Gunnison news-champion., 1924-09-19
Tourists Trek to
PaOnia in Peach
Picker's Pilgrimage
NOMADS FROM EVERYWHERE
AND NOWHERE. CARE-FREE
As GYPSIES, PITCH TENTS FOR
AUTUMN INVASION.

Paonia'S tourist season is on full
blast this week. The tourists. be IL
known. are the fruit picker. vino IN
wade the town each autumn, and mush-
room cities have sprung up to mark
their arrival. The pilgrimage to Pa
oHia began in earnest Sunday, when
scurrying fiivvers blazed a dusty trail
across the desert. Paonia knew the
fruit season was on when Gypsy Joe"
came TO tawn. Yes, the harvesters
are here, and they have come in all
manner of conveyances.
Horseless prairie schooners. dozens
upon dozens of antiquated Fords, an
occasional real high powered car, and
plOdding horse-drawn vehicles COM
prise the caravan which has trekkcd
its way across the sun-scorched 'dobe
hills into the oasis of the upper valley.
From everywhere and from nowhere
in particular these nomads have
come-as care-free as gypsies. Some
are here for a lark; TO have an outing
and garner a little wealth along with
it. Some anioung them have come
year after year, to lend hand with
the task of picking and packing and
shipping the fruit.
There are whole families, little tots
and all; there are dozens of those who
drop from every arriving freight
train, and who originated the time
honored appellation fruit tramps;'
there are lean men and fat men and
men so long that il would seem they
might pick peaches without ladder.
Conspicuous among them is the peach
picking fool" who delights in nothing
more than to work alongside the next
fastest picker just TO SHOW him up
I OF another tribe is the "mlanket
stiff" who rides the brake beams, who
cafries his coffee in little tobacco
sack and who cooks his mulligan in
the jungles down BY the river He's
the bird who soys: "Is youse de guy
what hires de plugs to glom de
peaches ?" He may not know much
about European monarchs, but he can
tell you all about JEFF Davis, king OF
the Hoboes.
Gypsy Joe? Everybody knows Joe
happy-go-lucxy, merry chap, whose
pockets are always full of coins and
during every harvest since way-back.
with toll, he'll tell your fortune if you
like.
Not to be overlooked are the pref
tiest peach pickers. the overalled flap.
pers, whose rosy cheeks are as pairs
takingly rouged and powdered as
those on the gay white way; likewise
the ..ewest in "bobs" may be found in
the feminine tonsorial array. Among
the feminine contingent is the girl who
rolls her own-cigarettes.
And fiivvers! No cartoonist evel
conceived fivver more heavily
freighted than those which have clat
tered into Paonia's quietude. Bed.
rolls, baggage, camping paraphenalia
not to mention the inevitable galvaniz.
ed washtub-have adorned every spare
inch Of the Fords.
Protesting babies and whining pup.
pies have their place in the procession
In the caravan came the conveyance
which may have been the inspiration
Of "The Covered Wagon" Ploddins
leisurely thru the alkali dust, too wers
. couple Of vehicles which may have
inspired the sceanroist who wrote viii
Rogers latest screen comedy, tive
Wagons Both Covered"
Viewing the procession and without
straining the imagination, clever
scenario writer might easily pen an
other film story entitled "The Uncov
cred Wagon"
At any rate the wanderers are here
they'll pitch their tents for a whilt
and after few tomorrows they'll b
gone. Where? Heaven only knows