The Bon Homme County independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1904-1913, 1908-08-13
WHAT WAS SEEN
BY THE EDITORS
IN HILLS COUNTRY
Wonders and Beauties of Pres
ent Mingled With Prophecy
of the Future.

Just finished a 10 days. outing in the
Black HIIis, the Switzerland of Amer
lea" A description Of what they saw
would make q continuous story almost
ike Tennyson's Brook, flowing on for
ever"
They saw everywhere school house
yards, bare, t~reeless and u~ninviting, be-
cause school boards lack culture or
forethought. These Fairgrounds OF our
children, the cradles wherein are rocked
the makers OF history yet to be. Fu-
ture citizens whose hands will guide
the ship OF state and u h des-
tiny OF the nation in the next genera
ton. All these children planted as 1t
were In q desert, stunted In their love
for the beautiful. Dwarfed into the
belief that ~barrenness and sterility are
a necessary equivalent to an education.
Weakened to conform to the whitening
grace and shifting dust which is w
a part and parcel of their daily school
life.
They saw and enjoyed the great
plunge baths, whose warm crystal
waters dispel disease, prolong life and
gets heavy and the heart gets light.
Where the feet are wont to tread the
palaces OF the sky" while the head is
hunting clans at the bottom of the
pond.
impressive Scenery.
They rambled through Wind cave,
whose chambers are more artistically
chiseled than the tomb of any dead
deity Of Did. Whether In past ages,
some race, civilized beyond our present
dreams OF perfection, used these sub
terranean caverns in Which to train
their youth in color form md beauty,
certain it is that no painter has yet
lived, whose thought was SO inspired,
or hand so deftly trained as to place.
upon canvas, anything that would COM
pare with these m~atchless forms which
nature has here unfoided with such a
lavish hand.
They saw Sylvan lake among the
clouds, where the Storm King" drills
his subjects in battle array. Clouds
march n countermarch in solemn
grandeur and a the lightnings flash,
e~nveloping the beholder, peals of thun-
der seem to roll adown the mountain
side, like great boulders loosened from
the overhanging lodges. Here the Wis
itor breathes an air laden with me-
dicinal properties that quickly dispels
diseases like hay fever and kindred
kinds common in hot weather.
Railroads, a Dozen Deep.
They saw railroads In tiers of a doz-
cA AAOAA 1t6h. dDONS 6uTldCG WneTG
great trunkl lines carry freight and pas
sengers, to deep down in the earth
where the blind mule slowly drags his
ore car through a Shiny tunnel to the
hoist. They saw the greatest gold mill
In the world, with its myriad stamps
pounding away or rock seemingly as
worthless as common clay. Up and
down In creaking cages, whirred
through shaking hoists, these editors
went Or crawled like noisome toads
through tunnels and caverns, where
men moulded by long service, Injured
TO every hardship, like gnomes of old,
with a dull light and spectral tools,
drilled and blasted and picked the gold
bearing rocks, hundreds and thousands
OF feet beneath a city teeming with life
M luxuriating in the wealth drawn
from these mines In the bowels of the
earth.
High up over the mountain tops thew
were carried by the trains that Kissed
n crawled like serpents in devious
ways, through dark canyons and down
rocky gorges, decked with o~verhanging
eyergreens, while below was the rush
OF gurgling waters that shimmered
and glistened in the sunbeams. whose
waves impelled by the sportiye trout
lave the rocky beach.
They saw torrential streams flowing
from their mountain businesses that
when harnessed In the future are des-
tined to turn more wheels of COM
rnerce than are now operated in all that
part OF u state east OF the Missouri
river.
Second panama Ditch.D
They visited the big ditch" with it's.
30 miles OF main channel and more than
800 miles of l~aterals, but they failed to
realize that this area is certain to sup
port IN the future, a larger population
than Is at present contained In the
state. They saw and marveled at the
s~tupendous magnitude of this irrigation
project, Wondered at the millions of
dollars. recklessly expended SO far az
the q can. see, in order to revive an
apparently lffeless soil. To concede sue,
cess In this seeming chimerical under
taking Is to admit that we live In an
age OF wonderful achievement.
They saw alkaline lands. woefully
barren, dotted only with sage brush
and cactus. as u~ninviting to settlers as
the great Sahara desert. Yet when this
and Is touched with the magic wand
Of irrigation it is suddenly transformed
into an Eden-like garden, giving res
turns for outlay more than double hat
OF the best farms In the humid regions
They saw h prairie dog on his ma
tive heath. not unlike the Teddy bears
In Size and Righteousness, instead OF like
the st. Bernard or timber wolf, as an
ticipated. AE&
Wonderful Possibilities.
They saw cows Il countless numbers,
wandering unmilked Ger the plain,i
the precursors OF the wealth producing
dairy M creamery, which in time will
adorn every valley and shape the fu-
ture after its w civilizing ways.
They saw the sun baked desert on
one side of the Belle Fourche river,
while on the other side, under irriga-
ton, were tempting gardens, trees
loaded with fruit, n alfalfa fields, the
pride OF this region n the envy OF all
dairymen.
They saw innumerable shacks of the
grasshopper farmer. who with tent and
fishing rod expect to hold down a claim
n later TO sell out to some horny
handed % OF toll at a kingly figure.
Many OF these frail flowers from the
~overcrowded centers Of the East are
here for their health and their wealth,
but never have any intention Of In.
dulging In any real agriculture.
And IL the Vision OF these editors was
good, as they stood on an eminence
10 miles below the great Owl Craak