Fort Yuma is probably the hottest place on earth.

The thermometer stays at one hundred and twenty in the shade there all the time--except when it varies and goes higher.

It is a U.S.military post, and its occupants get so used to the terrific heat that they suffer without it.

There is a tradition (attributed to John Phenix [It has been purloined by fifty different scribblers who were too poor to invent a fancy but not ashamed to steal one .-- M.

T.]) that a very, very wicked soldier died there, once, and of course, went straight to the hottest corner of perdition, -- and the next day he telegraphed back for his blankets.