The Sunday Oregonian., August 02, 1908, Magazine Section, Page 2, Image 44

BT FRANK JENKINS.
rpHG filuslaw country! Isn't that
I name to make you push back the
papers on the desk, and use tin-
fumigated language about business, and
go out on the street and stand In front
of the run stores, and gaze hungrily at
the sporting paraphernalia displayed there
in? And It you are a half-baked tender
foot. Just long enough out from he level
monotony of the Middle West to have
fallen deeply In love with the dreamy,
smoke-haunted mountains that ring our
Oregon valleys 'round, the chances are
a hundred to one in favor of your con
signing business to well', to the rest of
the oftlce force, and taking the trail
The Biuslaw country! There la a tang
of mountain and wilderness to the words
that calls to a man's blood. Ever since
I first heard the words, I have been ans
wering the call; straining at the chords
In the mornings when the fresh breath
of the firs comes down from the canyons
and across .the fields into the town, and
longing to be away in the big woods with
no cares but wood and water, and a place
to pitch the tent. A few days ago, U
came loo strong- to be resisted, and
my father, brother, uncle and I made our
preparations.
Stem circumstances compelled this time
that the trip be a short one, so we loaded
light. The stage offers the easiest and
most accessible way of reaching the
country, but It is too swift, too business
like, too much In a hurry. It tolerates
no loitering by the war. no pausing where
the road swing around a hill and tilling
your eyes and feasting your soul with a
vista of timbered mountains and twist
ing, churning river, no stopping and ex
ploring a canyon that leads back Into
the mystery and darkness of the hills.
No stage for us! We loaded a light two
seated buggy with guns and fishing
tackle, and took the trail. Really we
didn't Intend to make a very large hole
In the wild population of the hills, but if
you are a tenderfoot, and have ever been
out In the big woods at night, you know
what a comfortable, friendly fellng a
Ciin has In your hands something like the
touch of your mother's fingers on the
suilrway, when you were a little bit of
a kid. and were going oft In the dark
to bed. If I should tell the armament
that we took with us. I could never bring
(myself to tell the slse of the bag that
we brought home, so It will remain a
dark and bloody secret. However, If we
bad been charged by a bear. We would
have been too heavily loaded with artil
lery to make fast time.
The first H miles of the road lead
through the level fields of the Willamette
Valley, with, their white farmhouses hid
away in the orchards, and with fields of
wheat and vetch meadows stretching away
behind them to the foothills In the blue
distance. Jt Is a mighty pretty ride in
the early morning, and Its pastoral beauty
prepares one for the rugged grandeur that
Is awaiting him.
Beyond the Long Tom River they call
It a river, but It looks more like an ir
rigation ditch on. a vacation the open
country comes to an abrupt end One
enters the reception hall of the mountains.
As far as Blmlra. the country Is quite
closely settled, 'numerous little clearings
opening on the road, each with its little
cottage In the center. The road la like a
park lane, with the big firs along the
sides, interspersed with the brilliant green
of the mountain laurel, and where it dips
Into a hollow, with the graceful white
stems of the alders.
, . . .
2mlra is a peaceful little village with
two stores and a sawmill, and an air of
quiet self satisfaction that Is refreshing.
Beyond here, one leaves civilization
rapidly behind. The strips of forest be
tween the clearings become wider and
deeper, and off to the sides, you begin to
catch glimpses of deep canyons, with
bills sweeping back from them, up and
up. Just as far as you want to look.
Rounding a point In the road about five
miles beyond Klmlra, we came In sight
of a little valley that brought us to a
stop In rapturous admiration.' Down be
low us at the edge of the green timber,
whs a little white farmhouse, with a
red barn behind it. and stretching away
to the creek were level fields of oats and
vetch. Circling it on every side are tall
mountains, blue and indistinct through
the smoke haie, with here and there a
canon opening back Into them, with
ravishing suggestions of tinkling riffles
with trout pools lying below them.
For ve minutes, we est silent, our
mouths open, and a dreamy look In our
eyes, while we cudgled our brains for
something poetical to say. I had just
figured out a sentence that I thought
would floor them, and was getting ready
to fire It. when my brother stretched out
liis arm with a commanding gesture, and
remarked n a Juliet n the balcony tone:
'Isn't it wonderfully, transcendcntally In
spiring?" I conld have pulled his nose. There I
had put In five minutes of fatiguing
brain work thinking up a beautiful senti
ment to spring on the others, and he had
spiked my gun just as I was tightlng the
fuse. It annoyed me so that my temper
did not regain a calm and even poise
until after a most satisfying camp dinner
under mighty fir trees, and beside a
spring that would have supplied a city
with pure water. Long observation has
convinced me that a man's temper and
his stomach occupy rooms In the same
flat.
