The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1920-04-01


lie. are living here in comfort and
.ying rents averaging 81 per month.
families who apparently have
olved one big problem in the high
,st of living are the owners OF house
, oats which dot the various branches
r. the Chicago river, the Calumet rlv-
y and the lakes Of the South Chicago
district. Land owners usually charge
t...e houseboaters 81 month for moor
:uy privileges. If the scenery become
alonotonous or the neighbors undesir-
BILE the colonists need only crank up
the gasoline "fiivver" boat attached
:, most of the house boats and be
owed to new pastures. When the col
,rists find satisfactory location and
settle down for stay of any length
they usually install all the modern
improvements, including, city water,
electric lights and telephone. Some
If the boats have their own electric
light plants. A large colony Of the
boats wintered this year in the vicln-
ty of Western avenue and Belmont
avenue bridges on the north branch of
The Chicago river. Their colony was
presided over by Captain Streeter, one
time commander of the s'deestrict of
Lake Michigan" who for years ma III
:;ained squatter's rights over a portion
If the Chicago water front. A typi-
cal boat in this colony has five rooms
-parlor, dining room, kitchen and two
bed rooms-all finished in white pine
and comfortably furnished. The boat
cost $1,000. The owner, with permis-
sion of the land owner from whom he
rents his mooring site, has installed
chicken run on the bank, and IN the
summer time has a vegetable plot.
Houseboating the year around is not
unde sirable, the colonists say. The
five room boat is heated with three
stoves and uses about one and half
tons Of coal month.
The supply of white paper and of
ink has been greatly reduced during
the past few weeks by the literary ef
forts Of Comrade C. Jehosopl,at Olson,
commonly known as "Alkali' by his
in Green Township. The
supply of oil has also been materially
reduced, for the neighbors report hav-
ing seen lights burning during the wee
small hours in "Alkali's" farm home.
The result of all this effort is the ar
ticle published last week in the Town
lev speaking tube across the way mis-
named "The Peoples Opinion" in
which "Alkali" is stakeholder, and
his mastery addresses to his comrades
at the recent league meetings over
which "Alkali' presided with great
dignity. For many years ''Alkaii'' has
been considered more or less of joke
by his neighbors, who grin signif-
cantly and good naturally when he or
his political writings are mentioned.
But "Alkali takes himself seriously.
He is positive there is nothing the
matter with him. He admits that he
is the leading honest-to-gosh citizen
and statesman of the legislative dis
trict which he adorns at Bismarck,
and boldly proclaims his superior
ability in political economy compared
with all other people of the county.
He doesn't deny that he once fell
asleep in the legislative chamber at
Bismarck and voted wrong according
to His Master; Townley's wishes, when
rudely awakened by nudge in the
ribs by fellow comrade; but he as
serts that he quickly changed his vote
when viciously jabbed in the ribs a
second time by the same Lacquer, to
whom he made the promise then and
there never to make a break like that
again. His excuse was that while
asleep, caused by late caucus meet
ing the night before, he dropped the
card marked by the League leaders
showing him how to vote on the bill
then under consideration, and not be-
ing fully awake he could not distln-
g6ish the color of the hair of the read
iny clerk, another device adopt
ed by the leaders so that their
messenger boys whom the people sent
to make laws would know how to vote.
But ''Alkali" says that as soon as he
was fully awake ne got back into the
Townley traces and never voted con-
trary to orders again, and there is no
denial of this statement. He voted
for the red flag and for free love and
for the high taxes, and promises to do
so again if his constituents return him
to Bismarck, even though the tax rate
next year is so high as to get lost
among the clouds. "Alkali c. Jeho-
sophat Olson is suttinly "some man."
We delight in calling attention to
the very fine town we have here at
Valley City-and our local pride is
justifed-we have beautiful little
city, there is no getting away from
that. But a little friendly criticism
will not come amiss occasionally. We
have one Of the best electric light
plants in the state but we also have
the poorest lighted streets Of any
town it's size in the state. Take two
of the main thoroughfares of Valley
City, Fifth and Fourth avenues, for
instance, and the upper part Of both
ar about as dark as it is possible to
have them outside of the business dis
trict with one or two measley, red,
non-lighting lamps doing duty on the
same. We seem to have juice to fur
nish the whole county but none to
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