The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1881-06-21
FALSE REPRESENTATIONS
We have received the following letter
which explains itself

| enclose you a slip which | cut from the
St. Louis Globe Democrat, and which pur-
ports to be a description of the town and
mines of Butte. | know the same to be a
very biased and unjust statement, be-
cause | spent the better part of last summer
at Philipsburg and was frequently in Butte,
and my father being interested i'll mining L
became converSant with the valuable proper
ty around Butte.
Such letters as the one | enclose will do
serious damage To the mining inter-
ests and future growth If Butte if allowed to
90 unanswered. and therefore enclose this
one for tina, purpose.
Your obedient servant,
l.. V. CLARK.
The letter to which our correspondent re-
ters appears in Il recent issue of the st. Louis
GIOte Dem0cTut is dated at Butte City,
Montana, May 18th, and is signed W ):
We saw the letter some time ago in the paper
above named, but for tie reason that the
greater portion Of it was devoted to the dis
cussion Of matters extremely trivial ami I'M
Important in their nature We did liot conc i've
that its appearance in print could do Butte or
its vicinity ANY material harm. We met the
gentleman here who wrote the shallow. Cos
sipy letter OF which our correspondent COM
plains. 1t is probably unnecessary to state
that he came in our midst as a pilgrim and a
stranger. He bore all the outward evidences
of having been tenderly lutsed Ill his youth
full days and carefully raised to his present
immense proportions and imposing presence.
The light of his countenance and the etful
gent rays Of his mighty intellect shone upon
our %benighted pOpulace but one short week
when he shook the dust of this western silver
city from his sandalled feet and vanished,
leaving the regrets OF none.
But in that one short week
he developed all amazing appetite. The
pure. l~racing, irvigoraling atmosphere of
Butte apl cared to stimulate him to CASTRO
nomic ftais That produced ii panic among
our hotel aud restaurant keepers and nearly
led TO a corner being made in the staple artl-
cles If food in the market. One of his raids
uLon a table groauins under the luXuries
viii h our generous landlords provide was
sufficient to discourage the most enteIprising
of these gentlemen. Upon his second toray
the tuCored waiter met him with less dige>ti-
bic. but as equally voraciously swallowed
food. His frequent change, III his boarding
houses esulted in his being treated to repeti-
lions of the same disc0uraglng Diet. THUS
it happened that before he left he consumed
all the neck s,eaks in the market besides
several choice cuts Of sole leather Which
were prepared tor his especial delectation.
Our Bohemian gourmand was probably slf-
teling from a fit of indigestion thus produced
when he penned the following lines.
Nobody not possessed of d staiwart tom
ach should visit Butte in the ping time.
Montana IS proverhially the land of dried
apples and canned goods, but Butte seems to
have a monopoly of bad hotels and worse
restaurants. [ used to wonder how it was
that cattle could live all winter among these
mountains without either food or shelter, but
since encountering the roasts and steaks of
the Butte hotels. | have come to the cOnclu-
sion that winter can have no teirOrs for any
thing so tough and sinewy as a Montana
steer. Dried apple pies are the main lux
ury of the dinner table, and the layer OF
dpllOO 10 bbhiSA phhiit ~ itASS =,
who would regard this as a recommendation
rather than a drawback in a dried apple pie,
but tas'e s differ. aud some who pay Delmon-
leo rates for Butte grub feel disposed to
srttmble at What they regard as an abridge-
ment of their desserts
OF empty whisky bottles, in a description
Of which IA large potion Of his letter is de-
voted, he processes to nave seen many i'll his
pilgrimage through the territory. These eH-
CHE no surprise in tie mind of the
average Montarian. They don't expect
to see them filled standing in d line N the
roadside. There are 100 many pilgrims OF
III "W. S" stripe for them to indulge in
such hopes. When a Monlanian emp,ies his
whisky bottle lie throws il away. Wv. s."
keeps his and has it filed again. That is
about all the difference there is between Nv.
S." and a Montanian, and the difference ac-
counts for the empty bottles which lie Sc
glowingly and elcquently describes.
Like many pilgrims who visit Montana.
swelled wit h self-conceit, W. S. has, in his
own estimation, absorbed more information
in one week concerning this great country
anu us RESOURCES Cudl Hidi! all 'Olu-tilHci
has gained by years of patient toll aud study
We can afford 10 smile at his fippant
shallow remarks about our hotels, restaurants
sidewalks and empty whiskey bottles. NJ
one but a fool would fill a letter for puDlica
ton with lengthy notices of such trifiug mat
tiers and none but simpletons would be Iii
rected from the countr, by them. But whel
this flaming genius who, when he came here
did not know, nor can scarcely yet tell tn
difference between a well and a mining slafl
speaks er cathedra of our mines he assume
the'possession of all intelligence that VI;
not be accorded to him. Here is "a specime