Wood River times. [volume] (Hailey, Idaho) 1882-1915, 1893-12-26
NOTES AND COMMENTS

In Texas they are debating whether
farmers would not better live in villages,
as they do in Germany and Switzerland
driving out to their fields roundabout
This would relieve the monotony of farm
life.
AN article on the presence of gold in
the Appalachian region Of Maryland,
which was recently printed in Balti-
more paper, recalled to lawyer OF that
city the fact that the United States Su-
preme Court has decided that all de-
posts of gold and silver in Maryland
belo g to the State and not to the owner
of the land in which they lie.
The American railroad contractor is a
cosmopolitan. He builds railroads in
Mexico, Central America, South America,
China, Japan. Siam and in many other
lands. His last contract is for road
from Haifa, in Syria. to Damascus. The
line Is to be completed within eighteen
months, and the intention is to extend it
through Persia to India as soon as the
necessary concessions are obtained.
SOME idea of the enormous propor.
tons the business of keeping has
assumed in this country may be gained
from the fact that there are in the United
States upwards of $4,000 hotels, exclu-
sive OF what may be properly termed inns
and taverns and what are commonly
known as apartment houses, although
the latter are as hotels, in that they have
a common kitchen and dining room.
THE Welsh in the United States claim
that they are in numbers as many as
their countrymen in Wales, and they
also claim that one of thei- ancestors
forestalled Columbus in the discovery OF
America by 27a years. They base their
assertion on historical traditions, and the
manuscripts of old Welsh bards on the
one hand, and on the prevalence of
Welsh in many of the languages of the
Indians, both of South and North Amer
lea, on the other.
VERY few people know anything about
the Indians in Western North Carolina
the Cherokees. There are l. 200 of them
and they are increasing in numbers.
They own $4,000 acres of land, and very
fine land it is. Their chief is Stillwell
Sounookc. He cannot speak English at
at all. There are some native preachers
and four schools, the Government main.
tanning the latter. There are other Chero.
KEGS but these are not included in the
1900, as they live elsewhere than on the
reservation.
HE Cherokee Strip opening brought
strange experiences of boom heights and
collapse depths to the border town of
Arkansas City, Kansas Prior to the
opening it was the great centre for the
boomers and for their supplies; the even
ing of the opening day it was almost a |
deserted village. During the few weeks
preceding the opening the postoffice did |
a volume Of business emitting it to rank /
as first class postoffice. Since the open.
ing it has done more business with the |
Dead Letter Office than any other city in
the Union. More than 5000 letters were
returned to Washington within few
days after the opening. 1t speaks graph
ica'ly Of the wild rush for the unknown
taken by the boomers that any effort to
deliver these thousands of letters to the
people who few hours before were with
in reach was utterly useless.
BRITISH naval authorities are congratu-
lating one another over the recent show
ing made by the British cruiser Melpo-
meme in steaming from Callao to Victoria,
distance of over 5000 miles, in
twenty-five days, without making a stop
for coal. 1t is said this is an achieve
ment which has seldom been paralleled
and never surpassed. The Melpomene
is steel cruiser of 2, $50 tons displacc-
ment. Her principal features are:
Length, 263 feet, beam, Al feet, and
draught, IL feet inches. She is capa-
bic OF attaining speed of 10. Is knots
an hour. Her bunkers have capacity
for 400 tons of coal, 1t is said she can
steam 5000 miles at speed of 10 knots
an hour. In general features the Melpo-
meme approaches close to the new
United States cruisers Cincinnati and
Raleigh. She is less powerful, however,
than either.
SOME idea of the abundance of game
big and little, in the wildernesses of the
Northwestern mountain ranges NAV be
gathered from the record of seasons
hunting, for business, in the Cascade
Mountains about Mount Hood, by W. G.
Clark, noted trapper, who used one :
time to hunt with Buffalo Bill. He
pitched his camp on the south side of -,
Mount Hood just about snowfall last !
year, and was in exile for six or eight =
months. Part of the time the snow was =,
twenty feet deep. In little more than ! .,
p,auth he killed 1870 elk and over 200 !
aesr, sending the meat down to Portland
by packer. When the snow got too ,
deep for hunting he took to his traps. :
and when summer set in returned to civil .
lization with $4,000 worth of mink, lion, !;
sable, marten, fox and other skins, in
GLIDING several silver-gray fox skins, !
which are worth $50 each. Altogether =
he cleared about $4,000 by his seasons
hunting. He got no bears, for though
there are plenty of them in the mount y
tains, they are holed up in the winter.
THERE has been great influx of idle t
men into San Francisco and other towns
On the Pacific coast duriug the past Jew f
weeks, and the question of what to do t
Tor them or with them has become very u
prominent and serious Most of them d
ire tramps of the ordinary, disreputable
species, but there are also many honest a
xorkmen out of employment among the
army that has besleged the coast. These r.
men have been coming into California.
At~<s-