Show TRAMPS IN DESERT WEARY WILLIES OF THE MOJAVE A VERY DISTINCT TYPE heat and thirst slay many but ceaselessly they wander from oasis to oasis more brutal than most of their class los angeles cal tramps are one of the many strange features of the mojave desert that land of myths and mirages a part of which death valley Is the hottest place on earth tramps are found in this valley even in summer when the thermometer la is the renegade whites live with the plute indians and are locally known as arabs notwithstanding the burning wastes scarcity of water dis comforts and many dangers from animals they are found in all parts of the elsert desert mining camps and ranches are far distant from each other and the country produces little food but those these tourists find no difficulty in getting a living either by begging or stealing they will not cot work yet manage to live like their brethren in civilization they are of a different species more worthless if possible than the others of their tribe and are an interesting study tho the desert has evolved a curious type of humanity seen nowhere else in the world his clothes are usually castoff cast off garments that he has found begged or perhaps stolen faded frayed and full of holes and his broken shoes are usually wrapped in cloth so BO as to protect his feet fed from the burning sands ho he carries a bundle consisting of provisions and a few empty beer bottles on reaching a ranch he will make for the spring and after drinking his fill lie down on the shady side of the house and sleep tor for hours or until he smells the odors of a meal then he patiently watts walta tor for a handout hand out and Is oft off tor for the next ranch thus he keeps up his ro rounds ands from one end of the desert to the other with no object in view no hope for the future r only that he may live from day to day at night he will sleep in an alfalfa field or in a shallow brook with his head resting upon a rock for a pillow arising from his cool bed he fills his bis beer bottles with water eats hla hia breakfast anil and again begins his long tramp which Is never to end he fol lows the trail having no compass and knowing little or nothing of the country beyond except that it Is 30 miles to the next spring and twice that distance to the next ranch he may reach hla his destination and ho he may not frequently he falls a victim to heat or thirst for men havo have died of thirst though having jars of water in their possession tho the heat haa burned out tile tho 8 spark park of life or literally bursts the alio head open skeletons are found in tile tho sands and among the rocks some victims of thirst others of tile the thieving tramp in quest of provisions the desert tramp Is more desperate than his brother of civilization the berco climate has brought out his brutal nature and his hand Is against any anyone one lie he meets in this desolate country whore where everything in ili nature IF la at war oven even tho the elements according to tho the experience of mining prospectors who have traversed the worst parts of sath anth valley tho desert has haa a peculiar influence upon its dwellers it turns the brain of many and those who have once journeyed across it become became fascinated and return it seems to ex exert ort an influence that never can c an bo be overcome the prospector Is another do desert sert type half mining prospector and halt tramp ile ho shuns civilization until un tit ilia his grub stake la is exhausted when he returns for another supply these grub grubstake stake caters are a curious at study udy in human nature more so than the ordinary desert tramp for they are shrewd possess some business capacity and talk intelligently or pei tho the prospector expects to unearth a rich mine and lives in expectancy and ho hope pe unless heinds a mine his only reward la Is bacon flour beans and coffee his grub stake his home la Is on the desert where night overtakes him when he visits civilization it Ls la to got get another backer a grub stake or provisions sufficient to last him two or three months and perhaps another burro burrd th this Is costs about 60 50 ho he does not go to the tenderfoot but to tile the merchant or mining man they are the easiest the city man who knows la is more often taken in than the countryman who usually la Is suspicious of everything the tramp prospector tells the mining operator a stork etory about rich ind indications I 1 cation s perhaps it la Is the long lost mine or the breyfogle hundreds of men have gone out to locate these bonanzas and scores of them never returned yet the story la Is fascinating and tho the search continues every prospector has a naw now story it really Is the lost mine all he wants la is a grub stake in most instances the tramp prospector has taken the specimen which ho he exhibits from a mine in one of tile the camps ho he has not been near the place where these lost mines are supposed to be when he has haa received his bis grub stake ho be returns to the desert and camps in a rocky cavern or under a clump of stunted bushes and there remains until his provisions are nearly y exhausted when he returns to chiv civilization I 1 in search of another victim and another grub stake and with the asmo same story of lost mines |