Chris Totten is Author of Delightful Book on Arizona

Bv Jack

Something new, unique, and to me very delightful, is the little 36 page and ,cover booklet on his fair state of Arizona, written by Chris Totten, of Phoenix, Secretary of the Arizona Retail Lumber & Builders Supply Association. It came to me under personal cover, has been read thoroughly twice, and goes into my library of private and precious volumes as a reading thing of charm and interest

He calls it "The Land of Blue Sky, Sunshine, and Opportunity." The front 'cover, under the title, bears a pi'cture of a Ponderosa Pine forest in Arizona. The fronticepiece is a pen sketch of a man and a burro sleeping peacefully under the shade of a giant cactus. Then comes a two-page introdu'ctory overture of .Mr. Totten's telling why he decided to write the book.

The next page is dedicated to Arizona as "A place to live and educate your children," gives a list of leading Arizona colleges, and adds: "All accredited schools, second to none, and if your kids ,can't make the grade after graduating from one of these educational institutions, it's on account of the breed and not the opportunity."

He opens his book by quoting from a frequent Arizona visitor, J. B. Priestly, British novelist and essayist, as follows: "I felt a sudden warmth of gratitude for this strange new old country that had lent me all of its winter sun, its crystalline spaces, its amethyst mountains, its scarlet and blue birds,'its huge night of stars. I am too restless to settle down here or anywhere else, but I can always summon up patien,ce enough to write a book, and if I cannot be loyal, I can be grateful. Arizona possesses the best winter climate in the world, which is notoriously short of winter climates. The air is enchanting, quite unlike any I have known before, being crystal clear and faintly but persistently aromatic. It is this air strongly actinic, that gives Arizona landscape its enduring charm. Seen close at hand there is nothing very attractive about these hills, so prickll' with ca'ctus, or the savage rocky peaks behind them. The vast distan,ces do the trick. The air seems to act as a

Dionne powerful stereoscopic lens. Everything far away, and you can see scores of miles, is magically moulded and colored. The mountains, solidly three dimensional ranges and peaks, are an exquisite blue in the day time and turn amethyst at sunset, with shades ever changing with the coming of nightfall, but everywhere toward the far horizon rise chunks of color unbelievably sumptuous, and the nights are evelr more spacious than the days. No lid of darkness is clappecl over you. The spaces are wider than ever, and are lit, night after night, with all the stars of the northern hemisphere, as precisely defined as the stars in a planetarium."

Then Mr. Totten "goes to town" on Arizona. Gives the reader a picture of the state from every angle, climate, health, 'crops, timber, beauty, resorts, scenery, economic possibilities, etc. He tells of the size of Arizona-as big as all the New England states combined-with only 600,000 population of whom ,{O to 50 thousand are Indians; of the great Pine forests of 18 billion feet, where the regrowth more than equals present cutting rate; of timbers taken from adobe Indian houses that were hewn with stone axes away back yonder, some of them (according to the educated sharps) cut in the year 1130; of the great supply of Cedar for posts; of the wonderful Grand Canyon where "the world breaks in two at your feet."

He tells of other wondrous phenomena, comet fragments and holes, etc. Then he tells of the crops that grow in Arizona, such as the eight thousand carloads of lettuce shipped each year from the Salt River Valley at a price between six and seven million dollars; two and a quarter million boxes of grapefruit and oranges per year; 127,000 bales of 'cotton annually, so high in quality that it is used almost exclusively for auto tires, fire hose, and su'ch quality matters ; 310,000 ounces of gold annually; 8,125,000 ounces of silver annually; one-fourth of the world's supply of copper; 20,275,W pounds of lead annually; 7,900,000 pounds ol zinc annually; second in the nation in ,canteloupe production anel acreage; 800,000 head of cattle roam the state ranges; four million pounds of wool are produced annually, and considerable mohair; etc. '

He tells of the splendid condition of the banks of Arizona; and of the 75,m0 tourists that visit the State every year; of the famous cities and tou'ns of Arizona, Flagstaff, Williams, Tombstone, Tucson, Prescott, and Phoenix; he tells of the Apache Trail of the Roosevelt Dam, of the Clifi Dwellings, and other histori'c and interesting things within the borders of the state.

A couple of impressive poems on Arizona are included in the book, one about Bill Reeves, a famous hunter in the Superstition Mountains, the other just entitled "Away O'ut West," both by Sharlot M. Hall, of Prescott.

Mr. Totten'closes his book with the following characteristic resume:

"Arizona is not only a great and fertile field for those few who are still willing to rvork and enjoy the fruits of their own efiorts. It is also a paradise for those who want to play, some of whom can afford to loaf because they have earned the right themselves; others who vacation while Uncle Sam foots the relief bill. But regardless of how you come by it, here is a vast playground. Big and little game in a.bundance; streams and lakes alive with fish ranging from the lowly mud cat to the beautiful speckled rainbow trout. Don't get the idea you will be a successful hunter or fisherman without effort. These mountain lions, timber wolves, deer, et'c., are wild. (Just what they are wild about, I don't know), but they are as elusive as a flea on your grandma.

"I could have said more, but this is enough- I have tried to tell you in truth that we have in Arizona everything rvithin our borders for the building of an Empire' We could almost complete the job from our own resources with a Wall of China built around us' as we have only scratched the surface.

"If, after reading what is written here, you still have no desire to come and see, as did the Queen of Sheba during the reign of King Solomon, then you surely cannot complain of your own surroundings and conditions, both physical and financial. You have no love for the beautiful or fantastic; legends and romances of the past mean nothing to you; possibilities of the present and future are still dull objects. BROTHER, WE'VE GOT SOMETHING HERE ! (Defense rests.) "

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