The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1907-12-06
Some Local Conditions
(By the EDITOR


The average man and woman who
have raised family in Eastern Ida
no, look back to their youthful days
spent in states farther east where
there were many good things in
plenty, or to the pioneer days OF
Utah, where hardship was the rule
and mere existance a thing to be
thankful for.
In one instance, the parents prob
ably came west with the idea of 60
Ing back east when they had made
some money, and regarded life here
as a passing condition; in the other
they had not enjoyed the best the
world affords, and could not hope to
have more than fair share of op-
.portunities for their children.
In both cases, the children have
grown up under peculiar surround
ings that are worthy of attention, and
1t is the purpose of this article to
point out some of the conditions that
have worked hardships on the par
ents and injury to the children; con-
dition that are more apparent among
the. older settlers as a rule than
among the people who have come in
more recent years.
The Fasteners.
Those who grew up in the eastern
state or on the Great Prairies, look
back to childhood days when they
gathered violets and May apples in
springtime, went hunting in the
woods or killed squirrels on the prair
les, gatherd wild Strawberries among
the hazel brush in June, and black
berries and dew berries in the heat
of summer while the hazel nuts and
acorns were maturing in the hulls.
They gathered walnuts and butter
nuts in season, plucked alder ber-
ries and wild grapes at the same time,
rounded out the season by playing In
the straw pile, husking corn In the
search for red ears, and killing prair-
lie chickens In the fields, and wood
chucks and muskrats near the SWIM
ming hole. School began in the fall,
the spelling school and the literary"
followed; red apples, nuts, sorgum
taffy, sleighrides and coasting, con-
tributed to their joys during the win
ter, and with each returning spring,
the boys were ambitious to fill aman's
place by making hand" In the
field, and the girls equally ambitious
to do woman's part.
All these things wade up a social
and domestic atmosphere that is good
enough for them to cherish in fond
memory, and which, in their time
nodded the characters of the individ-
uals. These same people have looked
back all their lives to the days of
their youth as the dearest, grandest
times they ever had. They sacrificed
much to go back to have a look at
the old home and the patch of wood
lands with it's berry patches and
swimming hole, and have wept If
they found them changed and gone.
None of these people would part with
the recollections of their childhood
for any consideration, but what of
the conditions surrounding their own
children at a corresponding age, and
what have they provided to furnish
joyous days and jolly evenings that
their own children can look back to
and hold in fond memory in connec-
ton with home after they have left
the paternal roof? To one who has
studied these matters as they pre-
sent themselves in and around
great number Of, homes through the
country. these are some of the things
that present themselves:
A stockman builds shack or hut
on the fiat where it is easy to 60 down
to the stream and water his saddle
horse and dip up water for use In the
house. He turns his saddle horses
in the field at nights until cold wealth
or comes, and by that time has pro-
vided a hay stack and shed or log
stable for the animals. 1t is 400 feet
between the two buildings, but he
does not mind the walk much and
gets accustomed to 1t.
In time he takes notion that eggs