as well as for business. Expert snowsliders can come down a steep hill as fast as a railroad train, and some attain, at times, a speed of a mile a minute.
The term "mining camp" often suggests roughness and wickedness. But Atlanta has been exceptionally free from the worst features of mining camps. There has been no fatal shooting affray in the history of the camp. It has been, since the seventies, a town of families, who have exerted a positive Christian influence. There have been Sunday-school and other Christian services for years. The people are interested in education and have a good public school. They also have a flourishing literary society. Among the attractions of the town, the hot mineral springs must not be forgotten. There are a large number of such springs in the vicinity, at one of which is a convenient bathhouse. These springs have valuable medicinal virtues.
The community is like one big family. During the winter months Atlanta is a world by itself, though not lonely in its isolation. Merry pastimes fill the hours; card parties and dancing indoors; hunting and snowshoeing outdoors. Imagine a party of twenty or more clambering up a mountain side and then with the swiftness of an eagle gliding gaily down the steep descent over the glistening snow, laughter and shout making vocal the frosty air. No end to merriment when some hapless rider plunges headlong into a snow bank. This wild pleasure is old winter's rarest gift to these denizens of this snow-embattled vale. In summer, long rambles in the wild woods in search of flowers, which bloom in profusion even to the mountain tops, horseback riding, picnics and camping parties are the diversions, filling out the year with a continuous round of pleasure, as well as of work.
The only cloud that overshadows these fair skies is the dread that some loved one may at any moment be brought home on a stretcher, crushed by a cave-in or by falling down a manhole.
Such is life in a mining camp.
"The Country Schoolma'am in Oregon in Pioneer Days," a story by the editor of The Souvenir, portraying the three phases of rural life in early times—the farm, the stock ranch, and the mines—will soon appear. The author of this book has lived amid the scenes depicted; has known the people characterized; and has learned from real life the story she has told. In the simple story of this Country Schoolma'am may the readers get a true glimpse into the simple life of country folk; and may they discern, too, the growth of character under the influences surrounding those who stand so near to nature, and discover therein the germ that expands into the strongest, most brilliant and most successful of the race when touched by the refining and enlightening influences of educational; social, and commercial opportunities.