Immediately after dinner, we began to
climb, following for some distance a little
mountain stream that made our fingers
Itch to get hold of our fly rods, then
suddenly leaving its canon, and zig
zagging directly up the mountain side.
A half hour's climb brought us to the
summit, and without warning, wo plunged
into another canon, the road leading us
between columns of trees, each of which
would have furnished timber enough for
good-sized bungalow, with enough left
over for a woodhouse, and a fence around
It. And ttie breath that came out of
those canons! O, ye dwellers in hot city
streets, take one last sniff of spaghetti,
hot asphalt and Frankfurters, and then
while Uve memory of It Is fresh In your
nostrils, hie away to the mountains, and
breathe in the air that comes down out
of a deep fir canon! You will find whole
city additions out In the suburbs of your
lungs that haven't been used for so long
they are overgrown with dogfenneU
At the bottom of the canyon we
crossed a silvery little stream that
later widens out into Wild Cat Creek,
one of the finest little trout streams
anywhere. For the next two hours we
drove rapidly, as we wanted to have
some time left over to fish. We were
planning ta spend the night at Mead
ows, one of the stage stations, and
figured that we had Juet about time to
make it with a little fishing sand
wiched In. Shortly" before 5 o'clock the
trail led us right down to the waters of
the creek, with Ideal riffles falling
over the rocks about every 10 yards.
The sight was too much for my brother
and I. We forgot that supper was nine
miles off. and grabbed for our fly rods,
struggling to see who would be the
first to get a fly on the water. Within
three minutes we- had them rigged and
were standing- knee-deep In a beautiful
riffle At the first cast I pulled out a
nine-Inch Polly Varden, and started In
to do It all over again with the zest
that only one who has long been de
nied the sight of a green riffle and a
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on the luck of the trail that had led us be
tween the hours of 8 and 10 past lovely
springs with grass and water in ahun
dallce. and made cutting remarks about
the way nature handled things, anyway,
and . criticised her very sharply. And
then. Just as we were beginning to feel
that we were very badly abused people
Indeed, old Nature, tender and loving
mother that she Is. forgave us the mean
and slighting things we had said, and
opened her arms to .us like little chil
dren and led us out into a little glade,
and gave us every comfort that was
hers to give, and cuddled us close up to
her, and told us never to mind; that she
knew all about it. and that it was all
right. And we cooked dinner and a to It.
and were at peace with ail the world.
That afternoon we drove Into Maple
ton, and found some of the warmest
hearted and pleasantest people It had
ever been our fortunes to meet. We felt
that all mankind were our brothers. In
deed, and wished we could settle down
here among such neighbors and spend
the rest of our days. The next day we
took passage with Captain Hurd on the
steamer Hazel for Florence, arriving
there about 10 In the morning. Florence
is a land of promise. Back of her stands
the largest body of merchantable tim
ber of any equal area In the world, and
a great part of the lumber cut from It
must pass over her wharves. From her
fisheries $100,000 worth of salmon goes
out every year. A deeper entrance !
all she needs, and the people of the
Sluslaw country are rallying for the
fight to get it. A movement is already
well under way to bond the western part
of Lane County for J100.000, as an evi
dence to Congress that Florence knows
what she wants, and that she Is golna:
after It. Through the courtesy of Pr.
Edwards, the secretary of the Sluslaw
Improvement Club, we were furnished
with a launch which took us to the
beach.- and for several hours we
Stood within the roar
Of a surf tormented shore,
and looked out over the old Pacifla an
rising trout can know. For ten de
licious minutes we whipped the pools,
swelling up when he landed a good
one, and using wild, untamed - words
when we missed a strike, and then the
older folks on the bank sounded the
recall. We begged and pleaded with
tears in our eyes; we swore by the
sevrn days in the week that if we
could be permitted tofish that stream
for another hour, we would be content
to make a supper on scenery, and then
drape ourselves over a limb and thus
pass the night in satisfied reflection;
we maintained that It was unhealthy
to sleep under a roof in the moun
tains, and threw out dark suspicions
that there would be bugs in the beds,
anvway.
There Is nothing In all the wide
world quite so foolish as a fisherman
when the frenzy is on him. But It
was useless; the older folks held, the
cards. , and we had to follow suit. We
climbed into the buggy, knowing Just
how Napoleon felt when he had to turn
back from Moscow.
