The news=record. [volume] (Enterprise, Wallowa County, Oregon) 1907-1910, 1908-08-13
EVENTS OF NORTH
COUNTRY TRAVELS
JOYS AND WOES OF ACCOMPANY.
ING THE MlGHTY-HOSPlTA-
BILE PEOPLE.
Continued from last week. J

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try and especially partaking of the
kindly hospitality of the people, in
company with a high and mighty
county commissioner has an awfully
depressing effect on ones bump OF
self-esteem. We are content to play
second fiddle, the position nature and
our extreme modesty intend us tc
occupy, but to have oar insignificance
rubbed in is going too far. We gave
Sam Litch fair warning that
his misdeeds would be made public ;
that we would tell how he monopo
lized the spotlight; how he insisted
on all the choicest tid-bits for him
self and then would accuse us at the
next place we stopped of doing the
bulk of the eating; how he would
recklessly trot the horses down Troy
hill when we were on the down-side
and how careful he walked them
when HE was on the downside. All
this he did and much more, but we
forgave him the half of it when we
got through the splendid dinner al
Peter Ficker's. You will understand
why when we tell you that Peter
Flicker, the Troy postmaster, hasn't
any use for editors. Why we don
know but we found it out last win
ter when we visited Mr.. Flicker jus.
after Jack Kerns and Ben Weathers
had stayed all night with him. He
pretends to think that editors sci
dom tell the TRUTH but just why
Flicker objects to that is not clear
unless it is he objects to competi
tion. And Sam Litch, aided ant
abetted by w. G. Locke, was re
sponsible for that grand dinner al
Ffcker's, and poor editor woult
never have partaken of it if he hat
not been in distinguished company.
Everything considered, it was
worth playing second fiddle to basil
in the reflected glory of Litch Anf
partake in our humble and sparInr'
way of the meals prepared for him
For we were treated something gor
geous, as old man Enright would say.
We stopped to see the fine, big new
barn Dale Estes is building and he
took us out into his peach orchard
where we could get better view OF
his cornfield, and he didn't have to
urge us overmuch to sample his lus-
cious peaches, nor to fill our pockets
with them. Estes sure has nice
place along the Grande Ronde river
just below Troy, and he raises every
thing the heart could desire-frui
of all kinds, grapes, peaches, pears
apples, melons, apricots, even al
monds and walnuts. The latter arc
all right for those who like then
but as for us we think they are over
rich for the ordinary stomach. A
least we found them so after sampl
ing a quart or two. They were the
first we had seen since we left the
East-is our only excuse.
People who never were at Grouse
can form no idea of the beautiful
farms up on the benches, like Ever
Richman's and George d. Boston's
There are no cozier, prettier farm
homes in all this big county, ant
as for crops-well 1t won't do to
tell; 1t would sound too much like
Peter Flicker story. All the grains
that thrive in this valley grow to per
fectiOn there, and in addition there
Is corn that would make an IowaD
HON esick. And the fruit--well the
day is coming when the fame OF
Hood River and Wenatchee will be
as candle In the glory af the
Grouse sun. Now, except for home
use, the fruit Is hardly known. Mr.
Boston, after supplying the family
wants, those Of many nelghbors and
filling Sam Litchs hack, had from
1900 to 1900 pounds of the largest
and finest Bing cherries we eveI
saw, left on his young trees. How
ever Mr.. Boston Is forehande ed man
and has drier, In which his surplus
prunes, cherries, etc, will be pre-
pared for market For you must
know, market to all that fine coun
try is 60 miles away over mountain
roads. But 1t will not always be so
Even now there are road petitions
preparing that would bring Grouse
within As miles Of this valley over a
good road. And some day there's
going to be a railroad down the
Grande Ronde, or the Little Sal
mon, or both, and then that country
will come into her own. And every
owner Of 40 acres of Il will be inde
pendent.
Forty-eight new lock boxes are