The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-12-12
HIS SECOND TRIP.
VIM. Allen Whites Write Up of
Thunder Mountain.
twill Appear in United States
Mining Journal.
BIG CREEK COUNTRY.
He Tells Of Its Wonderful Gold
Prospects.
Grandeur of Scenery Not For
gotten in His Descriptions.

VIM. Allen Whites article on Thun-
der Mountain will appear in the Christ
mas number of the United States
Mining Journal. to be published De-
cember Is. Mr.. White made his second
trip to the district last fall for this
journal and his article is of nature
that will interest every one By per-
mission of the United States Mining
Journal the State Journal is permitted
to publish large portion of the article
emitting the detailed descriptions OF
the various mining properties. Here
It is:
A time comes annually in every
mans life when he yearns to pin
buffalo tail between the two buttons
at the back of his three-button frock
coat and run wild. Cities and men and
the clatter of trade and all the ahle sIr
ties of organized society pail on a man
at such times. and his heart and soul
turn to the wilderness ''as the heart
panteth for the water of the brook.
OF course, one may put aside this crav-
ing for the natural life; he may
strangle the desire of his being to un-
tangle itself from the clogglng weight
of depressing forms and manners ana
meaningless ceremonies Many men
deaden this desire with red liquor or
irritate this appetite for freedom by
playing tennis or golf or riding after
the hounds Gall of which are base mi
tations of the genuine respite the soul
longs for), and others throttle this in
stinct for the primitive existence. and
go on about their business But in
course of time they become mentally
NANCY, and they moult spiritually IN
spots, and appear to their fellows like
animals that have gone long without
visiting the salt ticks. Mortuary sta
tistics prove that it pays in dollars
70, hi aQf n
the woods quick and generous an
sWer. For he who neglectS IL ana
turns a deaf ear to the voice OF ma
ture, may gain month or two in
year or two, but he pays for it with
compound interest when he makes his
last reckoning with death; the only
one who helps him carry his loss is the
company that pays his life insurance
few years before the expected time.
Some day life insurance companies in
this busy world will realize this and
make an allowance each year on every
mans annual premium. which he must
spend amid green fields and running
brooks. Indeed, some day when the
community of interests have combined
all the trust companies and all the
railroads and all the banks and all the
insurance companies under one man
agement, perhaps every man who holds
an insurance policy will be entitled to
a ticket into the wilderness every year.
In this way the community of interest
WOUlG save lDOuE4. anu Wllen that
blessed day comes, If men are wise in
their day and generation the ticket
of the multitude will read to Thunder
Mountain. For there is the real will
derness. There the signs are not up;
there the peaks and preciDices are I'M
named, the canyons uhstrewn with tin
cans. the myriads of waterfalls and
rapids free from disenchanting frag-
ments from the tourists waste basket.
This is the forest primevaL The
murmuring pines and the Hemlock,
bearded with moss and in garments
green.
Indistinct il the twilight. stand like
Druids of Old. with Voices sad and
prophetic"
This Thunder mountain country must
always be a wild country. Rails may
penetrate it easily enough, and wagon
roads cross it and trails worm their
way through its Businesses. But it will
still be the forest primeval." 1t can
not, in the very nature of things, be-
come softened and tame by man. 1t
will never be a place Of lodges and re-
sorts and inns and taverns and country
places. such as are the front range Of
the Rockies and the AdirOndacks The
mountains of north central Idaho will
never surrender to mere hirts and
trifiers with nature. They may, and
doubtless will, give up their gold when
the railroad and the wagon roads come;
but the mines and the roads and the
trails will be as pin scratches on the
zenith compared with the vast areas
that will be left free for him who, in
the love of nature, holds communion
with her visible forms" Thunder noun
tain is the center Of a country which, if
ironed out into a plain. would be as
large as one of our middle states. There
are few places in America where one
may stand and see only mountains
whichever way he looks: But here
among these hills of Idaho-they call
them hills because they are all under
timber line-among these hills that rise
often five thousand feet sheer in the
air above the rivers at their bases, one
may stand on the SUBMITS, indeed may
travel for days from summit to summit
and sa far as one looks, east, west
north, south, see only mountains. And
such mountains!
SCENERY OF RARE BEAUTY.
The front range of the Rockies
through Colorado does not bear such
grandeur of scenery, though there it
may be more rugged and more bleak
The tourist-haunted mountains of Cali
fornia yield no such crescendoes of
beauty as these hills of Idaho give to
him who comes to theml They are not