Corvallis gazette., July 03, 1903, Image 4

SOME
1
aty Folks !k.S.
Cincinnati Post.
FORGOTTEN.
Belinda soon will be a bride;
Her gown is white, writes she;
A crepe de chine of finest kind,
And fits entrancingly.
The bodice has two hundred tucks
And fifty yards of lace,
Put round the yoke and down the front
And every other place.
Teh skirt is shirred all round the top
And flares out at the feet; ,
The whole thing, so Belinda says,
Is just too simply sweet.
Belinda writes me pages ten.
And all are much the same;
She's told me everything except
The happy bridegroom's name.
Washington Post.
BT Is not to be denied that a rich old
maid, who has accepted her age and
her spinsterhood, has about the best
of things as they go in life. She has,
at once, all the financial independence
of a man, and the privileges of a
matron without her incumbrances, and
may do pretty much as she chooses
in a necessarily limited state of society.
Miss Ashton belonged to this en
viable class, and was wont to make the
most of her opportunities". Her sister
she abused them,' but when they lifted
an eyebrow over some quite impos
sible person or fad she had taken up,
she merely shrugged her shoulders.
"At my age, my dear," she would
say, "a woman may know anybody
and hear all there Is to tell," which
was one of the reasons, perhaps, that
at her house you always found the
most Interesting people people whom
you might never meet elsewhere, in
society, but who were never banal or
tiresome.
- In truth, Miss .Ashton's insistence on
her age was a trifle premature. Her
forty-five years sat lightly upon her
and only showed a drift of gray in
, her abundant dark locks, and in giving
to eyes and month that expression of
sympathy and comprehension that Is
the final charm to a woman's face.
For the rest, she had a certain mature
luxuriance of beauty that made young
er women look as pale and colorless
as a spring-daisy beside a gorgeous
fall chrysanthemum.
She had. been one of the women to
whom the flowering time of life came
back. She had had a starved youth,
without joy, without beauty, or any
thing that belonged to her years, pass
ed In slavish attendance on an old
uncle. Then one day when she had
already grown into a mature woman
the old man died, and she found her
self not only free, but rich beyond her
wildest dreams.
It always seemed to Miss Ashton
that she was born again, with the
change of fortune, Into a new person
ality, and a new world. She turned
her back on the old life with all its
hard and grinding ways, and with a
frank paganism gave herself up to en
Joying the hour. Rich foods and lux
uriant living did for her body what!
travel and society did for her mind,
and from having been angular, unbeau
tiful, she suddenly bloomed Into' a
grande dame daring, original, a little
eccentric, perhaps, but with a fascin
ation none denied.
To enjoy a feast to the fullest, one
must have starved. Certainly Miss
Ashton drained her cup of pleasure
to the very bottom.
She had had enough of shadow, and
would have nothing more but sunshine.
N She hated poverty, and she gave with
a generous hand to those about her.
She adored cleverness, and so she sur
rounded herself only with those who
amused . and entertained her, and no
social prestige was great " enough to
open her doors to a bore.
It was in this way she came to know
David Horton. He did not belong to
the great world of fashion. He was
merely a poor Inventor, shabby as to
clothes, but with great thoughts strug
gling for expression in his great brain.
Shy as a schoolgirl, he was, loo, and
it took all of Miss Ashton's tact to
draw him into her charmed circle.
Once there, however, and the barriers
broken down by her sympathy, the
man showed her bis whole soul. He
fell into the way of dropping In, in the
quiet dusk, at the hour when she was
oftenest alone, and, sitting before the
big fire in the library, he would tell her
of his dreams, his hopes, and aspira
tions, and disappointments, while his
eyes grew tender, and his voice took
STYLES AND OPINIONS.
"Wna Funny Things You
on that cadence that a man uses when
he talks to the woman he loves and
trusts.
Part of Miss Ashton's power had
always been that she understood other
people and herself. She knew that
for the first time in her life love had
come to her, in all its beauty and
glory. She knew equally as well, with
a woman's intuition, that David Hor
ton loved her, but she was absolutely
certain he would never tell her of it,
or ask her to be his wife. She had
so much. He had so little, and his
pride would not let him go empty
handed as a beggar to the woman he
adored. It was then that Miss Ash
ton proved that she had the courage
of her conviction, and made her reso
lution. "It isn't as if I had had any spring
time of life," she said to herself. "I
was cheated out of that, and I will not
let myself be robbed of my happiness
by a mere convention."
