Eugene, Ore OREGON GITY The Courier is the Official State paper for Oregon for the Farmers So ciety of Equity, and has the largest circulation from Portland to Salem. If you want to buy, sell or trade, try a small ad in The Courier the best ad vertizing medium in Clackamas County and you will get the desired results. 31st YEAR OREGON CITY; ORE., THURSDAY, OCT. 23, 1313. No. 22 A VILLAGE OF AN UNKNOWN PEOPLE A MONUMENT OR ANTIQUITY IN THE ARIZONA DESERT MONTEZUMA'S GREAT CASTLE Crumbling Ruins of a Forgotten People and a Wonderful Civilization All over Arizona are . what is left of ancient ruins. Some have been ex cavated and throw much light on an cient America. Many, probably hun dreds of them, have never been uncov ered. In Central Arizona, through the cow country, very often will be found a mound of earth, a large mound. If thi? Koil is free from stones or large lucks it is a safe bet it is an ancient ruin, a former home of the Aztecs or any old antiquity you care to guess. A ranchman snowed me a hill near his ranch house which he said he was positive covered a remarkable ruin, from the fact it was similar in every way with mounds the Smith sonian people had excavated in dif ferent parts of the state, only much larger. He said he had long wondered why this mound had not been, examin ed. The hill Was like hundreds of mounds you will see everywhere, and it was covered with live oak scrub trees that had grown there for many years. There was no rock, just dry earth, and the rancher said "Some day" the boys would dig into it, for pottery and relics. He had lived there 19 years, waiting for the favorable some day. But these speculative ruins are not what I am going to write of. I am going to tell you of one of the most wonderful Visible ruins in Amer ica today most wonderful excepting the Puye cliff dwellers' ruins, v I have never been very much in terested in the excavated communial ruins, for the reasons that there was so little to see, and so much to imagine and then I have always had the opin ion these "came after" the cave house and cliff dwellers were more modern as it were, in ancient days. But I heard so much about the great ruin near Florence, and the scattered ruins around it, that I put the cliff people in the attic, and went to see this prehistoric locality. It goes by a half dozen names, but the two that seem to stick tightest are Montezuma's Castle and Casa Grande. And there are as many le gends and stories concerning it as there are names. Anyone can spring one and it has got to go for there is no way to disprove it. The great walls are standing there today, slowly crumbling. They have stood there hundreds of years. None know who built them nor when they were built, and none will ever know oositively. There it stands out in the Arizona sunshine today. Its great walls are now roofless and in places have fall en, leaving great holes. It is a monu ment of antiquity for we who have come after, to guess about. The building proper is about 60 x 100 feet, but the excavated walls, small buildings, in i connection with this "castle" cover much ground, and for years were covered and hidden by mesquite trees, sage brush and great cacti. The walls of this once great build ing were, I judged, fully seven feet through, made of 'dobie mud mixed with some sort of mortar, and those walls are far older than United States history. The inside of these walls were fin ished almost as smooth as a plaster ed wall, and there are places where the polish yet is almost as good as the day it was laid. Once the building was four stories high, so it was said, and the piles of crumbled dirt bear this out, but now the highest points of the ancient walls are not more than three stories, and the roof and its beams have long fallen and rotted. It is cut into rooms and halls by partitions, which are about four feet thick, and it is claimed that the great building once had wooden stairways and ceilings, but that hundreds of years ago the Apaches set fire to the interior. This castle was the big central building of a community of homes, the entire village being surrounded by a wall. Inside were many small build ings, subteranean rooms, ceremonial rooms, burial places, courts, plazas, terraces and much that shows this ancient ruin was occupied by a civiliz ed people. There are the outlines of irrigation ditches from the Gila river, there are plans of drainage for sewer age,, and the excavated pottery shows the inhabitants of this city were not the Indians. The entire ruins as inclosed by the wall were as nearly as I could place them about 250x450 feet, and there is every evidence that it was densely populated. Five years ago Congress made an ap propriation for the excavation of this inclosure and for part of two years men and teams worked taking out the dirt and exposing the wall around the whole village and the walls . of the many smaller buildings around the great ruin. I had no doubt the Inter ior Department has detailed descript ions and