The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1924-07-31

They have natural hot water to sur
ply the shower baths, but the bath
ing places are mere stalls of cemen
and are dingy, like prison cells. TIL
|, cement work has a rough rather thai
, = smooth finish, and people VIII,
know how difficult it Is to keep eve
Ian enameled bath tub clean and san
itary, are apt to shudder at tn
thought Of the accumulated scale
and germs that might lurk in sucl
stalls that seem impossible of scour
ing Blackfoot Is contemplating tn,
installation of hot and cold shower
baths for the tourist park, and
want to express the hope that white
thing or enameled forms be used sc
they can be kept so perfectly clear
and sanitary that knowing ones will
not be afraid to use them. In the
wash house good many people were
doing their washing and many 9TH
ers were standing around with their
bundles waiting for their turn.
guess 1t is all right to provide a
| good many things for tourists, but
there enters into 1t some of the ele-
ments of tramp life Now that we
have got rid of the old-time tramp
am opposed to taxing local people
to furnish accommodations for a new
type. The local hotels pay taxes to
help maintain a tourist camp, and
the local steam laundry pays taxes
to help supply free or nearly free
laundry. Sometimes we find ped
dlers using the free camp ground
as base from which to operate, and
they canvass the town underselling
local dealers because they escape all
costs of rent, light, water, charities,
school tax, hospital tax and every
other kind of expense that is usually
assessed against the property owner
and the business house on the street.
am in favor of charging an ad-
mission fee for each car that enters
the camp, and have the coin-in-the-
slot plan for selling them everything
they use. The right kind of travel
ers want to pay, and the other kind
should be made to pay enough to
make the tourist camp self support
ing, and enough to give assurance to
local industries that they are not
being Disseminated against in the
sentimental rush to serve tourists
who are not all fine people nor home
seekers but possibly just cumming
because cumming is being made so
easy for them. Some of these peo-
pie boast that they seldom buy gas
oline-they just carry a siphon out
fit and lift" their supply from cars |
parked about town.
Boise is situated on the banks OF |
a stream, and aside from the YER
dure of the stream and what has
been added by irrigation, it is in a
desert The irrigated area spreads
out like fan to the westward and |
southwest but all else is parched in
summer. The foothills join the town
on the north, and 1t is parched right
to the irrigated line. The outlook
on the north is that of barren hills
with their sunny slopes, the most
barren slopes, facing the city. On
he south and east is the bench land,
not reclaimed, so the approach to the
,ity is forbidding. The nearest town
# any consequence in that direction
s Mountain Home, forty-eight miles
believe, and we were informed that
,eople in some of the civic organi-
ations at Boise are talking over
'lans for adding touch of color
o the road by planting tamarisk on
10Th sides of the highway between
he two places. Our informant said
hey had found that tamarisk grows
Without irrigation, and they thought
hey might get 1t started with the
moisture of fall and winter and have
wO lines of green all the way. Tam
risk is species of evergreen that 4
rows number of slender stalks,
nd, as we have found. dies In win
er after summer of good growth
nder irrigation. Mrs. Trego sug- {
ested that they take in less terri I
Dry in the beginning, and plant tam :
risk for mile or so and see how !
ley get along. The dust of travel !
sttling on the foliage of the tam +
risk might smother 1t by closing o
AC POA Cd tuAOu6H WHICH, ~ DT6dtucS, n
r, surviving that. the gray of the {
lst might make the green look for
I'm and sad. .
There are certain green plants that a
ourish in arid and semi-arid places, !,
Id Boise needs to experiment with n
em. In the early days of San
rancisco, the sand hills west OF the {,
ty and south of the Golden Gate a
ere menace by reason Of drifting :,
the wind, and somebody discov- ~
ed and tested a plant that flour .,
he'd in sand, and when planted, it ~
read over the hills and kept the -
nd in place during the windstorms. =,
Boise could find plant that would
ow on the foothills north of the -
wn, and lend an attractive green =
It, something aggressive that =,
'uld spread, something that would -
t injure range stock. 1t might be
happy hit to Introduce II nm tho