Image provided by: Oregon City Public Library; Oregon City, OR
About Oregon City courier. (Oregon City, Or.) 1902-1919 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 29, 1911)
OREGON 11 I 29th YEAR. OREGON CITY. OREGON. FRIDAY, DKC. 29, 1911. No 1912, HOW WILL YOITPLAY IT? Have you a "Swear Off" Ready to Start On? IS IT THE HEADOR STOMACH? There's only One Kind That will Stick. Try That Kind. There is uo weaker virtue than one that has not been tried oat. How dead easy it is to declare with all. the sincerity of honesty that you will never, no, positively never, take another drink when yon have on the sickness of "the next day after." The next day after. Isn't it a cork er, fellows? Every time the heart beats the head throbs. The nerves are on raw edges and if one drops a pin, yon will jump. The stomach huB that awtnl aiokness. the tongue rosses around in the month like a file. There is only one thins in the world yon orave water and oceans of it. Easy enongb to swear off then bnt it is the Btomaoh, not the head that is passing the good resolution. The smoker, he will sit around with a bnnch of fellows nntil midnight, and nntil his system is so filled with hi coo tine that he has a "big head." He has breathed it until his system has become a smokehouse and his stomach has protested. He has taken into his fvetem enough poison to kill a dog. lie goes home half sick, lies awake until nearly morning, gets up feeling as if he would like to Blap the baby or knock his wife down with a chair. Then he swears off another sick stomach resolution. I look at New Year resolutions very much as I do at revival conversions the proportion of oures is very low. When the evangelist goes, then the boys and girls begin to fall back into line. Now if you have a 101'J resolution already framed for. the new wall, don't wait until midnight of Monday to haug it up get a running start. When you have your stomaoh so overloaded with turkey that you have to take pepsin to help nature do its work, then you feel as if yon would ' neverjwant to eat again as if yon. could swear off for the long term. But the real test is to resolve you will do a fasting stunt when yon are hungry; to swear oh! on tobacco when your wou'h waters for a cigarette ; to quit the boje umii juac before din ner with a half pint of Canadian Olub on the sideboard. Don't wait for the clock to tick off the old year get started with the gaits now. And tobacco and booze don't com prise all the matters you nan base good resolutions on there are others. Try being a little more of a square fellow for next.year ; try making your How Small Stores Can Draw Trade home a little more like a home ; try getting acquainted with your children and let them know they have a fath er ; try making yonr wife smile once in a while try keeping the golden rule. Get down to brass tacks and thor oughly determine yon will play the cards a little different next year. If you slip, don't wait for 1918 to try it again, but dig in, get a new toe hold aud hat;K nu. And at the end of 1912 you will find the new policy lias paid good dm dends. SHOW UP THIS MATTER. People Should Know Full Facts of This Lawyers' Deal. Editor Courier: Before this ap pears; in print the preliminary trial of Mr. Harvey will have been heard otherwise 1 would withhold this until after the hearing. Let it be understood I have uo de sire to express au opinion as to the guilt or innooenoe. but I desire a fair and impartial trial. If it is true that two men came to Mr. Harvey's house in an automobile, representing themselves to be detec tives or otherwise, and insisted on him going to Portland, and he did go and that time sign a $20,000 contract to defend him, and afterward his present attorney did get him to Dreak that contract by threat or otherwise, it would look to a man up a tree that there was a "nigger in the fence." Let me ask again, is it possible tli attorneys sent these detectives there to procure this fee and is it possible the detectives expected to get a re ward coming or going, or if not de tectives were they commission men? As the matter stands, first it is up to. Mr. Harvey to show he was in duced by these men by threat or ad vice to employ au attorney; second, it is up to these men who came there to see him to prove they had no oonneo tion with the attorney; third, the at torneys must show they had do con nection with the two men aud auto. By all means let us sift tins matter to the bottom ana see that the full facts come out and all guilty parties get all that is coming to them. Btfore I close, will sav I have all confidence in our sheriff, Mr. Mass, and his deputy, Mr. Miles, bnt very little in uutuii JuetGctivea, and my advice is not to put too much depend ence in what a detective says, but be sure you are right and stand tor it. In my mind this is one of the strongest