The Idaho Republican., 1919-01-28
AN OLD LOCAL
LANDMARK PASSING
Continued from page one)

successors in office what they have
on hand to take care of.
When Mr.. Hopkins erected Hop
kins hall he worked in lot of scraps
of lumber and scantling, including
some boards for sheeting that had
been used somewhere else for NOR
tar box, and of course they had NOR
tar on. Now as the workman tear
down the old structure, these pieces
come to- light again looking just
about as they did when they went
into the building thirty-four years
ago.
The hall was used for a time for
religious services by the Mormon pe0-
pie when they had no building of
their own, and the writer borrowed
the use of it from Bishop Watson
about twenty-five years ago for
farmers meeting in which to organ
ize local creamery or something Of
the kind that failed. A farmers, al
liance was organized and held two or
three meetings in the hall by the kind
permission of somebody The al
lance was organized by man who
had some Of the marks Of the I. w.
w. and the Bolsheviki, but we did
not call it by those names then. We
did not like him and soon became
leary of anything he was connected
with, and ceased to pull with him.
He boarded at the Idaho House for
a while when he was busy organic
ing the farmers, and finally beat his
way out of town in an empty box car
and left his board bill unpaid. The
memory of that act and few others
like it killed the farmers alliance
here, and 1t was not necessary to
make permanent arrangements for
the use of the hall for them to meet
in.
Hopkins hall was the scene of
some literary efforts that bore fruit
and prepared men and women for
parliamentary efforts more notable in
other years. A farce divorce trial
was enacted there one evening that
kept the house in an uproar of merri-
ment until the complaining witness,
q beautiful girl, became so carried
away by the seriousness of the court
proceedings" that she broke down
and could not finish h3 testimony.
1t was the funniest thing ever heard
of so long as she played her part,
but she couldn't finish. The inter-
rupted story of lock of hair and a
photograph, made climax in the
proceedings, and the jury was in
structed to find foBs the plaintiff be-
cause she was blue-eyed. The de-
fendant in the case afterwards be-
came district judge and that was
not the only divorce case he ever fig
ured in.
On one occasion three elederly
members of the lodge who were serv-
ing on important committee work,
received anonymous (unsigned) let
ters berating somebody in the town,
and there was storm of protest
against the author of the offending
letters. One man in particular got
up and elequently denounced the
sauthor of the letters A committee
was appointed to do the detective |
work to find out who wrote them,
and in week they had fastened the |
guilt upon the eloquent man, who |
by his speech was deemed so guilty. |
When exposed he hung his head in |
shame and walked out of the frater-
nifty, never to return.
Hopkins hall could tell many inter-
esting things if it could talk. 1t |
could tell of some tender hearts |
made strong by the cultivated pas
sion for a clean life. It could tell !
of debates and discussions that |
stirred the, latent powers in gentle
breasts that have since developed |
characters Of adamant and others
that cleaned from the softer side of
life the influences that put them on
the toboggan-sIide for levels they sell
dom or never rise from.
For a number of years past the
hall was used az paintshop by
Frank Barker and son and the
ground floor was the office Of Clark
brothers, plumbers and coal dealers.
Mr.. Hopkins went broke financing
the Touring mill next door and went
to Alaska to regain his fortunes, but
came back to Seattle empty-handed,
gray-haired and thin. The writer
saw him there eighteen years ago,
an interesting study, cheerful,
grouchy. hopeful. busted but not con-
quered.