Yours Sincerely

PRISONER-OF-WAR:

I have been in Florence, Arizona, as a prisoner-of-war. Today I had the good fortune of reading your magazine here in our camp. I would like to have you send me to my home address a few of your magazines so I can show to my friends the country I was in in Arizona during the war. Please send them to my home address.

To Karl Bode and his friends in Germany have been sent some copies of ARIZONA HIGHWAYS with our good wishes.

PRINT JOB:

May I, as a humble reader and one who has a real interest in print, whatever its form, letterpress, lithography, photogravure, rotogravure, make known to you my sincere feelings of real gratification that ARIZONA HIGHWAYS always brings out in me, upon handling each succeeding issue. Why it is I cannot see, but it is an acknowledged fact that litho is best used in the United States. Always there comes out just that something, which seems to elude the best in Britain. Try as I may, I have yet to discover why. With all sincerity, I assure you most emphatically yours is the most beautiful publication I have cver seen and I have had the pleasure of reading many in my time.

ARIZONA HIGHWAYS appreciates the comments of Reader Harris and is proud to be a vehicle showing fine American graphic arts to readers abroad. Our aim is to make this publication a printing achievement of which all American printers can be proud.

IMPROVEMENTS IN AIR STRIP:

Considerable improvements have been made in the airstrip at Marble Canyon, which your readers may be interested in. This in formation is given to bring the data contained in your May issue up-to-date. First, the strip is now 4200 feet long, 200 feet wide, and is graded. We keep working on it constantly so that there will be no rough spots. Our altitude is 3567 feet. Large ships can and have flown in. A recent visitor was a trimotor, 21 passenger plane. The pilot was very pleased with the field. Arizona Airways plan to make Marble Canyon Lodge either a meal stop or an overnight stop on one of their scenic tours with their D-C3's. The field is so arranged that a plane can taxi right up to the cabins. As we have oil, 80-91-100 Octane gas and tie down facilities, we have enjoyed many visits from cross country fliers and airminded tourists. Air

minded host Art Greene is to be congratulated for the landing facilities at Marble Canyon. We predict this place will become a mecca for air travelers visiting the scenic Indian country of Arizona.

WHO SAID THAT?

I must take issue with you on your "Golly, What a Gully" piece in your September copy.

Emory Kolb and I are perhaps the oldest living residents of the South Rim of Grand Canyon. I crossed the Grand Canyon with Teddy Roosevelt on his last lion hunt in 1913, but the Grand Canyon was not made a National Park until 1919.

I was also there in 1907 when President Taft arrived on his private train and he made no such remark as "Golly, what a gully." It was Irving S. Cobb who made that statement. There was a small gathering watching Cobb. When he walked up to the rim, he seemed to be struck dumb by its beauty and vastness. Then he turned and saw we all were watching him. He knew that we expected some statement from him. He said, "Golly, what a gully."

APOLOGIES:

As an old-time owner of pure bred Angora goats, I was amused to see in the beautiful October issue in the article on the state fair, two pure bred Angoras listed as sheep. Imagine their embarrassment and mine to be so deceived for years.

PALO VERDE WAIFS OF THE SKY

What are the pigments that color the sky? Not white-lead, copper, nor aniline dye. The sky, like the soul, keeps no garments of clay, No metal-cloth, gold, nor silver lamé; But tosses a sail soft as gauzes of spring. Tinted with peach-blow, wandering. A swish of orchid, a whiff of rose, A bit of the heaven the violet grows Where midnight stars prick the luminous blue. Or blood red thorns where storms thrust through. Free souls, these colors. waifs of the sky.Recurring. enduring, floating by.

STAR FIRES

Above the mesa blaze the stars, Like distant campfire lights. What chieftans gather round their glow To smoke through tranquil nights The pipe of peace? On these still plains No war-cry sounds, Nor beat of drum there braves come home To happy hunting grounds.

CACTUS BLOSSOM

Cerise from an aeon of sunsets, Gold from some primeval dawn, Sparklets of dew from a world that was new When your eternal beauty was born. You bloom in the pathway of Progress, Presume to impede and defy Man's ruthless and hurried new conquests -Brave beauty, tomorrow you die.

SUNSET

In the west Artists of the sky Hung pictures And left them In all their lurid colors So that they could dry.

NOTE TO ARIZONA

I thought I had done with great desert spaces: That sand would not again know the mark of my shoe: But walking today in such crowded places, I remembered a morning: a desert-morning with you: Wild birds were singing with balmy winds blowing, As we roamed copper hills under sky blue and wide: Now I think from this city I soon will be going Back again to the desert to walk at your side.

"The name for this beautiful tree is Spanish for 'green tree,' and refers to the color of the trunks and limbs. In spring, when the brilliant small, and numerous yellow flowers of the symmetrical palo verde appear like a yellow haze upon the desert, the tree really comes into its own.

"It is worth while to know at least two kinds: the Blue Palo Verde (Cercidium floridum) has bluegreen branches and leaves, bright yellow petals with several spots of red upon the upper or banner petal, flattened seed pods, and leaflets that occur in four to seven pairs. This tree is found in washes, drainage areas, and semidesert grasslands. The Foothill Palo Verde (Cercidium microphyllum) has yellow-green branches and leaves, pale yellow flowers, with the banner petal a whitish color, and rounded pods alternately bulging and constricted between the seeds. The leaflets are in one to three pairs. The foothill species grows upon desert mesa slopes and also upon the plains."

"The twisted limbs of the palo verde are brittle and easily broken by vandals, who sometimes destroy for the pleasure of destroying. The trees grow slowly, reaching a height of from 15 to 25 feet. They are equipped with thorns."

The above description of the palo verde tree, one of the most beautiful of the desert trees, was taken from the book, "Desert Parade," by William H. Carr, The Viking Press, New York, 96 pages, $2.50. The subtitle, "Guide to Southwestern Desert Plants and Wildlife," explains the book. Mr. Carr, a contributor to these pages, in "Desert Parade" has prepared a book that will be of great interest and value to students of desert lore. The chapters will show the scope of the book: Desert Mammals; Birds of the Desert; Snakes of the Desert; Desert Lizards and a Tortoise; Spiders, Scorpions and Insects; Desert Trees and Shrubs, Desert Wildflowers and a few "Weeds;" and Desert Cacti. The book is illustrated with photographs by Marvin H. Frost. Photograph of the palo verde is for ARIZONA HIGHWAYS by Esther Henderson.