points in the case and unless the matter is fully investigated by the onnrt and jury, FJwill form'avery bad opinion of attorneys and detectives. Yours tor justice, W. W. MYERS. Where Dki 11 Get Lost? Editor Courier : We see by report of city engineer that the cost of engi neering including the inspector has been 4 per cent. The property hold ers have paid 5 per cent into the city treasury. Where is the 1 per cent gone? Into the sinking fond? It's up to the council to tell us. "Nursed." TAXPAYER. BY ELECTRIC LIGHT Using MAZDA lamps in show windows and electric signs outside will draw trade from larger stores not so well equipped. We will be glad to tell you how this can be done with those lamps which give more light for less money than any other illuminant. Portland Railway, Light & Powe Company ELECTRIC STORE SEVENTH ALDER. PORTLAND DICK IS Mr. Eggleston Explains Water Power Taxation. ASKS MR. DIMICK QUESTIONS Writer Replies to Dimick's Ar ticle Criticizing Single Tax. To the Editor of the Courier : G. B Dimick's harsh criticism of single taxers is evidently based on what he does not understand about single tax. He wants to know how water power would be assessed under single tax. Let us suppose Mr. Dim- iok lias a water power in use, supply ing light and power in more than one county. Suppose he reports to the state tax commission that 'his plant produced a daily average of 12(5,235 kilowatt hours in 1909. The ooet ot development of the power op to the forbay, including the dam, was $500.- 000. This gives the basis for file sin gle tax assessment The 126,230 kilowatt hours of power developed daily equal an hourly ave- -rage ot 6,210 kilowatt ..hours or 7,051 electrical horse power, which, at 80 per cent efficiency, is equal to 8,813.75 water-wheel none power. Drom Mr. Dimick's report to tin state tax com mission suppose it is found that his plant is getting a revenue of $28 per horsepower, or 1246,785 a year. Cap italized at u per cent, that gives a capital value of $4,113,033. Deduct the $500,000 cost of development up to tne lor bay, and. tne remainder is $3,613,083, and this is the single tax assessment of the water power. As Mr. Diinick says, the dam would be exempt from taxation under single tax. It woald be exempt for the rea son t!'at the farmer's clearings, grab bing, drains, fences, fruit trees, dwelling, barns, furniture, improve ments, crops aud livestock would be exempt. The dam woald be exempt for the same reason that a store and the merchandise in the store would be exempt under the single tax; for the same reason that Mr. Dimick's home and household furniture and his law books would be exempt from taxation under single tax; and for the same reason that the building and machin ery product of a manufacturing plant would be exempt under single tax. Mr. Dimick fears that the small. home owner and the farmer would be injured by single tax. That is prob ably because he has been taking the Oregoniau's statements at par, instead of looking at the facts. Again, evidently deceived by the wild statements of the Oregouian, Mr. Dimick seems to believe that sin gle tax will exempt railroads from taxation. Well, the state tax com mission's assessment of the Oregon & California Railroad ( Sou t hern Pacific) in Clackamas county in l'JIO was $949,800, while the single tax 1 ment of that road in the county for 1910 is $1,087,975 I don't know what tax the railroad paid to Clackamas county on the 1910 assessment, but suppose it was $9,600 on a ten-mill rate. Then under single tax the road would have paid about $10,700 for that year, on its franchise' and right of way valueall rolling stook, road bed, rails, station buildiugs and other products of labor being exempt. In making tingle tax assessments of other pnblio service corporations for 1910 we iiave exempted all products of labor and taken HOthing unt'tlie fran chise and right of way values, and these have been figured from the sworn reports of the companies to the state tax commission and to the state railroad commission and from other data. We have not included the more than $8,000,000 ot water powers used in Clackamas comity in our single tax assessment fcr 1910 because there seems to be no law under which water powers can be assessed. We mention that great water power value merely to oali public attention to it and to the fact that it is not assessed. This is the value of the water powers after deducting the improvements necessary to produce the water power. Single taxers will be glad to have Mr. Dimick show how producers and industry generally will be injured if the products of labor and industry are Aeinpt from taxation. We single taxers don't wish to injure anyone. We believe that home owners, includ ing farmers, are injured by taxes on their labor and industry. Mr. Dim ick will render a valuable service to