Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1891-04-27
and metallic clatter which characterizes
the vacant mind of the guinea hen.

and metallic clatter which characterizes
the vacant mind of the guinea hen.
The railroads of Texas are very good,
with two OF three notable exceptions.
They are so generally sood that / will
only refer TO one of the exceptions. That
is the narrow gauge road running from
Houston to Shreveport, La. Here Hous-
ton is pronounced Hyoustun, and not
Howstun, as the street in New York is
called. The railroad from Houston TO
Shreveport has roadbed. right of way
and a receiver.
When the train stops at a station
slight, bronze, razor back hog comes out
rom under a magnolia tree, backs up TO
The tracks and proceeds to warm his per-
son against hotbox. Then as we pull
10 brood over his wrongs till the train
comes again on the following day. 1t is
an exciting life.
Along this line one occasionally sees
the noble Choctaw associated with an
Etruscan jag. The Indian and white
man are quite different when sober, but
exactly alike when drunk Their aspira-
lions, hopes, fears, passions and tend
encies are the same then. The Choc-
taws have village near the line of this
justly celebrated road. It is under the
management of chief, who attends TO
everything. even 10 the punishment for
murder. The law of the state does not
pool with the Choctaw settlement If
one kills another in an unguarded mo-
ment, the chief sends for the murderer
and tells him what he thinks of him
The country is still quite unsettled
along this line of railroad, and the pri-
meval forest may be seen on either hand
extending for miles and miles. Yester-
day slight girlish figure might have
been seen tripping gayly toward the de-
pot as the train approached. She was
all dressed up and had little portman-
teau. Her figure was graceful and pc
tire. She dressed neatly, and her
clothes fitted her like the bright and
al CRY surface of a boil. She seated her
self with great dignity, and everybody's
eye was upon her. A fine looking tray
cling man removed the curl papers from
his mustache, and there was general
sensation through the car. l was anx-
iOus TO hear her voice, for / am a crank
on that subject. No matter how beau
tiful a woman may be, with a harsh
voice she is disappointment. 1, with
the rest of the passengers, remained al
most breathless waiting for her to speak.
As the train slowly moved out of the de-
pot she opened the window, looked out
hu-Tledly, and with little winning vet
impatient toss of the head exclaimed,
"Oh, hi, they have left them there
trunks of mine" This is an actual fact.
Then it was so still there that all YOU
could hear was the quick, half drawn
pants Of colored man from Nagadochez.
Texas is a marvellous state, as 1 have
hao occasion to say before. There are
sixteen kinds of climate and a million
kinds of fora and fauna in this vast
empire. Cotton grows in great album
dance in almost all parts of the state,
and at Galveston. figs, bananas, oranges
ano lemons are to be seen growing as
naturally as potatoes. At Galveston the
oleander is the natural hedge. Instead
of having TO carry this fragile Scandi-
nayian down cellar every November in a
large green tub, 1t is left out by the citi-
zen Of Galveston just as the Michigan
man does his tnrashing machine, to
buffet the storms of winter and to come
up smiling in the spring The oleander
is low in full bloom. Also the cape
jasmine, a big, beautiful bloom that
just turns itself loose regardless of ex-
pense and perfumes n whole county at a
time.
Texas, of coarse, is quite a new state,
and often for miles along the road the
newly cleared fields are heavily and pro-
fusely punctUated with stumps. 1 never
regretted more thoroughly my haste and
thoughtlessness in coming away without
my stump puller than l have on this
TIP.
Yesterday, on the Houston and Shreve-
port road, man who had boarded the
train about an hour before looked out
at window just as we were going through
a sort Of swamp and lost his hat off. 1t
was quite awhile before he could get
the train to stop, but it did, and heaven
is my judge. the train stopped but the
conductor refused to go back after the
hat. The man who lost it had to go
back and get it himself. 1t was a miser-
able old felt hat, with broad brim and
an Of Y dado around the crown too. l
never saw cannon ball train stop for
such poor hat.
Business is poor on this road, and so it
has to be obliging. 1t requires over
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