The Yellowstone journal., 1893-12-13
"Wednesday. December -. 1883.
4 sTtETiIsG DISCOVERY.

\ few days ago the standard printed
an interesting letter under Miles City
date on the state Reform school now
nearing completion at that place and al
so on the agricultural and horticultural
possibilities of that beautiful section III
the state IT being specifically mentioned
that melons are grown there OF remark
able size. astonishing prolicacy and
superior quality. The letter moved IA
Livingston subscriber to write these
words OF protest:
: VII, did not the Standard call attention of "a
long-sufering and deluded public to the incon-
eistcncy Of building Reform School for boSe
in a melon patch! Why the combined press Of
the state ought To get up and howl until the
cold stars and the dome of the universe crack
at such an unteeing outrage to boy Lature.
That this incongruity has escaped
general attention an condemnation is
undenial ly very strange. The people of
Miles City must have been onto it from
the start: and their silence is reprehen-
sible in the extreme. This furnishes a
new and powerful argument for the ex
ira sesslonsts. Nc sane man will deny
that the Legislature should be immedia-
tely convened to enact a law prohibiting
the raising of melons within a radius of
ten miles of the Reform School: either
that. or the Reform School should be
removed to the top of Mount Helena or
some other grim desolate spot where all
vegetation lan4uishes and melons are
unknown. What Miles City means by
undertaking TO reform wayward boys
and raising great. big, luscious water
melons contemporaneousiy is beyond
comprehension. There must be a col
Ored man in the fence or in the patch
somewhere. Anaconda Standard.
Let the Livingston subscriber. the edi-
tor of the Standard and all other an
xious and apprehensive citizens take
heart. The melon patch annex to the
Reform School, was not premeditated
nor was 1t an accident in the sense that
it could have been avoided for. bless
your incredulous souls, there is not "A
square inch of ground anywhere ada
cent to the Tongue river irrigating ditch
that will not volunteer a crop of melons
or anything else, if an empty seed sack
is shaken in the vicinity. But referring
to the bad results that are feared by the
proplnquity of bad doys and good mel
on. OF course the object in view next
to the reformation Of the inmates of
the school. is to prevent them from vii
fully or carelessly straying away from
its environment and good influences.
Now when it is considered that IA boy
or girl either for the accldeut of sex
does not extend to the palate when
either being an inmate of the Reform
School. shall have eaten of that marvel.
lousl. equisite fruit known as the Miles
City watermelon. or its companion in
excellsnee. the muskmelon. then and
from that time forward. all restraint may
be.remoyed Neither he nor she will
ever seek to get away. This is the phil
ophy of the melon patch annex.
Nor will the adjoining farmers be DIES
poiled of the fruits of their labor. for
while in this section the yield brings SO
large. everyone is free to help himself.
the Reform Scnool property consists of
forty acres of land admirably adapted
to the cultivation Of the melon and be-
fore another season rolls around. the in
mates Of the school will have all they
can get away with. of their own.