the people if he oau aud will show that we are mistaken. W. G. EGGLESTON, 270 East 281 ii St., Poit'aud. A NEW "OREGON IDEA.' Dnnn in Donnewluonia h,,t flnnc uui in i uiuiojiiu.Ma, uui viug to Claim; if we Will. The editor his a frioud bask ia Pennsylvania who is something of a was. He leads the Oonrier, notes whai the Commercial Club and tlio Live Wires arn doing to encourage small true'. si-Hlers to com to Oregci, aud then he writes this letter: Oorry, Pa., Deo. 15. Friend Brown; I read every issne of the Courier, even to the ads. aud I can't help but admire the enterprise of your postmaster in helping to rob us of our girls and the splendid nerve of your boosters in showing we east erners how to come out there and make more money off a half acre than we get off a 100 acre farm here. Now, Brown, I have a scheme that will make ten-acre Oregon tracts look like 30 oents in Yankee coppers, and that will develop Oregon so fast and provide everybody with so much moaey that yoa will forgot Mr. U'Hen's single tax and stow your re forms in the attic. The scheme is just plain cats, witk rat side lines, bat it has Ogle mine stock crowded off the market. Now, Brown, yon take some of the -live ones of your commercial sooieties out in the woodshed and outline the soheme. If they fall for it, wire me. your expense, guarantee transports tion, aud l will come out and nil in the details. I think it woold be a good soheme to call it an Oregon idea, tor the market seems to be good for that stuff. In order that yon may have full faith in my scheme, I will explain all there is to it, but don't let the Commercial Club get it all until they put down a retainer. Here it is in brief : Buy a million cats They will supply you with 12,. 000,000 kittens a year. The skins are worth a little over 28 cents each, so there vou have a daily gross revenue of about $10,000. To skin the oats you will havejto employ 100 mon, who will charge you $3 per 60 cats. Your net revenue will thus be reduced to about $9000 a day. It should oost you nothing to feed your cats Start a rattery. Eats breed four times as fast as cats, so the oats can have a daily diet of four rats apiece, which is simple. To feed the rats is perfect ly simple Give them the skinned cats. One cat will be ample for four rats. The scheme works out simply and automatically. The oats eat the rats, the rats eat the cats, and you have the skins. The above soheme was presented to M. J. Lazelle, and he figured himself up ahead of Morgan in less than ten minutes. He is now trying to buy out the Oregonian, get an option on the Southern racilio and will start out a line of steamers as goon as the canal is finished. ' The matter will be brought up at the next meeting of tne Live Wires and a few of the front posh inav be let in. A class of 39 tried the teachers' ex animations at Willamette hall, Satur day, conduoted by Superintendent liary. The papers have been sent to State Superintendent A Herman for grading. PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA of Oregon City The orchestra now consists of eighteen instruments. There are yet vacancies for violins. Membership is open to both sexes. No expense. Rehearsal every Friday night from 8 to 9:30. For further informa tion write immedi ately to R. V. D. JOHNSTON Oregon Cltq TIE PLAGES. People and Places that are Worth Finding. A PICTURE OF A GOLD CAMP. Little Tales of Roughing it the Wonderful Sonthwest. in When you stop to think ot it, it is interesting to note that the most of the wonders of our country and the most of the treasures of onr oouutry are orowded into the most forbidding Dlaoes, museums hard to get to and riches hard to find. It would seem that nature purposely put up the bars to protect itB curiosities and its gold. And when one has overcome these obstacles, gone through a heap of roughing it; lain out ail night in blanket ; eaten ranoid bacou aud beans from the came spoon with an Indian, aud finally pulled through to the place sought well, ttiere is a satisfaction that makes a place doubly interesting It seems to me that about all of the valuable gold and silver mines of the southwest, or of New Mexico, at least, are baok from the railroads, for the reason that the roads cannot build to them. The metal is found in many places where it would seem a burro could not go. I went to one of the new strikes. aud I found it well worth the time. the trouble and the dollars. . we went over a mouutaiii rango ana d0wn t0 t,B Kio Grande, and that over an dowu kept me busy. The mountain roads are little better than trails, and so steep was the grade go ing up that i had to pull back on the buggy. Bat the fare is the same, miud you, aud these liverymen know how to ninke a touiist go out aud conut his money after every trip. cut we oro-sed the range aud came down in the canyon of the Rio