The Philipsburg mail., 1899-01-27
A GRANITE COUNTY UTOPIA


Its wonder you didn't get the
Klondike fever when it was epidemic
in this part of the country said the
sawmill man.
Il never did banker to go to that
frost-bitte country said the bunch
grass philosopher. 'There's good
mines to be found yet in Montana if
feller only knew where to look for
'em, and you don't have to take your
life in your hand and years grub on
your back to prospect for 'em,
neither. All I want is to find a little
seam of free milling gold rock in por-
phyry and granite, Or porphyry and
lime, or any other old contact, that l
can take hand mortar and pound
grub out OF until get her to showing
up in good shape; then I would sell
for, say, thirty millions. I ain t no
blamed hog.''
II should say not! - remarked the
mining expert. "Why, Great Scott
man alive! Thirty thousand would be
more than you could spend in your
lifetime -
Thirty hundred would be plenty
for my needs rs long as I'll probably
live," answered the philosopher; "but
l want to leave a name behind me
that will go ringing down the corri-
dors of time like four of kind" he
concluded rather lamely. "Now, there s
George w. Childs. Peter Cooper and
John. D. Rockefeller, and a lot more of
them rich mugs. They built colleges
and soup houses and such things, and
got their names in the papers till fur
ther orders. Now. what earthly good
does colleges do your kids or mine?
Unless we could dig up till all was
blue; and what under the blue god s
heavens would they learn-only to
smoke cigarettes and yell It always
brings Oh an attack Of that tired feel.
ing to see some young hay-shoveler on
whom nature has placed all the brands
and marks Of follower Of the
plough, sent by his mistaken parents
to one Of these cheap John colleges,
where he learns just enough to unfit
him for any honest occupation and not
enough to make of him successful
bunco steerer. The old man sells
oats for cent and spuds for six bits,
to keep him at school, and when Mr..
Smart Aleck comes home he pokes fun
at his fathers clothes and calls his
his sister that this, that or the other
is not considered good fawm' at Bill
ings or Bozeman, or Missoula, until
every one is plum sick of him, and re-
lieved when he at last accepts posi-
tion' hehind the counter of some cross.
roads country store, where he dispenses
Goldfish, calico and kerosene to bucolic
bellies, who think that his boiled shirt,
his waxed mustache, his soft hands
and head, and college manners, are
Just what the doctor ordered. It does
beat the Sam Hill how girls will cot
tom to half baked dude like that
country bred girls especially, that
ought to have more sense. -
''How was you going to send your
name ringing down the-the what-you-
may call ems of time?' asked the
sawmill man.
"Why, by utilizing the natural re-
sources of the country" replied the
philosopher. Instead of shipping the
raw material east to be manufactured,
paying freight on it both ways, and
big profit to the manufacturers beside,
| would build manufactures right
here. We have the best soil for pota-
toes in the country. would build
starch factory. We can raise oats here
in Flint Greek, Hellgate, Deer Lodge
or Blackfoot that will weigh forty five
pounds to the measured bushel, and
seventy to eighty bushels to the acre.
1 would build an oat meal mill. We
have cattle and sheep 'on thousand
hills. I would build packing house
and woolen factory. Montana barley
leads the world. I would make it into
malt right at home. I would get con-
troll of all the ARID land in Granite and
Deer Lodge counties. and by system
of reservoirs, Or artesian wells, I would |
put water Oh it; and would put
straight, white American on every
quarter section of it, with a team,
tools, fencing, seed and stock: to be
paid back in easy lnstallments without
interest. Help men to help them.
selves that's the only right way to be
charitable. -
Would you have Missourians in
your colony?' asked the mining ex-
pert.
why, sure,' replied the philoso-
pher; "Ive seen Missourians that
knowed pretty near as much as per-
son.
(Just here, the meeting broke up in
a row.