[Illustration] Finding the Worth While in the Southwest BY CHARLES FRANCIS SAUNDERS Author of “Finding the Worth While in California,” “The Indians of the Terraced Houses,” etc. _WITH MAP AND ILLUSTRATIONS_ “The Sun goes West, Why should not I?” _Old Song._ NEW YORK ROBERT M. McBRIDE & COMPANY 1918 Copyright, 1918, by Robert M. McBride & Co. Published May, 1918 TO M. H. R. Kinswoman most dear This little volume is affectionately inscribed. PREFACE No part of the United States is so foreign of aspect as our great Southwest. The broad, lonely plains, the deserts with their mystery and color, the dry water courses, the long, low mountain chains seemingly bare of vegetation, the oases of cultivation where the fruits of the Orient flourish, the brilliant sunshine, the deliciousness of the pure, dry air—all this suggests Syria or northern Africa or Spain. Added to this are the remains everywhere of an old, old civilization that once lived out its life here—it may have been when Nineveh was building or when Thebes was young. Moreover, there is the contemporary interest of Indian and Mexican life such as no other part of the country affords. In this little volume the author has attempted, in addition to outlining practical information for the traveler, to hint at this wealth of human association that gives the crowning touch to the Southwest’s charm of scenery. The records of Spanish explorers and missionaries, the legends of the aborigines (whose myths and folklore have been studied and recorded by scholars like Bandelier, Matthews, Hough, Cushing, Stevenson, Hodge, Lummis, and others) furnish the raw material of a great native literature. Painters long since discovered the fascination of our Southwest; writers, as yet, have scarcely awakened to it. CONTENTS