The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1909-09-23

the sand dunes woke up and got busy.
They found that house aud pro-
ceeded to toy with it. The wind
whipped the yellow sand until it
went flying against that doomed
house. In a week it was as bare of
paint as an actress after a TUrkish
bath. Then the asnd got ashamed Of
1t and began TO bury it, 1t made a
fine object tor the wind to whip .he
sand around and drop such of its
load as 1t was weary ot playing with.
In two weeks that hotel looked ike a
dugout in hillside One gable was
buried, the others only visible above
the bottom OF the upper story win.
dows. The misguided and disguised
owner bad moved out long before,
and made bee line for Indiana,
whence be came, p eferring the solid
ity of the qusgmire, the sibilant song
of "Down Gu the Wabash" hum
med in continuous vaudeville by the
mosquito, aud the "shake" three
times week, and every other Sun
day, to that softly Whispering ever
moving, resistless, ubiquitous sand.
lie sold the house for a song, and let
the wind sing that; aud inside of a
month the wind changed, and the
house blew out, again as good as ever,
only 1t was shy on paint.
The new owner was man of re.
sources, and stsyer. He put wheels
OH his cook stove and heavy turni.
ture, and stayed wit" it. IL the sand
p led up too thick, be hltched onto
his stuff, dragged it out and oamped
in Biggs' canyon until the wind
changed and blew the house out again.
The traveller who visited Sherman
County never knew whether there was
hotel al Biggs or not, that is, he
never knew Of it was alive and run
ming, dead aud buried; it all de,
pended on the wiud. Its bill OF fare
bore the notice" weather permitting. y"
The we'll was driven CDe, some
times 1t was Is feet deep, sometimes
1t was sixty. II was made of two inch
pipe and screwed together in six foot
sections AS the sand piled up, a
section of pipe was screwed on and
the we'll was six fest deeper. When
the place was abandoned the we'll
would be a minus whole, and when it
was time to move back the we'll would
be sticking up in the air 30 or 40 feet
and would have to be unscrewed and
lowered.
The telegraph lines, one would think
we're safe from these little busy grains
OF sand, but there was nothing too
high for it to tackle.
The drifts piled up and up, about
them, always leaving an encourage
ing little hole, or depression around
Jue puIo os tuousu bnoy WoAo bSAn6
to leave it, but they we're only iok
ing, and directly the sand was up to
the saggiDg wires. Other pt les were
spIiced on to the first and the wires
raised, but still the sand tenacious
of purpose of principle climed after
them. This meant more poles, and
there the joke came in. The wind
would change and try GROSS section
survey for a while. Then the wires
would have to come down. There was
a gang of li1emen busy all the time,
like a contractor on newly paved
street, either continually taking
something up or putting something
down.
That is the kind OF place Biggs
was 1t was named after W. II. Biggs,
one of the Huest, big hearted old men
that ever encouraged bull team
across the plains with cheering, even
though somewhat italicised language.
Biggs was Aver, and ne told the
writer that If he had known water
would run down hill, or if the balance
of the gang had known enough to
have told MIN, they would all have
been millionaiIes. He said they dug
the gravel upon the bars. packed 1t to
the river, dipped up water with can
and rocked out a yard OF dirt in a
day, when if they had turned the
stream over the bar 1t would have all
washed away while they we're getting
a drink.
Maybe 1t was on account OF bis
name that the town of Biggs acted
this way. Biggs was too good man,
too much of d slayer, to have that
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