The Desert Trail

This illustrated volume was published in 1915.

Book Excerpt:

The slow-rolling winter's sun rose coldly,
far to the south, riding up from behind
the saw-toothed Sierras of Mexico to throw
a silvery halo on Gadsden, the border city. A
hundred miles of desert lay in its path a waste of
broken ridges, dry arroyos, and sandy plains
and then suddenly, as if by magic, the city rose
gleaming in the sun.

It was a big city, for the West, and swarming
with traffic and men. Its broad main street,
lined with brick buildings and throbbing with
automobiles, ran from the railroad straight to the
south until, at a line, it stopped short and was lost
in the desert.

That line which marked the sudden end of growth
and progress was the border of the United States;
the desert was Mexico. And the difference was not
in the land, but in the government.

As the morning air grew warm and the hoar
frost dripped down from the roofs the idlers of the
town crept forth, leaving chill lodgings and stale
saloons for the street corners and the sun.

Against the dead wall of a big store the Mexicans
gathered in shivering groups, their blankets wrapped
around their necks and their brown ankles bare to
the wind. On another corner a bunch of cowboys
stood clannishly aloof, eying the passing crowd for
others of their kind.


Genre: Western