Cedar Falls gazette. [volume] (Cedar Falls, Iowa) 1860-1895, 1869-11-12
An Anticipated Son of
Vulcan on the RAM
rIhose.
On THE WING. Nov. @. 1869

Vulcan on the I2am-
pagc.
...r On THE Wine, Nov. o, 1869.
Ed. CEDAR FALLS GAZETTE
On the night of the LIST of the pres.
ent month, while quietly seated by a
comfortable stove, in Alden. worked
up to an agreeable temperature by
the agency of Duncombe's FIT. Dodge
coal, and.brooding over the stringency
OF the times, and trying to detect
visions of future suc cess in the smoke
of my habana, that curled gracefully
about me, who should drop In upon
my quiet seclusion. flor / was alone
la the bar-room of mine hotel, and
the hour was late,) but the quaint
and somewhat peculiar Mr.. H., OF
your city. i was astonished that a
man OF his age and circumstances,
should be out travelling on foot at SO
late an hour. l saw at glance that
he was not enjoying, to any extent,
that peace of mind that Is such a
blessing to its possessor, and upon
inquiry, ELECTED the following facts :
He had been on general tour thro'
the western part of the State in view
of selecting q suitable site for his
business had not been successful !;
was entirely Disguised with every
thing he saw; and what added more
to his disgust than anything else, he
had, in trying to find the little town
of Alden, (having come in on the
western night train to the depot,
which is at least q mile from the
town, and entirely out of sight, even
in daylight,) missed the proper di.
rection, aud wandered far beyond the
place, but luckily to house,
where he was kindly directed, and
after an hours walk, carpet sack in
hand, he appeared before me, as
above mentioned. l woke up the
hoy in attendance, who inquired If
Vulcan would have supper; he re-
piled, crisply: "I've had my sup.
per- And he had, I have no doubt,
supped on disgust, for do not re-
member having seen man in my
travels, who showed better evidence
of disgust than he. For half an
hour he amused me with an account
of his travels, which it seemed was
of no benefit to him whatever
After venting a few of his own Pc
culiarly laconic imprecations upon
the far west generally, and hotels in
particular, he retired. met him on
the following morning at the break
fast table, md noticed by the pecu-
liar curl of his neither lip, that he
was not pleased with the repast
spread before him, which was in re-
ality by no means tempting; for l
must confess that this Alden Hotel is
more sproverbial for greasy dishes,
than clean table linen. Our break
fast upon this occasion consisted Of
beef-steak, Ia grease hard fried
eggs, triple turned and steamed, q
la grease; stale bread, fried Ia
grease potatoes, fried O la grease )
butter of varigated hues, supposed to
have contained more or less grease {;
coffee in greasy cups. on a greasy
table cloth, and waited on by u greasy
woman, whose apparel would be II
valuable acquisition to the stock Of
your worthy townsman, Mr.. Tondro,
of soap grease notoriety. We ate
sparingly, and Withdrew to the bar
room, not tarrying for the wine
course. Vulcan asserted audibly, in
the presence Of the assembled guests,
that it was perfect outrage for the
host to charge four shillings for such
breakfast, and when he learned
that he was destined to pay cores
ponding sum for his hot unusually
downy couch, his wrath knew no
bounds. At this juncture, the mail
wagon drove up for passengers going
east; Vulcan eagerly inquired If it
was not possible for him to reach the
depot in time on foot. Being assured
of it's heiLg impossible, he reluctant
ly parted company with another
quarter. Arriving at the depot, we
were informed by the agent that the
train was behind time, and would
not be in for an hour; at which
jnncture, Vulcan imprecated, not
londly but deeply, and vowed that
providence had no control over any
part of Iowa west of Iowa Falls
The train at length arrived, being a
full hour behind time, and found no
water in the tank, which caused the
delay of another hour, during which
time Vulcan inprecated loudly and
deeply, declaring, i'm his frenzy, that
pandemonium would be preferable to
the Alden depot. We eventually got
off, but Vulcan kept us his growl,
and disappearing at Parkersburg, l
have not learned whether he located
there or Wen up in fit of passion,
through his many mishaps.
EN- TRANsITA.