Image provided by: YMCA of Ashland; Ashland, OR
About Southern Oregon miner. (Ashland, Or.) 1935-1946 | View Entire Issue (July 19, 1935)
SOUTHERN OREGON MINER On a Shelf Opposite Me Sat a Dinosaur. Odd Agriculture 4P western Journey, I .wrote him that I would try my best to pay him a short visit. A letter came by return mail. HAD almost forgotten Emil "Come as long as you like for,” he Lustengarten. Schoolmates, one said. "Send me a telegram and I had not seen or heard from will meet you. I think you will for thirty years, are likely to like be my farm. Maybe you will go like that fie was a pleasant sort In business with me. It Is a very —larger than I was, and always Interesting farm, and It makes somewhere in the otting when the money. It will be good to see you." school bullies picked on me. In He was at the station in a little one way his friendship was a trifle car when I arrived. He plied me embarrassing. I was the only boy with so many questions about the In school whom he appeared to old town and what was happening like. His other friends were toads there that I could not edge In a and frogs and snakes and lizards. question about his farm. When He had a great collection of them we reached his house It was already in bls father's woodshed, and used dark, and after a cup of cofTee and to talk to them by the hour, not In some ham and eggs he politely sug the least disturbed if their replies gested then It was late and I must were unintelligible. The other boys be tired. He showed me Into an ex always Insisted that he would not tremely neat little room, and In a have made a friend of me If I did few minutes I was lost to the not share the nature or natures of world. one or more of these animal pets. Three or four times In the. night They used to attempt to make the I wakened, as one Is likely to In noises that these creatures emitted, strange surroundings. Each time or at least Imitations of them, to I thought I heard peculiar rustlings indicate that I resembled them. Not and other noises which I tried In when Emil was around, however. vain to Identify. They always elud “I sick me a rattlesnake on you ed me, and though once or twice 1 If you bodder my friend," he would sat up In bed and listened, drowsi say, and for a time 1 would be left ness overcame me and I went to In peace. But the Insistence that sleep again. I was a member of Emil's menagerie It was already broad daylight got on my nerves after a while. 1 when I finally awoke, ripening my went less and less to his establish ment, and when one day I heard eyes to look about me I caught my breath. I must still be asleep and that be and his parents had left town, I wns a little ashamed to think that I had shunned him for weeks. I found out at the post of fice where be and his family had gone—some little town in Arizona and now and then sent him a post Hospital Service Responsible card. Invariably I received a long for Saving Lives. reply which narrated his adventures in the new country, where he said he and his parents were running Pawnee, Okla.—Through the Paw a farm. Each letter expressed the nee Indian agency here the death earnest hope that I might come out rate of the “native Americans” is there and visit him some day. And being lowered and the birth rate be fifteen years later, when It so hap ing Increased. pened that I was about to make a The picturesque agency adminis ters the affairs of five dwindling tribes—Pawnees, Pancas, Otoes, Raws, and Tonkawas. One of the oldest tribal rolls of the Pawnees, dated 1881, carries the names of 1,300 members of the tribe. Illus trating the decline of the tribes, the Pawnees now number only DOO, while there are only approximately 800 Pancas, 700 Otoes, 400 Raws, and less than 50 Tonkawas. Five years ago the government built a hospital with capacity for 47 beds. Expectant Indian mothers learned to take advantage of the services provided by the govern Hubby.