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The TALENT NEWS is published the 1st. and l5th. of each month.
EDWARD ROBISON EDITOR.

SUBSCRIPTION RATES.
One year................ 25 cents
Six months.............. 1/4 of a dollar,
Three months............ Two bits.

Entered at the Talent Post Office as second
class mail matter.

LOCAL ITEMS.

Mr. McClurg has moved his family to Talent.

The oldest inhabitant remembereth not a more backward spring than the present.

Welborn Beeson has secured about 25 subscribers for the NEWS. Thanks.

Last week three horses belonging to Ben. Netherland were seriously injured by being kicked by a loose horse.

Wm. Addison has sold his farm of 25 acres just north of Talent to Mathew Stewart of Tacoma, Wash.; consideration $2700. Mr. Addison contemplates building on his land north of the Anderson road.

Many people about Talent are indignant over the pilfering of eggs from their premises just before Easter. Some of these days somebody or several somebody's will get caught at this sneak-thieving work and be given an opportunity to view the beauties of nature through grated windows.

The special school meeting which was to be held on the last Saturday of this month for the purpose of voting a tax to build a new school house, has been declared off. It seems that according to the new assessment law such school tax could not be collected during the present year.

CARD OF THANKS.

We desire to tender thanks to our neighbors for their prompt assistance in fighting the flames and saving our household goods when our dwelling was destroyed by fire, and also for the needed accommodations and other acts of kindness offered our family until a temporary dwelling could be erected.
Jas. Purves,
Arminda Purves

Ben. Dyer has leased and now occupies Warren Lynch's blacksmith shop. The temporary structure erected near his house was too small and inconvenient to suit his constantly increasing business. Mr. Dyer has few superiors as a smith and machinest and is one of the most ingenious all-round mechanics to be found in this or any other country. We hope he will continue in business in Talent for a long time to come.

CARD OF THANKS.

We desire to publicly tender our sincere thanks to the many kind friends and neighbors for their aid and sympathy during our late bereavement.
B. C. Goddard,
Mrs. M. H. Coleman,
Mrs. W. J. Dean,
H. H. Goddard,
O. R. Goddard.

Mrs. Jessie Gould arrived here from Baker City a few weeks since to make her home with her aunt, Mrs. P. Fowler.

Her husband was killed near Tacoma. Wash., on Jan. 22nd, by a log rolling upon him; a few days later her infant child died after a brief illness; and now her only remaining child, a bright boy of three years, was consigned to earth in the Talent cemetery on the 4th. inst. having fallen victim to measles and fever.

Few persons have had greater misfortunes in so short a period. In the space of ten weeks she has lost a husband and her two children. The scene at the grave was affecting indeed. To see that young mother, whose sorrow was too deep and intense for violent, outward manifestation, bending over her darling, yet beautiful in death and imprinting last and loving kisses upon those pallid lips, brought sympathetic tears to the eves of every spectator. We cannot err when we say that the bereaved mother has the heartfelt sympathy of every person in the community.

ANOTHER VICTIM OF COCAINE.

From our special reporter.
The old residents will remember Logan J. Estes as a boy some twenty five years ago, living at Welborn Beeson's and attending the public school here and who went directly from the Wagner creek school to Portland to attend the medical college. He graduated with high honors and was afterwards awarded a diploma from the Philadelphia Medical University, settled in Baker City in this state and had a very successful practice and was known far and near as one of the best physicians in the state, but was brought last week to the asylum laboring under the idea that some one was trying to injure him with electricity. His mania was caused by the excessive use of the pernicious drug, cocaine, to which so many students in our colleges become addicted.

A GENUINE HUSTLER.

BY WELBORN BEESON.

A number of years ago a man came to Wagner creek financially flat broke. As to that, scores of men have made their appearance on said creek in the same condition. But this particular man was a different specimen from the majority and therefore elicits this episode of history.

He approached a farm residence at the midday hour and was invited to partake of one of those hearty dinners for which the farmers of these days were noted.

After dinner he informed the farmer that he had not a cent to pay but if an ax was furnished he would show that he was both able and willing to remunerate for the hospitality shown him. He did so well at the wood pile that the proprietor told him he might work a week at cutting wood for which he would pay him two dollars and board per day, wages being higher at that time than now because it was before the gold trust monoply of Wall street governed the finances of our country.

At the time there was a sawmill running where George H. Lynch now resides.

Before the week was out our wood chopper had a contract to cut saw-logs at one dollar per thousand feet, in which he succeeded so well that he cut the logs faster than the teamsters could haul, although but a short distance from the mill yard.

