I > I Mi > \ o cure lecto a? Arizona Cit ; JAMES -rA5ELL W ^-- ^ y^^-j p . NEWS COMPANY WESTERN AGENTS 'MNTEKS i, Cal. CALABAZAS OR AMUSING RECOLLECTIONS OF AN ARIZONA "CITY" BY J.'CABELL BROWN ILLUSTRATED WITH ORIGINAL DRAWINGS Published by VAT.LEAU & PETERSON, PRINTERS AND PUBLISHERS, 410 Sansome St., San Francisco. Copyright 1892 by J. CABELL BROWN. All Rights Reserved 1(5333 Bancroft LibrarS PREFACE. IN picture, poem, and prose has the stranger in the far west been caricatured and ridiculed as the ' ' Ten- derfoot ' ' victim of that dangerous compound of whis- kers, whisky, dynamite, and death known as the "Bad-man." To the reader, this book will show that the average , western ' ' Bad-man ' ' is not nearly so dangerous as is the California flea or the Hoboken bed-bug ; that he can use his legs to good advantage in certain contingen- cies, and that his reputation for being phenominally wide awake, is a figment of his brain, or at least exag- gerated. Kvery incident herein related was an actual occur- rence, and somewhat similar ones are within the expe- rience of most western pioneers. Should they serve to amuse the reader, the author will have attained his purpose, J. CABEU, BROWN. Oakland, CaL, 1892. CONTENTS. CALABAZAS Its Location, Its Surroundings. Its Rise, Its Industries, Its Society, Its Impres- sive Hospitality, and Why Its People moved to the Line 13-3 7 THE CALABAZAS KID His Arrival, His Sojourn, His Subjugation, and His Departure for the Line 39~6i THE CALABAZAS PRKACHKR His Arrival, His Sermon, His Backsliding, and His Departure for the Line .62-91 THE CALABAZAS WIDOW She Comes, She In- vests, She Increases Her "Wad," and She Departs for the Line 92-147 THE CALABAZAS CLUB Its Olympian Games, Mr. Murphy, Mr. O'Connor, and Mr. Riley, and their Departure for the Line. 148-166 THE CALABAZAS BABY His Parents, Lucky Smith and the Little Woman, His Birth, His Bereavement, and He goes over the Line 168-196 THE CALABAZAS JUSTICE His Constable, His Troubles, The Final Riot, and His Departure for the Line 197-251 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. CALABAZAS, Frontispiece 12 THE KID 38 THE PREACHER HAS A DIFFICULTY 86 THE ' ' WELLY GOOD MEN ' ' WATCH THE "WELLY SICK LADY 112 MR. MURPHY'S TONSORIAL PARLORS 150 LUCKY SMITH 168 THE LITTLE WOMAN "TURNS HER TOES UP ON SMITH " 186 THE FIRST NATURAL DEATH IN CAL- ABAZAS, 206 "AND BEER WAS SENT TO THE LADIES," 232 DEDICATED TO A PIONEER OF THE WEST, MY EvSTEEMED FRIEND, HENRY P. BOWIE, ESQ., OF SAN FRANCISCO. CALABAZAS. ITS LOCATION ITS SURROUNDINGS ITS RISK ITS INDUSTRIKS ITS SOCIETY ITS IMPRESSIVE HOS- PITALITY WHY ITS PEOPLE MOVED TO THE LINE. IF a person seeking valuable and interesting infor- mation will take a map and pass his finger down the center of Arizona until at a point where the boundary line dividing the United States from Mexico diverges from an east and west direction, to one running north- westerly until it meets the Colorado River, he will see near the diverging point a dot marked, Calabazas [English gourds or squashes.] This dot is the loca- tion, and Calabazas is the name of the town; a town with a short history, it is true ; a history not widely known, but none the less interesting and eventful. By seeking further he will see that it lies at the junc- tion of two railroads on the map that it is on the banks of the Santa Cruz River, and the astonishing additional fact, that the said river has neither source nor outlet. Calabazas is, what is left of it, near the head of the 14 CAI