The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1928-08-31
HIKING TO
FRISCO
Continued from last week.
Part Two. OF the AnnihilatiOn OF
FatHOusness; and of Divers Doubt
full Devices.
BY John Arthur StahIberi


Up to this time / had been travel
ing Eat home" so to speak. That is
to say had not seen any~eountry no.
tably different from that in which l
had always lived. Keeping off the !
main highways to a great extent, l
had been offered few rides and had
hiked endlessly along the commonest
of common dirt roads, across vast
prairies which were at first flat with
the unrelieved flatness Of the Red
River Valley, and then, as | turned |
more to the west, became gently roll
ing. Towns, hamlets, farms, now and
then a small stream, here and there
grove of trees-that was all there had
been to see. 1t is true that | had been
thrilled by the vastness of North Da-
kota's undulating prairies. 1t was
like reading a great poem or hearing
a beautiful passage of music, to get
up on some little rise of ground, coat
less and hatless and let the laughing
spring wind set my shirt Tapping
about my trunk like small sail and
run a thousand mischievous rumpling
fingers through my hair. 1t was like
linking arms and thoughts with the
spirit of Walt Whitman, to stand still
and stretch in the tonic air and look
around and marvel at the beauty re-
posing in even the plainest landscape
only waiting for someone to under
stand and appreciate it. But / hank
cred after new sights to see and new
thrills to feel. | wanted mountains
and great rivers and nightly forests
and teeming cities and oceans and
stupendOuS natural wonders. One by
one, or in groups, was to get them
presently. In the meantime | was
gathering new impressions and new
experiences in dealing with the great
est natural wonder of them all-hu-
manity-and beginning, barely begin
ming, to realize what a small item is
one man in all this immensely.
Just here q confession may be in
order. 1t may not be much of con-
fession, in these days of Sob Story
Magazines and l do not expect it to
compete with the MacFadden product
for the esteem of the deflowered vir-
gins and misunderstood husbands of
this modern day; but, as the soldiers
of 19l4-18 used to say of their war,
'It's the best one have And it has
a direct bearing upon my story.
There are places in the backwoods
of northern Minnesota where a teach
er is still the object of w0rshipful re.
spect on the part of the common
people who believe that all wisdom
and all knowledge find their ultimate
expression in the routine of the "little
al Int off
the little white schoolhouse, nova
days So far, so good
In such a place, had NATURAL!
been somewhat looked up to, durini
the time remained teacher. More
over / had been a mixer, and, b
going without things which / sadl
needed, had managed always to hav
at hand a supply of spending money
Consequently | became popular a
mong the young people and even be
came the leader of a small "set." s
far, not so bd0
Before / embarked upon my Adven
ture my couceit had suffered some
what, as the result of number U
unsettlirg experiences and unhapp
combinations of circumstances. NeN
ertheless, l still chung stubbornly {
an entirely adequate estimate of m
Importance in the scheme of things
And, as ! have already mentioned,
was well received by the majority (
the people whom | met in the fir:
few hundred miles, which detracte
nothing from my good opinion of m.
self and the thing / was doing. / sti
believed that | was doing somethin
unusual and remarkable. SO far, ar
the matter become distressing.
Presently, as got farther and ia
Their away from home land nearer al
nearer to the great arteries of tra'
and travel along which the nation
life flows, ! met more and more pc
pile who were Indifferent and ev
hostile to me and what / still thong
of as my extraordinary undertaken
My conceit died a violent death, b
not until it had raised considerat
rumpus in its last agonies.
Now as recall the fantastic thin
| said and did and wrote during th
time when | was being educated
an understanding Of my insignificar
my ears tingle with humiliati
Needless to say, they are not inclJ
ed in the present series.
So much for confessions.
My mode of travelling involved
in many amusing situations, and
still enjoy an occasional laugh as
recall one or another of them. Tn,
was, for instance, the man who VII
ed to have me arrested as a scho
boy running away from home. Tn,
were also the comic lies which PEG
would tell me about every subject
which | might be interested, from
condition of the roads to the reas,
why they could not, buy the little
ticles / was selling. There was
amusing opinions which people foi
ed about me. One or two took 1t
granted that / was wandering III
tic. A woman in Mort hDakota f
cied that she saw a resemblance
tween a picture of A. S. M. Hutch
son and me, and voiced the suspic
that / must be Mr.. Hutchinson in {
guise There were other people v
doubted that ! was at all the per
claimed to be, and there were a
who told me quite frankly that t
did not believe a word of what l s.
Naturally, this was often as emit
raising as it was funny. In Harris
Nebraska, ] was understood to b
federal spy, and the wife of the !
prietor Of the Harrison cafe emp
ed a rather shrewd bit of strategy
determine my correct status.