As the. frenzy wore off. however, our
stomachs sailed in again and con-
quered our tempers, and we began to
see that, while scenery might be ideal
as a dessert. It would be decidedly out
of place as a piece de resistance. The
farther we traveled, the longer thoee
nine miles looked, until, before we had
progressed more than a mile. Meadows
seemed as far away as the days when
we prattled at our mother's knee.
Every five minutes we took up another
hole in our belts, and within a half
hour, a slice of bacon looked more de
sirable than a block of Union Paclflo
preferred. Just then we met a weman
and two children In a mountain wagon,
and lifted the buggy out over a 60-foot
precipice to let her pass. As ehe was
scraping by we inquired how far It was
to a place where we could stop for the
night. She replied that there was a
place about a mile down the road
where we could put up. Tou have
read how he people took on on that
memorable Fourth of July when they
heard the Liberty Bell ring, and how
they swung their hats, and swelled out
their voices In Joyful thanksgiving.
You ought to have seen us; It was a
great historical restoration.. We would
have fallen on that woman neck and
wept, but we were afraid of disturbing1-! Idly, but the valley. Instead of widen
ing, became steeper ana more ruggea..
In places, the road wound along a little
narrow shelf cut in the bare face of
the cliff, and at some points. a at
Beecher Rock, we could look directly
down for 100 feet Into the water. The
scenery was splendid, closely resem
bling In many places the little Alpine
valleys of Switzerland. As far as we
could see up the canyons that opened
on the river, wooded mountains
stretched back, one after another; in
deed; we knew that with very few
breaks they stretched away thus up
and down the entire Oregon coast.
Throughout this magnificent land.
Wilderness Is the sovereign overlord.
Here and there in the level bottoms
settlers have done him homage, and
taken from him lands In fief, but he
exacts his feudal dues with a stern and
mighty hand. Whenever hie followers
become lax In their services he casts
them out, and takes back their lands to
his own demesne. Throughout the
mountains, you see these abandoned
holdings; his faithful henchmen, the
fern and the quick-growing fir, stand
ing In close ranks about them, remov-
our delicate balance on the brink of
the canyon. She never knew what she
escaped.
At the end of the specified mile the
other end of which, by the way, like
all mountain miles, seemed to have
been strolling on ahead of us for about
an hour we came to the Richardson
ranch, and descended on It like a horde
of Huns overruning Europe. Mrs.
Richardson most hospitably invited us
to spend the night, and we etabled the
tired horses in a roomy barn, and then
went up to sit on the porch until sup
per was ready. And such a supper as
It was! We were so afraid our hostess
would think we weren't appreciating
it that I am afraid we left a famine
behind. After supper we sat out in
front of the house and smoked, and
watched the light die out of the can
yons, and the stars come out, and a
little after 9 turned Into bed for such
a sleep as only a day on the trail can
bring.
Early the next morning, as we left
the settlements below the Richardson
ranch, we entered a wonderfully beau
tiful country. The river widened rap
ing swiftly all traces of a former ten
antry. He is a stern suzerain, yet tils
vassals adore him; having once worn
his livery, they are never content to
doff It for another. His wild, untamed
spirit calls to the strain in their blood
that harks back to the days w.hen man
and the wilderness lived in the closest
communion, and they answer the call.
We rode on through wonderful Bcenery
until about 11 o'clock, and then suddenly
we seemed to notice a difference. At
first, we couldn't understand It. The
mountains were Just as magnificent as
ever; the rtver splashed on, becoming
more beautiful with every mile; new
vistas opened up before us unceasingly,
but something was wrong. We weren't
long in finding out what It was we had
inside information. Dinner-time was ap
proaching, and no camping place was In
sight. We began to cast an anxious eye
around the next corner, hoping that the
coveted water, wood and shade would
appear, but It w-as a game of progressive
disappointment. W'ood and shade were
plentiful, but the water was a long
way off. With each repeated disappoint
ment we became more sour and unman
nerly; remarks that In the morning had
aroused a responsive laugh, now brought
forth only scorn and contumely; optim
ism on the part of one called forth scath
ing criticism from the rest. We deprecated
the country; we heaped scnn-llous abuse
picked shells, and sat in the sand and
did the other things that people do at
the seashore. That evening we returned
to Mapleton. and the next morning were
obliged to leave for home. (
Of the return trip I shall have nothing
to saj It was full of pleasant Incident's
and we had several hours of glorious
trout fishing at the Fowler ranch, on the
Wild Cat. but .our faces were turned
homeward and the knowledge that we
were leaving the mountains saddened us.
