OAD histjory was made recently when at a meeting of representatives of highway associations of four central western and western states held In Denver the Columbia Highway-Old Oregon trail, a transcontinental high way, came into existence. Plans com pleted call for a continuous snrfaced road between Washington, D. C., and Seaside^ Wash., and Portland, Ore. The iiew system will unite the Old Oregon trail, made historic by "Cov ered Wagon" tales, the Denver-LIn coln-On^aha highway and the White Way h.ghway. It will pass through Denver, Fort Collins, Cheyenne and Granger, Wyo. ; through Pocatello, Idaho; Olympla, Wash., and Baker. Pendleton aud Portland, Ore. Present at the meeting were delegates from Col orado, Nebraska, Ortegon, Illinois and Iowa. The expressed sentiment of these delegates was that through the medium) of the transcontinental high way, millions of tcurists will be diverted from present scattered trails and highways so that they will pass through tl e cities and towns designated as points on the new system. From Chicago, the proposed route will go through Iowa to Kansas Citf, Mo., to Topeka, Kans., and Omaha, Neb., to Denver. Although, it was pointed out, many tourists aind travelers will doubtless see fit to branch off In ! Denver to the numerous scenic points of interest in Colorado, many will continue on to the Pacific coast, traveling south of Yel lowstone park. At present, according to delegates, there are but two main transcontinental arteries of auto motive traffic: Tlu Lincoln highway and the old Spanish trail to thi south. Congestion on these systems was given as the principal reason for the decision to unite Smaller highway systems into the new highway. The symbol for tlie new main artery will be the ox team and the covered wagon, made' famous by Emerson Hough's lovel, "The Covered Wagon," and the more recert plcturlzatlon of the story of the Journey of early pioneers across the danger fraught frontier, through the prairie wastes, and over the mountain Ganges of the old West. following Joint resofl ing the route of the Hon. Addison T. Ismlth of Idaho recently Intro duced In the national house of representatives, the lotion to provide for designat or Oregon trail: Whereas the Old Oregon trail, which originated at Missouri river points and traversed half a con tinent. and was the route over which the "great migration" of covered wagons and ox teams went in 1843 and sajed the Oregon country to the Unit ed States, and ov?r which for many years the homeseekers and empire builders went in great numbers and made a great producing territory out of what was formerly a wilderness; and Whereas the Oregon country at that time con sisted of all that territory between the summit of the Rocky mountains and the shores of the Pacific ocean and between the California and Canadian borders, and was held under a Joint sovereignty of England and the United States, and whose fate for all time was settled by the migration of 1843. when approximately 1,000 American men and women faced the perils of the desert and the wil derness to carve out new homes in the Oregon country and make it American territory; and Whereas thousands perished by the way and were burled in shallow graves by the old trail; and Whereas the United States has set aside as na tional monuments hiany battlefields and other his toric spots in this! country ; and Whereas the 01 the field was the Hud i son's Bay Co., whose ambition was to retain the "Oregon country" as a great fur-produc ing field and who dls l *. couraged settlement by those who desired to make homes. ' There were also the North west Co., Missouri Fur Co., the Mackinaw, * and others. In 1805 Lewis and Clark penetrated j through the vast wll- j derness and reached the mouth of the Co lumbia river and made extensive and accurate surveys of the region. Their return and the report of the country that they found west ? . s I ' rs ffe&Jier' strtd ihe Ttbabcl of the Rockies stirred up great Interest in the hitherto almost unknown region. Meriwether Lewis, a native of Virginia, while serving as secretary to President Jefferson, was "recommended by the President to congress to com mand the exploring expedition to the Pacific. He set out accompanied by his associate, Capt. Wil liam Clark and a company of nine young men from Kentucky. Their friendships and success In their efforts is a most interesting feature of the history of the great northwestern country. Perhaps no scout or frontiersman gained more notoriety than the famous Christopher (Kit) Car son, who figured In a conspicuous manner with the Oregon trail. Carson was a native of Ken tucky.' He