Mountain Home maverick. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1906-1911, 1911-07-27

ever new. ! know this because peo-
pie who have once received passes
rarely fall to come back. and new ap-
plicants are showing up all the time.
But the subject really is an old one.
older than the pyramids, older than
Mark Bates Of Parma. more numerous
in its ramifcations than the sands
of the sea or the children or James
H. Wallis.
SO ] shall not attempt 10 cover my
assignment tonight with the thor
oughness it merits. will. on the
other hand, merely leap lightly from
pinnacle to pinnacle among the SER
ried crags that iut above the horizon
line of history. leaving the valleys to
be explored by ADLER, more expert
enced students than myself
Let us go back to the beginning.
We are told that one of the lesser
prophets was once upon a time com
manded to go upon a journey He
didn't want to make that particular
trip so he undertook another way of
lodging He slipped quietly over to
Joppa and found there a ship just
ready to sail for Tarshish. Tarsh-
ish looked good to him, and, accord
ing to the chronicler:
HE paid the fare thereof ami went
down into the ship Kindly note
that he paid his fare. Perhaps cash
VALUATION. This is the first instance
I have been able to find. after dill
igent search. OF the payment Of fare.
OF course it was bad precedent to
establish. as subsequent events prov
ed. For, when the storm arose and
the waves rolled high, the sailors
began to look around for an offering
to the god of the tempest. What more
natural than the selection OF the man
who had paid his fare? SO oversize
Mr.. Jonah was tossed, and straight
way the sea became calm.
For many years prior to my advent
into the railroad business I wondered
how Jonah happened to be selected
out of all the ships passengers as
the goat" The problem is simple
4 enough now He was a natural born
goat" because he paid his fare. The
record does not show whether or not
Jonah ever secured a refund on his
unusued transportation. ] am in
clined to think he applied to the gen.
eral passenger agent Of the Joppa-
Tarshish Navigation company for 1t
and that some clerk is still trying to
figure out what per cent Of the jour
ney the son of Amittai made in the
ship and what part in the whale. He
didn't last so very long in either Of
them.
A little farther along in the his
tory of this vale of tears fini album
dant justification for the issuance of
any and all transportation to mem
bers Of the Western Ida. Press associ-
alton. For does not old Zachariah
say. rising in his place: Behold
have caused the wicked pass" Hum
bly, following his example I stand
ready to pass you wicked anywhere,
any within. of course, some
time limits that didn't bind Zach
ariah, because he lived in the good
old days before the interstate com
merce commission was created.
And yet there must have been some
premcnition even in those early days
that an interstate commerce commits
sion would be created. Did not our
old friend jeremiah, of whose justly
celebrated lamentations some of you
perhaps. may have heard. have in
mind the territory between Parma
and Payette when he spoke of "the
land through which no man passeth
But that condition may not Away!
I prevail. At the earnest solicitation OF
your highly esteemed president, Mr.
Hackney, am planning tC
annex to Idaho all of that portion o.
Oregon now reached by the Oregon
Short Line railroad. If that plar
falls through I will be glad to move
the tracks to the east side of Snake
river and accomplish the same re
suit.
1t would be work of superogatioI
for me to urge you gentlemen of th'
Western Idaho Press association no
to make Jonahs out Of yourselves b!
paying fare, except when 1t is abso
lutely necessary. There isn't thu
. slightest chance for you to do It a
long as there are passes for anybod.
in this world-or the next. You ma.