The Harrison times., 1911-02-04
Touring The Far West.

is within itself the only apology
that submit for the favor asked.
| have Travelled far from you, but
not once have ! missed or forgotten
a single face that for me once gave
smile
Something over a month ago /
had nv feet frozen and went to
Spokane TO the Sacred Heart Hos
pital for treatment; after spending
an hour or two with my attendants,
| was asked to register, and ! put
it true to life and wrote, ." H. Der
rieux, Harrison, AK" The Doctor
said, is that true" said, "You
bet, and am proud to write it that
way" He said, "Proud,' and |
said in echo, Yes proud, why not"
| continued Il have two babies
born and one buried in Arkansas
and to me her soil is sacred" Now
| am going to tell you a few things
and want you to pay me the respect
of attention. Probably the people
of Arkansas would be the grandest
autocra,s on this globe if they only
knew what Others know of them.
You talk about Arkansas hills and
rocks, but let me tell it. The fam
ous Yakima Valley whose fruit took
all kinds of ribbons at Chicago
Fair of this fall, is a dry arid region
of sage brush, broken and hilly and
redeemed only by a costly system
of Irrigation. The Great Northern
Railroad penetrates the fruit belt
and transportation is enormous
over this line in hauling soil in which
those trees are planted after the
ground has been broken by dyna-
mite. This is a hard story but a
fact ind,sputable.
Yakima Valley is 200 miles north
of Spokane, The Wenachee fruit
belt is also north of Spokane, while
the Palouse district is 100 miles
south of Spokane, and her topog-
raphy is such that even a Newton
county agriculturist would wonder
how on earth the Palouse farmer
could ever harvest his crop. The
hills are so steep and the titles so
crooked that many a we'll meaning
abstractor has become hopelessly
insane irving to dissolve the prob
lem of ownership.
A good many years ago one OF
these torpedo, copper rivited, galvan-
lied liars told me that sweet pota-
toes grew wild in Washington and
Oregon, and much larger and sweet
er ones than we grew in Arkansas
with some labor. Well, entered
Oregon As miles north of Mt. Shas-
ia, California; went out of Oregon
at Vasnti north of Portland; |
Travelled through Washington from
Vashti to Billingham on the North
Sea Coast. kept that good eye
open all the time but never saw
a sweet potato as sweet as sweet
potatoes are in sweet old Arkansaw,
nor did | see a single vine of any
kind that looked as though beneath
it grew sweet potato halt as sweet
as sweet potatoes are in good old
Arkansaw.
! do not wish my friends of these
columns to think that | am giving
them the benefit of information tax
en- from Pullman's observation win
dows for have obtained from
other and more drastic positions of
view the pictures am now giving
Many times during the Q months
since | left YOU in search of vaster
fields ! have stole up through the
alfalfa patch and stroked the back
door with the moist brim of my
derby and asked the lady who is to
solve the servant problem the near
est way to the stone wood mint. "
And with that smile that has fed me
hity-two wears asked her in these
words, "Dearie is there Just a slab
of mince, or even a pie of your own
build that could be spared without
price and whose going would not
interfere with our relations in nat
ional way" This speech always
gets pie no matter where the ap.
phcation is made, Tell Brack Rob
nson and Joe Keef to keep this in
view. During the holidays made
short trip that took me out near
Nelson b. { and as we pulled into
a snowdrift at n little station near
the foot of the Cascade, the conduct
or informed the passengers that
midnight lunch would be served at
the blue tail restaurant across the
street at the astonishing sacrince OF
80 cents each, snow shoes furnished
FREQ in yvhiph tp CROSS the Strppt