River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1894-09-20
STARTING AN AVALANCHE.
He Missed q Seat In the Legislature, But
Became Public Benefaetor.
Capt Taylor, of Wyoming, eh?"

He Missed Seat In the Legislature, But
Became Public Benefaetor.
Capt. Taylor, of Wyoming, eh?"
Eyes, sir"
as it the Capt. Taylor who ran for
the legislature three or four year
ago?"
The same man"
"And got defeated because he tipped
over mountain out there some
whereP'
- didn't exactly do that. but was
beaten Just the same"
Captain, there was stors of some
sort about you and mountain. Give
me enough to make page for the Free
Press.
1T won't be as long as that, but I'll
tell you all about it," laughed the cap
tain as he settled down on the cushion
of smoker on the Michigan Contra.
road the other day.
Having lighted a fresh cigar and
thoughtfully siroked his nose for a
moment he continued:
"You don't know where Toms
mountain is, of course, and so I will
tell You that it is due south of the town
of Rawlins, on the Union Pacific road,
and only about twenty miles away.
Used to be lots of game up there, for
it's pretty fair chunk of a mountain
and well covered with timber. Five
years ago a party of us went up there
on hunt and il was then the incident
happened you have probably heard of.
We had camp about a mile from the
mt of he tasr Pot
the camp and the end one day came
upon great crack or assure. 1t was
mile long, from a foot to three feet
wide, and from ten to hundred feet
deep. 1t was as If the south end of the
mountain had sagged down and was
trying to pull away from the other por-
ton"
''I've got your assure, captain"
''All right. About the middle of the
mountain, where the assure was widest.
it was filled with ice to within five feet
of the surface. l dropped down on the
ice and found it as hard as iron ard as
cold as miser's heart 1t may have
been there for thousand years, for all
l know"
Remains of the glacial epoch. sage
ly observed the man with the notebook.
Now, then, why / should GO and
make a fool of myself about that MS.
sure is beyond my reasoning, but ]
went into it with my eyes wide open.
| suddenly felt tender towards that
ice, which hadn't been thawed for sc
many centuries, and determined to
give it change of feelings There
was heaps of dry wood about,
and / spent an hour tumbling
stuff into that assure. Leaves.
brush, limbs, roots and logs-every-
thing went. When the fire got under
Roadway there was a great frying and
sizzling down in the cold recesses.
got tired of the fun after awhile and
went back to camp. That night about
midnight Toms mountain shook her
self three or fonr times as if she had a
chill. Next morning we went out to
the assure to find ourselves looking
down a precipice. The whole south
end of the mountain had taken a slide. "
'Your bonfire did the biz, eh?'
"Well, that's where / differed with
/ the Internal opposition They said it
melted the ice and brought about the
avalanche. and that only fool would
have started the fire. Igot four geolo-
gists to swear that it made no differ
ence, but when election day came |
wasn't half elected. The papers said
/ that man who'd fool with mountain
a million years old wouldn't hesitate to
sell his influence to any corporation
which wanted to dam a river discovered
! only a hundred wears ago"
Ibid the avalanche do any gres t
harm, captain7"
''Oh, no. 1t was the principle of the
thing they looked at. A hundred
million wagon loads of earth and rock
/ filled up a valley six miles long by
/ three wide, and the bed of st. Nrain' 5
river was carried seven miles south and
given sixteen pew crooks. but no dam
| age was done.
And you felt sore over your defeat,
of course?"
'Yes, for time. In about a year,
however, found that | was looked up
on as great public benefactor, and
I that was some consolation"
GAS how. captain?"
"Why, for thrse straight miles on
/ that south end there's a smooth cliff
I from twenty to two hundred feet high.
/ was out there last summer and
counted 'em and there was just four
hundred and eighty, with a new one
going up"
Counted what?"
Beautifully painted signs of pills,
sarsaparilla, sewing machines, tooth
| powders, summer hotels, writing fluid,
liver invigorator, ointment and so
/ forth! / hear that the advertising
agents of America are going to present
me with Wyoming cattle ranch fifty
miles long by thirty broad, and throw
in ten thousand head of cattle, and if
it comes my way l shall take 1T in
| Detroit Free Press.