Grande, and the miles we drove up and down tins river, and the beanti ful scenery in every rod of those miles was reward enough for the hard work to get there. One CHn't describe graud scenery, and a poor attempt is tedious. I'll out it out you mast see it. I followed the Kio Grande for over a thousand miles, aud every mile sliowed me some wonder and beauty or the southwest that 1 will never for get. i can t recall the name of the "new strike" as 1 loBt my book uf notes, bnt I will never forget it. When we struck the river the driver pointed to a trail across the stream, a distance it seemed 1 oould throw a stone to, and told me that we would have to drive sixteeu miles to got to that stone's throw eight miles up the river and eight miles back. There was no way to cross no possible way that offered any safety. Eight miles up we found a bridge and I paid a dollar each and fifty cents for the team to get over. At this crossing is a mine, or rather was onoe a miue. The mill yet stands, but it isn't working. I don't know why it is idle, unless the owner saw a rioher mine and easier money iu building a bridge and imposing a per capita tax of one dollar for crossing. We crossed and back-tracked eight miles to the place where we struck the river, aud then commenced a climb, the reuollection of which has brought me several night mares, and awakened me with that horrible seuse of falling. The Kio Grande for scores of miles through New Moxico, is shut in a canyon, the walls of which rise al most perpendicularly for from 2000 to 4000 feet. There are places where na ture and lava have left a foothold, aud where miners and dynamite have broadened it to what is called a trail, and where a level-headod team and a level-headed driver may make the top. Tho trail ran parallel with the river, and the ascent we made was gradual, but the horror ot it was looking down. We Bimly followed a ledge, a ledge so narrow that the whiiHetrees and buggy hubs extended ont over space. "Only the stumble of a horse's foot between us and hell," was the way the driver summed up the situation. Half way up I quit the rig and walked, preferring.to take the chances on the sanity or au over-worked heart to the slip of a horse's foot. Climbing 2000 feet, with an eleva tion already narly 6000 feet, one's heart pounds like an engine and the slightest exertion exhausts. It was a case of climb a few feet aud rest a few minutes. Looking down on the river below, a distance of perhaps 1500 feet, there shone iu the river an island clay bank, smooth, and apparently as hard as glass. This inland reached more than half way across the liver, and I asked the driver why the stream coo Id not have been forded at this point, and, have saved the sixteen miles. He handed me a rock that would weigh aboat ten pounds aud told me to'drop it over onto that island be low. I landed it into the'middle, and that island quivered and waved for a hundred feet in every direction. Then I realized what the dreaded quicksands of the southwest were like, and that the man or animal who tried to cross that island would surely have been drawn down to death. But I am writing of gorges, and mountains, when I started out on a mining camp text The new camp was a fresh ouo, the stirke having been made only abont six months. There were many tents and bnt a few woodeu building, be cause cawed lumber delivered to that camp was worth its weight in food, and With restaurant sandwiches sell ing at twenty cents apiece, you car, fluare out about what a wooden dance hall or a store would cost if you are up in this kind of proportion. This camp has teen attracting un usual attention, and the usual follow ing, because of its fickleness One man will work for weeks without a sight of the yellow, wbile a Mexican will strike: a sixty dollar nugget I I emptying a pail of slop back of the joint. One miner will make a fortune in a week aud his noighbor who al most touches elbows with ihiin in the next claim, can't get a sight of the oolor. Bnt the big strikes are what brinor in me people, and some big ones have been made here, aud the poeple have swarmed from all parts here. We stayed over night and slept out, what little we slept. Thore were no accommodations but the nour of the dance hall and saloons, and these dont' close early enougli to warrant a good night s rest. It was during the afternoon we struck camp, and the place was as quiet as a morgue. There didn't seem to be anyone alive around there. I found one puny looking fellow lying on the ground, smoking cigarettes, and he seemed willing to talk. He was us smooth-faced as a boy aud with features and oomplexion of a woman. 