To us who love them, these mountains
of ours are almost a religion: indeed,
thev are the church wherein one prac
tices religion in Its primitive simplicity:
walking alone In the presence of his Ood.
surrounded by objects that call forth ,
his adoration. When I was a little bit
of a kid. reading history back In the
corn fields of Iowa, I doubted the dictum
that the people of the mountain countries
are more patriotic than plains dwellers.
I loved our level fields and our roiling
pastures, and I thought that William
Tell would have fought Just as hard for
such a land as ever he did for rock
bound Switzerland. I doubt no longer, i
I still love the level fields of Iowa, but
there Is a splendor, a majesty and withal
a kindly, gentle companionship about
these blue and hazy mountains that grip
close about my heart.
Eugene, Or.. July 28.
The Aims and Ideals of a Girls' High School
H
BY REV. EDWIN V. CHARA.
ISTOR1CALLY, the high school or
academy holds the primacy among
our educational Institutions. Our
present elementary school system is of
comparatively recent origin. The uni
versities of today can trace the story of
their origins in the records of the medi
aeval universities of Paris and Bologna
and Oxford. ' But four centuries before
Stephen Langton was dean and rector of
the incipient University of Paris, high
schools had sprung up under the fostering
hand of Charlemagne In practically every
cathedral city of Europe. The Irish monks
who flocked to the shores of continental
Europe, scorning the perils of the deep,
as the contemporary writer puts it. nobly
seconded the work which had been begun
by Alcuin, the father of modern educa
tion. The seven liberal arts which com
prised the course of study in the cathe
dral and monastic schools of Alculn's day
were the forerunners of the enriched cur
ricula which are placed before high school
pupils today. An Institution which has
served the cultural and practical needs of
humanity for upward of 1100 years and
still flourishes with the vigor of youth,
must have aims and Ideals which are
worthy of study.
To attempt to assign any single object
as the exclusive aim of hgh school train
ing would be a futile and unprofitable
task. There are those who say that the
function of the high school is to Impart
culture, to lay broad and deep the founda
tions of a liberal education. Others there
are who Insist that such academic train
ing should be eminently practical and
should tit the pupils for the Immediate
duties of life. The fact is that the pur
pose of academic education is not simple
but complex, not one but manifold. Pro
fessor James, of Harvard, tells us that
each person Is composed of several selves,
of a heirarchy of mes. There is the
physical me, my bodily make-up: then
there is the social me, which consists of
my relations to the rest of the world,
and finally there Is the intellectual or
spiritual me, the mind. Here are three
selves, as It were, and academic education
must aim at the appropriate development
of each and at the same time the harmo
nious development of all.
It will be seen at a glance that the ar
rangement of the high school curriculum is
a great and complex problem. And this
problem, difficult in itself, has been in
definitely complicated by the attempt to
proylde an academic course equally suited
to boys and girls. The co-educatlonai high
school is an educational blunder because
the general aim of a girl's education is
different from that of boys. True educa
tion means the natural development of
our. faculties, and all authorities agree
that men and women differ characteris
tically in every organ and tissue and
faculty. As Huxley once observed, "What
has been decided among the primitive
protozoa cannot be annulled by an act of
Parliament." A condition which Is in
herent In human nature, will not be al
tered by the decision of a school board.
Girls are' not inferior to boys: they are
simply different. The education of one
is not suited to the needs of the other.
The identical education of boys and girls
must tend to feminise the boys and de
feminize the girls. No stretch of Imagi
nation can justify an education which
aims to approximate the ideals, the lives
and habits of women to those of men.
Our Catholic education must aim to make
men more manly and women more wom
anly. As Bishop Spalding says:
"Nor gods nor men love mannish wom
an or a womanish man." The Catholic
Church, therefore, with the wisdom that
has always characterized her, has here
anticipated the teaching of the most
advanced pedagogy and has given her
adolesoent girls to the care of the de
voted sisters, while she places her boys
under the firmer hand of manly dis
cipline. When we pass from the general to the
particular aims of academic training, the
same truth is borne home to us with in
creasing conviction. The tremendous
physical changes which take place during
the age of adolescence make it the pri
mary duty of the school to provide for
the health and physical constitution of
the pupils. I The attempt to subject girls
to the same severe grind and stran which
boys must be put through cannot but be
productive of aenemie and nervous chil
dren who will never thank you for the
intellectual training that has been pur
chased at the cost of their life's blood.
This is the crime of tontemporary educa
tionthe pitting of girls against boys in
the classroom, between the 12th and the
18th year. The boys need constantly to be
urged on: the girls are goaded on by the
spurs meant for the boys, until their
physical strength is stretched to the
breaking point and there comes a physi
cal collapse that not all the pharmacies
in the world can repair. I think that we
ought tov baptise Hygeiea, the. old Greek
goddess, of health, and erect an altar to
her in every girls' high school.