Before the second week ended, our log cutter had the contract to both cut and haul the logs and at the end of third week had purchased the sawmill, logging team and everything thereto belonging, to be paid for in lumber. Before three months had passed since his first arrival, he had made a corner on the lumber trade of the county, having purchased every saw mill and logging team in the county, had crews of men at each, superintended the whole business himself, was constantly in the saddle riding from one mill to the other and employing several hundred men and teams. The local butcher of Wagner creek having the contract to supply the camps with beef, sometimes slaughtered five beeves a day to supply the demand. Our
mill man became the best known man in the valley, doing such an immense business that he had the confidence of the moneyed class and his paper would be cashed on sight by almost anyone having money to loan. He would start from Wagner creek to ride to some distant mill properties, would travel as fast as his horse could run until it began to show signs of weariness, when he would trade for a fresh one from anyone he met giving what ever difference was asked. In this manner he did business for ten months going almost day and night, never sleeping more than two hours at a time. All at once it became known that he was missing and no one ever saw him in Jackson county again. When it was ascertained that he was gone, investigations proved that he had gone on horseback towards Crescent City. The Creditors settled up the business and the assets were found to be ten thousand dollars short of enough to pay the indebtedness. But singular enough none of the laboring men or small traders lost a dollar. It was only the capitalists and wealthy merchants that were left in the cold. It was proven that he made a start to leave when he discovered he was going to make a failure and got as far as Rock Point when he happened to remember that he owed a poor man at Phoenix one hundred dollars.

Finding a wealthy man that had three yoke of cattle, he bought them on credit, drove them up to Jacob Ishes', whom he owed several hundred dollars, offered Ish the cattle for three hundred dollars, two hundred to be applied on what he owed Ish and a hundred in cash. He then came up to Phoenix paid the poor man his hundred and made the second start, telling a confidential friend that he could now leave with a clear concience for he had not wronged a laboring man of a dollar and had been the means of distributing a large amount of capital held by rich misers and they could fight, it out over the old saw mills and work cattle he left behind, he having only the sum of forty dollars and his saddle horse more than he had ten months before on his appear-ance on Wagner creek. Any of the old settlers that happen to read this will know who has been described in the fore going without mentioning the name, Wilber Louis. Subsequently the writer learned that Louis entered into the saw mill business on the Coquille on a much more extensive scale, having vessels to carry lumber to San Francisco. But one day while helping about a raft of logs his leg was caught between two logs and crushed.

He lingered in great suffering a few weeks and died. Thus ended the career of one of the most powerful, energetic and kind hearted men that ever made a mark on Wagner creek. Requiescat in pace.

TALENT IN 1993.

The predictions for 1993 that have been going the rounds of the press have reference mainly to the large cities of the Union. One prophet lifts the veil of the future and sees Denver the largest city in 1993; another sees Chicago the largest.

Of course New York and other cities have there friends among the prophets.

It is presumable that each prediction favors the city in which the prophet is most interested. Now, ye editor of the NEWS is, of course, most interested in his own town. Nothing would suit us better than to read the horoscope of Talent and make a full report to our readers; but there being no astrologer doing business in this valley, we can do nothing in that line. But we are not discouraged.

Spooks are always available. There are probably more spooks, good, bad and indifferent, to the cubic foot about Talent than can be found around any other town in Southern Oregon, not even excepting Ashland. Now, spooks are bashful creatures; they don't like to talk with people that are wide awake. It is necessary to enter into a full or semi-trance condition.

If one has learned how to do this, his way is clear. Having taken lessons in the art of going to sleep at will, we resolved by this means to woo the sprites of the air and note the result. So, with note book in hand, we seat ourself in the one chair in our office, with our feet resting comfortably on a type case, draw the mantle of forgetfulness about us, close our eyes, become mentally "passive" and await developments. After the usual preliminaries we are controlled by a spook gentleman who announces himself as a noted prophet of old, who has been constantly perfecting his prophetic powers during the long centuries since he was doing business in that line on earth, and that he has got the art of reading the future down to so fine a point that he is sure of hitting it every time.

Then we asked:

  "What will our Talent be  
  In nineteen-ninety-three?"

Then in slow and measured phrase he gives us the following startling information, our pencil keeping pace with his words: --

"Varily the hamlet of Talent hath a wonderful future. With my trained eyes I will peer through the mists of tho century to come and thou shalt know the truth.

