Semi-weekly herald., 1914-04-20


the laborer seeking employment my
advice based ON close observation anc
exhaustive inquiry into the minutesi
detail is not to go west of Colorado
and under no circumstances west OF
Salt Lake City.
West from Salt Lake iCty for more
than five hundred miles is the Ne
vada desert, half days ride of the
distance is covered with alkali and
miles of it with water from one to a
few inches deep, veritable brine.
that to drink it would mean madness
and certain death to any living be-
ing. No living creature, not even the
vulture of the dry country was seen
to inhabit this destitute region, yet
we saw young men, not tramps, not
hoboes, but decent young fellows, who
had needed Horace Grceley's admoni-
tion, who had been among the hordes
Of the unemployed in California,
where they had gotten on as long as
their money lasted or as long as they
were willing to work for something
to eat, rick the horrors, even death,
by trying to beat their way ON the
trains across this stretch Of dead
earth, only to be evicted hundred
miles from Winnemucca and five hun
dred from Salt Lake City, the only
places resembling human habitation.
To the young man seeking to bet
ter his condition, or to even hunt a
job, l wish to say don't go unless you
have the job engaged in advance. Our
country, in comparison with the far
west, is full of opportunities. The
public domain of an inhabitable char
acter, west, is gone. Far up in the
mountains of California, we OCCASION
ally see place with some stock, and
garden patch, in a hermit-like way,
apparently existing. But there are
many such places now abandoned, and
anyway why go so far to endure pri-
vations, when equal, and better op-
portunities exist in our own noun
tains, not hundreds of miles removed
from civilization, and not where ev-
cry inch of available space has been
pre-emptied. High up in the noun
tains of southern California and west
ern Nevada are few inhabitable
small areas, but these are and have
long been inhabited, and are not OBJ
tainable, except at price that will
secure a desirable home elsewhere.
But we witness such things as the
desert and move on not knowing
whether they starve or find improba-
BILE succor. Just the day | was in
San Francisco, things moved on in
their usual strain, the individual for
getting that he is an intregal part
of the public polite, and as such,
and to that extent, personally re-
sponsibe for the public act. Although
that day the state did a legalized
murder, killed human being, took
something they could not restore, COM
mitted the only crime the state re-
serves to herself, the right to per-
pertrate, that she denies to the indi-
vidual. We are in degree barbara
Gus yet.
Strange thoughts will occupy the
mind when for many hours we gaze
upon this desert, with its lakes Of wa
ter, water in consistency, but not in
attributes, or the properties that rem
der water useful; then again in the
remote or near distance are other
lakes, a delusion, mirage, but ap-
parently real, to tempt the wanderer
on, who, after attempting to lave his
thirst by drinking the brine, goes
mad. We can not but contemplate
the remote future, when science says
the water shall all dry up, and the
| world become a dead world like the
moon now is, and like Mars is fast
becoming, we can see our civilization
gradually give way to condition that
/ once existed, and that some modern
sell CONSTITUTED auNanceu tneOTlSlS are
even now advocating-"the survival Of
the fittest"--as the water dries up,
the people congregate around the re-
naming water holes, the old bull,
through sheer brute force, crowds the
weaker back.
Is it not true that such condi-
ton is now becoming reality when
laws adopted in Vermont, Wisconsin,
and some other states, permit self
judged physically superior individual
to say that his neighbor, being his
physical inferior, shall be deprived Of
the rights conferred by nature
When such laws become general civ
ilization can, in few short genera
tions, disappear from the face Of the
earth, and brute force again rule.
We see in the southwest, every
where, evidences of a past civiliza-
ton; dense population; in some re-
spects, an inventive genius not yet
| rediscovarad What hacapa NJ tha