The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-04-03
lasting picture by the patient hand Of

iastihS picture py the patient hand OF
time.
You can get one of these slabs for from
$40 to 800. / bought one of the latter to
hold the door open in my new and costly
villa at Buck Shoals, \. G. Some of these
slabs are two feet across. and none of them
seems to represent any kind of tree existing
atthe present time. They afford. therefore,
wonderful field for the active mind 10
stroll about in. Perhaps over this beauti-
full slab, while yet it was in the heart of
sapling. some belated pterodactyl sDrawled
on his way TO his damp home. Possibly
the icthyosaurus crawled out of hole in
this tree on ground hog day.
Who can tell what has happened in the
early history of this petrified forest2 No
body can. Away back yonder in the
misty past, long before the climate got so
that the hired girl could bear her hand in
1t, while yet the hot mud boiled with the
mighty heat of a new-laid world and the
air was filled with disagreeable odors, and
the evening and morning indicated that
workmen on the foundation of the earth
had blown out the gas at night, and the
angels went about over the the face of the
earth flying high and holding their noses,
this tree was sprouting.
Those, fellow citizens, were times when
the country was new. Those were days
when the hot mist from the seething
earth came back at once as warm rain,
only to be Immediately utilized as
mist again; when mammoth forests like
gigantic asparagus beds. sprang forth in
few months and overshadowed the silent
and Shiny home of the saurian monster.
1t was under there circumstances, We
are told be old settlers whose memory
is yet good, that these early forests grew.
Then Nature, with long, rainy day on
her hands, one time decided that she
would try preserving forest for future
use. Thus we have here, surrounded by
electric lights and high livers in society,
along with the telephone and artificial ice,
a slab of wood whose bark has been
abraded here and there where the icthyo-
saurus has scratched his warty back
against il in the mellow millions of years
that left no history.
Becoming somewhat excited over this
great thought, l bought another beautiful
$50 specimen to pound steak on. We
may not always have steak at our house.
but we propose to have something to
pound it on whenever we do have steak.
The railroad agent at Billings, At,
near where this petritied forest is situated,
gets thirteen to seventeen letters week
from people who want specimens of this
petrifed wood. Here is one:
Station Agent, Billings. A. t.: Dear Sir-May
ask you TO write me regarding Natural Curl
osity," the petrifed forest of Arizona? Is it a
fact, and how large an area does it cover? 1
would be pleased to have you send by express
some specimens of red moss agate, amethyst and
smoky topaz. l would love TO visit this place II
the article in 81. Nicholas is true. Yours truly,
]. ID. CLARE.
This name is not the correct one, but a
little conceit of my own. The agent has
many of these letters, and wishes me to
put piece in the paper begging the pub
lie not to write to him any more regarding
this matter, as it is breaking him down.
He says that elderly maiden ladies, who
brought the war to a speedy close by max
ing prune pie for the soldiers, now write to
him for agates, forgetting that he getting
$40 per month from the railroad, not spe-
cially for the purpose of gathering moss
agates or petrifed trees for others.
Sometimes he is not sure that the freight
will be paid or he would be more prompt
to send things. Sometimes an unknown
man who cannot spell, to say nothing of
paying the freight, orders quart of
Indian arrowheads and 900 feet of petri-
fed lumber to build house of. This
bothers the agent, who is also telegraph
operator, line repairer, ticket and baggage
agent and the head of family. He wishes
to notify the public by this means that
hereafter it will be impossible for him to
supply petrified sills for those who are
building in Ohio, especially as the petri-
fed forest is owned by other parties, who
threaten to prosecute people who girdle
the trees or cut the timber without paying
stumpage.
Yesterday rode most all day in seat
Just back of lady who was travelling
with large gooseberry bush. Why do
women feel better while travelling if they
can convey large, thorny parrot, or a
young plum tree, or jug of buttermilk?
1t certainly cannot enhance the pleasure
of travel either for themselves or others.
Every time would get sleepy and droop
forward l would bury my face in this
gooseberry bush. 1t annoyed me very
much, but she kept on carrying it, and
even reproved me for knocking young
thorn loose with my eye.
She was on the way home to plant
new kind of seed potato and her third
husband. He was in the express car,