Knowest thou that the growth of a city dependeth upon the mighty men that dwell therein? Varily there are many valiant men in Talent and they have great possessions; but their desire lyeth not in the way of building cities. One would sell all that he hath and journey to a far country, yea to the city of Oakland; another selleth goods in the market place and maketh bacon of swine's flesh, yea the flesh that was condemmed under the Law; the desire of another is to thresh out the grain that growcth in the valley; another putteth his shekels into banks and the town seeth them not. The mighty captain of the tribe of Populists looketh afar off for greater honors that the tribe may g:ve unto him; another liveth the forlorn life of a bachelor and his desire is to return to a far country, yea the country of Faderland, and take unto himself a wife. I see two mighty men of your town, yea they are spiritual counselors, but they would not have the people place their affections on things of earth, even to the rearing of cities. A worker in wood also dwelleth in your town but I see that he laboreth in neighboring cities more than in his own. Your young men and maidens journey to the south and to the north and Talent knoweth them no more. Many there are that dwell in the country round about who might come out to the help of the city if the mighty men therein would lead the way. I see a man of large possession who dwelleth on the high way that leadeth towards Medford. but he has many trained dogs and his desire is to hunt the bear, the deer and the coon; yea he is a mighty hunter; there is none like him in the land. To the west I see a man who tilleth a large orchard where groweth the peach, the apple and the pear, but his chief desire is to delve into the earth for the gold that is the root of all evil. I see a highway that leadeth by a creek that is called Wagner. One of the dwellers thereon is, I should judge, a collector of taxes for he constantly journeyeth throughout the country round about. The desire of many others that dwell near by is to read the blasphemous writings that are found in certain books and papers and they have no part in the town. Varily none of these people putteth forth an effort to build up the city of Talent. But varily I make known unto thee that in a brief time a mighty man will journey to Talent. Yea he will become a leader. He will establish a great market place and people will come from the uttermost parts of the valley to exchange their produce for his wares. This mighty man will employ scribes to write the merits of Talent and publish the same in the NEWS and all other great newspapers of the land. Varily thousands of people from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south, that read of

TALENT NEWS.
April 15th. 1893.

the beauties of your town, journey hither, buy town lots and build houses upon them and dwell therein. Workers in wood and workers in iron, carvers of stone, makers of raiment, skilled workers in brass, teachers of schools, preachers of the gospel, doctors of medicine, and doctors of law; yea every trade and every profession is represented. A score of years pass and lo! and behold, Phoenix is absorbed in Talent. I peer into the future and note its marvelous growth. A century passes.

I see spread out before me a mighty city. It extendeth from beyond Ashland on the south to Medford on the north; yea these three are one and the length there-of is one score miles and the width there-of is one fourth of the length thereof.

But lo! the name is changed. The three cities unite, their names are blended, the great city is called TALASHFORD.

I behold massive buildings and lofty towers, extensive parks and lovely gardens. And electric railway runneth the length of the city. I see magnificent school buildings supplied with the most wonderful apparatus for use in teaching the young the beauties and wonders of the world around them. I see a mighty structure in the center of the city; yea it hath eight stories. On the front is an arch on which is written NEWS BUILDING. I look within. Wonderful to behold! Varily the NEWS is as large as the blanket that covereth a horse and it hath a million readers:" --

That quickly brought us out of our trance and the spook fled. But we sat and pondered over the wonderful disclosures, gazed long and musingly about our office and -- drew comparisons.

A three months term of public school commenced at the Lynch school house last Monday with Miss. Nellie Towne as teacher. At the same time Miss. Ella Terrill commenced a two months term of private school at the Talent school house.

Rev. A. J. Wilcox preached at the Lynch school house on the 2nd inst., to a fair sized audience.

There are several Sunday and Sabbath schools in this vicinity and there is talk of several more starting in the near future.
Place your subscriptions with the Ashland News Stand for the various papers and magazines which you desire to take and you will save cost of money-order and postage.

On Easter Sunday we feasted on the last of our Isabella grapes that had been preserved by waxing the stems and then packing in oats. In this way one can have fresh grapes all winter.

There is great ado over the feat that Miss. Mitchell, a Chicago young lady, is attempting, that of traveling 12000 miles by rail without setting her dainty little foot on the cold, damp ground, and without the assistance of any male escort to run errands and protect her from ruffians and train robbers. A remarkable feat indeed! Her route is marked out, railroad officials all along the lines are notified of her coming and requested to show her every attention; she has passes for the whole trip and the best of accommodations in palace coaches, so that all the care that need burden her mind is to order her meals when she is hungry.

The whole thing is a railroad scheme to illustrate how easy it is to travel in the United States. And how it illustrates it!

Young children are often "expressed" thousands of miles in like manner. In such cases no care and but little intelligence are expected to be exercised by the "passengers." A more reasonable test would he to have an average young lady with the same brief notice, set out on a trip of like extent, paying her own way, looking after all the details, with no instructions whatever and traveling incog.

Don't forget that E. M. Deauvaul is the Talent shoemaker, and does his work up in good shape, for moderate prices.

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