official guesses on this place, but I would rather take the lengends and little scraps of history handed down to those who have lived in this vicinity for many years. It is eo much more interesting than a govern ment circular. About half of the en closure has not been excavated. It is however reliable history that this ruin was first seen by Spanish priests in 1694 and it was a ruin then and its legends, told me that it was undoubtedly at least 900 years old. The question who built this city is a question that probably will never be answered, for the answer was lost long before a white man ever saw America. It was doubtless occupied for hun dreds of years and then abandoned. Some of the old fellows will tell you it was built by the Aztecs. Again others claim that Montezuma was the founder, and that his spirit lives there today. The superstitious Mexicans and Indians fully believe this fairy tale; think the place is haunted, and many of them could not be induced to enter the grounds. It is said the Mexican's cross themselves whenever they pass near the ruins. Over in one corner of the ruins a man showed me where some skeletons were found and he said the bones were in a fairly good state of preservation. and he judged from that the ruins could not be anywhere near 1000 yews old as many claim. But to me this was no argument, for the drv and petrifying air of this locality, and the earth which seldom sees rain, help to preserve everything and prevent de cay. But for these conditions the great earth walls of the castle would have long since have been but a mound of earth. ' Some beautiful specimens of pot tery, vases and other ornamental pieces have been excavated, proving that the ancient inhabitants were not only civilized but cultured. This ruin differs in many particu lars from the scores of other ruins that have been partially excavated in Arizona, and it is said there has never been a piece of pottery, implements or shells found at the castle that in any manner correspond to other like relics in ruins less than 100 miles dis tant. Whether this ruin was older, younger or of a distinctly different people, we can only guess. After I had returned to town, an old man, I would judge 70 years old, stopped me on the street and asked me , if I was interested in ruins and relics. I answered that I had a weak spot for these antiquities. The old fel low looked me over, said he was sick and that if I had the price of two ginger ale highballs, he would tell me something that would be worth more to me than the two-bits. I fell for it. I thought his story might be worth the quarter. We went to the rear room of a saloon. He or dered two cocktails a big glass of whiskey with the same quantity of ginger ale, and after he had put them both under his belt, he warmed up, got strictly confidential, and told me the following story and hitched on a proposition. He said he had long been a hunter, prospector and trapper in Arizona, and knew most of the country and ruins; that four years ago he was trapping about 20 miles from there, along the Gila river; a Mexican who lived in a hut near his tent died,- and that he and another white man, a prospector, buried him. He said they dug a grave at the foot of a mound, when the pick brought to light the rub stone that goes with a matette, and digging fur ther he found the companion stone. (The matette stones were the an cient methods of grinding corn into meal.) He said they buried the Greaser, and both knew the mound was an ancient home, where the walls had fallen in, Vegitation had grown over it, and to all appearances it was simply a prairie hill. They talked it over and decided they would wait until the Mexican had partly rotted, then they would ex cavate and get the relics, pottery etc., but that the prospector soon left for Texas, and that the mound had never been opened. The old man made me this proposal: I should hire a camp outfit, furnish the chuck and a team to take us out and come after us a week later. We would excavate the mound and go halves on what was found. It was a plausable story and I have no doubt was true, for later inquiries established the old man's honesty, but I knew from the mounds that I had seen that it would take from six weeks to three months for two or three men to open up a ruin with any care, and as I sized up the old trapper I realiz ed Brown would be the whole thing in the shovel gang, and that I could never get away with the job within the time limits of the trip, and so I bought him one more and turned down the alluring proposition. And what established the truth of the old man's story, was his flat re fusal to a counter proposition that I made that I would pay for the rig and give him $7 for his day's work if he would show me the mound and the grave. I thought I would locate it and perhap next year come back. The old man remarked that if I was afraid to dig open new graves, he would commence work on the opposite side of the mound and not disturb the Mexican. For