The Harris-Ingram ExperimentBolton, Charles E. (Charles Edward)
Science
The Harris-Ingram Experiment
Bolton, Charles E. (Charles Edward)
Science fiction, American
Three days' journey brought young Harris to Montana, an inland empire
state, which lies on both sides of the Rocky Mountains. The Pacific
Express was laden with a motley crowd of men and women in search of fame
and fortune. Alfonso soon caught their enthusiasm, and visions of castles
with gilded domes floated in his imagination.
It was 1:35 P.M. when No. 1, the Pacific Express, pulled into thrifty
Helena, capital of Montana, a commercial metropolis metamorphosed from
a rude mining camp of twenty-five years ago.
The electric cars carried Alfonso to the Hotel Helena on Grand St.,
which he thought quite as good as any in his own city. Here he was
fortunate in meeting Mr. Davidson, a gentleman of large experience
as owner, organizer, and locator of some of the best gold and silver
properties in Montana and adjoining states. Irrigating canals and
water-rights were a special branch of Mr. Davidson's business. He never
failed to make the round of the leading hotels after the arrival of the
Overland. In this way he met Alfonso Harris. Davidson knew when to tell a
good story, and when to be serious. He took Alfonso to the Club, located
in elegant quarters, and the secretary gave him a complimentary visitor's
card. Davidson quickly discerned that Harris needed a week's rest, and so
took him on the motor line two miles out to the Hotel Broadwater and
Natatorium. No wonder the citizens of Helena take pride in their fine
health resort, the Helena Hot Springs.
Mr. Davidson introduced Alfonso to Colonel Broadwater, who extended the
hospitalities of his hotel on which he had expended a fortune. The
verandas were long and wide, the park was dotted with fountains, and the
interior of the hotel was luxurious in all its furnishings. The mammoth
plunge bath was the largest in the world under a single cover. Curative
mineral waters, steaming hot, flowed in abundantly from the grotto. In
the natatorium fun-loving men and women slid down the toboggan planks, or
jumped from the spring boards, while spectators in the gallery enjoyed
the aquatic sports. Elegantly appointed bathrooms in the hotel offered at
one's pleasure the double spray plunge, vapor, and needle baths.
Alfonso was not prepared to find in the mountains elegance surpassing
what he had seen abroad. Here he luxuriated for a week, and recovered his
health, which had been somewhat impaired by the unfortunate experiences
in Amsterdam, and the long journey from Holland.
Davidson visited Harris every day. At first he only sought to entertain
and awaken enthusiasm. He recited the familiar story of the Last Chance
Gulch, how in 1864, four half-starved and disheartened miners, on their
homeward journey from a prospecting tour among the gulches of the
Blackfoot country in search of the precious dust, had settled down to
work their last chance to make a stake, and had found gold in abundance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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