Young Engineers in Arizona
H. Irving Hancock
Hardcover
(The Saalfield Publishing Company, Akron, Ohio, March 15, 1912)
Written by the prolific H. Irving Hancock, this novel is one of the series of five books which follow the career of Harry Hazelton and Tom Reade. They travel and survey the American West through their jobs as civil engineers, while remaining the all-American young men that were first introduced in Dick and Company novels. This entry in the series has our heroes attempting to lay track for the railroad across treacherous quick sand through the Arizona desert. They must deal with nefarious gamblers and explosions while keeping the job on schedule and defeating the quicksand. It is written in the vernacular of the time; therefore it is unintentionally humorous and at times offensive, again because of the acceptable chauvinistic language at the time. These larger than life character with many adventures many readers, both young and adult.