miles and miles 8 round this part of Arizona the country is cover ed with outlines of fallen ruins, walls and ditchess, and fragments of pottery can almost be kicked up. Once this section was densely pop ulated, in fact in ancient times the whole southwest was populated. And why (the question is so often asked) did these hundreds of thou sands of people live in this barren, waterless land, when to the east and to the west were verdant lands and plenty of rainfall and game. The wise man of today will tell you there have been great climatic chan ges in the strange old southwest, and that in the unknown age when these people lived here the country had rains and many running streams. I was formerly one of the wise geeks, and have often advanced this theory, but when I saw the outlines of a great reservoir at the cliff dwell ers' ruins in the Santa Clara Valley, the old irrigating ditches at Casa Grande, and many other evidences of the fight for water of the prehistoric people, I have considerably changed my mind, and have half concluded these first unknown Americans lived in that desert country because they liked it, as the Arabs like the desert, and perhaps some of the reasons were they did not have to often shingle their house nor wear rubbers when they went to the meat market. Zuni, a communial pueblo in the southwest corner of New Mexico, which is and has been inhabited for about 900 years, is in a barren prairie E TO EIGHTH ST. MOVEMENT ON FOOT TO STOP FURTHER TROUBLE EXPENSE LESS, NO LITIGATION Change of Posloflice Makes this Log ical Location for Elevator A movement was started in this city this week looking toward a solu tion of the elevator proposition, with out injunctions, condemnation of prop erty, litigation or any added expense to the city. Briefly the proposition is this: A petition will be circulated for signatures asking that the elevator be erected at Eighth street instead of Seventh. If a substantial backing of the people is secured, and it is claim ed by those back of the project that there will be little trouble to get a large petition, the same will be pre sented to the city council, and argu ments galore will be presented with it. This movement is the outgrowth of dissatisfied people, who voted for the elevator, who have waited for nearly a year for it, and who see in the re cent injunction proceedings, and cer tain ones to block the erection of the elevator, no end of delays, litigation and costs to the city. It is stated that if the elevator would be changed to Eighth street it could there be erected entirely on the city's property; that the promised li tigation with Mrs. Chase would be avoided and no landing property would have to be purchased. It is proposed to have the derrick elevator at the end of Eighth street close to the track, and the landing just west of the fire alarm house, near the fir tree. This would make the overhead span a little longer than the proposed span on Seventh street, but the elevation would not be so high, and the expense of the elevator alone about the same. but there would not be any property to purchase, no delay over condemnation proceedings, no costly legal expense and the city would be as well served. . One other argument advanced for the location on Eighth street is that with the erection of the new postoffice building opposite the court house, the hundreds of workers in the mills, as well as the business men and women, will nearly all go to the postoffice as they leave their work at night, and that this location would accomodate more people than it would at the pres ent location, and as it is the tendancy of the city to grow north, this location would be much better for present and future accomodation than the present site. It is also proposed, should the coun cil look favorable toward the change, to offer to reimburse the city for the expense it has been to in putting in the present foundation, the amount to be raised by subscriptions. This proposed movement was start ed this week, and there are some men behind it, who if they decide to go ahead with it, will certainly start something. There are hundreds of people in this city who are simply disgusted with the repeated delays and holdups on this matter, and they see two or three yea'rs more to wait and no end of ex pense, as the outgrowth of the dif ficulties arising over the Mrs. Chase property. There is every probability that it will go to the supreme court, rind little probability of getting an elevaor on Seventh street for many. months, and perhaps yoars to come. The proposition looks good as a way out of trouble. Nearly Ready at Ogle Mine The coming annual meeting of the Ogle Mining Co., November 3, will probably fill Knapp's hall with stock holders, for the big cyanide plant will have been completed at this time and the mine about ready to start opera tion. Boys in from the mine state that all the machinery for the cyanide plant is at the mine, and that it will soon be ready for operation. It has been