The Harrison times., 1911-02-25
In the Far West
Editor Times

TO Wrlte. certainly no ClllON VIII
ling to the TINES as this is the best
method have of reaching many OF
my old Arkansas friends.
| When ! was in Arkansas ! boosted
the State all ! could, and | would
not say one word, if knew il, that
would cast reflection upon that
good old state; | believe it is one OF
the best states of the Union. We all
have our ideas and notlons; but if !
owned the Beaver State would not
exchange it for the Bear State. |
am always inclined TO want to
boost the state in which reside.
| must next tell you of my ram
blings over the far West
In previous letters | have written
you of my first stop at Gooding,
Idaho and my ranch work there;
my stop at Weiser, Idaho and my
railroadng at Huntington, Oregon,
for three months.
then decided | was better adapt
ed to the school room than the
freight Office.
I\August 3lst, 1910, about I p. m,
my,wife, two children and | boarded
a west bound train for Kingston,
western Oregon | have never been
on a westbound train vet that was
mot badly crowded, so YOU have an
idea about how well we enjoyed
ourselves that night, Sometime
near daylight we secured comfort
able seats and were ready at day
light to view the beautiful scenery
on the Columbia River, which we
were nearing. All the forenoon we
followed the downward course OF
the Columbia, which has on its
banks the most beautiful scenery |
ever beheld.
About | p. m. we arrived at Port
Hand, which is located on the
| willamette River about ten miles
above it's mouth. We changed cars
here and left on a Southern Pacific
train about 3 p m. the same dav;
and arrived at Albany after dark,
where we were to change cars again.
We were loaded down with grips,
wraps and children.
To our surprise, we soon learned
that we must stay in Albany until
Is o'clock on the next morn
ing. The next thing in order was TO
find lodging. To our surprise, we
found no rooming house close, and
the street cars and all means OF
transportation were gone except to
90 float back We succeeded in
getting the oldest child to walk
who soon led the way along that
dark street Finally, almost ex-
hausted, we came to roomlng
house and the proprietor told us he
had no unoccupied room, hut he
would help us to a rooming house,
and we went to several before we
found a vacant room. We took a
view of a part of the beautiful city
of Albany the next morning and de-
parted at 8 a. m arriving at King
ston, Oregon about 10 a. m on the
same day.
We were soon at the home of one
of our uncles, who told me he
thought was not too late to secure
a school in Linn county. ! soon did
so and began teaching September
Goth, and am still teaching at the
same place. | like to teach in Ore
gon very we'll Wages are not much
better here for teaching than in Ark
ansas On an average the school
houses are better equipped here
There is a compulsory school law
here, but it is not a good one, and
not very well enforced. We need a
compulsory school law that will
compel parents to send their child
rem every day unless they have a
good excuse.
! should have written this sooner,
but because of work and sickness
and other unavoidable crcum-
stances | did not have time. ] took
dinner at a restaurant, and there
were a few words passed between
myself and a gentleman sitting by
my side, and soon he exclaimed
"You are from the South are you
not?" answered Sure What
caused YOU to think was from the
South" He answered "You look as
though you were Southerner!'
! asked him what state he thought !
was from, and he guessed "Mississ-
ippi" told him he wasn't a good
guesser, but | may have been mis-
taken, and that 1 was from the