MILLING WITH THE NIGHT HERD 



frontier life, of those days of the survival of the fit- 

 test when it was most unwise to hold, and often dan- 

 gerous to apply an impractical theory. In a country 

 built by an empirically-acting generation, everything 

 had to relate and adapt itself to the positive conditions 

 to be faced there. 



These border days imposed a peculiarly practical 

 application even of religion to daily life. Within the 

 memory of some Pendletonians church hours were ac- 

 commodated to horse races. More than one dance was 

 given in a saloon to raise money to furnish a church. 

 Even religion was not always allowed to interfere with 

 pleasure. Once the superintendent of the union Sun- 

 day school kept his expectant flock of lambs and angel- 

 children impatiently waiting for a considerable space 

 of time. Upon his tardy appearance, he confidently as 

 well as confidentially remarked, as though the reason 

 for the delay was a most worthy one, that "the poker 

 game I was sitting in on was so plumb interesting, I 

 couldn't break away from the boys." 



Now turn into that Pendleton institution of human 

 ingenuity, Happy Canyon, which means a spot right 

 in the heart of Pendleton where every one can com- 

 plete a day of frontier fun. The main structure was 

 completed in 1916 at a cost of twelve thousand dollars, 

 the bleachers having a seating capacity of about five 

 thousand people. Out in the arena you see the rip- 

 roaring life of the range in its fullness, and at its best, 

 but in Happy Canyon you see, drawn more vividly 

 than any pen or brush can depict, the life of the fron- 

 tier town. 



If you follow the Umatilla down from Pendleton, 

 it will take you to where nature has sculptured out a 

 wide defile before it broadens into the prairie. Today 



103 



