News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1885-03-19

There is one thing I want to impress
upon people who design travelling south,
and that is the importance of a lunch
basket, says Peck, the Western editor.
Leave your trunk, and valise, if neces-
sary, but cling to your lunch basket.
There are some good hotels at places
where you will be apt to stop, but the
eating houses are such that a lunch
basket with a piece of bologna sausage,
will be picnic. have in my mind a
lunch basket that will take the cake,
and if 1 ever get where an outfit can be
procured, it will materialize. First /
want an alcohol lamp big enough to
heat pint of water, little teapot and a
few things like that, and then let nature
basket some small cans of sardines,
deviled ham, etc., butter, salt, pepper,
mustard, etc., then 1 can buy loaf Of
bread anywhere, and can-opener that is
warranted to keep in any climate, that
will cut dog in two if necessary. Some
people think it looks small to carry a
lunch basket. / used to think so, but
was converted the other day by fellow
who didn't look as though he knew half
as much as 1 did. Everybody was
hungry, the train was late, and we were
looking for an eating saloon forty miles
ahead. This man that did not know
much, apparently, remained in the car
with his wife, when the rest of the gang
fell over each other to get to the lunch
place, and l thought what close-fisted
fellow he must be not to go to dinner.
He looked real sort of "near" and /
thought he was probably some cheap
hand that was not going to eat till he
got to New Orleans. His wife seemed
a real nice sort of q person, and if the
man had not looked so ugly would
have invited his wife to go out to dinner,
but / didn't want any fuss, and l
thought if he wanted to starve her it
was his business and not mine. Well,
we went out and had catch-as-catch-
can wrestle with the poorest meal that
ever was. Oh, it was awful. Seal skin
boots of the arctic would have been pie
compared to it. Take piece of this
sawdust and rosin kindling wood, such
as the grocers sell, and spread on some
axle grease, and it will be banquet be-
side that meal. After l had tasted of a
few things, 1 went out of the dining
room and back to the car, chewing a
toothpick. II was aD excellent tooth
pick, too, but it did not fill the want
long felt. 1 went in the car prepared to
lie down and die, die thinking of some
of the meals we mad last summer. When
1 went in the car that man and his wife
were surrounding lunch that made me
faint to look at. They had spread out
one of the tables in the Pullman car,
and opened a basket that I had not
noticed before, and the table was lossied
with chicken, and sandwiches, and cake,
and everything, and little tea pot over
an alcohol lamp was filling the car with
an aroma that made me respect that
man. Somehow he looked like thor
oughbred. "Well, what sort of dinner
did you get out thar ?" he asked me. /
had talked with him during the fore
noon about raising hogs, and the war in
Egypt, and the TRANSPORTATION of the
soul, and the price of wheat, etc., and
felt acquainted, so told him it was the
worst meal that ever was, and he told
his wife to hitch along and let me sit
down, and he handed me leg of hen
and biscuit, and his wife poured out a
cup of tea. There is no use of talking,
they saved my life, and I want to say
right here that that man whom thought
didn't have any sense had more than the
whole carload, and he is my friend from
this out. So, don't forget the lunch
basket when you go South,