The Greeley tribune., 1907-06-20
RIGHT HE IS
SCRIBE FINDS
TIME TO PHILOSOPHIZE
The Abomination of the Barb
Wire Gate Subject of Some
Of His Most Heavy
Thoughts

Just by way Of digression, and
surely every one Is entitled to way
side or soda fountain halt these days,
the life of the travelling correspond
ent is varied one. You are bitten
by gnats, blistered by the sun and
occasionally frosted" by your con-
stituents. This succession of ex.
treme heat and extreme cold produce
the cracked condition cited by
natural philosophy In the lamp
chimney exposed to sudden changes
of temperature. You are received
as a public benefactor in some in
stances, In others as an unmitigated
bore. You are given information
cheerfully in some instances, flow
of language conversationally that is
boon to the interviewer; again 1T
becomes necessity to extract such
Information by the toItuous cork
screw method.
You are occasionally located at
grub" time in land flowing with
milk anu honey, literally, but you
find when you get to the table that
it is case of water, water every
where and hot drop to drink. :"
(The milk in its ultimate products
is valuable and usable in the pay
check from creamery or other con-
cern, too much so for table use,
while the honey probably goes the
lcommerctal route as q ipxury. Yo,
get an assignment at some boarding
house, say room s." and before
morning arrives you decide you are
also ate You strike promising
looking road. traversing it too far
to make going back feasible, when
you discover that some bountiful
ditch has broken in the night and
you attach rich soil and valuable
| Colorado irrigation to your sole. with
the terrible possibility of added
growth to your pedal extremities as
result of the necessary combina-
tion, fertile soil, moisture and heat.
You leave your wheel at the way
side, jumt a ditch, go through, over
or under a sturdy looking barb wire
fence, traverse soft field sinking to
the shoe top at each stride, going
perhaps a quarter of mile with a
solitary masculine figure over yonder
the objective point as you desire
little local and agricultural history
from the ranch manager. Finally
upon arriving at your destination you
find the figure to be tive-foot Jap
who can only say Il do no."
And then the gates Your travel
ling reporter has about decided to
agitate the matter of good gates,
which Is more needy field for re-
form than the roads, by far. We
have about decided to classify people
according to the character and condi-
tiou of the gates they tolerate upon
the premises. There is the no gate
class, the one hinge gate contingent,
the "doggoned" barb wire gate
sort, (these should be prosecuted
wherever found, with no extenuating
plea, nor bali bond nor iota OF allie
Walton of the offense), then come
the swinging gate class who are get
ting near perfection but are some
times a little heavy In their one
sidedness, and then the acme OF per-
lection, the dear people who hang
gates for the express purpose of being
opened and shut, gates that are
double, swing in half from each end
and are locked, pethaps by a sliding
panel. These last are the people
that deserve commendation, pros
perlty and string of visitors who
come the second time. Talk about
the isolation Of the wife on the
farm. Any farm house ought to be
cut off from all communication with
the outside world that has from
one to three twisted, rusty, diaboli-
cal barbed wire gates between it and
the main thoroughfare. Some of
these gates fasten by a leverage
formed by pole in a loop Of wire
at the bottom OF one end Uf the So
called gate, then the piece Of fence
Is lifted, untangled, frightened and
BY Herculean effort, II luck be with
you, you manage to snap the pole in
another loop Of wire that always
seems six inches too short, and you
throw yourself, gasping, on the road