—I’m glad you only ward ment, and a lot of lives were saved five dollars to go shopping with to which would have been lost under day. What are you going to get previous primitive Indian customs with it? Healthy Indian babies came Into Wifey—Nothing but luncheon, the world and fewer mothers died dear. I’m going to have everything In childbirth, thus Increasing the else charged. birth rate slowly, but steadily, ac- By James J. Montague 1 dreaming. On n shelf behind the little chest of drawers opiMialte me wit a dinosaur, and not a partlcu Inrly benign dinosaur. It moved. To make sure that the bracing des ert air had not overbalanced me I reached down, picked up one of my shoe*, and hied It at the animal. It made a curious squeak, and leaped nimbly from Its perch, head Ing for my bed. M.v first Instinct was to pull the blankets over my head and try to remember some of the prayers that I had learned nt my mother’s knee. Then 1 remembered that a creature such as I had seen would not be held at bay by any blankets. 1 got up and stood in the exact center of the bed, calling sharply to Emil for help. lie hurried Into the room. “So sorry he got away on me last night." he said. “He won't bite unless he get scared, but al most anything will scare him Coom." The latter was addressed to the Intruder, who “coomed,” creeping swiftly to bls owner. Emil caught hint by the scuff of the neck and tossed him lightly out of the door. "What wns that thing?" I de manded. "Joost a llznrd," said Emil. “He l«s called Gila monster. Ilut mon ster means big. lie Isa not so big. eh? Leave hltu alone and lie don't bite—but make him mad. trouble maybe. Now let us have breakfast.” That breakfast wns not a pleas ant meal, despite the appetite the clear desert air had given me. As It progressed my host kept picking up tit-bits from his plate and tossing them In this or that di rection, where they wero deftly caught up by my friend the (Illa monster, lizards tlmt looked like him, field mice, rabbits, and scv er a I different varieties of snakes. The snakes, however, did not swal low the dainties thrown to thorn Apparently they were merely do Ing a little practice fielding. “Snakes Isa funny," said Emil “They haf tohaf their nienls allfe. Bill they las hogs, and they don't want tin other animal to get nothing, so you can’t keep them out of the house when meals Isa going on You like to see the biggest rattler In Arizona?" "Is he alive?" I asked, looking around me anxiously. “Very much alive. When I caught him he had bit ten greasers al ready. I hud to tight with almost everybody around here to save Idas life yet." “Where Is he?” 1 demanded. “You shall see him soon enough Now maybe we go see the wild cat. lie perhaps Is more Interest Ing as snakes." “Emil," I Mid, "I thought thia wns a farm." “Sure, it Is a farm. The biggest snake and reptile farm In Arizona Here 1 make me more money as any cattle or sheep farmer can do. Come, 1 show you." I returned to my sleeping room, walked warily and secured a heavy pair of boots I had brought along Around these, to make assurance doubly sure, I wrapped some heavy leather puttees. Emil glanced at my rig contemp tuously. "Nobody need be afraid of snakes." he said “Ie>ok I” Before I could stop him he had | picked up s four foot serpent which sang a merry tune with Its lull the while. "By the neck you hold him a while,” he said Ingra11stIngly "You will soon learn when you and me la partners liere.” I declined the outstretched offering. “What the devil do you do with these creatures?" I demanded. "There certainly can't tie any de mand for snakes and lizards." "My boy. Nothing you know of If. For the poison many scientists will buy them, and from us, fur I have already established what you call a reputation. Out In the yard I have hundreds of others. TAlay I make a shipment to New York. You shall help me. Just for a start, eh?" “Emil," 1 said. "I like you, and I admire you. I hope you auccoed In this enterprise and make a big reputation for yourself. I know you will. But when I get homo I will drenm about these brutes, night nfter night, nnd wake up yell ing for help. Ami wlint would hap pen If I stayed here two days? I would go mad, that Is what would happen." "My friend! I nui so sorry. I am so disappointed. In school you were the only one I liked, and I was so looking forward to your coming, nnd so sure you would like It here. And I know you would luff them If you knew them better. But If you feel—" “I do. Emil." I said. "Very well. It Is then soon auf wlederaehn but maylie, when you go home you will think It over, eh?" "I'll do m.v best. Emil,” I said. And I did. But Emil la still conducting that chamber of horrors by himself. Ck Bwll ndl< ate — W NU Hcrvlca, TREMENDOUS TRIELES By ELMO SCOTT