So that night, sitting in his dingy
room, bending over models and blue
prints, David Horton was startled by
the apparition of a tall woman, who
dropped her rich fur cloak from her
shoulders as she entered, and moved
slowly toward him.
"Miss Ashton!" he cried, "you here!"
She sank into a chair with a sudden
falntness. "Yes," she said, and then
she added, desperately: "I have a a
friend in trouble, and I wanted your
advice. I have come to tell you her
story. She Is not a young woman,
and she has had a sad life, and has
been "very lonely. Always she- has
hungered and thirsted for companion
ship without finding It. Lately some
thing beautiful has come into her life.
All the comprehension and understand
ing of which she dreamed. It is love,
David, and she loves, not like a silly
school girl, with a passing fancy for
any handsome face, but with all the
great love and passion of a woman's
desire. Something has happened that
makes her afraid she might lose this
companionship and she Is In sore
trouble and anxiety. When one has
found a priceless jewel one wants to
keep it, doesn't one?"
"Yes." the man answered her. with
white lips, and Miss Ashton hurried
on, as if she were afraid to stop:
"The barrier between them is so
flimsy, David, just a little money, a
little false position in society and yet
the woman Is' beating .her heart
against it, and bruising and breaking
it Perhaps the man doesn't realize
how cruel It is to sacrifice her to his
pride. David, what shall she do?" -
BRIDE OF KANSAS' "BACHELOR GOVERNOR.
The Kansas City widow who was engaged to Governor W. J. Bailey, of
Kansas, for two years without any one knowing It, and while he was re
ceiving thousands of letters of proposal following the publication of stories
that he was a confirmed bachelor and that the executive mansion at Topeka
might be without a hostess during his administration. Mrs. Bailey, whose
marriage to ' the Governor took place recently, was Mrs. Ida Weede, and
was employed as a clerk in Kansas City after the tleath of her husband and
until (iovernor Bailey's election last year. She has two sons, the elder
being 11 years old. - -
Do See"
The man was trembling in every
nerve. "It is for the queen to give,"
he said, with his voice breaking over
the words, "not for the suppliant to
demand. Let her tell him that she
loves him."
Oh, David, you stupid," she cried,
holding out her hands to him. "I have,
I have," and in a moment more she
was in his arms.
Hours later Miss Ashton turned to
him a face grown strangely young and
timid, and fair. "David," she said,
solemnly, "if you ever tell I had to
propose to you, I'll I'll deny it."
Utica Press.
TALLEST GERMAN SOLDIER
IS A FRIEND OF THE KAISER
The German army is celebrated for
the remarkable average height of Its
soldiers, but very few, if any, can come
within six Inches of
the altitude of the
tallest one in all the
many branches of
the German army.
The man who "en
joys this distinction
is Corporal Tappli
c o ff , and in his
stocking feet he reg
isters six feet and
nine inches. The tall
corporal finds that
his extreme height
draws to him fai
more attention than
his innate modesty
thinks necessary,
and he Is made the
butt of many a joke
perpetrated by his
shorter companions.
Life has its rec
ompenses for him,
corporal tapplicopf. however, for he Is
greatly admired by the kaiser, who fre
quently calls upon him for special du
ties which bring with them a measure
of pleasure, and relief from the rou
tine of army life.
Tapplicoff recently had the pleasure
of accompanying the kaiser on his trip
to Rome, where the tall soldier attract
ed much attention among the compara
tively small soldiers of Italy.
Though the fool tries to kill two
birds with one stone, the wise guy
uses a shotgun.
The less wit a man has the more
others may appreciate it.
A circus can pull a sick boy out of
bed after three doctors have failed.
WITH
A
trip into the
moderately
wno can
tional ity in traveling, a rare treat
sketch is written.
genuity. Until then the trail and pack train Is the only practicable way of
traversing these grand and lofty defiles, where the forests bend, the rocks are
washed out by the clouds, the mountain
and the fish and game thrive in seclusion.
Stretching across this region of tremendous distances, high elevations, and
abrupt declivities, runs an old Indian
nally known as the northern Nez Perce Indian trail, in contradistinction to the
southern Nez Perce trail farther south. It is now and has long been known hb
the Lolo trail, and it extends from a point about eleven miles south from Mis
soula, Mont., westward to the Clearwater river in Idaho. It was over the west
ern part of this well-worn trail that the writer essayed to make his way in the
summer of 1902, having been previously
I have said' that thin trail is historic. In a general way it is the route
used by Lewis and Clark in crossing the watershed between the Bitter-root and
Clearwater rivers both being branches of the Columbia in 1805 and 1806,
and the story of their experiences there
i eph and the Nez Perce Indians, after beginning the well-known war of that year
in Idaho, retreated across this trail into Montane, followed by General Howard
and the United States troops in a long and for that pait of the army, a fruitless
stern chase.
