. Not a sign of
life anywhere—not even was there a
jack rabbit or cotton tail in the brush
and I began to have my doubts as tc.
there being any d<-er, hut Mr. B. was
not discouraged and kept cautioning
me to he quiet. We began the ascen
of the nearest mountain keeping well
in the draw or wash and moving cau
tiously from one bush to another us
ing our eyes as well as our ears as
we event along. Soon we came to where
the wash divided, I taking the right
and Mr. B. the left agreeing to meet
further up the mountain and hunt
back, to the water hole near when?
we had left the car.
Hardly had I gone three hundred
yards when I heard Mr. Bidwell’s rifle
and I turned back to come almost face
to face with a large buck running al
most level with me in the draw. 1
brought my rifle into play and the
third shot Mr. Buck came to earth anil
after several futile attempts to rise
lay still. He was a ten pointer of a
large variety of the hite tail mountain
deer and as it was not my first deer
by any means, it gave me a thrill
greater than anything I had ever bag
ged before in the way of big game.
Thinking that Mr. Bidwell had miss
ed his shot I called to him to come on
over, “that I had got him,” only to be
informed that so had he got his I went
over to where ho wan and Rtire enough'
he had bagged the twin brother of my
deer. There happened to be two graz
ing near each other or else ready to
duel over the grazing ground. We
skinned our game and hastened back
trt town having been gone less than 24
hours and with two deer or our limiz
for this year's season. Unfortunately
Mr. Bidwell, suffered a fall on this trip
or just afted bagging our deer that
caused him to be laid up for some
days after. Hut 1 must give him cred
it for knowing how to hunt deer and
for being a true and genuine sports
man. At his age his eyesight is per
fect and his aim unexcelled. He can
hit a dime with a six-shooter nearly
everytime lit fifteen yards and he got
his deer the first shot while I took
three for mine and felt lucky at that.j
Next season we are going into Old
Mexico after deer anu mountain lion j
and maybe a lobe wolf or two. He'
tells me some interesting tales of his!
long hunts in the olden days when
many of them were man hunts too. lie1
never boa.-ts or brags and sometimes'
lapses into silence when in the mid-*
die of a yarn when a man hunt was j
embraced. I notice that his old single:
action six-shooter has several notch-'
es in its handles and when I attempt'
to have hint tell me about how those I
notches got there he is silent and'
wants to lijlk about some other sub
ject. One day I thought I'd try him
out just to see how he would act. I
aproached his, house front the front
just at the hours I knew he would bi
taking his daily nap and when he op
ened the door I jumped at him and de.
nianded that he throw up his hands
knowing that he couldn’t tell who 1
was on account of the bright light in
his sleepy eyes, but before I knew i*.
he had his sixshpoter and had me
covered and 1 had to do some fast ex
plaining. He goes across into Old
Mexico quite frequently and dances
until the wee morning hours and not
infrequently imbibes a little too much
of Mexico's liquid refreshment. He is
one of the few left of the old timbers
of the west and gold all the way
through.
Now we'll go bark to my descrip
tion of southern Arizona or some
bits of it for the edification of any
of your readers who might be inter
ested.
Sulphur Springs Valley.
Sulphur Springs valley is located in
the southern portion of Cochise county
Arizona. On the south is Old Mexico,
on the west is the Nacc mountains,
northwest the towns of Lowell, War
ren, and Bisbee, the north Courtland,
Pearce and McNeil, all small towns,, to
the northeast the Chircahua moun
tains, and to the east Niggerhead, Col
Jege Peake, Washington’s Nose ana
other famous mountains.
