The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1928-08-03

When, in the autumn of 1924, | de-
cided definitely that l would give up
teaching, and announced my intention
of going on walking tour with. San
Francisco as my ultimate destination,
the inhabitants of the village in which
| had spent large portion of the
preceding three years were pleased
and astonished. Astonished because
such project was to them unheard-
of, and pleased because it gave them
something to talk about and shake
their heads over. They were reason
ably prompt and extremely logical
and practically unanimous in deciding
that l must be out of my mind. Some
of them may have felt sorry because
of this sudden dementia, but most of
them beyond a doubt luxuriated in the
bit of gossip it afforded them.
They were, you understand, like the
people of almost any village almost
anywhere, which is to say that they
were, in the main, selfish, dull and
/ intolerant. On occasion, all of them
could be and no doubt were, rather
splendid, but their world was the
standard village world, bounded on
one hand by custom and convention.
and on the other by narrowness and
suspicion. If thing was not common
llv done in Gopher Prairie, by Gopher
Prairians, it of course could not prop
erly be done anywhere by anyone.
They liked to think of themselves
as very correct and orthodox; indeed
most Of them were painfully ortho
dox To the best of their rather linn
tied knowledge, no sane person mac
ever before undertaken to walk hall
wav across the continent, or farther
II was perfectly clear, therefore, ina
anyone who would choose to do suci
thing must necessarily be possessed
of thousand prancing devils-or els
} he must be insane. This OPINION Cne'
uttered and repeated.
} The fact that l was going to star
virtually without funds and earn M
wav as 7 Travelled made it more inter
D esting, | think that most of tines
GOOD people fancied that l purpose
D fo nav nv way by thievery and otne
D lucrative SHINING, enroute.
became the recipient of much ire
0 advice bearing on every. possinl
chase, nbase of the adventure. A porto
0 Of this advice came from people Wn
really knew something about trave
O mo while some of it came from pei
0 ME who, frankly, knew nothing at
about ANYTHING. One old man too
me down to the Equity elevator, Oh
10 dav and showed me all of the accep
ed WAYS of adhering to freight ca
f0r fn nT0fGSt Jns
7 did not love freight cars-that II
practice of riding them had resulte
% disastrously for various gentlemats
10 whom l had met and known after u
fashion of ships that pass IN u
night. He was certain that sooner
10 later | would return via box car, al
10 he quite insisted that / must lea,
so all about the science of stealing ride
20 No doubt he meant well, and his kin
20 ness was rather gratifying; so fe
people were going out of their way
So be kind just them.
DO AS for me l had my own illusion
80 To begin with l fondly imagined tn
40 7 was about to do something origin
40 and startling, and | continued, in tt
belief until / had traversed one
90 two states and discovered that Gro!
country mixers were more of a nu
90 ance than a novelty on some of t
greater highways. | suffered a p;
90 ticularly rude awakening in Che
enne, Wyoming. We will come
90 that later.
90 I also fancied that it would be
90 easv matter to find work whenel
and wherever l should be in need
40 funds. / further believed that wi
work was not to be had could cas-
90 pay my way by system of house
house canvassing with a line
go household Ixnickknacks. Both
80 these hopes were speedily and unc
enormously dashed.
so | arranged to report my progr
in open letters to the aditor of a co
100 trv weekly published at Karlsst
Minnesota. Most of these letters W
100 written hastily-on the run, asst W
and would, in any case, be infer
LOO to the travel letters of such man
Bayard Taylor and Rudyard KipIi
,.60 But then how many of my read
100 would have appreciated the effort
had. to borrow some of H. C. Witw
100 language, hauled off and write,
series of masterpieces With a