The Kevin review. [volume] (Kevin, Mont.) 1922-1929, 1922-11-30
BY r. r. Kilroy

Writing a series of articles under
the title 1.-The Magnetic West IN the
Saturday Evening Post, Joseph Her
gesheimer, the novelist, III the ur-
rem number of that publication, dis
cusses Lode States" and gives his
impressions of Butte. Mr.. Herges-
heimer made a tour of the west last
winter and spent 36 hours in the
mining metropolis. In that time this
famous author absorbed not only the
story of Butte, as he gives it in his
narrative, but of Montana, of Ban
mack, of Virginia City and Alder
Gulch of Plummer and the Vigil
antes. In a Pullman car
ton with a rancher he learned OF
the short span of the open range. he
sketches the development and decad-
ence of the cowboy and the miner.
Although he got but a rainy day peep
at Butte, he paints with feigned as
uranc an ~unlovely description OF
the city.
Like many noted writers and an
alysts who came before him, Herges-
heimer stopped only long enough to
get a throat full of real unadulterated
ozone and to have some one tell him
the story of the gambling casinos OF
a quarter of a century ago and of the
days when ore was roasted in open
fires and the air was charged with
sulphur fumes. He speaks of the de-
cadence of the mining camp and calls
attention to it's cosmopolitan group
of workers. Unfortunately it is the
fashion for writer's, famous or UNI
known, talented or crude, who come
to Butte to write of the mining
camps long-faded yesterday when
the west was in its swaddling clothes.
They know all about the city, above
and below ground, the people and the
life of a by-gone period. They secure
a few corroborative statements and
they are off back to familiar haunts
in Washington square, where inspira-
ton flows, to give pen to old hashed-
over and long outworn impressions
that are but a slur upon the hardy,
industrious citizenship of a virile
community.
Certainly Mr.. Hergesheimer didn't
get this impression in Butte. He
must have absorbed it from some of
his predecessors who, like him, made
the swing of the circle of these United
States in 10 days or two weeks and
then sat themselves down to tell of
the conditions, problems, aspirations
of the various people, even to the
point of fixing their ultimate fate.
He says:
"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, aca-
demically, there for the alienation
and support of the men; and what at
tachment they formed for the Hill
and the Flat was born of necessity"
There is little comfort for Butte
citizens in the story of this famed
and somewhat gifted romanticist who
describes their city, but many are
they who scanned his lines in this
weeks Post and wished that he might
know how they love the city, despite
the unsightly ore dumps that streak
the hill; how sentimental affection
fills their breasts when they view at
night, from afar on the flat or the
Eighteen Mile hill. the m~yriad-star
bespangled city of the clouds in its
jeweled setting under the shelter OF
natures mightiest ramparts.
There is none who a view this
spectacle without a gasp of admira-
ton and it warns the heart OF the