The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-02-28
PRIMITIVE IN THEIR LIVES.
Railroads, Telegrapbs and Telephones
Unknown to the People.

FROM the lineage Chronicle.
They may call 1T Georgetown all they
like, but the name or the place is Bean
Blossom. The Chronicle told the other
day Of a curious lapse in the postal af-
fairs of Georgetown, Brown county,
Ind, and not one person in thousand
saw in the incident any more than
curious irregularity on the part of a
postmaster. Really, the thing was de-
liciously illustrative of the whole Bean
Blossom situation.
Do you remember the story? Well.
the postmistress had been relieved and
the newly appointed postmaster moved
the office. In doing so he found that
letters which had not been called for
remained in the office. Some had re
turn cards on the upper lefthand cor
ner, but that didn't trouble the post
mistress Ii people didn't come after
letters they didn't get them, that was
all. When letter came to her post
office directed to someone she took it
for granted the sender knew his bust
ness, and she kept faith by holding his
letter. Some of them she haG held for
10 long years, and when the mass in the
general delivery boxes grew too bulky
for her to easily handle she bundled the
uncalled-for letters into an empty shoe
box upstairs and saw that nothing hap
pened to them. The new postmaster
said he found a cartful of old letters.
Those with return cards We're returned.
Those without We're sent to the dead
letter office in Washington. Not a seal
had been broken by the postmistress.
Bean Blossom-they call it George
town, Brown county, Ind in the pos
tai guides-is in the center of the most
interesting section of the West. Brown
county is the one county in half doz-
en- states which has not mile of rail-
road. not rod of telegraph line and
not the faintest echo of telephone. 1t
is the hill county of Indiana, with an
elevation greater than anything from
Wheeling to Pilot Knob. The country
is wild, rough and broken, with steep
hills and narrow valleys, with abund
ant oak woods that are ideally green
in spring. gloriously colored in the au-
tumn and dreary cold in winter. The
people are primitive in habit, generous
and hospitable. 1t is a perfect delight
to travel through Brown county.
And there is gold in Brown county.
State Biologists Owen ana Thomp-
son-and no telling how many more
agree that the gold came down with the
glaciers from the north when the ice
fields moved to warmer quar-
cier. tearing loose whole noun
tains of soil in that region which
we now call the Klondike, crept south,
sitting a flake of gold here and a peb
BILE of gold there as it melted, and, be-
ing finally lodged against the ridge of
! hills in Brown county, possibly helping
to pillow up those hills in its movement,
simply stopped there and sifted down
gold till the bottom of the glacier melt
ed, and the whole great mass slipped
over to continue it's way to the south.
And all north of the ridge" gold
hides in the soil, You can wash it out
in Salt creek. You can ind 1t in the
wagon ruts after rain. You can split
! the dry, stratified. shelly rocks on the
side of the hills and get out really
beautiful flakes of virgin gold.
There is no gold south of the ridge
which is why the scholars think the
| glacier did it.
Bean Blossom is the metropolis of
! the region. There is no hotel but
nearly every householder win give you
a meal and will feed your horse. There
| is not a suggestion of charge, and
! when you come to urge payment the
/ householder will protest you are well
come and will finally accept whatever
/ you may offer, impressing You clearly
with the conviction that he only re-
ceiVes the money out of compliment to
your Judgment that it is right cuSto-
mary in your country and desired by
| you.
There ara but few business houses
in the place. Two stores, each carrying
| a general line of goods from gargling
/ oil to grindstones. made up the bulk of
/ Bean Blossoms commerce until 1896,
| Wien a third store was opened Its
proprietor knew nothing of mercantile
affairs, but he was a good trader a
/ shreWd fellow, popular with the young
men and in favor with the young wom-
en-, and he really succeeded against
what seemed an invulnerable oppose
! tiCn.
~ ts, IL, Il Oh,
a wagon shop. two shoe shops and a
cooper shop. But these are not dis
tinctiVe. Any town may have them.
But no town other than Bean Blossom
has gold beater's shop. This is
unique. 1t is a low, long building,
conducted by man whose father came
here from Philadelphia years ago and
put in plenty of machinery. There are
lathes and dies. little anvils and slen-
der hammers. quaint old balances of
the most interesting description, and
bottles of fluids for cleaning and test
ing the gold The gold beater-that is
the name he is known by in Bean
Blossom-buys gold whenever it is Of
fered. Little boys and girls take a
spasm of gold hunting. collecting the
yellow treasure in little phials, which
! they produce for comparison in
school. when they meet fishing, at
meeting on Sunday-everywhere
| They sell this to the gold beater-at his
own valuation and weight. And he
fuses it into ingots and sells it to jew
elers or to the government 1t would
surprise you TO know how much gold
he handles in the course of year.
Young men bring him their hoardings
of gold and he hammers them into rings
for sWeethearts into breastpins and
"eardrops." Husbands make their
wives presents of some trinket in per-
dor, 1T ifalA nf
in the house, like teaspoon or a Thin
BILE. The gold beater is busy from
morning to night.
This gold story from Indiana is no
romance at all. 1t seems a tax on
credulity. perhaps. but glance at the
state geologist's report in almost any
year since the war will convince the
reader that the gold heater is no fancy
creature. The report of State Geolo-
gist Maurice Thomnson is most full and