Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1902-08-08

ride for hours and never see living
creature, not even the Western prairie
dog that often breaks the stiffness and
lonesomeness OF the plains by their
peculiar bark. l fergot to mention
that after leaving Bismarck we had to
change our watches one hour earlier
to mountain time. We reached Bill
lings early Sunday morning. From
there west we saw large heards Of
sheep with the shepard and his pony,
also large droves of cattle with several
COW boys. Then too we saw flocks Of
horses or rathev the western ponies
We soou reached Livingston, here is
is where you change to 60 down to the
Yellowstone National Park. , Livings-
ton is a very beautiful city. with per-
haps the incest depot Of any town on
the Northern Pacific. Now We could
inctively see the snow capped
mountain to the south, west and north
of us; in fact we had been viewing
them for hundred miles back. When
we left Minneapolis we were sac feet
above the level OF the sea; in fargo 9O3,
in bismarck 1,66s, summit of Bad
Lands 27s4 feet, in Billings 3ll5, in
Livingston 4,4ss feet: here we begin to
assend the Rockies proper, until we
reached Helena 1e5 miles away, then
we had reached height Of 1850 feet.
This was the most picturesque of all
the cities we saw. 1t is nestled away
in a beautiful valley, surrounded by a
high rugged snow capped mountain,
covered with evergreens, fir, hemlock
cedar, none of which was less than
1000 feet in height. 1t lays against
the south foot hills of Mt. Helena, to
the north ley miles OF fertile valley,
irrigated. 1t is the capital of this
Silver State. The capitol is built of
beautiful white stone. There are
about $4,000 people here. of which
about 500 are colored, and they are
doing so very we'll. Mr.. Alexander is
one of the pioneers and highly respect.
ed citizen, his only son George is we'll
known in our city--at once student
in Highland Park College, George is
now working in the Capitol as electri-
cal engineer; his father is engineer in
q large bank. Miss Gladdis is their
only daughter who graduated from the
High School in the class of 1900. She
is highly accomplished musician, both
in vocal and instrumental. She plays
the piano, violin and mandolin, also
teaches piano music. She has spent
one year in the Chicago Conservatory
of Music, and was preparing to leave
the week we were there for Europe to
study two years in the Royal Academy
She has q sweet strong voice. They
entertained us at eheir home Sunday
evening. Miss Alexander is Sunday
School teacher in the A. NJ, E. church.
They have lovely home and other
property that is valuable. Mr.. Cole
owns a furniture store. He is the
wealthiest colored man in Helena. l
was told he had been running the store
about years. Mr.. w. R. Dorsey runs
a grocery store and is doing good busi-
ness. He has two delivery wagons.
Mr.. l.. J.. Thompson conducts the
Cafe, swell place. Mr.
Jackson is one of the progressive young
men. He has charge of renting one of
the large buildings-he may come east
to study law at Ann Arbor this fall.
Mr.. Edward Mosely and Wesley Fields
two of our we'll known young men are
here, they are both good musicians
ard they are doing well in this city
They have nice church and parsonage
out of debt. To give our churches an
idea of how they pay the church, there
was only about 40 people present and
they took up $500. I cannot recall
the pastors name. Monday morning
we in company with Miss Alexander
went out to the Broadwater NaNtorum
which is claimed to be the largest
pool in the world. Over 1000
can bathe at one time here. A stream
of hot boiling water flows 1000 feet
through the mountains and force itself
up about so feet high, falling into an
artificial pool for bathing. There is
beautiful hotel out there which will
about 200 guests. From
here we started through the mountain
tor Spokane, Wash.