Calexico is a town with a future,--like most of the desert towns,--in fact, it is nearly all future as yet. It has streets and public squares, but it lacks the buildings. They will follow, however, for the railroad is coming, and a rich farming region will center there. The town is laid out beside the irrigation ca.n.a.l which there forms a portion of the international boundary.
Over this ditch, in Mexico, is the embryo town of Mexicala, which consists of a single row of thatched huts and adobes strung along beside the ca.n.a.l. Nearly every building is a saloon or gambling den, or both. The town boasts of a population of three hundred souls, with but a single white man.
None of the towns in the Imperial country on this side of the line sell intoxicating liquors. This makes Mexicala the Mecca for the "spirituously" inclined. The liquor obtainable there is of a brand known as mescal, and there is murder in every gla.s.s. In proof of this a.s.sertion, just before we arrived there a Mexican took four drinks and then shot four persons.
[Ill.u.s.tration: ADOBE HOTEL, CALEXICO, WHICH HAS THE ONLY SHOWER BATH IN THE DESERT]
Silsbee, twelve miles north of Calexico, is a very young city. There are three or four tents among the mesquites which border Blue Lake, and there is a general store, post-office, and dwelling combined. The building, as well as the business thereof, is composite. It is made partly of boards, partly of tent cloth, and partly of poles, thatched with greasewood boughs. The proprietor of the establishment, Dan Browning, is a red-faced frontiersman who has faith in the future of his city, and he is in on the ground floor. He will point out to the visitor "Main Street," "the park," "the hotel site," and other attractions, and he sees them all in his mind"s eye. To the visitor, however, all these metropolitan wonders appear to be simply desert.
Imperial has the one church of the desert. It is a small wooden structure--the first wooden building in the valley--which is whitewashed on the outside. Imperial is ancient. It has two years the start of its sister towns and it looks down upon them with disdain.
Some of the infant cities have designs upon their big sister, however, and they mean to outstrip her in the near future. Brawley is one of these ambitious towns. Heber is another and Holten is still another.
Plans have been perfected for the construction of a grand boulevard which will pa.s.s from the northern limit of the Imperial ca.n.a.l system to the international line at Calexico. This street will be one of the wonders of the State when completed. It is to be one hundred feet wide and thirty-five miles long, and will be so level that it cannot be determined with the eye which way the street inclines.
Along either side of the way and down through the center of the thoroughfare will be rows of trees to shut off from the street the glare of the desert sun. Also on either side will be small ca.n.a.ls of running water which will serve, not only to irrigate the trees but will be utilized to lay the dust of the street. When completed it will require but two men to keep the entire street in order.
With this glimpse of the work of reclamation which is taking place in the desert thus afforded the reader, I will drop the subject and bring the final chapter to an end. The death of the desert will be a beautiful one. There will be no lack of flowers to lay upon its bier.
Its grimness and fierceness and terrors will have given place to peace, plenty, and prosperity. The region of death will be transformed into a kingdom of life.