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Show HIGH PRICES'. 93 An old settler made $15,000 that year from a few acres of land planted in potatoes. The next year he invested this money in gardening on a large scale, but alas! that year the grasshoppers came thick as the locusts in Egypt, and ate up everything on the ranches except the mortgages. A story is told of a citizen sending a calf to a butcher, who also dealt in vegetables. The citizen's wife gave a dinner party about that time, and when the butcher presented his bill it was discovered that the cabbage used on that occasion, at fifty cents a pound, came to just as much as the calf brought. Irrigation was in its infancy then, and water a very desirable and-almost unattainable liquid, so much so, indeed, that neighbors in some cases came to blows over its proper distribution, and on dark nights many a person stole out, hoe in hand, and secretly turned the flow of water into his own premises, thereby robbing someone of his portion. Even if the water was obtained legitimately, it was a scant supply, and it was by dint of the" hardest labor that trees and shrubbery were induced to grow, before the era of Holly water. It was difficult to obtain hired help in those days. All the spinsters who emigrated came for the ostensible purpose of doing missionary work or teaching school, while their real mission was to catch one of the fortunate gold seekers. Finding teaching unprofitable, because of the limited number of children, they resorted to housework, requesting all the privileges of the family, which provoked the following advertisement: "WANTED-A girl to do housework. She will be permitted to receive company every day in the week; a good substantial fence will be provided to lean against while courting, and ample time will be accorded for that recreation, but no piano will be furnished. Inquire at A. McCune's residence, head of H. Street, Brown's addition." |
