The Wenatchee daily world. [volume] (Wenatchee, Wash.) 1905-1971, 1910-05-28
SAW THE COMET Is
YEARS AGO
CEDAR CANYON MAN, AGED 95,
SAYS PRESENT COMET is
NOTHING BUT A "SKY HOBO"
BEEN WEST SINCE A BOY


ct, as / saw it this year, is regular
sky hobo compared to the brilliant
spectacle. accompanying its appear
ance Is years ago." said c. F.. Dia-
mond of Cedar Canyon, who is WIS.,
iting relatives in Spokane. He is
95 years of age, being born on May
9, 1915, on a farm in southern Him
OILS. He has lived in the west since
1852, first near Salt Lake, Utah, AMI
afterward prospected for gold in Cal
ifornia, Nevada. Arizona and Oregon.
He came to Washington Is years
ago.
81 remember seeing Halley's COM
ct in 1885," he said. ''It was a
grand spectacle on that occasion, its
tail extending long way across the
sky. It's present appearance does
not even family suggest it, and
guess it must be about worn out. In
1856, I think 1t was, / saw another
comet that was an even grander
spectacle. It's tail was SO long it
reached beyond the horizon.
my father was veteran of both
the Blackhawk and Mexican wars
and I guess it was from him l got
the notion of going to California. l
have never been back east since.
knew every mining camp and town
in California in the early days, and
farmed $40 acres IL miles from Los
Angeles, at a place called Ell Monte
for five years.
81 had a lawsuit over the land,
and sold out for fear I should lose it,
| am told that the land is now worth
$500 or more an acre. The whole
country between my farm and Los
Angeles was then a mesa, and man
could have got all he wanted of it
for pretty near nothing.
cat Jacksonville, Ore, with a
partner, | owned the richest placer
claim in the district. 1t paid US
each $500 a day. The gold was SO
coarse they called it slug-gold.
have prospected and mined all over
Arizona and Nevada.
81 never wore an article of cloth
ing bought in a store until / was 81
years of age and only few that
were made outside Of our own fam
lily. Neither did l ever have so
much as 25 cents in cash before that
time The last two years 1 was In
Illinois l worked two hired men on
our farm. Their wages were S. a
month. One of them got half his
pay in cash and the rest in store or
ders. The other man got all his
wages in store orders.
"Tea, coffee and sugar were lux
uries with us, obtainabie only In ex-
change for cash, which we did not
have, or furs. When we had them
at all they were served exclusively
for the old folks. / was grown
man before I more than tasted any
of them. Our clothes were home
made, and I did my share Of picking
cotton and carding wool and spin
ming and weaving them into cloth.
Gas a boy I made many trip to
neighbors to borrow fire brands.
matches, of course, being undreamt
of in those days. In the woods we
got a light with flint and steel and
a piece of punk. At home we had
spinning-wheel driving it so fast
that the flax tow. burst into flame,
thus furnishing means to light can
dies AMI fires
"Of course all that has changed
and with it has come better times.
am not one who longs for the good
old days. for we have better things
and more of them today than 1 ever
dreamed of when a young man, and
l believe, too, that the world Is grow
ing better and that the people as a
whole are trying to lead honest