Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1914-09-16
IN VALLEY And MOUNTAIN
REFLECTIONS ON A SUMMERS
VACATION TRIP
California the BeautifuI-Home of
Millionaire and Hobo-Toward
the Summit of the Great
Divide"

Los M0LINOS, CALIFORNIA, August %.
FRIEND MUNsoN: We promised YOU
little sketch of our vacation trim
Well, here we are, six thousand feet
nearer the sky than you are. Wetrav-
eled many miles in the Sacramento Val
ley, and came up the Feather River
Canyon to Blairsden, to get the cool
mountain air for few days. One can
see the Sierra Neyadas best from the
saddle, and the Indian trail is the prin-
cipal highway, AS your days travel
unrolls you see many things. Quail
scuttle away, grouse boom solemnly on
the rigid limbs Of pines, deer vanish
through distant thickets, to appear on
still more distant ridges.
There is lot to be seen and ehjoyed
in mountain mile. Through the high
country two miles an hour is fair rate
of speed. Down in the gulch we make
our camp. 1t has been the home of
the miner, and long cradles for the sep
aration of gold. decayed rocks and some
of the old cabins still stand. High as
the camp may be, so it is not above
timber-line, IL is not too high for the
coyote, the bob cat, or the wolf.
There are many strange sorts of hui
mans in mining country, but of them
all found the prospector most accept
able, for his clean companionable talk.
he is easy-g0ing and good tempered,
yet as ready to fight as an old bear,
and you can never tel when he is going
to begin. The prospector is always
prospective millionaire. You meet him
on every highway and byway, and
where there is no way, in the noun
tains. The fascination isin the hazard
The spell SO binding is usually not that
of avarice, but lies in that delicious,
feverish, Intoxicating charm of chance.
Taking a stern Methodistic view of
mining, as now proceeding in the Feath-
er River Canyon, | should call prospect
ing game of chance, exciting, fascin-
ating, bewildering, which defrauds no
one but yourself.
In the foothills the deer hunters are
active, and most Of them successful
Down in the valley, it seems to be in
the open season for peaches, grapes,
prunes and hops. for they airs all being
harvested The Vina ranch, south OF
Los Molinos, will harvest ten thousand
tons of grapes that viii make one mill
lion gallons of wine. The four hon
yards around LosMolinoa, are now em-
ploying 800 men, women and children.
The greater part of the peach CROP
which was Unusually lacge this year,
has been shipped or dried, while the
prune harvest is just beginning.
The harvesting Of the five crops of
alfalfa is almost continuous .se:SSrn spring
to fall. It seems to hay4 tendency
to make the farmere wasteful. There
rs a sharp distinction made between
tired and retired farmers. Where ir-
rigation comes to the rescue there are
farms where the fruits, vegetables and
alfalfa grow abundantly, and where
hay stacks dot the landscape.
In travelling through the upper Sac
ramento 1t 10 not diff euit 70 get beyond
the free rural mail boxes, but the tele.
phone lines seem to run in every direc-
tion where there is grass and water.
They follow the stock range as well as
the farms and vineyards.
The influence Of the old Spanish land
grants has not been entirely obIiterated.
Perhaps the underlined thing which we
cannot understand about these vast
grants, is the secret of their great sue
cess combined with that of their total
failure. All things that were I,ot ex-
pected have come and all things that
were hoped for are gone. There seems
to be in the minds of some OF US tinge
of regret not that they are nearly gone,
but that they ever came.
There is an army Of day labore?s. each
carrying a roll of blankets, travelling
up and down this valley all the time.
just now many are going to the San
Joaquin Valley, the dry, alkali, the
jack-rabbit country, where the vast
orchards and vineyards are artificially
irrigated, where the sun 10 blazing hot,
the work hard, but the pay good. The
men march in groups that they mar
sing together At night their camp
fires light up the valley. The ranchers
and farmers are looking for them.
Every race and nation is represented
among the workers. There are Itali-
ans. Greeks, Frenchmen and Turks. to
whom the work is not new. The pee
pie of the Sacramento Valley are pros
porous because nearly every form OF
wealth produced Is near by. The pc
culiar climate has taught men to take
conditions as they find them, and make
ii pay. They make money more easily
than they save it. There is an unend-
ing procession of home seekers and
home builders, and it continues today
with as regular movement as it pos
sessed years ago. 1t 10 one of the great
factors of the VESTS development.
OF such is the web and wool of our
little trip. But through it runs the
pattern of fantastic delight. the trail
Of the mountains and the trail of life
alike, lead always on and on into the
higher country of responsibility, until
At last it leaves US at the summit Of
the Great Divide. Yours truly,
A. DECKER.
P. S. Enclosed find a photograph of
Mt. Lassen, that was in eruption the
other dav. sending steam and smoke