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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (March 1, 1880)
March, 1880 72 THE WEST SHORE. It Nevkii Fails. We frequently hear fathers say, " I let my boys select their own papers." Nearly two years ago we heard a similar remark to the above made by a man in a neighboring county. Happening to call later in the day at this man's place of business, we found one of his sons, then about 8 years of age, perusing his own selec tion. It was one of these highly sensa tional crime-reciting New York pub lications which Hood the country and may be seen on nearly every news-stand. The boy above mentioned now lies In jail awaiting trial for a recent murder committed in his native city, whilst the father is busy manufacturing public opinion on the slender excuse, that he, the father, has always been, a so-called, good citizen. There is but little doubt that one of the most potent fountains of crime is this vicious literature. These papers directly instigate crime and their extinction would be a blessing to hu manity, but as there is no means of suppressing them and as our children will read, it follows that the best anti dote is to furnish the youth with good, wholesome reading, with a view of winning them away from the corrupt ing papers, to that which entertains and instructs. If fathers, however, neglect this, one of their most import ant duties, they have no right to expect sympathy when their children, through their own neglect, turn out as criminals. Home-rule Your wife's opinion. Even if a boy is always whistling, "1 want to be an angel," it is just as well to keep the preserved pears cm the top shelf. "Why," the boy usked, " do you blow down the muzzle of your gun?" " To ace," replied the man, "if it is" and just then he discovered that it was. A lady who had quarreled with a bald-headed lover, said, when dismiss lag him, "What is delightful about you, my friend, is that I have not the trouble of sending von back any locks of hair." How docs a stove feel when full of coals? (iratelul. Do not suffer life to stagnate; it will prove muddy for want of motion. No cord or cable can draw so forci bly or bind so fast as love can do with but a single thread. The reason we cannot have an honest horse race is because we haven't an honest human race. She certainly hud a pretty foot, but after all it didn't make half so much impression on hira as the ld man's. THE SALMON RIVER COUNTRY. In the small but marvelonsly rich silver veins of distant Arizona, in the mountain masses of low grade ores of the Black Hills of Dakota, and ill the unprecedently large fields of fairly rich carbonate ores of Leadville,or the equal ly noted galena deposits of Frisco, Utah, the world has come to regard the most important secrets of American mining regions as about uncovered. Hut surprises more wonderful are in store for the immediate future if we may believe half that which exper ienced and reliable eyes feast upon in our now centrally located northwest. It has remained for that vast region of Central Idaho, which our latest maps still insists in marking " unexplored country," to develop mammoth ledges, traced miles upon miles, whose silver ores are as rich as those in the narrow ledges of Arizona, and far more so than those of Leadville or Frisco, to dupli cate Black J 1 i 1 1 s mountains of native gold ores so fabulously rich that we are loth to believe the proven truth, and to unite with these fascinations, grand forests, many fertile valleys, broad, grassy feeding-grounds for herds to Come, and enchantments of sccHcry, game fields, and trout streams, fresh and probably unrivalled. It will, in all probability, be the scene of our next great mining stampede, one not second even to the Leadville furore. It is al ready a prominent bullion producer. TheSalmon River region takes in Yan kee Fork, Wood river, Saw-Tooth, Hay Horse, Yellow Jacket and other districts, covering some 20,000 square miles of the heart of Idaho. The re gion is bounded 011 the north by the main range of the Rocky mountains, on the east and south by the great lava plateau of Snake river, and the west by the Boise and other mountain ranges long since explored and mined. Its eastern edge is 150 miles west of the Utah & Northern Railway, and its southern boundary reaches within 200 miles of the Central Pacific Railroad. The Oregon division of the Utah & North Railway is projected to cross a valuable belt at the southern end of the region, ami wagon roads already pene trate its best developed and apparently richest sections in the center and at the northern edge. From this it will be seen that the country is far less isolated or difficult of access than readers at first thought would suppose. Salmon river, a deeper, clearer, and far more turbulent stream than the Sus quehanna, gathers its volumns from dozens of strong tributaries in the high mountains of this region. The Wood river, several large feeders of the Boise, and other barely fordahle mountain torrents course it, all draining valleys of great fertility but of l ather limited extent. The highest peaks are 12,000; feet above the sea, the mountains are! moi c rugged than anywhere in the Rockies, the Saw-Tooth range espe cially being a marvel of diamond point ed peaks, jutting crags, and rocky heights which even the mountain sheep will not assail. Pine timber is very abundant en the lower mountains al most everywhere. The region is full of lakes, and its canons are pronounced among the grandest ever discovered. Omaha New West. In Benton County. A gentleman just from England, who has footed the entire distance from Corvallis to Ya quina Bay, writes to us : We walked down to Elk City, 48 miles from Cor vallis, and from there took the steamer to Newport, at the mouth of the bay. We had a very pleasant but rather fa tiguing walk. I must say that the scenery through the coast range is very fine. One who has seen both would at once be reminded of Wales. The bay itself is exquisite even at this time, so what it must be in Summer I cannot even imagine. We of course priced farms and land all the way down. Unimproved farms are held at from $5.50 to $8.00 per acre ; Im proved farms from $15.00 to $30.00 per acre, according to location. The prospect of the early construc tion of the Canadian Pacific Railroad is having a very healthy effect on mat ters in general over in British Colum bia. The city of New Westminster, for instance, has improved more rapidly within the past three months than it ever did during the same period since its existence. From a private letter which reached here from Liverpool, England, on the 27th of March, we learn that the wool crop will be very short there. Sheep are dying off by the hundred from a specie of lung disease, and in conse quence thereof there will be hardly any lambs this season. The recent desperate attempt to cre ate a real estate boom here, leads us to believe that certain parties rre getting ready to " unload" on a very extensive scale. A word to the wise, etc. In writing for the press, if you can't nit nrc into your writings, you nau letter nut vour Wrltinm into ths fire. Many a woman dusts billiard chalk off her husband's coat and a big tear stands in her eye as she thinks how ; late he works nights at his desk by the white-washed wall.