moved with his parents at the age of ten to Missouri, becoming a hunter, trapper and professional guide. He acted as guide to Fre mont in his exploration of the Rocky mountains in 1842-4, and conducted parties overland to Cal ifornia during the rush Df 1849-50 to the newly discovered gold fields. The celebrated pilgrimage from Fort Hall to Walla Walla and the Willamette valley, made In 1843, the migration which took 1,000 men, women and children to the "Oregon country," clinched for ever the right of the United States to It by actual occupation of bona fide settlers. In 1847 the Mormons traversed a portion of the trail on their pilgrimage -to the great Salt Lake. In 1849 came the great rush for gold fields In California, and the gold seekers left the old trail at tlie Raft river In Idaho and the Malheur in Oregon and headed south. In 1852-53 there came the greatest migration of homeseekers and home builders that the world has ever seen. The first Christian missionaries to Oregon were Jason and Daniel Lee, Methodist, who arrived In 1834 ; Rev. Samuel Parker, Congregatlonallst. In 1835; Dr. Marcus Whitman and wife, Rev. H. H. Spauldlng and wife and W. H. Gray, Presbyteri ans, In 1836; Rev. David Leslie and wife, Metho dists, In 1837; Rev. Elkanah Walker and wife, and Cushlng Eells and wife, Congregatlonallsts, In 1838; Rev. Francis Notbert Blanchet and Rev. Modeste Demers, Catholics. In 1838, and Peter John De Smet, Catholic, In 1840. One cause of the missionary movement to the "Oregon country" was one largely sentimental and' appealing powerfully to the Imagination arid call * of self-sacrifice, which was one of the greatest ele ments In the life of a missionary, was the occur rence which happened In 1831/ when four Flathead Indians sent a commission of four Indians to St. Louis in search of "The white man's book of heaven." The Indians found General Clark, who blazed the way across the continent with Lewis and told him their story. General Clark explained at best he could to the Indians the history of man, the birth of Christ, precepts of the Bible, the death and resurrection of Jesus. ? ? ? ' " ? ? ? ? And so It came to pass that In 1006 another man with a vision appeared upon the scene. Ezra Meeker, then seventy-six years of age, who Jour neyed across In 1852 as a young man. with his Jbride, outfitted himself with an ox team and prairie schooner and set out from his home In Puyallup, Wash., to go back over the trail he had traversed as a boy. And as he went he marked the way clear through to the Missouri river with substantial stone monuments. He proceeded on and drove his oxen down Fifth avenue in New York city and to Washington, D. C., where he was met with outstretched hand by President Roose velt, who welcomed him to Washington and con gratulated him on the vision which prompted him to make a trip across a continent in a slow mov ing prairie schooner to try and awaken In the minds of the people a love and veneration for the deeds of those who faced and conquered the des ert and the wilderness, made history for America, and saved to the United States a vast territory. Meeker duplicated his trip In 1910, and today at the age of ninety-three, he Is still working for na tional recognition of the Old Oregon trail and endeavoring to have the story of thte old trail pre served to posterity. In the accompanying Illustration Mr. Meeker Is shown with President P. L. Campbell of the Uni versity of Oregon, examining Avard Fairbanks model of a statue In memory of the western pi oneers, at the University Art school. "Dummy Cow" Ruled Not Good Evidence f The Supreme fourt of Oregon has reversed the decijsion of a trial court In the prosecution of a man accused of stealing a eo-w, In which plecae of hide and the heafl of the animal were offered as exhibits. One of the wit nesses for the state, a harness maker, who had no knowledge of taxidermy, sewed together a cowhide and the ?kin of a cow's bead, which bad been Jusly offered as evidence against the accused, and stuffed them to re semble a cow. The prosecuting attor ney had the dummy cow brought In to emphasize his argument. The defend ant's attorney objected on the ground that the dummy was offered for the atrical effect, but the trial judge per mitted the UBe of the stuffed cow be cause it was analogous to piecing to gether broken property, such as a mirror. The Supreme court, in revers Ing the verdict, ruled that the cow had 110 place In the prosecutor's aiyument because of the uncertainty as to the component parts of the dummy and the failure to offer testimony as to their .arrangement. Jewels Closely Guarded The jewels