Meade County news. [volume] (Meade, Kan.) 1900-1918, 1911-01-26

Editor, News,
Meade, Kansas.
Dear Sir:-It is possible that you might en-
Joy few lines from Meade county ''Prod-
igal' out in the state of Sunshine and Roses
and feasting sumptuously daily on the citrus
fruit of the land, for which we are very
thankful and are taking advantage of the OPP
portunity and trying to get filled up so we
can fast for time after returning to Meade.
WE'LL something of our trip coming out
last fall. We had very enjoyable trip,
landed here in due time and found our ac-
quaintances of last year glad TO welcome us
back again and if the chance of trying to
win us oyer to the state of sunshine and
roses land they have certainly some hard hits
for the east however they have had no eff
feet on the writer who is wenty-sx years
veteran'of Kansas.
We rented house, secured sufficient fur
niture for a bachelor and began keeping
house in the northwest part of Rialto Oct
ober I'll. The contractor whom worked for
last winter was soon in pursuit of me and as
a result have been in his service with saw
and hammer almost continuously ever since;
stopped long enough to gather oranges to
last few days.
On arriving we found crop conditions good
with fruit bringing high prices, which of
course makes times pretty good in that crop,
but it has been so dry that the hay crop for
the coming season will be almost a failure.
Only little over three inches of rain in the
last year until last Monday, the 9th. During
the past week have had good rains.
NJ L - ,,,J
has moved over by San Bernardino and few
weeks ago he traded his orange grove for
some farming lond near Hunt.
Nothing of much consequence has occurred
until the Aviation Meet at Los Angeles and
of course every body was excited over the
Bird Men and arrangements were made to
have one of the famous machines fly over the
valley to Salt City. On the day set long
before the time for his arrival here the house
tops were decorated with all the youngsters
of the town, "and the older ones were de
barred Time for his arrival came and no
bird man in sight. After some phoning it
was learned that he had lost his way and had
lit in vineyard thirteen miles west of here
and in so doing he came down close to ?
Mexican aborer who was pruning the vine
ldIu IL lllShlSuCN W NiitN llN lhlilSu
and fell over. The bird made an inquiry.
found out where he was and after making a
few preparations took to the heavens again
SCARED to the height of 1000 feet, made a
few circuits and took his line for Association
Park near San Bernardino where he was des-
tined to light and at 1890 p. M. we heard
the buzz and upon looking up we viewed our
first flying machine about 1000 feet high and
travelling at a rate of seventy miles per hour
1t was Curtis Bplane with an eight cylin-
der seventy horse power engine.
In the afternoon we all went over to the
park to See the bird man pull off few stunts,
He made ready and at $500 p. m. he started
his motor and made fly for short distance,
when conditions became unfavorable and he
suddenly lit at the expense of almost demo
ishing his machine but luck for him he was
not hurt, and so ended the great flight across
the country.
One bright morning last week Fred Nett
and myself thought we would take day
outing in the mountains, so at 6;3o a. m.
with lunch in our pockets and astride of a
bike we found ourselves enroute for the
mountains. We proceeded on our Journey to
Arrowhead ranch at the foot of the noun
tains and at this place the climbing of the
hill began and for several hours we walked
and pushed our bikes and at o:3o we found
ourselves at Switch Back, which is the steep
est part of the road, but we toied and sweat
and made a slow progress and at 1910 p. m.
we found ourselves at the top. We halted at
Strawberry Flat and ate our lunch which was
the best l ever ate, and partook of some
water which was fine. We made a few
tracks in the snow, then mounted our wheels
and started for Big Bear Valley, some twelve
miles distance over mountain roads, and at
2o'clock we pulled up at the big reservoir in
the Big Bear Valley. They are constructing
large dam there which shuts up a large
canon and will hold very large amount of
water which they will pipe back to San Ber
nardino Valley for irrigation purposes. The
cost of this irrigation plant will run into mil
lions of dollars. They have been working
on it for some four years and it will take sew
eral years longer to complete the work. as it
is necessary to tunnel through several noun
tains to get the water to the valley.
After making short investigation of the
dam and its construction at 2;3o p. m. we
Started back and at few minutes before sun
down we halted at Switch back and at this
point we found it necessary to get brush and
tie it to our wheels TO keep them from going
down hill too fast We did so and in short
time we were leaving cloud of dust to mark
our trail, so we sped down the mountain
Switch Back and in less than thirty minutes
we had made descent that it had taken us
hours to go up and few minutes after sun
down we were gliding along the streets of
San Bernardino, where we stopped for lunch.
1t was almost 7o'clock and we had covered
distance of some sixty miles; however we
had fine trip and it is worth any ones time
and effort to take it, for the country and the
view of the valley from an elevation of 6ooo
feet is fine.
Will have to cut this off and may give you
some more later.
e. II. Burford.