The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1924-07-24

ture OF some features of it. When
we went over it had to rearrange
my vision of certain characteristics
| that changed all the rest, and ]
wished that Washington Irving had
been the author of each article
had read about it.
Each writer and speaker had en-
phasized the great orchards north
east of Weiser but neglected to men
| ton that most of the orchard tracts
were stood on end or on hilly, or
rolling areas. They emphasized the
natural meadows of the New Mead
ows and Council country without
saying that they were such small
speck in the landscape as to be per-
haps only one half of one percent.
They dwelt upon the great vistas Of
pine timber connecting the Payette
Lakes with the Seven Devils, but
failed to mention that in travelling
thru it, most of the way leads thru
canyons, much of it box canyons,
with granite walls and the timbered
areas are stood on end at sharp
angles with the sky. OF course, l
suppose that natural smartness
should teach a person not to look
for Michigan timer vistas in the
Sawtooth mountins, but as we went
thru l had to keep erasing sweet
old mental pictures which the writ
ers and speakers had given me, and
get new setting
Every writer and speaker who
ever gave me vision of the Palouse
country with it's wheat fields, en-
phasized the great prairies, but not
one of them ever broke the news to
me that these same prairies stuck up
three to five thousand feet above the
sea and were cross-sectioned by
great gorges two to three thousand
feet deep carrying the flow OF the
clearwater, the Salmon, the Sweet
water, the North Fork, and others
with their multitude of tributaries
saving chasms thru the landscape.
None of the writer's or speakers ever |
mentioned that when person is out |
on these prairies there is no water |
course in sight; that it is as irregu-
lar and as undulating as the sea in
a storm; that there are no sloughs,
no height-of-land visible, yet the !
roads run on and on, winding about
towards all points of the compass up
hill and down and finally land you
and the road map indi-
Gates that you travelled in a direct
line
| have seen pictures of the cities
of Lewiston and Charleston, twin
cities of the great wheat center in
a country rich in grapes and other
fruits; a country low in altitude and
seeking to have port and all-wa-
ter transport to and from the sea,
but nobody ever mentioned that from
all the great farming areas around
they come into town by
letting down two thousand feet in
to a gorge, and starting home they
first climb two thousand vertical
feet on the scorching slopes of a
grim mass, the top of which Is the
famous prairies. If you ask Lew
ston man about the road to Mos
cow he will say, go out across the
bridge and turn to the left. After
you get up the hill, turn to the
light. You can't miss It,"
You think of a hill of ordinary
say quarter of mile
n extent, and when yau have climb
I'd it your speedometer says you
climbed seven miles and half.
Now turn to the right and follow
he best road, in thousand turns
or thirty miles thru two states and
vou are in Moscow It's all right
ind satisfactory, only it is not the
way l had it pictured. People who .
lave talked to me about the town ,
# Moscow generally gesticulated in ,
UGH manner as to make me think I
he university was on the east side I
4 the town facing west. If the sun
ose and set correctly when we were
here, the university is on the south
vest OF the town facing north and {
asst. That is entirely satisfactory I
o me, only had to rearrange my {
mental picture of the place. An ar 2
list friend of mine set row of as :
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