Show SAVAGE SODAITES The Promised Road Excites Ambition and Avarice at Soda Springs Will the Road Prove an Unmixed Blessing SODA SPRINGS IDAHO April 1881 I am passing a day at this place on my way to Caribou and have been much entertained in listening t the allabsorbing topic of conversation conver-sation the approaching railroad The usually drowsy inhabitants who as a rule go into winter quarters in the autumn and come out in the I spring after sucking their paws like bears all winter have now prematurely pre-maturely awakened They are all busily engaged in staking out claims and in trading for house lots that do not belong to them at extravagant rates While the snow was yet ten feet deep they drove their stakes through it into to sage brush so that the country around bears a resemblance to an ivorybandled hair brush with the bristles sticking up t is true the whole section has long ago been patented and most of it belongs t gentlemen living at Salt Lake but this circumstance is en crcumstnce tirely overlooked by these enterprising enterpris-ing speculator One of them conceived con-ceived the idea of appropriating the renowned Hooper Spring for his individual in-dividual benefit and having been down t Oxford and filed upon it hasreturned and a he says by the advice of his lawyer mounted the fence near it reading aloud for i own solitary hearing a proclamation of his ownership owner-ship and warning all persons not to invade his property llaving secured the springs and the fenced lots belonging to other people the next move will be upon the houses When the railroad which has been tho I goose that lays the golden eggs of the future advances they propose to make it pay roundly for trespassing on their grounds I prosperity in advance has made these people mad what effect will a real audition t their fortunes have upon them 1 They will put such a high price upon their labor that labor will be imported and eggs egg butter and milk will necessarily besought be-sought for in the neighboring settlements settle-ments But alas 1 should and it is by no means impossible the railroad company yet decide upon a different route Should all this be merely a bluff game on its part t frighten the Central Pacific what weeping wailing and cursing will there not be at Soda Springs All their ambi ious hopes will be blasted in the bud and their last condition will be a thousand times worse than the first I can not see that the railroad would be of any real advantage to anybody I the residents grow rich by it they will only become proud and unhappy and the summer sum-mer visitors who resort here for pleasure and recreation would gain no advantage from the innovations of a rooms and rowdyism while their expenses will not be diminished dimin-ished More than all they will lose the greatest of their enjoyment the unalloyed charms of nature the solitude tude of the plains and the mountains moun-tains which they seek a refuges for a time from the busy cares of the outside world To such people the railroad is an unwelcome VIATOK intruder |