Douglas, a town of ten thousand
population lies in the extreme south
eastern portion of the Sulphur Springs
vallpy and just a few hundred yards
away from Old Mexico. Approaching
Douglas from the east the motorist is
greeted with a most wonderful sight
As he comes down from the foothills
of the Chircahuas and enters the val
ley on good hard-surfaced highway,
he first sees a smear of smoke in the
desert and hardly a sign of other hab
itation. As ho gets nearer he looks
across a wonderful valley bordered
with jutted mountain ledges with tow
ering peaks in the back ground vol
canic in appearance. In fact he is
looking as fa- as the Catilina’s near
a hundred miles atvay and at the YoTl
Huachuca mountains about 70 miles
distant and also at mountains in old
Mexico but he is more interested in
the gloat level valley with here and
there a windmill, a green strip, and
maybe a squatter’s cabin near the
road. A few miles further and he real
izes he is approaching a town of some
•size. The big smelter stacks loom up
a little higher, lie see* other roads
leading in and soon he reaches the
suburbs of the own at the aviation
field and fair ground with a newly
built fence. He takes a lingering look
back over the road he has made a
great descent. As a matter of fact
within 15 or 20 mile* he has dropped
from an altitude of five thousand feet
to thirty-nine hundred feet. He is now
in the Sulphur Springs valle^ and in
Douglas a town only 23 years old with
paved streets modern facilities, a
chamber of commerce, two big copper
-melters, a railroad terminal and ev
erything that a town could hope for,
and still be in the midst of a great
desert for while they call it the Sul
phur Springs valley, there are no sul
phur springs that I know of, and all
the water of any kind must be pump
ed from deep wells by means of wind
mills, electricity or gasoline power.
As he drives down G. avenue into
the heart of the business section, he
forgets that he has been traveling
through a desert country. Douglas has
two beautiful parks with green trees,
green lawns, and abundance of beau
tiful homes and green yards. It also
has four theatres, several good hotels
many wholesale houses and commis
sion merchants and about everything
else that any city in the east of its
size has.
Then if one has a thirst he can re
pair to our neighboring metropolis,
Aqua-Priesta, Sonora, Mexico, and
quench said thirst with anything from
old Scotch to the native Mexican Te
quila or mescal. There are no restric
tions about one visiting Old Mexico,
for the American dollar is welcome
there and many of them find theii
way to our neighboring town for stuff
other than shoes and bread for the
babies.
After a night spent in Douglas, tha
motorist finds himself on his way
westward, for they all are headed lot
California, many coming back later.
j«dd*r but wiser and sometimes afoot.
Ha leaves Douglas on a wide paved
highway which extends all the way to
Bisbee 25 miles westward. Approach
ing Bisbee he starts to ascend ovci
mountains until he rises to over 7,000
feet altitude and crosses over the fa
mous Tombstone divide where a slight
wrong turn of the wheel would seno
i>im to Kingdom come. Bisbee is a
mining town of no mean import, the
home of the copper mining industry
of the southwest. It has only one main
street and very narrow. One can look
up from its main street into homes a
thousand feet above where it seemed
if one threw a cud of tobacco out ot
his back door, it would land on some
body s head below. Big jagged rocks
Hbove the streets and homes are chain
ed to keep them from taking a roll
into someone’s parlor. The youngsters
in Bisbee all own roller coasters and
small autos and have lots of fun glid.
ing down into the town through its
heavy traffic much to the embarrass
ment of the police officers and drivers.
But the youngsters are expert and
their is seldom a casualty even though
their speed woufil make some of the
famous race track drivers shiver.
Fifty-four miles west of Douglas one
reaches Tombstone, the county seat ol
Cochise county. This old historic town
sets like a jewel in the desert and
while it boasts of being the oldest,
town in southern Arizona, there art
only a few hundred population. Thi
old Bird ( age theatre of which has
been mentioned by many writers in
their narratives of the southwest, still
stands partly in ruins as a monument
to the wild and wooley days of Ari
zona. Just how many men were killed
in this building in the olden days it
would be hard to ascertain, but the
cemetery near Tombstone contains
many unmarked graves.
Arizona is indeed a wonderful
country, summer all the time and hell
all summer.
RAMBLIN’ BILL.
!*• S.—Next time, I will give you an
earful about Old Mexico and its jeal
ous hearted women.
Douglas, Ariz., Mar. 26, ’26.
POTATO BEDDING WEEK
FQJt CLEVELAND COUNTY
(Extension Service.)
