Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1914-04-11

make out the outlines of what ap-
peared to be fine modern dwelling
house. 1t proved to be just that. 1t
was Eastgate ranch, Nevada, owned by
a Mr.. Williams and furnished in as
fine style as any well to do mans
home in any part of the country. The
house was dark and quiet and all the
noise we made failed to arouse the
inmates. One of our party tells how
we got in, in this story:
81 knocked and received no answer.
| tried two different outside doors. /
called softly. No answer. | tried the
door knob and found that the latch
was not locked. | gently opened the
door and as no sound came from with
in, stepped into the room, expecting
every moment to be challenged for a
burglar or shot at. | was in dining
room and | could see an oil lamp chan
delier over table covered with nice
white table cloth. lighted an oil lamp
and saw a sitting room on my right.
Two doors led out of the dining room.
One led, / discovered, to the kitchen,
the other TO bedroom. 1t was occupied
by strangers like ourselves and in re-
Spouse to my inquiry, they sleepily
whispered that the owner was not at
home and the keeper slept in an old
log house in the rear. | then called
our party"
We took possession by right of dis
covery and found one bed room for
the ladies. All the others were occu-
pied, to the five men in our two
groups, slept on the floor of the up
to-date sitting room, with mission
chair cushions for our pillows, brus-
sells carpets for our sheets and our
own trusty woolen blankets for our
coverings 1t wasn't so bad after all |!
We were up at $3.50 the next morn
in, Tuesday, September 10, and the
welcome aroma of good coffee greeted
our nostrils as we shifted the keen
morning air. Yhe young Spanish chef
had prepared a breakfast for us all and
that coffee tasted just about as good
as anything we found to drink on our
trip. Our Waterloo friends had ar
rived hours and hours before we did
and we did not know they were quar-
tered at the ranch until breakfast
time the next morning. We paid the
young Spaniard $3.50 for the privilege
of sleeping on the floor and the fine
coffee, and were thankful that he had
not come after us with a shotgun.
We got under way at 7 o'clock and
for 80 miles we plowed through some
of the worst roads of the trip-sand,
ruts hills and punctures bothered us all
the morning, but we arrived at Fail
lon. Nevada, at lunch time. The
roads here are made dOubly poor by
the tremendous amount of wagon
Il -, III
wagons loaded with all kinds of
freight are hauled through this rail
roadless country by teams of from six
to sixteen horses or mules or both. 1t
is quite interesting to see the drivers
of these teams handle them. They
have on horse of the front pair trained
so thoroughly that he acts as a leader
for all the rest One rope line is at
tached to the leaders bride and by
means of this line the driver, who sits
way back on the wagon, guides and
chides the gang. Slow, patient, plod-
ding progress is made, and the eX-
pense of getting goods into the re-
hottest parts is considerable. That is
why gas is 81 cents a gallon in some
of the desolate sections.
Before arriving at Fallon, we met
curiosity in the shape of freak
preacher, who with his wife and baby
were travelling around the world. The
mans name is J. W. Bryant. He had
started from Wewaka, Oklahoma, on
October II, 1908. They crossed the
country to Philadelphia and went
from there to London, through
France, Italy, Egypt. Arabia, Syria,
Turkey, Persia, India, China, Japan
and back to San Fransico, where they
landed in February, 1911. They were
making their way back to Oklahoma
in big Winton car rugged up like
a prairie schooner. They started on
their trip with one dollar each and
looked as though that was all they
had had in the four years. Their
car was stuck in the sand and the man
was on his way to the nearest ranch
house to get horses to pull the car
out. We bought a book of them
which purported TO give the history of
their travels. Bryant claimed they
had walked 1000 miles, travelled over
land i'm vehicles Of various descrip
tons 5000 miles, and over water 90
900 miles. He was a man of just fair
beared, and worn to a
fragile. His clothes were poor, hut
his spirit was cheerful and optimistic.
The woman was quiet and modest.
Painted on the canvas covering their
car were crude representations of the
preachers dreams. visions and revela-
tons he claimed to have received di-
rect from God.
After we left them we wondered if
he wasn't freak fakis, who took
that method of getting a living with
out working, but we have never been
able to decide the question.
AS we neared Reno we could dis
Germ that we were getting into some
sort of civilization. We had reached
the section traversed by the Union
Pacific railroad and followed that line
for miles. The day had been
warmer one than we had experienced
for some time and we found that we
were in lower altitude. We had no
need of overcoats.
Near Wadsworth, Nevada, we ran
into some nicely irrigated farm lands
and from that point on to Reno was
drive that showed us more of that
picturesque beauty which has made