Special to The Desert Sun

Best anyone could tell, Edward Fitzgerald appeared on the streets of Palm Springs in early 1930. His countenance was noteworthy. He had long, red hair and a longer full beard. He wore “no more clothing than was necessary” in the summer and switched to along overcoat in the cooler months.

Many tales circulated about Fitzgerald’s past. One counted him an East Coast lawyer afflicted with a terminal disease that caused him to move west. Another claimed he was a professor, and still another supposed him a traveling salesman who decided there was no use in all the effort and hard work providing little more than a living, so he “went back to nature.”

The timing of his appearance in town at the start of the Great Depression made real that there was no use in all the ef

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