The Pioche record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1908-1925, 1914-04-18

William Allen White made himself
famous by replying to his own query,
What's the Matter With Kansas"
that what Kansas needed was to raise
more corn and less hell. A great
many people have asked, from time to
time, whats the matter with Pr
oche?" While 1t Is contrary to good
publicity policy to take much notice
of such a question, the present
writer is moved not by any hope of
elevating himself to place in the
hall of fame alongside the corpulent
genius from the Sunflower state, but
rather by a simple regard for the
truth. as 1t impresses itself on the
casual visitor to Phoebe, to remark
that the principal ailment from which
Phoebe Is suffering Is arrangement
OF It's forgettery. Phoebe remembers
too much and too much neglects the
opportunities of the present day.
1t has been a labor of love on the
part of the Records Publicity man
to search with diligence through the
annals of past days OF this wonderful
camp. They have been recorded, not
only in the living memories Of the
''old-timers," whose gracious pres
ence. still lingering, confers upon the
activities of the younger generation a
certain venerable benediction, but also
in vivid words inscribing many page
that deserves to rank as real litera
ture. The work of Colonel Abbott in
searching out and giving literary form
to the story of old Phoebe remains,
and will not quickly perish. 1t dis
plays a painstaking care and a sense
of historical proportion adequate to
any cause. Whatever reference may
was for the most part nothing more
than re-telling of what Colonel Alb
bolt has already told, and is not a
whit better for being cast in a slightly
different mold. We have chosen to
offer the public repetition in our
own words Of the facts already re-
corded. rather than reprint of the
record itself. because we think it Is
not just, either to Colonel Abbott or
our readers. to shirk the duty of max
ing his story our own.
Yet we wish this historical feature
TO be. in this publicity edition, subor
dinate to the larger interests of the
new Phoebe. The past Is of value only
as 1t throws light upon the problems
of the present and the hope of the
future, To that extent We give 1t
space. But we fear the impression has
gone abroad that Phoebe is worthy OF
notice because 1t was a theatre of ac-
ton for picturesque people in uncon-
ventional times, and not because it is
now, in this year Of 1914. the store
house in which are accumulated, wait
ing for release through intelligent ex-
ploitation. some of the richest and
most extensive deposits of valuable
metals within the confines of the
United States. The history of Phoebe
resolves itself into an explanation why
1t is that camp whose values are
known to lie heavy end down was
ever allowed to remain dormant
through a period of years, at a stage
OF development in which 1t might be
fairly said that the main body OF
those values had just been reached.
And that explanation reveals, in part
the shame, and in part the misfortune
of Phoebe.
Victim Of Rascality.
-Four words. three used in a posi-
tive and one in negative sense, CON-
prise the situation as in nut she'll:
Speculation, manipulation. litigation,
transportation, Phoebe has been
wounded in the house of its friends,
1t has reeled and tottered under epoch
making rascalities at the hands OF
men--not of its own mothering-
whom 1t has trusted and honored. 1t
has been spared nothing which the
effrontery of brazen outlawry or the
refined genius of legal obscurantism
could devise to cripple II, For thirty
years It cried out to the world Of
capital to which its best possessions
were hypothecated to give 1t a rail-
road and fair chance, and then let
It alone to work out its own natural
destiny yet until very recent date
the men who could have given these
things. to their own immense profit,
ignored the cry, and used Phoebe as a
pawn In the very uhiorent sauo
which they preferred to play. They
found it so much more interesting to
work the public and one another than
TO work the mines, that the honest
money which their Phoebe interests
offered them in return for honest de
velopment seemed. to their perverted
view, tainted and furnished by com
parison with the smaller and precar'
fous gain accruing from wicked ma
nipulation.