Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-12-15
Frank Bateman Compares
Them With the Present.
CORNERS ON COAL OIL
And Salt Met With Defeat in the Long
Run-Levy and His
Eggs.

ut is very nice and convenient to have
street cars, railroad trains and other
modern vehicles in which to travel
around-it is nice to look up at the tall
buildings and the various evidences OF
the metropolitan life with which we are
surrounded, but l do not believe there
is an old-timer in Montana today that
does not occasionally long for a glimpse
OF the old days and a taste of the simple
bin of fare that prevailed when each
man in this section of the state did his
own washing and fried his own bacon"
said Frank Bateman, one of Montana's
pioneers, in speaking of old-timers a few
days ago. There is about that life a
fascination which once partakcn of is
rather difficult to dissolve or totally
eradicate from memory. In the early
days of Montana q call it Montana be-
cause it is now a state and was then
a territory we had no real palaces in
which to live, and it was not an unusual
thing for US to spend the night with no
covering save the fresh, oxygen-laden
air and the twinkling stars in space.
We had no morning or evening news
papers to tell us of the frailties of man
kind; no policemen to whom we could
relate our troubles, for We had no
troubles to relate. We We're a happy,
AON W with io ISAl L
for the past and few cares for a future !
that extended to US the hand of promise.
Each day brought with it something new |
and exciting, and while the evening /
coffee boiled and the winged wind |
whistled a te deum through the tall grass
and pine trees which then abounded
here, but which skunk off like a coyote
at the approach of a so-called civiliza- |
ton, we discussed the days resolutions
in u own primitive way. We could
then leave our laundry on the line over
night and find it there in the morning,
and smile at each other without being
suspected of possessing political aspira-
tons or paving the way to the negotia-
ton of a loan. The whisky was as good
then as it is now, and jackpots were
just as easily opened.
1T has been said that We ran out of
salt here one winter and had to use wood
ashes as a substitute. That allegation
is a mistake. In the latter part of the
sixties John Curtin Of Helena secured a
corner on the article, salt, l mean, and
raised the price to a dollar and a quarter
a pound He kept his supply in a hill
side dugout. The boys here had as lit
tie use for combines in those lays as the
have now and when they wanted salt
promptly confiscated the Stock in the
dugout. Two or three other corners We're
secured on necessaries, but not all Of
them panned out as we'll as those secur-
ing them had hoped. A Helena woman
known as Kate, whom We afterwards
christened Coal Oil Kate lassoea all
the kerosene in sight and leaned up
$50, 600 during one winter, but the fol-
lowing winter an oil-rins was formed for
the alleged purpose OF cleaning UP an
other 100000 and Kate was a member
OF it. When it went out OF business Kate
did not have $60, 600: but her loss was
gained by others. And while l am talk
ing about corners l will mention one
that cropped out in Helena. l was then
employed in a flour and feed store. We
had a lot of flour on hand and so did
others handling it and there was little
or no demand for it. Three dollars a
hundred was the price. To liven things
up a little we increased it to 81 at one
jump. The demand increased a bit and
We boosted it to IS and the demand kept
pace with it. We kept tile boost going
until it reached SIS and we sold more Of
1t at that price than we did at SO. A man
named Worden conceived the idea of
speculation and went out after a cargo.
We kept track of his movements until
he got within ten miles of the city and
then began to drop the price towards the
old mark. By the time he reached Helena
flour was again selling at So and Worden
was broke. Before we started to raise
the price in the first Ilace there was
enough flour in the city 10 last four times
the population all winter.
THE first snow OF every fall was the
signal for an increase in tie price of
everything in the way of goods, for deal
ers recognized the fact that it was then
impossible to haul anything into the
country. The closest railroad point at
that time was Omaha and there We're
only about sixty days in the year tina
boats could get up the Missouri river.
One day an old miner needed some nails
and bought a key of S-penny, paying $40
for it. The season had been so dry that
the river contained little water and the
prospects of a boat We're very slim. He
shouldered the key and started for his
cabin out of town, but before he got home
1t began to rain and the downpour lasted
for days. The old fellow supposed the
price of iron pegs would go to 5000, as it
had already raised from $40 to $11O, but
the very next day after he bought them
the price dropped back to $40.
Another man named Levy perrfomed
a shrewd trick, too, in Helena in the
early days. All the eggs used in this
section were freighted from Utah, but
after a certain time in the fall we could
not get them, as the roaus were closed.
Late in the summer he shipped in several
thousand dozen and stored them in his
warehouse. About Christmas he I'M
packed them. gave them a bath in clean
and branded them as fresh ranch