a big undertaking to get this heavy machinery into the mountains over the rough roads, but it has been done, without any serious mishaps, and now the company is finishing up the work and getting in the winter supplies for remember they have winter at Ogle mine, with heavy snow fall. It is but a question of weeks now before the plant will be In operation and the developement of the mine commence, and if the faith of the Fairclough boys i3 anywhere near justified, Ogle mine will be some mine, and that old mountain will give up the gold in it. country where rain seldom falls. Bnt the Zuni's think it is a regular alfalfa life and that their city marks the center of the world. The barren ranges of Arizona and New Mexico are covered with ancient history we cannot read. Their canyons show the homes of the lowest types of human beings (cave homes) and their prairies show ruins of walled villages that men of high civilization erected. And it seems too bad that all his tory and trace of these people should have been lost And it seems too bad that the walls of the great castle at Casa Grande should be left out there to crumble, fall over and be forgotten. The rains are fast undermining these thick walls, and it is but a question of a few years when they will fall over and become like other myster ious hills that cover portions of the weird old southwest. M. J. Brown. CHANG ELEVATOR Catching 'Em Some Smyley Lovelace is the champion fisherman of late. It is said that he went to the river near town one morn ing last week and caught 17 nice sev en pounders. Going again in the after noon he got another basket full. Mo- lalla Pioneer. Short Change An Oregon City man may board a P. Ry. L. & P. Co car at Lents and ride to St. Johns, a little over 19 miles for 5 cents. An Oregon City man boards a car here, rides to Portland, a distance of 12 or 13 miles and pays 20 cents. Molalla Will Vote December 22 Molalla has called its special elec tion for Monday, December 22 to vote on the adoption of a charter, after which she will take her place among the corporations of Oregon as about the latest and very much the liveliest. Molalla has everything to make a booming little city, and plenty more cpming. Notice of Annual Meeting The annual meeting of the stock holders of the Ogle Mountain Mining Co., will be held at Knapp's Hall, Ore gon City, Monday, November 3 at 1:30 P. M., for the purpose of electing of ficers and directors, and for the trans action of any other business that'may come before it. All stockholders are urged to be present. THINK ON THIS MATTER Look at it in the Light of a Purchase Instead of a Tax A voter was in the Courier office the other day talking over the county library matter, and he was inclined to vote against it on the ground of higher taxation. The argument we made to this far mer is the one we want to make to all you farmers. Une must not make a nightmare of taxation. It should not be dreaded to the extent of depriving a family of what it should have, what it needs. The county library proposition will tax property owners 15 cents onv one hundred dollars worth of property. The average assessment in this county is $1500, and the average as sessment in this county for the fam ilies of this county would be 45c ents per year no more, no leess. Now if a private library concern was to canvass the county and pre sent a proposition whereby each fam ily could have access to an establish ed library, where each farm home could have the latest books, encyclo pedias, books of reference, magazines, etc., and havejehhid that proposition a guarantee that the library would be under the control of the county court, and that you could have this service for 45 cents a year what would you do? You would be afraid the people of fering it would change their minds before you could sign the contract. You would jump at it at double the price. If it cost three times 45 cents you would snap it up. Now just because this proposition comes at you in the form of taxation, don't shy at it. Eggs are worth four cents apiece, but you eat them. Skip a dozen and your family would be provided with all they could read for a year, and would get the education that goes with it. There is no object behind this mat ter other than to give the country what Oregon City has and give it to them at less expense. The men and women working for this library are doing it for the com mon good. The country people should appreciate this and should help it along. They will wait long for a similar opportunity. A county library service for 45 cents per year should not be turned down by any man or woman who read or who has children. It should be carried, and carried big. 312 Yes will carry it, if the country will vote it. .Church Men in Banquet The Congregational Brotherhood held its first meeting of the year in the banquet hall of the church Tues day evening and a large number of men attended. President C. J. iSush nell, of Pacific University, was the main speaker of the evening