Polk County observer. (Monmouth, Polk County, Or.) 1888-1927, 1908-11-06
SOME RAMBLING THOUGHTS
Notes By the Way From the Former
Editor of the Polk County
Observer.


you will not find it on any map. You
will search the railway folder in vain
for it, and there is not the slightest
use in looking for it In your Tourists
Guide. Where is WolfvilleP Why
its where Doc Peets used to live-and
Dave Tut, and Old Man Enright, and
Dan Boggs. But it isn't known as
Wolfville now.. Only the initiated can
give you its exact location-and the
initiated are those fortunate readers
who have enjoyed the inimitable tales
Of the Old Cattleman, as re-told by
that prince of frontier humorists-Al-
fred Henry Lewis. Thousands of
American readers know where it is, so
l am violating no confidence when l
tell you that Wolfville is in Arizona
not a thousand miles from Tucson.
And it's neighbor town is Red Dogi
No, the Wolfville of today Is not the
Wolfville OF quarter OF century
ago, and were the Old Cattleman to
revisit his ancient stamping-ground,
I fear that he would find few familiar
landmarks, and still fewer familiar
faces; for the Wolfville of twenty five
years ago was in every way typical of
class Of mining and cattle camps
that slowly, but surely, disappeared
before the steadily increasing tide of
immigration from the Eastern and
Middle States.
Were the Old Cattleman to drop into
Tucson today on his way to Wolfville,
he would seek in vain for Old Monte
and his ancient Concord stage-coach.
In their stead, he would find it neces-
sary to intrust himself to the tender
mercies of spooky looking individual
with goo-goo goggles, and a few
minutes later he would find himself
streaking it across the desert in one of
those ungodly contrivances of modern
ingenuity known as touring car,
with its 4O-horse-power engines fairly
eating up the long miles, and its
smelling g-to-heaven" odors sending
the jackrabbits and prairie dogs
scurrying to cover in all directions.
Pleasant anticipations OF feast Of
beans, salt-hoss and "air-tights" at
the 30. X. House" would be rudely
ended when he arrived and found
Mrs. Fuckers wellknown hostelry
transformed into a modern 100-room
hotel, with its electric elevators, its
lavishly furnished buffet and grill,
and its own imported Hungarian
orchestra, led and directed by Profes-
sor Dam of Amsterdam. Strolling
out to get 'little something" to cut the
prairie dust out Of his throat, he would
search in vain for the familiar sign
of the old "Redlight Saloon" and
would soon find his way, by unerring
instinct, into one OF the numerous
places with potted palms in the win
dows and half the electric lights In
town on the outside. Instead Of the
"New York Store" supplying the cow
boys and miners with only such staple
articles as hats, boots, clothing and
tobacco, he would find a half-dozen
department stores-those marvels OF
American commercial life, with stocks
of goods anticipating every personal
comfort and household need; with
armies OF uniformed salespeople, and
their abominable penny change"
system "Boot Hill Cemetery" he
would find converted into lawn ten
mis- court, and the mexican Dance
Hall" into a 1O-cent, moving picture
show. Where once the strangers"
dealt out justice, swift and sure, to the
hapless evil-doer, he would find the
more civilized" law court, with its
creeping machinery, its tedious and
expensive delays, and its pleas Of
moral degeneracy," emotional In
sanity" and "brainstorm. In short,
he would find Wolfville no longer a
frontier cattle camp, but a modern
American city, with its trolley cars,
electric lights, burdensome taxes, and
grating aldermen.
The Wild and Woody West-never
as wild, nor as woody, as the Eastern
story-writers would have had us be-
Levels a thing Of the past. Its days
have gone, never TO return. The Wild
West can nowhere be found in Amer
lea today. save within the enclosure
OF Buffalo Bills big show-and, as
Arthur Greene aptly remarked in a
recent number Of the Oregonian, it is
highly probable that a majority Of
Colonel Cody's cowboys and bronchO-
busters learned their stunts on some
vacant lot 10 South Chicagoi
The people Of the so-called desert
states, aided by the Federal Govern
ment are literally obeying the Divine
a-a...asf1- fraroarT rfuru No. mhar