Mr. W. H. Wright, a thorough mountaineer with whom I had before cam
paigned had provided for our tiip a
rendezvoused at Kamiah, Idaho, on the
Pacific Railway.
Kamiah is in one of the most attractive valleys I have ever seen. The val-
ley is ratner circular ana oDiong in snape, nas a deiignttul climate and is sur
rounded by high, most gracefully carved and grassy mountain elopes. Above
these slopes to the south stretch the
Here live the Nez Perce Indians and, sandwiched among them, many white set
tlers. v
The Indians have taken up the old
and the surplus acres have been sold
to-the whites. The Indians have fine
farms alone the Clearwater and even
high up among the hills, and both teds
' and whites appear to - thrive with lit
tle or no friction. Grain and vegetables
grow to perfection here, and grapes,
cherries, peaches, and other fruits find
a natural soil and a congenial climate
that cannot be surpassed.
Through this valley, its mountain
walls mottled by the grain fields of the
Indian farms in varying degrees of
ripeness, flows the Clearwater river,
fresh from the junction of the eouth and
middle forks, and a rapid and clear
water stream indeed.
- Up a long, brown elope from the stream, and just across from a fine ferry
owned and managed by an Indian, wound the trail we were to take, and a mile
down stream was the spot where Lewis and Clark camped for some time in
' 1806, when on their return from Fort Clatsop at the mouth of the Columbia
( river.
There were four of us : Wright, whose detailed knowledge of the region
was most thorough;- Casteel, the cook and a master of his craft; Mr. De Camp,
a painter and photographer of Helena, Mont., and the writer. We left Kamiah
at 9:00 o'clock one morning, crossed the river on the ferry and started up the
j trail. In packing the horses some time was lost in adjusting packs, and two or
three animals had to be blindfolded while packing them. One horse, buckskin,
! developed great disinclination to thus being made a beast of burden, and was
disposed of tc cavort around and "buck."
A pack saddle is much like an old faehioned saw buck. Overthe horns side
ropes are swung, with large loops hanging down the sides. With these, side
packs the heavier packs always are fastened securely well down on the horse's
sides, and above and between the saddle horns and over the horse's back the
top and lighter packs are placed.' The whole is then covered with a heavy can
vass pack cover and lashed on with a pack rope in a form known as a diamond
hitch, from the diamond shape formed by the tightened rope over the top of the
pack. A regulation pack rope with broad canvass cinch is thirty-two feet in
length. Two men are required to pack a horse or mule, but one can do it when
necessary if the animal be tractable.
Our route was up an unshielded slope in the blazing sun until we had
climbed 1,000 feet, and the latter part of the way was very steep. At such
places the wise climber and trailsman climbs afoot and relieves his horse. This
we did as much as poseible, but two of us were fresh from offices arid had to be
gradually broken in. The legs of Wright and Casteel might as well have been
of wood or steel bo far as any feeling of fatigue went. Wright was not in the
saddle once during the trip, and this is his usual way of doing; he loves walk
ing and appears tireless.
After reaching the summit we traveled for a mile across a pine and tama
rack tree divide, which is being gradually cleared by settlers, and then began
Pack Horse Lying Down, Showing Method of Tying on Pack.
the descent to the crossing of Lolo creek, flowing into the Clearwater and, un
fortunately, a duplicate in name of another creek: on the eastern slope of the
same range. Heretofore the old trail and modern wagon road had been more or
less commingled, but now the road disappeared and the trail became one of
those fine old Indian trails, wide, plain and deep, winding down through the
forest and along the mountain side in the usual sharp zigzag fashion. At last
we reached the Lolo, a clear rushing stream thirty feet wide and knee deep, in a
wild, secluded spot. Other visitors had just arrived. A fine loosing Nez Perce
Indian; his comely squaw and her mother, perhaps; a black headed, hlack eyed
youngster, five or six years old and stark naked, and a tiny miss clad in a very
dirty calico shift, were there. About a little fire the women were preparing a
noonday meal. To the young squaw's credit, she carefully washed her hands and
face at the border of the stream before beginning her culinary duties. This is
not strange, however, for the Nez Perces are a superior tribe of Indians in all
respect.
