Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-06-22
IN HOTEL CORRIDORS.

IN HOTEL CORRIDORS.
| At the Riggs House Mr.. Samuel L. Flick
of Salt Lake City, Utah, said: "A great
| many people in the east seem to think that
our state is mostly sandy, unproductive
desert and regard it mainly as the home
of the Mormon Church. This is far from
the truth. True. considerable tract of
| the state is a undiscovered. uninhabitable
desert land. but a far greater area is I'M
| der cultivation and productive Of vast
| quantities of the cereals. We have some
i of the most magnificent and largest farms
| in the country. Ranching is also carried
| on to a great extent, and We supply the
| Omaha, Kansas City and Chicago markets
! with hundreds of thousands of head of
| beef cattle We have within our state
| lines one of the great wonders Of the
world, 1. e., the Great Salt Lake Here.
pretty nearly a quarter of the way across
| the continent from east to west and dis
| tant many hundreds of miles from salt
] water, We have vast body of water, with
| no apparent inlet or outlet with much
| greater degree of salinity than any of the
| oceans except the Red Sea in southern
| Asia. The specific gravity of its water is
| SO great that a swimmer floats, with not
| single supporting movement, on its sur
| face, and it is impossible for him to SUBJ
| merge his body permanently. Then We
| have in the Uncompaghre reservation the
greatest deposit OF natural IN
| the world. L am not acquainted with the
merits of this paving material as compared
with that which comes from the Island of
Trinidad, but have heard it said that 1t is
equally good. l do know that the digging,
refining and shipping of it constitute quite
an industry. The mining of the precious
metals still goes on with profit to the oper
ators Not the old placer mining, to be
the separating of the ore by various pro-
| cesses. Every citizen of Utah has reason
to be proud of his state
Wilfred NJ Thompson, a civil engineer Of
Chicago, was at the Raleigh and told the
following story of a Decoration day he once
spent down in Mississippi:
'In May, 1893, was engaged in running
some lines for corporation in the neigh
borhood Of the White river in Mississippi.
The party being all northern men, we had
determined to make the Both a holiday and
have a good rest. We were camped right
on the bank of the river. About 10 o'clock
In the morning strolled alone down to the
waters edge, and. seeing q dugout, or
canoe hewn out Of a log. tied up, the idea
| struck me that a fish supper would be pal
atable. I accordingly clambered into the
dugout and padded down the river, around
the bend, to where we had the day before
set trot line. This was about coo yards
from camp. 1 found the line. which was
marked by floats made Of empty corked
jugs, and began hauling it in hand-over-
hand. When about halfway across the
river, in attempting to detach large fish
from the line and get it into the boat, 1
became overbalanced, fell into the river
and the dugout floated away with the cur
rent, which was pretty strong at this point.
The water was about fifty feet deep. /, Of
course, at once struck out for the nearest
shore. After about four strokes / discoy-
cred that l was fast to something. After
another trial knew that one of the hooks
on the trot line had caught In my trousers.
l was not especially frightened. l sup
posed a good, strong jerk would loosen 1t.
1t was when l remembered that my tron-
sers were made of what is known blue
jeans very strong cloth. that / realized
my danger. Knowing 1t would not do to
let my fear get the better of me- l trod
water for about a quarter hour. endeavor-
ing to find the hook with my hands and
tear it loose. At the same time I yelled
loudly for help, but owing to the bend in
the river and the distance from camp my
cries were not heard. Finding my efforts
at disengaging the hook were Intellectual
determined to rest awhile in order to
gather strength for another strong jerk.
This did by changing my swimming posi-
| tion-from back to stomach stomach to
side and returning to back-for fully fifteen
minutes. Then 1 made another mighty eff
fort, but this also proved futile. 1 repeated
this performance of alternately resting and
attempting to loose myself from the
in the water an hour and my strength was
of course becoming feebler all the time.
Finally, when almost worn out, threw all
my strength into what thought would
surely be my last effort. You can imagine
my excited state when I felt myself free
and saw the shore nearing me at each
stroke. 1 succeeded in reaching the bank
in q very much exhausted condition. having
been in the water one and a half hours.
When I had sufficiently recovered my
strength / made my way back to camp.
and then and there resolved that hereafter
when ate fish it should be some one elses
catch.
you may be sure the 3Oth Of May never
rolls around without recalling wildly to
my mind that adventure which SO nearly
cost my life"
Johann Maerkel, a ruddy-faced, good
natured German wine merchant of Chicago,
said at the Arlington the other day:
II have just returned from a visit to my
brothers in Homburg. Germany, and have
brought with me treasure in the way OF
a bottle OF aged wine. A few months since
my brothers, who are also wine dealers,
were excavating some additional vaults at
their place of business In Homburg. The
workmen came across q small stone cellar
or cache and inciosed in 1t discovered five
dozen bottles Of wine which the rude make
Of bottle. as well az the label. shows to be
over 200 hundred years old A dozen bot