The Butte inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1901-1912, 1901-09-25
|CnAT WITH TRAVELLERS

morals, said drummer of the old
| school In the corridor of the Butte hotel
this forenoon. Somebody lis on the
down grade. Either the proprietors OF
| hotels throughout the country are be.
| coming demoralized or their patrons
have slipped a cog. and I am trying to
| find out which it is.
Il have been travelling a good part of
the time for the last thirty years, and
! up to two years ago l seldom put up at
q hotel where l did not find Bible
| tucked away in the bureau drawer But
| now the Bibles are missing. l never
| knew until the little books became an
! unknown quantity how much l had come
| to depend upon them as a familiar figure
| in the ever-changing hotel life of a man
| ON THE road.
Il don't take to myself the credit of
having read the book whenever I might
and should have read it: indeed, l fear
! that there are many weeks at a stretch
how it gave me a sort Of homelike, COM
| Portable feeling to Sc copy lying around
| In strange housse, and for years my
| first action on being shown into a room
| was to open the top drawer and see If
| the Bible was in place. If 1T was there,
| and 1t usually was, I felt kind of set
| tied for the night; otherwise I was lone
some and out of sorts.
These Bibles were provided in diff
| ferent ways. In some places they We're
furnished by the Tract society. which
| had obtained permission from the pro-
| pretor to place a Bible in each room OF
| his hotel, but In other places the man.
| agement took the initiative as stroke
of business policy and saw to it that
| the books were distributed Throughout
| the house.
Why. the Bibles have disappeared
| from the hotels Is what is puZZling me-
| Chicago was the first town to abolish
! them. 1t gave me quite a shock when
stopped at one of the Michigan ave-
nue. hotels one night and failed to find
| the Bible in it's accustomed place, or
any other place. for that matter. I went
| right down to the proprietor and made
| inquiry as to the change. My attitude In
| the matter gave the employees the i'm
| preston that l was an evangelist or
some other kind of itinerant preacher
and their subsequent treatment Of ME af
! forded the other guests no end of amuse-
| ment and myself plenty of inconvenience,
| but there is no use talking l really was
| lost without the Bible.
"Since then Bibles have gradually
made their exit from the hotels of other
| towns, both large and small. l have
| asked good many people the cause OF
| their absence but nobody seems equal
to the Job of explaining. Have the hotel
! managers and the Tract society grown
careless or do they think that men who
travel are past redemption and that put
| ting Bibles in their rooms is polite and
| up date way Of casting pearls before
| swine? OF course, there Is possibility
| that they believe us to be so good that
| h,1f 7
all my conceit, am inclined to reject this
| theory"
"a process has just been patented for
making artificial woods out of pulp so as
| to initiate such costly kinds as mahog-
any and rosewood said e. ]. Doane, a
| travelling man for a furniture house at
the Thornton this afternoon. Indeed,
| the inventor claims to oe able, by the
help of the machine, to reproduce the APP
| pearance Of Quartered oak, curly maple,
birdseye maple, or practically anything
else that grows in the forest so perfectly
as to deceive the trained eye. Obviously
such an achievement should be of high
commercial value, inasmuch as the more
EXPENSIVE woods are luxuries within
reach only of people Of means, the rar-
| est of them coming from distant tropical
| countries.
THE process does not reproduce the
texture of woods, but merely their APP
pearance. The pulp is thrown upon
| cylinder by an air blast projected
! through a number of pipes. and an irreg-
ular distribution of the particles IS OBJ
tanned by various devices, such as vary
| ing the intensity Of the blast and causing
| the pipes to vibrate. In this way the
knots and grains of the natural woods
are said to be counterIelteo VIII" SUI
! prising success. .,
"Artificial woods Of this kind are avail
| able for use as veneers, the employment
| of which is so extensive at the present
| time. Nearly all of the imported natural
woods are sold as veneers. They are cut
in extremely thin slices, because they are
too costly to be used solidly. Manos-
anv rosewood curly ash, inquired plrch'
satinwood and Circassian walnut are
most in demand, and veneers mace from
them bring from three cents to ten Genus
a foot. Some veueers are worth twenty
cents a foot, though mere shavlngs, anu
single lot Of a rare wood Is sometimes
valued at as much as $2,0OO.
..nouhtless q principal use Is expected
~ ho found for the counterfeit mahogany
md other woods in the making 1T furnl-
ture."
"T have never seen the Atlantic or the
Pacific ocean or the Gulf Of Mexico, but
have had some experience with salt wat
err. nevertheless" said George Y. Rear
don of Park City. Utah. who Is domical-
cd at the Thornton while on trip to
butte. He is an official Of the great sl-
YER mine near Park City. which EXTENDS
deeper than any other in the world.
"salt Lake is a remarkable sheet OF
water in many ways. and bathing In 1t
nossesses features which are unique. 1t
Is verv inyigorating and refreshing. to be
sure hut 1t takes some time to become
accustomed to the extraordinary buoy
ancv Of the water. 1t is quite impossible
To sink or drown in the lake, but many
people have been killed by the wafer.
When there is breeze and spray Is
dashed upon bathers. the water Is so