1 sized him up as a "lung er" and finally asked lain if he was there for his hoalth. He replied : " No, I am here for the monev. I left Silver City for my health, bnt am inuoh better here." 1 didn't know just what to make of his reply or his smile. Later on I knew, and wished I had not been so gabby. This boy was the banker and dealer for a taro layout. I watched him for hoars that night as the gold changed bauds over the table, and when he occasionally looked at me aud smiled, it seemed he thought my name should have been Green instead of Brown -Verdant Green. This young fellow with the .white face aud black eyes looked like a con sumptive and the last man in the world you would think had nerve this stripling, they tell me, is as bad as they have grown them since "Billy me iua 8 time. Jf eariesB ot death, Baud au inch thiok, a quick shot, and uiade up of sheer nerve, this young ster follows the camps aud the fascin ations of the game, ' They Eay one need never die 'a nat ural death in these mining camps, for there is alwavs Bomeone ready with a gun to save mm, yet it is my expori euce in the many so-called "touch camps" I have visited in the past few years, that it is the "bad man" and the ' fresh" who die with boots aud suors on, and that the fellow who minds his business and keeps away from gambling and booze is as safe iu a mouutniu mining camp as at home. And soon this mining oamp ohanges frmu a morgue to a bse hive. As the sun settles dowu in the west men trail in from . every quarter like sheop home from the claims for the day and the little city ot slabs and tents teems with life healthy, active autieipatiug American life. Aud the women come out in the evening glow the women of the world which the news of gold has drawn north from Santa Fe and AHiurnueique aud south from Denver aud Pueblo. They were there with their painted fuoes, penoiled eyobows aud "flush" jewelry there for the gold. At the boarding house I sat across the table from a young American to whom nature had done a porfeot work. A two-hnndred-poand young giant, so full ot life that his every move had oat-like grace ; a sneoimon ot the perfect health this wondrous olimate gives to men who do not abuse it; and with that ease aud graoe ot manner you onoe iu a while seea manner that fasoinatoa aud wins. friends. He was educated, "Jiis lan guage told me that. After Buppor he sauntered out, lighted his pipe and wan about to walk dowu the hill, when a girl stopped him, took hold of his coat lapel and said: "Come, Ben, loosen tonight and stake me to a red pile. I dreamed a hunchback was thrown from his dogie lust night, and I can't lose out. I'll got botween the dealer and $600 before midnight, and half tho velvet is yours. " "Nothing doing, Muble, " the man replied with a smile. "I don't be lieve in dream hunches. I'm going out aud watch a bunch of baragas (sheep) drink and muse on the sim ple life." Next morning Mable's body was brought down from over the Silicon and laid out in the store room, waitiug for a night funeral a funeral which would not interfere with busi ness. She had taken too much chloral no doubt again trying to find her luoky hunchback. There is just one topio and one thought here, gold, gold, gold. Today you find it, tomor row you lose it. If you strike it. you gambh to get more of it. It'k fever. It tiros the blood and makes men oia.y. They tell me that down on the river any man can wash out fifty oents an hour from the saud, but that the work is too hard and the income too Blow for gold-mad men. It one could but be immune to the gold fever, what a place to come for health, what a factory for nerves- out here among the mountains, where the dry, pure air intoxicates and breeds health and strength; out whero an appetite makes rancid bacon tatti like quail, out here where there is hoalth, rest and a silence so deep you can hear your microbes gnaw. Near Mora, N M , i'eb. 25,. The Coming Administration. Next Monday starts the new year and a new administration for Oregon City, and. uext Wednesday Mayor Dimick will mako public his appoint ments aud tho new city government will take up the strings. The appointments are a chief of pol.oa, threo assistants, a city engi neer and city attorney. The vote on the matter of a police man for the residence district makes It obligatory on the mayor to appoint another policeman, aud this is in cluded with the three asistanta. Mayor Dimick says he did not make any before-elsction promises for these appointments, and that he will make them with no other object than that nf the best mon for the places, in his judgment. Next year is going to be a big yoar for this city, it many prophesies are indications. The city is growing, it ii going to grow faster, aud it la up to the incoming administration to piovldn nuj and in-nus through care ful cor. iteration. Ihe people are looking for a level headed, common-sense, business ad ministration. The new officials were elooted for this purpose. JUSTICE SAMSON FREESHARVEY. Says Evidence Insuffi cient to Hold