Aler some bantering conversation back and forth, we climbed slowly out of
the canyon, over a hard, tiresome trail, and then, down a gentle grade through
the deep cool forest, made onr way to the eastern side of Weippe (wee-ipe) prai
rief where we oivouacked for the night under a pine tree in a forty-acre pasture
and near people who know how to treat travelers in a hospitable manner.
We made our first camp at 4:50 p. m., very tired and hungry, having eaten
nothing since our 6 o'clock breakfast. The benefits of a good cook were now
manifested.
We slept in the open air, and how I did rejoice in it !
Our next day's journey followed -a wagon road for most of the way and
about at right angles to our first day's course.' The country, level at first,
soon became undulating, and finally we jumped. fairly into the mountains.
The Weippe prairie is a wide, level stretch of country watered by Jim Ford
creek, which flows north and west into the main Clearwater river. Grain, in
cluding winter wheat, and the hardier vegetables, grow luxuriantly, but mel
ons, cucumbers, etc., have not yet been successfully cultivated. The nights are
cold, heavy dews fall, and frost is quite common. In winter the thermometer
A PACK
TRAIN IN IDAHO
Br OLIN D. W
mountains with a pack train under
favorable circumstances is, tor the man
thoroughly enjoy nature and unconven
In the hope that readers of "Wonderland 1903" may
enjoy a brief sketch of a pack train journey into a little
known and very mountaineua region in Idaho, this
The Divide between
Montana and Idaho is
the summit line of the
Bitterroot mountains.
This range is justly re
puted one of the most
forbidding and difficult
ranges on the continent
through which to travel
The engineering obsta
cles to railways and
wagon road sare extreme
ly hard to overcome, but
eventually, these will
necessarily yield to hu
man persistency and in
streams roar their way into the sea,
trail of historic renown. It was crigi
over the eastern portion
reads like fiction. In 1877 Chief Jos-
pack train, outfit, and cook, which were
Clearwater Short Line of the Northern
wide, fertile plains of Camas prairie
,
lands of their reservation in severalty,
. '
Pack Horce Ready For Packing.
seldom drops below ero, but there is a good fall of enow, and live stock rouit
be fed for several months. The stock throughout this locality were of good
blood, fat and eleek.
Ti noer and fuel are, found in inexhaustible quantities. The country is
quite well settled and the people seem satisfied and contented.
We had given the animals all the timothy hay they could eat during the
night, and when we came to pack them, Buckskin was very toploftical and im
agined his neck was clothed with thunder and that be breathed fire from his
nostrils; Roan was in a mood to climb trees and play a tattoo with his heels,
but the others were very well behaved, and submitted to packing with good
grace and the inevitable groanings characteristic of old-time camp meetings and
tight cinch ings. Old White and Sorrel were eld timers as pack horses, were
thin as rails, unweildy and awkward as a pair of cows, but tough as moles, as
steady as old maids, old as Methusaleh, and of a sternly moral cast of counte-
Camp at Weippe Prairie.
nance. In trailing, Wright led the way, leading Roan; one of us followed, and
then the other horses were divided as well as possible between us, so as to keep
them well up in line on the trail. '
Up and down we went, paesing three small creeks trilling their way amid
the dense timber, and we halted for the night at the forks of Lolo creek where
solitude reigned supreme. There were no bottom lands, no grazing, but the
spot was otherwise suitable for a night's camp, and beside a beautiful trout
stream, and we had brought along oats for the dumb brutes who were necessari
ly tied up during the night. Roan and Buckskin had evidently never acquired
a taste for oats, for they refused to eat them and seemed suspicious as to our
motives in offering them.
Our day's trailing had been longer than anticipated and two of us at least
were very tired. DeCamp, however, got - .
out his rod and line and was soon wad
ing the creek and whipping the rapids,
and he secured a mess of trout for
breakfast. I bathed my fevered feet in
the cold stream, changed my shoes, and,
after the royal supper provided, felt like
a different man.
We erected, usually, only the ccok's
tent, our canvas bedcovers being all
needed protection except in case of a
heavy rain.
Towards morn ', of this night, it
began to rain and Dy the time we were
packed and ready to start the rain was
steadily falling, and as we got well into
the forest the trees dripped moisture.the
bushes alongside the trail deluged our :
legs and feet with crystal drops beautiful but coldly wet, and in the open spots
the mists floated, baptizing us plentifully as we rode along and hiding from
view the country about us.