of the Gaekwar of Ba roda are kept In the Nazarbag palace In Baroda. They are valued at many million pounds. The finest thing in the collection Is a pearl necklace valued at 12,500,000. The jewels are only pro* duced.for inspection when a special or der is procured, signed by the maha rajah and several heads of depart ments. !Tlie Oaekwar is a protected Mahratta prince. The state has been tributary to Great Britain since 1802. America's Growth The total area of the 18 original states which formed the nucleus of our great nation was 892,136 square miles. The territory under the flag of the United States it now four times that area. / v ? ' Skis Put on the Air Mail Planes ? i ,v., 4i M '? ' wmm ' ? '"'>,&?< < s i On orders from Carl F. Egge, superintendent of air malj service, all the mail planes are equipped with skis when there is more than a fqot of snow on the ground. The plane in the picture, at the Omaha landing field, was changed from wheels to skis within 15 minutes. . .. ? ?*' Homeless Are Fed and Housed Ancient Custom Revived by Monks of St. Christopher in New York. \ New York. ? Less than BO miles north of New York city, on top of a hill near Bear/ mountain, stands a lit tle bouse. Frpm Its doorstep you look off to the south, over 30 miles of snow covered hills, and see the gleam of the Hudson below ; and you look off to the north and see the crests of the Catskllls. The name of the little house is St. Christopher's Inn. In the last 15 years fully 15,000 tattered, foot sore, hungry and penniless wanderers who came tramping along the road have been fed and given a lodging for the night at St Christopher's Inn. Around and above the little house are larger buildings. Along the paths that Join them walk priests in brown robes, girdled with white cords, jmd wearing sandals. Looking at them, one wonders If this la truly the year 1925 and If this place Is really New York. Rather, it would seem that the spectator had stepped back a thousand years and across 8,000 miles to the England of the medieval centuries when sandaled monks gave bread and lodging to the travelers who knocked at the monastery door. The same garb, the same charity, the same scene. How did this strange renaissance of a custom buried for centuries come about? What was the origin of St Christopher's Inn at Garrison. New York? Twenty-six years age, In 1880, a convent was dedicated on the Al bany Post road, three' miles from the railroad station .at Garrison. It was occupied by nuns of a hew religious order, knowns as Sisters of the Atone ment The highway is the main road between New York and Albany and betwen the West and the East and every day Jobless men tramp along It on their way to the cities. The Mother Superior, Sister Laurana Mary, gave directions that any man who stopped to beg for a bite to eat was to be fed, asking of him In return only that he bring a bucket or two of wa? ter from the well to the kitchen door. A few months later the American clergyman who bad conceived the Idea of the companion religious order, the Friars of the Atonement Father Paul James Francis, began to build up his brotherhood of monks, selecting as the site of the friary the top of the moun tain that overlooks the convent The mountain was named Graymoor, after Dr. Za brlskle Gray, the pastor of the little church -which was taken over by the Sisters of the Atonement, and Mr. Moore, a Columbia professor who had helped Doctor Gray. The jobless men to whom meals had been given by the Sisters had spread the word among the men like themselves whom they met on their wanderings; and when these newcomers reached the place they were sent on up the hill to Father Paul's Uttie chapel. From year to year the fame of the place was passed from Hp to lip among the jobless wan derers until soon it was known among them from Boston to San Francisco. And every tramp and hobo who stops there, no matter how ragged and dirty be may be, Is hailed by the monks ss "Brother Christopher." Story of Christopher. From the first, back In 1900, these men were given a place to sleep over night If they wished It The Friary was In Its Infancy them, there were only two or three monks besides Fa ther Paul, and the only building In which the men might sleep was an old woodshed, which Is still standing and Is still used for the purpose. One of its present occupants Is an old Irishman, with the high, thin, Spanish features of s true Galway man, who came limping along the Post road one day 19 years ago, stopped overnight and has remained there ever since. It is be who can tell who the first Christopher was, and this is his story: "Christopher was a heathen lad who lived 1700 years ago, np less. His father was king of Arabia, and the young lad might have had anything he wished. His back was as tall as a house and bis shoulders were flat as s wall and he was bigger than any cop and stronger than Jack Dempsey. But he had queer notions, he had. "He said he wouldn't work for his father because, let his father be a very powerful king, he was not the | most powerful king on earth ; and ' Christopher had it on his mind he j would not work for any except tiie most powerful king of them all. So J the old king says to him, 'All right, If that's your notion ye may leave the palace and shift for yourself.' So then the devil himself sajfe to Christopher. 