and he spoke on the "Church and Social Prob lem" after which a general discussion of the subject was had by the men present, eight or ten taking part. The death of M. J. Lazelle was re ferred to and a committee appointed to draft resolutions of condolence on his untimely death. Messrs. JMetchner, woodfin ana Peckover furnished the music for the evening. The banquet was In charge of Mrs. Latourette and Mrs. Walker. Hallowe'en Masquerade Friday night of next week. Octo ber 31, there will be a big masquer ade ball at Busch's hall, to which all are invited. Baker's full orchestra of Portland will be Dresent. and a bier ciowd is expected. Prizes will be given for lady and gentlemen wearing neat est costume, and lady and gentleman wearing most comical costume. The bill is $1 for gentlemen, ladies with masks free 25c. . The Right Soluton All over the city largo patches of cement walks are being laid. This is the only way to settle the sidewalk matter. It settles it right, and is far cheaper in the long run. WonHI WOMEN it aiiicui and Girls (over 18 years of age) To operate SEWING Machines in garment factory' Oregon City Woolen Mills SI AS SIDELINE WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT FROM SUCH MANAGEMENT? STAATS SHOWS WEAK SPOTS And Argues for a Business Manager as .the Only Remedy Editor Courier: We givo a hearty second to your motion for a' business manager for Oregon City. The city has an assessed valuation of about $3,000,000 and derives a re venue of approximately $30,000 each year. The income from water rentals amounts to something like $17,000 yearly. Property owners tributary to streets being improved Xire assessed from $15,000 to $18,000 per year for these improvements, the amount vanng in proportion to improvement done. This gives the city an annual in come of about $60,000 and we have the nerve to elect a mayor and city council without pay and ask and ex pect them to expend this money ju diciously and be able to show results, and if they don't do according to our idea, there isn't anything too mean to say about them. The whole system is wrong. We cannot expect men who have a business of their own, to neg lect that business and devote their time to the welfare of the general pub lic without a just compensation. Any private individual or corporation who has a business, the income from whioh amounts to $60,000 a year, will give his undivided attention to that busi ness or place a competent man li charge to look after his investments. Jivery dollar paid into the citv treasury is contributed by the citi zens for the express purpose of being invested in such a manner as will ben efit the city as a whole, in making better streets, sewerage, water, light ing, parks, etc., and the citizen pay ing the bill has a perfect right to de mand, and expect to get, the full val ue of his money. But hec annot do this unless an ar rangement is made whereby someone is responsible for the manner m which the money is invested, and -no sane man, who is honest, is crows1 to make himself responsible for the proper ex penditure of $60,000 a year without giving his undivided attention to that particular work. A competent manaeer. such as could be secured for $2500 a year, could save the city four times his salary, or save enough in one year to nav for all the machinery necessary to grade and pave all of the streets in Oregon City. ii me eauor aoes not consign this to the waste basket I will trv and give some definite, examples next week, where this saving could have been made the past year. J. O. Staats For Sale 2 inch wacon. team plow, No. 2 Iowa dairy separator. Call for information 802 Washington St AN EXPENSIVE LESSON Dr. Mount Undertaking to Teach Portland Man Auto Road Laws. There is one auto owner in Port land who doubtless has a litte re gard for the road laws, and when Dr. Hugh Mount gets through with him seo.ooa oil ES Red Letter Day ! 10 SMK Stamps Free TO ALL CALLERS and DOUBLE STAMP ON All JvIaSQNIC temple bldg. he probably will have a lot more. Dr. Mount was responding to & special call to Clackamas, and when between this city and Parkplace he nice a car driven by Jj . L. JJel schneider, who the doctor asserts would not give half the road, and the machines collided. Dr. Mount stated that although his machine was badly damaged, had the owner of the other car acknowledged his tault and been anywhere near de. cent and courteous, he would have let the matter go, but he says the Port land man was most abusive, and he thought perhaps a lesson might do him some good. He was arrested in Portland and brought here and the case was tried before Justice Sievers Tuesday. The court went to the scene of the accident loked over the road and auto tracts and after listening to witnesses fined the Portland man $25 and costs. Immediately after the trial Dr. Mount brought a civil action in the circuit court for $400 damages to his car. Whatever the outcome, it is a safe bet that auto driver will give a good half of the road