The Kevin review. [volume] (Kevin, Mont.) 1922-1929, 1922-11-30
PULLMAN CAR VIEW OF BUTTE AND
MONTANA BY JOSEPH HERGESHE0MER

were the children-rather than theirs
|-of the present. Those older men
and women reflected an experience
that never would be repeated. they
were the result of conditions gone
from the land; and, it seemed to me,
they we're taking with them a great
deal that might very we'll remain
that liberty of opinion and tonic
humor. The new generation had es-
capped from Butte, to country clubs
with grass, but it was doubtful with
so much copper and gold and silver
worked out, what they would at
tain.
"But, certainly, no one would have
stayed in Butte from first deliberate
choice. The Silver Bow club was
made up of temporary engineers,
from the Rand or French China or
Peru metallurgists and men Of incl
dental affairs. The women were,
accidentally, there for the a~llevia-
ton and support of the men; and
what attachment they formed for the
hill and the flat was born of neces-
sity. 1t was not because of that, less
vital, genuine, or even less tyranni-
cal. That initial impression of
frightful ugliness changed in me to
a fresh realization Of what beauty
might we'll be; I saw Butte scanned
with copper, rising from its precipi-
tating tanks to it's raw superstruct-
ures, flowerless as an aspect of power
and beauty.
"It was founded on metal and rock
and passions, burned with the rage of
it's internal flames; and 1t vas more
significant, more stirring, than any
park of close grass, artificial ponds
and classic statues. l vas glad that
the situation of Butte made impOs-
sible a system of boulevards. / was
glad that it was not a bower of roses,
and I was specially happy in the
fact of Anthony street. The newer
decorative houses on it's steep bank
were helpless against that name. An
timony street, The sound had the
cold, bare CLEAN of the substance.
Below it the long flat it's miles meas
ured by the roadhouses of a departed
gayety, was a splendid hideous ex-
panse without a detracting gracious
feature.
Though the last few years a new
Butte, in reality the new United
States, had become increasingly evil
dent; and, though it was obviously
dividuals, tragic, 1 could not avoid
regarding it with a certain lightness
of spirit, caught, perhaps. from the
air about me.
about the industrial revolt, / was
not so optimistic. Justice, of course,
was the great impersonal principle
- n II 1y-1 of nArfoonn hrrf
equality, impending and rosy as it
seemed from at least n side of the
fence, had not played the part orig
inally claimed for it in the govern
of the United States. Equality,
frankly, had again broken down. A
number of Americans in Butte, who
had once labored on the low levels
the mines. told me profanely, to
my entire understanding, that such
work wasn't fit for white men, for, to
be explicit, themselves, for, compre-
hensively, Americans.
"They, with one accord, suggested
the Firms for that particular respon-
Let the Firms do it, they
with Introductory terms
and phrases explanatory of their pref
"I was standing by a gallows frame
when a shift of miners we're coming
off duty; and, as they were virtually
shot up into the mild light of late
afternoon, I was able to distinguish,
the Czecho and Jugo Slavs, the
Poles and Hungarians and Italians,
the children of Finland. Big men
were, with small, round skulls
and pale eyes; and, as they reached
the earth's surface, they broke into
a Gathering run to the shed where
they reported. Their faces had the
of turnips, of turnips
streaked with earth; the Welsh min
ers were disappearing. the Maine
lumbermen had gone, but Firms were
available for tasks declined by the
equal and the free"