The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1896-05-30
Western Montana Mews

mind the more important consideration
| presents itself
Dotting the plains with the chips
which are handy for cooking a
| breakfast
Mark Twain apologies in one of his
books for the information that il con-
tains, which ooZed out of him because
he could not help il. THE more /
| caulk up the sources and the tighter
1 get, the more l leak wisdom" he
says, or words TO that effect ] should
prefer to continue in the company Of
| Virgil and the Romans, but the last
| paragraph has caught me on my weak
| point-information. Who has not
heard of the chip as fuel? Yet how
few realize its importance or fully un-
derstand that men are not seldom
| placed for days and weeks where the
cup that cheers but not inebriates
would be mpossible-Where in short
their cake would be all dough--but for
the resources of the treeless prairies
where the buffalo roamsl A camp fire
without a fire is a home without a
mother. Exactly what that is the poet
who propounded the question declined
to answer. But the traveller has only
TO endure wet spell when the buff
falo chips won't. burn,-'em," to
know how IL is himself
Industry, as we are assured by var
ious moralists. is most commenda BILE
so, likewise is physical exercise ac-
cording to medical authority. The buff
falo chip stimulates industry and bodi-
ly activity, adding to the long list of
benefits conferred by appearing as a
great moras and hygenic agent. What
is more cheerful or more gratifying
to one of a reflective mind than TO
recline with a pipe on the green sward
on the shady side of the tent and see
some other fellows going for chips?
We lie and smoke and chew straws
and wonder absent mindedly how
many miles we have come to-day and
how far ii is to the next water: and
all the while the busy brigade with
gunny sacks pursue their peaceful oc-
cupation. We see them scatter merri-
ly, like school boys at recess and stoop
and pick till their bags are plethoric
with prospects of supper. then back
they come, like bees laden with the
sweets of flowers, and deposit their
burdens and go again till the autocrat
of the camp (by which / mean the
cook "reckons there is enough" 1t is
very gratifying indeed, for beside the
sordid consideration of supper there is
a higher and nobler consideration in
volved Satan finds some mischief
still for idle hands to do and such is
the ingenuity of the archfiend that.
had not the same men been gathering
chips" of another sort, behind the
wagons in those nefarious games of
chance which are played with the dew /
IFS own library. Certainly the buff /
falo chip is a great moral agent
The chip has other merits. Ambit- |
ION. within certain limits. is most COM /
mendable. When a man loses his am I
bition he is In a bad way. He may
take to drink, or matrimony or science
or some other questionable diversion;
but that ambition that sometimes stirs
the human breast, as sight of innu- .
merable chips of all shapes and sizes
is within bounds and unlikely to over
leap itself or fall on the other side
A simple and utilitarian form of this
ambition is to see who can gather the
biggest pile in the shortest time. A
far more aesthetic phase of this
laudable zeal is the exhibition. not Of
the greatest number OF miscellaneous
chips, but of the largest and most
and altogether most per-
feet single chip. 1t becomes exciting
when number of specimens are ex-
hibited, and their respective merits
eXtolled. One aspirant for the palm
claims size and the tape line tests the
claim: another symmetry and the CO.
)rdinates of the curve are found by
the assistant mathematician; another
perfect combustibility of his champion
hip. In this embarrassment of riches
he case become hopeless; the speci-
mems go to the fire. and the matter
,nds like other ambition, in smoke.
Geographically considered the buff
alo chip is likewise a success. L do not
low allude to any geographical deter
ninations according to the number of
ships per acre, or per square mile for
his. though not without its interest.
would be somewha. impractical i'm its
esults. / refer to the use of chips i'm
boundaries of states-even of
lations. Ir "A country devoid of sticks
II stones. or other movable furniture.
Excepting chips. what more natural
han that chips heaped i'm sufficient
quantity should serve as mile stones. or
mark the spot where the
urveyor set up his theodolite? What
more natural, again. than that
houghtful traveller should cause to nes-
lie in one of the chinks of chip, set up
n end, scrap of paper telling OF lati-
ude and longitude and distances. to
uide a less experienced friend Alright? !
he Minotaur. that dreadful bull of !
lden times, lived in a labyrinth That
'aedalus built. and the rash youth |
mo went In To STAY that animal might J
ever have come out again had IL not Z
cen for the thread which Ariadne J
ave him, and had not this gentle !
laiden stood outside and jerked the !
iring occasionally To keep his courage |
p. Yet the labyrinth was not more c
ltricate to him than the prairie to the
verage pilgrim; and if he has no string y
nd no Ariadne to pull II (maidens are l
,arce on the prairie) he need not be
fraid TO steer his course by a friendly a
lie Orwell of chips. Il
The chip is an important thing to a
he zoOlogist, Not content with know
X where the buffalo may now be
'und, the curious zoologlst wishes to
arm where the animal might could
ould or should have been found at
ny given period of historic time For G.
lis information he must fall hack on
IL chip. to some extent at least. The I.
llculation is very simple Given a /.
Iip upon given spot, the presumptive Il