The Washington herald., 1907-10-29

Whosoever has courage enough TO push
across the desert beyond the mushroom
village of Greenwater, or Graveyard, as
it is more generally called. will find the
home Of ''Scotty" the eTTatiC million
aire miner. near the foot OF Funeral
Range and close 10 the "Twenty-mule
Team trail. that leads into Death Valley.
Scotty is a hospitable soul, and in the
one-room shack he has cached a liberal
supply of provisions, the shelves being
ranged all about the room with their
canned goods temptingly displayed Stih
more prominently displayed is the notice:
Eat all you want, sleep all you want
loaf all you want, stay as long as you
want, but don't take away anything you
didn't bring; don't be dirty dog" There
is much hospitality behind the blunt in
vitation. and many a weary wandeTeU|
has been refreshed In this shack. whose
owner is rarely visible, and whose near
est neighbors are rough plank and can
vas affairs over in Shidoo which is still
another name for the village of Green
water, with its 1900 souls.
This is a typical home in the arid West
where every device has been used TO
secure a shelter and make some pathetic
attempt at a home Long before an en-
torprising Fastener with some obliqultv
in the shaping Of his brain, set up a saw
mill in a lonely part Of treeless Kansas.
the squatters there had already solved
the problem of house-bunding. They Sc
cured few poles for supports some
times from a nearby river bank, but
more often from some dealer farther
away. and then. cutting sod from the
great prairie all around, laid the squares
brick fashion until walls were made. The
roof was made of like material, and
when the primitive dwelling was set close
i'm the side of the hill, flowers often grew
over the roof and walls, and other
boomers have driven across the dug-out
overhead never dreaming they were near
civilization until some irate householder
appeared, gun in hand, to warn them
of
On an old Western trail leading from
Meade to Beaver is deserted village that
had only sod houses in il. The ruins Of
the hotel show that It once stood one and
one-fourth stories high, and measured
twenty by forty feet. The halfway house
on the road from Vernon to Mangum,
Tex. was, only so late as twenty years
ago. a fOurishing institution whose guests
were entertained behind sod walls that
guarded the front of an unmistakable
dugout. The sleeping accommodations
consisted of six beds in two rows on the
back wall, and the race for these went
10 the swift and the strong. Dodge City
Tex, for a long while boosted many odd
houses Of sod or canvas or cheap wood,
harboring queer types of humanity and
Offering a checkered career 10 its citizens.
who too often went into eternal sod
homes in Boot Hill Cemetery o-Caled
because its inmates had nearly all died
with their boots on
There are three unique homes still
standing in the Northwest that prove
the ingenuity Of the pioneer. One Of
these is built of beer barrels, standing on
end in rows. and has roof matched with
straw. Another is of empty bottles. laid
fiat one on the other with a daubing OF
clay between. while the third is the same
material Of which Mrs Wigs made her
roof in happy Cabbage Patch days. It Is
of tin cans that have been spread fat
after the solder was melted, and painstak-
ingly tackled 20 Uprights Blankets for
doors and pettiCoats for window sashes
TeVOluti0niZed architecture to a certain
extent when these houses were made, but
they served the purpose, and no odds
were asked. Chinese citizens Of boom
towns in the West have once or twice
gone their white neighbOrs one better in
ingenuity and more than one 'fTst-class
laundry has been found running success
fully in a shack built Of tin cans which
were left intact as when collected from
some friendly ash heap. except that each
was filed with dirt and clay was spread
between as they were laid in rows side
ways on each other,
Burrowing in the ground is not a new
idea anywhere in home-making. as one
may also see from Madame Waddington's
"reminiscences Of her life In France. when
she speaks of the beggars there. For
years a negro lived almost i'm sight Of
Baltimore in a hole he had dug in the
ground, the smoke getting out as best il
could when he pulled his trap door over
him and set about cooking. The air
would have killed a less hardy being
He was finally persuaded to move. on
the Santa Cruz Islands of the coast of
santa Barbara. another digger in the
earth has lived for seventeen years. This
one IS a white man, who tired Of civiliza-
tion, and, utilizing a half excavated de-
preston in cliff, boxed Up the front and
made really home-like place His natu-
raj roof is directly under public road
way. though few who drive over know n.
Freight cars have developed marvellous
possibilities when the homeseeker has
been hard pressed. An employee OF the
Union Pacific lived in one for twelve
years, being carried from place to place
as his work demanded. When the great