Him. . WEAK EXCUSE ON MAIN POINT Says Harvey Didn't Know What He Was Doing when he Signed Contract. In the proliminarr examination of Nathan Harvey, arrested for the mur der of the Hill family. Justice Sam son discharged tho prisoner Tuesday, on the grounds that there was not sufficient evidence to hold him for the graud jury. The law has provided, through the means of a justice hearing, protection to any man againBt persecution that a man may not be arrested through spite, malice, or false pretense and compelled to lie in jail, perhaps for many weeks, until the grand jury shall meet. A justice examination simply asks for suffioient proof to bold the man arrested until the grand jury may either hold him for trial or discharge him. Holding a man for the grand jury does not imply guilt any more than the denial of the man arrested implies innooenoe. it is simply a means to bring the matter to a higher examina tion. The Hill murder was oue of the most horrible that ever blackened Oregon's history, aud the people gen erally have but little conception of the unprintable deeds of the fiend in the Hill oottage that night. Awful docs not express it. And in a case of this kind, no stone should be left unturned to find the murderer, and no circumstance should be dropped that might possibly throw light on the crime. ThiB oomment is in no way intended as a refieotiou on Mr. Harvey. It iB simply a oomment on the matter of the discharge. The evidence brought out at the ex amination went to show that Harvey must have beeu at or near the Hill home at the time of the crime. A olook, tipped over at the time of the murders, showed 13 :52 ; when right ed, it commenced to run ; that Harvey got off the car at 13 :20 or 19 -.80 that night, aud that he must have been . near or at the Hill home at about 14:50; that a neighbor's dogs barked aud aroused him ut about this hour, and tiiat Harvey had made a contraot with Bowerman & Able, a Portland law firm, to defend him in oase he should be arrested torthe crime, and had agreed to pay them $30,000 for their services This evidence is purely circumstan tial. , Sheriff Mass has stated, and the newspapers have widely published, that only enougli evideuce would be produced at the justioe hearing to hold Harvey for the grand jury. (Sheriff Mass says that if the sheriff's department had shown its fall hand at the preliminary examination, it would simply be serving notice on the dufenBe what evidence would be pro duced at the trial and thereby weak ened its case. . Justioe Samson said that the faot ot Harvey being at the station was no evidouoe of crime, and the fuct of his Biguiug a contract with luwyors to de. fund him he disposed of in those words, as taken by reporters: "Human nature is flexible. He was frightened into going to Port land and signing that contract. I don't believe he knew what he waB doing. " Vi'his was not an examination to de termine whether or not human nature is flexible. Judge Samson was not called npon to express an opiuion as to whether or not Hurvey was frlghtouod. Whether or not Harvey knew what he was doing when he hired luwyers to defend him was not for Justice Samson to determine nor was his opinion grounds on which to discharge the muu. Those matters are more in the line of a lunacy commission and more matters of proof on trial. The grand jury convenes here Jan. uary 12. It would have been but a matter of a few days to have given to them this case. If Mr. Harvey is iu nooout it would havo done him no harm, and it would Buem he would have welcomed this examination. If Clio graud jury had discharged him it would have effectually removed every oirouumtauce connecting him with the crime, and the people would have been fur hotter satisfied. As it was, the examination took the aspect ot a trial aud there will al ways be doubts in some minds. And we understand that the jus tice's verdict will not be accepted as final with the sheriff's department, but that it will he brought before the grand jury January 10. When the whole state of Oregon is asking law to stop the wave ot crime, aud when a sheriff lias worked night and day for mouths to stop it in Clackamas county well, the Courier editor believes he should be given a chance to at loast present his full case to the grand jury. And the Courier editor believes it was a big mistake not to have hold Mr. Harvey. Bichner Gets $1000 Verdict. The trial of Josoph Bichner against Aman Moore was concluded in the circuit court Saturday, when the jury brought in a verdict for Bichner for 0. Air a iohuer proved that he was injured by a blow on the head, that his eyesight had been afiacted and he was otherwise injured. Brownell & Stone represented Bich ner and Hhvom and Login the defend ants. Mr. Moore announced that he would appeal the cane. He has pending a similar damage action against Bichner.