in this county for some time to come. CLEAR FIELD FOR JONES Will Probably Have No Opposition. Staats, Andrews and Renner for Council There has been the usual-before el ection political gossip of a half dozen candidates for mayor, Jones, Adams, Staats, Scheubel, Dye, Tooze, et. al,, but the gossip alone had to do with it and the most of "those mentioned" knew nothing of the mentioning, and and one after another, when inter viewed, declined to make the run, and Mayor Jones will undoubtedly have a clear field for re-election. L. Adams, who has been urged to run -for mayor by a great many of his friends, has declined, as on account of his large business he could not give the office the necessary time. Mr. Adams feels that Mayor Jones is entitled to a second term, especially as he has given representatives of "The Committee of 100" the assur ance that he will see that the law is enforced when the city goes dry. The general sentiment seems to be that when a mayor has made good he should at least be given a second term for the purely business reason that it takes many months to thoroughly understand the city and its business, and it is poor policy to put a new man in the work, have him learn it all, and then be retired in turn. A good man should be kept on any city job so long as he makes good. As to city councilmen there will doubtless be some changes. In ward 1, petitions are at for J. O. Staats. He will have a big voting support and will be a strong man on the council. ' J. D. Renner in ward 2, and E. B. Andrews in ward 3, have petitions be ing circulated for them. Both are able men and would work for the city's best good. All three candidates stand high in their wards , and the "dry" fighters are working for their elec tion. The retiring councilmen are Hol man, Horton and Hall. Next Friday, Watch Out. Next Friday night is Hallowe'en. Anything that is not nailed down had better be taken inside. Attention Moose Members The Loyal Order of Moose will meet at the Moose hall 6th and Main Street Friday evening at 7:30 to form in line on Main street, to be led by G. A. R. drum corps to take part in the parade for the benefit entertain ment to be given for Mrs. Anna Sny der, the blind woman. For Sale for week only several counter show cases. Enquire at Lents next door to Postoffice. ATURDAY is ALL PURCHASES Day Saturday EEll5iygB IS BUT REFUSES TO QUIT THE WATER WORKS JOB NO END OF TROUBLE COMING Waterworks Plant Barricaded , and Board Defies City Council Now for scraps, lots of them, bitter and long to be carried on. The Portland Journal some time ago stated Oregon City could be depend ed on to have something going all the time. The Journal is right. Wednesday night the city council removed the entire water board. Thursday morning the water board refused to be removed. They defy the city council, and state if any committee tries to enter the water plant they will be thrown out. The council removed tho board for the reason it has refused to obey the orders to furnish water for the public elevator. The water board says refusal is not grounds for firing, and they won't be fired. This in brief is the second round of the fight, and the referee calls it an even break. How the next round will terminate is guesswork, but it is certain that Marquis of Queensbury rules will not govern, and they will "go" as long as they can stand. And doesn't it make you a disciple to commission government? Don't you think it about time we had a manager to manage business, instead of men to stage fights? Now will come litigation, heavy costs, bad blood, ill feeling. It will work into our water propo sitions and other public welfare mat ters. We will scrap, pay the freight, drag along and many of our people move to Gladstone. And the people who can rule, who have have the power to stop this Lad scrap, will sit by and pay the freight. There is a brilliant opportunity for a leader in this city just now. Is he here, and has he the kidney to kick in? - BE A GOOD FELLOW Help the Widow and Kiddies, Help the Moose Order ' in this Fine Work The benefit entertainment to be tendered to Mrs. Anna Snyder at the Boll Theatre Friday evening, October 24, under the supervision of the Or der of Moose, promises to be a most successful affair, and is deserving of the patronage of the public. Mrs. Sny der is a well known Oregon City wo man who is totally blind, having re cently lost her sight, and is striving to support herself and two small daughters. With the small funds left her last year she was able to attend the blind school at Salem, and she has been able to assist her children, and has been faithful to her duties dur ing the summer. Winter coming on, the big hearted Moose Lodge realize that the little family needs and deserves assistance and the benefit 'entertainment was planned, and is being carried out. Walker & Fields, managers of the Bell Theatre, have donated the use of their theatre for Friday evening for (Continued on Page 8) WATER FINED cue OREGON CITY, ORE,