The Harrison times. (Harrison, Boone Co., Ark) 1876-1938, 1905-03-04
Trip Into Indian Territory and Texas

EDIroR TIMEs;-In my last lette
you made me return all the way t.
Harrison, when really meant tina
returned to Mr. Potts from tn,
Canyon. Seeing that bad weather
WAS to be expected decided mex
day to begin my homeward journey
aud my son drove over with me tC
Canyon City where | waited part o
the day for the outgoing train
About the most interesting feature
OF this place to me was the Real Es
tate agents who seemed to swarm
about the depot Their speeches or
the many virtues of Texas was anu
sing, especially to man from Ar.
kansas who knew he lived in the
very best country on earth While
we We're listening to the seductive
stories of the agents one of the big.
gest men ever saw wandered in
and pushed his way up to the fire,
he must have weighed three hundred
pounds, and his feet were the biggest
part about him; preparing to take
the train he reached back and drew
out his overshoes, No, 10 at least,
whereupon a traveller from Indiana
remarked to the land agents,
Gentlemen. | have just become
satisfied that you have here a soil
phenomenally rich and productive. +"
"How is that" asked one.
'As long as you can produce over
shoes the size of those | don't see
how any one can dispute the produc-
tiyeness of your country"
There are natural pecuharities
about this country of which little is
known to the outsider For instance
the dry atmosphere seems to carry
very much more electricity than that
OF other countries; you can go out
and rub your hand over the grass in
the dark and it will emit sparks of
electricity just as cats back does
when you rub it the wrong way.
When the street cars go by at night
in the towns they leave a shower of
sparks behind every wheel
But one of the most striking and
interesting phenomenon is the mir
age; some people might explain it,
but to me it was a wonder and a
mystery. BY some freakish condi-
ton OF the atmosphere reAee-
ton of the landscape perhaps many
miles away is thrown up on
the horizon and its appearance is so
real that it certainly must deceive
any one not acquainted with such
things, You see a mountain where
really swag exists, and it is just
far enough from you to make you
think it would be short walk to
the top of it, lakes, forests, farms,
etc dot its sides, but if you were to
start to investigate you would find
it like the Promised land, always
just a little ahead Jeff Bailey has a
neighbor mile and half from him;
ordinarily you can Just see the cone
of his house, but Jeff told me some
times he could see the whole house
and yard plainly as we'll as a grad
ual slope beyond it which changed
the level plain to a gradual slope all
the way to a distant horizon.
As | went out one morning | pass
ed place where the view was al
most a level PLAIN as far as I could
see, dotted here and there with the
usual farm houses and windmills,
AS we returned by the same place
that evening it seemed as if the coun-
try half a mile to the westward had
just dumped ITSELF and we had a
view of a long high ridge leading
back to a couple of beautiful lakes.
and then a range of heavily timbered
mountains covering into the clouds.
| didn't go to see how far it was,
but next morning passed over the
same ground again and convinced
myself that it was all a delusion.
The only way | could account for
such freaks was that this country it.
self must delight in deception, and is
liable to dccoy the weary, cold or
hungry traveller off to hunt these
beautiful lakes and forests only to
find that he never can get any nearer
than the starting point; it looks as
if the plain just pouts and humps up
like summer toad while you are
there, and when you are gone it gets
all right again
1t was still getting colder when
we took the train for Amerillo late
in the evening and the next morning
we woke up to find ourselves in the
midst of a driving snow storm which
lasted all that day and the next.
Early Sunday morning we took
the train for Jerico stopping along
Ihe way for the conductor to shoot
rabbits, but we got there by noon,
and was soon at Jeff Bailey's.
The snow storm continued all day
Monday, and Tuesday the boys
gathered up the guns and supply
of cartridges, and went for the rab-
bits, prairie chickens, and blue quail
and we feasted on them while