240 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



vestigate reported favorably, and a lot of the mail 

 clerks purchased land in that vicinity, and were conse- 

 quently inclined to think that they had been misled 

 by the advice of the writer. 



The company referred to was subsequently re- 

 organized, and since then that section of the country 

 has shown wonderful development, and all of the men 

 who invested are doing well. This incident is cited 

 to show how a man may honestly advise another and 

 yet mislead him. That circumstance taught the writer 

 a lesson, and he has never, in reply to other inquiries, 

 specified any particular project or section of the coun- 

 try. The advice given has always been to take a suffi- 

 cient sum of money to make a general tour of the 

 west, and not to purchase until several projects have 

 been carefully examined so that the intending pur- 

 chaser may judge by comparison which is the better 

 of the lot. This is the advice that THE IRRIGATION 

 AGE offers now to all intending settlers on irrigation 

 areas of the west. One or two hundred dollars spent 

 in careful investigation of not one, but several locali- 

 ties, is the best initial investment that any possible 

 colonist may make. 



When it comes to making improve- 

 Electric Car ments that count we must give full 

 Service at credit to the enterprising people of 



Twin Falls, southern Idaho. As the readers of 

 Idaho. this journal are aware it is only a 



little more than five years ago that 

 the country south of the Snake river was a barren 

 waste. Today it is dotted with profitable farms and 

 prosperous towns. A branch of the Oregotl Short 

 Line has been constructed through this part of the 

 state as far west as Buhl. Twin Falls, the principal 

 town, is a thriving, handsome place of 8,000 or 10,000 

 people, thoroughly up to date in modern conveniences. 

 This development is entirely due to the efforts of such 

 progressive people as I. B. Perrine, H. L. Hollister, 

 Frank S. Buhl, the Kuhns, of Pittsburgh, and the 

 extraordinarily good class of settlers whom they have 

 induced to locate in the Twin Falls country. 



Wonderful as are the changes wrought in that 

 region the people were hardly prepared to give seri- 

 ous attention to another development project sug- 

 gested by Mr. Perrine something over a year ago 

 that of building and operating an electric railway be- 

 tween Twin Falls and Shoshone Falls. Even the doubt- 

 ers admitted that it would be a good thing, but few 

 could see how it was to be accomplished. It was in 

 their opinion, the roseate vision of an enthusiast ; 

 something possible, perhaps, in the misty future, but 

 not to be thought of as a reality in the present. 



A few weeks ago, on Saturday, May 3, a trial 

 trip was made with two new electric cars, the property 

 of the Twin Falls Railway Company, from Twin Falls 



to Buhl and return over that new line. The round 

 trip' of 34 miles occupied about 70 minutes of actual 

 running time. The cars used are the first to be pur- 

 chased by t the Perrine-Hollister Company, and are a 

 guarantee that the projected line is no longer a dream. 

 Motive power is furnished by the Edison storage bat- 

 tery system, which has been brought to a stage of 

 economical perfection. So far as the power is con- 

 cerned it would doubtless be cheaper to utilize that 

 generated by the power house at Shoshone Falls, but 

 this would require the erection of poles and wires at 

 a practically prohibitive cost. Under the storage bat- 

 tery plan no poles or wires are necessary. The trial 

 trip to Buhl, in which some 90 people participated, 

 was made over the rails of the Oregon Short Line, 

 the electric cars being of standard gauge. 



From Twin Falls to Shoshone Falls is a distance 

 of approximately six miles. Rails are laid to a point 

 well beyond the limits of Twin Falls, and the road 

 bed is graded for the entire distance. The laying of 

 rails on the rest of the road will be advanced as speed- 

 ily #s possible. In order to bring as much of the 

 country as possible within reach of the new road, con- 

 nection between Twin Falls -and Shoshone Falls is 

 laid out in the form of a loop, the cars to run out one 

 way and return another. There is no financial or man- 

 agerial connection between the Short Line and the 

 electric road. The trial trip was made over the tracks 

 of the former as a matter of courtesy, the electric peo- 

 ple not having enough of their line completed to fur- 

 nish a fair test of the new cars. 



This is the beginning of an electric railway sys- 

 tem with which it is proposed to bring all parts of the 

 Twin Falls country into close and economic communi- 

 cation. It is illustrative of the progressive spirit which 

 dominates that section of Idaho. 



MAIL BY FREIGHT. 



From Popular Mechanics. 



It is greatly to be hoped the new postmaster-gen- 

 eral will in the near future reverse the action of Mr. 

 Hitchcock, who was responsible for sending large 

 quantities of mail by freight. For many years the 

 ]X)licy of the Postoffice Department was to expedite 

 and improve the transmission and delivery of mail. 

 It remained for Mr. Hitchcock, in the exercise of the 

 wide personal power vested in the postmaster-general, 

 to take the first decided step backward. 



His scheme, which he excused on a claim of 

 economy, was to send some of the second-class mail 

 by freight trains part of the distance and then transfer 

 it to a mail train for the remainder of the trip. For 

 instance, second-class mail originating in Chicago, and 

 addressed to subscribers in the southeastern states, was 

 taken by freight to Cincinnati. Later haul by freight 

 train was extended to Atlanta before getting mail- 

 train service. The result was what might have been 

 predicted and publishers have been busy ever since 



