Cottonwood chronicle. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1917-current, 1923-05-11

UoseI lSVel IUCSe Via fA[tslJ
and along the Great Lakes that
is responsible. If it were not
for the water level route it is
almost certain that Philadelphia
or Baltimore would now be the
larger city as those places have
good harbors too.
But to be on with our descrip-
ton Of the city as is. Well, when |
you get away from that lower
section, all the time heading
north or uptown, understand,
things kind of let up. Broadway
is still the backbone but Broad
way here is lined mostly with |
buildings given over to making
dress goods and other things on
| the upper floors and selling them
to the wholesale trade on the
lower floors with cheap apart
ment houses scattered all along
on the side streets. If you were
here and / were showing you the
town I'd take you through this
section without wasting much
time on it. 1t is all heavily
built up with five and six story
buildings and some a good deal
higher than that and there is
tremendous lot of business going
on but that amt one of our show
places, no sir, it amt. 1t is all
well enough but we've got better
as we'll see in minute. That is,
if the editor doesn't chop off
right here for a week we will.
! find tho that l much cut back
a little and put in some more
history. | always did have
trouble in keeping my history
and geography properly seperat-
ed and it's too late to try to do it
now. Well, in the time of the
earliest settlement people per-
haps dreamed of the day when
New Amsterdam, as the place
was called then, might be real
town such as Cottonwood is now
but they had no idea it would
ever get SO big that the streets
would have to be numbered so
that people might have some no.
ton of where they were or how
, to get around. So they just
| gave the streets names such as
Wall street, Church street and
so on. That is why when you
, look at a map Of New York you
; find that the first twenty or
thirty steets are not numbered
, but have names while first
, street is a couple of miles up
town. 1t is really too bad that
? they couldn't have had the vi
} sion of some of the western men
: who went out upon the plains
and with nothing more than an
extra large buffalo wallow to
: rally around grandly drew plans
t for a city that would run for
! miles and miles in each direc-
ton, miles where now, by the
e way nothing is to be found but
S few farmers who are dissatis-
e fled with the price of wheat.
Here, even in 1880 when the city
fathers made plans for a city of
:, couple Of hundred thousand
/ they apologized for taking in
! land that it didn't seem likely
) would ever be really built up but
! in view of the way the town had
/ been growing no one could tell
e how much might be needed some
' day. That is why too, there are
too few up and down streets and
t too many cross wise. in the
e early days nearly all the bust
e ness was along the waterfront
and the haulage across town
Y from the piers to the center and
e from pier to pier or river to
v river, and it seemed likely
t always to be so. 1t was taken
t for granted. 1t is even claimed
Y that when they drew this plan OF
+ the upper city they drew q
e rough outline map and then laid
S plasterer's sieve crosswise OF
S that and put in one crosstowr
Y street for each wire. Now all
e that is changed and we know
/ that if they had just gotten the
n sieve laid the other way al
t would have been well for the
It bulk of the traffic is now up anc
Il down. AS Bret Harte had it ii
Il his parody. "The saddest words
e of tongue or pen are not at al
f 1T might have BEEN More sac
e by far are these we see, 1T is but
h hadn't ought to be-" 1t is 6
= fact. When, then, you read about
e the terrific traffic problems yor
+ may know that to a great extent
v they are due not so much to toe
S much traffic but to the fact that