WATSON ACCIDENTS WILL HAPPEN "Say, ma.” “Whatt “If ears were supposed to be kept clean, why weren’t they made flat like your fac Is, so you could do It easily ?" Pawnee Death Rate Cut; Births Gain «----------------------- cording to I*. W. Danielson, super intendent Of the handful of Tonkawas re maining none are full blood tribes men. Their numerical weakness Is explained by the history of the tribe, which shows It has been per secuted and overrun by other tribes Some 50 years ago an Indian war gave the tribe Its most crushing blow, exterminating virtually all the able-bodied Tonkawas. Located one-half mile enst of Pawnee, the physical equipment of the agency consists of about 30 large buildings made of nntlve sand stone and housing some 500 people. It occupies 900 acres of the most beautiful wooded timber land to be found in the large five-tribes reser vation. More than 200 Indian children Is the capacity of the grade school at the agency, where the facilities are capable of taking the students on through high school. The Department of the Interior hopes to be able to abolish the In dian service within the next 25 years, as Intermarriage with the whites Is on the Increase and most of the 3,000 members of the tribes are self-supporting—with the little government aid provided. alry In aeurcb of a big village of hostile Indians, pondered over these orders from Ills commander, Gen. A. II. Terry, lie knew the plan of campaign—Terry and Gibbon nnd he were to strike the enemy at the aame time. And that limo was June '.'ll. But Custer wns “In bad" with President Grant. If, unaided by the others, he could find the In dians first and get In u smashing victory, he might get back Into the good graces of the administra tion at Washington. On the morning of June 25 bls scouts reported the discovery of the village In the valley just be low. True, Custer wan 24 hours ahead of the aptmlnted time of the rendezvous with Terry nnd Gib bon. But here were the Indlnns. He remembered Terry’s orders . , , "he desires that you should con form to them.” And yet—“unless you should see sufficient reasons for departing from them.” Wasn't that little word "unless" a good ex cuse? << A CCIDENT Is the mother of ** Invention, tW times out of I0U,” said Louis Brennan, the tor pedo Inventor. One duy ho saw a frayed driving belt on u plunlng ma chine acting queerly. lie got the Idea that It waa possible to make a machine travel forward by pulling It backward, lie made use of that principle In Inventing Ids engine of death. Careless workmen In a paper mill forgot, one day, to add sizing to the pulp, and the whole vat had to be thrown away us waste. A short time Inter the proprietor came by. He saw the discarded rolls and tore off some strips to use for making notes. It absorbed the Ink ns fust as he wrote on It, so he called It “blotting pnper." We've used It ever since. In another plant a workman play fully tossed a piece of cheese Into the plating bath solution, used for producing copper disks for stamp ' ing phonograph records. The disks from this pnrtlculnr bath were fnr So he decided to attack. And on superior to any others. The casein In the cheese was the one element that word “unless" hung tils life that chemists bad been looking for -i nd the lives of 3<st men of the l-’or that many A French scientist, while experl Seventh cavalry. mentlng In Ills laboratory, acclden perished, or died Inter of their tolly o|>ened the wrong valve. Bev wounds. In “Custer’s Last Battle" eral drops of moisture settled In n on the Little Big Horn. C. Weilarn Newspaper Unlou. glass tube. Horrified at his mis take, the scientist wns about to IN DARK ALLEYS throw the tube away when he re alized that he had discovered liquid oxygen. “UNLESS" **AI 'HE department commander * places too much confidence in your zeal, energy and ability to wish to Impose on you precise orders which might hamper your action when nearly In contact with the en emy. He will, however. Indicate to you his own views of what your action should be, and he desires that you should conform to them unless you should see sufficient rea sons for departing from them.” He—You used to say I was the It was June, 1870, In Montana. light of your life. Gen. George Armstrong Custer, rid She—You were, till you started ing at the head of the Seventh cav going out nights.