The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1911-03-09
SEES THE WORLD AND
PICKS HOOD RIVER

to dig up potatoes?
If you were a rich mans son, jus
out of college, with all your father
friends thrusting opportunities at you
would you turn from the offer of
silk-hned position in a palatlal sky
scraper to weed onions and thin beet
in an obscure western valley?
= Foolish questions? Not bit of it
Ask Christopher Greene, son of tn,
wealthy Rhode Island cotton manufac
turer, William C. Greene, who will tel
you how he has been all over tn,
United States and a good part O
Europe on nothing, to make hi
fortune.
Two years ago Greene graduated
from Brown university.
Il started west" said Mr.. Greene
by going to Europe in cattle boat
And let me tell you, for amusement
excitement and adventure it has thu
Lusitania and Mauretania stung go
ing and coming.
81 wasn't interested in Paris.
went to Normandy. Then | went t.
England, scotland, Wales, Italy, Ger
many and back to the Pacific coast
That's good way to go west.
my trip abroad hadn't cost much
I'd worked my way over and back an(
| had some money left.
''In Portland | heard there was ;
chance in the Mojave desert to do 1
little reclaiming from the desert.
"They give you a tract of land and 9
slight income if you want to start
settlement there. hoped onto {
freight train that was going from Port
land to southern California and founC
about forty 'boes all travelling in the
'side-door pullman with me. There
were two women also. We made the
run-or rather the drag in about foul
days. | and another 'bo' who was
travelling to the desert hoed off the
freight and landed in a big cactus
plant.
1--WE stayed seven months in the
desert. 1t wasn't so bad. We liveC
in a shack and didn't get much to eat
but canned stuff. But the government
was satisfied that we were trying t(
reclaim the land.
About that time found out just il
what way wanted to make my for
tune. | got hit with the fruit-raisinl
proposition, so | left the desert, tool
a freight to the Sarrento valley anC
worked two months for big sugar
company, bossing gangs of Greeks
Hindus and Japs, and thinning anC
hoeing Deets.
"The only women I'd seen since
left Portland were the Hindu womer
that worked in the fields with US, anC
you couldn't tell them from the men,
Both men and women wore about si>
feet of cloth twisted around theil
heads, and half the time you'd be
swearing at lady that you thought
was man.
Zone morning missed a particularly
good workman from the fields, anC
inquiry revealed that she was home
taking care Of her new baby that had
been born few hours before.
81 picked up a sort of working
knowledge of Japanese and Hindu anC
of course my classical studies at Brown
helped me with the Greeks. But
Sarrento was a miserable country; il
grew monotonous, and | thought Ia
better take my savings and go along.
went back to Portland on the boat,
was there several days and went broke.
| found | had to get job quick, but
the city didn't yield the same luxurious
opportunities as the country. | nearly
starved to death until | picked up a
job wedding onions for market
gardener. He took me for one month,
but because | turned out a better
worker than he expected, kept me two.
| had to give up finally. He gave me
$35 a month and board.
THE board nearly killed me and left.
With my $40 | rode the cushions like
a prince to Ellensburg, in the Kittitas
valley, where | worked two months
with a haying crew. Then heard OF
an Indian reservation in Spokane,
where they were giving out land.
81 left the valley, took a 'side-door
pullman again to the Coeur d'Alene
reservation. When we reached the
reservation we found out that already
there were 1856, 600 applicants for the
800 pieces of land.
"I'll never forget the crowds of
men, women and children who saw
their la st hope for a home of their own
vanish when they discovered they had
drawn blanks. | drew a blank and
paid my last cent for a ticket to Bitter
Root valley, where ] found. a number
of college friends engaged in an orch
ard development scheme. worked
two months picking rock from the
orchards. There were some real girls
working there, but it wasn't a bit
romantic.
"I learned, though, how much men
miss the comforts of home life. Why,
woman is worth hundred barrels of
apples out there.
~ quit that job and got another
with an apple picking crew. Then
worked for ten days picking potatoes
for bill Williams, the famous Yale
third baseman and an American hockey
player. After that | left Bitter Root
valley with an old Norwegian giant, a
snake hunter and a Wisconsin univer-
sity man and went up into the mount
aims to hunt. We lived in a cabin or
the top of the mountain, and wher
Thanksgiving day dawned we sat doWr
to a dinner of two hunks of bacon anC
piece of homemade cornbread.
killed one rabbit and two grouse in one
month.
"Stayed up in the mountains two
months, until it got cold as the hinges,
and then went down into a town ffteer
miles away and got job saving anC
splitting wood. | went down into the
Willamette valley and attended the six
weeks snort course in horticulture at
the Oregon Agricultural College.
"Then | went to Hood River, Ore
gon. That is the ,garden Spot of the
world, barring the fact that there
aren't any girls there. got a jot
with a bearing apple orchard that
yields 10000 boxes of apples from only
twenty-five acres. 1t is the finest
place in America for apple raising
| have been out there nearly a yeal
now and I've saved almost enough
money to buy an orchard.
"In another six months III have
earned enough to buy it. thought
perhaps I'd look aroundiand see how