The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1904-03-01
IN a PASSING MANNER


has to run a continuous gauntlet from
the irate citizens who honestly believe
that if there is anything in the world
they do know it is how to properly
care for streets and keep them in or
der. They r free with their adj
vice and suggestion to a prodigious
degree, a liberality exceeded only by
their criticisms when they think
their advice should have been follow
ed. With crossings on a level, or,
as it happens %oftenest, several inches
below the streets, that must be kept
clean, %culverts that will freeze up
and refuse to conduct the water sup
posed to find an outlet through them,
and sewers that have a perverse way
of becoming clogged at the most in
opportune and annoying times, the
commissioner is beginning to realize
that the life of the average public
servant is not one of unbroken ease
and pleasure.
1t is an easy matter just about o
to tell the man who is the fortunate
owner of ''oil." His jaunty walk and
the careless swagger he assumes
plainly indicate him to be among the
favored ones upon whom capricious
fortune has lavished her smiles. While
none as yet has attempted the prodi-
gality of a Goal Oil Johnnie" or
taken on the air of a populist who
STRUCK it, at Beaumont, if the price
of shares continues to climb upward
it. is difficult to predict what may &C.
cur. No matter what may happen,
so long as their riches continue to
increase, the friends of the lucky
spectators are rejoicing with them.
With curb quotations 81 a share for
stock that cost no more than 5 or 10
cents, almost any man possessing a
lot would be inclined to be a trife
airy.
"What kind of a country have you
folks here, anyway" inquired a wey-
farer on yesterdays westbound North
Coast Limited, as he stepped from the
a and began to walk up and down
the platform and drank in long
breaths Of the balmy, summerlike air,
while waiting for the train to resume
it's journey. "Only a short distance
back it's winter and the further east
you go the colder it is. When I left
home l was told l was going to enter
the arctic regions as soon as struck
Montana. Well, this is Montana, and
here you have summer. It is so much
like a dream that I'm tempted to pinch
myself and see whether I'm really
awake" When told that what he vas
then experiencing was only a fair
sample of ordinary winter in this
locality he heaved a sigh and remark
ed, IF l hadn't seen it myself and
anyone had undertaken to tell me
I'd sure said he lied. 1t certainly is
wonderful"
Steam was raised in the Billings
Land and Irrigation company's new
Automobile" last Saturday afternoon
and the machinery given a prelimi-
nary limbering up. Sunday morning
the real task of moving the thing |
began and it proved to be enough of
a curiosity to keep a crowd of in
terested spectators at the end of the ;
Burlington track all day. Because OF
the unfamiliarity of the work they |
we're doing, the men in charge of
dredge did not move it very far. Yes
terday the strangeness had worn off
and the results accomplished were
much better. The huge crane to
which the shovel is attached lifts
the thirty-foot sections in which the
track is built with as much ease as a
rounder would elevate a drink and
places it with the utmost precision
in front of the connecting one. Two