The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1923-04-13
SUBSCRIPTION RATES.
FRIDAY, APRIL "a, a923.
A FEW THOUGHTS At "A.
ow does il feel to be "a?

! How does il feel to be "a?
H 1t all depends. If all your faculties
are striking on six cylinders; IL you
feel physically fit; il you are poor, as
most men are at "a, and envy no man
his possessions; if you happen to be
blessed with offsprings who have
| since infancy been source Of JOY
and have never given you moments
worry; a wife far better than you de-
| serve; II you aave tried to live an
honest life more or less successfully;
| If you have worked constantly and
consistently for the mere love OF being
busy; IL yoif have endeavored to five
up to the Golden Rule, then you
should bless God for all His mercies
and feel like fighting cock.
If you have lived to reach the age Of
"A you can feel that you have been
fortunate in living to see the mar
velous age. You have lived from the
days OF the tallow dip, that barely
made darkness visible to the days
when electric light has made night as
brilliant as the day. You have seen
the telephone invented that can put
you in direct communication WITH
those miles away. which has expedited
business and is an indispensable ad-
iunct to every human activity. You
have listened In where an uncanny
something reaches up into the circum-
ambient ether and pulls down vagrant
sounds created great distances away.
You have seen the navigation of the
air solved, and great mechanical car
riers outlying the birds In the speed
and gracefulness Of flight. You have
seen the motor vehicle become more
common than the horse. But why go
on innumerating. The man who has
lived to celebrate his 74th birthday
has seen many miracles performed
through the ingenuity and genius OF
his fellow men, and thousands of
changes and improvements that have
reduced labor and added to the COM
fort of the human race, and have seen
what once were luxuries only enjoyed
by the fortunate few, conn. n reces-
sity of the present day marvellous,
changes little dreamed of
10 years ago has the man Of "A lived
to see and enjoy.
And the whirling Of time has mark
ed as many changes In the country as /!
in the field of invention for the man
who has reached "a years of age. His
tory has been made, and oceans of |
blood have been shed in the making. |
Turing his life time. As boy he liv- |
I'd through the horror and misery Of |
| civil war, and while too young to |
AXE part it left an indelible impress
ZION upon his mind. He became too
Did to serve in the Spanish-American
var, and got along in tle scar and
fellow leaf when the insanity Of the
world war claimed its frightful toll
II victims. Within his memory he has
'assed through the hurry burly and
flapdoodle Of seventeen
residential campaigns. He can re-
member when the Missouri river was
he western boundary Of civilization,
nd very crude civilization it was
n the far west, as the far west was
|
ying trade peopled the bosom OF the
river with floating palaces.
When railroads were few and far be-
ween. When Iowa and Illinois were
he far west and beyond the land was
lrgely the hunting grounds of the
indians. He has seen the flood Of pop
lation flow westward until all the
md from the Missouri to the Pacific l
ecame populated and great cities
Dring into existence where no house
God when he was boy. Great,
onderful, almost beyond comprehen
on has been the transition in the !
avs of life in the country in which .
e live since the man of "a first be- u
IN to take notice.
Although his opportunity for obser- y
ltion has been limited the writer '
lows whereof he writes for only the
her day he passed the 74th mile
one on the road that leads to eter- ,
ty,