Closely related to trio hygienic aim of
the school is the economic. The school Is
a preparation for life and life's problems.
While our boys are In the trades' school
or taking a course in industrial training in
the high school, our girls must pursue a
course in domestic science. It is Pro
fessor Dewey who says that the correla
tion of studies in the high school will
never be effective until the studies are
correlated with life. It is in the labora
tory and workshop. In the class of in
dustrial training and domestic science
that the school is brought Into touch with
life. It was an old Jewish maxim that
he who teaches not his son a trade doth
the same as If he , taught him to be a
thief. If we cannot say the same of the
mother who falls to Instruct her daughter
in domestic economy, we can at least
declare with all emphasis that no girl is
educated who is not a competent house
keeper. Our girls will not be asked as
St. Paul was when he was In Jerusalem,
"Canst thou speak Greek?" but she will
be asked, "Can you manage a household
economically?"
Above and beyond its immediate and
practical utility, industrial and domestic
training has an influence on the Ideals of
the pupil which is freighted with untold
benefits to the Individual and to society.
There is no social ideal today so false
and so pernicious as that which has given
rise to the servant problem. There is
no more damaging indictment that can be
brought against the educational system
of today than this, thai it has fostered
the Idea that service 1 ignoble; we have
had a generation of high school boys who
disdained to accept an apprenticeship in
the industrial trades. No I They were not
educated for that, and they have broken
the hearts of their parents and have filled
the penitentiaries with educated criminals.
We have had a generation of high school
girls who knew little and cared less about
the care of the household. Their chief
concerns were the fripperies of dress and
the trivialities of their social existence.
They have been the source of the gravest
of our sociological problems because
young men of moderate Income could not
afford to marry them, or they have
flooded the divorce courts because they
were neither willing nor able to adjust
themselves to the simple duties of the
home. Industrial or domestic training In
the school should give pupils a truer per
spectve In life; it should teach them that
work and service are ennobling. It should
spread the spirit of him who was fore-
told by the prophets as the "Servant of
Israel," who labored at the bumble duties
of the carpenter trade and who has left
for his followers the sublime law of
service; "Whosoever shall be the greater
among you. let him be your minister, and
he that will be first among you. shall be
your servant." Matt. xxl:2. This will
be the solution of the greatest of our
social problems and here and not in the
extension of suffrage nor other political
machinery lies the hope ot the ruture.
CHAMPION BARGAINER
Baraboo
(Wis.) Special . to
Record-Herald.
Chicago
NATHAN WOOD'S ruling passion Is
for bargaining. He is noted over the
whole countryside for his brilliant victo
ries at the bargain counter. To his lau
rels he yesterday added the crowning
one of all. By his shrewdness he was en
abled to enjoy the luxury of an attempt
at suicide which cost nothing
Wood now stands out as probably the
only man who has reveled in all the sen
sations of a would-be suicide, from the
purchase of the deadly pistol to the firing
of the shot which was to end it all, at
no material lossv
When Wood's financial statement
showed cash In hand of only $3 and no
prosoect of immediate receipts, he de
cided that it was Ume to wind up busi
ness. Going to a hardware store, he ex
amined its stock of revolvers without
finding a good one that he could buy for
$3. A small .22-caliber weapon which
a clerk showed to him was rejected as
unlikely to Inflict a fatal wound for
Wood wished to make sure of his winding-up
proceedings.
However, it was a matter of choosing
between the doubtful weapon and the
prospect of Indefinite existence on $3.
. Finally he selected the former.
Then his bargaining Jnstlnct surged to
the fore.
"Suppose I take this and It does not
answer, will you take It back?" he asked
"Sure," said the latter. "Money back
if you are not suited."
In a few bours the town heard that
Wood had attempted suicide. He had
desperately fired a bullet point-blank at
his brain. The- resisting power of his
skull was such that the ball had simply
flattened Itself against the bony struc
ture and had been removed after making
a mere scratch.
The clerk In the hardware store heard
the news. He smiled and pondered. Then
he casually remarked to hie- employer
that he had sold a revolver to Wood on
trial, but that he scarcely thought Wood
would bring the weapon back.
Hardly were the words out of his mouth
before Wood appeared, produced the pis
tol, with the remark that It was no good
and demanded his money back.
The clerk was too astonished to debate
the matter. He gave Wood his $3 and
thA would-be suicide left the store with,
the look of a man who has reached the
bargain hunter's highest Joy.