'And why don't ye wflrk for me? 8ure, it's me that is stronger than any Ung en earth 1' But the lad Christopher laughed at him, for well he knew that the devil waa afraid of some one stronger than himself; but who that> some one was, Christopher didn't know then, him being a, heathen. "So, having no job and no money, Christopher takes to living in the mountains of that country, and there was s terrible swift river there, and NOT NUGGET BUT ONION STARTED FIRST GOLD RUSH Fading of Bit of Oro on Plant Re sponsible for 8torles Which 8ent Crowd* to California. Los Angeles. ? Recent reports that the original first nugget of Califor nia gold was In the possession of a private collector In New York have aroused chroniclers of Southern Cal ifornia's history to remind the pub lic that It was an onion* not Sutter's mill, that started the first California gold rush. Moreover, these chroniclers relate, that onion grew in the San Fernando valley northwest of here, hundreds of miles south of Sutter's mill, and the gold rush It started began In 1841; seven years before James Mar shall's discovery of gold In El Dorado county. It was on March 8, 1841, that Fran cisco Lopez was riding through San Fellclano canyon with a companion ? I ? . ? ? and stopped to eat lunch tinder a tree. Lopez liked onions, and when be saw a wild one crowing within arm'a reach he leaned over to dig It op with hla knife and add It to his meaL Clinging to the roota of that onion were many amall plecea of fold. Soon the rnah waa on. ? a far north aa Santa Barbara and aa far south as San Diego the news of the gold strike spread. In a few, weeka hun dreds of men were sifting the sanda of the canyon for gold, and some were finding It In profitable quantitlea. . Hostilities between the United Statea and Mexico interrupted the placer mining, and when, in 1865, min ing activities were resumed In the San Fernando* field, the later but greater gold rush started by the discovery of nuggets at Sutter'a mill In the North waa In fnll swing. Estimates of the amount of gold taken out of the San Fernando placers ?ar 7 widely, bat such data 8! are able Indicate that more than $5,0000 to placer gold has been shipped wt' Lob Angeles county since Lopei ? revealed the existence of th? hera. i Moving Mountain Perils I i South Wales Communal Bargoed, South Wales.? ilovet???i of TroedrhJwfuwch mountain *1 here have done great property ^1 age and become a menace to thtc*I m unity. I Fresh Assures have appeared it1"! too t of the moving mountain md 1*1 the near?bj highways have been d*! to traffic. Water mains supplying than 100,000 persons In the ft J?" I valley have been broken by M ?^| WW of the moving earth and hundred workmen have been to make repairs as rapidly as Several sections of a ne*'J structed main trunk Fewer w&M I more than $3,000,000 have nlreadjt*! destroyed and In some placet tieP^I were pushed twenty to thirty W I of position. I the river was go strong that traveler who tried t? cross j, SI be swept off his feet and dro JJM tlrely. So Christopher. strong back, as I told yp beart, used to put any traveler gtoqtders and carry him &Ct^ raging river, and the travel^ much as wetting his feet. And topher would say, 'Sure, if, at all at all, and It's glad j do It' ?Then one bitter cold fa, n a little child, all alone, comes < Uig along that terrible lonely /.toss this terrible river r, you about ; and of fours* puts blm up on his hack ? - ???cr I'm w you about ; and of course Chrt*? puts blm up on his hark as t-ajy feather and starts across. ^ But the further he K<*s ^ h . . gets the child, until by half *^,^1 Christopher says to hlmesi?, ir,^l rylng the weight of the wbole I am, and me legs br<.-nkinK un^^.l But he keeps on. and at lon*!^ sets the child down <>n the other *1 But "when he looks up. lo ar, % 9 ' L* ! ,p( V* pairs" responded to the can of C. E. St John, superlnt? r r? ^ they report for an official photograph. Tyro !? (be ftdf*