The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1923-08-02

their own town tighten up the link
80 that we shall do likewise. o
the hundreds of motorists who have
e come home from tours telling 81
t spotless towns with perfect lawns
and Clearly streets and alleys, we
have yet to hear one of them telling
: of any values or advantages that any
l town has reaped from plentitude OF
g weeds. Hay fever has made its
I debut and been accepted as a neces-
sary evil, but nobody brings goats
e enough to constitute remedy by
making the weeds into goats milk.
In February, 1898, Ezra Meeker
and 10000 others bound for the
Klondyke via the White Pass, were
encamped on the southern base of
, the pass, each showing a years sup
ply Of food before being allowed to
cross the dead line. 1t was all an
, ordinary man could do to go over the
summit of the White Pass, but these
we're extraordinary men, and it re-
! CURED from two to a dozen trips for
a man to get his luggage over the
! summit, and hundreds died in the
attempt to cross One feature of the
job was that it took just about as
/ long to make the second trip over
as it did the first. If a man took his
tent, bedding and oil over the first
trip, it took him practically as long
to take his beans, bacon and coffee
over the second trip, and he was not
! at all fixed for the journey down the
Yukon until he had them all across
Blackfoot has made the first trip
over the pass, making delivery on
tin cans, boards with nails in and
baling wire. 1t has taken a good
look down the canyon of the Yukon
and returned to the place of begin
ming, to get under the load of weeds
of all kinds and conditions. While it
was delivering tin cans, the weeds
were getting well anchored and &C
climated. 1t may take twenty years
to get rid of the weeds, or the PEG.
pie may rise to the occasion and
wipe them out by platOons and be-
come ambitious to get the last of
them while the getting is good for
the thicker the weeds are on a tract. |
the more easily they are killed That |
being true, Blackfoot ought to make
short work of its weeds.
BlackfoOt is one town of which it |
is said by visitors, that its weed crop
is the more noticeable because of the
natural beauty and the cleanliness
or the town in other respects. People
VINO have been listening to the COM
ment OF travellers regarding the dead
building on lSorth Main street, find
expressions of greater wonderment
at the presence of the dead building
because of the good appearance of
the town in so many other ways.
Thus do we find the character of the
citizenship under fire at points where
they are about to win the title of
Excelsior.
People are wondering whether the
city officials will enforce the weed
ordinance. That is an idle thought
to be entertaining when the way is
clear for the planning of weed cut
ting to, beat them to it. Who wants
TO be made to cut weeds when the
ordinance has to be published for
another two weeks before 1t can be
swung against the offenders! The
only way to get any fun out of this
is to cut the weeds be-
lore the ordinance gets ripe. Weeds
cut more easily when they are tender !
anyhow. Every day they stand after
the first of August makes them I
harder to conquer on two or three I
different counts, and il the present |
generation is going to take credit TO; |
1eporting the weeds any quicker l
han the retiring generation did the G
in cans, there is golden opportun. 4
ty standing wide open for them to n
'e up and at 1t. 1t would be a fine t
oke and good piece of sportsman
hip II each individual In the town e
would slip out and can his weeds SO II
hat the chief of police would not n
ven get to mail the notice to any n
'ody. That would be the kind of Il
cam work that the railroad officials 81
emarked upon as being in evidence 8.
n this county when not minute Il
yas wasted in showing them all they p
Guild be shown while it was yet O.
ght. ri
If the mayor and council should sc
AXE up next week to find all the
'eeds gone from town, they would VI
e the proudest city fathers in the ia
late. They would swear that fell 10
wv tOwnsmen who would respond II
Ike that were worthy of their best al
forts, and they would not care tn
hoop for the times they have left az
leir own business to go out look I'll
lg after public affairs nor for the m
mes they have sat in council till pi
O'Clock in the morning figuring out w
ow to furnish the city with all the ne
Iherent kinds Of service they expect &C
I'D at the same time be reducing the
xes tn
The attitude of the citizens to- pa
ards weeds this month will tell OF
ore regarding the character of our on
tizenship than anything else that OF
Is happened in the community for
any moons. A