The Fallon Standard

THE
As It Appears
To The Notary

The worst and the best exists in every city or village. Take Reno as the horrible example. She certainly puts on an excellent front, but after traversing some of the back streets, where one has no particular business, it is discovered that there is many a rutty street, weeds grow with as much vigor as is possible considering the climate and environments, and the sidewalks are not right up to the minute. It is just a case of the worst and the best of it. Fallon has considerable of the same physical trouble. The best of it is down about the school house, that is the high school, and up Williame avenue and down Stillwater avenue with a few side trips of no long duration as the weeds still hold riot, some sidewalks are overgrown and there is plenty that should not be, and as in Reno, much of this could be corrected but it is not, so that is the worst of it.

The winter is not halting on its way as the coal man can testify and so can the housewife. and while it is too late to make all the corrections that should be, they will have to linger over another season, and there has been weed seed enough grown and scattered to sow every acre of land in the county, which only adds to the worst of it.

While on the trail of the real good things about Fallon. and that is the high school, there is the want of a receptical for the refuse from lunches and waste paper. Of course the Washoe sephyr clears up the rubbish when it really gets busy. but to wait on Nature to do the clearing does seem rather careless. The front of the high school, with a perfectly good lawn, a background of phlox and embellishments of art and music and other things. is not lent attractiveness by the litter of the midday repast that was hurriedly eaten and digested by youth. On the contrary it looks mussy and a tin retainer or something that could be brought to use to restrain the elements from whirling yesterday lunchbags across the lawn and down toward the fashionable end of town would be an addition toward neatness and would at the same time install the idea of order. even if dispatch is necessary, to the ordinary digestive functions of youth.

Someone planned well when the plantings of Virginia creeper was introduced along with Woodbine, as the clingers adhere to the traditions and cling and thrive here as in no place in Nevada. It is not unusual to see the vine covered cot and even some of the fences and sheds and outbuildings are graced with this hardy and beautiful climber. At present with the ripening of fall and the touch of Jack Frost a trip about your own town is worth the effort. as the pastel colorings are gorgeous in the extreme and it won't linger long. A few maples are noted here and there about the city, and like their brothers in the east they are taking on the color of the times. While few of us are out welcoming winter, yet there are days in the autumn that are lucious from every angle of view. and "while frost is on the pumpkin. and the corn is in the shock," the recent colorings as lavishly spread by the brush of Nature is a reminder that whosoever planted vines and trees did as much for his neighbor as for himself. and if there is man, woman or child who does not enjoy that which is so lavish today they have something lacking in their mixture.

Some time this month the water man shuts off the water along the ditch lines and the festive mosquito is out of commission for another season. After many seasons spent on and about the desert, the water running free down the streets of this city is a factor that is worth chronicling. The old geography painted this valley as part of the great American desert, and many of the people outside of your own immediate section still have the old edition in mind. The generous use of water has made Fallon what it is today and the regret is that it is not taken better advantage of. There is many a block of land that should be planted to trees. Not many years back, before water was ditched, trees and lawns planted. this same city was dreaded on account of its sand storms, its bleakness and the lack of shade. There is no other city of its age in Nevada. and few in the west. that can boast of the trees that grace its avenues, and there is plenty of work ahead for the civic club to tackle on this one subject alone.

Arbor day is all right, but it never made this city beautiful. It is all owing to the water, and while it breeds as hungry mosquitoes as ever came from a wiggler, it as the same time nourishes thousands of trees that go to help make life worth living in Fallon.

At the grammar school they are teaching a lot about chickens, this means poultry, and from the little seen and learned it is a practical course, one that should result in good to the investment and the boys and girls who really want to know something about a business. This section eventually, if not now, will be a great contributor in the poultry market, and it is as much a science as the rearing of any other product on a farm. Whole sections thrive on the coast from poultry business, and people give up other vocations to get on an acre of land less than three hundred miles from here and make a living from their acre. The teaching of the business right here at home in what should be the largest poultry section in the west is good sense. It will land many a boy or girl on the trail of something that is applicable in latter life, and strange as it may seem more dollars are made minding "Biddie" than come out of degrees with three or more letters attached that don't get the youth near as close to something worth while. Practical poultry farming is today a science, as the day has passed when the clucky hen incubated at her will and thunder spoiled the eggs. Good grammar won't hurt a bit along with the gathering of knowledge and eggs.