This is potato bedding week for thi
potato storage house in the county at
Kings Mountain, Grover, Shelby, Lat
timore and Boiling Springs. Over 1,600
bushels will be bedded by these houses
for storage this fall. The Kings Moun
tain house found out last year that the
last potatoes they bedded made the
first slips and they have selected the
first week in April to bed this year.
The small sprouts on potatoes are
killed when the potatoes are bedded
before it gets warm and it takes a
long time for new sprouts to come.
(Special to The Star.)
Grover, Mar. 30.—Miss MeldoJ
Livingston, principal of Union schoo
"pent Friday night at her heme it
C» rover.
Mr. and Mrs. Frank Oates J
Rutherfordton, Mr. and Mrs. Charlie!
VUshhurn from Shelby and Mr. and
Mrs. Ellis Turner and Mrs. Austir
from Charlotte were visitors at the
home of Mias Bessie Turner Sunday
Mrs. E. A. Dempsey and son Na >
thaniel, visited relatives in Grover
Sunday.
Rev. and Mrs. Holye Love, who
have been at Mt. Holly for severs
days where Rev. Mr. Love has beet:
conducting a meeting, have returnee
to their home in Grover.
Misses Alene Mullinax and Ter
Pinkleton students of Limestone co
lege spent the week end with thei
parents in Grover.
Miss Barbara Austin, from Char
lotte spent the week end with Mis
Lucy Turner.
Mrs. Anna Hughes, son and daugh
ter from Rockhill, S. C„ and Mil
Horsley from Winthrop College sper
>unday at the home of Mr. and Mri
A. Mullinax.
Miss Annie Belle Harrill spent th
week end at her home in Lawndale.
Misses Mabel Fortune and Mari
larielaon, attended the teachers meet
mg’ at Shelby Saturday.
Mr. J. A. Ellis has been confined, t
his home for several days with infli
enza.
Mr. Lee Beam is making rapid prt|
gress in the construction of his sit
room bungalow on the National high?
way adjacent to the residence of Dr
George Oates.
Mr. F. Z. Sheppard was recent vis
itor in the Dixon community.
Mr. J. D. Sheppard, Miss Thelm.
and Gwendolyn Rollins, Edith Ran
dall and Margaret Sheppard attende
the play at Earl Saturday night. I
The "Path Across the Hill” is th
name of the play that will be present
ed by pupils of Grover high scho<
next Friday evening at eight o’clocl
Admission will be 25c for adults an
15c cents for children.
At least Nero was honest. The tow
el found in his bathhouse recently b*1
excavators did not bear the Pullma
mark.—Detroit News.
They are talking about adding }
month to the year again. Let’s add I
right after February to postpone irf
come-tax day.—Columbia Record.
Paraguay reports the discovery e
something claimed to be 200 time
sweeter than sogar; but neglected V
mention her name.—Detroit News.
IS READY TO SHOW YOU NEW SPRING CLOTHING, OXFORDS,
HATS, SHIRTS, TIES.
COMPLETE STOCKS—LOW PRICES. CLOTHING AND HATS ARE GOING TO BE HIGHER.
NOW IS YOUR OPPORTUNITY TO BUY YOUR SPRING OUTFIT AT REASONABLE PRICES. SEE MY SUITS AT
YOU’LL LIKE AT $3.50. $5.00 AND $7.00. SHIRTS AT $1.50, $2.50, $3.50 AND $5.00. OXFORDS AT $4.95, $5.95,
NEW SPRING TIES AT 50c, $1.00, $1.50 AND $2.00.
$18.50 TO $45.00. HATS
$6.95, $8.50 AND $9.00.
I’M GOING TO MAKE APRIL A BUSY MONTH BY GIVING YOU SPECIAL VALUES ALL OVER THE STORE.
COMPARISONS INVITED. LOOK ALL OVER SHELBY—THEN LOOK HERE. IF YOU KNOW WHEN YOU ARE GETTING YOUR MON
EY’S WORTH YOU’LL BUY HERE. IT’S GOING TO BE WARMER. SO GET BUSY AND BUY YOUR SPRING WEARING APPAREL.