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Show CHAPTER XXV. THE OSTEICH FABM AND THE SALTON SEA. The American people live in the most wonderful of all lands, and do not seem to realize the glory of their pos session. They cross oceans and girdle foreign countries in quest of strange scenes; they fill the art galleries of Europe to view the productions of the sculptor and the painter, when here, within their own domain, unseen and unappreciated, are marvels of nature baffling all descrip tive art, wonderful creations of God challenging the pen of the poet, and the possibilities of the brush of genius. While traveling through this wonderful territory I was asked if I had seen the ostrich farms on the Salt Eiver valley. I had to answer that I had not, and in every instance I was urgently pressed to visit the feed ing grounds of this strange bird before leaving Arizona. I came to Phoenix last week to enjoy a few days of indo lent ease before starting for the wilds of Sonora, Mexico, and the hunting grounds of the terrible Yaquis, of whom you have heard. Not far from Phoenix there is an os trich farm, where 1,000 birds are annually surrendering to the " plnckers" $ 30,000 worth of feathers and eggs. I am not going to inflict upon my readers any detailed description of the wired farm enclosing these 1,000 Af rican birds, nor of the pens of the birds, nor the topo graphical features of the land, but will simply record what I have seen and learned of the ostrich at the colony I visited. But first let me correct some mistakes and errors our story books and school books have handed down to us |