VANISHED ARIZONA

Sight. There was nothing but white sand as far as one could see in all directions.

Ehrenberg had a population of about a hundred and fifty Mexicans, Cocopah, Yuma, and Mohave Indians, a few miners, and the storekeepers James M. Barney, P. M. Fisher, and the Goldwaters. Being the only white woman in town was too much for Martha Summerhayes and she boarded the Gila headed for San Francisco as soon as it arrived. At Yuma she changed her mind and Mrs. Summerhayes returned to her waiting husband who greeted her with these words, "I knew you would come back."

Immediately Mrs. Summerhayes began making the best of her situation. Cocopah Charley became the houseman and a shiftless Mexican nurse with a howling infant of her own was secured to look after young Harry. Captain Mellen set Emma off the Gila at Mrs. Summerhayes' door and she proved to be an excellent cook. With ample supplies of Cocomonga wine, life became almost endurable in Ehrenberg.

"Life as we Americans lived it was difficult in Ehrenberg," observed Mrs. Summerhayes. "I often said, 'Oh! If we could only live as the Mexicans live, how easy it would be!' For they had their fire built between some stones piled up in their yard, a piece of sheet iron laid on top: this was the cookstove. A pot of coffee was made in the morning early, and the family sat on the low porch and drank it and ate a biscuit. Then a kettle of frijoles (Mexican beans) was put over to boil. These were boiled slowly for some hours, then lard and salt were added, and then simmered down until they were deliciously fit to eat and had a thick red gravy."

A fine perambulator was sent down from San Francisco and the half tame Cocopah Charley was given the task of wheeling the baby along the river bank.

"It was an incongruous sight to be sure and one must laugh to think of it," wrote Mrs. Summerhayes. "The Ehrenberg babies did not have carriages, and the village flocked to see it. There sat the fair haired six months old boy, with but one linen garment on, no cap, no stockings, and this wild man of the desert, his knife gleaming at his waist, and his loin cloth floating out behind, wheeling and pushing the carriage along the sandy roads."

One of the questionable conveniences of the army house at Ehrenberg was a broken pump which the Lieutenant repaired and pumped forth a foul smelling black sulphur water. Always imaginative, the Lieutenant had a coffin-like tub made and created a wonderful sulphur bath to cure rheumatism.

Officers going to and from the posts in Arizona frequently stopped to enjoy the hospitality of the Summer-hayes, and the Lieutenant was always quick to recommend the healthful properties of the sulphur bath. On one occasion he induced a particularily beautiful woman, Mrs. Alice Martin, to try the water.

When Mrs. Martin finished her sulphur bath the beauty reached out to Mrs. Summerhayes and asked, "Where is your mirror? I fancy I look queer."

In fact she did. The waters of the Ehrenberg Styx did not seem to affiliate with the chemical properties of the cosmetics used by the beauty. Her face had taken on a queer color with peculiar spots here and there.

"What kind of water did you say that was?" Mrs. Martin asked Lieutenant Summerhayes. "My face has turned such a queer color."

"Oh, it always does that," replied the Lieutenant optimistically, "That shows it's doing good."

The winter months were pleasant at Ehrenberg and they passed quickly, but in the spring of 1896 both Mrs. Summerhayes and the baby became sick and they went East to Mrs. Summerhayes' home for a long rest.

After eight months in Nantucket Mrs. Summerhayes was ready to return to Ehrenberg and rejoin her husband. When she returned she was well prepared to meet the privations of the frontier. The entire eight months had been spent collecting and packing every item she had needed and could not get in the desert.

By the recently completed railroad Mrs. Summerhayes went to Los Angeles and from there to San Diego by boat. Taking the stage she sent her baggage around Lower California on the Newbern.

Lieutenant Summerhayes met his wife in Yuma with the news they were to be stationed at Camp McDowell, and they waited for the Newbern to bring the boxes before going on to the new station. The boxes with all of Mrs. Summerhayes' precious belongings never reached Yuma. News soon arrived that the Newbern had been burned to the water's edge in Guaymas Harbor with only the passengers saved.

"Don't mind," said Lieutenant Summerhayes, "I'm so thankful you and the boy were not on the ship."

"But you don't understand," Mrs. Summerhayes reminded him, "I have no clothes except what I have on."

In spite of the misfortune Mrs. Summerhayes was glad to be in Arizona again and write in Vanished Arizona of her feeling for the desert she had first hated.

"Even the country looked attractive, smiling in the December sun. I wondered if I had really grown to love the desert. I had read somewhere that people did. But I was not paying much attention in those days to the analysis of my feelings. I did not stop to question the subtle fascination which I felt steal over me as we rolled along the smooth hard roads that followed the windings of the Gila River. I was back again in the army. I had cast my lot with a soldier, and where he was, was home to me."

World's fastest girls softball is played in Phoenix Softball Park. National tourney will be held here during September.

Arizona's Larruping Lassies

BY JERRY MCLAIN PHOTOGRAPHS FOR ARIZONA HIGHWAYS BY HERB MCLAUGHLIN AND HOWARD DE WALD OF MCLAUGHLIN & Co.

Out in Arizona, in a part of the West that fondly boasts “its men are men”, there's a trite saying that “Anything a woman can do, a man can do better!” They're ready to revise that now to read like this: “Never underestimate the power of a woman!” It's all because something like a score of years ago a bunch of fellows got together, tossed out a pumpkin ball, “REACHING FOR A HIGH ONE.” Carrie Hill, Maid fielder, is trying to reach first base before Dot Myers, Queen first baseman, grabs a high throw from the infield. Carolyn Morris, superb Queen pitcher and cagey field strategist, is backing up the play. This and other action pictures herein were taken during night softball games at Phoenix Softball Stadium early this summer and they represent clock-like cooperation between Photographers McLaughlin and De-Wald, and Light Technician Don English. These action scenes were recorded with a 4x5 Pacemaker Speed Graphic, on Kodachrome, 1/10,000th of a second, some at f4.5 and some at f5.6. The camera was hand-held and the strobe light was also hand-held. The strobo-scopic light was composed of four high voltage transformers and a control box. It develops a total output of 7,000 volts and is the only unit of its type in eleven western states with which it is possible to make such color photographs at night. McLaughlin & Co. rented the shortened the basepaths, decreed that a pitcher use under-hand slants, and made a number of other concessions so that those who couldn't cut the mustard in the great game of baseball would feel more at home in softball. Probably this softball sport originally was meant to be a family affair where Paw, Maw, Sonny, Sis and Uncle Tom all could take part. Then came lighted playing fields for equipment from an old friend of ARIZONA HIGHWAYS, Ross Madden of Pacific Palisades, Calif., especially for this interesting feature. The stroboscopic light is an ultra-fast flash used in taking photographs of fast action. It was developed by Prof. Edgerton of M. I. T. and is worked more or less on a radio principle. The speed of light, in this case 1/10,000ths second, controls and stops action of the moving sub-ject. The old method of making such pictures would be to hook up the camera to a booster box full of dry cell batteries and from this fire 25 to 30 flash bulbs. They would be synchronized with the camera and the possible speed would be 1/400th second, not fast enough to stop the action. The stroboscopic equipment used for this series is valued at $4,000. It eliminates the use of cumbersome equipment and saves much expense in flash bulbs. Incidentally, the runner in the picture on opposite page, was caught with her eyes closed. She did not close her eyes because of the light flash, but because of that old college try to reach base safely. Her spurt beat the throw to the base.