On this day, too, one of the riding
completely out and had to be left-behind.
under a pack for the first time, lost
driven into camp long after the others
Our camp was at a clearing in the
tus meadows. It is a fresh, green bit of mountain meadow-land in the depths
of the range, a fine camping spot where clear, pure water, green grass, and fuel
are more than abundant. The meadows, while being much higher than Ka
miah, so much so that the change in temperature was easily noticeable, were
yet at the base of the highest parts
from the next camping ground.
The special object of the expedition
our forced delay, and on the third day
packs upon their backs alter some
trace o'lr steps. Buckskin pulled up his
through the swamp and wet grass, but was finally coralled, thrown, and blind
folded, and, once finally packed, trudged along like a good and subordinate sol
dier, occasionally lying down in the vain hope of being released from his pack.
The rain ceased long enough to
Buckskin.
equine friend with the bucking propensities, again laboring under a pack, gave
evidences of nervous or other sort of prostration, and his pack was transferred
to the one remaining saddle horse who assumed the burden like the trump that
he was. Later in the day the "backer" gave out entirely, and we abandoned
him.
Every man must needs make the
two "tenderfeet" in more senses than one faced the alternative with the
best grace possible.
The day's tramp was a hard one,
Lolo once more, very tired and hungry.
Just before reaching there, old Sorrel, who at times was the embodiment of
awkwardness, slipped at a bad point in
picturesque fashion down the steep muuntain-side. His pack saved him from
injury, but it required fifteen minutes to work him back to the trail, for it - was
an awkward place for such a mishap.
sprawled on his back for a time, his feet
himself.
Lewis and Clark had passed along
ouacked at the forks of the Collins creek.
Our last day's tramp into Kamiah began early and was ended by three
'clock. It was absolutely a pleasurable one. Through the cool forest we
trudged, gradually ascending, the day
descended to Lolo creek, where we
gave them a three-hours' rest, and ate
ious, objection to the work demanded.
and they all followed the trail'in better
We forded Lolo creek, which was
was most grateful in its cooling effects, and then began our last upward climb.
We stopped at intervals of about 200 feet vertical advance and rested the horses.
It was the easiest, most enjoyable climb of the sort I ever saw made, and it was
almost astonishing the ease with which our nondescript outfit did it. The heavy
timber "hielded ue from the hot sun and we were refreshed by distant views of
Rock ridge over which the clouds still hung.
With a little more time and a little
thoroughly enjoyable from beginning
tion of what may result, in such an-enterprise, from a slight derangement of
plans or incompleteness in preparation, whether by neglect cr forced by cir-
;v
Packing
cumetances. It. illustrates, too, how much hardship and exposure one unused
to it may endure without serious results ensuing. Fresh from an office and
without any preliminary practice, I lunged into mountain travel, for two days
was wet to the skin, and with, no other unpleasant consequences than extreme
bat healthy fatigue.
First published in "Wonderland"
general passenger agent Northern Pacific
"l '
Almost Packed.
horses, apparently in fair condition, gave
Our erstwhile bucking friend, put
all interest in our proceedings, and was
reached there, almost exhausted.
mountains shown on the maps as Wei-
of the range, and were twenty-five miles
was thoroughly accomplished despite
we again gathered the horses, placed the
snorting and cavorting, and started to re
picket pin and led Wright a long chase
enable us to get our packs on without get-
ting everything wet, and then began
again in an aimless fashion, but finally
we rode out of it entirely. But the
mists and clouds remained about Weitus
for a week afterwards. The first six
hours' travel were through dripping
foliage, and we became thoroughly wet.
From the higher divides we now ob
tained glimpseeof the region around us.
Ridge after ridge, heavily timbered, ex
tended from east to west, with deep,
yawning ravines and canons between.
To the north the north fork of the Clear
water could oe traced, with white, heav
ily massed clouds lying motionless in
the depressions, a most beautiful sight.
We were now reduced to one riding
horse for four men. By noontime our
entire distance to Kamiah afoot, and the
truly, and we reached the forks of the
the trail and rolled over and over in
Sorrel cut an interesting figure as he lay
pawing the air in an effort to right
here a century before, and we were biv
clear and balmy, crossed tne divide and
took the packs from the pack animals and
our luncheon. Not a horse raised a ser
Even Buckskin was less obstreperous,
fashion. (
knee deep, and the cold rushing current
less rain this jaunt would have been
to end. As it was, it is a good illustra
'
Up.
for 1903, copyrighted by Chas. S. Fee.
Railway.