Mr. Editor: I take
this method to give you and other friends in Watauga a peep at old Montana, the
land of cattle and sheep, wolves, prairie dogs and mosquitoes. The sheep herder
and cow girl; the land of vim and git, and where a shilling is called a “bit.”
I am located at Roundup, the infant town that has just cut
its two-year-old teeth. It is located on the Musselshell river in Furgus county
on the Milwaukee railroad. There are four coal mines in full blast, each mine
working three shifts of hands, each shift working eight hours. They get $3.60
each, while many make from $8 to $10 by contract. The coal is of a high grade
and there seems to be no end to it. The town has about 35,000 population, six
hotels, eight lodging or boarding houses, 15 restaurants, 18 saloons that are
kept open day and night, two drug stores, two bakeries, two blacksmith shops,
six livery stables, two auto garages, two laundries, three ice cream parlors,
two newspapers, one theatre in which there is a performance each night, a city
judge, major and four policemen.
The language here is as badly confused as was that of the
builders of the Towel of Babel. However, the people are generous, with open
hearts, open hands and open pocket-books, and do not mind to give six bits or a
buck to a Poll in hard luck.
“But oh!” I heard some one say, “those horrible saloons.”
Yes, they are here, with three cold storage houses for beer, representing three
of the largest breweries in the west, each running one or two wagons daily
delivering beer. Everybody drinks beer out hear the same as the people of the
South drink water or milk. “But,” says one, “oh, the drunkenness.” No, the town
has but little trouble with drunkards. I have seen more sand raised, hollowing
and cursing from one quart in North Carolina than I’ve seen here with 18
saloons.
You young men who have got to get your start by your labor,
come out to Montana. It is evidently the best state in the Union for wages and
opportunities. Common laborers get $3.50 for 8 hours; carpenters $5; brick
masons $6; while a blacksmith gets $2.50 for shoeing a horse. This is destined
to be a great farming country. Steam and gasoline plows are running day and
night. The land is being taken up as fast as it is opened, and the people are
flocking here from all parts of the world.
--W.H. Byrd, Roundup, Mont.
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