The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1923-08-09
SHELL-SHOCKED
A HOMESTEADER

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phenomenon reached Blackfoo
Tuesday.
H. B. Daniels and wife have 64t
acres in the eastern part Of Bingham
county, near the Glenore schoo
house, q tract of land they home
steaded just after the war intending
! to make 1t into q fine summer home
and they did. They fenced 1t all
built good house and fixed VI
things about the place so unique ant
restful inside and out, that 1t re
minded travellers of an Italian villa
Mr.. Daniels spent two years with
our army in France. Mrs. Daniel.
put In two years In the service there
and in making final proof he &C
cepted the offer of the government
to credit him on his residence &C
count on the homestead with the
twenty-four months of service in the
army. On submitting the proof OF
improvements made and service done
in addition to doing residence on
the land for the required time, the
government approved his work and
made him a deed for the land.
Mr.. and Mrs. Daniels set an ex-
ample of making a nicer home, in
Guiding the surroundings than many
of the other settlers had done, and
showed their good will for and con-
f1dence in the community by making
their home to. harmonic with the
spirit shown in the public school
which has been the pride of the set
Element. During the second summer
on the place, Mrs. Daniels was ac-
companied by a friend of theirs, a
nurse who also went to France with
our flag and followed in the wake of
conflicting armies, nursing our
wounded soldiers back to life. Dur
ing her summers stay at the Daniels
homestead there was frightful &C.
cident at a local sawmill and this
army nurse experienced in blood and
carnage, took the mutilated body.
whose condition had shocked the
others into frenzy, and with SPLEEN
did nerve and skill, did what science
and skill could do at the hou it
should be done.
Insofar as we have learned, no Of
Tense has ever been committed by
any of these three ex-service people
against the community or its mem
bers, and no rebuke is due them
But while they were wintering in
San Francisco, each one working for
salary, the house and premises at
the homestead had the protection of
a we'll built, lawful fence, and the
inference is that none but the own
ers had the right to use the place
But when Mr.. Daniels came out for |
his summer vacation in the hills he |
found the fence broken down all |
about the premises, the doors broken
in, some of the windows broken,
floors broken and filthy and every
indication that the different rooms
of the house had been used for stabl-
ing stock. There was manure in the
house such as one might expect to
see in a stable that was i'll kept, and /
the yard Uttered, the porch torn
down and the garden seats, the cozy
resting places all about where they
had made rustic seats, flower beds
work bench and the like were broken
and Uttered like a German regiment
had been billeted there.
When we asked Mr.. Daniels how
he felt at witnessing this atrocity
lpon his property he replied that he
OOhCQ II oil OfSl 1OSllu6 SOm0WHdt
He could hardly believe
t, and he kept thinking of how they
lad all worked and especially his
wife and her lady friend, to fix up all
hese things, the ladies doing carpen-
er work more or less all summer,
md at the memory of this he sat
Town and wept. He said he did not
weep at the personal loss; would not
lave felt at all like that if he had
ound it reduced to ashes, but the
INSULT of it all was what hurt so
much. He thought he had settled
lmong friends. They were at least
lis own countrymen.
While he was in the war he was
to enemy insult and
nemy destruction, and the dough
Joys prided themselves that their
'wn countrymen were not given to
hese things except when forced into
in war, and as he sat there at the
uins of his little villa in the woods
nd thought it all over it stung him
o the heart. To him it was new
ind of shell shock, kind that does
Ot heal of ITSELF and after the first
ush of tears he decided that it is a
nan's part to rebuild and to smile
nd to spread good cheer and he
rent about his task of cleaning out
he place and getting materials .
rought over the mountain range
rom Blackfoot to cleanse the remn-
hts of the floor and under the floors,
D mend and patch and cover up the
cars.
AS we think it over we wonder
ow deep the snow was there last :
inter; whether the fences were all :
uried in the snow and stock walk
lg over the fences. We wonder .
neither starving animals lost from :
heir anchorage in the storm and 1,
old huddled against the house and
nder the porch and in their milling
mong themselves, broke down the
orch, mashed the doors in and took
dvantage of the shelter it afforded.
We would like to believe that the \
amage to the place was due to some c
lch circumstances of the wild than Q
} the malice of man. p